TikTok quietly launches on Aussie TV after government device ban

The Chinese-owned social media platform is looking to attract a bigger audience, joining the ranks of YouTube, Spotify and others to have expanded into the television market.

TikTok has quietly made its way onto the big screen, launching a television app in Australia the same week the mobile app was banned on government-owned devices.

The Chinese-owned social media platform is looking to attract a bigger audience, joining the ranks of YouTube and Spotify among other popular apps which have expanded into the TV market.

The company said getting onto TV app marketplaces would allow “family and friends” to get together to enjoy the app’s short-form video content.

How a TikTok video appears on TV.

TikTok’s new app became available on Samsung Smart TVs, Google TV, LG Smart TVs and Android TVs last week.

The move will give the app some ground against YouTube, which after seeing TikTok’s rise to fame in 2019, also launched a short-form video service called YouTube Shorts.

In Australia, the app has around 8.3 million users over the age of 18, the majority of whom are older Gen Zs aged between 18 and 24 years old, which make up 38.9 per cent of its local user base, according to We Are Social.

The next largest market are mostly Millennials, with people aged between 25 and 34 accounting for 32.4 per cent of users followed by those aged 35 to 44 who accounted for 15.6 per cent, 45 to 54-year-olds who account for 8 per cent and those aged 55 and above who account 5.1 per cent of users.

TikTok’s local operations general manager Lee Hunter said entertainment had shifted from TVs to personal devices, and the group was excited to make an entry into the living room.

“The way people consume content has evolved over the past decade, from spending time watching TV programs together to having entertainment on the go on personal devices. Now we’re bringing shared entertainment back with the launch of TikTok TV,” he said.

“From day one, TikTok’s mission has been to inspire creativity and bring joy, cultivating an entertaining space for positive, creative expression, so we’re excited to bring TikTok to living rooms across Australia and New Zealand.”

TikTok had planned to launch the service late last year around the same time it hit screens in the US, but the launch date was held back several times.

The plan for Australia was delayed again last week when Prime Minister Anthony Albanese signed off on a government-wide ban on the use of social media app TikTok on Tuesday.

Mr Hunter said it was unfair for the app to be singled out and that a ban, if any, should apply to all social media apps on government devices.

It was not true that TikTok collected facial and voice information, that it collected GPS data and that it collected keystrokes, he said, adding that “data, security and privacy is our number one focus”.

Originally published as TikTok quietly launches on Aussie TV after government device ban