(Yicai Global) Jan. 6 -- Chinese e-commerce giant JD.Com said it will sponsor this year’s CCTV New Year’s Gala, a special variety show that airs annually on the eve of the new lunar year, and hand out CNY1.5 billion (USD235 million) in ‘red envelopes’ during the interactive campaign for the event. The company’s shares rose.

JD.Com will become the gala’s exclusive interactive partner this year, the Beijing-based company said at a press conference yesterday. The campaign will run from Jan. 24 to Feb. 15 and will give away CNY300 million (USD47 million) more than what short video platform Douyin did last year, JD.Com added.

Since it was first broadcast in 1983, the CCTV New Year’s Gala has consistently been the most-watched television program in the country. Internet titans such as Tencent Holdings, Alibaba Group Holding, and Baidu all boosted their online traffic after collaborating with the show in the past. Just like them, JD.Com did not disclose the price of its sponsorship deal.

A number of internet firms are facing anti-trust investigations this year, making it hard for them to compete for the sponsorship, e-commerce analyst Li Chengdong told Yicai Global. JD.Com may have won the rights for less than in previous years, he added.

Shares of JD.Com [HKG: 9618] gained over 4 percent in Hong Kong today to close at HKD256.60 (USD32.90) each. In pre-market trading in New York, the company’s stock [NYSE: JD] was up 3.6 percent at USD65.29 as of 4.23 a.m. local time.

WeChat Pay, the third-party payment platform under Tencent, was the first to suggest the interactive initiative in 2015. Alibaba’s affiliate Alipay, Baidu, and short video platform Kuaishou subsequently became sponsors of the red envelope interactive segment.

Red envelopes, or hongbao in Chinese, are traditionally used when gifting money, especially at festive times such a the Lunar New Year. Digital hongbao have become increasingly popular.

Still, red envelopes have become a less effective way to get users to watch the gala, Wang Pengbo, senior financial analyst at market consultancy Batong Analysis, told Yicai Global. The interactive segment is still the one that most attracts people, he said, adding that it can also help new users to become familiar with the product and to bind new accounts.

Internet firms should be more innovative in the gameplay and lower the difficulty to avoid knocking the enthusiasm of players and boost the popularity of the hongbao interactive segment, Wang said.

With the diversification of means of entertainment, the CCTV New Year’s Gala has seen a decline in the viewer numbers in recent years. Viewership for the last year’s show was 23.3 percent, up about 3 percentage points from the previous year, according to the National Radio and Television Administration. Before 2020, the rate had stuck above 30 percent for many years.

The 2022 CCTV New Year's Gala will be broadcast from 8 p.m. local time on Jan. 31.

Editors: Dou Shicong, Futura Costaglione