Live streaming to sell goods, is this TVB’s “do or die fight”?

What kind of sparks can TVB and live streaming bring? Welcome to read if you love to explore the forefront of live streaming.

"I was so anxious when Sharon Chan spoke Mandarin, but I felt comfortable when she spoke Cantonese."

"I can't understand it at all. After the host speaks in Cantonese, the assistant has to translate it, which affects the viewing experience of the live broadcast room."

TVB die-hard fan Li Xue and Zhao Qi, who does not speak Cantonese, expressed two completely different feelings about "Blue Hole Business" after watching TVB's Taobao debut.

At 18:00 on the evening of March 7, TVB's official Taobao live broadcast account "TVB Knowledge" started broadcasting for the first time. Three hours after the Hong Kong star Sharon Chan started broadcasting, Moses Chan joined the broadcast, and the total broadcast time was 6 hours. Due to the gimmicks of "bilingual live broadcast" and "Hong Kong style nostalgia", related topics such as #TVB live broadcast brings in Hong Kong dramas in one second# #TVB live broadcast netizens suggest speaking Cantonese# became the hot search on Weibo.

Li Xue, who grew up watching TVB Hong Kong dramas, is a die-hard fan of Hong Kong dramas. She has watched the entire series of "Heart of Greed" at least three times. When she is taking care of her children at home, she will also play the Cantonese version of "The Palace".

On the evening of March 7, Li Xue resolutely chose TVB over Li Jiaqi. That night, the high-frequency words in the comments section of the live broadcast room were "memories" and "nostalgia". In order to support Sharon Chan and Moses Chan, she, who rarely eats desserts, still placed an order for products such as "Hong Kong Jenny Cookies Smart Bear Handmade Biscuits" in the live broadcast room.

According to statistics, 131 products were launched during the live broadcast that night, including food, cosmetics, luxury apparel, 3C electronics and other categories, and they were basically sold out within seconds of being launched.

According to the "First Show Report" released on TVB's official Weibo account, total sales exceeded 23.5 million yuan, the cumulative number of viewers exceeded 4.85 million, and the peak number of online viewers exceeded 30,000.

The popularity of the live broadcast room is directly reflected in the stock price. In the early trading of Hong Kong stocks on March 8, TVB's parent company TVB (00511.HK) soared by more than 98% during the session, reaching a new high since February 2020. As of noon, the increase was 56.91%, closing at HK$11.36.

As early as Taobao and TVB officially announced the cooperation in live broadcasting, TVB's stock price has been bullish. In the nearly four trading days from March 8, the TVB stock price has risen by more than 180%.

This cooperation was officially called by TVB as a major milestone in the creation of e-commerce live broadcasting. This cooperation was reached between TVB and Taobao through its subsidiary Shanghai Jade Oriental Communication Co., Ltd. (TVBC), and is expected to bring the company tens of millions of Hong Kong dollars in revenue.

It was also revealed that it plans to jointly launch at least 48 live broadcasts with Taobao this year.

This live debut brings new hope to TVB, which has been experiencing sluggish revenue for many years. In fact, TVB's performance has been declining for many consecutive years since 2018. The financial report shows that the company's operating income has dropped from HK$4.477 billion in 2018 to HK$2.899 billion in 2021, a four-year decline of 54.43%.

The root cause, in addition to the departure of top artists, is that the biggest problem TVB faces is that it failed to transform in time and was impacted by the rapidly emerging short video industry. In order to seek transformation, TVB decided to "go north" and cooperate with short video platforms Douyin and Kuaishou, which have hit TVB hard, and now it has extended its tentacles to Taobao.

However, behind the seemingly gratifying results, there are still some "incompatibility issues". Recording short videos and live broadcasts in "Cantonese" is both a highlight and the most criticized point. "Incomprehensible" and "narrow audience" have become problems. In addition, TVB obviously lacks experience in arranging live broadcast frequency, product selection, supply chain and other difficult problems that require time to overcome.

How to maintain the performance of Taobao’s debut is a question mark.

1. Falling from the altar

The rise of long video platforms and the explosion of short video content have made TVB, once known as "the world's first Chinese commercial radio station", ultimately just a memory.
TVB, founded in the 1960s, once had a market share of over 80% in Hong Kong. Its TV series cover a wide range of themes, including martial arts, criminal investigation, palace fighting, and business.

Jin Yong's "The Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils", "The Legend of the Condor Heroes" and "The Return of the Condor Heroes" need not be said much. Crime films are also the highlight of TVB, capturing a large number of audiences in Hong Kong and Macau. Superstars such as Stephen Chow, Tony Leung, Chow Yun-fat, Andy Lau, and Carina Lau all came out of TVB.

Xin Zhen, born in the 1990s, recalled, "When I was a kid, I would imitate the lines of the criminal police when they were arresting criminals: You can remain silent, but every word you say will become evidence in court."

TVB accompanied Xinzhen throughout her childhood. She grew up in Guangdong and had no language barriers when watching Cantonese films. TVB was her biggest source of happiness during the holidays. The criminal investigation films "Armed Reaction" and "Detective Investigation Files 1-3" were Xinzhen's favorites.

"In fact, the most important thing for two people to be together is to be happy." "Are you hungry? I'll cook you a bowl of noodles!" She rated it as "TVB's most commonly used universal lines."

After graduating from high school, Xinzhen rarely watched TVB anymore. "I started watching foreign movies on Xunlei when I was in college, and later there were video platforms like iQiyi, Youku and Tencent Video. Now I only watch Douyin." Xinzhen told Blue Hole Business that her entertainment tools have changed with the market, and TVB is more like a memory of her adolescence.

Li Xue also told "Blue Hole Business" that sometimes she would watch some edited clips of Hong Kong dramas on her mobile phone to satisfy her craving, and when she really wanted to watch something, she would search on Youku. TVB's own video platform "Maiduidui" was the last choice after Youku removed the relevant resources.

Obviously, iQiyi, Youku, and Tencent Video, as well as Tik Tok and Kuaishou, have already snatched away TVB’s audiences. New media-based self-produced TV series and variety shows are eating into the audience’s entertainment time. The lack of innovation in its own content has made things worse for TVB.

"I only watch old movies. The most recent one I watched was "Detective 2010". The new movies after that are getting worse and worse. I can't watch them after a few episodes." Li Xue's feelings are exactly the biggest problem of TVB.

In 2012, Deep in the Palace received a low score of 4.4 on Douban; in 2016, Detective Brothers received only 6.6 points; even the 2021 remake of Armed Reaction 2021 only received a Douban score of 6.2. Netizens commented: "TVB, stop ruining your classics" and "TVB's current police and gangster films... are not good enough."

In contrast, the ratings of films such as Ashes of Time, A Chinese Ghost Story, and Chungking Express all reached above 8.5, and the ratings of War and Beauty produced by TVB in 2004 reached 2.82% on Hunan Satellite TV. This seems to be the last peak moment of TVB dramas.

TVB non-executive director and vice chairman of the board of directors Li Ruigang admitted at the end of 2022 that TVB is facing serious problems. The team, operating mechanism, programs, image, etc. are all aging, and innovation is weak. "We will do our best to adjust in one or two years. If we don't move forward, we will regress. If we don't make any achievements, we will fail. If we don't change, we will die. TVB has no time."

Cross-border e-commerce is the first step for TVB to save itself. In August 2021, TVB acquired about 75% of the issued share capital of Hong Kong local e-commerce company Zto for HK$200 million.

In addition, TVB is also cooperating with mainland long-form video platforms. In 2017, iQiyi and Tencent Video co-produced the TV series "The Making of an Era" and "Line Walker 2" with TVB respectively. In 2018, Shaw Brothers co-produced "ICAC" with Youku, but the Douban score for both was around 6 points, with mediocre response.

Two years ago, Eric Tsang was invited to serve as TVB's general manager, responsible for program content operations.

In August 2022, Eric Tsang said in an interview with Daily Economic News, "I don't think TVB has changed much, it's just that the social environment has changed. There weren't so many platforms before, and TVB was unique. Now there are so many satellite TV stations and so many online platforms in the mainland."

Zeng Zhiwei emphasized, "Now we have launched live streaming to sell goods, and also invited our artists to join the short video platform, all in order to let them know more about this changing market."

The situation is pressing, and investing in the short video platform is an inevitable choice for TVB.

2. Love and Hate Short Videos

The end of the universe is live streaming, and TVB’s first choice for “live streaming in the north” is TikTok.

In April 2022, TVB entered Douyin and opened three accounts according to different product categories: TVB Knows Goods (Hong Kong Style Selection), TVB Knows Goods (Delicious Selection) and TVB Knows Goods (Hong Kong Strict Selection).

The operating idea of ​​the Douyin account is to attract traffic by using short videos recorded by celebrities and live streaming by amateur anchors to sell goods. According to Blue Hole Business, in the "TVB Knowledge (Hong Kong Selection)" account, the short videos of Chen Hao have the highest number of likes, and the number of likes for the three top videos does not exceed 50,000. The number of likes for the other short videos usually ranges from a few hundred to a few thousand, and there are very few that exceed 10,000.

Moreover, this account is the best performing among the three TVB accounts, with only 648,000 followers in one year. The other two accounts have 136,000 and 260,000 followers respectively. The combined number of followers of the three accounts is only one-ninth of that of the "topic queen" Zhang Lan (account name: Zhang Lan·Qiao Life).

In the comment section of the Douyin account, netizens focused their discussion on the Mandarin spoken by Hong Kong stars. Although TVB intends to create a nostalgic atmosphere, most people's acceptance of Cantonese is still limited.

“If you really want to make it work you have to speak Mandarin throughout. Speaking Cantonese can indeed attract a group of die-hard fans in the Greater Bay Area, but it is a niche after all and it is impossible to make it big.” “Speaking purely in Cantonese will not work at all. Do you rely on the little traffic in the Cantonese-speaking area?” Netizens left messages in the comment section of TVB Hong Kong star Benjamin Wong’s video.

In terms of sales volume, Chanmama data shows that within a month, "TVB Knows Goods (Hong Kong Selection)" has a total of 59 live broadcasts, with an average of 73,000 viewers per show and an average sales volume of 100,000 to 250,000 yuan per show. The average sales volume of "TVB Knows Goods (Hong Kong Selection)" is between 50,000 and 75,000 yuan per show. For food-related "TVB Knows Goods (Delicious Selection)", due to its lower customer unit price, its average live broadcast sales volume is between 10,000 and 25,000 yuan per show.

According to Blue Hole Business, at around 2 p.m. on March 9, the most popular live broadcast room of "TVB Knows Goods (Hong Kong Style Selection)" had only more than 600 viewers, and the cumulative number of viewers was 18,000.

In one year, TVB's performance on Douyin has not been ideal, whether in terms of the number of fans or live streaming sales.

In addition to Douyin, Kuaishou is the second short video platform that TVB has settled in, but its operating ideas are somewhat different from Douyin.

Kuaishou live broadcasts are mostly classic clips from Hong Kong dramas. E-commerce sales are placed in the "Emerald East" Kuaishou store, which mainly sells "Maiduidui App" quarterly and annual memberships, as well as TVB peripheral products such as trendy dolls and TVBuddy key chains.

Surprisingly, the Kuaishou account has a total of 7.846 million followers, and the number of viewers in the Kuaishou live broadcast room that was broadcasting at the same time as Douyin was close to 3,000, with a cumulative number of viewers exceeding 100,000.

Obviously, it is not easy for TVB's Hong Kong stars to cross over to live broadcast and sell goods. After Douyin and Kuaishou, TVB has explored a set of integrated tactics: the dual effects of star effect + nostalgia, which are converted into purchasing power.

In terms of celebrity selection, Taobao Live chose the most popular pair of Chen Hao and Chan Man-Chi for its debut show. The number of online viewers exceeded 100,000 within 19 minutes of the start of the show, and reached 4.86 million when the live show ended at 24:00, with an increase of 90,000 followers.

In terms of creating feelings, TVB has put a lot of thought into details such as the background layout of the live broadcast and the words spoken during the broadcast. The background of the live broadcast on the evening of March 7 was directly moved to the "TVB Television City" studio, and the classic scene "Abalone Shop" from "Heart of Greed" was also built, coupled with the Cantonese mixed with Hong Kong Cantonese by Moses Chan and Sharon Chan, which brought back memories of Hong Kong dramas and made people feel very involved.

Problems that were originally complained about in the Douyin live broadcast room, such as "unstandard Mandarin" and "incomprehensible Cantonese", have been transformed into "selling points" in the Taobao live broadcast room. Bilingual switching has become the highlight of the night. TVB even set up a voting entrance above the live broadcast room, allowing the audience to vote on "whether they want the artist to speak Cantonese or Mandarin."

After knocking on the "door" of live broadcasting, TVB still has many problems to face. For example, the frequency of live broadcasting, the allocation of celebrity groups, and how to establish a "personality" are the first hurdles that celebrities must cross when transforming into live broadcasting.

The bigger question is how to face the fierce competition? In the documentary "The Age of Torrents", the streets of Hangzhou, the "capital of e-commerce", are full of young anchors selling goods in front of the camera every night. In the company of the well-known MCN agency Wuyou Media, more than 50 anchors are working on their own. There is no space in the company's live studio, so they live broadcast in hotels. The hotels near the company are often fully booked by their own people.

Can TVB become the next "Eastern Selection" or even Li Jiaqi? It remains unknown.

At the request of the interviewees, Li Xue, Xin Zhen and Zhao Qi are all pseudonyms.

Author: Jia Zixuan; Source: WeChat public account "Blue Hole Business (value_reaction)"