Sitting comfortably on the sofa to watch a live broadcast of the English Premier League matches or enjoying an NBA pre-season game on the spot is natural for sports fans in China.

But in the 1950s, watching live broadcasts of football matches was far beyond people's expectations at a time when most Chinese had never seen a TV set. The Chinese only had access to sports news through newspapers, magazines and radio broadcasts.

In 1950, China issued its first sports magazine, the "New Sport". The country's first sports newspaper also started publication in 1958 and presented general information on sports and physiological hygiene, swimming and sports education.

In 1951, China National Radio broadcast the First National Basketball and Volleyball Competitions to listeners nationwide. It was the first-ever live coverage of a sports event in the country. Ten years later, the radio station successfully did a live broadcast of the 26th World Table Tennis Championships in Beijing.

Radio and television expanded rapidly in the 1980s as important means of mass communication and popular entertainment. By 1985, television had reached two-thirds of the population through more than 104 stations. An estimated 85 percent of the urban population had access to television. The popularization of television made it possible for Chinese to watch sports matches at home.

In 1978, China Central Television began to broadcast the World Cup. It was also the first time that the country transmitted a sports event via satellite, although only one game was broadcast. Then, CCTV broadcast the complete series of World Cup games in the summer of 1982. Song Shixiong, CCTV's commentator at that time, had little access to information, so he had to prepare for the game by using information from Xinhua News Agency and sporadic reports from foreign news agencies.

The introduction of the internet in the 1990s introduced a new era in sports broadcasting in China. With the development of high technology, the Chinese could not only watch live competitions on the internet, but also communicate with sports commentators in online discussion forums. Even if you miss a match today, you can replay the webcasts of past games at any time.

(CRIENGLISH.com September 28, 2009)