The power grid resources are idle: only a few thousand high-definition interactive users

The two-way interactive TV business, which was once desperately targeted by broadcasters, faced difficulties.

There are more than 100 million cable digital TV users in China, of which more than 53 million users are covered by the two-way transformation network. However, only 11 million users actually implement the two-way service. After radio and television operators across the country have invested heavily in promoting the two-way transformation of the cable network, there have been a large number of transformed networks that have been “idle”.

Among them, the high-definition interactive set-top box with a price of more than one thousand yuan can not be landed, which is a key bottleneck for the business to start large-scale delay. In addition to relying on Beijing’s fiscal subsidies to distribute free-distance HD set-top boxes to Gehua’s cable, high-definition interactive services of broadcasting and TV operators in other regions have been faltering.

On July 12, the first domestic radio and television network operator in Shaanxi province to complete provincial network integration and over 5 million users on the network, and the hardware manufacturer Skyworth signed a business cooperation alliance in Xi’an, both parties will jointly promote Skyworth single chip Bidirectional integrated machine and radio and television network high-definition two-way program business.

Idle two-way network

Radio and television network related sources told this reporter, “We invested a few hundred million yuan basically completed the two-way transformation of the network, but the number of high-definition interactive users is only a few thousand, because the audience for HD set-top box price of 1,500 yuan is still difficult to accept And if you already have a standard set-top box, it would be very difficult for them to pay for high-definition set-top boxes. Although we also offer package discounts, it is not effective.”

For carriers such as broadcasting and television networks, it is difficult to continue to adopt the mode of free distribution of high-definition set-top boxes. Yang Dongwen (microblogging) told reporters, “In addition to Beijing and other cities relying on financial subsidies to promote high-definition television, operators in other provinces are very contradictory for high-definition interactive business, because of high promotion costs and uncertain earnings outlook, making it deterred ."

According to the scale of the 5 million households in the broadcasting and television network, the cost of issuing only high-definition set-top boxes will reach 5 billion yuan, which is difficult to achieve for radio and television networks with a revenue of 1.222 billion yuan last year.

According to our statistics, according to our statistics, more than 100 sets of paid programs currently launched in China are basically loss-making, and many interactive on-demand programs are still adopting a complimentary model, so the future high-definition two-way business can No profit is unknown, so although broadcasters want to develop high-definition services, they are reluctant to take risks if they invest too much in the early stages, which leads to the idleness of two-way wired networks.

One machine mode exploration

In the case of high-definition interactive set-top boxes, it is difficult to achieve a breakthrough. The path found by the broadcast and television networks and Skyworth is a two-way single-chip one-machine model.

Yang Dongwen, vice president of Skyworth Group, said, “For consumers who are about to replace TV, integrated smart phones, 3D, LED and other latest features can replace the role of HD set-top boxes, and for operators, they can no longer take free Deliver high-definition set-top boxes to promote interactive services."

It is worth noting that because of the different CA encryption modes of radio and television networks in the provinces, Skyworth must negotiate with broadcasters one by one, and it will first lock down cable network companies that have completed provincial network integration.

Although the success of the radio and television network and Skyworth will still be related to the content of interactive TV. At present, the domestic interactive TV content integrators are still enterprises such as Shanghai Wenguang Interactive and Hangzhou Huada. Wu Chunyong, editor-in-chief of the broadcasting industry and the chief editor of the Fusion Network, pointed out that the success of the two-way interactive service is the result of the concerted efforts of broadcasters, content integrators, and terminal manufacturers. At present, Gehua’s HD services are still difficult to improve, indicating that the breakthrough of single-end terminals is still not enough. Next, more personalized content is needed."