Chinese Entertainment: Starting from 1996

Chapter 479 Record-breaking Transaction Price of "Empresses in the Palace"

Sina Group's four major businesses, including video websites, Weibo, games and portals, are all progressing steadily, so Liu Zhou does not need to worry too much.

However, in order to welcome the arrival of the mobile Internet era, Sina Group also needs to make some preparations, and this is also an opportunity for Sina to once again become a domestic Internet giant.

The most important trends in the mobile Internet era are short videos, food delivery, and online ride-hailing. The latter two may be too expensive and will also have a greater impact on reputation in the future.

A certain group has been criticized in later generations, and Didi Taxi, which almost monopolized the online car-hailing industry, fell apart due to a major IPO failure.

Therefore, the development plan that Liu Zhou formulated for Sina Group in the mobile Internet era is to follow ByteDance's path.

This is also the road with the greatest potential and the broadest. Although businesses such as food delivery and online ride-hailing can also grow, they have to rely on the two giants, Penguin and Ali.

Only ByteDance has forged its own path and become an Internet giant comparable to Ali and Penguin. Zhang Yiming has even been crowned the richest man in mainland China.

So in addition to its existing businesses, Sina is also currently developing a new software, Toutiao, which is an APP only available on mobile devices.

There are two main reasons why Toutiao was able to develop so fast in its past. One is that it had certain big data applications. If you like the kind of news you like, it will keep pushing similar ones to you. Later, Tik Tok was the culmination of big data recommendations.

The second point is pre-browsing. Once you refresh the page, you can watch several news items or videos below without using any data.

It is precisely because of these two points that Toutiao quickly stood out and laid a solid foundation for the subsequent emergence of Tik Tok.

For Sina Group, the pre-browsing function is not very difficult, but the big data recommendation requires a little more effort.

However, the concept of big data was proposed in Silicon Valley several years ago, and major domestic Internet companies are also researching it, including Sina, so the emergence of big data recommendation functions is only a matter of time.

Sina Group has been preparing to develop Toutiao for almost a year. According to the report submitted by Sina, Toutiao should be launched in the middle of this year.

In addition to Sina Group, there are also a lot of things happening on the Golden Harvest Group side.

Not to mention the release of "Interstellar", this movie will not only be released in China, but will also be released on a large scale in North America on December 1st.

As Golden Harvest's first large-scale overseas film, "Interstellar" was highly anticipated, with the North American market undoubtedly being the top priority. President Zhang Zhao personally flew to North America to take charge.

At the same time, on December 28th, Golden Harvest Group will hold a grand ceremony to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Golden Harvest.

This matter was personally instructed by Liu Zhou and was a very important matter for Golden Harvest. It was also intended to further deepen the brand image of Golden Harvest in everyone's mind.

In addition to these two things, there is another thing about the TV series.

If the most popular film in this period is "Interstellar", then the most popular TV drama is "Empresses in the Palace".

However, because the popularity of "Interstellar" was so high, even the news that the previous phenomenal movie "Love Is Not Blind" had a box office of over 400 million was suppressed, so the popularity of "The Legend of Zhen Huan" was inevitably suppressed.

However, "The Legend of Zhen Huan" has been a highly anticipated production since the project was launched. Although it is not as popular as "Interstellar", it should not be underestimated. It is one of the few news that can steal the headlines from "Interstellar".

This TV series, starring Fan Xiaopang, Qin Hao, and several Golden Harvest artists, has a total investment of over 1.2 million yuan and is definitely one of the year's top productions.

Moreover, Fan Xiaopang became extremely popular because of "Interstellar", which also benefited "The Legend of Zhen Huan". In addition, Qin Hao is one of the top male actors in China, and Golden Harvest is a well-known producer. TV stations and online platforms have been eyeing "The Legend of Zhen Huan".

After the TV series was completed, it was immediately snapped up by major TV stations.

After Golden Harvest released the news, Beijing, Shanghai, Shandong Province, Hunan Province, Zhejiang Province, and Jiangsu Province all offered sky-high prices in the hope of winning this "drama king".

CCTV certainly also participated in the competition, but this time its platform advantage was no match for the real money put in by local satellite TV stations.

CCTV is actually richer, but it is impossible for them to pay a huge price to buy a TV series.

In the past, Golden Harvest dramas cooperated more with CCTV, which was actually more for the purpose of maintaining the relationship between them.

CCTV is the undisputed number one media in China, and Golden Harvest has benefited greatly from its good relationship with CCTV.

So even though the TV series lost some profits, it was all worth it.

However, the Golden Harvest dramas were broadcast through the CCTV platform, and some classic TV dramas also increased their influence, some of which could not be found in the subsequent second and third rounds and some patch advertisements.

But we can't do that now. The transaction prices of TV dramas have risen sharply in the past two years. It was no problem to cooperate with CCTV when the prices were low before, but if we continue to cooperate with CCTV like this, the loss of profits will be too great.

Moreover, local satellite TV stations have now stood up, and the audience coverage of two or three satellite TV stations combined is not much less than that of CCTV.

Therefore, the main participants in the competition this time are still local satellite TV stations.

After a round of bidding, the highest bids came from Hunan Province, Shanghai TV and Zhejiang Province TV, which had reached 280 million per episode.

You know, "The Legend of Zhen Huan" has 280 episodes. Generally speaking, the price of such multi-episode TV series is generally lower, but even so, at the price of 2 million per episode, the price of the entire series is almost over million.

At that time in 2010, such a price was absolutely astronomical for the TV drama industry.

However, even so, it was still not the transaction price of "The Legend of Zhen Huan". The three TV stations spent money desperately, and each one was richer than the other.

Until later, the more confident Hunan Provincial Satellite TV could not hold on and withdrew from the competition. It was not because Hunan Provincial Satellite TV lacked financial resources. As the number one local satellite TV in the past decade, they are richer than Shanghai and Zhejiang Provincial Satellite TV.

The reason they launched it was purely because such a high price was not worth it. Their basic base was very solid, so they were not very anxious about "The Legend of Zhen Huan".

As for Shanghai TV and Zhejiang TV, they have always wanted to challenge Hunan TV because the economies in their regions are relatively developed and the funds they can control have greatly increased in the past two years.

Therefore, they are willing to spend money on projects they like, not to mention "The Legend of Zhen Huan", which they are determined to get.

After outlasting Hunan Satellite TV, they quickly reached a consensus and joined forces to eventually win the rights to broadcast "The Legend of Zhen Huan" for a round with a price of 320 million per episode plus a share of advertising revenue.

The actual cash received alone amounted to 2.43 million yuan. After deducting the cost of 1.2 million yuan, the net profit was 1.23 million yuan, not to mention the advertising share and subsequent second and third round copyrights.

This is high investment and high return!
Not only that, in addition to TV copyright, there are also online broadcasting copyrights, and the transaction price is not bad. As mentioned before, the online copyright has skyrocketed in the past two years, and it has risen sharply every year.

Youku spent almost 3000 million on "New My Fair Princess", which was produced at about the same time as "The Legend of Zhen Huan". There are a total of 30 episodes in this drama, which is equivalent to about per episode.

This price set a record for the transaction price of the online copyright of a single TV series at that time.

The price of three hundred thousand per episode is outrageous enough, but for "The Legend of Zhen Huan", a recognized "drama king", many websites offer a higher price than "My Fair Princess".

However, compared to the fierce competition among several satellite TV stations for the television copyright, the online copyright of "The Legend of Zhen Huan" was already secured by Sina Video.

But brothers should settle accounts clearly. Although Golden Harvest openly favors Sina Video, it does not mean that it can get it for free. In order to get "The Legend of Zhen Huan", it also paid 55 per episode.

Even if we include a few TV dramas that were suspected of insider trading and were so expensive that they made people question their lives, the transaction price of nearly 42 million for "The Legend of Zhen Huan" undoubtedly broke the record for normal online copyrights.

The competition among major video websites is becoming increasingly fierce. Following this trend, it is unlikely that this record can be maintained for long.

With the listing of Youku and Tudou, and the strong entry of Penguin Video and Kiwi, which are backed by Penguin and Baidu, the competition in the field of video websites is almost fierce.

In order to eliminate those small websites and compete for traffic, several major video websites have entered a copyright war, with blood being shed and money being spent desperately.

The prices of subsequent TV series will continue to soar until all small websites are wiped out and the major video websites can no longer hold on.

Because of Golden Harvest, Sina Video has now started producing some self-produced dramas, and its expenditure in this regard will be less than that of other websites.

In addition, Liu Zhou had hoarded a large number of film and television drama copyrights for Sina Video in the early stages, and the income from distributing copyrights made Sina Video live a comfortable life.

Although two or three hundred million yuan have been spent in the past two years, it is a drop in the bucket for Sina Group.

However, compared with several other companies that spent 800 million to 900 million or even tens of billions, Sina Video is undoubtedly much better.

Liu Zhou is aware that copyright wars will become even more intense in the future, but Sina Group is, after all, a multi-billion dollar Internet giant and is well prepared for copyright wars.

The TV and Internet copyrights of "The Legend of Zhen Huan" earned a total of 2.85 million yuan, which can be said to be a huge profit, and the subsequent advertising revenue and patch advertising can also bring in tens of millions.

It’s hard to say about overseas copyright, but you can give it a try and make as much money as you can.

"The Legend of Zhen Huan" not only recovered its costs but also made a huge profit, but there was no relaxation within Golden Harvest.

Although they are happy to make money, they are also concerned about the performance of the TV series, fearing that it will ruin their reputation.

The reason why TV series produced by Golden Harvest are so profitable is that even before a TV series starts filming, there are TV stations that take it over.

The price is 30% to 50% higher than that of other companies and crews on average, and some crews even charge more than double. This is all thanks to the brilliant performance accumulated over the years.

The reason why "The Legend of Zhen Huan" was sold at such a high price was also due to a considerable amount of the Golden Harvest brand bonus.

In the past, people would not be as prepared as they are now, but this time "The Legend of Zhen Huan" is different. This is the first super production with an investment of over 100 million yuan since Golden Harvest started producing TV dramas.

Even in the current TV drama industry, there are only a handful of TV dramas with investments exceeding 100 million yuan.

If the market had not picked up in the past two years, Golden Harvest would not have dared to play so big.

This is an investment of hundreds of millions.

As long as a movie can be shown in theaters, it will eventually make money. But TV series are different. They need a platform to take over.

Apart from the TV station's own investment, except for a few producers such as Jiahe, Qiong Yao, and Zhang Da Huzi, even those who can afford it are afraid that the TV series will fail.

After all, the TV station as the party A is definitely not a fool. It doesn't mean that if you invite a few stars to join the TV series you produce, the TV station will buy it at a sky-high price. This is impossible, otherwise everyone would just invite a bunch of stars to shoot a TV series.

In this case, even Jackie Chan and Jet Li can use their money to hire them to film TV series.

Apart from a few stars with strong appeal, TV stations not only pay attention to the star lineup, but also look more at the production side, production company, producer, director, screenwriter and other behind-the-scenes teams. These are the key.

The participation of Fan Xiaopang and Qin Hao was part of the reason, and Golden Harvest’s golden brand was also one of the reasons why “The Legend of Zhen Huan” was able to sell nearly 300 million yuan.

Except for Liu Zhou, no one else in Golden Harvest knew the influence of "The Legend of Zhen Huan", so although it was gratifying that the transaction price was so high, they were also very nervous about the performance and reputation of this TV series.

This drama has caused too much noise, and everyone is watching it from top to bottom. If it fails, or even performs mediocrely, it will have a significant negative impact on Golden Harvest.

A single move can have a far-reaching impact on the entire body. This consequence is likely to affect the income of related projects next year. Many jobs at Jiahe are based on performance. If the company's income is reduced, everyone's bonus will also be reduced. Who wouldn't be nervous?

Even employees of the TV drama department began to call on company employees and friends and relatives to watch the show on WeChat Moments. This is the first time in the six years since Golden Harvest Films was founded.

In the past, employees of Golden Harvest Films were very confident in Golden Harvest dramas, but this semi-public call for everyone to do so shows the importance and tension that the entire department attaches to "The Legend of Zhen Huan".

"The Legend of Zhen Huan" will be the first drama of 2011 to be broadcast on Shanghai Satellite TV and Zhejiang Satellite TV on New Year's Day, which is less than a month away.

Therefore, Jiahe also needs to start cooperating with the two satellite TV stations in their promotions. It is not enough to just sell the TV series, and the money is not so easy to get. There are many things that need to be done.

However, compared to the nervousness of everyone at Golden Harvest about "The Legend of Zhen Huan", Liu Zhou did not have too many worries.

After the TV series was completed, Liu Zhou also took the time to watch the Golden Harvest version, which gave him a similar feeling. He felt that the performance would not be worse than the original.

Compared with the TV series, Liu Zhou is more concerned about the celebration of Golden Harvest's 40th anniversary and the overseas screening of "Interstellar".

Especially the latter, which is related to the future development plan of Golden Harvest Group.

The Golden Harvest Group is now far ahead in China. The next step is of course to expand overseas and contribute to the spread of traditional Chinese culture.

(End of this chapter)