CCTV looks at the barrage. What kind of transaction did CCTV and Bilibili make today?

Bilibili, commonly known as Station B, is China's largest gay dating site, or rather, the largest ACG exchange site. Through a strict membership screening model, Station B restricts its users to ACG enthusiasts aged 20-40. The form of video bullet screens gives Station B users an extraordinary interactive viewing experience, but it is also criticized by stereotyped and conservative users, who believe that the flying texts make it impossible for them to focus on the video itself. They are even more annoyed by the screen full of "233333", "666666" and jokes.

China Central Television is the national television station of the People's Republic of China. Beijingers jokingly call it "Zhuangdianertai" and it is commonly known as "CCTV". It is China's national propaganda machine and China's face to the world. Its image has always been great and glorious. If Bilibili is a rebellious and eccentric otaku in his early twenties, then CCTV is a middle-aged government official who is calm and capable. If you insist on asking whether CCTV supports video websites, it certainly supports them, but everyone knows that traditional TV stations look down on these poor new brothers.

It seems that CCTV and Bilibili have nothing to do with each other and it is difficult for them to have any intersection, but the fact is not the case.

For a long time, the people of Bilibili have always enjoyed mocking the dull CCTV, and even affectionately called it "CC*V". CCTV played the role of a propagandist in the incident in which Bilibili was collectively sued by nine major video websites at the end of 2014, angrily denouncing Bilibili as a "little classmate who copied homework", and successfully brought Bilibili's infringement case to the forefront.

However, since the beginning of 2016, CCTV has frequently extended olive branches to Bilibili. First, there were several positive reports on the barrage format and the two-dimensional world, and then there were several remote interactions between the official Weibo accounts of CCTV and Bilibili. Finally, what was shocking was that at the end of 2016, CCTV's documentary channel CCTV9 officially announced its entry into Bilibili.

What is even more surprising is that after CCTV logged into Bilibili, it has dominated the screen among many beautiful anchors and game masters, and has long occupied the top spot in the live broadcast rankings, which really shocked all the friends. But no one knows what signal CCTV, which has always been the weathervane of domestic radio and television stations, has released with this move?

Vertically segmented user groups led to the rise of Bilibili

Bilibili is really an amazing website (no, it has nothing to do with 58). It is not the world's first barrage video website (Japan's NICONICO animation), nor is it China's first barrage video website (AcFun), but it has risen rapidly at a rocket-like speed and has become China's largest two-dimensional communication website.

This is mainly due to Bilibili's precise control over users.

For a long time, Bilibili has used a two-dimensional test to distinguish user groups, strictly limiting users to the home-loving youth group, blocking other users from entering Bilibili. This is very clever, because unlike other video websites, the biggest feature of Bilibili, like AcFun, is its bullet screen function.

But the barrage function is a double-edged sword.

For users, it is a novel experience to be able to talk to other users while watching a video, as if they are sitting on a sofa and watching a show. If they have similar interests, they can experience the pleasure of finding a soulmate. Even a dull video can be enjoyable if some people are making jokes, some are having heated discussions, or even sharing scientific knowledge.

But if user permissions are opened up at will, anyone can comment on the video, which is a completely different situation. Some people spoil the plot, some people curse, and some people even use foul language. How can we talk about the experience? You can go to many video websites that imitate Bilibili and hastily add a barrage function. You can see that there are many barrages of greetings to others' ancestors and expressing primitive desires for actresses. No wonder the barrage function of these websites is turned off by default.

Another thing worth mentioning is Bilibili’s “user-generated content” mechanism.

On Bilibili, nearly 100% of the content is moved or created by users who love animation, movies and the two-dimensional world, which fundamentally guarantees the quality and quantity of the content and can provide the most timely and clearest video content to the website and users.

In this way, Bilibili entered a virtuous circle, attracting more and more users and even forming a unique website culture.

The one who sticks out gets shot. The one who is famous gets into trouble.

However, not everything is so smooth sailing.

On the afternoon of December 26, 2014, the Pudong Court will hear three cases related to Shanghai Huandian, with the plaintiffs including Beijing Qiyi Technology Co., Ltd. and Beijing Qiyi Century Technology Co., Ltd. On January 7-8, 2015, Shanghai Huandian faced another six lawsuits, with the plaintiffs including Guangzhou Douyu Network Technology Co., Ltd. and Huashi Wangju (Changzhou) Cultural Media Co., Ltd. The cause of all nine cases was "infringement of the right to disseminate works on the Internet."

According to media reports, “Bilibili’s video sources and video streams are basically from other video websites, most of which are stolen without authorization or payment.”

In fact, hotlinking has been an open secret since the establishment of Bilibili. So why is it that no one is taking action against such blatant hotlinking?

To put it bluntly, the systems of traditional video websites are too complicated. There is no one directly responsible for the problem of hotlinking, so they often turn a blind eye to such minor problems or even fail to notice the problem. The operations department that really understands the problem is too lazy to bother with it because it has no direct interests and can increase the video upload volume on its own server. Only when someone finds out about the copyrighted content will they remove individual videos.

However, in 2014, the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television issued a "Notice" stipulating that "films, TV series, cartoons, theoretical literature and films that have not obtained a license shall not be disseminated on the Internet." Under the promotion of national laws and regulations, the country has officially introduced the copyright process of traditional Internet video websites, and the hotlinking of Bilibili has begun to receive attention because it seriously infringes on the interests of copyright holders who have invested heavily.

After several failed negotiations and cooperation, several traditional Chinese video websites took Bilibili to court.

Of course, everyone knows the ending. Bilibili removed a large amount of film, television and animation content and honestly purchased the copyrights of some film, television and animation content. However, if you think that Bilibili is the loser in this incident, you are wrong.

Bilibili is at the forefront of the times. The management of Bilibili is of course fully aware of the legal risks of hotlinking, but it still chooses to do so because of its great confidence in its strong user stickiness. Even if a lot of video content is lost later, the huge number of hardcore fans brought by hotlinking in the early stage is enough to support Bilibili after its later transformation, and this is indeed the case.

The song between the official blog

Logically speaking, for websites like Bilibili that continue to stir up trouble, veterans like CCTV would just pat them on the head, criticize and educate them, but they would still not take it seriously in their hearts, and that's it.

After all, the 90s generation, the ACG world, otaku culture and other things are always considered "illusory and out of touch with reality" by their elders. They are not down-to-earth and unwilling to lower their posture to gain a deeper understanding. They are considered to be another drug that corrodes the spirit after "electronic heroin". You see, Japan's OTAKU culture has turned Japan into a nation that "lives off their parents", right?

However, in recent years, the ACG and otaku culture have been increasingly forgiven and understood. In recent years, amazing achievements have been made in the fields of video, music, live broadcasting, and games. The ACG economy has begun to be taken seriously. At the same time, Bilibili has gradually gotten rid of its niche status and has been recognized by more and more people.

This includes CCTV.

Tiny Times 4, released in 2015, ushered in the era of bullet-screen movies. The use of bullet-screen created a unique viewing experience and attracted a large number of viewers to watch the movie twice or even three times. CCTV-2 reported on this "new way of playing" with bullet-screen, focusing on the origin of Bilibili and bullet-screen.

In March 2016, in the famous man-machine battle, Google's AlphaGo faced Lee Sedol. CCTV's official Weibo account sent a Weibo post about the related news. Bilibili's official Weibo account cleverly discovered that the accompanying picture in CCTV's Weibo post showed that the live video broadcast watched by the official Weibo account was from Bilibili. It turned out that CCTV really also went to Bilibili.

In December, CCTV's official Weibo account mentioned online videos again, expressing its appreciation for their rapid development. The pictures in the Weibo post were screenshots from Bilibili, including the documentary "I Repair Cultural Relics in the Forbidden City" produced by CCTV and a big hit on Bilibili.

CCTV9, Bilibili and Documentary

"I Repair Cultural Relics in the Forbidden City" is a documentary dedicated to the 90th anniversary of the Palace Museum. It was produced by CCTV and for the first time presented the stories of cultural relic restorers behind the high walls, which were kept secret. The crew of "I Repair Cultural Relics in the Forbidden City" followed the staff of the Forbidden City for 4 months of filming and 6 months of editing to finally complete the three-episode documentary "I Repair Cultural Relics in the Forbidden City".

In January 2016, "I Repair Cultural Relics in the Forbidden City" was broadcast on CCTV, but the response was mediocre.

But what no one expected was that in February, on Bilibili, where the ACG and otaku culture dominate, "I Repair Cultural Relics in the Forbidden City" became an instant hit as soon as it was broadcast. How popular is it? So far, "I Repair Cultural Relics in the Forbidden City" has been played 2.187 million times on Bilibili, with 59,000 comments. Not only that, several restorers became the male gods and goddesses of Bilibili overnight, gaining a large number of fans. Even Xiao Han, the director of "I Repair Cultural Relics in the Forbidden City", personally left a message on Bilibili, asking Bilibili netizens what content they hope to see in subsequent short films, and was "besieged" by fans.

These reasons may give CCTV Documentary Channel reasons to want to cooperate with Bilibili.

In fact, documentaries have always been popular on Bilibili. The reason may be that compared with TV series that like to use all kinds of cool shots, documentaries that like to use close-ups and fixed camera positions are more suitable for the current small-screen video market; it may also be because the originally boring documentaries have become more interesting after the interaction between netizens, achieving both education and entertainment; the bigger reason may be that people still prefer excellent content.

Although documentaries are a niche genre, they are generally of high quality. For example, A Bite of China has a Douban score of 9.3; Human World, a documentary about doctor-patient relationship, has a Douban score of 9.6; Aerial China, the first large-scale documentary to overlook China from an aerial perspective, has a Douban score of 9.4.

Facts have proven that although Chinese movies are so bad that they are outrageous to the point of being hated by both humans and gods, CCTV's documentaries are still very well made.

The “Tangled” Between Television Media and New Media

The reason why we were so surprised to see CCTV log on to Bilibili is that in our impression, radio and television networks have always held a dismissive attitude towards new media.

Television media holds the policy stick and has hundreds of millions of audiences, and advertisers have to bow down to them; new Internet media are prone to losses and deficits, and have twists and turns on the road to monetization, and their fate often changes with a piece of "notice" or "guidance".

However, in the end, the choice is still in the hands of users. On one hand, there are high-end TV media that give you whatever you want to watch, and on the other hand, there are down-to-earth Internet video websites that give you whatever you want to watch. Everyone's choice is obvious.

Facing the impact of new media on the Internet, television media is facing an unprecedented predicament. The rise of new media has revolutionized paper media, and the decline of paper media is in sight. The strong rise of smart TVs and TV boxes has put pressure on television media.

The rate of TV broadcasts has continued to decline, young viewers have been lost, and the aging trend of the audience has increased sharply. As a result, the ability to promote advertising has dropped sharply, advertisers have fled, and revenue has dropped sharply. Currently, most domestic satellite TV stations are in a situation of huge losses and are barely able to survive by relying on government funds. The storm is coming.

Television media still wields the policy stick.

In October 2011, the General Office of the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television issued the "Operation and Management Requirements for Institutions Holding Internet TV Licenses", which mentioned, "I. Internet TV integrated business management requirements, 6. At present, the Internet TV integrated platform mainly supports video on demand and graphic information services, and the technical interface for broadcasting and television program live broadcast services shall not be opened for the time being." and "II. Internet TV content service management requirements, 5. At present, Internet TV content services mainly provide users with video on demand and graphic information services, and broadcasting and television program live broadcast services shall not be provided for the time being."

The live broadcast function of OTT is blocked.

In July 2015, the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television issued an urgent notice to the seven major licensees in the OTT industry, requiring them to make unified rectifications on existing violations of Internet TV. Otherwise, their broadcasting and control rights will be revoked.

The specific violations are as follows:

1. In models released after early 2015, the USB port can still be used to install applications;

2. There is still a browser in the system that can access the Internet;

3. Pushing aggregated applications, video website clients, and radio applications through application stores or other means;

4. Push remote control applications that can indirectly control video playback via mobile phones through application stores or other means.

The function of installing third-party software is also blocked. OTT is half disabled.

However, even so, television media has not been revived. People can still choose to watch video programs on smartphones and tablets, and even crack OTT to break through the blockade. It can be said that the previous policy of the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television was a failure.

Of course, it is not just our country’s television media that faces these problems. How do overseas television media respond?

Foreign media’s response

First of all, many foreign countries, such as the United Kingdom and the United States, have also issued relevant laws and regulations to suppress Internet media and telecom operators. For example, the Federal Communications Commission of the United States once issued a ban on telecom companies from operating mixed television businesses.

But in the end, Britain, the United States, France and Japan all embarked on the path of Taiwan-Internet integration.

For example, take the British TV station BBC (famous in the country for its well-produced documentaries).

In 2006, the BBC proposed the "Creating the Future" plan. The plan clearly defined the goal of media convergence, marking the BBC's transformation to an all-media model of TV and Internet convergence. The plan includes ten plans including weather, news, sports, children's programs, online familiar broadcasts, and online TV players. All content covers four terminals: computers, TVs, tablets, and smartphones, which is the so-called "360-degree full platform" operation concept.

In terms of the institutional system, the BBC used to set up independent departments based on channels, with different functions and clear division of labor. This independent organizational structure easily leads to poor information exchange between departments and low work efficiency. The reformed BBC has reorganized its organizational structure to encourage openness and communication. Among them, the reconstruction of the news team is the most important link. The BBC has integrated the original independent radio, television, and Internet platforms into a huge cross-media omnimedia news center, which includes two new departments: the Multimedia Program Department and the Multimedia News Department.

In terms of new media operations, the BBC has acquired or cooperated with other companies to establish news websites and mobile terminal versions of news websites, vigorously promoted social platforms and iPlayer playback platforms, and broadened new media communication channels. The social platform developed by the BBC at great expense is based on programs and provides a platform for communication between program producers and audiences, attracting audience participation and interaction, and catering to the interests of young audiences. Users can download all BBC audio and video programs for free through the iPlayer software, watch them at will through radio, television, computers and mobile terminals, and socialize at the same time.

The BBC actively promotes the UGC - User Generated Content strategy, encouraging audiences to set up their own blogs on the BBC website and post their own audio and video works on the website. By practicing the UGC strategy, it innovates the content production method, and the content produced becomes new material that can be used by its radio and television programs, thereby winning over a large number of young users.

Through these means, the BBC reversed its trend of sliding toward marginalization as a traditional television media, brought a new look to the company, and established a new profit model that is worth learning from.

Should the integration of Taiwan and the Internet embrace new media and join forces or should we work together to keep warm?

In China, in 1999, the attitude towards "three-network integration" was still to be stopped.

On September 17, 1999, the State Council issued Document No. 82 [1999], which stated, "Telecommunications departments are not allowed to engage in radio and television business, and radio and television departments are not allowed to engage in communications business. Both parties must resolutely implement this." The document also pointed out, "Radio, television and their transmission networks have become an important part of national informatization."

But soon, the attitude changed to promoting it. The outline of the 15th Five-Year Plan, adopted on March 15, 2001, first clearly proposed "three-network integration": "Promote the integration of telecommunications, television and the Internet". Since then, in 2006, 2008 and 2009, the National Development and Reform Commission and the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television have repeatedly issued documents to promote the process of three-network integration, saying that the integration of three networks is "the general trend" and "of great significance to promoting the national informatization construction".

The rapid development of the Internet has posed huge challenges to decision makers.

A few years ago, we were still arguing about how to "integrate" the three networks and who should "integrate" whom. Now, it has become a consensus that the Internet will become the core of the integration of the three networks. In 2015, the integration of TV and the Internet has become an unavoidable topic in the media industry.

At the end of last year, CCTV, the weathervane, extended an olive branch to the video website Bilibili, showing that the once high-handed TV media is finally going to lower its posture. This is an inevitable process in the integration of TV and the Internet. It is much more pragmatic to get close to emerging Internet platforms, get close to young audiences, and understand the trendy culture that is constantly being updated than sitting in the office with tea in hand and worrying about the ratings.

It is also necessary for video websites to join hands with traditional TV media. Although video websites have huge traffic and income from interstitial ads and membership fees, due to the intensified competition this year, the fierce copyright war and high bandwidth costs, veterans such as iQiyi, Youku and Tudou are all in deficit every year, and this is even more true for Bilibili, which does not post ads on its videos. Joining hands with TV media is also of great significance for video websites to say goodbye to burning money and explore profit models.

As for how China's TV and Internet integration will go in the future, we may still not be able to see clearly now. However, with the strong resources and production capabilities of traditional TV media, plus the Internet video platform's understanding of netizens and unique gameplay targeting the new generation of audiences, it is still worth looking forward to what kind of unicorns will eventually emerge from this combination.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.