Lead
"All the visual information we had yesterday is comparable to the information of the day on a phone screen."
This is a sentence that Jack Ma said at the Alibaba Annual Focus Conference in Hangzhou on April 15, 2016, which means that in today's information age, the information we see and receive can be compared to yesterday's with just a smartphone.
This was one of the most important reasons why smartphones "snatched" TVs at that time.
However, at the same time, Jack Ma's metaphor is far from reaching its extreme, because today, streaming platforms have come into being, and the habit of watching TV has been completely destroyed.
According to 2016 data, the total time spent watching TV in mainland China has plummeted by 17%, which translates to an average per capita, which means that you need to watch 1 hour less TV per day.
Within a few years, there began to be a phenomenon of "ten years in Hedong, ten years in Hexi", and in the past 10 years, the TV industry has collapsed.
However, in just a few years, how did the TV industry plummet from a vibrant to a sudden decline?
In fact, this is because the TV industry "dies" by itself.
"Grab a job".
Anyone who lived twenty or thirty years ago will know that at that time, without computers and smartphones, people could not do without the TV for their daily entertainment, and the TV was also the center of family entertainment.
At that time, as long as there was a TV at home, it would become the focus of attention, even if there was a time when the neighbors did not talk to each other at all, but once a new family bought a TV, everyone would catch up with this "good brother", and they could envy the temporary "anger".
Of course, there are also people who will make the TV very "hot",There is not only a TV at home,It will also be equipped with a TV cabinet that can be put up,It looks taller,It can make more people envious,And even "charge" to invite neighbors to come to the house to watch TV。
But this was all in the 80s and 90s, when smartphones didn't exist yet, and home entertainment was very simple.
However, with the advancement of science and technology, new media such as mobile phones have emerged, and life has gradually diversified, and leisure and entertainment are gradually no longer limited to indoors.
What's more, whether it is a mobile phone or a computer, they are "multi-functional", not only for entertainment, but also an important tool for work and communication.
Smartphones, in particular, are able to connect the content on the phone to a larger screen by connecting to a large screen device such as a TV, such as a projector, so that the viewing experience can be guaranteed, and at the same time, it is no longer "confined" indoors.
Therefore, mobile phones and other new media have "snatched" the TV audience in one fell swoop.
However, this is just the beginning, as technology continues to advance and streaming platforms have emerged, and now people no longer have any reason to watch TV.
The emergence of streaming media platforms, not only with its advantages such as "no waiting", "not timeless" and "can be watched at any time", makes watching live TV more colorful, but also eliminates the "advertising problem" of watching TV, and also solves the problem of "after missing the live broadcast, you can no longer watch it in the future", which is really incomparable to TV.
One of the reasons for "death".
The rise of streaming platforms is the main reason for the TV industry's "death", but this is only the first step of "death".
The reason why I say this is because the rise of streaming platforms has its inevitability, while the TV industry has ignored its threats and neglected its development, causing it to "die".
If you want to talk about the origin of streaming platforms, you have to start with the United States in the late 80s of the 20th century.
At that time, cable television networks in the United States had covered 97% of households in the United States, but as a traditional media, the audience of television was gradually aging, so more and more young people began to "turn a blind eye" to it.
At that time, the two major film and television production companies in the United States, Warner Film and Television and 21st Century Fox, wanted to change this situation, so they established their own film and television network platform - Hulu in 1997.
At that time, this move caused opposition from many radio and television networks, TV companies and other companies in the United States, mainly for the following reasons: First, they believed that Hulu had a direct impact on the sales of the TV industry, and there was no help, and they even robbed them of their "jobs".
Second, they are worried that the rise of Hulu will further lead to the loss of viewers for TV stations' "live broadcasts".
Third, they also believe that although Hulu is on the rise, it at least needs to be "stopped", and once it is "allowed" to continue to develop like this, it will have a negative impact on other companies, and it will also lead to problems such as "reduced revenue".
However, in the end, all their opposition did not make Hulu "fall", on the contrary, he spent the most difficult time in this "sword and sword", and then gradually developed into the largest streaming platform today.
Hulu in the United States has provided a "blueprint" for the development of streaming media platforms in the mainland, and streaming media platforms such as iQiyi and Tencent Video in the mainland are now in full swing like Hulu in the United States.
The second reason for "death".
In fact, another reason why the TV industry is "dead" is their own "pride", that is, where the traditional concept lies.
With the rise of streaming platforms, the TV industry should be aware of the need to be time-oriented, not only to keep pace with the times, but also to diversify and adapt to current people's viewing habits.
But the TV industry doesn't see it that way, and they see streaming platforms as just a "great alternative to watching TV" and let it go and make no changes.
Even if they do this at the same time, this does not reach the level of what they call "death", but they do "do die", that is, the innovation of their TV program is insufficient, and they pursue everything "high", and most importantly, they pursue "positive energy" without "negative energy".
People often say: "An entertainment industry without negative energy is not called an entertainment industry", which is also the biggest problem in the TV industry.
They excessively pursue the "encouragement" of the audience's "positive energy", resulting in the "positive energy" will "backlash" them, and the audience is far from just "being inspired" for 24 hours a day, and the audience's eyes are bright.
They pursue content, the pursuit of the "quality" of content, most of them are inspirational chicken soup, this kind of content has been "outdated" in recent years, but the TV industry is still copying it, the audience has long been tired of watching this kind of content, and the TV series on TV have lost their "highlights" and stories, and have become a cutscene, relying entirely on the acting skills of the actors to play treasure, and the audience has no interest.
In the end, the TV station will also say that the audience has no taste and demand, which is obviously irresponsible.
In fact, the audience's tastes are diverse, and in the years of production in the TV industry, I have not been able to find this, and in the past few years, we can almost see the changes in the audience's tastes.
But the TV industry did not, he still "stood still", but the audience was not stopped, so he had to abandon the TV set and turn to a more "open" streaming platform.
The third reason for "death".
In addition to the above two reasons, the last reason that led to the "death" of the TV industry: the audience's experience.
TVs and streamers are not the same, but the user experience is pretty much the same.
In fact, the TV industry also has its own "highlights", that is, "big screen viewing".
But this has also become a "big drawback".
First of all, the operation is cumbersome,Although with the progress of smart TV,The picture of the TV、The sound quality is also improving step by step,But,Even if it is a smart TV,It can only give you the experience of adaptation",With the viewing"diversification"and"diversification",TV"Picture quality"and"Sound quality"It may not be able to adapt。
In addition to that, there is the charging model.
The charging model of TV can be said to be very unfair",Even if there are high-end users who pay to watch,There will still be"Advertisements",And it can't be skipped"。
Streaming media is different, it has its own independent "paid" model, on the one hand, it makes it "fair" income, and on the other hand, it can also increase the "viewing experience" that attracts viewers to a certain extent.
But this is only from the perspective of "viewing experience", and there are many more substantive problems with them, such as "too many ads" and other problems.
Therefore, the TV industry should also find the reason from its own "problems".
Since the TV industry is now "collapsing", let's start with how to rebuild the TV industry.
"Break out of the cocoon".
The first is the innovation of "technology",Although the TV industry has been making progress towards intelligence,But the change of the TV industry needs more than just "appearance",More importantly"core。
Therefore,To change the TV industry,First of all, it is necessary to change the "model" of charging,You can refer to the "subscription" model of the streaming media platform,You can carry out different "subscription types" for different rights and interests, but for "subscribed" users,They must absolutely trust"The rights and interests obtained after subscribing",So it is necessary to be "transparent" and "reasonable" in this regard。
The second is to "innovate" content, in addition to innovation, but also to "enrich" the diversity of content, so in terms of creation should also be appropriately "liberalized", for example: before the country had many "restrictions" restrictions, but when the "streaming media" platform was launched, there was no such thing as "restrictions".
If the TV industry wants to win back the "hearts" of the audience, it must do this, broaden its "thinking" and "horizons", and actively create content that keeps pace with the times.
There is also the need to "observe" the needs of the audience, and the needs of the audience are the "main theme" of this period, rather than the so-called "positive energy" and "lofty".
epilogue
If the TV industry wants to "break out of the cocoon" again, in addition to the above, there is one most important point, that is, to "innovate" the story, break the "traditional" narrative, to be "close" to life, to be able to "resonate" with the audience, and at the same time to be "inspired", so that the audience will feel that watching TV is right and worthwhile.