Entertainment: I just want to be the boss behind the scenes

Chapter 337: The Black Industry Chain of Ratings
"Ratings guarantee?"

Meng Bai looked at the documents in his hand and asked in confusion, "What does that mean? If the ratings don't meet the standards, the film purchase fee won't be deducted enough, so we have to deduct an additional deposit?"

The lifeblood of a TV station is its ratings, because they are directly related to the advertising fees paid by advertisers. Therefore, no matter whether it is a TV series or a variety of programs, TV stations will set a benchmark rating when purchasing films.

Taking "Peace Hotel" as an example, the TV station offered to buy the film at 180 million per episode, and the total price for 40 episodes was 7200 million.

The TV station will sign a "stage payment agreement" with Arc Light, and pay a 40% down payment after signing the contract. The remaining money will be paid in part every month, usually around 5%, and it will take about a year to pay off.

At the same time, the TV station will also ask Arc Light to guarantee that the ratings of the drama "Peace Hotel" will be at least 1.0. For every 0.1 lower, the average price of 10 to 15 episodes will be deducted.

If the ratings drop too much in the middle of the show, for example, falling below 0.5, not only will the entire show be taken off the air immediately, but it will also be difficult to collect subsequent payments.

In a sense, it is actually a bit like a "betting agreement".

So far, there is nothing unreasonable. After all, the TV station took the risk and spent a lot of money to buy the project, so it is natural to have requirements for the quality of the series. And the quality is still determined by the ratings.

But now this so-called "ratings deposit" is a bit outrageous.

The TV station's film purchasing department explained to the public that in order to "avoid poor ratings," it was necessary to purchase "ratings operation services" from a third-party company with "professional qualifications."

"To put it simply, the TV station asked the producers to spend money to buy ratings." Liu Jun said bluntly: "They said that as long as we pay, not only can we guarantee the ratings data, but we can also arrange for it to be broadcast as soon as possible."

"how much is it?"

"50 per episode, payable in daily installments, but not in arrears."

"grass!"

Meng Bai was so angry that he laughed.

Good man, he took nearly 30% of the profits with just one opening. Moreover, the money given to him by the TV station was paid in monthly installments, but this one had to be calculated on a daily basis.

Arclight can get about 2800 million for the first installment, so the damn "deposit" must be 2000 million. Add to that the required publicity and promotion costs, and it turns out that they have to pay for it first.

"Which satellite TV station requested this?"

Liu Jun shook his head. "It's not just one company, it's all satellite TV stations. It's just a matter of the amount. The price of 50 is from Mango TV. The director of their film purchasing department said that this is a discount for us because of the cooperation between Arclight and Mango TV."

"Ha, then I should thank them, right?" Meng Bai said in a gloomy tone.

Liu Jun understood it. In fact, when he first heard this request, he felt the same as Meng Bai does now. They both felt it was ridiculous.

Speaking of "black transactions" like this, there are also some on video websites. After all, there is no such thing as a white lotus in the capital market. But most of them are done secretly, not as openly as on TV stations.

More importantly, the producers have to pay this money. Since the TV station can ensure that the ratings increase, it can also naturally reduce the ratings.

The current television ratings statistics system still uses the city network statistics system of Sofres, which is the CSM52 city ratings that often appear in film and television reports.

They will determine the sampling frame based on the market size and audience characteristics, and then select a certain number of sample households according to the principle of random sampling to form a fixed sample group for the ratings survey, and then calculate the overall ratings data. This is a relatively traditional sampling survey method that has been used in the film and television markets of many countries in the world as early as the last century. The advantage is that it is convenient and fast, but the disadvantage is that it is very easy to suffer from "sample contamination."

This kind of "pollution" behavior can be divided into offline and online.

Offline methods are relatively traditional. They either conduct concentrated publicity in the sample household area, changing the viewing habits of the sample households through advertising space, display boards, etc.; or simply bribe the sample households directly, lobbying them constantly, giving them money and gifts, and making them lie about the data.

Of course, these methods were mostly used in the past when technology was not well developed and people were the main source of data. With the start of the digitalization of television signals, every household has a set-top box that can directly transmit data to the backend, and gradually there is less need for offline manual statistics.

As a result, these "black industry" profiteers gradually moved online, using hacking techniques to contaminate the data received by Sofres' backend through eavesdropping, interception, or direct tampering, and thus contaminate the samples.

Both methods are effective, and there have been "victims" before.

At the end of 2016, Zhejiang Satellite TV had a costume drama called "Beauty's Private Recipes". The leading actors were Ma Tianyu and Shuangzi, who were very popular at the time, and the theme was also the most popular ancient idol drama in recent years. It can be said that no matter how bad it is, it can at least get a score of 0.7 to 0.8.

However, when the show actually aired, the ratings were shocking. The first show had a rating of 0.2, and the ratings dropped to 0.1 on the second day. It was cancelled by Zhejiang Satellite TV after just a few days of airing.

The crew directly pointed out the situation and posted a Weibo to denounce Zhejiang Satellite TV. This caused a huge uproar, and many production companies expressed their support. Even the TV Drama Production Industry Association held a special press conference, stating that it would "resolutely crack down on the black forces of ratings fraud" and declare war on the black industry chain of TV drama ratings fraud.

Well, the noise was quite loud, but in the end there was no practical result.

It can be seen from Arc Light’s current experience that there has been no change at all on the TV station’s side. It still maintains this black industrial chain and has even become more mature.

In addition to manipulating the ratings so that the producers cannot get the final payment, the TV station has another method, which is to postpone the schedule. Anyway, if the producers ask, then it means they are queuing up.

Some dramas are shelved for three to five years. By the time they are aired, not only are the subject matter and plot already outdated, but there is a greater chance that the producers have gone bankrupt and disappeared.

Fortunately, with the rise of video websites in recent years, an additional channel for online broadcasting has been added, which has curbed the suppression of some TV stations.

Otherwise, the means used by Internet capital are just for fun. If we really want to talk about "fancy tricks", it has to be the big guys in these traditional fields.

Meng Bai tapped the table lightly: "Brother Jun, what do you think about this?"

Liu Jun frowned and said, "If you ask me, we are new to the TV industry after all. Whether these rules are reasonable or not, they are not something we can change. As long as the total revenue can make money, we will pay it and treat it as feeding the dog."

Meng Bai smiled. The term "feeding the dog" was really appropriate. But it was okay to feed the dog by yourself, but it was really unpleasant to be forced to feed the dog.

After thinking for a while, he looked at Liu Jun and said, "Wait for a while at the TV station. I will ask someone for the details."

Among the companies that Arclight Film and Television are friendly with, many are mainly engaged in TV drama production, such as Huace Film & TV, Noon Sunshine, and Guo Jingyu's Changxin Film and Television.

Meng Bai planned to find out the situation first and then decide what to do next.

At worst, he could just switch to online broadcasting. He would feel like he was losing out by just feeding the money to the dogs.

(End of this chapter)