On December 18, 2007, China Central Television (CCTV) signed a contract with the International Olympic Committee (IOC); this contract will give CCTV.com, a new media platform under CCTV, the rights to broadcast Olympic events with live and on-demand videos, through the Internet and mobile phones.

China has 160 million Internet users and 508 million mobile-phone users. The broadcast rights are therefore of great significance to CCTV.com, according to CCTV Vice President Sun Yusheng.

"We had several rounds of talks with the IOC, given the complex market in China," said Wang Wenbin, General Manager of CCTV.com.

The IOC invited tenders as early as March 2007, when it was considering several companies in China's mainland for the Internet and mobile-phone broadcasting rights.

"The talks at last focused on a key term -- copyright protection," said Wang.

The IOC had sold on-air TV rights in China to CCTV in 1998, and is now keen on protecting both intellectual property rights (IPR) and interests of companies with broadcasting rights.

CCTV.com has come up with a series plans to prevent infringement, according to Wang. Due to the new media broadcast rights covering China's mainland and Macao, only people in these areas will be able to visit live or on-demand broadcasting on the Internet. Some IP address restrictions will be enforced to erect an effective regional partition for visitors in other areas. Software-protection technologies will encrypt related content on the Internet, with the aim of preventing illegal downloads.

However, anti-piracy remains a huge obstacle for Wang, since technology cannot solve every problem.

"It's piracy if people receive Olympic events directly from TV, live, and then upload on the Internet, mobile phones and other forms of communications. This violates property rights," said Wang.

China's Internet platforms, with the assistance of net-friends, often upload sports videos on Internet forums during the world's major events.

"Hence we need to combine technology with laws to enforce effective punishment for such kind of behaviors," said Wang.

Wang revealed that his company was setting up a program to enforce regional protection and restrictions, and was in the middle of discussions with the IOC to reach the best solution.

How to make full use of the new media's advantages is one of the company's primary tasks. By launching a CCTV mobile media project last month, the company has made it possible for CCTV to be available everywhere. It now plans to make a one-hour program for bus passengers, which can be broadcast all day long during the Olympic Games.

In terms of dissemination on the Internet, CCTV plans to joint hands with several media partners with high reputations and sound technical conditions for copyright protection.

"We are also looking for the best mobile operator partners to broadcast the Games with a larger scope, using new means," said Wang.

Currently, there are two modes of dissemination on mobile phones. One is a 3G mobile-phone based streaming media technology, and the other is a mobile TV broadcast.

"We may adopt both modes as long as there are mature platforms available," said Wang.

Partners in both Hong Kong and Taiwan had the broadcast rights for the Olympic Games in August and June respectively, prior to CCTV International's broadcast rights in December. But Wang said that there were differences between them.

Hong Kong and Taiwan broadcasters are only allowed to play three-minute videos per unit for mobile phones, and the play must have an ensured five-minute delay compared with the mainland's live and on-demand broadcast.

Another problem, indicated by heads of new media industries, is that profit-making would be difficult for them.

"We have the same dilemma," said Wang. "Video production on the Internet needs larger server bandwidths for uploading, a much higher cost than uploading pictures and articles." In addition, there is no national standard to limit dissemination on mobile phones.

There are 200-odd days remaining until the opening of the Beijing Olympic Games.

"We will have a detailed plan in January, and have talks with various operation counterparts after the Spring Festival in February. We don't have much time," he said.

(Source: 21st Century Business Herald)