Radio and television companies get together for Internet business: triple play out of chaos?

Suddenly, like a spring breeze, thousands of trees pear blossom. The concept of triple play for years of silence seems to have regained the favor of policies and markets overnight.

At the policy level, triple play is gaining ground as an important area for promoting emerging consumption. During the two sessions of the National People's Congress in 2015, Premier Li Keqiang proposed in the government’s work report “Speed ​​up the cultivation of consumption growth points” that “to fully promote the integration of the three networks”. 2015 was the last year of the State Council's “Overall Plan for Promoting Triple Play Integration.” At this critical time point, the delays before the sweeping of radio and television enterprises at all levels in the market became frequent.

Radio and television State Grid started to move. On December 22 last year, Shaanxi Radio and TV Network and the State Grid Corporation of China signed the "Framework Agreement for the Co-construction of the China Broadcasting and Television Network Data Center in Xixian New Area." Some industry experts have speculated that Shaanxi Radio and Television may be the first to open a listed company to join the State Grid and become a new model for the national network integration of the State Grid.

On February 13 this year, the General Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television printed and distributed the Notice on Accelerating the Pilot Work Program for the National Integration of Cable Television Networks (No. 29, 2015, New Broadcasting and Television), which means that the “State Grid” of Radio and TV is the main body. National cable network integration is expected to enter a substantial advancement phase. On February 26, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology held a "Broadband China" 2015 special campaign to mobilize video teleconferences. The radio and television network China Broadcasting and Television Network Co., Ltd., which was established last year, was first invited by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology to participate in the Broadband China Special Campaign. Zhao Jingchun, chairman of China Radio and Television Network Company, said at the meeting that the company will complete the integration and reorganization of China Cable TV Network Co., Ltd. as soon as possible and actively apply to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the Press, Publication, Radio, Film and TV Bureau for the operation license of the triple play business.

Local radio and television companies have also laid out internet business. BesTV has invested in Gehua Cable, Sobe Digital, and 3 popular companies through generous investments. It not only takes the first step of integrating the nationwide cable network, but also adds new "Internet +" new media groups to improve the strategic layout of the Internet TV ecosystem.

Beijing Gehua Cable has transformed from a single cable operator to an Internet platform. Recently, Gehua Cable announced that it plans to increase the fundraising amount to no more than 3.3 billion yuan, which will be used for the construction of high-quality copyright content platform and cloud service platform upgrades and application development projects, in an effort to create a new media group. It is reported that "Gehua Cloud Platform" is the first large-scale application cloud platform in the cable TV industry. It can provide video, cloud games, cloud applications, such as education, health, lottery and other services, and will also build an e-commerce platform in the later period.
In addition, Zhejiang Huadian Media has introduced Alibaba and jointly launched the Tmall Box product. In the future, it may also have in-depth cooperation in TV shopping and big data. Hubei Broadcasting and Television will be announced one month after obtaining qualifications related to Internet-related services. Alipay will comprehensively deepen strategic cooperation in areas such as financial payments, Alipay's public platform services, wireless Internet applications, and channel sharing. Hubei Broadcasting and Television can use television billing to open up three screens for PCs, mobile phones and televisions in the consumer sector.

The last kilometer of Internet TV competition

Today, with the development of smart terminals such as tablet PCs and smart phones, as well as the upgrade of broadband basic networks, multi-screen integration of video and Internet applications has become an emerging consumer demand for information. Among them, Internet TVs based on television and home markets have become three networks. The important embodiment of integration has also become the focus of competition in the industry.

Radio and television enterprises to accelerate the transformation of the Internet business has become the choice of survival. The self-produced drama of video websites has become more and more prosperous, changing the monopoly of traditional television on content. In addition, the stickiness of users to TV is decreasing, which directly affects TV advertising revenue. According to the latest monitoring data released recently by the China Advertising Association’s Press and Publications Section and CCTV Media Intelligence (CTR) Media Intelligence, TV advertisements have dropped by 0.5% in 2014. Although the decline is still small, it is enough to change the trend of the traditional media advertising market.
Today, in addition to overclocking Internet TV, radio and television companies are also targeting the broadband market. In recent months, local radio and television networks have successively received approvals and permits issued by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology or the Local Communications Administration on the implementation of triple play and ISP Internet access services. Prior to this, local radio and television networks have generally launched broadband access services.

Despite being subject to regulatory restrictions, the OTT box was seriously injured, but Internet companies also broke through in multiple channels. In addition to close cooperation with Internet TV integration platforms and licensees, some companies have also strengthened cooperation with various offline channels, forums, and application stores, and through third-party channels, the TV boxes can be equipped with related software. In addition, some internet boxes have transformed the main game features.

In fact, Internet boxes are just transitional products. At present, the Internet companies represented by Xiaomi, 360, etc. have already tried to break through the scope of Internet TV and are looking to the broader smart home market.

In the past year, the broadband speeds initiated by telecom operators all over the country have also become a foreshadowing of their layout of Internet TV. The operator's layout also suffered from the policy "red line". China Telecom Yueme has suffered a lot of fate since its release last year and has not yet been listed.

In addition, traditional television manufacturers have already preempted card content and channels in the Internet field.

Cross-border Integration Forces Industry Chain Cooperation

To a certain extent, after the cultivation of all parties in the industry chain, the demand for triple play market is imminent, but there is still a need for further policy overtones.

For example, in the current Internet TV market, not only telecom operators and Internet companies face numerous restrictions, but also the radio and television companies themselves are restricted everywhere. Wu Chunyong, a radio and television industry expert, said that over 95% of Gehua’s main business income comes from Beijing. Although its leading TV theater alliance is seen as the first step in the company’s cultural export to the whole country, it will inevitably be on the way to expansion. The competition of local radio and television companies. The BesTV of Shanghai and Huadian Media of Zhejiang would also like to extend their business to other provinces and cities.

You Yong Tuo, chairman of Youku Potato Group, believes that the multi-screen era brings together the virtual world and the physical world. Convergence is not only the integration of communication methods, but also the integration of content production, industry chain and industry integration.

The triple play market is an important manifestation of the “Internet+”. Cross-border development requires the open cooperation between enterprises, and it also requires the clearing of policies. Faced with such a vast market demand, there is no reason for the market parties to continue to stick to the interests of the department and rest on their laurels.