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Olympic online broadcaster seeks more website partners

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-06-26 10:49

CCTV.com, a digital arm of Chinese state broadcaster CCTV, said it was seeking more domestic websites to create an online network for the 2008 Olympic Games.

CCTV.com, which holds the exclusive rights for online broadcasts, has allowed three domestic websites -- Sohu.com, Pps.tv and Uusee.com -- to offer live streaming of the Olympic events for the country's 221 million net users.

Sohu.com was authorized to offer video on demand and online broadcasts of Olympic events. The agreements were similar for the other two sites, CCTV.com spokeswoman Wang Li said.

The company, however, refused to comment on what it had paid for the broadcast rights or what it had sold the rights for to the other sites.

"These are commercial secrets," a marketing employee surnamed Wei said.

The company was negotiating with another eight commercial websites and more than 100 local government websites for partnerships, general manager Wang Wenbin said.

The final list would be released at the end of this month, said the spokeswoman.

The International Olympic Committee had, for the first time, separately sold broadcasting rights for television and for new media such as the Internet and mobile phones.

As a member of the Asian Broadcasting Union, CCTV acquired over-the-air TV rights for the Beijing Games, while CCTV.com was awarded the Internet and mobile platform exhibition rights within the country.