Traversal of traditional TV against OTT, integration is the way to return

OTT has become a pig in the video industry for several years in succession. Without any burst of growth data such as user coverage, user traffic, and market size, OTT alone has long been the vane of the video industry.
The subject matter in the United States is Netflix. Its share price has soared from the $50/share at the beginning of 2010 to the current $450/share, up 10 times faster. The subject matter in China is LeTV. Its stock price has soared from the RMB 5/share it listed in 2010 to the current RMB 90/share, which is 20 times faster. Coupled with Hulu, Amazon, iQIYI, Youku Tudou, etc., is simply the spring of the OTT industry.


Remember those exciting time nodes? For example, Netflix has more subscribers than the nation’s largest cable TV operators, such as Netflix’s subscribers surpassing the nation’s top paid channel HBO, such as Netflix’s first subversion of content production operations through Big Data, and so on, all of which attracted the attention of the public.

Comparing with OTT's spurt, there is no doubt that the traditional TV is not dead. From the year-by-year churn of traditional TV subscriptions, to the slowdown and even negative growth of TV advertising revenue growth. Even Hulu, which was established by several major TV stations for the transition, seems to have contaminated the dawn of traditional television and sent news of destiny from time to time. Traditional TV has already been labeled as unreconstructed. It seems that the days of death are not far behind.

Imperial TV counterattack of traditional television

But OTT and so on came with a swift and powerful counterattack on traditional TV.

Take HBO, the originator of traditional pay TV, as an example. In fact, HBO GO, an interactive on-demand brand, was launched very early. However, users must subscribe to the corresponding cable TV or satellite TV payment package to watch it. Now that HBO is a complete fight, it has launched a brand new OTT brand called HBO NOW. Users can spend a dozen US dollars to subscribe to HBO.

Please pay attention to the adjective "separate subscription", which means that users do not need to subscribe to the cable TV or satellite TV package at a later time. They can subscribe to HBO's program content separately through the Internet. Users can really say that go to TM's cable TV and go Fuck $15 per month for HBO.


Do you know what this means for HBO?

HBO has about 30 million subscribers in North America. The current annual revenue of US$5.4 billion is almost entirely obtained through cable television channels, with a profit of US$1.8 billion and a profit margin of 33.3%. In comparison, there are approximately 40 million Netflix North American subscribers. The current annual revenue of 5.5 billion U.S. dollars is obtained through streaming media channels, with a profit of 400 million U.S. dollars and a profit rate of 7.3%.

HBO's launch of the independent OTT brand HBO NOW means that HBO risked losing a lot of cable revenue and profits to compete with Netflix. Entering the network requires a huge CDN cost, requires a large amount of technical operation and maintenance costs, and even requires the cost of outsourcing copyright.

It can be said that HBO's doing this is beyond the pure tactical level and it is definitely a strategic level action. This effect is immediate, and HBO’s new subscribers in 2014 exceeded the sum of the past 30 years.

Another TV company, CBS, also launched CBSAll Access, an online video service brand, in mid-October 2014. It pays US$5.99 a month. All subscribers can watch CBS season hits and past classic episodes. Support online live broadcast feature. Within a few months after its launch, it covered more than half of U.S. households and hundreds of thousands of subscribers.

In addition to direct TV station OTT, traditional TV operators represented by Comcast and Dish also retain users by providing streaming media services such as SlingTV. The financial reports disclosed by these traditional television operators show that the loss of television users has slowed down substantially, and the most difficult time has passed.

Do not look abroad. Actually, the domestic TV station's actions in OTT are not small (of course, this is related to OTT control and propaganda strategy). First and foremost, Hunan Broadcasting and Television, relying solely on the broadcasting of high quality variety shows, and the mango TV's new media strategy, which has been vigorously carried out, has seen initial success from the perspective of repercussions. The SMG also shouted the slogan of "Transition of the Internet" after the reunification of Li Shushan. The restructured five business groups have the shadow of the Internet, and the OTT is preparing 2.5 billion ammunition. As for the other and more special Chinese number, since it was affixed to the giant tree of Ali, it was radiant and the new media had done a great job. CCTV, on the other hand, played a less important role in the OTT. As a result, CCTV changed the director of the company and some people interpreted it as a new media.

When OTTs were preparing to omit others, they suddenly discovered that traditional televisions carrying networks, content, and users had launched an Empire counterattack.

Why do you do now? <br> In fact, many people have doubts. Since the TV station can own OTT other people, why not do it early? Why wait until Netflix and LeTV are in the limelight!

First, TV stations rely on what they eat and rely on content to eat. As for the content sold to whom? Whoever sells the high price to whom, OTT has money to let it buy at a high price. Since it is possible to earn money through traditional channels and earn big money, why bother to think about making small money on the Internet channel, and you may also lose a lot of money? Therefore, for the downstream channels, it is to take a slow look and take a slow walk, so that the “devil” will be charged in front of it. When the situation is clear, the money in hand is to be used. The content is in me anyway. So do not look at HBO is now ambitious on the network, in 2012 there are more than 100,000 people signed the request to launch HBO online version, people are unwilling to move. Now we must do it. We must do something special to show that the market's wind direction is on the eve of a drastic change and we need to go in for a card slot. To put it plainly, tactics are all for strategy.

Second, to make OTT yourself, look at the simple, just three words. In fact, behind it is the need for great technical and professional operational capabilities, television stations do what, do content. OTT is not simply a few servers, throwing away channels, and selling their content directly to users. You let it go with C++ every day, dealing with PV, VV? So these are the processes that need to be gradually accumulated. After years of study and study, it is estimated that they have learned more.


Nowadays, the ability of the Internet to communicate can be said to be comparable to that of traditional television. However, TV stations have been constantly preparing for the past few years. Now it is natural that they will move closer to OTT and new media.

However, when these TV stations all started their own OTTs, those who advertised as "OTT" should do it? Can I still get content? Can I still get users? Oh, don't be pessimistic. OTTs also have an advantage, that is, through the use of technology to achieve the integration of "science and technology and art", television stations through the content to achieve "technology and art" integration.

Economics also said that, in fact, competition does not eliminate opponents, but increase efficiency. The competition between OTT and the TV station is certainly not your life and death. In the end, everyone will achieve the same goal. If you truly achieve integration, you are me and I am you. This is not a unilateral elimination process. Whether it is the backward productivity of TV stations or the backward productivity of OTT, it will be eliminated.

People's Netflix CEO said something very embarrassing: "Our goal is to become HBO before HBO becomes us." In other words, OTT new media can also become TV stations.

In fact, he forgot to say: Chinese OTT colleagues, automatically omitting the latter sentence, or else at your own risk!

OTT's good show, just staged!