CCTV prime-time auction draws US$2.25 billion

245 media enterprises from 28 regions in China participated in this year's auction, Alcohol, food and beverage, finance, and home electronics were the top four categories, accounting for 68 per cent of total bidding amount.

According to information provided by Aegis Media China, Maotai, the most famous Chinese alcohol brand, was the highest spending brand, investing just under RMB 498 million with CCTV over 2012, up 240 per cent on its 2011 commitment.

The majority of that spend (RMB 443 million) allowed Kweichow Moutai Company to win eight months of advertising time slots of Xinwen Lianbo on CCTV, China’s most influential news programme.

The remaining four months of this time slot was shared by two other liquor brands, the JNC Group and Jiansu Yanghe Brewery.

CCTV set new rules limiting the number of liquor ads aired during prime time to two, and the number of liquor brands participating in the auction fell when compared to last year. However,  the reduced supply of ad time actually stimulated liquid brands’ adspend this year, an Aegis Media China spokesperson pointed out.

Midea, a major Chinese home electronics brand, was the second-highest spending brand, with just over RMB 359 million. China Life secured the third-highest bidder position, spending close to RMB 358 million.

2012 is excepted to be an important year for Chinese media, with more news-oriented content. The 18th People's Congress will choose a new Chinese Premier, an election is scheduled for Taiwan, and the 2012 London Olympics is also proving to be a big draw for Chinese advertisers.

Another E-commerce vendor 360buy.com, which is aggressively pushing an upcoming IPO launch, spent RMB 230 million for the exclusive titling rights to two Olympic Games-related programs. Meanwhile, China Mobile, Nike, and the JDB Group shared the sponsorship for key Olympic events in which China is expected to win gold medals, spending up to RMB 87 million each.

China e-Commerce giant Taobao Mall has splashed out RMB 231 million (a 538 per cent increase on its spend in 2011), as compared to its rival Alibaba, which spent RMB 100 million to advertise ahead of the daily weather report and an investigative news programme ‘Topics in focus’.

This year, CCTV has not emphasised the high growth in its annual auction results, downplaying the big influx of revenue.

Unlike other major satellite TV channels in China, new regulations announced earlier by the State Administration of Radio Film and Television (SARFT) for restricting entertainment programmes on TV channels did not cause too much change at CCTV.

From this year's auction, we also noticed auto spending from car brands also shrinked their adspend this year compared to last year on CCTV, due to the Government restrictions on issuing new car plates in certain cities.

Its primetime auction still attracted major Chinese brands including Haier, Yili, Mengniu, China Mobile, China Unicom, China Telecom, Wahaha, Master Kong, COFCO, and Coca-Cola, all of which successfully competed for advertising slots on China's national TV channel.