CCTV.com, the official website of China Central Television, has been sued by the Beijing-based Qiusuo Hengda Investment Consulting Co., Ltd. for illegal broadcasting of a TV series.

The complaint asks for CNY23 million compensation and the case has been accepted by the No.1 Intermediate People's Court of Beijing.

Qiusuo Hengda said in its legal forms that the company owns the exclusive Internet broadcasting right of a 468-episode TV series named "Yi Nan Wang" in China. However, CCTV.com started to broadcast this TV series on its website from January 2008 and used the TV series in its advertising marketing. Qiusuo Hengda said the infringing activities of CCTV.com have interfered with the normal fulfillment of copyright authorization contracts signed between Qiusuo Hengda and many other companies, which made Qiusuo Hengda suffer great losses as it settled its breach of contract dealings.

The company said that by November 13, 2008, the TV series had been illegally broadcast more than 7.19 million times on CCTV.com and the relevant pages had been visited 16.92 million times. By advertisement pricing methods of the industry, CCTV.com's illegal income is estimated to be about CNY22.94 million. Therefore, the complaint asked for CNY23 million in compensation.

Loal Chinese media quoted an unnamed relevant person in charge of CCTV.com's marketing promotion department saying the legal department of CCTV.com is currently dealing with the issue in accordance with legal procedures. Because the case is complicated, the company will not give any comment. It will respond to the lawsuit at the appropriate time.