Smart TV usage routine survey： there are many options, the operation is cumbersome, and you want to watch the program nesting doll charges.
● Although smart TVs have increased the range of options for watching programs, there are many problems that have been criticized in the use process. From on-off advertisements to membership nesting doll-style charges, from inconvenient use, unfriendly to the elderly to after-sales services that cannot really solve the problem, a series of "routines" of smart TVs need to be improved urgently
● The situation of paid viewing of Internet Protocol Television is very common, and some consumers are also willing to pay for watching their favorite TV programs. However, on issues such as how many dramas members can watch and the cost of membership opening, merchants should make clear prompts before purchasing, so that consumers can choose the corresponding service according to their own needs when purchasing, otherwise it is suspected of infringing consumers’ right to know
In order to solve the problems in the use of smart TVs, we should play the role of the market, advocate businesses and advertising business entities to pursue profits while assuming social responsibility, actively carry out internal compliance management system construction, consciously reduce or even eliminate some unreasonable and illegal phenomenon
"Why is it so troublesome to watch TV!"
Zhang Bingcheng, who lives in Langfang, Hebei province, complained from the moment he turned on his son’s new year gift – an oversized LCD smart TV – during the lunar new year holiday.
"It’s mandatory to watch advertisements when you turn it on, and you can’t skip it. The various icons on the homepage make people don’t know how to operate. It’s hard to click on a TV series, and you have to open a membership to watch the whole episode. In addition to the members of the TV itself, there are also various App members. If you want to watch satellite TV programs, you have to buy a set-top box to open a digital channel. Why is it so laborious to watch TV on a TV?"
In recent years, from cable to digital to the Internet, TV technology has developed rapidly. Today’s smart TVs have greatly increased the range of options for watching programs after being connected to the Internet. However, a recent investigation by a reporter from the "Rule of Law Daily" found that there are many problems that have been criticized in the use of smart TVs. From on-off advertisements to membership nesting fees, from inconvenient use, unfriendly to the elderly to after-sales services that cannot really solve the problem, a series of "routines" of smart TVs need to be improved urgently.
Boot and cut screen advertisements continue
If you want to watch the show, the matryoshka will be charged.
"Every time you turn on the TV, you have to watch an advertisement, and when you turn it off, you have to watch it again. Sometimes you have to watch an advertisement for a program on demand. I originally wanted to watch TV, but I was’hit head-on ‘by a long commercial advertisement." Ding Lei, of Wuxi, Jiangsu, told reporters that his smart TV would have a 30-second boot advertisement every time it was turned on, and every time he switched channels, similar advertisements such as "Watching TV members, limited time × × yuan a year" would automatically pop up, which made him very disgusted.
According to the "2021 Smart TV Switch Advertising Research Report" released by People’s Daily Online Finance and Economics Research Institute, more than 89.9% of respondents said that the smart TV in their homes contains switch-on advertisements, 86.09% of manufacturers do not set a "one-click cancel or close button" for switch-on advertisements, and 72.73% of respondents said "can’t bear it for a second".
It is worth noting that in 2020, the China Electronic Video Industry Association established the group standard "Smart TV Boot Advertising Service Specifications", which stipulates that "the total duration of boot advertising should not exceed 30 seconds, and the recommended advertising duration of this specification should be within 15 seconds." The Advertising Law stipulates that the use of the Internet to publish and send advertisements shall not affect users’ normal use of the Internet. Advertisements published in the form of pop-ups on Internet pages should be clearly marked with a shutdown sign to ensure one-click shutdown.
Although there are regulations for a long time, the reporter found in the investigation that smart TV advertising violations are still very common. Many smart TV advertisements are not only longer than 30 seconds, but also do not provide a shutdown sign in a prominent position, or even skip or close signs at all.
In addition to the advertising issue, many respondents said that the charging rules of smart TVs are a headache, "after spending money to buy a TV, you have to pay for it layer by layer".
Liang Jing, from Suzhou, Anhui Province, said in an interview that she now regrets buying a smart TV.
"At that time, the promotion was 4K ultra-high definition image quality and high fidelity sound system. Owning it was equivalent to having a home theater, and only when you bought it did you find that you need a member to watch almost everything." In the opening member interface displayed by Liang Jing, the reporter saw that the membership package that comes with the smart TV is 288 yuan per year, while the package season costs 148 yuan. The TV membership does not include other column members. If you want to watch the children’s channel, you need to open a children’s channel membership, which is 9.9 yuan for the first month of a continuous monthly subscription. The learning channel needs to open an annual card of 298 yuan. Variety, education, sports, and major program types want to watch.
The reporter calculated and found that if all the members of the smart TV itself are opened, the annual cost will exceed 1,000 yuan. In addition, if you want to watch programs on the TV through the online video platform, many content must be opened as a member of the online video platform to watch normally, and the member can only use it on the TV side, and it is not interoperable with the mobile phone side. For example, a platform gold member can use it on the three major platforms of mobile phones, tablets and computers. The annual card is 258 yuan, while the diamond member only has one more TV side. The annual card is 448 yuan, which is nearly double the price.
"Just like matryoshka dolls, there are small members in the big members, and there are special members when you buy small members. The rules for setting fees are to guide you to choose consecutive monthly subscriptions or direct annual subscriptions, otherwise it is not cost-effective. What’s more annoying is that once I opened a children’s channel for my child for one month, the operator automatically renewed the fee for the next month, and did not remind me in advance." Liang Jing complained.
On February 1, the reporter went to Binjiang Road Commercial Street, Heping District, Tianjin and consulted the sales staff of a number of smart TV stores as a consumer. The reporter noticed that the sales staff rarely mentioned the above topics if they did not take the initiative to ask whether there are boot advertisements, whether they need to open a membership to watch the program normally, and whether they charge and what the charging standard is.
Chen Yinjiang, deputy secretary-general of the Consumer Rights Protection Law Research Association of the China Law Society, believes that the current situation of paid viewing of smart TVs and Internet Protocol Television is very common, and some consumers are also willing to pay for watching their favorite TV programs. However, on issues such as how many dramas members can watch and the cost of membership opening, merchants should make clear prompts before purchasing, so that consumers can choose the corresponding service according to their own needs when purchasing, otherwise it is suspected of infringing consumers’ right to know. At the same time, various impractical programs that require members’ settings and payment settings with obvious "calculation" behavior may be suspected of forced consumption.
Many options are cumbersome to operate
Very unfriendly to the elderly
Returning to his hometown for the Chinese New Year this year, Wang Xu from Zhenjiang, Jiangsu, found that he couldn’t use his grandfather’s TV anymore.
"There are only three remote controls, one for Internet Protocol Television, one for cable TV, and one for a cable TV set-top box. I tried to switch from Internet Protocol Television to cable TV for a long time without success. Watching TV itself is for leisure, how did it become so troublesome to operate?" Wang Xu lamented.
Wang Xu said that unlike the previous cable TV, which can be watched when turned on, smart TVs and Internet Protocol Television operate like mobile phones. There are various options on the screen, and if you want to watch CCTV Satellite TV, you need to switch the receiving channel. "Now although there are more programs that can be watched after the TV is connected to the Internet, the’threshold ‘for watching TV is getting higher and higher. If you want to turn on the TV to watch the channel you want, it is like crossing a barrier. You have to click on countless options."
After interviewing many people in Beijing, Tianjin, Anhui, Jiangsu and other places, the reporter found that the vast majority of people who watch TV every day are the elderly, and for the middle-aged and elderly groups, the operation of smart TVs is obviously too complicated. Wang Xu’s grandfather calls his grandson for help every time he turns on the TV, while the neighbors are the children at home who adjust the TV to their parents every morning before going to work.
There are still many inconveniences. During the investigation, the reporter found that Internet Protocol Television has problems such as picture cards, picture deformation, and equipment use. Li Ping from Xinxiang, Henan told the reporter that if you open cable TV members to watch CCTV satellite TV directly through Internet Protocol Television, it will occupy home broadband, and sometimes there will be card phenomena when watching programs.
When consumers report to the customer service, some customer service staff do not ask or really solve the problem. The cable TV set-top box of Beijing citizen Li Fei’s smart TV is faulty. To switch channels, you must place the remote control within one or two meters of the set-top box and press it to respond. Changing the set-top box did not solve the problem. The maintenance staff said it was the problem of the system itself. The two sides communicated and pulled for several days, and the maintenance staff refused to repair it.
Multi-party collaborative comprehensive governance
Improve user TV viewing
The reporter retrieved relevant information and found that the problems existing in smart TV and Internet Protocol Television, especially the advertising chaos, have existed since the popularity of digital TV, and have been attracting attention for many years. Why haven’t these problems been effectively solved?
Du Leqi, chairperson of the Economic Law Research Association of Jiangsu Law Society and associate professor of Jiangsu University Law School, believes that this is the result of a combination of factors.
He introduced that the first is the mismatch between advertising laws and regulations and new types of advertising. With the rapid development of the Internet and digital economy, the advertising industry has also developed rapidly. Today’s advertising methods are more diverse, spread more widely, carry more content, and change more rapidly, which has exacerbated the proliferation of advertising. The embedding of digital or online platforms not only enriches the forms of advertising, but also enhances the concealment of advertising, making it more difficult to use relevant laws and regulations to identify advertisements. Second, there are deficiencies in government regulatory policies and efforts. In the process of law enforcement, government regulators have failed to truly crack down and strengthen supervision. In addition, the technical level of regulatory departments cannot match the market development momentum, and cannot prevent or detect problems in a timely manner.
"There is a lack of supervision in advertising industry organizations, social supervision organizations and individual consumers. The self-discipline review mechanism of the advertising industry in our country has not been able to form a complete and multi-level self-discipline system. There is no full-time self-discipline organization in our country, and the self-discipline function of member associations has not yet been perfected. The realization of advertising self-discipline function is mainly undertaken by advertising operators and advertising publishers, but driven by interests, it is difficult for individual enterprises as advertising operators and advertising publishers to be fair and law-abiding. Consumers play a small role in the specific supervision process due to lack of sufficient incentives and weak ability." Du Leqi said.
Experts interviewed by reporters believe that to solve the problems of smart TV, Internet Protocol Television advertising, high fees, and cumbersome operations, multi-party collaborative governance is required.
In the view of Zhu Xiaojuan, associate professor of China University of Political Science and Law, director and deputy secretary-general of the Commercial Law Research Association of the China Law Society, we should give play to the role of the market, advocate businesses and advertising business entities to pursue profits while assuming social responsibility, actively carry out internal compliance governance system construction, and consciously reduce or even eliminate some unreasonable and illegal phenomena. The Interim Measures for the Management of Internet Advertising and other relevant laws and regulations need to strengthen the targeted adjustment of illegal acts.
"In terms of legal responsibility, administrative responsibility is the main one and the amount of punishment is too low to play a deterrent role. The amount of fines should be increased. At the same time, it is appropriate to increase the provisions of civil liability to give full play to the role of legal responsibility. In addition, the lack of administrative management system based on geographical jurisdiction and pre-event supervision power, coupled with the use of technology, affect the effectiveness of administrative supervision. Information sharing and administrative cooperation mechanisms should be established to save the cost of transferring jurisdiction. We should also strengthen pre-trial spot checks and supervision to force relevant entities to standardize behavior. At the same time, we should strengthen the application of technology to actively detect advertising violations and investigate and deal with them in a timely manner. We should also give play to the self-discipline and leading role of industry associations, urge industry associations to formulate industry norms, strengthen industry self-discipline, and promote the healthy development of the industry." Zhu Xiaojuan
In the opinion of Tang Wei, a lawyer at Beijing Yinghe Law Firm, for the elderly, the complex membership system is not conducive to their understanding, and smart TV merchants should clearly prompt and guide. For example, issues such as mobile phones, tablets and TVs cannot be used universally are often prone to disputes, and they should clearly indicate the scope and channels of viewing after purchasing such members when charging to avoid disputes.
With the consensus that "most TVs are now watched by the elderly", many respondents hope to make smart TVs and Internet Protocol Television senior-friendly. Some people suggest that some positive TV dramas suitable for the elderly should be watched for free. Others believe that radio and television, the three major operators can make their IPTV set-top boxes into TV applications like other apps, and put them in the TV application mall. Users who need them can directly download and install them, which can "control" everything with one remote control like before.
Zheng Ning, director of the Law Department of the School of Cultural Industry Management, Communication University of China, believes that with the arrival of the aging society, there are more and more elderly audiences, and it is necessary to carry out the senior-friendly transformation of smart TVs, which is not only the need to implement the elderly rights protection law, but also can reduce the digital divide.
"Operators can consider broadcasting some movies and TV dramas that contribute to the construction of a good family style and a clean culture, and the government can also use subsidies, grants, tax exemptions and other means to encourage the broadcast of such films, so as to spread the core socialist values," Zheng Ning said.