CCTV auction seeing baijiu bids down, auto speeding up

Television is not a typical advertising platform for industries like heavy trucks, so the appearance of Hualing Xingma showed that the industry is confident in the consumer market next year.

Other companies bidding in the auction came from the consumer lifestyle and services sectors, including beverages, food and health.

In the personal care product niche, global giant L'Oreal was at the auction for the first time. Local brands Nice, LaFang and Chando also retained a strong presence.

As opposed to previous years, CCTV declined to reveal specific bid information, such as the total amount of bids and the number of companies taking part, and would only say that the total bidding "exceeded" last year's and that "a few hundred" companies participated.

Another difference was that about two-thirds of the ads were sold through advance signed subscriptions over the past two months.

Although lacking specific data, industry analysts estimated that total bidding for 2014 came to around 17.5 billion yuan, up about 10.8 percent over last year's 15.8 billion yuan.

According to CCTV, the number of ads from signed subscriptions totaled 178 this year, way above last year's 99. There were more than 200 ad slots in this year's auction, plus 67 slots relating to new media.

He Haiming, director of CCTV's advertising center, said including advertising rights to the 7 pm evening news program, considered the nation's most influential news show, attracted "budget proposals [that were] higher than others".

Advance signed subscriptions, on the other hand, are "designed for different size and type companies", He added.

Although advertising resources in the auction were less than before, the daily 7 pm evening news still distinguished itself. According to Shanghai Morning Post, a 10-second ad slot plus a 5-second ad slot went for 4.1 billion yuan for the year.

CCTV also announced it will promote a new program called Quality Billboard next year. It is a program showing both good and bad-quality products and the companies that produced them. The purpose of the show is to guide consumers and lead the industry's healthy development.

CCTV Channel 1 will create new news programs at the three prime times of morning, noon and evening. News channels also will adjust their programs, and the evening news will be the one adjusted most.

CCTV also will promote new entertainment programs. Most were in the auction and attracted a lot of attention from advertisers.