Members can't watch what they want to watch after "recharging and recharging": Why is watching TV more and more complicated?
Televisions are becoming more and more complicated, and even young people say "I don't understand".
Red Star Capital Bureau found that most of the current smart TVs have multiple sets of incompatible membership systems embedded. Even if you recharge one member, another member, and another member, you may still not be able to see all the movies and TV shows you want to watch. content.
After investigation and summary, Red Star Capital Bureau found that there are mainly three scenarios that make consumers fall into the trap of "refilling members like dolls", which makes people "recharge again and again".
netizen
Is the TV a smart TV or a mentally handicapped TV?
After installing broadband and set-top boxes, you need to recharge and pay for membership.
investigation
1. TVs can be installed with different APPs. When users watch videos, they need to recharge memberships for each APP separately, and even pay for on-demand broadcasts;
2. Members on the mobile terminal cannot use it on the TV terminal, and membership fees on the TV terminal are often higher than those on the mobile terminal;
3. Different VIP recharges are also set up under the same system.
reason
Sources of profit, commissions from pre-installed APP platforms, etc. are part of the revenue of TV manufacturers.
Netizens complain
After recharging the TV several times
Still can't see what I'm watching
A few days ago, some netizens posted a video and scolded, "Is the current TV a smart TV or a mentally retarded TV? You need to install broadband and a set-top box. If you can watch all these well, I will recognize it, but why do you need a membership? That needs to be recharged?"
Red Star Capital Bureau noticed that, unlike the traditional TVs that "look at which channel to tune which channel" in childhood memories, smart TVs have gradually become mainstream products in the market.
On the one hand, smart TVs still carry the functions of traditional TVs. As long as they are equipped with a set-top box, they can still watch CCTV and various David TVs;
For example, in September 2022, a netizen complained on the Black Cat Complaint Platform that there are many types of Kukai’s TV memberships, and the promotional information is not clear. His child popped up a payment window when watching cartoons, so he opened a yearly membership (218 Yuan), but still can’t watch it, and need to open a parent-child membership again, “(At that time) it didn’t say that film and television members can’t watch cartoons, it’s too bad!”
At present, this complaint is in the status of "completed", but the content of the reply from Kukai is hidden, and the handling measures cannot be viewed.
Red Star Capital Bureau found that at present, most TV brand products are embedded with multiple sets of incompatible video systems, which directly causes consumers to still be unable to watch all the film and television content they want to watch after recharging members many times.
three scenes
Create a "matryoshka-like full membership"
According to the investigation and conclusion of the Red Star Capital Bureau, the reason why consumers feel like "I just became a member, why do I want to become a member again" is mainly because of the market and industry structure that lead to three scenarios that will happen in our lives.
scene one:
Member recharge on different platforms
Let’s first look at TV industry giant Hisense Video (600060.SH).
The financial report shows that Hisense Video's retail sales market share of TV products (including laser TVs) in 2021 is 20.92%, ranking first in the country.
The customer service of Hisense’s official flagship store told Red Star Capital Bureau that the content side (film and television side) of the different models of TVs they launched are different.
For example, the content that comes with Hisense 55E3H TV is iQiyi, and the content that comes with 65E35H TV is Youku.
"If you need (other APP platforms), you can download it yourself, use a U disk to download and install it on the computer and install it on the TV." The customer service of Hisense Customer Service Center told Red Star Capital Bureau.
Not only Hisense Video, Red Star Capital Bureau learned that the same is true for TV products of brands such as TCL: the TV has its own content, but it also supports users to download other APP platforms for installation.
From the manufacturer's point of view, the more online video content a TV can provide, the more consumers will love it. However, TV manufacturers are unable to connect all video apps, so they can only mix these APP platforms into a TV.
Simply put, televisions are becoming mobile.
The current TV is like a large-screen mobile phone, which can be installed with different APPs. When users need to watch videos, they need to recharge members for each APP separately, and even pay for on-demand broadcasts.
Assume that a user has three APPs A, B, and C installed on his TV, and the user recharges membership on platform A to watch the movie "A", and then wants to watch the movie "B", but "B" is on platform B Exclusive play, so you need to recharge the membership again.
Scene two:
Member recharge through different ports on the same platform
When answering the questions from the Red Star Capital Bureau, the staff of many TV manufacturers directly called the content parties "iqiyi", "Youku" or "Tencent Video", but in fact, these APP platforms have their own exclusive TV versions. name.
According to reports, the TV version of iQiyi is called "(Galaxy) Kiwi TV", the TV version of Youku is called "Kumiao", and the TV version of Tencent Video is called "Cloud Audiovisual (Aurora)".
A staff member of a TV manufacturer told Red Star Capital Bureau that the mobile phone members of these platforms cannot use it on the TV.
In other words, even if your account has a mobile member of a certain platform, but you log in to the account on the TV, you still cannot play the member content of the platform on the TV.
Not only that, the fees for supporting TV memberships are often higher than those for mobile memberships.
Taking iQiyi as an example, its gold VIP only supports three ports of computer, mobile phone, and tablet, while platinum VIP adds an additional TV port.
In the case of no discount, gold VIP is 30 yuan/month, 78 yuan/season, 258 yuan/year, while platinum VIP is 50 yuan/month, 128 yuan/season, 388 yuan/year.
Scene three:
Distinguish membership recharge for children's content
The above two scenarios are based on members with different systems in the TV, but Red Star Capital Bureau found that some manufacturers are trying to build an aggregated platform, such as Hisense Video and Xiaomi Group (01810.HK).
Among them, Hisense Video owns the brand "Jukankan".
Jukan’s official website shows that its content ecology covers 100% of hit dramas and 100% of blockbuster movies, with a total duration of more than 2 million hours of feature films, covering high-quality content from platforms such as iQiyi, Tencent and Youku.
The relevant staff of Hisense explained the operation mode of Jukan to the Red Star Capital Bureau in relatively common words, "It is equivalent to Jukan is a big APP, which includes Youku, Kiwi, Mango and so on."
In contrast, Xiaomi's own platform seems to have gradually become a system.
According to a report from International Online in December 2022, the dual-terminal integration of Xiaomi TV film and television membership (TV terminal) and Xiaomi Film and Television membership (mobile terminal), and the brand upgrade to Xiaomi Film and Television VIP membership.
However, Red Star Capital Bureau found that even under the same system, Xiaomi TV users may still need to recharge twice.
In addition to the VIP members of Xiaomi Film and Television, Xiaomi has also launched the VIP membership of Xiaomi Children's Growth, which includes 260,000 episodes of cartoons, 27,000 nursery rhymes, 3,000 picture books, and 4,000 English animations.
Assuming that a family buys a Mi TV and their children need to watch it, the recharge fee spent on Mi TV is about 697 yuan per year, including 348 yuan for the annual VIP membership card of Xiaomi Film and Television, and 349 yuan for the VIP membership of Xiaomi Children’s Growth (both discounts are available now). ).
reporter observation
Why complicate TV?
Originated from LeEco’s style of play, the profit comes from this
Why are TVs getting more and more complicated?
The Red Star Capital Bureau traced back and found that around 2016, LeTV under the leadership of Jia Yueting launched the "ecological subsidy hardware" game, that is, selling LeTV super TVs to consumers at a price lower than the cost, and even launched the "buy members to get hardware" Activity.
This set of gameplay can be simply understood as: LeTV Super TV loses money, but makes money back through "living room marketing".
At the end of November 2016, LeTV Super TV announced on its official account that the birth of Super TV lowered the threshold for using smart TVs, allowing 9 million families to enter a large-screen ecological life, and reduced the average price of smart TVs in the entire industry by more than 30%.
Over the years, LeTV's ecology has collapsed, but this set of gameplay seems to have been passed down among TV manufacturers.
A person from a TV manufacturer confirmed to the Red Star Capital Bureau that the pre-installed APP platform, boot advertisements, and commissions from third-party members are part of their income, but the interviewees said that they did not know the specific commission fees and other data.
Maybe look back and forth at the TV with reference to your phone.
According to the China Economic Times, the general charge for pre-installing a non-uninstallable software on a mobile phone is around 3 yuan.
Assuming that the pre-installation cost of TVs can also reach 3 yuan per model, then for a TV manufacturer with an annual shipment of 50 million units, the profit from only one APP platform may reach 150 million yuan.
Chengdu Commercial Daily-Red Star News reporter Yang Peiwen