CCTV Spring Festival Gala Receives a New Challenger
The biggest annual event in the Chinese TV calendar - the CCTV Spring Festival Gala - rolled out again to millions of households on January 25, the eve of the Chinese New Year. Watching the glitzy variety show has become a New Year tradition for Chinese families, making it the most watched TV show in China and possibly the world.
CCTV claims more than 396 million people tuned in to watch the Spring Festival Gala last year, a 3% increase on 2007. By contrast, the US' Super Bowl attracted 97.5 million US viewers in 2008. The sheer weight of viewer numbers means advertisers are willing to pay handsomely for the privilege of associating their names with the show. Every year, the Spring Festival Gala attracts the highest bids from advertisers at CCTV's auction of prime time advertising slots. A mainland home appliance manufacturer called the Midea Group bid a record RMB47 million (US$6.87 million) to be the banner sponsor for this year's show.
Despite the impressive figures, the Spring Festival Gala has struggled to retain its relevance and credibility with younger audiences, thanks to its too-familiar formula of kitschy song and dance routines, politically correct comedy sketches and star CCTV comperes.
Poking fun at the show's shortcomings has become something of a sport on online forums in recent years, as Chinese starlet Zhang Ziyi found after she was widely derided for blatantly lip-synching her way through her performance last year. CCTV has banned lip-synching from this year's show, but the ban has sparked a new headache for producers. One week before the Spring Festival, China Daily reported that many performers were struggling to meet the requirement to sing, forcing the producers to axe three acts.
Given this background, it is perhaps no surprise that the Spring Festival Gala has a new grassroots challenger this year. An entrepreneurial local wedding video producer called Shi Mengqi set the local and international media chattering after announcing his plans to produce and air his own satirical take on CCTV's Spring Festival Gala. His show has been dubbed the Shanzhai Chunwan, an amalgamation of "shanzhai" (slang for "counterfeit products") and "Chunwan" meaning "Spring Festival Gala".
Shi Mengqi started working on his CCSTV (China Country Side TV) Spring Festival Gala in November 2008, when he rented a car and banner for RMB150 (US$21.93) and drove across Beijing to publicize his plans. Reporters were quick to seize on the story and Shi Mengqi soon received offers from aspiring performers, as well as websites and TV stations interested in airing his program.
A Beijing Evening report on December 18 claimed Guizhou Satellite TV had signed a contract to broadcast the alternative new Gala live, on the condition that the Shanzhai Chunwan was held before the start of the CCTV Spring Festival Gala. Internet portals Tencent and Netease, and online video site UUSee, also announced plans to webcast the Shanzhai Chunwan live.
The plans were short-lived. On December 27, a People's Daily report said Guizhou Satellite TV had ditched plans to broadcast the Shanzhai Chunwan. The State Administration of Radio, Film and TV (SARFT) denied the rumors that it has asked Guizhou Satellite TV to stop the preparations to broadcast the show. Then, on January 20, Tencent told Beijing Times it had abandoned plans to webcast the Shanzhai Chunwan due to the government crack down on "vulgar" online content. Netease and UUSee followed suit.
Officers from the Cultural Law Enforcement Agency of Beijing's Xicheng district reportedly visited the location where the Shanzhai Chunwan will be staged, stirring further rumors that SARFT was putting pressure on the organizers to halt their plans.
Shortly before Chinese New Year’s Eve, Shanzhai Chunwan organizer Shi Mengqi told China Entertainment he planned to webcast the Shanzhai Chunwan live via its official website (www.ccstv.net). He said the show would air almost simultaneously with the CCTV Spring Festival Gala, at 9pm Beijing time on January 25. He hinted that a TV station might broadcast the show but declined to disclose any names.
After all the build-up, very few people in mainland China were able to watch the Shanzhai Chunwan on Chinese New Year’s Eve, although the organizers aired a pre-recorded version of the show on both the www.ccstv.net website, and via the website and TV channel of Macau Asia Satellite TV (MASTV). Both the CCSTV and MASTV websites were inaccessible during the webcast, and the vast majority of households can not receive the Macau Asia Satellite TV signal.
Meanwhile, the ratings for the CCTV Spring Festival Gala are still coming in and the critics are just starting to pen their posts on the show. Industry insiders will be following the fall-out generated by this year’s competing Spring Festival Galas closely as the stand-off encapsulates some of the challenges CCTV faces as its struggles to stay relevant to China's youth while fulfilling its charter as the state broadcaster. At stake are CCTV's ratings and, ultimately, its ad revenues.
China Media Monitor wishes all of our readers a prosperous and successful Year of the Ox! We will take a short break over the Spring Festival holiday and be back with our next edition on February 9.