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Oct. 18 (NBD) -- Chinese video platform Tencent Video partnered with BBC Studios Tuesday to launch an online fan community BBC Earth Tribe under the Project Penguin at the MIPCOM 2018 trade show in Cannes for people who are passionate about documentaries.

Under the cooperation agreement, the series from the multi-award winning BBC Studios' Natural History Unit will broadcast simultaneously with the U.K. telecast in China on Tencent's v.qq.com platform.

In addition, the tie-up delivers unprecedented access to the series' creators - via Q&As with BBC Studios' Natural History Unit's award-winning producers – both online and at on-ground events. It means that fans' thoughts will be heard by directors and are likely to be eventually reflected in coming documentaries.

Original content production now a priority

The past years have seen China's top video platforms Youku, iQiyi (Nasdaq: IQ), Tencent Video and Bilibili (Nasdaq: BILI) race to invest in the documentary segment by cooperating with documentary producers such as BBC, the History Channel, the Discovery Channel, the Geographical Channel, NHK, HBO, ITV and VICE.

Tencent now takes the first place with 1,260 paid documentaries, followed by iQiyi (764) and Youku (347), according to NBD's calculation. Bilibili offers free access to 1,958 documentaries after teaming up with Discovery recently.

In addition to copyright purchases, video platforms have begun filming their own documentaries. Tencent's Project Penguin, too, is especially initiated to create original contents.

After years of investment, enriching contents is no longer a priority for video platforms, but how to cash in on them instead. The Project Penguin is also aimed at commercializing documentaries in the process of investment, production and cooperation. Tencent Video's popular reality show Produce 101 is a case in point.

Mature business model indispensable

Once Upon A Bite, an eight-episode Chinese food documentary produced by Tencent Video, is by far the only documentary in Tencent's system that is on par with Produce 101. Set to be aired starting October 28, the food documentary has garnered a lot of attention before its release as it is the first documentary directed by Chen Xiaoqing, director of smash documentary series "A Bite of China", after he left China Central Television. 

How to commercialize documentaries has long been a headache for many producers. But in recent years, emerging media agencies, such as Yitiao Video and Er Geng Video, provided very good templates by blending ads into video contents at the beginning of content production, a way that efficiently reduces uneasiness among audiences.

Once Upon A Bite apparently learned the method well. In a trailer of the documentary, the store image and transportation vehicles of its sponsor Carrefour are seen repeatedly. In addition, food ingredients showed in the documentary will also be sold on Carrefour, according to the official Sina Weibo account of Carrefour China.

Wang Ying, head of commercialization at Tencent Video, noted previously that the company has made breakthroughs in cashing in on advertisements by making brands a natural part of documentaries. The company will continue to extend the online and offline effects of documentaries through IP authorization and advertising.

Email: tanyuhan@nbd.com.cn