With the explosion of live broadcast platforms, grassroots live broadcast content is no longer limited to entertainment, competition and other fields, but has gradually become daily and expanded to a more private space.
The widespread trend has catalyzed a group of anchors who seek to gain attention and sensationalize. The barrage in the live broadcast room is unsightly, which not only has a bad impact on public order and good morals, but also prevents many minors from establishing correct moral standards.
This time, the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television issued a notice: Live video and audio broadcasts of major political, military, economic, social, cultural, sports and other activities and events through the Internet should hold a series of terms such as the "Information Network Audiovisual Program License", aiming to rectify the messy atmosphere caused by the proliferation of live broadcasts and reshuffle the live broadcast industry.
1 The popularity of live streaming without thresholds is declining
According to the "2016 China Online Live Broadcasting Industry Special Study" data, since 2014 and 2015, live broadcast platforms have maintained a growth rate of more than 40%. In 2015, the number of online live broadcast platforms in China was close to 200, the number of online live broadcast platform users reached 200 million, and the number of people online at the same time during the daily peak hours of large live broadcast platforms was close to 4 million.
Behind the explosive growth of live streaming platforms, a situation of too many people and too little food has gradually emerged. In order to stand out and not be drowned in the vast "sea of broadcasts", some anchors choose to use other methods to attract the attention of netizens, sensationalize and dominate.
This has directly resulted in the uneven quality of live broadcasts and the increasing number of smoky live broadcast rooms. Even for those platforms that have signed contracts with multiple popular anchors, the number of paying users only accounts for less than 10% of the total number of users. Therefore, borderline incidents such as pornography and violence do not exist on a specific platform alone, but on the entire industry. There has even been a situation where female anchors on some platforms are forced to show off their live broadcasts, skirt around the edges of live broadcasts, and step on the red line to risk being out of position.
Not only that, but from the fact that anchors on the Douyu platform frequently broke their contracts and changed jobs in 2015, it can be seen that many anchors in this industry earn a lot of money and lack legal knowledge and lack of "contractual spirit". Douyu TV has brought several anchors to court, including Vincent, Cave Master, King's Little Brother, Luang Ziyan, and Witty Cake, and applied for pre-litigation property preservation. Among them, Vincent alone had 15 million in property frozen.
There are also many anchors who choose to find new ways to do something new and unconventional: live racing, live dressing, and even the "Ayi live broadcast" incident that made a lot of noise some time ago, etc. In an environment with zero threshold for live broadcasting, it is urgent to rectify the atmosphere in the live broadcasting industry.
2 Will Radio and Television’s survival be determined by a “subject hearing”?
In fact, as early as April this year, the Ministry of Culture held a "Symposium on Internet Culture Business Units" and has already included Douyu, Huya Live, YY, Panda TV, Zhanqi TV, Longzhu Live, Liujianfang, 9158 and other online live broadcast platforms on the investigation list. They were investigated and punished for allegedly providing Internet cultural products that promoted obscenity, violence, and instigated crimes.
At the same time, the heads of more than 20 major companies engaged in online live broadcasting, including Baidu, Sina, Sohu, iQiyi, LeTV, Youku, Kuwo, Inke, and Huajiao, jointly issued the "Beijing Online Live Broadcasting Industry Self-Discipline Convention", which stipulates that online anchors must register their real names and keep videos for no less than 15 days and no longer than 18Anchors under the age of 10 provide registration channels and other content.
Not long after, the Ministry of Culture also issued the "Notice on Strengthening the Management of Online Performances", which included the anchor responsibility system and the blacklist mechanism.
In July this year, the Cyber Security Bureau of the Ministry of Public Security decided to organize a nationwide special rectification work on online live broadcast platforms from the end of July to the end of October. Almost at the same time, the Ministry of Culture also announced the first batch of online performance blacklists, investigating and punishing 23 online cultural business units and a total of 26 online performance platforms in accordance with the law.
Under such control, there are still reports from time to time that the online live broadcast platform is suspected of spreading obscene, violent and other harmful content. This time, the radio and television directly used the life and death talisman to determine the life and death of the live broadcast platform.
The notice clearly states that institutions and individuals that do not hold an "Information Network Dissemination Audiovisual Program License" can neither carry out live broadcasts of personal shows, nor run various audiovisual programs such as news, variety shows, sports, interviews, reviews, etc., and are not allowed to open live audiovisual program channels. It also clearly stipulates that before conducting live broadcast activities, relevant information must be reported to the local press, publication, radio and television administrative department at or above the provincial level for filing.
In addition, without approval, no institution or individual may use "television station", "radio station", "radio station", "TV" and other proprietary names of radio and television to conduct business on the Internet. Platforms with "illegal" names such as Douyu TV, Huya TV, Longzhu TV, and Wang Sicong's Panda TV may have to consider changing their names next.
According to relevant information, as of June this year, the General Administration has issued a total of 586 licenses. These certificate-holding institutions include news publications, enterprises and institutions, etc.
A piece of "Visual Hearing" will naturally not cause trouble to major video portals such as Tencent, Youku Tudou, and LeTV, but for hundreds of live broadcast platforms, it is a matter of life and death.
3 The live streaming industry will undergo a major reshuffle
Among the current mainstream live broadcast platforms, only a small number of live broadcast platforms have the "Visual Hearing" issued by radio and television. However, the well-known Douyu TV, Huajiao Live, and Panda TV, which account for half of the live variety shows, actually do not have the "Visual Hearing".
In addition to these professional live video platforms, some large e-commerce companies may also be affected. It is not difficult to see from Alibaba’s successive acquisitions of Weibo and Youku Tudou that no matter how large an e-commerce company is, it needs content to “direct traffic” to the platform, so a cooperation model of live broadcast platform plus e-commerce was formed.
Not only that, e-commerce platforms such as Taobao and Jumei Youpin have also launched their own live broadcast platforms to "test the waters." However, it is obvious that these e-commerce giants should not have "video hearing".
According to analysis by industry insiders, large live broadcast platforms may try to apply for a license or obtain a license through cooperation, but some emerging live broadcast platforms may have to consider giving up this market.
In fact, before the notice to strengthen live broadcast supervision was issued, most live broadcast platforms only needed to obtain the "Internet Culture Business License" issued by the Ministry of Culture, but now it has been upgraded to the "Visual Hearing License" from the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television. In comparison, it requires more conditions and qualifications, so it is difficult to apply.
Live streamingThe industry radiates to other derivative industries in the Internet economy. In the context of an unoptimistic economic environment, it has solved the employment problem of many people. This is also the reason why the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television did not interfere too much before.
So this time, the supervision of online live broadcasts has been directly transferred from the Ministry of Culture to the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television, and Radio and Television has already taken action. This regulation will undoubtedly eliminate a large number of live broadcast platforms, and the entire industry may usher in a "major reshuffle."
