Third-party live TV software died en masse
The "TV home" is dead!
On the evening of the 20th, the relevant news rushed to the hot search on the Internet. Netizens who use the software have basically seen the announcement made by the operator.
On the 21st, the software still could not be used normally. According to the TV's own introduction, their products are capable of providing live online streaming services for up to 1,600 TV channels. Judging from the feedback of netizens, the group of people who install the software is still very large.
According to the TV family, the suspension of services was carried out in accordance with the normative requirements of the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television. Because the software has a recharge service, the operator also said in the announcement that it will refund consumers through the accounts of various platforms on the network in the future. Some netizens posted screenshots on the evening of the 20th, saying that they had received a refund from the operator.
According to subsequent testing, it was found that most of the live programming of the software had been stopped, but there were still a few channels that could be watched. However, there are more movie programs that can be screened, and you can't watch one of them.
In addition to the "death" of the installed software, the software has also been removed from the shelves and can no longer be downloaded on the platforms of major application markets.
In fact, this sudden change is not only for TV homes, but also for other third-party live TV software, which is no longer available at almost the same time. According to incomplete statistics, the live broadcast software currently involved includes Feiliu, Yunhai, Kukan, Miaokan, Super ITV, Little Whale and so on.
With the demise of major live broadcast software, smart TVs want to continue watching TV programs, either by installing cable TV services with radio and television systems, or by using IPTV services provided by the three major operators. To put it simply, any third-party software should no longer be available in the future.
Although this kind of software cannot be used, the Internet is full of grief. But the public who use such software also knows that it is not a question of whether they will be taken down, but only a matter of time. In other words, if the timeline is extended, the software will eventually be shut down.
Because, the essence of this kind of software is piracy, because it is used in the field of live TV, to be precise, piracy. These software, which have neither the broadcast copyright of each live program nor the copyright of other TV programs, are essentially grabbing genuine network signal sources and providing them to consumers.
What's more serious is that it is piracy in the first place, and all software also charges consumer groups. In this way, the radio and television department will naturally take action to rectify it.
Also in 2015, the radio and television department and multiple departments have issued documents that TV network receiving software without formal copyright, with a business amount of more than 500,000 yuan and a profit amount of more than 100,000 yuan, will be investigated for criminal responsibility.
In other words, according to the regulations of radio and television, this kind of software has long been in the gray area of the law. What's more, software like TV home,It has already opened a paid service with the increase in users,The more users,The larger the amount of business and profit,The higher the possibility of being rectified。
In addition to the third-party live broadcast software that can be installed in smart TVs has been rectified, those TV boxes that are also pirated have also been governed by the radio and television department before.
The 10-million-level industry has shrunk to the million-level industry
Smart TV,Because it is connected to the network signal,And its carrying system is related to Android",So in essence, it is similar to a large version of a smartphone。
Although there have been various regulations for a long time,Smart TVs are not allowed to be loaded and applied at will,But live broadcast software like TV home,It can still be applied to TV through technology。
There is no charge for the software during the installation process,As long as you know the corresponding operation,You can easily install it into the TV。 Because of this, this type of software has accumulated more and more user bases, and it is relatively high-profile.
In contrast, the copycat version of the TV box is much more low-key. Especially in 2015, after the radio and television department put forward hard regulations, some businesses started the business of TV boxes in order to avoid risks.
Of course, such businesses also do not have the qualifications to access signals and programs, and the products they produce are copycats, essentially the same as pirated live TV software.
The difference is that the TV box is sold physically, unlike a software that can quickly spread through the network, so its dissemination is limited at first.
As for how this type of product provides services, it is actually not complicated. They first recycled the regular IPTV box,And then brush their own system into the box,Some businesses also brush some cracked live broadcast software into the box,Through a makeover operation,They will re-enter the market with the TV box。
According to the claims of some merchants, their products are cheap, they do not need to pay a monthly network access fee, and they can receive up to 5,000 live programs.
But in fact, it is essentially a cracked version of the software and hardware system, so the related live broadcast service will often have problems. And although some products claim to be free, in fact, when consumers use them, they also need to purchase membership services.
These are not the point, the key problem is that as a pirated hardware access system, since there is no supervision, merchants can swipe software into it at will.
In May, it was reported that a number of popular copycat TV boxes on the market had been pre-flashed with malware. When users use the network, they will either watch fraudulent advertisements, or their own TV sets will become broilers, and the network broadband will be occupied by the behind-the-scenes manipulators.
Therefore, it must be a lot of problems to use this type of product cheaply. But in 2016, when it first became popular, the sales volume on the market once reached 14 million units.
Since then, sales have continued to decline as regulations have been tightened. By October this year, the radio and television department issued a new notice, requiring all TV manufacturers, as well as all kinds of radio and television institutions, not to provide access services and program signals for such products.
This year's data shows that the online sales of various copycat versions of TV boxes are only 1.74 million units, and the sales of offline omni-channels are only about 3.5 million units. Compared with the tens of millions of sales at the peak, it is only a matter of time before the copycat TV box finally disappears.
Governance has already begun
The public thinks that the shutdown of TV homes is very sudden, but in fact, the governance of third-party live broadcast software has already begun. Pirated programs are one thing, and another aspect is the "matryoshka fee" previously reported by the media.
The so-called matryoshka charge is a layer of charges,As long as you have been in contact with smart TVs,Presumably you have had a similar experience。
Consumers buy a membership service of a certain software, thinking that they can use it all for free in the future, but in fact, most programs still need to be paid separately to watch. Some consumers will continue to subscribe to the service, but they will find that even if it is a paid program, there are individual programs that need to be paid extra.
The layers of payment are like nesting dolls, they are simply endless. A similar situation exists with TV homes that have stopped serving this time. A consumer in Guangxi previously told the media that he used TV to buy a membership, and he could use it on the day of purchase, and a large number of programs would become secondary charges the next day.
In addition to nesting doll charges,Even if it is some genuine live broadcast software,After collecting membership fees,There will be a second charge,Or because of different software versions,It can't be used on TV。
Charging is one thing,The boot advertising time of smart TV is getting longer and longer,The problem of pop-up ads on each interface after booting is also endless。 The above-mentioned related chaos has intensified in recent years. At the end of the day, the pie is too big for the field of television network delivery services.
In terms of matryoshka charges, traditional TV sets can be connected to the signal to watch programs. There are too many subjects involved in smart TVs, from the manufacture of equipment, to the access of network signals, to the provider of TV programs, each node wants to get a piece of the pie, and the phenomenon of layer by layer charge has also appeared.
As for advertisers, through the access form of software and hardware, they have become the biggest beneficiaries of cooperation with the service providers of various nodes.
Since August, the radio and television department has begun to unite multiple departments to officially start the governance of a series of issues such as nesting doll fees.
According to the regulations, by the end of this year, the charging package in the field of smart TV sets should be compressed to less than 40%, and at the same time, all kinds of charging items should be clear, no longer as opaque as in the past. By next year, all TV operations and charges will be completely standardized.
The last step is to establish a long-term management mechanism for each TV operation service system by the end of next year to prevent the rebound of a series of previous problems.
According to the data, as of the beginning of this month, the country's 129 million TV terminals have completed rectification, and the compression of charging packages has reached more than 50%. More than eighty percent of TV terminals can be turned on to watch live programs. In addition, the boot time of the TV box plus the advertisement is compressed to less than 35 seconds.
Governance has begun to bear fruit, and in such a context, third-party live streaming software such as TV home will eventually have no way out.
However, solving the problem of watching TV, this is actually not the end.
Why it's getting harder and harder to watch TV
Once upon a time, you could watch programs when you turned on the TV, which was the deepest memory of many post-8090s children. But now, although the TV is getting smarter and the signal is getting clearer, young people find that after turning on the TV, they hold the remote control in their hands, but they don't know how to operate it.
Smart TVs are becoming more and more complex, or less and less intelligent, and have become the focus of people's complaints in recent years. The complex operation interface, not to mention that young people can't understand it, and the elderly are even more helpless. In the final analysis, it is the various services that provide TV programs that are completely different from the public's thinking.
The public's thinking is the same as in the past, turning on the TV to watch live programs, even if it is to watch on-demand programs, the operation should be more convenient.
However, the idea of each node service provider, what they think about is how to use TV terminal equipment to make money. And it is precisely because there are more nodes to provide services, and the stakeholders are more complex and diverse, you cram into a service, he cram into an operation mode, just a TV, and it is unrecognizable by multiple stakeholders.
Eventually, the public became more and more unable to understand the TV as it was.
epilogue
Smart TV equipment, with the advancement of technology, the services it can provide are indeed extended compared to traditional TVs. But these extended technologies and services, which are supposed to revolve around the people who watch TV, are now more about the profit.
With unclear charges and increasingly complex operations, it's no wonder that a large number of young people have long since abandoned televisions. And for the group of people who watch TV, they can only passively receive this mode.
Nowadays, third-party live streaming software and copycat equipment are regulated, but what the public wants to see more is that the TV set of the future can really return to its original state.
Resources:
"The State Administration of Radio, Film and Television Again Cracked Down on Infringing Live Broadcasts, "TV Home" and Other Live TV Software Were Collectively Suspended" New Express, November 22, 2023
"129 million TV terminals complete the rectification of TV "nesting dolls" charges" CCTV News November 3, 2023
"Is it more troublesome to watch TV in the smart era?" China Youth Daily January 11, 2023