The short video platform has become a window for tvB after 95.
Text | Xu Shang
| Director
On November 29, a Weibo post of #TVB actors can be more dedicated quickly appeared on the hot search list.
Under the hot search, for a memory scene of less than a minute, TVB actor Li Yaoxiang, who lost 20 pounds; Hu Xing'er, who had to go to the doctor in order to gain 40 pounds, became the focus of people's attention.
For a time, there was a lot of discussion about TVB. Netizens shouted to relive TVB's old dramas while urging new dramas.
Some time ago, TVB just finished a high-profile medical industry drama - "Benevolent Doctor under the Stars", with a Douban score of 8.9.
Hong Kong dramas represented by industry dramas have almost accompanied the growth of a generation and have become the collective memories of many post-80s and post-90s generations. However, after entering the new century, especially after 2010, the once brilliant Hong Kong dramas have not appeared for a long time; the Hong Kong sisters who lead the aesthetic trend have gradually faded out of people's sight and even been ridiculed as "low appearance"; how many tianwang tianhou level artist training classes have long been ignored.
In recent times, TVB has a great tendency to return to the public's vision - from the Douban score of 8.8 points "BB is coming", and then Chen Xiaochun, Cai Shaofen, Hu Xing'er and other Hong Kong stars frequently appear in parent-child and marriage programs; when "Friendship Years" sounded, the familiar faces of the Greater Bay Area in "Brother with Thorns" made the audience feel as if they had suddenly returned to the green years of chasing dramas.
Today, the growth environment and aesthetic preferences of The Z generation represented by the post-95s and post-00s have changed greatly from the previous generation. This article wants to answer the following question - how is TVB doing? Who brought TVB back into view? Will this generation of young people still chase TVB like the post-80s and post-90s?
In 2021, TVB produced a total of 16 TV series, of which 5 were broadcast on Youku, and the average score of Douban was about 6.2, just reaching the passing line.
It is worth noting that many of the gold medal royal actors in the hearts of the post-80s and post-90s have returned. For example, the "immortal male god" Ouyang Zhenhua in everyone's heart, and the "immortal goddess" Wan Qiwen. And the most concerned should be the memories of how many people have in their hearts, "Top Gun Master Sister 2021", and Ouyang Zhenhua and Wan Qiwen's "Guys Do Big Things".
It is regrettable that the performance of both dramas is not satisfactory, while using the older generation of ace actors to force the newcomers and deceive the audience's eyes; on the other hand, in the name of feelings, the audience's feelings are consumed.
The two dramas have pounced on the street, and just when everyone is disappointed by this year's TVB drama, "The Benevolent Doctor Under the Stars" is released.
Finally, this time the word of mouth reversed, TVB medical industry drama returned to the previous production level, not only won the high score of Douban 8.9, many viewers also shouted "and feel the strong Hong Kong style".
"I've been a die-hard TVB fan for a long time. TVB's workplace drama is back! "The standard for measuring a drama is whether I want to chase it or not, and this drama allowed me to find the days when I was a child sitting by the TV every day, waiting for an update." Netizens found the shadow of the former TVB in this drama.
"Doctor Under the Stars first restores the way a hospital should be in the environment. In the operation and the repeated consultations, from the scene layout to the operation technique, as well as medical terminology, try to make this fictional story convincing. "Frontiers of Audiovisual Communication" commented.
General pediatricians, hospital executives, patients... These different individuals are intertwined in a complex discourse system, strung together with a tightly paced unit story, advancing the emotion layer by layer.
In addition, the lineup of the drama also has a sense of "Ye Qinghui": Zhong Jiaxin, the "good color sister" who returned to the screen again after six years, Zheng Jiaying and Ma Guoming, who tvB once used and is now the royal "traffic code", and Zhou Jiayi, who became popular after "Bridge of Sighs".
However, the drama can only be watched on two specific apps, "Migu Video" and "Buried Pile", and the audience recognition is still not high.
Under the background of the rapid development of the mainland film and television industry, the serious loss of Film and television talents in Hong Kong, and the assembly line production model, TVB dramas have long been unable to meet the aesthetic needs of audiences. After smelling the huge profit cake of the mainland film and television market, TVB began to co-produce or co-produce TV dramas with the mainland.
In 2000, Jin Yong's classic martial arts drama "Green Blood Sword" was born, marking the beginning of cooperation between the two places; in 2007, a "Wind and Cloud of Time" that reflected the changes of the times became a turning point for the co-production of the two places; in 2017, TVB began to cooperate with online video platforms, which pushed the road of transformation to a new stage.
The professional drama "Blind Barrister" co-produced with iQiyi, the police drama "Apostle Walker 2" co-produced with Tencent, the family drama "Storm of Hearts 3", and the drama cooperated with Youku... Co-production dramas have emerged in an endless stream, so that TVB has won back a lot of attention, and it is also a matter of time before it returns to the public eye.
"I only watch TVB, I only know the stars of TVB, and I don't know many traffic stars in South Korea and the mainland." The chestnut of '96 told the hedgehog commune (ID: ciweigongshe).
For Chestnut, TVB's drama spans childhood and adolescence. Growing up in Guangxi, she has watched TVB dramas since she was 3 or 4 years old, and some classic police films, such as "Criminal Investigation Files", "O Records", and "Forensic Records" have been watched more than 10 times.
In addition to watching dramas, Chestnut also pays attention to the production team behind the TV series, such as Qi Qiyi, the director who directed "O Record", "Magic Hand Benevolent Heart", and "Golden Branch Desire", and Wang Xinwei, the director who directed "Fire Ambition" and "Tongtian Gan Detective", all of which are directors that Chestnut likes.
Chestnut is even full of expectations for the television industry. "I chose to major in editing and directing in college because I wanted to enter the television industry and work with these well-known directors, and I also thought about being a screenwriter and writing a wonderful TV series myself."
At the same time, the classic scenes and charming scenery in the TVB series also deeply touched Chestnut, and every time she travels to Hong Kong, she likes to shoot some scenery or some people who have seen it on TV on the street.
"After work, I have a lot less time to watch TVB, but I will download the App that specializes in watching Hong Kong dramas, and I will still go to it to chase dramas when I am fine." For Chestnut, actively paying attention to TVB dramas is a normal part of life.
Unlike the chestnut situation, other young people will pay attention to TVB because of secondary creation platforms such as B station.
"In the past two years, there have been more dramas that have paid attention to TVB, and after seeing the UP main commentary of "Big Time" on B station, I was deeply attracted by the plot inside and deliberately went to watch this drama. Guangdong friends around will take the initiative to pay attention to more. "The little king in '99 told the hedgehog commune.
The same is true of Meiko in '95, who usually pays attention to some wonderful clips of TVB TV series from the B station when he grows up. "One of the most impressive terriers is: Hit you and hit you, do you still pick a date?"
Many of the familiar memes like meiko mentioned come from the commentary or editing of TVB classic TV series by the B station UP master.
Today, they have become a popular terrier culture that has a deep influence on young people.
"What we often say about 'seeing on the rooftop' is also from 'Big Time'," Xiao Wang said.
Hedgehog Commune noted that the B station top 100 UP masters and well-known film and television UP masters "movie top TOP", "wooden fish water heart" video has content about TVB TV series. UP's main "Movie TOP" has produced 6 episodes of "Big Time" commentary, with an average of about 1 million plays per episode; "Wooden Fish Water Heart" has produced more than 10 episodes of related videos of "Yihai Haoqing", and the number of plays is basically more than one million.
Once you open The Vibrato and Kuaishou, but where you brush up on the commentary related to film and television dramas, there is a high probability that there will be TVB material. Especially tv dramas in TVB's golden age, almost every one of them is one of the most favored materials for film and television bloggers.
The boost of secondary creation platforms such as short videos has accelerated the return of TVB, and also allowed more young people in the Z era to see the glory of TVB that year.
According to the observation of hedgehog commune, TVB's official account entered Douyin in September this year, released the first video on September 19, and so far, has accumulated 9.374 million users. From the perspective of the number of Douyin fans on the official platform of long videos, Mango TV and Youku are at the same number level, but the time of entering Douyin is far earlier than that of TVB. This number can show the important weight of TVB in the hearts of fans.
TV series co-produced by TVB and online video platforms also use ratings data to illustrate that as long as the level is not broken, there are always a large number of old fans willing to follow.
According to Vlinkage and bone data, "Blind Barrister", co-produced by TVB and iQiyi, has ranked among the top ten online dramas in terms of daily broadcast volume for ten consecutive days since its launch on June 20, 2017, far exceeding other popular online dramas in the same period, with the highest single episode broadcast of nearly 30 million.
TVB and Tencent Video's "Acts 2" and "Storm of Hearts 3" are also very eye-catching. The total number of views of the two TV series on Tencent's online platform (mandarin version and Cantonese version combined) was 2.52 billion times and 1.58 billion times respectively.
The compact plot and the audience's feelings for Hong Kong dramas are two important factors for TVB TV dramas to impress the audience again.
"I personally like to watch TVB professional dramas, most women are not the kind of image of talking about love while going to work, nor is it the image of completing their careers through men." 」 Meiko said. In this year's highest-rated "Benevolent Doctor Under the Stars", the tight plot, bright rhythm and reasonable personality of the male and female protagonists have also become the key factors in winning praise.
A Douban netizen commented, "Eman in "The Doctor Under the Stars" interprets the big heroine in my mind, has a sense of control over her own life, and after a certain experience, still maintains a high energy and an upward outlook on life, seeing life and death but not "accustomed" to seeing life and death. ”
The commemoration of youth and the remembrance of the past also make the audience full of reluctance to the Hong Kong style represented by TVB.
Driven by feelings, as long as the label of Hong Kong wind is labeled, heat and traffic are not a problem. This can be deeply felt from the high popularity of the brother in the Greater Bay Area in this year's "Brother Who Cut Through Thorns". Since then, Mango TV's "Night in Greater Wanchai", specially tailored for the brothers of the Greater Bay Area, has received tens of millions of views shortly after its launch.
On the film list of Mango TV next year, it will jointly create a Cantonese music variety show with TVB - "Sound is Endless".
The harbor wind is getting stronger. But for TVB, there are still some problems to be solved.
From the perspective of financial data, according to the 2020 annual financial report released by TVB, TVB's revenue in 2020 was HK$2.724 billion, a year-on-year decrease of 25.34%; gross profit was HK$847 million, a year-on-year decrease of 42.83%; and the company's shareholder attributable loss for the period was HK$281 million.
This is the third consecutive year that TVB has lost money. However, TVB faces problems that go far beyond financial crises.
Li Ruigang, president of Shanghai Wenguang News media group and chairman and chief executive officer of Huaren Culture Group (CMC), who took a stake in TVB in 2015 and held a 22.1% stake in TVB, expressed strong dissatisfaction with the current situation of TVB in an interview with the media. Li Ruigang believes that the biggest problem of TVB facing the "life and death" juncture is "lack of innovation", including "comprehensive aging" in terms of team, thinking, operating mechanism, program, image and so on.
The serious loss of artists has led to TVB becoming "self-entertaining, doing more and more small". In the context of such a "vicious circle", TVB can share fewer and fewer benefits to artists, coupled with fixed and unchanged wages, and the harsh requirements of deducting wages if they do not meet the working hours, resulting in frequent departures of TVB artists.
In January 2021, at the TVB awards ceremony, Wang Mingquan called for "hoping that TVB can give artists a little extra salary." At present, there is no significant effect.
Obviously, just by eating the old books of the 1980s and 1990s, TVB's return among young people can only be a dream. Only by restoring the hematopoietic ability of content and creating more high-quality works can the Hong Kong wind surge again.
"If I continue to pay attention to TVB, I will pay more attention to the plot. For example, TVB's suspense and criminal investigation dramas were once so brilliant, will they also make works like "The Hidden Corner"? Meiko said that as long as there is good content, it will be a matter of time to win the attention of young people.
At the beginning of "Benevolent Doctor Under the Stars", Zhong Jiaxin said "I am back", which made many netizens burst into tears and shouted "Ye Qinghui". The return of TVB among young people still has to wait for more "Benevolent Doctors Under the Stars" to appear.
(Chestnut, Xiao Wang, and Meiko are pseudonyms)
Resources:
Frontiers of audiovisual communication: "< under the stars> the reputation of the doctor is stable, and the TVB professional drama "That Taste" is back"
AI Finance and Economics: "A year of loss of HK$280 million, lost ten years later, TVB ushered in a difficult moment"