About CCTV-16

CCTV-16

CCTV-16 is the Olympic Channel of China Central Television, operated from Beijing by China Media Group. Launched on 25 October 2021, a little over 100 days before the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, it was created under a strategic cooperation between China Media Group and the International Olympic Committee. It is described by its operator and by international reporting as the world's first 4K ultra-high-definition satellite sports channel broadcasting 24 hours a day, and as the only platform in mainland China authorised by the IOC to use the Olympic name and the five-rings symbol. Broadcasting primarily in 4K UHD, with a downscaled feed for HDTV, it is the Chinese localised version of the Olympic Channel concept.

Announcement and background

Plans for a Chinese Olympic Channel were first reported in January 2019, when Voice of China, part of the newly formed China Media Group, announced its intention to launch a Chinese version of the Olympic Channel. The IOC had launched its own global Olympic Channel after the Rio 2016 Games, and a number of national versions followed in different markets. The Chinese project took shape as a formal strategic partnership between China Media Group and the IOC, under which the new service would carry the Olympic name and rings in mainland China under licence. The timing was driven by the calendar: Beijing was preparing to host the 2022 Winter Olympics in February 2022, becoming the first city to host both a Summer and a Winter Games, and a dedicated Olympic channel gave the host broadcaster a permanent home for the build-up and the event itself.

Launch on 25 October 2021

The channel and its digital platform were officially launched at 16:00 on 25 October 2021. China Daily reported the launch the following week, noting congratulations from IOC President Thomas Bach and describing CCTV-16 as the world's first 4K ultra high-definition satellite TV sports channel and the sole media platform licensed by the IOC to use Olympic as part of its name and the iconic five interlocking rings. President Xi Jinping sent a congratulatory letter to the launching ceremony, urging the channel to promote a healthy lifestyle, follow the development of mass sports and youth sports, and contribute to building China into a sporting powerhouse. He expressed the hope that, with the Beijing Winter Olympics approaching, the channel would present the journeys of winter sports athletes from China and around the world. The launch was also greeted by broadcasting organisations and sports figures internationally, who noted its 4K technology and round-the-clock schedule.

A 4K-first sports channel

Technology is central to CCTV-16's identity. The television channel broadcasts on satellite for 24 hours in a 4K plus HD simulcast mode, making it, in its operator's description, the first professional sports channel in the world to broadcast simultaneously in 4K ultra-high-definition and high-definition standards around the clock. Its picture format is listed as 2160p UHDTV, downscaled to 1080i for the HDTV feed. China Media Group presented the channel as an application of its 5G plus 4K and 8K plus artificial intelligence strategy, using the Olympic service to demonstrate ultra-high-definition production and distribution at national scale. It followed the group's earlier CCTV-4K service, launched in 2018, and extended the same technical approach to a dedicated sports channel.

Ownership and the IOC partnership

CCTV-16 is owned by China Central Television, part of China Media Group, the country's largest broadcasting system. Its defining institutional feature is the partnership with the International Olympic Committee. The channel is an important outcome of the strategic partnership between CMG and the IOC, and it is the only communication platform in mainland China authorised by the IOC to use the Olympic name and the five-ring symbol. That authorisation distinguishes it from CCTV-5 and CCTV-5+, the group's general sports channels, which cover the Olympic Games as rights-holders but do not carry the Olympic brand as their own identity. The IOC's wider relationship with CCTV as China's Olympic rights-holder was subsequently extended to cover four further Olympic Games up to Brisbane 2032.

Television and digital platforms together

From launch, CCTV-16 was conceived as more than a linear channel. The Olympic Channel consists of a television channel and digital platforms launched simultaneously. The digital platform, at olympicchannelchina.cn, covers personal computer, app and H5 formats, as well as WeChat and Weibo social media platforms. Its content sections include live broadcast, sports, athletes, columns and Olympic Games coverage. This structure follows the model of the IOC's own Olympic Channel, which was designed as a digital-first service, while adding a full linear television channel broadcasting by satellite in 4K, a combination no earlier Olympic-branded service had offered.

Programming

The channel broadcasts Olympic sport throughout the year. Its remit covers the Summer Olympic Games, Winter Olympic Games, Youth Olympic Games and Paralympic Games, together with Olympic test events and qualifying competitions in the various sports. Between Games, its schedule is built around the athletes and sports of the Olympic programme: event coverage, athlete features, documentary and magazine programming, and material promoting Olympic values, healthy living, mass participation and youth sport, in line with the purposes set out at its launch. Its first great test was the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, held from 4 to 20 February 2022, followed by the Winter Paralympics from 4 to 13 March 2022, for which the channel provided dedicated coverage as the host country's Olympic-branded service.

Beijing 2022 and the dual-Olympic city

Beijing 2022 gave CCTV-16 an immediate purpose. The channel launched with just over 100 days to go before the Games, and its early schedule introduced winter sports, many of them unfamiliar to much of the Chinese audience, and profiled the athletes preparing to compete. After Beijing, Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo were to take over the Winter Olympic baton, and international messages at the launch noted that the channel would continue to promote the Olympic spirit beyond a single Games. As a permanent channel rather than a pop-up Olympic service, CCTV-16 was designed to keep Olympic sport visible in China during the long intervals between Games, as well as at Games time.

Distribution and language

CCTV-16's broadcast area is mainland China. It is carried by satellite and distributed through Chinese cable and IPTV networks in its 4K and HD versions, and its digital platform extends its programmes to computers, phones and social media. It broadcasts in Mandarin, the standard language of CCTV's domestic services. Within the CCTV numbering system it sits in the sports group of channels alongside CCTV-5, the flagship sports channel launched in 1995, and CCTV-5+, its high-definition companion, while holding a distinct, IOC-licensed identity of its own.

Significance

CCTV-16 matters for three reasons. First, it formalised the relationship between the world's largest national Olympic audience and the Olympic movement's own channel brand, under a licence unique in mainland China. Second, it was a technology flagship, presented as the world's first 24-hour 4K UHD satellite sports channel. Third, it expressed a stated national policy goal: using Olympic broadcasting to encourage healthy living, mass sport and youth sport, and to support China's ambition to become a leading sporting nation. Launched on 25 October 2021 and still the Olympic home of China Media Group, it remains the clearest example of a national broadcaster building a permanent channel around the Olympic Games themselves.