Chongqing has highest online-video penetration among lower-tiers: Maxus

Chongqing is closely followed by Guangxi, Qinghai, Sichuan and Guizhou provinces—all in the lower-80 per cent range (see chart).

One of the main reasons for the high online-video penetration rate, according to industry sources who prefer to remain anonymous, is that Chongqing residents have not had a lot of choices on local TV since Bo Xilai became the secretary of the Communist Party's Chongqing branch in 2007.

In Chongqing, Bo was known for campaigning to revive Cultural Revolution-era "red culture", and was said to limit local TV content as he thought TV stations should always present "something good" about the Party rather than be entertaining.

Consequently, watching online videos is now the top web activity in Chongqing (the municipality), as it is in third- and fourth-tier cities across China, second only to online chatting, according to Maxus' further dissection of data sourced from GroupM's Project Deep Dive in 2012. The same activity ranks as the third most popular internet behaviour in upper-tier cities.

In general, the consumption of online video in the third- and fourth-tier cities (69.8 per cent) is higher than that in the first- and second-tier ones (66 per cent). Lower-tier netizens also watch online videos for longer: 73 per cent spend more than 30 minutes every day, while the average viewing time exceeds 70 minutes. In contrast, time spent in upper-tier cities is under an hour.

In the 40 cities and counties under Chongqing, like Jiangjin and Hechuan, news programmes are the most frequently watched (69.7 per cent). Other popular video types there include inland TV dramas, variety shows, foreign movies, and imported series from Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan and South Korea.

There are obvious regional disparities in video content preferences. For example, residents in Southern China show partiality toward Hong Kong and Taiwan programmes, while Northeast consumers prefer South Korean soap operas.

The media agency suggested that marketers increase provision for advertising budgets on channels where the viewer aggregation numbers are the highest. This means that future TV mixes should include CCTV (China Central Television), PSTV (provincial-satellite television), PTV (provincial television), LTV (local television), and OTV (online television)—a multiple-screen placement for a higher combined reach rate.

Besides extending reach, online-video ads are also advantageous due to lower their cost-per-impression (CPM). Besides putting an online-video budget to good use, Maxus advocated going beyond spot-buying on video sites. It is also important to build far-reaching cooperative relationships with the film industry and production companies, the agency stated, to expand the 'transmission effect' of your ad. 

Furthermore, as the placement of ads in sponsored programmes is quite flexible in China, marketers can implant brand information in an enhanced way.