2012 New Year has come to "triple play" will go from here

Since the first batch of triple play pilot cities were announced in 2010, until the end of 2011, the boots of the second batch of pilot cities did not drop, delaying the one-year three-network integration overshadowed the progress of 2012. Under the background that institutional problems are difficult to solve, and the strengths and weaknesses of both the telecommunications and radio and television departments are relatively clear, and the advantages and disadvantages of both parties are obvious, the integration of the three networks will become a major problem that the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the SARFT need to solve in 2012.

Second Batch of Pilot Cities “Difficulty”

At the National Conference on Industry and Informatization at the end of 2011, Miao Wei, Minister of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, revealed that in 2012, the three networks will continue to be integrated, and pilots will be expanded to cities, capital cities, and other cities that meet the conditions as soon as possible to promote radio and television. Telecommunications companies will intensify their innovation in technology, business, and cooperation to drive related technology research and development and supporting industries.

Prior to this meeting, related persons from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology revealed that the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology had already drawn up a list of the second batch of pilot sites for triple play. This "Telecom list" is more extensive than the provincial program that came before. However, Radio and TV have disagreed with the above plans. Its current thinking is that it should be carried out in areas where both related businesses are relatively mature, and the more attractive Italian programs are piloted in some provincial capital cities.

However, analysts believe that the final list still requires the State Council's three-network integration working group to determine after coordinating the telecommunications, radio and television of the two sides of the program, the final introduction time is not clear, it may postpone until March 2012 or later. Based on the schedule in the previous Tri-Network Consolidation Pilot Program, the list of the second batch of pilot areas should generally be launched between August 2011 and March 2012.

At the same time, China Telecom and China Unicom are still expanding their number of IPTV subscribers in many non-pilot cities such as Shijiazhuang, Tianjin, Guangzhou and Wuxi. By the end of November 2011, there were more than 12 million IPTV subscribers in China. From the data point of view, telecom operators have become the actual winners of triple play. In fact, broadcasting and television have little hope of making breakthroughs in the field of broadband services. In the past year, Shenzhen, with the largest increase in the number of cable broadband users, has only grown by less than 30,000.

On June 30, 2010, the General Office of the State Council issued the "Circular on Issuing the First Batch of Tri-Network Convergence Pilot Areas (Cities)". According to the "Notice", in addition to the two municipalities directly under the Central Government in Beijing and Shanghai, the selected areas include four provincial capitals - Harbin, Wuhan, Hangzhou, Nanjing, and four cities with separate plans - Shenzhen, Qingdao, Xiamen, Dalian, and 1 non-areas. The capital city of the province is Mianyang City, Sichuan Province, and an urban agglomeration—the Changsha, Zhuzhou and Xiangtan regions of Hunan Province.

In the following year and a half, the second batch of pilot cities that had been waiting for was delayed due to "disputes" between broadcasting and telecommunications departments. Judging from the current situation, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and telecommunications have greater enthusiasm for the expansion of the triple play. After the tri-network integration began in 12 cities in early July 2010, IPTV users in the pilot cities have grown rapidly and have grown by more than 1.7 million in the past year and a half.

Radio and television, telecoms, and public relations are difficult to adjust Although the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology actively proposes solutions, the idea of ​​radio and television is to be developed in areas where both related businesses are relatively mature. The fact is that in terms of the integration of radio and television in the three networks, there are not many mature cities, and once it is rolled out, it is difficult to compete with telecommunications.

Due to institutional problems, the speed of provincial network integration of radio and television networks in broadcasting and TV provinces was significantly slower than expected, which led to the postponement of the establishment of national cable network companies until the end of 2012. The next-generation radio and television network NGB began planning in 2009. Still only a breakthrough in Shanghai.

According to Fu Fengchun, member of the State Council's Sanhe integration working group and chief engineer of the Shenzhen Broadcasting Group, the radio and television network has its own problems, and it is difficult to develop broadband services even if it is qualified.

At present, the biggest bottleneck of the broadcasting and TV network is the bandwidth of the home. After the upgrading of telecommunications, it has reached an average speed of 10 trillion to 20 trillion, and the radio and television are still only 2 trillion. If you want to achieve the current rate of telecom home, radio and television need more than 10 times the cost of the previous two-way transformation investment, for the tight funding of radio and television is a daunting task, which also affected the radio and television sector to advance the pace of triple play.

Compared with the sluggishness of Radio and TV in NGB, China Telecom’s “Optical Network City” plan has made breakthroughs in Shanghai, Wuhan, Guangzhou, and many other places. The average bandwidth of Shanghai Optical Network users has been upgraded to 10MB for free, and optical network users are also More than 1.5 million households.

Under such circumstances, telecom operators clearly hope to use the expansion of triple play to continue to strive to propose a "wireless city" plan and obtain local government policy support. Thus, at the beginning of December 2011, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology submitted a three-network integration expansion plan for nearly 40 cities.

However, SARFT has concerns that the relevant person from the Department of Science and Technology told the media that the focus of the broadcasting and TV department in 2012 is still to promote the provincial network integration and establish a national cable network company, so that the new media services such as IPTV and CMMB of broadcasting and television can be obtained in quantity. Breakthroughs, in addition, accelerated the construction of NGB networks in 12 pilot cities including Shanghai.

Wu Chunyong, editor-in-chief of FusionNet, believes that radio and television are more inclined to provincial programs. Many local radio and television operators have great concerns about the competitive pressures of telecom operators after triple play, so they are basically reluctant to register, but the provincial capital has submitted proposals under the request of the General Administration of Communications. .

Fu Fengchun believes that for the Ministry of Telecommunications and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, they have achieved great success in the trial of triple play, and the number of IPTV subscribers has increased significantly. However, the IPTV service is not connected with the IPTV heavily built by Radio and TV, and it can be said that Radio and Television did not have any results. However, while the cable broadband business has even experienced a decline in market share, the radio and television industry has reservations about the pilot expansion of the triple play.

According to industry analysts, in order to mobilize the enthusiasm of local radio and television, SARFT is still planning to impose penalties on telecom operators in non-pilot cities.

"Pilot cities" is not the key "The second batch of pilot cities has not yet been gambled on the game. This is not the key to the problem. It is difficult to advance the triple play, and it is difficult to carry out the 'two-way entry' system." Some insiders believe that the second batch of pilot lists is How many cities are actually not important, what is important is whether these cities can achieve effective roll-out, whether they can form a relatively good sense for pilots, allow radio and television and telecommunications to penetrate each other in their respective business advantage areas, and comprehensively and quickly advance integration. If radio and television and telecommunications still cannot achieve "two-way entry" in substantive terms, triple-play convergence may not be able to complete planning at various points in time.

Wu Chunyong believes that the launch of pilot cities is only a means and form. The pilot at the business level is the most crucial step in the process of China's triple play. Its demonstration effect and its impact are very deep. The second batch of pilots must be carefully considered. “Since the launch of the first batch of 12 triple play pilot areas in June 2010, no real agreement has been reached in terms of IPTV services, broadband services, etc., and no tri-network convergence business trial “competition” has been formed in the true sense. Development planning, assumptions.” Wu Chunyong believes that the trial of triple play will ultimately require operators to enter the service at a two-way level. If operators cannot effectively solve the current contradiction, the second batch of trials will be rushed to be expanded. After that, the future is very likely to outweigh the gains.

At present, the focus of the game between TV broadcasting and telecom in the triple play is mainly two points. One is that telecommunications has been catering to IPTV licenses, and radio and television holds the right to examine and approve licenses. At present, the licenses of radio and television are only issued to CNTV and other subordinate radio and television companies. Several companies, but Radio and Television has been hoping to have its own Internet data transmission channels, in the broadband business can form a substantive sense of competition with the telecommunications, which is the advantages of telecommunications.

In other words, regardless of whether it is a traditional broadcaster, content provider, telecommunication operator or cable network operator, all parties have their own advantages and disadvantages in the context of triple play.

Some commentators pointed out that only when the parties complement each other, but also use an inclusive attitude to cross-border and cultivate triple play, this new market will have a way out. “The most important thing is that the relevant functional management departments should quickly resolve the first batch The current situation of various thresholds encountered in pilot areas, or the more pilot cities proposed, the more and more problems will arise."

Some analysts believe that the unequal strength between telecommunications and broadcasting is also a major obstacle to cooperation between the two parties. According to the materials, the revenue of radio and television cable business in 2009 was only 37 billion yuan, and the three major telecom operators added together 842.43 billion yuan, 22 times more than the former. In 2011, this gap did not shrink. The two sides are not equal in strength and the starting point is not the same. Moreover, this gap in strength cannot be changed, and it is even more impossible to force the telecom operators to unilaterally support radio and television because they are subject to institutional factors and cannot support them in the short term.

Some experts pointed out that in order to expand pilots and promote the country, it is necessary to solve two problems in terms of radio and television: First, telecommunications IPTV must be connected with the broadcasting and TV platform, the two major broadcasting and TV platforms must be merged; second, telecommunications must completely release broadband from broadcasting and TV. Business, to achieve network interconnection and interoperability and significantly reduce inter-network costs, it is best that Radio and TV can obtain the IDC data center, the basic network operator qualification for international Internet exports.

Links in the three networks integration memorabilia In April 1997, the State Council held a national informatization work conference in Shenzhen. The meeting discussed and adopted the “National Informatization Master Plan” and proposed the concept of “three networks” for the first time.

In March 2001, the "Tenth Five-Year Plan" clearly stated that "the promotion of integration of telecommunications, television, and computer networks".

In May 2009, the State Council approved the “Circular on Deepening the Reform of Economic System in 2009” and proposed for the first time “to realize the two-way entry of radio and television companies and telecom companies, and to promote substantial progress in 'triple play'”.

In January 2010, Premier Wen Jiabao chaired an executive meeting of the State Council and decided to expedite the integration of the three networks and put forward two major phases of the goal of advancing the "three networks integration" and five key tasks.

On June 30, 2010, the General Office of the State Council issued the list of the first pilot regions (cities) for "triple play".

On October 27, 2010, the "Proposal of the CPC Central Committee on Formulating the Twelfth Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development" requires that during the "Twelfth Five-Year Plan" period, China will "enhance the overall level of informationization and realize telecommunication networks and broadcasting. Television Network, Internet 'Triple Play'."