Author: Wang Is not easy
Source: Business People (ID: biz-leaders)
2021 is the 25th anniversary of the establishment of Phoenix TV.
At the end of 1993, the number of television sets purchased by Chinese consumers every year reached 20 million; in 1996, Phoenix Satellite TV began broadcasting; in 1997, Hunan Satellite TV was on the star, and the first phase of "Happy Base Camp" was broadcast; in 1998, all 30 provincial television stations in China were on the star, and some provinces also had two sets of satellite channels, plus 10 satellite channels of CCTV, a total of forty or fifty sets of satellite programs - the era of television has come.
In the era when television media is the absolute mainstream, Phoenix SATELLITE TV undoubtedly has its special status, it is regarded as the high-quality spiritual food of the middle class in the mainland, current affairs reviews, cultural programs, interview programs, documentaries, at that time to watch Phoenix TV, there is a kind of intellectual sexiness. Phoenix is an irresistible trend.
In the past ten years, the five major provincial satellite televisions in the mainland have opened their arms to compete, and the voice of Phoenix Satellite TV has become smaller and smaller.
Recently, Phoenix Satellite TV has spread the news of the company's high-level turmoil, and founder Liu Changle has retreated behind the scenes. The 2020 performance was also unsatisfactory, with revenue of approximately HK$3,029 million, a decrease of 17.9% year-on-year, and loss attributable to owners of the company of approximately HK$1,037 million. Compared with the market value of Phoenix SATELLITE TV and Mango Super Media, the former is 3.945 billion Hong Kong dollars (about 3.307 billion yuan), and the latter is 100.271 billion yuan (as of press time), which is also quite a gap.
Liu Changle is a veteran television personality, after graduating from the Beijing Broadcasting Institute (later the Communication University of China) in 1980, he worked at the Central People's Radio for 8 years, and then went to the sea to do business, involved in oil trade, real estate, and made a lot of money, but he still wanted to do television, and he decided to run an international satellite TV station in Hong Kong. Liu Changle has two main helpers, one is Cui Qiang and the other is Wang Jiyan. Wang Jiyan was also born in Beiguang, and stayed in the school to teach for 20 years, because of this layer of personal connections, many phoenix people later came from Beiguang.
In 1996, Liu Changle cooperated with "media predator" Murdoch to establish Hong Kong Phoenix Satellite TV Co., Ltd., murdoch's STAR TV and Liu Changle's Today Asia Co., Ltd. each held 45% of the shares, and CCTV Advertising Department subsidiaries held 10%.
That year, three young people came to Phoenix TV: Dou Wentao, Chen Luyu and Xu Gehui.
Dou Wentao had been working at Guangdong People's Radio for 7 years at the time, and he had two choices in front of him: New Weekly (also called "Morning News" at the time) and Phoenix Satellite TV, and he received a "solicitation" call from Phoenix Satellite TV when he was eating in the canteen.
Chen Luyu and Xu Gehui started higher than Dou, and both won the CCTV host award, especially Xu Gehui, who hosted the Spring Festival Gala in 1995 and stood next to Ni Ping.
They unanimously chose a newly established television station.
At that time, they were not the only ones who rushed from the mainland to Phoenix SATELLITE TV.
"Emperor Amma" Zhang Tielin is one of the founding elders of Taiwan, presiding over "Movie World", and was photographed by the producers in 1997 when he bought bamboo baskets in Sanlitun, which left Phoenix to shoot "Huan Zhu Gege". Yang Lan gave up "Chia Tai Variety" in 1997 and jumped to Phoenix, and opened his own interview program in 1998. Zhang Shaogang, who was studying for graduate school, was also on Phoenix TV at the time, making a video for Xu Gehui, a choreographer for Wu Xiaoli, participating in the live broadcast of "97 Hong Kong's Return", and later returned to Beiguang to teach because he could not solve the hukou.
In 2000, Phoenix Satellite TV set up an information station, expanded its capacity, and recruited Chen Xiaonan, Zeng Zimo, Lu Ningsi and other generals.
In addition to salary considerations (Dou Wentao once said that Phoenix's salary is several times higher than the original unit. It is rumored that the monthly salary is 40,000 Hong Kong dollars, in 1996), and the revolution and freedom of Phoenix TV should be the biggest reason for this wave of people to go back and forth.
Phoenix Satellite TV has many limitations, such as limited landing in the mainland, which will seriously affect advertising revenue, Hairun Film and Television boss Liu Yanming once spent $1 million to represent phoenix satellite TV's mainland advertising, but it did not take long to quit. But it also has many advantages that are difficult for mainland satellite television to achieve: being in Hong Kong, it has the geographical advantage of reporting on Hong Kong and Taiwan; there is no administrative constraint within the non-system; the newly established, blank space is the best testing ground, wei Wenbin before reforming Hunan Satellite TV, he first regarded Hunan As a test field.
Phoenix TV students are also in time. Liu Changle set the news as the core of Phoenix TV, and the second year of the founding of the station continued to be a succession of events: Deng Xiaoping died in February 1997, Hong Kong returned to the motherland in July, and Princess Diana of the United Kingdom was in a car accident in August. Next, in 1999, the U.S. bombed the Chinese Embassy in Yugoslavia, the 2001 "9/11 incident", the 2003 Iraq War. These international events, the phoenix is speaking out, and often can be rushed to the first point in time, with the most novel and direct perspective to report.
Reporter Zhang Lin mentioned a sentence in "Phoenix Satellite TV These Years": "Some people say that war is a carnival of the media. This is a cold word, but the war and turmoil have indeed given Phoenix SATELLITE TV the opportunity to grow and gain a foothold. Current affairs commentary and war correspondents once became a golden signboard of Phoenix SATELLITE TV.
Looking at the memoirs written by the Phoenix People, you can clearly feel the spirit of the Phoenix People when they fight the world and the blood of the TV people. At that time, there was a shortage of money and few people, and the desks could only be used in turn, but the ideal of journalism was burning madly. How many media students read the Phoenix series of books before choosing a major in news media?
In fact, when Phoenix Satellite TV was first established, Murdoch adhered to the "entertainment, entertainment, and re-entertainment" policy of running a station. This is the American tv character.
Dou Wentao said: "In the first year of Phoenix, the Hong Kong director asked me and Xiaoli to stand on the side of the camera at the beginning of the show, and as soon as the shouting began, we would jump out like a rabbit and shout at the camera: 'Hi, hello everyone!'" It's not something I can do, I'm particularly ugly in front of the camera, it's terrible. "He can't find his own style, he doesn't have any job, he goes shopping every day, where there are new goods, where there are discounts, he informs Chen Luyu and Xu Gehui every day."
Liu Changle wanted to open a relaxing news program "Phoenix Morning Train", and found Chen Luyu, who was still hosting "Music Unlimited", Lu Yu was still a little hesitant, and went to Find Dou Wentao with a bitter face: "You have to help me come up with ideas." ”
Coincidentally, in the same period, Hunan Satellite TV also had a debate on He Litai. In the dispute between news and entertainment, the latter prevailed, and in 2004, Hunan Satellite TV determined the brand positioning of "Happy China". Phoenix Satellite TV and Hunan Satellite TV have taken two very different paths.
Liu Changle always adhered to the current affairs and cultural platform, giving the host great personal freedom. This is also why atypical hosts like Dou Wentao can lead the way, being evaluated as "letting Chinese television start to speak people's words", and "Threesome" has an unshakable position in the history of talk shows. Ruan Cishan, Cao Jingxing, Yang Jinlin, Hu Yihu, He Liangliang, "Millennium Journey", "Crossing the Wind and Sand Line", "Cold and Warm Life", "Li Ao Has Something to Say", "Celebrities Face to Face"... Phoenix TV offers a way to cut through the cross-section of the world.
In 2000, Phoenix SATELLITE TV was listed. As the anchor of Chuangtai, Dou Wentao, Chen Luyu, Xu Gehui and others have a subscription quota second only to the five vice presidents of Phoenix. According to the prospectus, in 1998 and 1999, Phoenix Satellite TV lost HK$131 million and HK$78 million respectively. But in 2001, Phoenix Satellite TV achieved break-even.
After the listing, Liu Changle launched the Phoenix Satellite TV Information Station in an intensive manner, benchmarking CNN, and two years later, CCTV launched a news channel. The information station actually dragged down Phoenix Satellite TV for a period of time, but Liu Changle insisted on doing it. Liu Changle's goal was the all-media kingdom: later, Phoenix TV added Phoenix Network and Phoenix Weekly. In 2011, Phoenix New Media went public. From 2014 to 2015, Phoenix Network invested a total of 70 million US dollars in information, becoming the largest shareholder. At that time, in the subway in Beijing, a little advertisement could be seen everywhere. Forbes Chinese network evaluation is that "a little information" is the biggest threat to "today's headlines".
Entering the 21st century, Phoenix Satellite TV has experienced the era of portals and the era of mobile Internet, and the media forms are diverse and changeable, liu Changle has been trying to seize the opportunities of the times like in the 1990s of the last century, and to stand at the head of the tide forever. But it seems to backfire.
In 2010, Liu Shuang, CEO of Phoenix.com, said in a lecture: "Weibo is a fart, and no one wants to smell it." In 2013, when Liu Changle was interviewed, the host told him this set of data: with the rise of new media, television is encountering more and more challenges, and the TV operating rate in Beijing has dropped from 70% to 30% three years ago, and Shanghai has fallen below 27%.
The contrast between the two things before and after is lamentable. The TV era roared by, and the highlights that hit the head of Phoenix Satellite TV had already fallen elsewhere, for example, short videos. The decline of Phoenix Satellite TV is not an isolated case, as evidenced by the tide of CCTV departures and the collapse of talk shows in 2016, Dou Wentao, Liang Wendao, Chen Xiaonan, Liu Chun, executive director of Phoenix Satellite TV Chinese Station, and other Phoenix elders have invested in video websites. Something is passing away along with the glory of Phoenix TV.
In 2016, Dou Wentao discussed with reporters the future of television, the future of the Internet, and the survival of magazines, and the title of the article was "You Can't Go Back to 1996."
A little information did not carry Liu Changle's dream in the end, at the time when today's headlines soared. In 2019, Phoenix.com sold a little information stake, cashing out $450 million, retaining only 5.63% of the shares. Today, Phoenix New Media's market capitalization is $132 million (as of press time).
In 2021, Liu Changle is 70 years old, retreating behind the scenes on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of Phoenix Satellite TV, with the controversy of Phoenix Financial's excessive payment. His retirement means that the founding team of Phoenix has all withdrawn from the stage of history.
On March 16, 1996, Choi Yong-won recorded the first issue of "Tell the Truth", and two years later, "Threesomes" began broadcasting. Cui Yongyuan and Dou Wentao, and called "Southern Dou Northern Cui". In September 2017, "Threesomes" was discontinued.
The theme of that episode was the movie Dunkirk.
Resources:
[1]. "Phoenix Satellite TV These Years", by Zhang Lin.
[2] Dou Wentao: A Decade of Talking, 2008
[3] "A Tale of Two Cities of One Man: Dou Wentao", by Guo Na, New Weekly.
*Title image purchased from Visual China