Hunan Satellite TV suffered a setback. Will Mango TV, which has been broadcasting exclusively for two years, be the lifeline of Hunan Radio and Television?

"Hunan Satellite TV's programs don't seem to be as popular as before." I believe this is the intuitive feeling of most TV viewers towards Hunan Satellite TV's programs in 2016.

This is indeed the case. In the CSM52 city ratings ranking for the first quarter of 2016, Hunan, which had been the number one satellite TV station for more than a decade, slipped to third place, losing to its old rivals Dragon TV and Zhejiang Satellite TV. Hunan Satellite TV is facing an unprecedented ratings crisis.

At the same time, Mango TV, which belongs to the Hunan Radio and Television System like Hunan Satellite TV, has also entered the second anniversary of the implementation of the exclusive broadcasting system. In contrast to the predicament of Hunan Satellite TV, Mango TV has continued to grow in both the number of users and user stickiness.

"The ultimate expression of Mango TV is not to be an online specialty store, but to gradually become a new engine for Hunan Radio and Television's content innovation, efficiency growth and ecological aggregation." At the end of last year, at the 3rd China Internet Audiovisual Conference, Hunan Radio and Television Party Committee Secretary and Director Lu Huanbin said so.

Hunan Satellite TV is under siege from all sides

In the past two years, with a new round of money-burning competition and the popularization of mobile terminals, video websites have developed extremely rapidly, and online self-made dramas and variety shows have sprung up like mushrooms after rain, bringing great impact and pressure to the traditional television industry. As a representative of traditional satellite TV, Hunan Satellite TV is slightly weak in this round of content war.

When talking about Hunan TV's entertainment programs, the audience first thinks of "Happy Camp", "Day Day Up", "Where Are We Going, Dad", and "I Am a Singer"; and when talking about hosts, the audience thinks of "Wang Han, He Jiong, Xie Na, Wei Jia", and three or four years ago, or even six or seven years ago, when talking about Hunan TV, the audience would think of these. Faced with the audience's aesthetic fatigue, program innovation and talent introduction have been a major bottleneck encountered by Hunan TV in the past two years.

In addition to the pressure brought by video websites, the catch-up efforts of major satellite TV stations have also put Hunan Satellite TV in crisis. The emergence of programs such as "Happy Comedian", "Running Man", "Four Famous Assistants", and "Ace vs. Ace" has also attracted the attention of most viewers.

Ratings are declining, producers are leaving, hosts are changing, what happened to Hunan TV? In this regard, industry insiders said, "Innovation of individual programs is only a superficial phenomenon, the biggest cause of Hunan TV's problems is the systemic problems. It is precisely because Hunan TV has been ranked first for many years that the pressure and burden of ratings are the heaviest. Therefore, every step it takes and every change it makes will not be too fast."

Since a giant's turn can affect the entire body, can the relatively young and more dynamic Mango TV take up the banner of Hunan Radio and Television System?

Can the new engine provide feedback?

On the road of exclusive broadcasting, Mango TV has always been dubbed the "porter" of Hunan Satellite TV. In order to get rid of this hat, Mango TV has made a lot of efforts in the past two years. Mango TV Chairman Nie Mei once said that Mango TV's "de-Hunan Satellite TVization" should not be understood out of context. Mango TV will gradually reduce its dependence on Hunan TV, but there will still be a certain degree of connection between them, and will definitely strengthen the purchase and self-production of content from non-Hunan TV stations.

At the 2016 Summer and Autumn content new product launch conference held by Mango TV, Mango TV CEO Ding Cheng revealed that, as of now, only 30% of Hunan Satellite TV's content is available on the Mango TV platform, and the rest is online content. As of April 31, the average daily active user base of Mango TV has exceeded 39 million, the monthly coverage of PC video playback has reached 140 million people, and the number of mobile APP installations and activations has reached 286 million.

Doing things that Hunan Satellite TV wants to do but dares not and cannot do has become the main theme of Mango TV's next stage of development.

"We will set aside 100 to 200 million yuan to set up a content incubation fund to cultivate about 200 companies to produce programs with us. Our company is the platform, and the programs will be broadcast on Mango TV. We can share advertising, rights, and IP," said Ding Cheng.

At present, some of Mango TV's self-produced programs have gained a good reputation, and some have even surpassed Hunan Satellite TV. For example, "Who's the Detective" has been ranked among the top ten variety shows on the entire network in terms of weekly video coverage for two consecutive weeks (ranked ninth and tenth respectively), ranking first among all network variety shows on the entire network; the self-produced drama "Ultimate Ranger" was online for only 2 days, and the number of views exceeded 20 million. On the day of its premiere, the number of views ranked second on iQiyi's daily broadcast list of popular online dramas.

On the other hand, influenced by the radio and television policy, "Where Are We Going, Dad?", "Mom is Superman" and "Super Girl" have also moved to the Mango TV platform; in terms of technology, VR, live broadcast and other latest hot elements have been introduced; new hosts such as Shen Mengchen and Li Shaminzi have also been gradually pushed to the front; the launch of Mango TV and boxes has also been put on the agenda. It can be seen that Mango TV, as a new media position of Hunan Radio and Television, has received more and more official attention after the attack on satellite TV.

From Hunan Satellite TV to Mango TV, the reason why Hunan Radio and Television chose the Internet video platform as the next direction of new media transformation is the market direction stimulated by the business environment mechanism, and it is also a contest between traditional media and emerging media and systems.

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.