iQIYI Becomes First Online Video Platform Granted Exclusive Rights to Broadcast CCTV's New Year's Gala Live

BEIJING, Feb. 12, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- iQIYI, an independently operated subsidiary of Baidu (NASDAQ:BIDU) and one of the largest Internet and mobile video service providers in China, today announced that CCTV has granted iQIYI exclusive rights to broadcast CCTV's Chinese New Year's Gala live domestically and overseas on iQIYI's online platforms. This is the first time that the Gala will be streamed live on an online platform other than CCTV's own website, CNTV. Viewers around the world will be able to watch the festivities on iQIYI's website and mobile app.

According to CTR, a China-based market research firm, the Gala receives more Chinese viewers than any other TV program, exceeding 704 million in 2014. As a hugely important cultural event, Chinese gather with family every year to watch the Chinese New Year's Eve performances.

The Gala generates social media traffic like few other events in the world. In 2014, the Super Bowl in the United States was the subject of 3,800 social media posts per minute. By comparison, during the 2014 Gala, social media users sent 32.7 million QQ messages and over 10 million WeChat messages per minute.

"I am delighted that CCTV chose iQIYI to be the Gala's first partner in online live video broadcasting, a historic breakthrough for the Chinese online video industry. iQIYI's massive user base and media influence will help the Gala reach its intended audiences and provide a tailored viewing experience to Chinese living around the world," said iQIYI Chief Content Officer Dong Ma. "iQIYI's online video platforms provide diverse content to users, and we are an industry leader in terms of video quality, speed of content streaming and number of users."

About iQIYI

iQIYI is an independently operated subsidiary of Baidu, the world's largest Chinese search engine, which launched on April 22, 2010. Since its launch, iQIYI has pursued the ultimate online video experience for Chinese users, becoming an industry model in promoting innovation in products, technologies, and marketing.

On May 7, 2013, iQIYI announced a merger with PPS. According to IUT data released by iResearch in December 2014, iQIYI and PPS were among the leaders in the industry in terms of all-platform unique visitors and monthly effective viewing duration. As of December 2014, iQIYI's mobile app (including iQIYI and PPS) was running on 860 million devices, with mobile traffic accounting for 63% of the sites' total traffic. The monthly viewing time on iQIYI and PPS surpassed 1 billion hours for three successive months in 2014. According to data from November and December 2014, mobile accounted for 1.17 billion hours of monthly viewing time on iQIYI, and PCs accounted for 1.15 billion hours. Unique visitors per day on iQIYI reached 44.27 million on mobile devices and 44.18 million on PCs.

In the future, iQIYI will continue to pursue providing customers with ever richer video content and a ceaselessly improving viewing experience.

For media inquiries, please contact:

iQIYI, Inc
Stephanie Ye
Public Relations Manager, International Communications
[email protected]

Brunswick Group
Beijing
Yajun Zhang
+86-10-5960-8600
[email protected]

Beijing
Rachel Morarjee
+86-10-5960-8600
[email protected]

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20150212/175162

SOURCE iQIYI