STATE-OWNED broadcaster CCTV had netted 80 billion yuan (US$10.7 billion) in an auction for advertising next year when Beijing stages the Olympics, press reports said yesterday.

Sunday’s auction attracted 30 percent more companies than the previous year partly because firms were keen to cash in on the Olympics, the Beijing News reported, without specifying how many made bids for advertising slots.

“When you take into account that August 2008 is the Olympic month, it turns the whole year into a bumper year for advertising,” CCTV advertising chief Xia Hongbo was quoted as saying.

Income of US$10.7 billion for CCTV was up almost 20 percent on the previous auction in 2006 for the current year, it said.

CCTV is China’s only national broadcaster and the country’s rights holder for the Games.

During the auction, domestic and foreign firms were assigned numbers and invited to make secret bids.

Most sought-after were prime time viewing slots during the Olympic month of August.

One of the top August slots went to China Airlines, which was willing to pay out more than US$5 million for a prime time position after the main evening news bulletin.(SD-Agencies)