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(Yicai) Jan. 10 -- In a bid to attract more viewers, Bilibili has for the first time in the Chinese video-sharing site’s 15 years secured the rights to live stream the CCTV New Year’s Gala, China’s most-watched program of the year.
Under the deal agreed with the show’s producer China Media Group, Bilibili will introduce specially designed interactive features for this year's broadcast and will also set up a dedicated account for the event, a representative told Yicai.
The television show, also known as the Spring Festival Gala, airs annually on Chinese New Year's Eve, which falls on Jan. 29 this year. Last time, the program reached 14.2 billion viewers across all media platforms as of 2 am on Feb. 10, a 29 percent jump on the prior year, with those aged 15 to 44 making up 51.6 percent of the audience.
Last year, online platforms such as Tencent Video and Youku Video secured the rights to broadcast the CCTV New Year’s Gala, following Douyin, Kuaishou, and WeChat Video Channel the previous year.
Compared with platforms like Douyin and Kuaishou, which have over 700 million monthly active users, Bilibili primarily caters to younger so-called Generation Z viewers -- people born between the late 1990s and early 2000s -- and has a smaller user base. Its slogan for this live stream event is: “Watch the New Year's Gala with 300 million young people.”
Bilibili's management had targeted having 400 million MAUs by the end of 2023, but the figure has fluctuated below 350 million for two consecutive years, and the growth rate has slowed.
Bilibili had an average of 348 million MAUs in the first three quarters of 2024, up 2 percent from 341 million on a year earlier, according to its third-quarter trading report.
Editor: Tom Litting