Wen Jiang Xiaojun
Maybe we don't have the best football team, but we have the best football program in the world.
Maybe we don't have the best football team, but we have the best football program in the world. /Visual China
"The 32-year-old Henry is sitting there, looking at the past with affectionate eyes, and it is all the shadow of his 22-year-old."
On the Internet, people usually use this sentence pattern to express their feelings about the passage of time, which has the charm of "where has time gone".
In fact, this sentence comes from a classic sports program of CCTV Five - "Football in the World".
In 2014, six days after French footballer Thierry Henry announced his retirement, the "Soccer Under the Sky" program team produced a special program.
In the program, the narrator Teacher Liu Jia read out the most classic commentary that is recognized as "World Football":
Henry, 32, sat there, looking affectionately at the past, all of which were the shadows of his 22-year-old. 380 games, 226 goals, 4 Premier League Golden Boots, 2 Premier League trophies, 49 unbeaten. The best shooter of all time, The Last Battle of Highbury, the Last Kiss of Highbury. When the fireworks rise, the era of King Highbury, who once belonged to Henry, will not pass away with the years, but will only be remembered often in the drift of the years. ”
The Henry series Of Who Fights. /bilibili
Coupled with the tender BGM "Liekkas", many fans can't hold back, and they are moved and tearful.
As a program that has been broadcast for more than 21 years, "World Football" has become the white moonlight in the hearts of a generation of fans.
However, a recent topic #World Soccer Stopped Broadcasting, which suddenly appeared on Weibo, made many of the show's old fans nervous.
The topic that suddenly appeared on Weibo attracted a lot of discussion in a short period of time. /Weibo
For a time, the news of "the world's football has stopped broadcasting" spread throughout Weibo and sports forums such as Tiger Poker and Zhiqiu Emperor.
People either asked for the veracity of the message, or expressed regret that the show was about to disappear.
Is this golden program that CCTV has been broadcast for 21 years going to be gone?
Football in its purest form
The most exclusive enjoyment
"World Football" is a sports program broadcast by CCTV five sets at 19:30 every Monday night. /CCTV official website
As its slogan "The purest football, the most exclusive enjoyment", "World Soccer" mainly reports on the latest matches and news in international football.
Since the first episode was broadcast in 2000, it has accompanied generations of Chinese fans for 21 years.
In that era when the Internet was not developed, "World Football" and another sister program of CCTV, "Football Night", together became an important window for Chinese fans to understand the latest news in world football.
As a TV program for the majority of fans, it has sub-columns such as "Football Manufacturing", "Green Heavyweight", "Top Ten Goals, Saves" and other sub-columns with strong professionalism, as well as "Watching Balls and Listening to Songs" and "Joking About Football" that are more entertaining.
National table tennis player Marlene and German stars Neuer and Müller participated in the recording of "World Football". /Visual China
However, the most well-known is the copywriting of the "Absolute Superstar" column.
For example, after england star David Beckham retired, in the special program of the "Bay Shadow" series, the program team wrote to him:
Copywriting for the "Shell Shadow" series. / Know
For example, in the "World Cup Past" series, the sentence written to the "alien" Da Luo:
Commentary from Ronaldo of the World Cup Past: You're the Only One. / Know
For many fans, after the retirement of their favorite stars, it has become a common practice to go to see the special programs of "World Football".
The perfect combination of well-rooted copywriting and just the right music, which not only contains the professionalism of sports, but also reflects the entertainment of tv programs, which is the unique advantage of "World Football" from other programs of the same type, and it is also an important reason why this program can stand on CCTV for more than 20 years.
Football in the world
There is no football
At the beginning of September this year, CCTV Five broadcast the latest issue of "World Football" as scheduled, "C Luo: The King of Shooters".
However, compared with the quality of previous programs, this program is quite "perfunctory".
Not only was the duration short, but even the host did not show up the whole time.
A week later, the show abruptly stopped without warning.
Combined with the fact that there was no news about the copyrights of the five major leagues in the new season throughout August, many fans are worried that "World Football" will be permanently suspended due to the lack of copyright.
Two days later, choreographer Wu Hanzhi debunked the rumors through his personal Weibo, and the hanging hearts of thousands of fans finally let go.
"Didn't stop broadcasting, didn't stop broadcasting, didn't stop broadcasting", the editor of "World Football" responded on Weibo. /Weibo
Later, some media learned that in order to ensure the broadcast of the National Games, the "World Football" program was "temporarily suspended" during the game. Previously, during the Tokyo Olympic Games and Euro 2020 matches, "World Football" was also suspended for nearly two months.
At this point, the suspension of broadcasting is over, but the dilemma of CCTV's football copyright in 2021 is still not solved.
This season, iQiyi holds the rights to the Premier League, La Liga and Champions League, and has gained greater benefits by distributing the rights.
Migu flourished and won the copyright of the five major leagues in one go, of which Serie A and Ligue 1 are still exclusive.
Migu won the rights to the five major leagues. /Tiger Punch
In addition, there are "new players" in the sports copyright market such as Douyin, Huya and ZhiqiuDi who have joined the battlefield and obtained the copyright of some leagues.
As for CCTV, there was no copyright revenue in August.
This is undoubtedly a fatal blow to "World Football", which mainly reports international football information.
Soon, various problems caused by copyright have gradually emerged in recent programs.
The first is the lack of program material.
On August 22, with the start of the first round of Serie A matches, all five of Europe's major leagues have entered the new season.
According to the practice of previous years, CCTV will begin to report the wonderful footage of major leagues in the new season and various football news.
Since August, CCTV has produced five issues of character features. /CCTV
However, CCTV not only lost the broadcast rights of the game, but even the content of the game was not allowed to be made into a collection.
As a result, all the game screens of the five major leagues in the new season cannot appear in CCTV programs.
So CCTV had to use the video materials in stock to maintain the production of the "Superstar" section.
This was followed by a shortening of the length of the show due to a lack of material.
The first episode of "Gad-Mueller: The Legendary Bomber", which aired on the evening of August 23, was only about 53 minutes long, and the next two episodes of Ronaldo related programs were only about 50 minutes.
Previously, the length of each episode of "World Football" could usually reach 115 minutes.
With the length already shortened, the August 30 show even spent nearly 20 minutes covering the relatively unpopular beach soccer. /CCTV official website
It can be seen that the loss of copyright has a considerable impact on the production of "World Football".
Can't give a contract
An audience that can't be retained
In fact, before this year's copyright storm, "World Football" was already in decline.
The turning point came in 2015.
This year, the Chinese Super League issued a bill of 8 billion yuan in broadcast fees for 5 years, marking the official beginning of the copyright bubble.
Since then, the price of copyrights in the major leagues of football in the mainland market has continued to rise.
Soon, Suning won the exclusive rights to the China region of La Liga for 250 million euros (about 1.87 billion yuan). Since then, for 523 million pounds (about 4.57 billion yuan), it has acquired the rights to the Premier League's three seasons of 2019-2022.
In 2020, PP Sports, the initiator of the copyright bubble, announced the termination of its contract with the Premier League. /Weibo
Capital's constant push for copyright prices has caught the traditional media a bit off guard.
In the face of the sky-high contracts issued by the copyright owners, even CCTV does not have enough funds to go to the negotiating table.
In addition, CCTV five sets are sports channels for national audiences, ensuring the copyright of large-scale events such as the Olympic Games and the National Games is the top priority of the channel, so it has no intention of participating in the "copyright war" set off by online media.
And if you can't keep the copyright, you naturally can't keep the audience.
At the end of 2013, China's 4G license was officially issued, accelerating the popularization of smart phones.
With the implementation of the speed-up and fee reduction policy, the mobile Internet has also come to the video era, and the means for fans to obtain football information have gradually become diversified.
Weibo, sports forums, major news clients, webcasts, etc., have become an emerging way to watch football.
According to CNNIC's report, as of June this year, the number of users of live sports broadcasting in China reached 246 million, an increase of 53.05 million year-on-year, accounting for 24.4% of the overall netizens.
Traditional TV users, on the other hand, are constantly decreasing under the impact of online media.
The golden age of television media is over. /Visual China
The loss of viewers also means a decrease in income, so that CCTV has less money and motivation to buy the rights of the event, and eventually forms a vicious circle.
It can be seen that the situation of "World Football" today is just a victim of the struggle between the old and new media in the Internet age.
In any case, "Football in the World" has brought laughter and emotion to countless audiences who love football.
Years later, when fans recall themselves on the tv every Monday night, they will surely remember the slogan of that year - "the purest football, the highest enjoyment", and this will be an eternal and indelible golden memory.
On the evening of October 4, "World Football", which had been suspended for nearly a month, met with the audience again.
To the delight of fans, not only was the program broadcast normally, but the copyright of the Bundesliga was also returned to CCTV after a gap of three years.
Zhang Li, a commentary consultant for the Bundesliga at CCTV, announced on Weibo that the Bundesliga copyright would return to CCTV. /Weibo
Whether the re-started "World Football" can continue its former glory, let us wait and see.
Reference articles
[1] The 48th Statistical Report on the Development of China's Internet Network | CNNIC
[2] The positioning of the world's football programs and the structure of the plate | Meng Yixiao
[3] He had never seen "World Football" before joining the company, but he became a professional footballer for 20 years| sports industry ecosystem
[4] 5 years 250 million US dollars to monopolize the bundesliga rights! The competition for copyright is fierce| sports industry ecosystem
[5] The five major leagues are in place! Miaiteng laid a new pattern of sports copyright | sports big business
[6] The new pattern of football copyright in the Chinese market in 2021: "one super and many strong" and "bottoming out without rebounding" | Lazy Bear Sports
[7] A brief analysis of the humanistic expression of TV sports programs: Taking the world's football as an example| Hao Gaoyang