The Spring Festival gala is an annual show aired by CCTV in celebration of the Chinese New Year. (Photo : Shenzen Standard)
The telecast viewership ratings of the Spring Festival gala hit an eight-year low record with 690 million viewers, showed the recent data released by the show’s home station, the China Central Television.
Since 2008, the 28.7-percent statistic of the telecast show was a first. Before this record-breaking figure, the festival's audience ratings do not reach a below-30-percent mark.
In 2010, the Spring Festival was believed to have rated highest with a 38.26-percent viewership share.
Meanwhile, along with the decrease in the show's television ratings is its rising online streaming statistics.
According to Iqiyi.com, the video streaming website that covered the gala online, the variety show's live broadcast garnered a total of 14 million virtual viewers. This figure has set a world record for a single Web platform to broadcast a big event.
The live broadcast of the show's 2015 edition via an online site was another first for China Central Television.
The show was watched online more than 70 million times with duration of around 104 million hours.
The annual festival gala first invaded the national television in 1983 and has since been regarded as a traditional way of celebrating the Chinese Lunar New Year.
To date, it is considered as the longest-running variety show in the course of television history. As well, the show has also managed to maintain the most-watched program tilt.
Also dubbed as the Lunar New Year Eve's gala, the show features comic sketches, operas, and comedy and dance performances. The show has helped kick-off the career of some of China's renowned artists.
This year, the theme of the performances revolved around various social concerns including the perennial issue of graft and corruption.
