IPTV Vs OTT

Many people do not understand the difference between IPTV and OTT. When buying an Android box, they are confused. This article will tell you the difference between IPTV and OTT. Now let’s start with IPTV vs OTT.

What Is IPTV?

IPTV is interactive network television, which is a brand-new technology that utilizes broadband cable TV network and integrates various technologies such as Internet, multimedia, and communication to provide home users with a variety of interactive services, including digital TV. Users can enjoy IPTV services at home. IPTV is not only different from traditional analog cable TV, but also different from classic digital TV, because both traditional analog TV and classic digital TV have the characteristics of frequency division, timing, and one-way broadcasting. Although the classic digital TV has many technological innovations compared to the analog TV, it is only a change in the form of the signal, and does not touch on the way of dissemination of the media content.

For more information, please refer to our other article.

What Is OTT?

OTT is the abbreviation of Over The Top, which refers to providing various application services to users through the Internet. This kind of service is provided by a third party other than the operator, and many service providers provide services and billing directly to users, making the operator a mere “transmission pipeline”.

The Difference Between Interactive Web And Internet

IPTV is a video service developed by telecom operators through IP private network and dedicated IPTV set-top boxes, and its display terminal is usually a TV set.

OTT is a video service carried out through the public Internet, and its display terminal can be a personal computer, or other display terminals such as a TV set or a tablet computer.

Generally speaking, IPTV signals are transmitted through a private network, and you need to purchase an operator box or broadband. OTT is on the public network, and you can connect to the home WiFi.

How To Judge IPTV And OTT

On the basis of the broadband public network, the operator has established an IP private network to carry IP-based digital video content, and through QoS control, to ensure smooth video viewing, users only need to install an IP set-top box to receive and decode streaming media, and then The digital TV service is used, and the network TV box is carried by the Internet public network (broadband network), and it is difficult to perform QoS control.

IPTV has live broadcast signal, OTT does not, or who pays for watching content at home, the two are like the difference between mobile phone calls (IPTV) and whatsapp voice (OTT).

What Is The Difference Between Content On IPTV Vs OTT

The advantage of OTT is that it is rich in on-demand resources. When the OTT box is first bought, there are only on-demand resources. If you want to watch live broadcasts, you need to install third-party software yourself.

The advantage of IPTV is live broadcast. Because it uses a dedicated network, it has advantages in the clarity and stability of the live broadcast source. Mainstream local stations will be covered. However, the scalability is poor, third-party software cannot be installed or there are restrictions, and there are more charges for on-demand resources.

Generally speaking, the live broadcast of TV stations can only be seen on IPTV, and there are more on-demand program resources on OTT.

Are IPTV Vs OTT Competitive?

IPTV content is disseminated through a private network, and the two-level broadcast control mechanism ensures that the content is manageable and controllable; while OTT has a greater degree of freedom, but it is likely to face the risk of regulatory policy adjustments in the future.

To sum up, there is competition between the two, but it is not an either-or competition. When the IPTV box is connected to a smart TV, the TV can see both live TV and massive content on the Internet.

How IPTV And OTT Are Profitable

In the context of IPTV’s gradually stable user growth, value-added services and advertising revenue will drive market growth again.

There is still a lot of space for future growth in OTT advertising + membership income. Due to the incompatibility of content, the content providers in the OTT market are mainly video websites, and leading licensees and operators may also rely on them to make profits.

Generally speaking, there are many participants in both. IPTV is mainly for user value-added services and user membership, and OTT is mainly for advertising market, membership market and hardware market.

Why IPTV And OTT Are Favored By The Market

In the Internet era, media has evolved into a new form, the Internet has become the mother medium of all media, and at the same time amplifies the media value of text, pictures, audio, and video. People begin to choose media according to their needs. Among them, computers correspond to work scenarios, mobile phones/tablets Etc. corresponds to mobile/fragmented scenes, and TV corresponds to home entertainment scenes.

In addition to providing traditional TV functions, IPTV and OTT can also provide more content and services. With the development of intelligent technology, large screens will unlock more application scenarios. And now more and more people are returning to their homes, family scenes can aggregate people-equipment-time, the scene reuse space is more diverse and rich, and the technology is no longer improved, driving the rapid improvement of surrounding industries.

In The 5G Era, What Impact Will It Have On OTT And IPTV?

For OTT, users can get a better experience in terms of viewing, the network speed will increase, and the content will become higher-definition. With the help of 5G, other functional applications such as games and music will also develop rapidly.

In the future ultra-high-definition era, cable TV, IPTV and OTT will be integrated, and live TV and on-demand TV will also be integrated. Users can choose flexibly according to their own preferences, and the “three networks integration” will gradually become a reality.

With the advent of the 5G/Ultra HD era and the continuous improvement of residents’ leisure endowment, the trend of the re-emergence of the large-screen entertainment ecology will gradually emerge in the future. TV fits the home entertainment scene, and its demand will stabilize and is expected to increase. As an important terminal carrier for the re-emergence of the large-screen entertainment ecosystem, IPTV/OTT is expected to benefit from industry trends.