2011/12 CBA League Opening Game delivers excellent TV ratings
35% increase compared to 2010/11 opening game – Over 54 million Chinese sports fans tuned in
Based on the TV ratings from CSM Media Research, over 54 million Chinese have watched at least part of the CBA League Opening Game, broadcasted at prime time on CCTV-5. This means a rating increase of 35% compared to the 2010/11 opening game.
Ma Guoli, Managing Director of Infront China, said: “We are very satisfied with this early success at the beginning of the new season. The sustained joint efforts of the CBA and Infront in promoting and developing the CBA League platform have led to a continued increase of awareness and interest amongst sports fans in China. The results underline our promise to the league’s commercial partners, who will benefit from the increased audience attention and a significant raise in TV coverage providing them with strong brand exposure in but also beyond the Chinese market.”
Pierre Justo, Managing Director of CSM Media Research-KantarSport, stated: ‘’The opening week-end of the 2011/12 CBA League proved to be a great TV success with a strong rise in TV viewers across all the games. The opening game of the season that was shown live at 7:30 pm on national sports broadcaster CCTV-5 saw its ratings jump +35% compared to the opening game last year, with an average audience close to 8.5 million and over 54 million Chinese having watched part of the game.”
“Those excellent TV ratings show the continuous strong interest for basketball in China, but they also indicate that with the absence of the NBA on the screens, the Chinese basketball lovers have turned their attention to domestic games. In 2011 so far, basketball remains the most watched sports on TV in China with the top 6 highest sports audiences of the year, culminating with a high 41 million average viewers for the Asian Championships final between Team China and Jordan,” Justo added.
2011/12 CBA League season stronger than ever
With the launch of the 2011/12 CBA Professional League season, Infront Sports & Media and the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA) have now entered their seventh year of successful partnership. The level of competition this year will be higher than ever before with the NBA lockout enabling some of the NBA’s top players to compete in the CBA league.
An all-time high of 22 national and international sponsors will be involved in the season, benefitting from international media attention which is expected to exceed last year’s audience figures due to the increased appeal of the games.
At least 15 TV stations in China will be broadcasting the league including CCTV-5. All matches are produced and shown live on the regional networks, with CCTV-5 showing – for the first time this season – a total of four selected game live from each round. Additionally this year, China's news portal Sohu.com and leading video website PPTV.com plan to offer most of the live webcast games. The regular season will now also be broadcast, for the first time, to the North American market through a recently secured strategic agreement between Infront and One World Sports (OWS) – North America's leading Asian sports provider.
In total, the 2011/12 CBA League season will consist of 272 games in the regular season and – from 22 February onwards – 37 play-off matches. The popular CBA All-Star Game will be held on 18 and 19 February 2012 in the Guangzhou International Sports Arena – the official basketball venue of last year’s Asian Games.
For further information, please contact:
Jörg Polzer / Nike Möhle
Corporate Communications
Infront Sports & Media AG
Tel. +41-41-723 15 15
Fax +41-41-723 15 16
press infrontsports.com
www.infrontsports.com
Jenny Yu
Associate Director, Communication
Infront Sports & Media (China) Co. Ltd.
Tel. +86-10-8889 0816
Fax +86-10-8889 0808/0809
jenny.yu infrontasia.com
www.infrontasia.com
