China Central Television (CCTV), the mainland's largest television station, has reported a fall of 28 per cent in advertising for prime-time air time because of a weak consumer market, lower company advertising budgets and the lack of new products.
The station's seven domestic channels offer companies and advertisers access to a nationwide audience unmatched by any other media, with about 300 million homes in the mainland having a television. It claims a national audience of 34 per cent, against 20 per cent for satellite channels and 10 per cent for channels of individual cities.
Each November, the station sells by competitive bidding 65 five-second slots before and after the main news at 7 pm for the following year. This is the 'golden time' because the audience is believed to be the largest at that time.
Yesterday's sale raised 1.92 billion yuan (about HK$1.78 billion), down 28 per cent from 2.68 billion yuan a year ago and 2.8 billion yuan in 1997.
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