7th Asian Winter Games - CCTV

The CCTV team and Producer Dong Li

As the state broadcaster of the host nation of the previous Asian Winter Games (Changchun 2007) and also the previous major OCA event, last November’s Asian Games in Guangzhou, CCTV have had plenty of re­cent experience broadcasting large events in Asia - and it is all coming in useful for their operation in Kazakhstan.

“Some Games, such as the Asian Games, are very large projects and our experience broadcasting at those events has helped us to be very efficient at this smaller event,” explained Producer Dong Li. That is not to say that the 7th Asian Winter Games are not a major undertaking for CCTV. “We have 32 staff members in Kazakhstan, and back in Beijing there is a team of 300 working on this event,” Li continued. “We will be airing 11 hours of live broadcasting every day as well as two hours of news and highlights. We also have six ENG crews split between Astana and Almaty reporting on the Games as well as daily life in Kazakhstan.”

Audience figures will naturally be high for such a prestigious event, but CCTV are expecting a special spike in their ratings due to the timing of the competi­tion. “The Asian Winter Games occurs during a very important celebration for us, Chinese New Year on 3 February. As people will be with their families cel­ebrating we can expect to see some especially good viewing figures.”

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As for the Almaty experience CCTV are enjoying their stay. “The volunteers have been very friendly and helpful, the facilities are very good at the IBC, the broadcast signal and coverage have been of a high standard — IGBS have provided a very professional operation.”