China’s public service broadcaster CCTV first launched its free BVOD (Broadcaster Video-on-Demand) catch-up service CCTV.com in 2019, and since July 2021, it has been experimenting with a premium ad-free subscription tier. However, such strategy has struggled to attract Chinese consumers by putting live streaming of some of the paid-for service’s most high-profile content – including the Tokyo Olympic Games and Beijing Winter Olympic Games – on the paying tier, as they were available to view for free on CCTV’s linear channels.
CCTV.com changed strategy for the 2022 FIFA World Cup from Qatar, where the paying tier differentiated in streaming quality rather than content, but while it attracted to up 186 million viewers only a very small proportion (just over 1 million) were paying subscribers, Ampere Analysis noted in its latest report.
“CCTV is keen to find its role in China’s rapidly evolving streaming scene, where the SVOD market is no longer dominated by BAT (Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent), but other services including broadcaster-led Mango TV, animation-focused Bilibili, and China Mobile-backed Migu Video, are all investing to compete with the SVOD giants and building viewership,” commented Orina Zhao, Senior Analyst at Ampere Analysis and the author of the report.
However, according to Ampere, as the online extension of China’s public broadcaster, CCTV.com must not focus only on growing subscription numbers, as limiting consumer access to its content could run counter to CCTV’s mission as a PSB. Instead, CCTV.com can maximize its advantage of being the primary online destination for premiering the nation’s most-viewed programmes, something that has not been happening to date.
“By carefully building a hybrid service combining ad-supported BVOD and a paid-for SVOD service, and by leveraging its already-popular content, CCTV.com can continue to grow revenue from both advertising and subscription, and attract as many users as possible,” Zhao concluded.
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