An Analysis of the Development of Radio & TV DVB+OTT

First, the industry background

In 2012, the development of the video industry can be described with each passing day. Let us first sort out the major news of the next year:

The first camp of domestic video websites, Youku and Tudou announced their merger on March 12;

The domestic social networking website Kaixin.com and the video website Ku6.com announced their strategic partnership.

April 16th, PPTV announced that as the only online video new media, PPTV will provide full webcast coverage of the 2012 European Cup competition;

On April 20th, CNTV held a product launch conference for the London Olympics and will broadcast live on all 5600-hour Olympic events in the London Olympics. The old and new media have shot one after another around the Olympic Games, and differentiated and spread.

On April 18, the US video site Hulu announced that its subscription service Hulu Plus had more than 2 million subscribers in the first quarter of this year, including 500,000 new subscribers in the past four months.

It can be found that with the opening up and scale advantages of the Internet, the emerging media of the Internet is increasingly developing and accumulating energy. The integration of enterprises has rapidly increased the degree of concentration, and the accelerated combination of content and communication has become more complete.

In terms of operators, China Unicom’s antitrust case may not be able to solve the problem; China Mobile’s mobile video service has doubled its annual business performance; Telecom’s IPTV business has become increasingly fierce, and some provinces’ IPTV platforms have been upgraded and upgraded; facing the erosion of traditional operators’ The living environment and development space of the broadcasting and TV industry are increasingly restricted.

In terms of terminal provision, traditional home appliance manufacturers such as Hisense, Skyworth, and Changhong have launched a new generation of Android operating system-based network smart TVs; for this, the data provided by Jiang Yukai, the deputy head of the China Television Internet Promotion Working Group, is "Intelligent Internet TV Activation With a rate of over 33%, the daily active users are on average 2 hours online, and the terminal has sold 2,400 units. At the same time, a survey report from the market research institution Parks Associates shows that more than 25% of all video viewings in American broadband homes now take place. Platforms other than televisions, such as PCs, smart phones, and tablet computers, and various network set-top boxes that broadcast unlicensed videos on the Internet are flooding the web pages of major e-commerce companies. These phenomena indicate that the broadcasting industry The terminal's intelligence and networking have become the trend of the times. With the accelerated change of user experience, the original organic top box has been unable to meet the market demand.

In terms of policy supervision, the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television issued a circular on the prohibition of providing audiovisual program services via set-top boxes to television terminals over the Internet; at the same time, Document 181 also started the layout of OTT set-top boxes through licensing methods; the foreign television market The difference between domestic and public TV publicity also indicates that the development of OTT in the domestic broadcasting industry will inevitably not be easy.

Second, OTT and DVB

OTT TV is an abbreviation of "Over The Top TV" and refers to a video service based on the development of the Internet. The terminal can be a television, a computer, a set-top box, a PAD, a smart phone, and the like. It refers to the provision of video services on the Internet, which may be the Internet or a cable television network, emphasizing the independence of services and networks. At the same time, the diversification of terminals also reflects the changes and development of users' needs. OTT TV also provides video-oriented Internet application integration services while providing video content.
DVB is an abbreviation for Digital Video Broadcasting, a series of internationally recognized digital television standards maintained by DVB. Its purpose is to design a universal digital television system. The DVB standard provides a complete set of specifications for digital television systems that apply to different media. The DVB digital broadcast transmission system utilizes all common television broadcast transmission media including satellite, cable, terrestrial microwave, SMATV, and MNDSD. At the same time, many services in the DVB digital broadcasting system can provide various forms of interactive services as needed.

With the development of technology and the huge potential of the OTT market, people in the domestic video industry have a tempting feeling, but what is the actual situation?

First, look at the licensee. According to the No. 181 document issued by the SARFT, the state has issued Internet TV licenses to seven organizations, including CCTV, Best Connect, and Huaji, which provide that the OTT TV broadcast platform and content source must be provided by these 7 companies. , other general manufacturers may not be involved. However, there are problems in these seven institutions that have different standards, and they need to form a community of interests and uniform standards. At the same time, as a media agency, it lacks experience in network operations.

Looking at the traditional operators, in the future, the OTT terminals will be networked and intelligent, and the original single product will not be able to meet new demands. How to achieve the development of terminal intelligence and profit model under the suppression of policies is a tradition. The problems faced by operators.

Finally, looking at the terminal manufacturers, including set-top box manufacturers and all-in-one smart TV manufacturers, participating in platform operations or simply selling equipment is a difficult choice. If they are involved in operations, the initial investment is huge and there is no experience; just selling equipment, in the future OTT gradually moves towards the trend of charging video, the profit model is difficult to sustain. Terminal vendors must seek contracts with platform providers for better development.

Third, the construction of broadcasting and TV DVB + OTT

1. Cooperation with Internet TV licensees: At present, 7 licensees, including CCTV, Huadian, BesTV, etc., are broadcast media organizations, lacking user development and operating experience of the terminal box platform, and are also seeking cooperation with relevant operators to obtain more. Great development. The advantage of Radio and TV Network is that its main business operations are in video, with more than 200 million users and high rates of entry, far exceeding the scale of IPTV users of telecommunications. At the same time, Radio and TV network has the right to transmit television live channels, which is its main advantage over traditional operators.

2. The needs of broadcasting and television operations: Based on the public welfare of the domestic video market, from the viewpoint of content security, the policy will not support the complete introduction of Internet content to TVs. Semi-development and open connections are certainly the norm. Radio and television at this time to carry out the construction of DVB + OTT, can use the Internet to break through its own two-way bottleneck, but also be able to develop customers outside the cable television network, and these are under the control of the policy requirements can be controlled.

3. Deep integration between DVB and OTT: If the OTT and DVB are simply combined, there is no essential difference between the original high-definition interactive platform of DVB+IP and the dual-mode set-top box, except that the OTT of the Android operating system is adopted. Set-top boxes are more intelligent and open, enabling more content and users to be introduced. In the long run, OTT and DVB are deeply integrated to jointly develop the interactive layer for live streaming, and the depth of live content is related to the OTT content to form deep-level advertising, paid on-demand, and human-computer interaction. Improve revenue and establish new profit models.

4. The focus of cooperation: The cooperation between Internet TV licensees and radio and television cable operators requires that both parties have mutual needs and must face the game of their own interests. The focus of the negotiations between the two parties, including the interface, the menu approach and segmentation, including the management of the App Store ownership, including value-added services, advertising, e-commerce and other business operations and the proportion of interest distribution and so on.

IV. Conclusion

For Broadcasting and Television, in the face of the four sides of the Internet and traditional operators, both the formation of competition and seek cooperation, seize the development opportunities of DVB + OTT, and quickly seize the market and users. Combining with the existing market status, the core is centered on the scale of users promoting OTT business, and thus has more say for future development.