About 214 million Chinese in more than 100 million families, or
70 percent of the national total, watched the annual Spring
Festival evening gala broadcast live on the eve of the Lunar New
Year.
The program, from China Central Television (CCTV), still enjoys
top audience ratings worldwide among Chinese, according to the
latest survey of the Nielsen Media Research.
The annual Spring Festival gala celebration started in the
1980s. Since then, it has been the most popular TV event of the
year. The special usually features dances, songs and short
comedies.
This year's Spring Festival fell on Feb. 7. The show was
broadcast live by several CCTV channels from 8:00 PM on Feb. 6 to
1:00 AM the next day.
The survey found that among all the television audience during
the period, 68.16 percent tuned in the CCTV gala.
Compared with the northern part of the country, Chinese in
southern China showed little interest to the show. The booming
province of Guangdong posted the lowest audience ratings among all
monitored regions, with only 4.59 percent watching.
In contrast, 24 million people in eastern Shandong Province, one
of the most populous regions of the country, tuned in the gala, the
highest among all monitored places. The province has a 93.67
million population.
Nielsen Media Research set up its China branch in August
2005.
(Xinhua News Agency February 16, 2008)