The next extension of video websites: new areas of online and TV linkage

On the evening of July 15, a press conference for the "Magic iQiyi Night" of "The Great Magician", a large-scale celebrity interactive magic competition reality show jointly created by CCTV Variety Channel (CCTV-3) and iQiyi, was held at Beijing Starlight Film and Television Park.

It is reported that this is another breakthrough innovation in the new field of online and TV linkage by the video website iQiyi, following the joint creation with Henan Satellite TV of China's first large-scale cultural variety show "Heroes of Chinese Characters".

As the first magic competition reality show in China, "The Great Magician" has attracted many celebrities to join. In addition to superstars such as Jay Chou and Eric Tsang who will serve as "magic" guests, there are also popular students such as Chen Zhipeng, Yang Hongji, Gao Hu, Xiao Qiang, and Ah Niu who will perform wonderful performances under the guidance of the instructors.

At a time when singing competition programs are flooding the screen and programs are becoming increasingly homogeneous, this magic competition variety show that takes advantage of the summer season can be described as a storm of imagination. iQiyi said that this show, which features celebrity reality shows, will take over the World Cup broadcast during the summer.

In fact, it is not the first time that video websites and TV stations have cooperated to develop innovative programs. After the first online and TV program "Heroes of Chinese Characters" was broadcast, iQiyi Editor-in-Chief Gao Jin said, "The significance of online and TV cooperation lies in the first successful cross-border cooperation between two media with different systems, forms and communication fields. In the future, iQiyi will also actively seek to launch more bold and open cooperation explorations in the field of online and TV cooperation."

With the active operation of the capital market in the video industry in the past two years, the concentration of video websites has become increasingly higher, and the trend of seeking content differentiation has become increasingly important. At the same time, in the pursuit of differentiation, major video websites have begun to turn to exclusive broadcasting and self-made content, attempting to attract more users and traffic through unique content.

After Sohu Video defined 2014 as the "first year of self-production" and Tencent and LeTV planned to launch a large number of self-produced drama content, iQiyi, which advocates building core competitiveness through content, was not willing to lag behind and began to fully explore the new trend of online and TV linkage.

When discussing how the online-TV integration will bring competitiveness to video websites, He Haiming, director of CCTV's Advertising Management Center, said, "CCTV will not only put all its efforts into key recommendations and all-round publicity, but will also join hands with the most influential online video platform, iQiyi, to interact with the Internet and the Internet, making use of complementary advantages and resources, and injecting fresh content blood through in-depth cooperation, bringing a new thinking of traditional variety shows to the audience."

It is believed that iQiyi is so optimistic about the online-TV joint business model because the content produced in cooperation with TV stations will not only be vigorously promoted by TV stations, but also bring considerable advertising effects to the video website. More importantly, the website will also take advantage of the opportunity to obtain the exclusive broadcasting rights of these strong programs, which is of paramount importance at a time when video websites are facing competition in content differentiation.

In this regard, the Internet-TV linkage can be said to be a new model for the development of the video industry that combines the two forces and achieves win-win results for both parties. Ma Dong, Chief Content Officer of iQIYI, also emphasized on behalf of iQIYI that it is fully committed to this field, "iQIYI is not only the best Internet content broadcasting platform in China, but has also been constantly exploring innovations in content production. This breakthrough in the industry imagination of video websites and the cooperation with CCTV is also another important milestone on iQIYI's road to content production."

In the case of uneven quality of self-produced content on video websites, if a website wants to have original Internet content of TV quality, the most direct and fastest way is to link up with TV stations. From purchasing TV program copyrights to co-producing programs with TV stations, in fact, video websites are also slowly regaining the initiative they have lost in this new field of change.

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.