Source: https://www.zhihu.com/question/638134615/
Some quick thoughts I jotted down about “scenarios”.
- A “fault line” effect
How many people working away from home have the conditions to watch TV? Most rental apartments don’t even have a living room; if there’s a living room, it may not have a TV; if there’s a TV, you need internet; with internet you’ll likely watch OTT/streaming; cable requires a separate subscription. After each layer of filtering, a huge population shrinks to a sliver. This doesn’t fully explain the post‑2016 cliff, but it’s indicative.
- Content supply
Let’s be honest: TV programming quality has dropped. If you switch to the channels you watched years ago, you’ll notice how weak the content is. Ads are even more homogenized. Compared to my childhood, today’s TV ads are… well, terrible. Why talk ads? Because that’s the main revenue for TV shows. Less money → can’t buy/make good content → fewer viewers → less ad revenue — a vicious cycle.
Internet TV isn’t great either. Aside from Bilibili’s TV app, most others feel like adware. Cloud TV clients aren’t “good”, they just look better by comparison. If you try Netflix’s TV client, you’ll see what a proper TV‑first experience looks like. Not targeting anyone: all the content providers here are “great” (you know what I mean).
- Habits
The younger generation didn’t inherit a TV‑watching habit. Lack of conditions is one reason; lack of content is another. Some potential “new scenarios” were also bypassed. For example, as modernization progressed, gaming could have driven a TV resurgence — big screen + gamepad = compelling. But in China, we went from web games to online games to mobile games. Console gamers are mostly a small, slow‑growing stock. It’s hard for people to experience the “better” TV+game experience. (Yes yes, you’re right.)
Genshin Impact has been popular for years, but not many know you can play it on PS4/5 with a controller. Trust me: 60” display + gamepad beats poking a phone screen.
- Random aside
Some things will likely die out. Let them. If people like what they like, that’s that.