The left and right choices for traditional TV programs: exclusive broadcast or cooperation?

Competing for the attention of young audiences has always been the secret to the entertainment industry's "eternal youth and vitality." At the "crossroads" of TV stations and video websites, "exclusive broadcasting" has always been the main player in the past, but now the trend is changing, and the taste of the game is becoming stronger - all this is because the "Internet generation" has become the most mainstream consumer group.

News is interesting only when read in a connected manner, for example, in the recent video industry: on the one hand, Hunan Satellite TV no longer sells its own programs but leaves them to its subsidiary "Mango TV" for exclusive broadcast, opening up the Internet market and attracting many TV stations to follow suit; on the other hand, "The Voice of China" has actively embraced video websites and even social networks to maximize the brand's value and ratings.

"Ratings" are nothing but clouds, people's will is the most important

Although "ratings" are evil, for TV (ratings) or video websites (on-demand), they mean popularity, commercial value, and even the audience behind them. Especially the latter, it means the people's will.

With the rapid penetration of the Internet, especially mobile Internet, people's hearts have begun to tilt towards the Internet. Therefore, short-term "ratings" are like flowers blooming and falling, or even like drinking poison to quench thirst. No one can be popular forever. Only by continuously occupying mainstream users and constantly changing blood can all this continue. This is not difficult to explain. "Weibo Tucao" saved the Spring Festival Gala in a certain sense, and video websites spent huge sums of money to broadcast exclusively, which also greatly extended the life cycle of TV programs and TV series, and they coexisted in a game.

In fact, in a fragmented era, users have become more "discerning" about content and channel experience, which means that content production, broadcasting, and even sharing and discussion have become very important. In such an ecosystem, if TV stations and video websites cannot completely replace each other, the Internet represented by them can only "join forces" to win over these "discerning people".

Why is "The Voice of China" striving to embrace the Internet?

There are many people trying, such as the ace entertainment program "The Voice of China" which is currently exploring and practicing.

The first season of "The Voice of China" in 2012 was basically a one-man show. It did cooperate with some online platforms such as video websites, but the efforts were superficial and not in-depth. Although the final ratings were not low, its influence was basically limited to the living room and it could not go beyond it, and it lacked stamina.

In the second season, Canxing learned its lesson and sold the exclusive broadcasting rights to Sohu Video. While cashing in a large sum of money, it also established its own base on the Internet, such as opening an online solicitation channel for Sohu Video and specially producing a promotional warm-up program "Sprint Good Voice". However, due to ignoring the competitiveness between platforms, related content was "banned", which inevitably weakened the influence of the program.

The third season is the most troublesome. On the one hand, the audience and the market have higher expectations for the program, and this expectation gap has already caused a lot of boos in the second season (Tian Ming, the head of Canxing, once revealed that the third season has been comprehensively improved and upgraded in terms of production team, celebrity mentors and contestants); on the other hand, in the Internet era, especially the mobile Internet era, it is impossible to give up cooperation with Internet video websites, but how to avoid the embarrassment of the second season? The current solution is that Canxing changed its partner to Tencent Video. You know, in terms of entertainment resources, Tencent Video is not better than Sohu Video, so did Canxing make a mistake?

In the preheating phase so far, Tencent Video and The Voice of China have jointly launched “Weishi Good Voice”, where users submit programs based on this short video sharing community to compete for the qualification for the blind audition.

Compared with the previous good voice warm-up, the cleverness of this move is reflected in:

1. Lighter: It is not based on the cumbersome offline show method, nor does it require the cumbersome submission of works to video websites. It can be completed instantly through mobile phones, Pads and other terminals;

2. More penetrating: Weishi itself is a social platform. Not only does the platform have a built-in relationship chain for each player, but it can also be spread through social methods such as Weibo, WeChat, and QQ Space. The penetration of the content across the entire network will not be affected by the cooperation relationship with a single platform.

3. More participatory: Users are more closely connected to the program and become direct participants, rather than just spectators and voters as in the first two episodes.

4. More profound: In "Weishi Good Voice", Weishi is only a presentation platform. Behind the scenes, Tencent has mobilized all its product groups including media, social networking and games to deliver the target content in a diversified and all-round manner.

According to public information, the number of views of a single episode of "Weishi Good Voice" has exceeded 10 million, and Internet celebrities and hot topics such as "Little Fan Bingbing" Fan Ling have emerged. These elements are full of vitality as derivative information of Good Voice. Although there is a suspicion of hype, they have undoubtedly extended the warm-up period of Good Voice objectively, and the effect is good. In comparison, the warm-up of the second season is much more complicated. For example, "Sprint Good Voice" is both online and offline, which is basically equivalent to creating a simplified version of "China's Good Voice". The same is true for "King of Karaoke" and "Good Voice Heroes" in the same period of the program.

Crossroads: Game or integration?

Looking back, as a popular TV program, "The Voice of China" has been seeking the most appropriate cooperative attitude with video websites, and this exploration also reflects the changes in the cooperative relationship between TV and Internet video.

"Contact" in the 1.0 era: Both parties have a shallow contact cooperation relationship, and neither side puts the other in a strategic position. I use you as a channel, and you use me as a resource. We are each other's center and get along freely.

2.0 era "transactional": like the second season of "The Voice of China", both content providers and channel providers are aware of each other's value and the possibility of bundling with each other, and the other party has become an important weapon in their respective market competition - around 2013, the copyright disputes among various video websites based on high-quality content were the most intense, and they did not hesitate to write books, which was magnificent. Based on this, both parties took advantage of each other and continued the high-cost cooperative relationship in the process of raising and bargaining prices.

"Integration and competition" in the 3.0 era: Like the development of any symbiotic industry, everyone began to look for the most appropriate way to exist. On the one hand, this way of existence is manifested as "competition" like Hunan Satellite TV, the initiator of the exclusive broadcast strategy. Based on its own resources and positioning, it began to clarify and establish its position in the long-term market - the special feature of Hunan Satellite TV is that it has both content resources and the video website position Mango TV - this change of formation first manifested itself as an invasion of the partner's territory, changing the relationship between the two parties from cooperation to competition.

On the other hand, it is manifested as "integration": first, integration is not a pure buying and selling relationship, but a game based on respective resources. For example, the basis for establishing cooperation between "The Voice of China" and Tencent Video is not price, but the possibility of mutual value-added; second, cooperation is not the end, but will be continued creatively, based on the form of good content and its own resources - the light innovation of "Weishi Good Voice" is an example. Third, it is not a simple addition, nor is it an upstream and downstream overlap of "video website + TV station". For example, Good Voice and Tencent Video have created a full-platform combat system including TV stations, information portals, life platforms, social communities, and mobile Internet.

Comparing The Voice of China and Mango TV, one is the flagship variety show in China, and the other is the leading variety channel in China. Both of them have seen the importance of the Internet and hope to pull back the audience lost in the living room through the Internet. However, one chose the golden partner Tencent Video and integrated exploration, while the other chose to bet on the future alone. It is difficult to say which is right or wrong, but compared with the two, the author is more willing to see the industry develop in the first direction. In the era of diversified communication channels, social networks and mobile Internet, the development trend of the industry should be cooperation and sharing, and user experience first. Based on the logic of these two levels, I am looking forward to the exploration of The Voice of China and Tencent Video in the next two months.

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.