Internet upstart PK TV Tyrant

Miss Fan Fan stopped her own cable TV at the end of the weekend. The reason was that her home was loaded with the now popular "box" and she had also "jailed". She gave an account to the reporter for the Yangcheng Evening News: “The cable TV bill costs more than 300 yuan a year and you can't see it. If you don’t turn on the phone for a few months, it’s still stopped. You have to reopen it. Buy a box and add it.” "Jailbreaking is more expensive than this. You can watch movies and watch TV. It's basically a one-time expenditure."

The Yangcheng Evening News reporter learned from an insider of the broadcasting system that there are indeed some users who have chosen to install television boxes and stopped the cable television business. Most of them have 80s of small families. The market for cable TV seems to be being eroded by boxes. Will cable TV, which has been used for many years as a "local tyrant" for businesses such as charging, be discarded by TV boxes?

Internet giants started box wars. The reporters found that more and more boxes have been on the market in the past year – Apple TVs and Google’s Google TVs are far away from abroad; LeTV, iQiyi, and pptv have their own content in China. As a representative; Internet companies, Xiaomi and Huawei's boxes do not allow, e-commerce giant Alibaba also launched Ali box.

Between the various boxes played very open. In May this year, LeTV was sold, and 50,000 boxes were sold out within 47 minutes. And just last month's "Double 11", Xiaomi's 50,000 sets of millet boxes at Tmall flagship store were also robbed in 13 minutes.

LeTV’s new Senior Vice President Peng Gang pointed out that this new combination of “Internet + HD large screen + sofa” brings “quality” changes to the user experience. In other words, the TV screen that was once thought to be eliminated has re-entered the era of crowds, and after the feng shui turns, the battlefield returns to the living room.

In addition, there are countless cottage set-top boxes that are spreading across the country. They bypass regulatory regulations and release more content than “regular forces” (that is, Internet set-top boxes that cooperate with licensed seven integrated platform providers). At the same time the price is cheaper. According to industry sources, only a single set-top box in a cottage can produce about 2 million units a year in China.

Cable TV "sites" were smashed between the boxed boxes and involved cable television. Some analysts pointed out that the people watching TV in the Internet era are already shrinking. With the addition of more boxes, the "disadvantages" of monthly cable TV bills appear to be even more pronounced. In fact, many people have recently opted to cancel the cable television business. The view that cable television will end is also inexorable.

Sun Yuxi, an expert in wireless network solutions, wrote an article predicting that cable television will be replaced by television boxes. He pointed out that the biggest shortcoming of the TV box is live broadcasting. "How many people really need real-time live broadcast? How many people will know to pay extra minutes in advance?" Sun Yuxi also believes that cable TV is often used to monopolize The way to gain income is incompatible with the opening of the Internet.

However, the well-known network IT expert Jia Jinghua has opposing views. He believes that “TV boxes replace cable TV is a false proposition.” The reason is “TV boxes are not as rich as cable TV, broadband network systems for transmitting content are not mature enough, and operations are cumbersome. Suitable for the elderly and children."

Interestingly, most netizens tend to "substitute theory." The netizen “spoken to the sea” believes that the solution to the technical problem will only take a long time. If the restrictions on the license plate are to be liberalized, the monopoly cable TV will soon be kicked out of the market by users. At the recent (Ninth) China Flat TV Market Development Forum held in 2013, Lu Jiebo, deputy secretary-general of the China Electronic Chamber of Commerce, also said in an interview with a reporter from the Yangcheng Evening News: “The Internet is a big trend. Connected to the Internet will be eliminated."

Box and cable TV will coexist for a long time?

Commenting on an interview with the Yangcheng Evening News reporter, Han Yukai, the director of marketing department of Gehua Cable TV Network Co., Ltd., said: “Any kind of new format will surely impact the existing traditional format, but it does not mean that an industry will receive special Big impact. Internet TV currently does have 'infiltration' for the entire cable TV, but at the moment it should be small."

He disclosed that currently the total subscriber size of domestic cable television is approximately 220 million, and the number of digital television users is approximately 150 million. In contrast, Internet TV had about 26 million all-in-one computers and 6 million Internet set-top boxes last year, totaling about 32 million. Although the cumulative total may exceed 50 million, it is still small compared with the traditional cable TV market. .

In addition, current users' demands for video include VOD on demand for broadcast television and video, and interactive applications based on Android or IOS platform presented on some TVs. “The box now only impacts on VOD on broadcast TV, not on broadcast TV. In the short term, due to policy and other reasons, the best and most stable quality is still the cable network. Its foundation is very solid and can be said to be the cornerstone.”

Han Haokai frankly stated that the "era of secession" of the box is far from coming. “We see now that licensees are making boxes, such as Best Connect, which was the first to do IPTV new media; CNTV, CIBN are also doing, representing traditional broadcasting organizations of TV stations and radio stations; Zhejiang Huada is a representative of cable TV operators; The internet company Xiaomi and iQiyi video websites are also doing it, and Ali is also jumping out and even TV manufacturers are doing it. Shenzhen Huaqiangbei is a distribution center for small workshop boxes for cottages. Almost all links involved in the Internet TV industry chain are Doing platform, content, terminal, and channeling, on the one hand, shows that the market outlook is generally promising, and on the other hand, it is precisely that the market leading force has not really formed, and no one has formed a scale market. This is the beginning of the chaotic war in the Warring States Period. It is far from the arrival of the feudal lords."

Shen Zheyan, a research fellow in the investment advisory culture industry, told the Yangcheng Evening News reporter: “I think that triple play is the trend of the times and the policy is bound to gradually loosen in the future. At that time, it should have a real impact on the development of cable TV.”

Concerned about the channel to force content upgrades For the box, to attract popularity there is only one way, is to have more high-quality content - the major video sites for exclusive network copyright is the best example. Although the Internet industry is not bad money, but smart bosses have never been chaotic money. Looking at the copyright wars of LeTV, iQiyi, Tencent, and Sohu in the past two years, we can judge that the good day for the makers has come and the time when the content is king will return.

According to industry sources, many cable TV operators are also brewing production of Internet set-top boxes. The relevant person in charge of Gehua Cable revealed to reporters that the Gehua Box may be available soon, and new entrants will undoubtedly bring more competition to the market and the market structure in the future will be even more difficult to predict. Want to double as content and hardware like LeTV and iQiyi, or buy good programs by burning money? There are still many issues left by the market for box manufacturers.

Glossary box The “box” that Internet companies rushed to launch in the past year is a kind of hardware product that can play Internet content on TVs. It was previously known as the “Internet HD player” in the Internet field, and was later called by the General Administration of Radio, Film and Television. Defined as "Internet TV set-top box."

Ordinary TVs can realize many functions of Internet smart TVs by connecting TV boxes. They can watch online videos including movies, and can project video content on mobile phones, IPADs, etc. onto the large screen of TVs, and even can. Play games, listen to music.