Cats and dogs can now fill in the hours their owners are at work with a dedicated all-day pet streaming channel launched by Chinese tech giant Tencent.
Clips of a duck swimming in a bath or two happy pooches patrolling their neighborhood are examples of curated programming on PetTV.
The new channel on Tencent Video – China’s most popular online streaming platform – aims to keep pets entertained when they are alone or can act as an activity for animals and humans to enjoy together.
“This is all dog content, when will the cat program be up?” one person involved in the service wrote in the chat room on the PetTV streaming site.
Tencent Video described PetTV as a “24-hour happiness center specially designed for your furry children” in a post on social media app WeChat introducing the service last weekend.
Dogs and cats have different senses than humans, so channel colors, refresh rates and audio frequencies are designed to suit their specific needs, he said.
PetTV is available to paid subscribers to Tencent Video, which said its market research found that 66 percent of dog owners leave the TV on for their pets when they’re out.
But the streaming service isn’t the only pet-specific media on the market.
Popular mindfulness app Headspace posted a video on YouTube this week titled, “When Your Pets Miss You, Play This: 6 Hours of Soothing Music for Dogs and Cats.”
Tencent Video will also benefit from third-party content including streaming America’s DogTV – the world’s first television channel and streaming service for pets.
The value of China’s growing urban pet market is estimated to reach 405 billion yuan ($59 billion) in 2028, according to a recent report by PetData.cn.
On average last year, Chinese families spent more than 3,000 yuan (US$435) for each dog and more than 2,000 yuan for each cat for their grooming needs.
