Exploring the dual-face of broadcasting and television: conservative industry promoters

As the entire OTT industry is declining due to the continuous constraints of TV boxes, the conflict of interests between Internet companies and traditional TV industry organizations has gradually begun to reveal its most fundamental root cause.

The Internet TV industry, which was triggered by user demand, has gradually been subject to a series of restrictive development and rectification measures from the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television due to policy issues. Users and companies have begun to develop contradictory feelings of "love and hate" for the powerful SARFT.

The helplessness of the radio and television banning TV boxes

It is undeniable that after the TV box APP introduced the live broadcast function, the traditional TV industry, which uses ratings and on-demand volume as measurement criteria, and the emerging video websites began to have overlapping conflicts of interest, and this conflict is based on the backflow of video users.

Compared with free-to-use, "watch whenever you want" video websites, the traditional TV industry, which requires both digital TV service fees and time control, is clearly on the decline. The live broadcast function of TV boxes can be said to have broken through the last line of defense of traditional TV stations, and made Internet TV and traditional TV begin to become indistinguishable to users.

The advantages of different content resources have always been the biggest basis for video websites and traditional TV to stand on their own sides. The State Administration of Radio, Film and Television can tolerate video websites diverting users, but cannot tolerate video websites snatching users. Therefore, in the face of video websites using APP applications in TV boxes to press forward step by step, the radio and television can only "brutally" take action.

In fact, the live broadcast of TV programs has never been the main function of video websites or even TV boxes, and the resources and content that attract user traffic will not come from the "castrated version" of TV programs under strict censorship by radio and television.

Although the TV box appears to be rich in content, with massive resources, complete functions and easy operation, it does not actually meet the requirements to replace cable TV.

The impact of TV boxes on cable TV can actually be seen as a technological trend. Ultimately, it is not the main development of the TV market in the future. TV boxes are currently unable to synchronize with TV stations in terms of live broadcasts and event broadcasts, and the stability of content transmission will also be constrained by the quality of broadband networks. All of these will ultimately affect the user experience quality.

Take the just concluded final of Zhejiang Satellite TV's third season of "The Voice of China" as an example. Although Tencent Video has the exclusive right to broadcast this popular TV show online, users who watch TV shows through video websites must have found that the video content broadcast from the TV station is not only delayed in time, but the video is also broadcast in segments, and its picture and sound quality are far inferior to the live broadcast effect of the TV station.

As for cable TV, with the progress of high-definition broadcasting and interactivity, many functional applications of Internet boxes can also be realized on cable TV. Cable TV is not only rich in content, but also can realize on-demand and replay functions, which also indicates that traditional TV is gradually realizing the transformation from one-way to two-way.

In the open industry market of Internet TV, a series of regulatory policies led by the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television will gradually clean up content broadcasting and control platforms, sort out the relationship and order of the industrial chain between operators and terminals, and ultimately clearly divide the market by attracting users.

More importantly, compared with the advantages of stable, high-definition and smooth TV station content broadcasting, video websites still have a long way to go if they want to share the inherent user scale of radio and television.

A different perspective on the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television

After launching a series of rectification measures on Internet TV boxes, users began to complain about radio and television. It seemed that the overbearing image of the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television as the big brother had been deeply rooted in people's minds, which led to the situation that everything the radio and television did seemed to be wrong.

Perhaps we can also look at the problem in this way. As the controller of supervision, guidance and management of the entire radio and television industry, the SARFT has a heavy responsibility and obligation that is not something that everyone can imagine. Especially with the "invasion" of the Internet in this era, how to maintain control and guidance of the entire television industry in the midst of change is the conclusion of all the work of radio and television.

Similarly, it is extremely one-sided to simply believe that radio and television exclude the Internet era. First, at the beginning of the rise of video websites, the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television approved more than 1,000 Internet companies to carry out "information network video services", including well-known video websites such as Youku Tudou, iQiyi, Sohu, and LeTV; in addition, radio and television issued 14 Internet TV content integration licenses and seven Internet TV integrated broadcast control licenses to regulate the Internet TV industry; it also approved CCTV and Shanghai Radio and Television to provide IPTV content to broadband users of China Telecom and China Unicom, either individually or in the name of joint ventures, and so on.

Although these practices cannot be regarded as actively embracing the Internet, they at least show that the radio and television industry is taking the Internet seriously. However, if the positive attitude involves its own fundamental interests, it will turn 360 degrees and regard friends as enemies.

Many people say that the regulation of the OTT industry by the radio and television industry is almost always a "one-size-fits-all" approach. In fact, behind this "one-size-fits-all" decisiveness is the function of the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television as the administrative regulatory department of TV screens. The radio and television industry cannot lose control of the TV screen, which is both a function constraint and a profit pressure; wanting the radio and television industry to sit back and watch the OTT industry continue to flourish and develop in an unordered manner is tantamount to asking the radio and television industry to choose "chronic suicide."

While we are trying to complain about the traditional and conservative practices of the radio and television, we should also objectively see that the regulation of genuine copyrights alone has led to the decline of many copycat boxes, and the closure of download channels in aggregation software has also prevented copycat box products from corrupting living room culture. Judging from the current market reaction, "law-abiding" regular boxes may suffer more, but if we look at the long term, copycat boxes will definitely have no place to survive.

Perhaps, while we focus on the rapid development of the OTT industry, we should also think about whether the development of the industry is in the common interests of the industry under the administrative regulations led by the radio and television. From the perspective of their own interests, the supervision of the radio and television has not exceeded the limit, and video websites seem to have no choice but to do so.

The focus of industry disputes will still be user experience

At present, although the number of TV box users is increasing year by year and the power-on rate of traditional TVs is decreasing year by year, if we truly and objectively discuss the user experience score between TV boxes and traditional TVs, it is actually not as different as the current market reflects.

Of course, user demand and choice are still important driving forces for the development of the Internet TV industry, and the supervision of the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television is only to make it move towards a regular track that can be managed and controlled in this market self-regulation; whether radio, film and television can form a cooperative development with video websites in the future depends on user demand for and usage of regular TV boxes.

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.