First, TikTok brought the ‘TikTok Experience’ to Samsung Smart TVs in Europe in December of 2020. Now, TikTok, in line with its exponential rise, is finally bringing TikTok fever to US users, primarily to Google and Android TV subscribers, Android Fire TV users, and US LG and Samsung Smart TV owners. That was a mouthful. The above mentioned will now be able to enjoy a lean-back TikTok viewing experience straight from the biggest screen at home. Who wouldn’t want to watch Bella Poarch’s ‘M to the B’ clip on a 4K sixty-inch smart OLED TV, right?
TikTok explains:
“The TikTok TV app is built for a TV home-viewing experience, making it easy to watch content from our ‘For You’ and ‘Following’ feeds on the big screen. This includes the most liked and viewed videos across a huge range of categories, from gaming and comedy to food and animals.”
Based on their explanation, the TikTok TV app is exactly as it sounds – TikTok, but on TV. Think of it as Netflix, but it only features TikTok videos. Users can log in to the TikTok TV app using their same exact TikTok account credentials. This somewhat syncs your preferences and TikTok TV then patterns its content display based on your viewing activity, kinda like how YouTube’s ‘recommended videos’ works, just with a significantly less ‘randomized’ factor. The TV app also has a discover function, meaning that you can also look up TikToks via the available search filters.
The expanded viewing options could drive broader consumption and awareness of TikTok content, especially now that the pandemic has caused an increase in the consumption of web-based content on home TVs. To add, younger viewers have been found to be increasingly aligned with connected TV offers.
An analysis from eMarketer back in 2020 found that around 52.8% of YouTube viewers also watched the platform’s content on a connected TV device. The same number is expected to rise to 57.7% by 2022, increasing by an average of about 2% per annum, which is pretty significant considering how many millions actually watch YouTube.
Given TikTok’s current popularity, it’s not unlikely for the platform to see similar viewing trends. It doesn’t have to match the magnitude of YouTube’s offering, for even just a fraction of that performance is enough to significantly impact awareness and consumption of TikTok content. A connected TV offer only helps boost TikTok’s influence and popularity.
The Wrap
While the overall added experience is great, there are a few optimizations that TikTok, should it decide to do so, can implement to truly maximize the impact of its TV app. TikTok’s vertical clip format isn’t necessarily aligned with massive TV screens. While the actual clip frame itself can be in vivid 4k, the surrounding external frame utilizes a sort of inverted letterbox format and showcases a bit of blurring at the edges. It’s not bad in any way, but a fully synced, no-margin TikTok clip does sound pretty dope.
Nonetheless, it’s a valuable addition, considering how it could potentially facilitate TV-based ads and open up new channels and opportunities to forward brand promotions. It’s definitely one of TIkTok’s rollouts to keep a close eye on.
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