Phoenix Academy of Media Research Lands Big Data Drives Traditional TV Transformation

The reporter noticed that in the newly established China's first video industry think-tank institution, the Phoenix Academy of Media Research, in addition to the majority of David's seats in the governing body, there are video sites such as iQiyi and Mango TV. This is a competitive video site and traditional TV stations come together.

Li Ya said that it is envisaged that this platform for research will jointly explore new standards of viewing value that are of great value for advertisement delivery, and at the same time allow members to find partners in the areas of program innovation, product development, portfolio marketing, investment, and so on. Most of the methods are presented in the form of data reports and industry forums.

At present, under the impact of the Internet and mobile Internet, the size of TV viewers has continued to decline. In the United States, the average ratings of TV programs have fallen by 50% since 2002. In China, the average viewing time of TV viewers has shown a downward trend since 2001. In 2003, the average audience viewing time was 179 minutes. Data fell to 165 minutes in 2013.

The most direct loss caused by the loss of viewers (especially after the 80s and 90s) is reflected in the decline in the volume of traditional TV ads. When the content-producing TV station began selling home-made copyrights to video sites such as Youku Tudou, Sohu Video, and LeTV, it gradually found that the bulk of advertising revenue was taken away by these video sites, and finally announced on Mango TV last year. The solo broadcast marks the video site to the point of independent development of homemade content.

According to Zeng Hua, general manager of mango TV marketing, in terms of content, the relationship between video websites and Mango TV is like supermarkets and boutiques. The pulling effect of those high-quality content and phenomenon-level programs on viewers and advertisements has become the only “ticket” for traditional TV stations to transition to new media.

“Traditional TV stations are old and not dead.” In Li Ya’s view, in the Internet era, when technology and channels have increasingly become the basic capabilities of a hydropower coalition, the importance of video content has become more prominent. Video sites have the advantage of being backed by strong capital, but the period of purely copyright-purchasing power is gradually becoming a thing of the past when content self-control capabilities pose a challenge to video sites.

Currently, in addition to Phoenix Satellite TV and Phoenix, the Phoenix Department has created a full-media format such as Phoenix Metropolitan Media (outdoor large screen), Phoenix FM, Phoenix Weekly, and App Little Million’s App App, but Li Ya believes that Media convergence is currently in its infancy, far from the industry’s expected goal, and the programs resulting from the true integration of television and the Internet have yet to emerge.

In the past two years, Phoenix TV's original productions such as “Doo” and “Let's Talk to Children” have been output in reverse to Phoenix TV and other local TV stations. In cooperation with Jiangsu Satellite TV, a large documentary has been broadcast. “You don’t know China, etc., became the first attempt of all-media fusion.

Big Data Helps TV Transformation

In the spring of 2015, the red envelopes left a deep impression on the TV viewers of the north and south of the river. The traditional TV station realized an attempt to interact with the user in real time during the broadcasting of the program. At present, it has become a comparatively solid case in the transition of television stations to new media.

However, in the view of Tian Tao, vice president of CCTV market research agency CTR, after the bust, the most regrettable is that the TV station did not further take the big data of the users who participated in the shake of the red packet to their own hands, and conducted deep mining and application of these data. This is the basis for exploring the one-to-one, one-to-many, accurate communication between TV stations and users in the future.

In the business of the all-media research institute founded by Phoenix, big data has become one of the most important directions. The fundamental difference between the audience and the user is that the user's usage data can be fed back to the platform side to do accurate portraits, and follow-up advertising push, brand reach, marketing promotion, etc. rely on the use of these big data.

In February of this year, Fenghuangwang and Xiaomi Strategy invested in the information reading app to take a bit of information and made an important step in the media exploration of user big data. According to Li Ya, currently the number of daily active users of a little information has exceeded 9 million. It has original fusion search technology and personalized recommendation technology. It is becoming new through the analysis of daily reading data, reading behavior, and search subscription behavior of users. An important entrance to a generation of mobile information. Similar to news app such as Netease news client, today's headline, and so on, a little information is also based on the user's reading interest in the precise push, docking interest ads and other big data marketing methods.

The mobile-side layout is giving Phoenix a positive sign of revenue growth. Fenghuangwang's first quarter 2015 financial report shows that Phoenix New Media’s total revenue for the quarter was RMB 365.1 million, an increase of 2.2% year-on-year. In terms of performance, net advertising revenue (excluding advertising agency service fees) was RMB 2.684. Billion yuan, an increase of 14.2% over the same period of last year, was mainly attributable to the strong year-on-year growth in mobile advertising revenue, with an increase of 135.2%.

Right now, the development of Internet TV is bringing some young users who are pursuing viewing quality from the PC side and mobile side back to the living room entertainment scene. In addition, in the OTT field, CCTV with licenses, Hunan Taiwan, Guangdong Taiwan, and SMG are all exploring the value overflow of user big data.

Big data offers the possibility for TV to conduct user database marketing, such as the combination of program content and e-commerce shopping. Li Ya conceives that thanks to the development of cloud computing, hardware, and wearable devices, in the future video distribution, even users can upload stereo data about their own bodies and use these data to replace the protagonists in the short-drama programs. This is not a technically far-reaching event and enhances the user's sense of participation.

Li Ya said that the All Media Research Institute needs to explore the application of data that crosses the internal boundaries of the company. It will call for the participating institutions to partially open their own data, but this process also involves sensitive issues such as user privacy and trade secrets. Ma Yun also recently stated that Alibaba's data is only open to partners. Therefore, the use of big data by users needs the joint research of the members of the institute.