In the parents' generation, if anyone had a black and white TV set in the village, the entire village would compete to watch. At that time, televisions could definitely be considered high-end luxury goods, and even with money, it was not necessarily possible to buy them

In the parents' generation, if anyone had a black and white TV set in the village, the entire village would compete to watch. At that time, televisions could definitely be considered high-end luxury goods, and even with money, it was not necessarily possible to buy them. Buying televisions also required competition.

With the improvement of our generation's living standards, television has become a standard feature for every household. Most average families can afford it, but surprisingly, the frequency of TV usage is getting lower and lower. Many office workers joke that they can't even watch news broadcasts without paying TV bills, and the greed of TV manufacturers has cut their financial path.

The phenomenon of speechless overcharging on television

There is a common phenomenon: after work, couples return home and lie on the sofa playing with their phones. The TV at home is covered in a thick layer of dust, and the TV they bought has never been turned on.

In a situation where people's demand for televisions is becoming increasingly low, some TV manufacturers do not consider the updates and upgrades of televisions, but instead treat consumers as fools and "pit" ordinary people's sweat and money through membership watching!

One of the main reasons why most young people nowadays do not use television is that watching TV programs requires a fee. If they do not pay the fee, they may not even be able to watch news broadcasts.

You can imagine that buying a TV may cost us thousands of yuan.

After buying it, there are various service fees to pay in order to watch the program normally. Otherwise, the TV we buy back can only be used as a decoration.

Spending thousands of yuan to buy a decoration back is really not cost-effective!

Nowadays, mobile phones and tablets can easily watch TV programs when connected to the internet.

I remember ten years ago, my family bought a 60 inch LCD TV, which was not a plasma TV and I couldn't afford it. When the TV came back, I sat in front of it all day and watched it all by myself. It was so great! You should know that when I was a child, the TV was not only black and white, but also had a relatively small screen.

I remember that in the summer vacation of my freshman year, after Appendicitis surgery, I lay at home for half a month and could not go out. I had to endure physical pain while watching TV to divert my attention.

At that time, television was the true television, and there was a software on it that included domestic and foreign blockbusters. I had a special fondness for foreign movies.

To this day, that period is vivid in my mind. In my opinion, there are over 200 foreign movies, all of which are free and use the clearest picture quality.

Compared to current televisions, I felt like I had made a lot of money at that time. Nowadays, televisions are like a display screen, and apart from cumbersome advertisements, they only take five minutes to try and buy members.

What I miss the most is the midsummer summer vacation when I watched big TV alone, and everything was free.

Quietly, after recovering from my illness, I went home from school and happily turned on the TV to watch. My mind went blank, and over 95% of the movies I had watched before required membership and could no longer watch them for free. During that time, when I returned home, all my happiness disappeared!

Gradually, no one watched our TV at home, and my mobile phone and computer became my main forms of entertainment when I returned home. Later, my father installed the set-top box again and deducted ten yuan per month. I still paid this ten yuan because I could only watch TV programs and only the elderly at home occasionally watched them.

The situation in our family is like this. The elderly play with their phones during the day and night, and the TV is only turned on during the Chinese New Year. Even my ten yuan is wasted.

I don't remember when I needed a VIP. Later on, video software such as iQiyi and Tencent were developed, and watching videos required various VIP members, ranging from tens to twenties per month. Until now, VIP prices on various platforms are constantly increasing.

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Just over a year ago, at the beginning of this year, major platforms were criticized by the People's Daily.

The phenomenon of speechless overcharging on television

Major platforms adopt the "doll style membership" approach, which refers to the difficulty for consumers to watch whatever they want despite having one member after another on TV.

If consumers want to watch TV independently, they need to purchase:TV built-in membership+video website movie membership+TV drama membership+children's membershipIt seems that this is Matryoshka doll, one by one. You don't know how many members are waiting for you to fill the program you want to watch.

TV manufacturers share profits with content copyright owners through pre installed video apps, installation of startup advertisements, and opening of third-party membership. And the members that consumers are purchased by dolls are the "big heads" who are divided into, and consumers become the big heads!

Smart TV, which cost thousands of yuan, has no hard core technology strength and screen display power. Unfortunately, without members, it is just a display that can't broadcast anything!

The reason for this is, on the one hand, that the exporting party of video content copyright is becoming increasingly powerful, and consumers can only search within the scope they provide, without any bargaining power.

On the other hand, there are currently no clear legal provisions or national or industry standards regulating the business of television membership.

A Guangdong netizen sued iQiyi

This netizen is a seven year old fan of iQiyi and has long been a Gold VIP member. However, when watching the drama, the clarity of the screen projection is still limited.

Now this netizen has taken iQiyi to court, and the court has also filed a case for review. As soon as the news came out, it immediately exploded on the internet, and netizens all praised and supported it!

On January 11, 2023, Mr. Zhu from Guangdong discovered that iQiyi had limited the clarity of Gold VIP members' screens on TVs to 480P. If you want higher clarity, you need higher level members.

And for a Platinum membership of 4K, it only costs 218 yuan per year!

The operation of "unilateral coercion" and "cutting leeks" by iQiyi is not generally unsightly!

The plaintiff's lawyer believes that screen projection is one of the basic functions of VIP, and iQiyi's "doll" behavior is very unacceptable! On January 29th, the Beijing Internet Court has filed a case.

You can charge a fee, but it should be reasonable

In fact, most consumers can understand the charging needs of TV manufacturers, as they also need to make money.

However, the reason why people constantly complain about TV manufacturers is mainly to criticize some TV manufacturers for unreasonable and arbitrary charges. There is nothing wrong with the fees, but they must be controlled within a reasonable range.

Now we support genuine and copyright protection, and it is also appropriate to pay corresponding fees during the viewing process. We believe that such charges are also reasonable, but TV manufacturers also need to disclose specific charging standards and control prices within a reasonable range.

If we continue to use the Matryoshka doll style routine to induce consumer consumption, then the majority of consumers will only become more and more cold hearted, and as time passes, the television industry will also be eliminated from the market.

After all, besides the TV being able to watch videos, there are other alternatives now, such as purchasing a display screen directly to watch the programs you want through network projection, or purchasing a projector directly to connect with the network and enjoy the viewing pleasure brought by the large screen.

If TV manufacturers continue to act recklessly and do not want to correct their behavior, they will lose more and more TV buyers and ultimately cut off their financial path.

epilogueTV manufacturers should comply with the laws of the market, change their marketing strategies, and rectify their indiscriminate charging practices in order to attract more high-quality users, thereby preserving their financial resources, and avoiding TV sets from becoming useless furnishings.

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