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As
the official new media platform preparing to broadcast the 29th
Olympic Games to be held in Beijing in August this year, CCTV.com
is planning to come up with a detailed plan for the same, by the
end of January.
On
December 18, 2007, the International Olympic Committee (IOC)
awarded the company the rights to broadcast Olympic events through
television, Internet and cell phones. The National Broadcasting
Company (NBC) of the United States and the European Broadcast Union
(EBU) had earlier acquired the rights with the same package
mode.
In
order to bid for the rights, CCTV had made preparations early in
the second half of 2005, by establishing a new leading organization
to manage and operate its over-scattered Internet resources. The
group created short-, medium- and long-term development targets for
the reorganization work in November the same year, and increased
its investment and copyright input into the new organization.
In
April 2006, the CCTV Internet Dissemination Center was set up, and
CCTV International was also established. The two bodies are, in
fact, part of the same organization, known as CCTV.com.
In
accordance with its plan, CCTV.com would, in addition to
accumulating a great amount of information, launched value-added
services, including TV program transformation, cell-phone's
streaming media, and other telecommunication services, such as
messages, multi-media messages, and polyphonic ringtones.
Last
year, CCTV engaged in arduous negotiations with IOC. The former was
headed by Sun Yusheng, Vice President, Jiang Heping, sports channel
Executive Director, Wang Wenbin, General Manager of CCTV.com, as
well as the foreign experts invited.
One
of the critical issues centered on the copyright costs of relaying
the broadcast -- almost $10 million. The high price enabled many
tenders of Internet Websites in China to shrink back; even
Sohu.com, one of the sponsors of the Beijing Olympic Games,
retreated from the competition.
The
negotiated price was eventually acceptable to both sides.
"Acquiring the media broadcasting rights for the Games, will, no
doubt, play a significant role for CCTV in promoting its strategic
plans," said Yin Hong, Vice President of the School of Journalism
& Communication of Tsinghua University.
Due
to the prolonged negotiations, CCTV now faces pressing deadlines to
begin operating its new media broadcasting, according to Wang
Wenbin. During the past 27 years, CCTV, as China's official
television company, had broadcast eight Winter Olympics and six
Summer Olympics, attracting an audience of over a billion
Chinese.
CCTV
plans to broadcast the big events through its seven channels,
including two pay channels and a high-definition digital
channel.
"CCTV.com will enjoy the advantages of CCTV, and it is broadcasting
the Games with the aim of integrating TV broadcast with Internet
broadcast," said Wang.
CCTV.com had a trial run at the Spring Festival Gala Evening in
2007. Together with CCTV, it directly broadcast entire programs
through the Internet and TV. For the first time, the company
exploited peer-to-peer (P2P) technology and provided on-demand
video services, making the occasion viewable for audiences
worldwide. During the four-hour live broadcast, the number of
people watching the video reached 110 million, and the highest
numbers of netizens online at any point in time within the four
hours hit 1.4 million.
CCTV
had attempted to introduce trans-media terminals -- cell-phone TV
and International Protocol Television (IPTV) -- at the Doha Asian
Games held on December 4, 2006. On the one hand, the broadcaster
joined hands with China Unicom to release hand-phone TVs. On the
other hand, it directly broadcast the Games through IP of CCTV, by
using four direct channels and CCTV-9. Audiences were able to watch
the events though various media, including Internet, mobiles and
IPTV.
For the broadcast of the Olympic Games, CCTV
International made sure of value-added programming, by joining
timely advertisement businesses. However, a media scholar, who
declined to be named, doubted whether CCTV would make profits,
given that negotiations lasted so long and CCTV.com missed the
opportunity of taking part in the meetings of advertisement
invitation tenders for the Olympic Games.
In
September 2007, CCTV conducted two meetings to confirm the first
two batches of Olympic Games advertisements. The income from
advertisements is expected to exceed 2 billion yuan during the
event.
As a
CCTV-funded enterprise, CCTV.com will develop and operate
multi-platform-based Internet, IPTV and mobile terminals. It will
undertake exclusive sponsorship and is responsible for the Internet
dissemination of various kinds of TV programs produced by CCTV. Its
aim is to rank among the top few among domestic websites and world
media websites.
The
scholar worried, however, that in terms of capital operation, the
broadcaster lacks flexibility and marketability.
(Source: China Business
News) |