| In 2005, the earliest video websites in China formally launched. The video industry was generally at a loss in its infancy. The main factors leading to the loss were content costs, revenue sources, market environment and consumption climate. At this stage, the number of subscribers was continually expanding, the government regulation was constantly strengthened and the copyright environment has been steadily improved. Since 2007, video websites no longer blindly fought for copyright, but turned to self-produced areas to seek a way out. In respect of contents, they began to pay attention to opening up the source and regulating the flow, which was really a positive innovation and hard exploration. Depending on the advantages of being cheap, flexible and interactive, self-produced programs were more and more sought after by users and advertisers. The development of self-produced programs can not only reduce costs effectively, achieve content differentiation, strengthen user stickiness, and enhance brand awareness, part of the programs can also be inversely output, which facilitated the website-television interaction and created a new media landscape. The year 2014 was called "first year of self-produced programs", with the emergence of a large number of self-produced programs. For now, HD Genuine videos will remain to be the mainstream of video website in China, but self-produced programs will provide unlimited possibilities for the future earnings.Based on the above background, this research focuses on self-produced programs, which are an important breakthrough of video websites’content innovation and future profitability. The purpose and meaning of this research is to describe the development process and status of self-produced programs, to dissect the program elements, to summarize internal features and external environment, and then to put forward development strategies of self-produced programs. It provides theoretical support for making development decisions about the future of self-produced programs, it also provides effective reference for video websites’content construction and profit model.Under the guidance of the above ideas, based on study and analysis of research subjects and related data, this paper is divided into four chapters to make deeper study on self-produced programs of Chinese video websites. Chapter 1 is an introduction to describe the background, significance and research methods, as well as to define relevant concepts. In Chapter 2, the author picks twelve video websites which do outstanding work in self-produced programs as the study sample, recalls three development processes of self-produced programs and also analyzes the program elements, such as program positioning, program style, program name, show host and program packing. Chapter 3 emphasizes self-produced programs’ internal strengths and weaknesses, as well as their external opportunities and threats. In Chapter 4, the author proposes the development strategies in the field of self-produced programs on Chinese video websites. First, self-produced programs should be professional and specialized in program positioning, topic selection, host, guests and production team, make efforts to develop their core competencies; Second, steadily expand the scale of market, at the same time, attach more importance to intensive cultivation of their ideological, artistic and normative quality, be strict in the production and management to enhance customers’ satisfaction; Third, be farsighted about sorting, innovating, extending and brand building, adhere to differentiation strategy, in order to achieve subsisting development of self-produced programs.The shift from traditional collection to investing self-produced programs, marks that Chinese video websites have entered up on a more mature, more independent development stage. Since then, the content pattern basically established, consisting of genuine video resources, user-generated content and self-produced content. Self-produced programs have incalculable significance in content construction, brand strategy and future earnings, and they are expected to become the new normal of video websites. Only conforming to industry trends, seizing strategic opportunity and seeking the breakthrough of transformation and innovation, are the development strategies in the field of self-produced programs on Chinese video websites. |
