The Millet box "was stopped" caused the industry to pay attention to the Chinese video internet industry

Absrtact: The Millet box was halted, causing the industry to pay attention to the Chinese video Internet (ott,over the top TV) industry. An embarrassing reality is that, despite the influx of people, the OTT industry chain is not profitable in all aspects. The OTT industry looks lively but practically dismal. A

The Millet box "was stopped", causing the industry to focus on the Chinese video Internet (ott,over the top TV) industry. An embarrassing reality is that, despite the influx of people, the OTT industry chain is not profitable in all aspects.

"The OTT industry looks lively but practically dismal. The product director of a large set-top box manufacturing plant in Shenzhen yesterday (26th) said to the first financial daily, "The dream of explosive growth has been dashed this year".

He revealed that 2011 China video Internet STB (Ott box) sales of more than 1 million units, the original industry estimates this year to 10 million units per month. However, according to the current situation, the 2012 domestic OTT box is expected to sell only about 3.8 million units, of which 800,000 are Android platform, 3 million are Linux platform.

The price is too low, also let set-top box manufacturers surprised: the main box price in 300~500 yuan/, and some low-end products only sell 200 yuan.

Great potential or disorderly competition

For OTT box sales are not smooth, the above product director attributed to policy restrictions. According to the 181th text issued by the radio and television department at the end of 2011, a box can only be bundled with an Internet television licence maker, while a licensee may bundle multiple content carriers.

China sells 40 million TV sets a year, and the penetration rate of intelligent TV is accelerating. The industry predicts that because the cost of smart TV is small, but the price is relatively large, so two or three years later, most of the television will be smart television.

By contrast, the domestic OTT box sales volume is less than 1/10 of the total TV sales, not to the intelligent television integrated machine has brought great impact.

The director of the product said that the OTT box is complementary to the smart TV: the Ott box can transform the stock of the non-intelligent TV; In addition, after the replacement of Smart TV, the configuration may lag after a year or two, and the television set cycle is generally 7-8 years, this situation can also be upgraded through the OTT

Therefore, whether the stock or the increment, the Ott box has the big growth space. This also brings the box industry fierce and disorderly competition. Do the tablet computer, do mobile phone companies to mix a foot, the price decline is fierce. Shenzhen Huaqiang North even appeared 199 Yuan products. "Some people want to go cashing, we invest in research and development costs, but the price has to follow up." It's hard to find a way to protect research and development investment without reasonable profit. ”

Find a way out

Content restrictions so that the demand for OTT box is not as ideal, low-cost competition makes the licensing, content operators, box manufacturers are not profitable, OTT industry in the dark before the dawn to explore the way forward.

The above-mentioned product director believes that only the radio and television operators to actively promote the OTT industry chain is the hope of profitability. Now telecom operators such as China Telecom and Unicom are very welcome to OTT, IPTV, because they can promote broadband, but also content sales. But all over the radio and television operators, such as the southern media, Hunan Electric media, Jiangsu Cable and so on, fearing that others "moved the cheese", afraid of users to see accustomed to OTT, will broadcast radio and television removed. Therefore, in the end, only the radio and television system supervision and content separation, can not be both referee and athlete, to solve the fundamental problem.

and radio and television first find money model, and then bigger box size thinking different, Internet enterprise thinking is the first big customer base, and then find ways to make money. "Although now OTT box is deficient, as long as the user volume up, capital operation is good to do." So, this person expects, after millet, there will be more Internet enterprises to dabble in OTT box. For example, video site pplive, Odd art, their advertising, pay is not ideal, the box is the way out, temptation in the computer screen into the TV screen. "Some of the major domestic video sites have talked to us about foundry OTT boxes." ”

However, these broadcasters still have different views on how the OTT profits. He believes that OTT box sales, not because of radio and television policy restrictions, but Ott did not find a profitable business model, and no good user experience. In the future, the content operator must find a license to distribute the content, the box by China Telecom, Chinese Unicom and other telecom operators centralized procurement, to consumers. Consumers buy a one-year broadband fee and get the box for free. It is expected that in 2015, OTT box sales will exceed the IPTV box, the second largest service provider after cable TV. "The box reaches a certain amount, will reduce the cost, the implementation content pays, uploads the advertisement, thus realizes the profit." ”