China Media Group kept Real Madrid off CCTV on Sunday, a week after suspending La Liga broadcasts over a joke Kylian Mbappé made about Mao Zedong.
The backstory: Asked on the French talk show The Bridge which meme makes him laugh most, Mbappé picked one that superimposes his face on a "Chinese dictator" resembling Mao, and the backlash in China was immediate.
- "My comment was ill-judged, and I now understand that it hurt many people in China and in Chinese communities around the world," Mbappé said on Tuesday.
Zoom in: China Media Group, CCTV's parent, suspended La Liga broadcasts last Tuesday and had demanded apologies from Mbappé, Real Madrid and the league as "an absolute prerequisite" for moving past the incident.
- It has acknowledged all three apologies and China's foreign ministry said it took Mbappé's apology seriously, yet the group has stayed silent on how long the blackout will last.
By the numbers: Several Chinese brands dropped Mbappé over the remark, and Real Madrid went on to beat Racing Santander 3-0 on Sunday with goals from Mbappé, Jude Bellingham and Yan Diomande.
The big picture: Mao founded the People's Republic and is revered by the Communist Party, though his Great Leap Forward and Cultural Revolution produced a famine that killed tens of millions and violent purges across society.
Between the lines: Beijing has done this before: CCTV pulled NBA games for a year from October 2019 after Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey backed Hong Kong protesters, and Morey later walked the comment back.
Why it matters: A single talk-show sentence cost a European league its Chinese broadcast slot and cost the player his Chinese sponsors, which is what political risk looks like on a brand's balance sheet.
