Brush the video on TV？ Why does the watermelon video ＂Fresh Time TV＂ aim at the TV？

Author | Yifei

Do you prefer to brush videos on your mobile phone or watch videos on the big screen?

At the watermelon PLAY Curiosity Conference held yesterday, Ren Lifeng, President of Watermelon Video, delivered a speech entitledMulti-screen era of Chinese videoThe speech.

Why do you say "Chinese video" is on fire? Ren Lifeng believes that this is due toDiversification of broadcasting channels.At present, the mobile phone channel is close to the top, and new channels such as smart TV, TV set-top box and tablet still have incremental space. People have not only watched videos on their mobile phones.

Take Mr. Li Yongle, a well-known creator of watermelon video, for example. In the past month, the amount of his video played on TV has surpassed that on mobile APP, with the former playing 26.63 million a month and the latter 23.29 million.

Tuyuan Watermelon PLAY Curiosity Conference

Smart TV has the advantages of image quality and size, which can effectively enhance the user’s visual experience. In the past, TV platforms mainly focused on movies and dramas, and now it is expected to expand into the field of medium and short videos.

Users can brush videos on their mobile phones and watch videos on the big screen, and new user habits are being developed.

Obviously, watermelon video doesn’t want to miss the popularity of this new channel.

Fresh Time TV: Watermelon Video on TV

In June 2019, Watermelon Video cooperated with China Digital Media to launch "Fresh Time TV" for smart TV. Users can download and use it directly on smart TV.

Fresh Time TV’s homepage hastwentyA column,Only the three columns of "watching blockbusters", "cartoons" and "documentaries" are long video columns, and the rest are short video columns.The layout of the waterfall program list and the playing window is basically copied from the interface of the mobile phone. Users can switch videos directly with the remote control, and like, follow and collect them. The page also displays data such as the amount of play and the number of fans.

Judging from the video content, Fresh Time TV is the main one.Horizontal screen videoOnly the video content in the "Small Video" column is vertical. This is the same as the development route of watermelon video APP focusing on video for more than 3 minutes. The horizontal video has a high adaptability on the TV side, so the content on the APP side can be directly migrated to the TV side.

It can be seen from some recent actions that watermelon video intends to accelerate the promotion of "Fresh Time TV".On May 1st this year, National Film and Television IP Hi, Mom exclusively logged into Fresh Time TV, attracting viewers with the slogan "Free viewing within a limited time". This movie was only logged into the watermelon video mobile APP after 7 days. This is the first time that watermelon video puts the status of TV big screen in front of the mobile APP, which may be intended to fit the warm theme of the movie and render the atmosphere of family watching, but it can also glimpse the intention of watermelon video to drain the TV big screen.

China Guangshi Sophomore CSM once pointed out in the "Research Report on the User Value of Short Video in 2020": "With the continuous upgrading of technology, the interaction between large and small screens has become the norm, and the big screen of TV has become a new way to open short videos, among which the proportion of short video users who have used TV to watch short videos is about 55.8%." The entry of Internet short video APP conforms to this trend and accelerates the expansion of TV short video content ecology.

In addition to watermelon video, Aauto Quicker also launched the "Cloud Audio-visual Fast TV" application in April 2020. Since then, both short video platforms have landed on smart TV channels.

　How was the TV short video?

From the perspective of industry data, the head player of smart TV APP is still a long video platform, and the popularity of short video platform has not caught up. The "OTT Big Screen User Behavior Monthly Report in December 2020" released by Aowei Entertainment shows that the daily activities of the two short video platforms, China Digital Fresh Time TV and Cloud Audio-visual Fast TV, are only between 2 million and 3 million, while the top ones in the rankings are "Galaxy Kiwi Fruit" created by iQiyi and "CIBN Cool Meow Video" by Youku, both of which are mainly long video content such as dramas and movies.

The data shows that,TV short video is still in its infancy.For mobile short video apps that have entered the stock competition, the big TV screen may be able to give them new increments.

In the whole TV short video industry, the fresh time TV of watermelon video belongs to the content side.In addition to the content side, the industry also needs terminal manufacturers and licensees, all of which are indispensable.

Terminal manufacturers are also innovating in line with the trend of TV short video.For example, Konka, a smart TV terminal manufacturer, launched a short video product "Shake Screen" in December 2019, which is dedicated to improving the operating experience of short videos. "Shaking Screen" is also building its own content system. At present, the video content deposited has reached 1 million hours, and it is drained by popular movies such as My People My Homeland.

The licensee is the top priority of the whole industry.In 2009, in order to regulate the development of Internet TV, the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television began to issue TV licenses to TV groups. The State Administration of Radio, Film and Television has issued Internet TV licenses twice, and will not issue them in the future. The existing seven licensees are Guangdong CIBN, Galaxy Internet GITV, BesTV BESTV, China Digital TV, Southern Media, Mango TV and ICNTV. Internet TV products must cooperate with any of the seven licensees before they can broadcast content on TV.

Fresh Time TV is a cooperation with China Digital TV. Huashu TV was founded by Zhejiang Radio and Television, Hangzhou Wenguang Group and Ningbo Radio and Television, and has been invested by Ali. In April 2021, Fresh Time TV also signed a contract with Fujian Radio and Television, and users can watch the content of Fresh Time directly on Fujian Radio and Television Network TV.

At present, the business models of TV short video applications such as Fresh Time TV and Cloud Audio-visual Fast TV are still unclear. However, applications that focus on long videos and series movies, such as Galaxy Kiwi, have explored business models. Duan Youqiao, senior vice president of iQiyi, once proposedThree business models:First, diverse and interactive focus advertising, second, user members pay, and third, realizing around IP. All three business models are likely to migrate to short video platforms.

Users’ demands for TV short videos

Tencent Media Research Institute released a research report in April 2020, and investigated the pain points of users of smart TV short videos to 4364 users. The report pointed out: Long advertising time, poor remote control experience, and difficulty in finding video portals are the top three reasons why users are dissatisfied with TV short videos. In addition, there are pain points such as insufficient video clarity and slow update of TV content.

From the user’s experience, although the TV big screen and the mobile phone screen are both interactive screens, there is still a big gap in the specific operation. The touch experience of the mobile phone is different from the remote control of the TV. The latter is obviously not as flexible as the former and has a lot of room for improvement.

In addition, it is worth noting that the survey shows thatMore than one third of users watch TV short videos alone.The users who watch smart TV alone account for only 16% of the total users, and the former is 2.3 times that of the latter. It can be seen that although 83% of smart TVs are placed in the living room, short-sightedness still tends to be a tool for individuals to pass the time, and the personalized distribution mode on the mobile phone side is not suitable for family scenes.

For this pain point,Perhaps Ren Lifeng’s "Chinese video" strategy can effectively deal with it.. He pointed out that the classic programs we used to watch on old TV, such as Animal World and I Love My Family, all lasted for 1-30 minutes. These programs are suitable for many people to watch together, which is very suitable for the family living room scene.

It seems that watermelon video has found that supporting professional content that the public likes is an important way for short video platforms to adapt to home TV scenes.

At the watermelon PLAY conference, Xian Yubo, the head of watermelon content ecology, proposed to support Chinese video creation.Chinese video partner program”。 He pointed out that TV traffic has become a source that cannot be ignored, and the partnership plan will not only support mobile works, but also achieve "multi-screen coverage".

Under the background that the content of short video platform is richer, it is bound to differentiate the content that is more suitable for TV screen and the content that is more suitable for mobile phone screen. Nowadays, the competition of short video on mobile phone screen has fallen into the Red Sea, and the complete TV short video ecology has not yet formed. Perhaps, smart TV will become the next soil for short video platforms.

At that time, the rapid rise of Tik Tok and Aauto Quicker,It is largely due to the exploration of the 9: 16 vertical screen content mode.. Facts have proved that one-handed mobile phone browsing vertical screen content can best meet people’s real needs in the fast-paced era and stimulate users’ "addiction". After Jikuai swept through the short video industry, traditional video portals such as "Youaiteng" began to accelerate the layout of 9: 16 vertical screen content, but the market has been set, and it is too late.

Smart TV, a new channel, is on the rise, and the previous experience and lessons on the mobile side cannot be ignored. It is foreseeable that whoever can explore the TV short video mode that can attract users the most as soon as possible will occupy the forefront in this industry.

Watermelon video is determined to support the content of "Chinese video", which is an obvious signal: they want to attack the city and plunder the pool on TV media.