Top of the Great Era

Chapter 3061 Video Costs Are High

Zhou Buqi came here this time not to discuss music copyright with Xu Baihui.

In the eyes of Boss Zhou, this is a sure-fire industry.

Don’t be fooled by the fact that Weidian Music is suffering heavy losses now.

This is because the power of copyright has not yet been truly exerted. As long as Weidian Music can gain a firm foothold now and suppress several major competitors such as QQ Music, Evergrande Music, Alibaba Music, NetEase Music, and Baidu Music, then when music copyright is strictly restricted in the future, spring will come.

Although both are streaming media, there is a crucial difference between music streaming and video streaming.

That is, music streaming has lower operating costs.

Music streaming transmits sound, while video streaming transmits pictures and sound. Moreover, audiences’ demands are getting higher and higher, and they all want to watch ultra-clear and ultra-high-definition film and television content, which will consume a huge amount of bandwidth and servers.

If it is a movie streaming service, copyright fees account for 50%, operating expenses account for 50%, and any additional expenses will definitely lead to losses. Music streaming is different. Copyright fees account for 50%, and operating expenses are only 20%, which means there is a gross profit margin of nearly 30%, which provides a foundation for long-term self-reliance.

Another point.

When people listen to music, they tend to prefer old songs. The popularity and spread of classic old songs are more popular than new songs. However, it is different with film and television dramas. Among domestic audiences, except for some senior film and television drama fans, few people will watch old movies.

This presents a fundamental difference.

Previously, Zhou Buqi instructed Xu Baihui to purchase a large number of music and film and television drama copyrights in advance at low prices. These were all old songs and old movies.

  In the long run, the value of old songs is far greater than those old movies!

Therefore, the copyright expenses of music streaming can be further reduced, while video streaming must strive to spend high prices to compete for new films and dramas in the market, and the copyright costs will always remain high. Even if you have a massive film and television library, you still have to purchase copyrights for a long time.

By the same token, the logic behind text streaming is similar.

For example, online literature.

Text information transmission data is very low, and it occupies very little bandwidth and servers, so the operating cost is lower. The copyright fee is 50%, and the operating cost is less than 10%, which leaves a 40% gross profit margin for online literature companies, which can leave a lot of room for imagination.

Therefore, we can judge from basic cost accounting that in the domestic market, text streaming is more popular than music streaming, and it is really difficult to make money from film and television streaming!

The main reason Zhou Buqi came here this time was to discuss some film and television matters with Xu Baihui around the movie "The Great Wall".

It is now the second half of 14.

It is time for Ziweixing to gradually turn its attention to the video business.

Xu Baihui said, "It's difficult, very difficult! Old films in the European and American markets can still be recognized in the market after decades. Many classic old films will be watched repeatedly by the audience and are worth constantly savoring. But it's not the case in China."

Zhou Buqi asked: "Why is it not working in China?"

Xu Baihui said, "There are many reasons for this. For example, there were basically no good TV dramas in China a few decades ago. Even if there were some excellent works, they are now banned and prohibited from being disseminated or played on the Internet. Especially the batch of movies and TV dramas in the 1980s, which were severely cracked down. Now even a batch of scar literature is not allowed to be published, let alone TV dramas and movies."

Zhou Buqi nodded and said, "This has indeed become a great constraint on the development of domestic film and television streaming media. Good films are not allowed to be broadcast, and no one watches bad films. This has directly led to the complete waste of the entire library of old films."

Xu Baihui said: "Fortunately it didn't cost much."

“What about after the 90s?”

"Or not."

"No way? The era of scar literature has long passed, and film and television censorship has become increasingly strict. Except for those films that secretly went to Europe for awards, most of them comply with policy requirements." Zhou Buqi is a senior movie fan. He watches fewer TV series, but when it comes to movies, he has basically watched all the excellent domestic and foreign movies in his previous life.

Xu Baihui said: "This is not a policy restriction, but a medium restriction. If you watch American or British TV series, even some old movies, the quality is very high. Even after decades, the quality is still very good and the picture is very clear."

"Correct."

"That's because they have more money and can invest more in production. They use film to shoot American and British TV series, using the same conditions as filming movies. Before digital cameras became widely popular, many of the big TV stations and film production companies in Britain and the United States used film to shoot TV series, so the quality of their TV series was of course very high."

"Isn't it in China?" Zhou Buqi didn't quite understand. "If we don't use film, what else can we use?"

Xu Baihui said: "The tape!"

"What?" Zhou Buqi, as an outsider, was very surprised, "Using tapes to shoot TV series?"

Xu Baihui rolled her eyes at him. "It's not just TV dramas. In the early years, many domestic movies were also shot with tapes. Compared with film, tapes save money! Film is exposed in real time and is disposable. After shooting one take, the film is used up. If you shoot eight or ten takes, it will be a huge waste of film. Tapes are different. Tapes can be reused."

When it comes to reuse, Zhou Buqi is no stranger to it.

When he was a child, he had a tape recorder at home.

You can listen to songs on tapes.

Those tapes can be recorded repeatedly, and the contents on the tape can be erased and then re-recorded. I think the same logic applies to filming movies and TV series. If you shoot with tapes, it doesn’t matter if you make a mistake. You can just erase the contents of the tape and re-record it, without wasting it like film.

Zhou Buqi asked, "The TV series shot from the tape is not good?"

"You're right!" Xu Baihui sighed softly, "Tapes are cheap and easy to store. Before the advent of digital cameras, domestic TV dramas were all shot on tapes. But tapes have a disadvantage, which is that the information recorded is very limited. The resolution of film is theoretically unlimited. As long as the conversion equipment and broadcasting equipment are advanced enough, the resolution can be as high as you want. The more advanced the technology, the greater the advantage of film. Tapes are different. Tapes have an upper limit. According to today's resolution classification, the tapes used to shoot TV dramas are generally 480P."

Zhou Buqi nodded, "That's true. When I watch those old TV series now, I always feel that the pictures are blurry, as if they were mosaics."

Xu Baihui said, "Yes, with such a low resolution, who would want to watch it? Nowadays, all TVs are ultra-high definition, and the TV programs they broadcast are all shot by digital cameras, and the broadcasting methods are all digital. The audience's tastes are very sophisticated, and it is difficult for them to live a hard life after getting used to a wealthy life. Looking back at those old TV series in the past, even the pinnacle of domestic TV series such as "Dream of Red Mansions" and "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", no matter how sophisticated the plot is or how exquisite the production is, it is still limited by the resolution."

Zhou Buqi sighed, "We are still poor."

"Yes, it's poverty." Xu Baihui said calmly, "Now the sequelae have come. The tapes used to save money have been greatly restricted in dissemination decades later. However, those American and British dramas were bold in investing in the early production, dared to use film, and dared to lead the industry in using digital shooting, so they can keep up with the times decades later."

Zhou Buqi asked, "Now everything is shot digitally, right?"

Xu Baihui said “hmm”, “But it’s only been in the past few years. Before 2010, most TV dramas in China were still shot on tapes. The industry practitioners didn’t have strong innovation capabilities and liked to live in their comfort zone. They had been shooting on tapes all their lives, so it would be very troublesome for them to switch to digital cameras. It wasn’t until it was fully popularized abroad and some new young practitioners emerged that digital shooting became popular in China.”

Just shoot digitally.

The cost can be greatly reduced.

Zhou Buqi said: "The current IT technology is also very good. It can make old movies clearer and convert 480P to 1080P. It seems that Ziweixing Global and Netflix can do it."

"They are still targeting film..." Xu Baihui stretched lazily, "Even if there is, the conversion cost is not low. It is not the AI ​​service you mentioned that can be converted with one click. It will also put a lot of operational pressure on video streaming platforms. If you want to make high-definition and ultra-clear video content in China, the timing is not right now. It is not mature, and digital shooting is not a good option. At least the conversion cost is still too high, and the computing power required is too large."

"Ah."

Zhou Buqi was not in a hurry, so he just waited a little longer.