SAPPRFT-China unveils new set-top box operating system

Managing video content is presently a priority for China’s media regulator. A new operating system for TV set-top boxes (STBs) is now in force in the country.

The State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television (SAPPRFT) and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology have jointly released the operating system, called TV OS 2.0. To develop this new technology, SAPPRFT has worked with over 60 partners, including Huawei, Alibaba, LeTV, and ZTE, according to the Hunan Daily.

A crackdown on illegal Internet TV devices that can provide programming that has not been approved by China’s regulators was announced in October 2015. Following the newly released second generation operating system, those STBs which do not run TV OS 2.0 may be outlawed, the newspaper reported.