The Soviet-style apartment block in Beijing, set behind a luxury sports car dealership and a showroom for a private aircraft manufacturer, doesn’t seem like the kind of place someone who is used to broadcasting to 85m television viewers would choose to live in.

It is also a far cry from the gleaming China Central Television (CCTV) headquarters, the distinctive tower nicknamed “big trousers” by locals – as much a reference to its design as it is a fitting metaphor for the state broadcaster’s size and reputation. Founded in 1958, CCTV’s 40 channels are today beamed around the world to a potential 1bn viewers, with programming that ranges from news and academic lectures to variety shows and historical dramas. The state-owned national broadcaster, always led by a senior Communist party official, is also regularly described as a mouthpiece for the Chinese government.

James Chau, 36, has worked for CCTV for more than a decade; first as a primetime news anchorman and today as a special contributor focusing on major news and special events. He also has 1.6m followers on Weibo, China’s version of Twitter. Inside his ground-floor, two-bedroom apartment, warm light from an inset balcony floods the living room, which has a curved jade-coloured sofa and a large painting of a grandmother and two children posing in a rural Chinese setting.