Digital Broadcasters | CCTV's 5 Networks Plus One HDTV for Beijing Olympics

Digital Broadcasters Vendor News brings you here some notable quotations from some of the digital broadcasters TV sports summit held in Beijing on August 24.

Here is what was said:

1. Sun Yu Sheng, CCTV network Vice President:

“Our biggest advantage is that we have between 300 to 400 million TV sets and one billion viewers in China. Meanwhile, I can assure you that China will have five dedicated Olympic TV channels as well as a channel for High Definition TV for 2008, allowing us to screen some 3,800 hours of Olympic programming.”

2. Alex Gilady, member, International Olympics Committee and the Vice President,NBC Sport:

“Sports remains the premium content that viewers have proven they are willing to pay for. In 25 years time, we are not sure whether commercial free-to-air programming will still exist. But we do know that pay-TV (and premium sports TV) will still be around.”

3. Phil Lines, the Head of International Broadcasting & Media Operations, FA Premier League:

“In 2003, our total revenue from overseas broadcast rights went up from just over 170 million pounds to more than 300 million pounds for three years. We sell the rights to 25 countries in Asia providing 31% of our total worldwide audience. Given that we are nearly always shown on pay TV channels in Asia this is a remarkable feat.”

**Figures given by Phil Lines were for 2003 - a bit old aren't they? What about 2004 or 2005? Oops sorry, perhaps I should not ask.

4. Ma Guo Li, the COO of Beijing Olympic Broadcasting, the official Host Broadcaster, Beijing Olympics 2008:

“We are in a very important time right now. But the true outcome of the Beijing Olympics won’t be felt until long afterwards. Then we will see what we have achieved and how it will change China’s sports TV industry forever.”

The Sports TV Summit is all part of the well-oiled propaganda machine in the lead up to the Beijing Olympics 2008, which was discussed of course by the 400 delegates, along with the potential for the Asian Sports TV industry.

The official Host was SARFT (State Administration for Radio Film and Television) and organised by the Cable & Satellite Broadcasting Association of Asia (CASBAA) with media partner CCTV-5, the sports network of Chinese state broadcaster, CCTV and CITV (China International Television).

Roll on 2007 and the next CASBAA Sports TV Summit in China, no doubt this time next year.