China's CCTV Wins the Ratings War

While NBC and Yahoo fight over online viewership numbers during the 2008 Olympic games, China's China Central Television is rolling in ratings numbers and advertising dollars.

CCTV is part of an Asian consortium, the Asian Broadcasting Union, that paid a paltry $17.5 million for broadcasting rights to the games in China (that's compared to the $894 million that NBC paid alone for U.S. rights), and stands to earn almost $400 million in ad revenue as a result of their coverage.

Sponsored by the Chinese government, CCTV airs positive images of China (and censors programming when necessary), a mission that's easy when your country is doing well in international competitions, less so during natural disasters. But that doesn't stop them from trying. Reports The New York Times:

"Following the massive earthquake in Sichuan Province in May, CCTV reporters were among the first allowed to report from the scene, beaming images of Prime Minister Wen Jiabao consoling victims and tales of heroic rescue efforts. (Images of death and anger over shoddy school construction were censored out of news coverage.)"

Strangely, without any competitors, "government censorship does not seem to hurt the company's bottom line."

Since foreign broadcasters are shut out from China, it does a healthy business with international and foreign brands, striking advertisement deals with companies like Procter & Gamble, Coca-Cola, and Adidas.

During the opening ceremonies, 840 million people tuned in to watch the games in China, which might be the largest audience viewing an event from one place ever. Nielsen numbers show that up to 96 percent of Chinese households with television sets have tuned into some part of the Olympic competition, with the women's table tennis final on Sunday drew 330 million people -- an audience larger than the entire U.S. population.

In the first 10 days of the Games, over 100 million people in China watched events over streaming video on its Web site, CCTV.com. That's compared to the 42 million viewers that NBCOlympics.com boasted after twelve days of Olympic coverage. It's good to be a state-sponsored monopoly.

by Meghan Keane for Wired.com

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