It took three days before the official opening of the 2018 World Cup football game, and the dispute over the World Cup's copyright has evoked a wave of public opinion in the country.
On June 10th, the reporter learned from the Hunan Provincial Cable TV Network (Group) Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Hunan Cable) that it had sued China Telecom Co., Ltd. Hunan Branch (hereinafter referred to as Hunan Telecom) for stealing in the IPTV business. Broadcast its exclusive authorized CCTV 3, 5, 6, 8 (high, standard definition) channel program, CCTV 5 is the main broadcast platform for this year's World Cup.
CCTV announced on June 5 that without authorization, any platform may not broadcast live and play back World Cup-related material. Affected by this includes a series of Internet TV boxes based on OTT transmission technology, such as the millet box and the Lynx Box, and the number of users is 1.8. Billion; there are China Telecom, China Unicom and other operators IPTV TV business, the number of users is 130 million.
Internet TV live in a grey zone
Fried chicken, beer, air-conditioning, accompanied by the four-year World Cup, this summer is wonderful again. June 14 kicked off the World Cup in Russia, and China only 5 hours time difference, the fans have wait and see.
But before that, some things may not be so beautiful. "Daily Economic News" reporter learned from a number of sources to confirm that watching the World Cup live broadcast on television, Internet TV, and operator IPTV TV 'can't do it'. This involves To a large number of viewing groups.
According to statistics, the channels for providing television programs can be roughly classified into four categories: cable television, operator IPTV, OTT technology Internet TV, and antenna reception.
For a long time, Internet TV has been walking in the grey area and providing live TV programs. An insider close to the radio and television regulatory authorities told the Daily Economic News that 'formerly OTT Boxes (Internet TV) also stalked live CCTV3, 5 , 6, 8 sets, but they will all be secretly shut down when there are large-scale sports events. Otherwise, it is too costly to get evidence.'
In 2011, the “Operational Management Requirements for Holding an Internet TV Licensing Authority” (commonly known as Document No. 181) issued by the former State Administration of Radio, Film, and Television directly restricted the live broadcast of OTT-based Internet TV. Article 6 of Part I of the Regulations expressly states that: , The Internet TV integration platform mainly supports video on demand and graphic and text information services. The technology interface of live services for broadcast and TV programs shall not be opened for the time being. In mid-2016, the regulator issued a document again requesting that the Internet television be rectified within a specified period of time. phenomenon.
Although Internet TV and operators' IPTVs have obstacles in watching live broadcasts, the real fans will certainly not give up the World Cup. This year, the way to watch the World Cup TV broadcast is still varied.
The Central Radio and TV Broadcasting Station has exclusive rights for all-media broadcasting rights and sub-delegation rights for the World Cup in mainland China. CCTV introduced that it will broadcast live broadcasts of the entire World Cup through television channels, CCTV websites, and new media clients. The cable TV users of provinces and cities such as Gehua Cable and Jiangsu Cable can watch the live broadcast of the game through the TV.
In addition, CCTV will also distribute new media copyrights to China Mobile's MIDI and Youku videos. 'Internet TV' cannot be broadcast live, and the 'Internet platform' can still be used. Under Internet broadband, users can pass Youku, MIYU video mobile phones. Clients and PC clients watch live and on-demand content of all World Cup matches.
Copyright disputes industry interests game
Internet TV does not have the ability to broadcast live TV programs from birth. What about IPTV TVs that have TV broadcast service?
IPTV is often in the form of China Telecom, China Unicom's 'HDTV + Broadband + Mobile Phone Packages'. China Mobile has not yet obtained an IPTV transmission license, and its Mobley and home TV services still use the OTT Internet TV model.
"Daily Economic News" reporter learned from a number of channels to be informed that this year, whether fans can watch China World Cup through China Telecom, China Unicom's IPTV TV, is uncertain.
The above insiders told reporters that CCTV channels 3, 5, 6, and 8 have been encrypted television programs since the start of broadcasting. Because many of the programs on these four channels are copyrighted, they are also purchased from other content providers. Many programs also involve international channels. Copyright, it is estimated that the exclusive copyright was signed at the time, so it is generally not easy to authorize third parties.
According to the latest data released by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, as of April this year, the number of IPTV TV users in China reached 136 million.
It is worth noting that the World Cup has not yet begun, and the copyright lawsuit has already been played. On June 9, Hunan Cable sued Hunan Telecom for pirating infringement. Hunan Cable stated that Hunan Cable is China Guangdong Television Satellite Co., Ltd. in Hunan Province. Exclusively authorized to broadcast 3, 5, 6, 8 channels of CCTV (high, standard definition) programs. All other video sites in Hunan Province broadcast IPTV on CCTV channels 3, 5, 6, and 8 (High, Standard Definition ) Programs are all infringements.
Hunan Cable said that it had filed a lawsuit to the Intermediate People's Court of Changsha City on June 8th and sued Hunan Telecom for pirating its exclusive authorized program, stressing that Hunan Cable is the only legal way to watch the World Cup in the region.
In addition, Shandong Broadcasting and Television also filed a case against China Telecom and China Unicom’s local branch for a similar copyright issue. In March of this year, Nanchang Radio and Television reported Jiangxi Telecom’s infringement of the case. The court ruled that the defendant Jiangxi Telecom ceased dissemination through its IPTV service (retransmission). CCTV 3, 5, 6, 8 sets of program behavior, and compensate the plaintiff economic losses and reasonable costs of 200,000 yuan.
However, telecommunications industry analyst Kang Wei told the “Daily Economic News” reporter that this is a dispute between the cable television broadcasting system and the telecom operators. The radio and television network enterprises must use copyright protection in the most critical programs to protect users. Its own interests. However, if local telecommunications, Unicom and local radio and television network transmission companies have cooperated, pay fees, you can watch the 3rd, 5, 6, 8 sets of CCTV programs.