A number of smart TVs assembled in September

With the advent of the smart TV era, Internet companies have taken over the industry with unlimited imagination. Following LeTV's (31.840, 0.00, 0.00%) high-profile launch of LeTV TV Super TV X60 and the popular S40 in May this year, it became the first Internet company to formally launch its own-brand TV. Ali and Iqiyi [microblogging] , Xiaomi, Huawei, etc. will focus on releasing smart TVs or set-top boxes next month.

The latest statistics show that in the first half of 2013, the retail volume of smart TVs was 11.28 million units, an increase of 132.2% year-on-year. The industry expects that the sales volume of smart TVs in 2013 will increase from 10.9 million units to 21.3 million units, which will double exponentially. The penetration rate will increase from 26% last year to 46% this year.

A variety of products released in September

The “leadership” of LeTV Super TV has undoubtedly played a role as a catalyst for Internet companies to join the smart TV industry. According to authoritative market data, in July, among 16 mainstream TV brands, LeTV TV Super X60 sold 15075 units, ranking first in the 60-inch smart TV market share, accounting for 35.23%; 39-inch Super TV S40 sales 12,192 units, accounting for 10.74%.

The industry generally believes that with the speed of triple play integration and the completion of payment methods, China's "box" industry has reached a period of policy maturity and demand. As the box is spread into the living room of Chinese families, the space for TV experiential shopping and TV online education industry is opened, and the next most fierce battle is the "Smart TV Operating System."

The Huawei Secret Box, which will be available in September, is integrated with the WeChat function. Users can share the mobile WeChat photos to the TV. According to sources from Huawei, Huawei’s Mystery Box accesses China’s Internet TV integrated broadcast and control platform under CNTV’s future television operations and has more than 1.3 million hours of CCTV’s premium content resources, covering online video resources including Olympic Games, World Cup and other sports resources.

Relevant data show that there are 400 million households in China, and the number of televisions is more than 400 million. The annual sales of color TVs are 40 million, of which 40% are smart TVs. A smart TV is priced at 5,000 yuan. Its market size is 80 billion yuan. Plus the box, the entire market scale will be hundreds of billions. This is just hardware. After the market matures, there will be video-on-demand, video-payment and other value-added services, as well as video games and other space. For example, the Shanghai Securities Daily previously reported exclusively that Digital Video (29.580, -0.74, -2.44%) has reached a payment access cooperation with CNTV's China Internet TV integration broadcast control platform, once the "box" represented by Huawei is successively The launch of the only digital video with a digital television payment license will open up in the payment market space for smart TV terminals.

Smart Times

According to the definition of smart TV in the industry, the so-called smart TV refers to an operating system like a smartphone. Users can install and uninstall programs provided by third-party service providers such as software and games. Through such programs, they can continuously The function of the color TV is expanded, and the general name of such a color TV that can be used to surf the Internet can be realized through a network Cable and a wireless network. The industry stressed that "smart" TV is a complete "software" revolution in televisions. Smart TVs not only link the Internet to TVs, but also provide more complete Internet content, such as browsing the web like a computer. Watch video site video and more. In terms of details, Internet TVs have increased network interfaces compared to smart TVs, and have Internet access capabilities. Many entertainment resources such as audio and video can be obtained through the Internet. However, the resource addresses of Internet TVs are limited and can only be obtained from the addresses specified by the manufacturers.

"At present, those who have entered the smart TV industry are nothing more than Internet companies (LeTV, iQIYI, PPTV, etc.), operators (BST) (35.45, -1.19, -3.25%), and WCDMA Media (30.71, 0.45, 1.49%). ), etc.) and hardware manufacturers (Sichuan Changhong (2.15, -0.03, -1.38%), Tongzhou Electronics (8.46, -0.23, -2.65%), TCL, etc.), and the three have their own strengths in entering the smart TV field. Internet companies have video and other content resources, but compared with traditional TV manufacturers, their channels are either 'short-circuited'. What traditional electronics companies lack in producing smart TVs are content resources, such as the cooperation between Iqiyi and TCL to launch Internet intelligence. TV to a certain extent combines the advantages of content resources and hardware resources of traditional home appliances and Internet companies, which is not a state of mutual complementation and mutual benefit.” An analysis of industry veterans.

Driven by the gradual intelligentization and internetization of the home appliance industry, Sichuan Changhong has continued to promote its smart strategy. Company stakeholders told the reporter frankly that it is not ruled out that in the future the company will cooperate with Internet companies that do content.

Whether it is the TV manufacturer Changhong or the set-top box manufacturer Tongzhou Electronics, they are eager to continue the expansion of the smart TV industry market. In April this year, Tongzhou Electronics held a new launch conference for “Flying TV” in Beijing and announced its entry into the smart TV field. On that day, the company signed a cooperation agreement with Philips and plans to launch "Philips Broadcasting and Television Custom Integrated Smart TV." Yuan Ming, Chairman of the company, stated that the launch of “Philips Broadcast & TV Custom Tailored Smart TV” will help deepen the cooperation with broadcasters around the world. In the future, “flying TV” will cooperate with more TV manufacturers.

“The Internet is all about the same competition. Everyone has no licenses and they are all working with licensees. The advantages of the company are in the broadcasting and TV industry, the company and the Jishi Media (8.38, 0.07, 0.84%) and Tianwei Video (13.34). , -0.36, -2.63%), etc. have a certain amount of cooperation." Ye Zhou, Tong Chau electronic secretary said.

Involved in the industry needs to be licensed
It is reported that after the SARFT issued a total of seven Internet TV licenses were awarded to CNTV, BesTV, China, South China Media, Hunan Radio and Television, China International Radio and the Central People's Broadcasting Station. Among them, CNTV, BesTV, and Huada have both licenses and huge content resources, and have mastered the biggest right to speak.

It is worth mentioning that, as early as August of 2009, when television terminal manufacturers swarmed into the Internet tide and pre-set Internet content on TV, SARFT quickly issued a ban to require TV manufacturers not to “produce and sell for themselves”. In terms of content, it is necessary to cooperate with the number of licenses, such as Huadian and BesTV, to implement the content control platform so that it can be brought to the market. However, "undocumented" set-top boxes still exist today.

Up to now, many hardware manufacturers have joined hands with licensees and serial number holders to enter the Internet TV market. From the perspective of obtaining Internet content licenses, LeTV has entered the internet TV set-top box market through cooperation with China Network TV (CNTV); PPTV and the licensed Hua Digital Media have launched the set-top box product PPBox; and the upcoming iQIYI TV The party that participated in the cooperation was the Jiangsu TV station.

Regarding the development and management of Internet TV, the senior officials of the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television pointed out that in addition to implementing the spirit of the relevant instructions, the Directorate General will continue to report and coordinate the resolution of the production and sales of Internet TV “black boxes” (set-top boxes that have not been approved for production). The Internet audiovisual program service license organization violated the issue of providing Internet TV content to "black boxes."