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Chinese entertainment giant Tencent signed a deal with the country’s biggest television manufacturer TCL Corp to feature its video content on their smart TVs, Reuters reported.
The aim is to shift the emphasis of Tencent’s content dominance from mobile devices to homes.
Under the agreement announced this week, Tencent will pre-load entertainment content onto TCL's internet-connected smart TVs, which feature voice control and customized search recommendations.
TCL television sets in a store in China.
Tencent agreed to invest 450 million yuan (over 66 million US dollars) in TCL’s subsidiary company, Shenzhen Thunderbird Network Technology, making Tencent the second-largest shareholder in the group behind TCL's FALCON TVs.
This marks Tencent's second investment in smart TVs in a month.
On June 6, it invested heavily for a 7.71 percent stake in Coocaa, a smart TV subsidiary of TCL’s competitor, Skyworth Digital Holdings.
TCL sold around 20 million LCD TV sets last year, half of them smart TVs, making it the world’s third-largest liquid crystal display TV maker behind Samsung and LG.
Tencent is one of the world's biggest entertainment brands.
Tencent will work with TCL on extending its advantage in delivering online content to delivering so-called over-the-top services, said Zhao Gang, general manager of the living room products department at Tencent Video.
Zhao also pointed out the TCL investment did not mean Tencent was moving into the manufacturing of hardware.
"We would never touch hardware production. We want to be a supporter and enabler of our partner," said Zhao.
Tencent Video is China's largest online video streaming website and has a library of entertainment and live sports content with copyright, and also makes its own productions.
Tencent Video and TCL hope the tie-up will increase their membership bases and raise their revenue from user spending on content.
(CGTN)
