Sellers offering tickets for CCTV's annual Spring Festival Gala on online platform Taobao.com have been banned after the website found the free tickets being sold at prices up to 30,000 yuan (US$4,524) each.
Taobao officials said that all the online shops offering the tickets had been shut down by yesterday afternoon and they would take measures to prevent the business from resurfacing.
The Wuhan Evening News yesterday quoted China Central Television officials as saying that the tickets were issued as gifts to special guests and no individual had been authorized to sell tickets or offer a booking service.
CCTV told the newspaper it had referred the matter to the police for further investigation.
Before they were banned, at least three online shops on Taobao.com were offering to sell tickets or offering a pre-order service for them. Tickets were being sold at prices ranging from 20,000 to 30,000 yuan, depending on where the seats are.
One Beijing-based seller told Shanghai Daily customers could get tickets three days before the gala but they would have to pay in advance.
The CCTV gala is something of a tradition in China with people from all over the country getting together with family and friends to watch it and take part in the countdown to the Lunar New Year.
Last year's gala had an estimated audience of some 396 million in China while around 1 billion people viewed it worldwide and online.
High ranking officials, pop stars and movie celebrities, representatives of the army and renowned scientists, CCTV staff and their families are among the guest list.
Without an invitation it is almost impossible to get hold of a ticket. They are never sold openly and the chances are rare that an invited guest would want to sell a ticket.
Although the shows attract criticism every year for being a bit dull, most of those invited don't want to miss out on the opportunity to mingle with some of China's most famous personalities.
This may explain the high prices being asked by the ticket scalpers, and the demand for tickets from the uninvited.
"Every day you folks ask me about the tickets, but are you rich enough to purchase one?" asked one online seller when a Shanghai Daily reporter pretended to be a buyer. "If you can't deliver the money into the platform right now, just leave because hundreds of buyers are waiting in line."
About 15 minutes later, his online store had been shut down by Taobao and all references to CCTV gala tickets deleted from the website.
Taobao officials said that all the online shops offering the tickets had been shut down by yesterday afternoon and they would take measures to prevent the business from resurfacing.
The Wuhan Evening News yesterday quoted China Central Television officials as saying that the tickets were issued as gifts to special guests and no individual had been authorized to sell tickets or offer a booking service.
CCTV told the newspaper it had referred the matter to the police for further investigation.
Before they were banned, at least three online shops on Taobao.com were offering to sell tickets or offering a pre-order service for them. Tickets were being sold at prices ranging from 20,000 to 30,000 yuan, depending on where the seats are.
One Beijing-based seller told Shanghai Daily customers could get tickets three days before the gala but they would have to pay in advance.
The CCTV gala is something of a tradition in China with people from all over the country getting together with family and friends to watch it and take part in the countdown to the Lunar New Year.
Last year's gala had an estimated audience of some 396 million in China while around 1 billion people viewed it worldwide and online.
High ranking officials, pop stars and movie celebrities, representatives of the army and renowned scientists, CCTV staff and their families are among the guest list.
Without an invitation it is almost impossible to get hold of a ticket. They are never sold openly and the chances are rare that an invited guest would want to sell a ticket.
Although the shows attract criticism every year for being a bit dull, most of those invited don't want to miss out on the opportunity to mingle with some of China's most famous personalities.
This may explain the high prices being asked by the ticket scalpers, and the demand for tickets from the uninvited.
"Every day you folks ask me about the tickets, but are you rich enough to purchase one?" asked one online seller when a Shanghai Daily reporter pretended to be a buyer. "If you can't deliver the money into the platform right now, just leave because hundreds of buyers are waiting in line."
About 15 minutes later, his online store had been shut down by Taobao and all references to CCTV gala tickets deleted from the website.
