Abu Dhabi: Although China makes impressive performance in international sports events like Olympics, the marketing of sports in China is still in its infancy, according to a top media executive.
So his media group plans to cash in on that vacuum by investing heavily in sports content in future.
Chinese sports are not marketed well because sports associations and sports channels are under the control of government [which is not interested in its marketing], said Li Ruigang, Chairman, China Media Capital.
He was talking at a session titled “Panda Power” at the second day of Abu Dhabi Media Summit on Wednesday. Wendy Mitchell, Editor of Screen International interviewed him at the session.
Ruigang is the former Chairman of Shanghai Broadcasting and TV and President of the Shanghai Media Group (SMG). Under his leadership SMG has maintained the most complete portfolio of media-related businesses since 2001, including television, radio, print media, new media, home shopping, content distribution, performing arts, training etc., and has become the largest content and service provider and distributor of Chinese language programs in mainland China.
The group has 15 analog TV channels (2 satellite channels), 11 radio frequencies, 8 newspapers and magazines, 30 digital TV channels (16 nationwide and 14 in Shanghai local areas) and broadband Internet TV, mobile TV and IPTV.
Ruigang said to promote the marketing of sports, they are educating the government about its relevance.
About the changes in the Chinese media scene , he said there had been a lot of changes in the past 10 years. He said further changes in Chinese media would be smooth and gradual. “Chinese media has its own logic to evolve… because of the demand from the market and demand from consumers etc,” Ruigang explained.
