Chinese Entertainment: Starting from 1996

Chapter 514 Variety Shows and Entertainment Ecology

Golden Harvest Productions was established after Golden Harvest Group went public in 2009.

In the future, the market for variety shows will be no less than that of the TV drama and film industry, and variety shows are also very popular, especially for those popular stars.

Now that a specialized agency company, Golden Harvest Entertainment, has been established, Liu Zhou certainly wants to reap the dividends of the traffic era, not to mention that variety shows can make a lot of money.

At this time, almost all the variety shows that would become popular in China in the future had not yet appeared, so Liu Zhou had a lot of choices.

Originally, he wanted to create a simple program for Golden Harvest to practice its production skills, such as "If You Are the One", but at that time this program had already been broadcast on Jiangsu Satellite TV.

But later, when Li Wei brought in a group of elite soldiers and generals, he directly supported Golden Harvest Production and there was no need for any training at all.

So Liu Zhou directly asked them to start "The Voice of China". He had arranged for Zhang Zhao to purchase the Chinese copyright of "The Voice of Holland", and it was a complete buyout to avoid copyright disputes after "The Voice of China" became a hit.

Speaking of variety shows with the most far-reaching influence in the original time and space, in addition to the two ace programs of Xiangnan TV, "Happy Camp" and "Day Day Up", there are the following three programs:

"The Voice of China", "Running Man" and "Go Fighting".

Perhaps we should also add the early "Super Girl" and "Happy Boy" of Xiangnan TV, but these should be considered the same program.

Therefore, the fact that Shonan TV has become the number one satellite TV station and is even catching up with CCTV is indeed remarkable. In addition to TV dramas, almost all of the popular variety shows in the early days were from Shonan TV.

These programs of Xiangnan TV have one common feature, that is, they are all indoor programs.

Therefore, outdoor reality shows like "Running Man" and "Go Fighting" became popular among the audience all of a sudden.

After that, "Happy Camp" and "Day Day Up" began to decline, and variety shows were almost dominated by outdoor programs.

The two outdoor reality shows that had the greatest impact were "Running Man" and "Go Fighting".

Both programs were introduced from South Korea, but in 2009, the former had not yet appeared and the latter had just started broadcasting.

So Liu Zhou asked Zhang Zhao to register the copyright of "Running Man" in advance, and then also purchased the Chinese copyright of "Extreme Challenge".

The South Korean version of "Running Man" has already started airing, and Golden Harvest Group has charged them a little copyright fee for it. Since this variety show has not yet been filmed in China, the copyright fee was not much.

But Liu Zhou didn't do it for the sake of collecting copyright fees. Instead, he wanted to reserve a spot so that he wouldn't have to go through so much trouble when he wanted to shoot a film, and he wouldn't have to face competitors bidding against him.

The reason why he directly selected "The Voice of China" as the variety show for Golden Harvest Production instead of the other two was mainly because it was much easier to shoot.

There is no experience in shooting outdoor reality shows in China. When Zhejiang Satellite TV first started shooting "Running Man", it invited a photography team from South Korea.

In addition, the popularity of "The Voice of China" is no less than that of "Running Man" and "Go Fighting", so "The Voice of China" was launched.

Another benefit of launching "The Voice of China" first is that it can also help drive the take-off of Kugou Music.

With the implementation of the copyright system, not only has the online copyright of film and television dramas begun to be strictly enforced, but the online copyright of music has also begun to crack down on piracy.

In the past two years, a war has also broken out among music websites, which have begun to compete for the online copyright of music. Some music websites without big capital support have also begun to be merged or become half-dead.

After the reshuffle in the past two years, the music website industry is now showing a three-way trend. On one side is Penguin Music, led by Penguin Group; on the other side are Kugou and Xiami Music, led by Sina Group; and on the other side are Tiantian Dongting and Kuwo, led by Ali.

Because of Sina Group's disturbance, the reshuffle of music websites was much more thorough, and the pattern was almost determined three or four years in advance.

Although there are still some music websites left, it is only a matter of time before they are acquired or go bankrupt.

Ali Group also started to lay out its entertainment industry three or four years in advance, not only entering the music website market, but also the film and television industry.

As for the video website business, since Youku and Tudou have just been listed, the industry is quite hot. Ali does not expect to be as wealthy as it will be in a few years, so it has not started yet.

However, given Ali and Jack Ma's ambitions, it is only a matter of time before they enter the video website industry.

Video websites are still quite popular at present. Although they have undergone a reshuffle, there are still more than ten video websites, which are either supported by major Internet companies or by investment companies.

But the final result should not change. The landscape of video websites will eventually become a competition between Ali, Penguin and Baidu, but this time Sina will be added.

The market size of the music website industry is far smaller than that of the video website, so with the entry of giants, the pattern has almost been determined.

If nothing unexpected happens, Sina, Ali and Penguin will be the three major players. However, if Ali continues to absorb traffic from Tiantian Dongting and Kuwo in the end, it will be more of a competition between Sina and Penguin.

As for the NetEase Cloud Music, which became very popular in later generations, it has not yet been established, and Liu Zhou will not have the opportunity to establish it.

The reason why NetEase Cloud Music has been able to emerge as a dark horse, come from behind but get ahead, and even have higher traffic than Ali’s music website, is mainly because of NetEase Cloud Music’s unique and differentiated competition.

There have been many analyses of the reasons for NetEase Cloud's success, but there are three main points that are generally recognized:
Differentiated market positioning: NetEase Cloud Music focuses on niche music, such as folk, rock, European and American music, to meet the needs of specific user groups.

Focus on user experience: NetEase Cloud Music pays great attention to user experience in product design, provides personalized services, and has social attributes, which increases communication and interaction between users.

Unique community culture: NetEase Cloud Music is not just a music player, but also a content community built around music.

The first two points are also important moats for building NetEase Cloud community culture.

If this is the case, Liu Zhou will definitely follow NetEase Cloud's path and leave it with no way out.

Among them, Xiami Music is the player that Liu Zhou prepared to follow the path of NetEase Cloud.

Xiami Music has always been a gathering place for niche music lovers. With rich music resources as a backing, good user experience and community culture, Xiami Music may not be the next NetEase Cloud Music.

In the original time and space, due to the bloodsucking of the Ali Group, the music website industry was almost dominated by the Penguin Group. Kugou and Kuwo both belonged to the Penguin Group.

But although the Penguin Group no longer has KuGou and Kuwo, what the Penguin Group relies on has never been the number of players it has, but rather the rich music copyright resources and the linkage brought about by the cultural and entertainment ecosystem it has established.

For example, if a music variety show becomes very popular, not only will the video website benefit, but it will also bring huge traffic to the player.

This time Liu Zhou also wanted to have several of his companies to do some simple linkage. The online broadcasting rights of "The Voice of China" must have been sold to Sina Video, and the live versions of the popular songs in the show can only be listened to on Kugou or Xiami.

In addition, Golden Harvest Entertainment will also sign contracts with contestants who are popular on the stage of "The Voice of China". This will also be the first step for Golden Harvest Entertainment to start a large-scale expansion.

At this time, physical records are almost impossible to sell, even Jay Chou's albums are the same. Digital music is the trend of the times.

So now Golden Harvest Entertainment is no longer afraid of signing singers. It is much easier to release digital albums, not to mention that Kugou and Xiami are sister companies.

Although the music player landscape has basically been determined at this point, competition among them is still fierce.

It’s just that because the music market is not as big as the video website industry and is not as popular, people don’t pay too much attention to the competition in the music industry.

This time, Liu Zhou also plans to take advantage of the popularity of "The Voice of China" to get more traffic for Kugou and Xiami.

Although this traffic is only temporary, if it comes frequently, the listeners will get used to using Kugou and Xiami and become regular users of these two players.

Of course, the premise of all this is that "The Voice of China" can become a big hit.

Although Liu Zhou is confident that "The Voice of China" will be a big hit, he is also worried that there may be some unexpected factors due to the butterfly effect.

He didn't know how "The Voice of China" was recorded and filmed before, but as a viewer, he knew that the most important factor for the success of the show was the novel mode of reverse selection between the four mentors and the contestants.

As for the rest, Li Wei from Golden Harvest Productions will need to figure out a solution.

There is nothing much to say about the contestants' reverse selection mode. In fact, the most important thing in this part still depends on the four mentors. It is most attractive to the audience to see them competing for the contestants like ordinary people.

Therefore, the four mentors of this program are the top priority, and they are also the key to attracting traffic.

Now "The Voice of China" is no longer just a variety show, it also involves three companies including Golden Harvest Entertainment, Sina Video and Kugou.

Therefore, Liu Zhou personally took part in the selection of the mentor this time, which was a rare occurrence.

He felt that the original Zhejiang Provincial Satellite TV's method of selecting people was quite good, taking into account both sides of the Taiwan Strait and Hong Kong and Macau.

As for the mainland, Liu Zhou chose Liu Huan, the big brother of the mainland music scene. Variety shows will inevitably have some program effects, and his presence means that the show will not be too entertaining.

Liu Huan has collaborated with Golden Harvest quite a lot. He was invited to produce the OSTs of many film and television dramas. Although he sometimes did not sing himself, he would personally participate in the production.

For example, the opening and ending songs of the recently popular TV series "The Legend of Zhen Huan" were produced by him, and he also sang the ending song himself.

He is also quite interested in this kind of talent show that only looks at singing skills and not appearance. He thinks this is the only way to select good music talents. He still has a lot of feelings for Chinese music.

After ensuring that there would not be too much shady dealings and offering considerable remuneration, Liu Huan agreed to become one of the mentors of "The Voice of China".

As for Wanwan, Liu Zhou originally wanted to invite Luo Dayou or Li Zongsheng, but these two music godfathers of Wanwan, together with Zhou Huajian and Zhang Zhengyue, formed a senior band called Zongguanxian and had a lot of fun.

Who would have thought that the four of them formed a band just for fun and it would become so popular. Their concert tours were sold out and Liu Zhou had no time at all, so he had to give up.

However, Liu Zhou knew that they were not just playing around, but more importantly, they wanted to save the Rolling Stones from their decline.

So he couldn't force it. If it didn't work this time, he could just invite them next time or the next time.

Later, Liu Zhou wanted to invite Jay Chou, but he felt that he was still too young to be a mentor, so he declined.

In the end, Liu Zhou invited Yu Chengqing from the original time and space. His variety show effect can be said to be the best, much better than Yang Kun who had 32 concerts.

After all, this is still a variety show, and it also needs someone to create the show effects.

Inviting Yu Chengqing went smoothly. He used to be very popular, but now he is inevitably a little out of date. A program approached him and the remuneration was good. It didn't take long for Liu Zhou to receive a positive response.

As for Hong Kong, Liu Zhou certainly wanted to invite one of the Four Heavenly Kings, but no one agreed, and there were various reasons for their refusal.

He had no choice but to look further and asked Principal Tan and Zhang Guorong, but the former had just performed more than ten concerts in Hung Hom and wanted to rest.

He is in his fifties now and doesn't work as hard as he did when he was young.

Zhang Guorong was preparing to retire completely and also declined.

Going back further, there is Hong Kong’s first generation singing god, Xu Guanjie, but he has not made a public appearance for a long time, and many younger people may not have heard of this person.

In the end, Liu Zhou could only look further back. After the Four Heavenly Kings, there was only Hong Kong’s new generation singing god, Chen Yixun.

Liu Zhou was not so polite to this young man. He directly contacted Emperor Entertainment Group's boss Yang, and soon signed a contract with Chen Yixun.

The last mentor must be a woman, and there is no requirement for the region.

However, the selection range is also not very wide, and there are only a few outstanding female singers.

In fact, Nayoung in the original time and space is indeed the most suitable one. Not only does she have the grades and status, she is also very relaxed, and the show effect is also very good.

Although Liu Zhou didn't have a very good impression of her, he thought there was no need to let personal likes and dislikes affect work, but the incident between her and Dao Lang happened during this period, which was really uncomfortable.

So in the end she was excluded and invitations were sent out to the princess, Zhang Huimei, Han Hong, Mao Amin and others.

Finally, after a period of communication, the final mentor chose Han Hong.

Han Hong is cheerful and generous, has strong professional skills, and is a very open-minded person, making him a very suitable candidate for a mentor.

In the original time and space, she also served as a mentor judge in a talent show. Her interaction with that Paolang brother is still impressive.

The mentor lineup of Liu Huan, Yu Chengqing, Chen Yixun and Han Hong is no worse than the original version.

(End of this chapter)