CMG Spring Festival Gala sees record viewership, global engagement

The Spring Festival Gala, an annual celebration produced and broadcast by China Media Group (CMG) and commenced on Tuesday, the eve of the Chinese New Year, set new records for real-time live broadcast viewership on domestic new media platforms and global audience engagement, preliminary data showed.

Themed "Year of the Snake, Keep Your Spirit Awake," the hours-long television extravaganza featured a dazzling array of singing and dancing, opera, comedy sketches, martial arts and other performances, offering an audiovisual feast to viewers tuning in from around the world.

The real-time live broadcast viewership and interaction for the Spring Festival Gala on domestic new media platforms set new records, with viewership count for both live streaming and on-demand streaming reaching 2.817 billion, an increase of 690 million year on year.

The live broadcast of the gala on vertical screens garnered 496 million views, rising 18.09 percent from the same period last year. The number of live stream viewers reached 286 million, marking a 14.4 percent year-on-year increase.

The social media engagement with the topic of the Spring Festival Gala reached 16.6 billion, 550 million more than the same period last year.

Multiple foreign-language channels and new media platforms targeting overseas audiences simultaneously broadcast and covered the Spring Festival Gala, achieving a global reach of over 1.59 billion and 520 million overseas video views, respectively.

The live broadcast on the overseas social media platform of CCTV. com hit a new high of 73.37 million views, a 21.39 percent increase over the same period last year.

Japan's leading video sharing platform, Niconico, streamed the gala live for the tenth consecutive year, drawing over 101,000 viewers to tune in this year.

A total of 3,508 public screens in 136 cities across 87 countries worldwide broadcast or promoted the Spring Festival Gala.

The gala, also known as "Chunwan," was first broadcast back in 1983 and is seen as a major cultural symbol for the traditional Spring Festival celebrations in China.

The Spring Festival, or the start of a Chinese New Year, falls on Jan 29 this year, ushering in the Year of the Snake.

CMG Spring Festival Gala sees record viewership, global engagement

CMG Spring Festival Gala sees record viewership, global engagement

An Iranian military spokesperson said on Friday that Iran is formulating the conditions for ending the ongoing war with Israel and the United States.

The spokesperson also warned the two countries that Iran possesses formidable strength and a decisive advantage on the battlefield, capable of determining the final outcome of the war, and that the United States and Israel will be 'forced' to accept this reality.

The spokesperson noted that the United States and Israel have fully recognized the strength of Iran's armed forces and its people in actual combat, advising them to face the facts and promptly return to reason in a timely manner.

The U.S.-Israel-Iran conflict has lasted a month since the United States and Israel launched coordinated airstrikes against Iran on Feb 28, with Iran responding with a series of attacks on Israeli and U.S. targets across the Middle East.

Iran formulating conditions for ending war with Israel, US: military spokesperson