This year's Spring Festival Gala, an annual celebratory show staged and televised by China Media Group (CMG), will kick off at 8 p.m. Beijing Time on Jan. 28, Chinese New Year's Eve.

A poster showing the hosts of the 2025 Spring Festival Gala revealed at a press conference in Beijing, Jan. 19, 2025. [Photo courtesy of CMG]

A press conference was held in Beijing on Jan. 19 to introduce the upcoming show, including the lineup of hosts, stage designs and new technologies.

The TV gala will be aired live simultaneously on multiple CCTV channels under CMG and other platforms, as well as thousands of large outdoor LED screens in hundreds of cities. China Global Television Network (CGTN) channels in English, Spanish, French, Arabic and Russian, along with platforms broadcasting in 82 different languages, will also broadcast the show and link up with over 2,600 mainstream media outlets in 200 countries and regions globally to televise and report on the gala.

Jiang Wenbo, a member of the editors' committee of CMG, introduced several practices that the group has implemented to drive technological innovation through new quality productive forces.

"CMG utilizes ultra-high-definition, virtual reality, artificial intelligence, stereoscopic vision and three-dimensional sound technologies," he explained. "These efforts continually enhance the audiovisual quality and multimedia broadcasting of the Spring Festival Gala, creating an artistically appealing and visually enjoyable Chinese New Year's Eve feast with a strong sense of technology for the global Chinese community."

Zhang Guofei, director of CMG's arts program center, stated that as the first Spring Festival Gala following the Spring Festival's addition to the UNESCO list, the event will incorporate more intangible cultural heritage elements. Additionally, it will use the festival's culture as a bridge to promote international cultural exchanges and mutual understanding between civilizations.

"This year's gala has arranged a variety of performances, including songs, dancing, opera, martial arts and comedy sketches," he said. "It has also invited ordinary people who are hard at work on various frontlines to become the main characters of the gala, to accompany the whole nation in joyfully celebrating the Chinese New Year. 

The press conference also revealed the names of the gala hosts at the main Beijing venue as well as the sub-venues in the cities of Chongqing, Wuhan, Lhasa and Wuxi.

Notably, with the inscription of the Beijing Central Axis on the UNESCO World Heritage List in July 2024, global attention has once again been drawn to ancient Chinese architecture. The visual design of the show is based on the hand-drawn manuscripts of ancient buildings by renowned architect Liang Sicheng. Utilizing CMG's ultra-high-definition production system that integrates reality with virtual technology, this performance aims to enrich the creative transformation and innovative expression of traditional Chinese culture.

Meanwhile, leading Chinese video platform Bilibili announced a significant collaboration with CMG for the Spring Festival Gala on Jan. 9. Bilibili will livestream the entire TV gala on Chinese New Year's Eve and serve as the exclusive platform for real-time "bullet comments." It will also introduce new interactive and viewing features specifically for the broadcast. Data shows that last year's gala attracted a large young audience aged 15-44, who made up 51.59% of viewers. As a key video community for China's youth, Bilibili is a key platform for watching and discussing the Spring Festival Gala, according to a statement from the company.

For the first time, this year's Spring Festival Gala will utilize AR technology and sign language performers, along with AI-generated subtitles. Additionally, CMG will deploy a pioneering multi-angle camera system with 30 cameras installed in the ceiling of the broadcast studio. Real-time 3D point cloud rendering through stereoscopic vision AI algorithms will create a 3D video of the gala, with intelligent virtual camera movements showcasing hard-to-capture images and videos.

Since 1983, the CCTV show has aired live every Chinese New Year's Eve to mark the country's biggest festival, and its influence reaches Chinese communities worldwide. The show routinely features many of China's most popular entertainers and runs for more than four hours. It showcases a diverse range of entertainment, including pop songs, dancing, crosstalk, comedy skits, dramatic performances, acrobatics and folk arts.

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