Is the era of pirated broadcasting 2.0 here? The "overstepping the line" videos in the box
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At least some box manufacturers have tacitly accepted the existence of such self-hacking and integrated applications on their products to a certain extent. But if they cannot make money from the content, the boxes can only be reduced to selling hardware. It doesn't matter if you are called Xiaomi or Doudou. ◎ Article by Zhang Shule, special contributor to Legal Person "Where can I watch the latest blockbuster?" In the past, the answer to this question might be "Look for it on Youku, Tudou, or iQiyi", but now the answer has become "Check if it's available on those third-party video apps in your home video box." There is no doubt that most of these TV dramas and movies on demand are not very "standardized", especially after the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television issued a public notice in July 2014 to seven Internet TV licensees in Zhejiang, Shanghai and other places, "about immediately closing the illegal video software download channels in Internet TV terminal products". The notice pointed out that the "Tmall Magic Box" of Wasu Media (000156, Stock Bar) and the "Little Red Internet TV Set-Top Box" of BesTV (600637, Stock Bar), which contain client software for commercial audio-visual programs such as iQiyi, Sohu Video, and Youku, as well as video aggregation software and Internet browser software such as TV Cat, Taijie Video, and Rabbit Video, have provided technical support and channels for politically harmful, obscene, pornographic, vulgar and infringing programs to enter televisions in large quantities. And this is not an isolated case. Boxes that were cracked by themselves "This involves a distinction between online videos and TV videos," an industry insider said. To put it simply, videos on video websites can only be played on the Internet, not on TV. Clients on boxes such as iQiyi, Sohu Video, and Youku can play online videos on TV. "The TV series and movies that video websites buy at sky-high prices are, in the final analysis, only the Internet broadcasting rights, not the television broadcasting rights. For most people, this explanation is the easiest to understand," said the industry insider. But a ban cannot change anything. On the contrary, I saw a user crack the ban on a well-known smart box. The so-called self-hacking means that users install some applications on the original Android system of the box. A typical example is the Sofa Manager App. Since most smart boxes have built-in USB interfaces, users only need to download the App online and then insert the USB flash drive into the USB interface to install it themselves. During the demonstration by the industry insider, such an installation took less than 5 minutes, and when the Sofa Manager App was opened, cracked versions of several well-known video website apps were listed. "This is not the most important thing." He pointed out, "In fact, cracked versions of apps are not very useful. The best ones are integrated apps like Taijie and Quanjuhe. They can not only grab the latest and hottest video on demand from major video sites, but also internally aggregate the live sources of hundreds of TV stations. Its actual effectiveness can be imagined." I tried to log in to Quanjuhe. On the page I opened, I saw the latest blockbusters, including the recently released "Fast and Furious 7" and the sneak peek of "The Secret Service". I tried to play them, and the source was shown as "other videos" and they played normally. As for other films that have passed the hot period of the theaters and are released on video sites, you can switch the "source" in the on-demand video to find the most satisfactory viewing effect and speed. In response to this, after the SARFT issued a notice last year, Wasu Media said: This is mainly because the current intelligent operating system has open technical features, and users can install independent applications and download third-party application clients. Therefore, it will conduct rectification and restrict users from downloading third-party applications by themselves through mandatory notification and terminal upgrades to ensure the content security of Internet TV. Wasu's third-party applications that have been taken offline include iQiyi, Sohu, etc.; Youku, Sohu, PPTV, etc. have also been removed from BesTV. Obviously, taking it off the shelves has not eliminated it. Wild growth of "full aggregation" There are many reasons for this ban. Some commentators pointed out that: first, the proliferation of fake boxes has forced licensed boxes to turn a blind eye to maintain their core competitiveness with fake boxes; second, Android devices are too open, and users with a little common sense can indeed crack them by themselves and install such aggregation apps, which is technically difficult to control; third, although video websites have basically purified the copyright in the field of online videos through legalization, a small number of pirated videos still live in the cracks of the online video world. In addition, in order to occupy living room space and TV screens, video websites may have "acquiesced" to the integration of applications such as Quanjuhe and Taijie, which do not purchase copyrights, only aggregate, and absorb some pirated video sources and harmful video sources to continue to grab their video sources. At least some box manufacturers have, to a certain extent, acknowledged the existence of such self-hacking and integrated applications on their products. At the same time, in order to cope with the ban of the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television, some smart box hardware manufacturers have adopted another way to "crack" it, such as using a box with Android and Windows dual systems, so that the box becomes a desktop computer, and the TV becomes an oversized computer monitor. "In a sense, these Windows boxes no longer use apps to play videos, but are similar to watching videos online, watching videos on demand through web pages." Industry insiders pointed out, "This circumvents the ban in a sense, and the hardware price of the box remains around 100 yuan." In essence, the box manufacturers are just relying on the power of these "cracks" to continue to compete with set-top boxes and TV stations for the living room market in the form of OTT. But this is not a long-term solution. Take Xiaomi as an example. It has always positioned itself not as a hardware manufacturer, but as a value-added service Internet company based on the Xiaomi ecosystem. The Xiaomi box, which costs as low as 299 yuan, occupies the market on the one hand, but on the other hand, it does not make much profit because of its "extreme single product" price. If they cannot generate revenue from content, the boxes can only become hardware sellers. On this basis, OTT smart boxes are on the same front as traditional TV set-top boxes and TV stations. It’s just that at the moment, smart boxes need market share more urgently. Find your own genuine content In order to find a long-term "meal ticket", each box is also taking its own "life-saving" measures. Mango TV, which has a strong content source in Hunan TV, adopted the exclusive broadcasting mode of the entire network last year. After taking back the network broadcasting rights of its advantageous original programs, it also launched Mango Box in a deep strategic cooperation with Skyworth at the end of the year. Since 2015, it has stopped authorizing other platforms to broadcast popular variety shows such as "I Am a Singer", "Where Are We Going, Dad", "Day Day Up", "Happy Camp" and "Metamorphosis", which has become the key selling point of its content. At the same time, in order to "decrypt" and "aggregate", Mango TV has also joined forces with Phoenix TV, China Entertainment TV, South Korea's SBS, South Korea's MBC, Hong Kong TVB, Huayi Brothers (300027, Stock Bar), Hollywood, Tianyu Media, and Youku Tudou to share wonderful content. If Mango TV's strategy is "fast" and "exclusive", then the strategy of Xiaomi Box and Internet companies such as Tencent is to dig deeper. The author's summary of this is "Why is the TV box used to watch TV?" This is an OTT mindset, especially at a time when video content has red lines. Wang Juan, editor-in-chief of Tencent Video, revealed at the 2015 Tencent Video V Vision Conference held in Guangzhou that Tencent Video will promote its overall layout in the OTT market, including boxes and other businesses, through active cooperation with licensees and hardware manufacturers. Tencent Box will rely more on the originality of Tencent Video. According to Tencent Vice President Sun Zhonghuai, Tencent Video's investment in online dramas will bid farewell to simple copyright transactions. Tencent Video will serve as an investor, initiator, and creator, achieving "killing two birds with one stone" and further tapping into the intrinsic and derivative commercial value of the online drama industry, including advertising placement, IP licensing, paid services and even distribution income from other platforms such as TV stations. Obviously, by entering in this way, the Internet value-added service model of free viewing and paid advertising and shopping will be realized, and "piracy" and "cracking" will only help increase exposure and clicks. In contrast, Xiaomi, although seemingly not making much moves, at the end of last year, introduced Chen Tong, the former editor-in-chief of Sina, to join the company with a gift of US$1 billion. The funds will be invested in iQiyi and Youku Tudou, two of the top video websites. The purpose of this investment is very clear, which is to allow Chen Tong, the new vice president of Xiaomi who was famous for his content creation during his time at Sina, to use the money to exchange for more content from the two mainstream video websites. For Xiaomi, which has been very successful in hardware, it is time to increase its soft power in content. Especially when Xiaomi TVs and Xiaomi boxes frequently encounter policy and content red lines, without sufficient, exclusive, and policy-compliant content support, they will become ordinary TVs and set-top boxes, completely disrupting Xiaomi's smart home ecosystem layout, making this demand not only important, but also a matter of life and death. As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity. |
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