Why are traditional TV stations making a new gamble of “exclusive broadcasting”?

Traditional television has issued the most powerful "manifesto" ever to video websites.

Recently, Hunan Satellite TV announced that its programs will no longer cooperate with other new media, and all will be broadcast by its subsidiary Mango TV, because it wants to build its own video brand and protect copyright. Another bad news for video websites is that they still do not have the copyright of the Brazil World Cup, whether it is live or on demand.

Bad news came one after another. The other two of the top three local TV stations, Zhejiang Satellite TV and Jiangsu Satellite TV, as well as many branded satellite TV stations, may follow Hunan Satellite TV's exclusive broadcast plan. Coupled with the impact of some American dramas and self-produced dramas being required to be removed from video websites, the future of video websites has been deeply shadowed.

But the video website seems to be still calm.

Can video websites develop independently?

How much do video websites rely on traditional TV stations?

Since the beginning of this year, the exclusive broadcasting rights of variety shows on the Internet have become a battleground for major video websites. Tencent Video spent 200 million yuan to grab the exclusive broadcasting rights for the third season of "The Voice of China", and iQiyi spent the same price to exclusively obtain the 2014 copyrights of five variety shows, including the second season of " Where Are We Going, Dad ?", "Happy Camp," "Day Day Up," "Variety Show," and "Let's Date."

These investments of real money have also brought rich returns to the video website. The exclusive online naming rights for the second season of "Where Are We Going, Dad?" alone reached 66 million.

In addition, TV dramas produced by traditional TV stations were once snapped up by video websites, and at their peak, the phenomenon of one million yuan per episode became almost the norm. Currently, about half of the traffic on video websites comes from TV dramas, and the rest is equally divided between variety shows and others.

Despite this, iQiyi, LeTV, Sohu and other video websites are still keeping a calm and wait-and-see attitude towards Hunan TV's exclusive broadcast. Youku Tudou said that the company has always maintained a good cooperative relationship with Hunan TV and is very happy to see Hunan TV's active exploration in the Internet. Fengxing.com CEO Luo Jiangchun is even calmer. In his opinion, TV stations should broadcast their large seasonal programs and content exclusively on their own new media, and rely on content to form their own new media positions.

Video websites can be so "calm" thanks to the new changes in the industry structure. This year, domestic mainstream video websites have increased their investment in self-made variety shows and dramas, and positioned them as strategic priorities. LeTV has created self-made dramas such as "After the Halo" and "Good Men in the Tang Dynasty 2". In addition to launching the TV-Internet joint program "Heroes of Chinese Characters" with Henan Satellite TV, iQiyi recently announced the establishment of Liu Chun Studio and Gao Xiaosong Studio, plus the previously established Ma Dong Studio, hoping to make a breakthrough with the help of traditional TV people.

Currently, most of the variety shows on TV stations are copyrighted by foreign companies and produced by themselves. In this regard, the financial reserves of video websites may not be lower than those of TV stations (this does not include the cost saved by no longer purchasing TV station copyrights). In terms of the most questionable talent pool, the working environment of traditional TV stations is obviously not as free as that of video websites.

For video websites, getting rid of the control of traditional TV stations has always been one of their main tasks in the future. What Hunan Satellite TV is doing now is nothing more than bringing this process forward.

Is the TV station being pushed into a dead end?

Compared with the calmness of video websites, traditional TV stations are facing greater difficulties, which forces them to make changes.

In the surging tide of the Internet, traditional televisions have gradually been ignored by users. According to statistics, less than 30% of TVs in Beijing are turned on. In this context, local TV stations have no choice but to sell their film and television resources and variety show resources to video websites.

This was originally a business model of mutual benefit, with TV stations producing resources and video websites using channels to promote resources, and both sides benefiting; but now TV stations have discovered that their former partners are encroaching on their territory: video websites are trying to get a piece of the traditional TV business by using terminal products such as smart TVs, TV boxes, and TV sticks. In terms of programs, video websites are also broadcasting more and more self-made dramas and variety shows, which can't help but make TV stations feel panic.

Fortunately, the TV station still has the hottest and most popular stars, the most professional screenwriters and directors, and the most professional stages and equipment. Sohu Video, which spent 100 million to buy the exclusive online broadcast rights for the second season of "The Voice of China", handed in the following report card within three months: the total number of views exceeded 2 billion times, the exclusive broadcast platform exceeded 2 times the number of views on the entire network last year, the cumulative number of viewers reached 300 million, and the proportion of new users exceeded half. The single project covered more than half of the video netizens on the Chinese Internet. The revenue was 200 million yuan, and each data was followed by a sentence "setting a record in the video industry". Now, TV stations represented by Hunan Satellite TV are trying to firmly grasp these high-quality resources in their own hands.

Hunan Satellite TV’s Internet dream began in 2012.

In the business field, what will happen if a company that has been the top market share for ten years falls out of the top ten in half a year? Hunan Satellite TV once faced such a dilemma. At its worst moment, its ratings even fell to 18th in the country. This situation forced Hunan Satellite TV to face the impact of other satellite TV stations and the strong challenge from the Internet. It chose to join hands with the Internet; from inviting guests to the show, to launching the online video Mango Channel, self-made online dramas, multi-screen linkage with online media, and developing APP applications, all of which showed its ambition for the Internet and mobile Internet.

But the most important problem for Hunan Satellite TV is that it is not sensitive to new media or even the Internet field. Previously, Hunan Satellite TV teamed up with Alibaba to launch a joint venture to engage in e-commerce, but even with the addition of television resources and various variety shows, its performance was still mediocre.

Where does the traffic come from?

The cruel reality that traditional TV stations must face is where does the traffic come from?

According to Zhang Ruobo, CEO of Golden Eagle Network, Hunan TV has made a great determination to launch the exclusive broadcast strategy. Mango TV strives to reach the level of first-tier video websites within two to three years. After two episodes of the exclusive broadcast of "Flowers and Youth", the website traffic has increased dozens of times, and the average daily number of active users is more than 3 million.

Compared with large video websites and platforms, this number is not shabby. However, the traffic brought by the ban on broadcasting cannot be directly converted into long-term traffic for the satellite TV official website. A simple number: According to Alexa statistics, Youku Tudou ranks 83, iQiyi 335, and Golden Eagle Network 1304.

If you want to master the Internet, the core question is whether TV stations and websites represented by Mango TV have the ability to bring in traffic themselves? Even large video websites such as Youku Tudou and iQiyi cannot completely get rid of the traffic diversion of Internet giants. What's more, in the Internet world, Hunan Satellite TV and even CCTV are playing the role of newcomers.

After the ban on the broadcasting rights of video websites, Hunan TV will face more problems besides traffic, the most important of which is the origin of content. According to the statement of Hunan TV, in addition to Hunan TV's own programs, it will also spend money to purchase TV series and even programs in the future to make Mango TV a video website platform.

However, the construction of a video website is a platform-based system project, which must take into account the player, server, advertising, user UI, media resource system, backend big data statistics, third-party platform involvement, multi-terminal user synchronization, etc. Mango TV is facing a system reconstruction. Judging from the current development of Mango TV, it is far behind the first-tier video websites, and even blank in some key technologies. The gap between the two cannot be caught up in a year or two.

Besides, where do you buy TV series and programs from? Another TV station?

From the perspective of advertisers, the honeymoon period between TV stations and video websites has ended. According to China Radio and Television, data from the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television show that although the national radio and television advertising revenue reached a record high of 130.2 billion yuan in 2013, the year-on-year growth rate was only 2.52%; this indicator was 13.12% in 2012, 15.76% in 2011, and 24.04% in 2010. At the same time, Internet advertising is growing rapidly - much of its growth is transferred from the pockets of radio and television, and this is the direct reason why Hunan Satellite TV publicly broke with video websites.

But after the breakup, will advertisers return to the TV stations? For advertisers who place product placements in TV dramas and variety shows, the more channels they use, the better. For those who place hard ads, Mango TV’s audience is obviously much smaller than that of video websites: it used to promote a single column through multiple channels, but now it only has its own official channels, so the advertising value naturally declines accordingly. What’s more, the user experience of TV stations’ websites is very poor. Take Mango TV as an example. Its transmission is not smooth and the picture is paused.

The video industry has been developing in China for nearly 10 years, and copyrighted content has long been deployed globally, with American, British, Korean, and Japanese dramas all available, and variety shows from various countries have long been in the hunting sights of video websites. For video websites, losing Hunan Satellite TV is not a big deal.

However, the breakup between Hunan Satellite TV and the video website means that the radio and television media system has officially begun to join the Internet game. How to rely on existing high-quality content to attract users, create traffic, retain users and even build a complete ecological chain is the path that Hunan Satellite TV must take in the future.

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.