DTN News - EURO 2012: China's Guangdong TV Apologizes For Euro 2012 Bikini Weathergirls
(NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada - June 27, 2012: Guangdong TV kitted out its weathergirls in bikinis to lure Euro 2012 viewers away from CCTV. It worked. (Internet photo)
Two young women in bikinis appeared on the Guangzhou-based network Guangdong TV to deliver the weather forecast for the Euro 2012 matches in Poland and Ukraine when the tournament started last Friday, causing the usual hullaballoo on China's internet. The broadcaster has now apologized for the inappropriate attire, reports the official English-language newspaper China Daily.
The young women, who appear for only one minute every night to discuss the weather conditions in the countries where the European football championships are being held, have become one of the hottest topics on Sina Weibo, China's version of Twitter.
On the first night, Luo Guoxiang, the head of a news show broadcast on the channel, posted photos of the young women on his Sina Weibo account immediately after the segment aired. The photos immediately went viral and were forwarded more than a thousand times after a few hours, with many netizens saying that they switched to Guangdong TV's coverage of the tournament because of it, proving the move has been a successful gambit to draw football fans away from the coverage on state broadcaster CCTV.
An editorial by the Communist Party mouthpiece People's Daily criticized the broadcaster on Tuesday, saying high ratings should depend on good content rather than partial nudity.
