Why don’t some TV stations broadcast the Spring Festival Gala live?

Reason for not broadcasting: Many satellite TV stations gave up broadcasting the Spring Festival Gala or broadcast homemade dramas or organized their own parties. Reporters found from the recently released New Year TV program list that many satellite TV stations will no longer broadcast the CCTV Spring Festival Gala live on New Year's Eve. In addition to Dragon TV, which has not broadcast the Spring Festival Gala for many years, Hunan Satellite TV, Anhui Satellite TV, Guangdong Satellite TV and Tourism Satellite TV have recently joined the ranks of giving up.

According to ratings surveys in recent years, the Spring Festival Gala’s ratings are “hot in the north and cold in the south”. The three northeastern provinces have the highest ratings, followed by Beijing, Hebei, Tianjin, Guangdong, Guangxi and Hainan. Ratings are often less than 2%, and most of the TV stations that have withdrawn from the "Year of the Rabbit" Spring Festival Gala are Southern TV stations.

Guangdong Satellite TV and Asia Television have jointly created the "Southern Spring Festival Gala" that will be broadcast simultaneously with CCTV. Many Hong Kong stars such as Andy Lau and Joey Yung will perform on stage. The average ratings of the "Spring Festival Gala" have declined in recent years and have dropped to about 35%. It is understandable that the rising local satellite TV has given up on the "Spring Festival Gala". But whether "self-control" can bring down "Big Brother" remains to be seen on New Year's Eve.

Provincial satellite TV's broadcast of the CCTV Spring Festival Gala on New Year's Eve is not a rigid rule like the broadcast of "News Network" at 7 p.m., but an established tradition. In other words, it is not necessary, but a voluntary act by provincial satellite TV.

In the early years when the CCTV Spring Festival Gala was most popular, local stations did not have the resources to produce a Spring Festival Gala of the same scale. Moreover, on New Year’s Eve, all viewing groups fall into one camp. Whether they are those who like sports or those who love watching movies and TV dramas, they are all the audience of the Spring Festival Gala on this special day. The audience for other programs would be diverted by the Spring Festival Gala, and the Spring Festival Gala would not be as large as CCTV's Spring Festival Gala. Therefore, all satellite TV stations gave up competing with CCTV for audiences, and instead chose to broadcast the gala with the highest ratings.

Although the attention of the CCTV Spring Festival Gala has continued to decline in recent years, it was still the most watched program that night, despite the fact that a skinny camel is bigger than a horse. Except for a few first-tier satellite TVs, other satellite TVs are still unable to produce galas of the same level as the CCTV Spring Festival Gala, so most satellite TVs still choose to follow the tradition and continue to broadcast the CCTV Spring Festival Gala. The self-produced Spring Festival Gala will be broadcast on days other than New Year’s Eve.