Produced by l Viewpoint Finance
Author l Dazhao
"Where there are Chinese, there are Hong Kong TVB programs."
This is not an exaggeration at all. To this day, Hong Kong TVB (also known as "tvb") is still the only Chinese-language television media in the world that can fully cover the three places on both sides of the Straits, and is the first TV media in the world that can be approved by the local government in Hong Kong, Macao, Chinese mainland and Taiwan, and legally landed and enter thousands of households in the four places on both sides of the Strait.
TVB has won many awards for various TV programs and promotional videos, and has won more than 300 important international awards so far.
In 1997, TVB was selected as one of asia's most competitive enterprises in the past 50 years, one of the 20 outstanding business institutions in Hong Kong and one of the 200 outstanding companies in Asia.
In 2001, TVB received the 2001 International Broadcasting Excellence Award from the National Broadcasting Association.
And TVB's influence in the mainland region comes mostly from those highly influential TV series, such as:
"Shanghai Beach", "Gangster", "My Savage Grandma" and other period dramas;
Costume dramas such as "In Search of Qin", "Desire for Evil in Golden Branches", "Palace Heart Scheme", "Record of Washing Injustices" and so on;
Fashion workplace dramas such as "Imperial Court No. 1", "Forensic Pioneer", "Forensic Record", "Criminal Investigation Archives", "Mind Reader", "Magic Hand Benevolent Heart" and business war dramas such as "Genesis";
There are also remakes of versions of Jin Yong and Gulong martial arts dramas.
On the other hand, in order to support its own TV drama business, TVB independently created a huge performing arts team.
In 1972, the TVB Artists Training Course was launched, and since then, a large number of talents have been continuously sent to the Hong Kong performing arts industry, such as:
1974 students Zhou Runfa, Wu Mengda, Ren Dahua;
Huang Xingxiu and Du Qifeng in 1975;
Chen Yulian and Lv Liangwei, trainees in 1977;
1980 trainees Huang Rihua and Miao Qiaowei;
1981 students Andy Lau and Leung Ka Fai;
In 1982, he was a student, including Liang Chaowei, Zhou Xingchi, Wu Zhenyu, Ouyang Zhenhua, and many others.
These people are still the "pillars" of Hong Kong's film and television industry to this day, and it is no exaggeration to say that they are also the backbone of the entire Chinese film and television industry.
In addition, TVB also involves game programs, music events, children's programs, variety shows, sports events, social welfare programs and other tv programs.
From an investment point of view, from March 1990 to March 2000, the stock price of TVB's parent company, Television Broadcasting (0511.hk), was 10 times in 10 years, with an average annual compound yield of 26.61%, and the average annual compound yield of the Hang Seng Index was 17.40% in the same period, outperforming the market by 9 percentage points.
Nowadays, the domestic long video platform business model based on "Aiyouteng" is still in the adjustment and experimental stage, and Mango Super Media has taken the lead in making profits with a mature model, but it has also suffered a lot of blows under the epidemic.
Therefore, we hope to deconstruct the model and value of TVB, so as to evaluate the future pattern evolution of domestic film and television, variety shows and other related long video content.
How similar the patterns are
The most obvious advantage of TVB is the self-control ability of content.
Since its inception, TVB has insisted on self-made dramas, and from story creation to shooting completion, each link has a clear division of labor in an assembly line production method. In this model, the supervising producer is the core, and is fully responsible for story conception, actor selection, post-production, etc. Screenwriters, directors, etc. all serve as producers.
Under normal circumstances, a script can be filmed after about fifteen or six episodes, and two screenwriters and four directors can complete the shooting of 20 episodes of the TV series within three months under the leadership of the producer.
The "standardized" shooting process has also helped TVB save costs to a certain extent.
In 2018, TVB's self-produced drama (non-co-production) cost about HK$1 million per episode, of which 70% was used to maintain the entire industrial machine and ensure the operation of each link process, while the part including the actor's remuneration was only about 30%.
In order to ensure the smooth connection of each link, each type of TVB work is strictly subdivided, choreographer, screenwriter, director, all parts of the primary, intermediate, senior, of which each promotion requires 3-5 years of accumulation, so from the ordinary bottom to the producer, it takes an average of 20 years, through a strict and hierarchical promotion system, the producer has been fully screened and trained, and the talent echelon that can be used has been cultivated.
At the same time, TVB also has a unique actor discovery and training system, and recruits film and television talents by holding a variety of competitions.
In addition to the aforementioned TVB artist training class, in 1973 TVB held the first "Miss Hong Kong" beauty contest and has continued to this day, among which Maggie Cheung, Cai Shaofen, Li Jiaxin, She Shiman, Qiu Shuzhen, Hu Xing'er and other "Hong Kong sisters" have entered the film and television circle and become the "goddess" in the hearts of a generation of audiences.
In 1982, TVB held the first "Rookie Singing Competition", and in the following years, it discovered Li Keqin, Zhou Huimin, Zheng Xiuwen, Zheng Yijian, Li Wei and other popular singers, and there were not a few who "sang and performed well", such as Zheng Yijian won the "5th place in the top ten highest-grossing male actors in Hong Kong from 1985 to 2005" in 2005.
Under the support of strong channels, excellent models and a large number of film and television talents, TVB developed rapidly in the 80s and 90s of the last century, and explosive dramas were frequently produced. Well-known to the public, such as the "Magic Hands and Benevolent Hearts" series, the "Forensic Records" series, the "Golden Branches Desire" series, and the "Storm of Hearts" series are all from this period.
The value of the integrated business model of TVB production and broadcasting is mainly reflected in the value of content production, the value of selection, and the value of channels. In contrast, long-form video platforms such as IYoutengmang in China are still in the early stage of development, and in recent years they have begun to pay attention to the upstream and downstream layout.
At present, long video platforms are taking the differentiated self-made route.
iQIYI builds a film selection team to select products for the whole market;
Tencent Video adopts the self-made idea of ip pan-entertainment full chain, and prefers ip within tencent system (such as Reading Group and Tencent Comics, etc.);
Mango takes the creative production play integrated self-made route.
Image source: Dongxing Securities
In 2020, the proportion of iQiyi, Tencent, and Youku's quarterly variety shows themselves was 35%, 45% and 37%, respectively, and the proportion of mango TV's quarterly variety shows was 89%, much higher than that of other platforms.
In terms of content production teams, take Mango TV as an example:
According to the data, Mango TV has 12 film and television drama production teams and 30 strategic cooperation studios. At the same time, there are 20 variety show production teams, led by He Chen and Shan Danxia, forming a four-level management system of independent studios, S-level teams, A-level teams and start-up teams.
However, no user loyalty is the fatal wound of the video site, the user is attracted by the content rather than the platform, so once the content investment slows down, the user will immediately defect to other platforms, which is the main reason why the content investment of the video website of the head minister of Aiteng is high.
Therefore, the ability to select products is particularly important, iQIYI adopts a strategy of selecting products for the whole industry, which has the advantages of capital and channels, occupies a dominant position in the cooperation between the two sides, and harvests the commercial value of most of the explosive works. In recent years, the popular "River God", "Old Nine Doors", "Sideburns Are Not Begonia Red" and so on have the shadow of iQiyi behind them.
Different from iQIYI's "wide selection" strategy, Tencent Video's external cooperation focuses on leading film and television companies, such as Huace, Xinli, Huanrui Century, Ciwen, etc. It has also created "Qing Yu Nian", "Douluo Continent", "Nu Qing Xiangxi", "Genting Heavenly Palace" and other blockbusters.
Judging from the film list of Mango TV Monsoon Theater, unlike the genre theater of other long video platforms at present, Monsoon's next theme still covers multiple themes on the basis of continuing the tone of "warm realism". "Wolf Hunter", "True Detective of Lies", "I'm Good in Other Places", "Tianmu Crisis", "Twelfth Second" and so on have been broadcast successively.
So from some points of view, IYouteng Mango seems to be retaking the route of TVB, and we can also refer to the development process of TVB to speculate on the competitive trend of long video platforms.
TVB's inspiration for aiyouteng
The popular TVB entered around 2010, and its performance began to weaken significantly.
The decline of TVB is manifested in many ways:
The first is the brain drain, TVB has strict management of artists but low salaries, resulting in the larger celebrities and producers leaving TVB in batches to develop in the mainland since 2010;
With the further development of the mainland TV drama industry and the introduction of Japanese dramas, Korean dramas, and European and American dramas, the audience's requirements for the quality of film and television dramas are increasing, the audience's appreciation taste is gradually diversified, and the iteration level of TVB dramas is not as good as the market changes;
The third is not seizing the Internet opportunity.
But there is also a very important factor is the peak of users. A significant factor in the start of TVB's decline is that its main viewing group is only 2.51 million households (mainly in Hong Kong, China). In the context of the small market, in order to maintain the ratings of at least 28 points, TVB needs to choose the theme of the self-made drama for all ages, and innovation is limited.
Domestic long-form video platforms do not have to worry about users at all, and in 2018, China's TV population base was 1.322 billion people and 372 million households.
According to the 47th Statistical Report on the Development of China's Internet Network officially released by the China Internet Network Information Center (cnnic), as of December 2020, the scale of online video users in China reached 927 million, accounting for 93.7% of the total netizens. Therefore, domestic film and television drama users and long video users have not peaked, and Aiyouteng will continue to maintain a high investment state in order to compete for users.
Previously, the biggest cost expenditure of Theaultons was to buy content copyrights and spend a lot of money on publicity and distribution, which was also the main reason for their collective losses. To maintain the differentiation of content, it is best to get the copyright to be exclusive, which leads to price competition.
However, in the long run, there is no winner in the copyright war for long video platforms, so at present, customized dramas and self-made dramas have become the mainstream purchase methods of platforms, and the probability of vicious competition on domestic long video platforms in the short and medium term is low. At the same time, with the end of the copyright war, the video platform quickly reversed the situation and grasped the absolute initiative of the drama industry. The improvement of the competitive landscape has increased the investment value of long video platforms.
Looking ahead to the next five years, long-form video platforms are less likely to achieve significant innovation in business models and operations.
Considering the three major values of content production, channels and selection of long video platforms, the incremental value of iQIYI's platform lies in product selection, that is, through the studio selection system, to create explosive models, and then establish its own brand. The success of Tencent Video's IP series is the success of IP. At the same time, Mango Super Media has formed its own characteristics, the future incremental value lies in the channel, and the continuous growth of the number of platform users will greatly enhance the value of the platform.
Unlike TVB's small market in Hong Kong, the Chinese mainland long video market is huge, the ceiling is higher, and the track is still growing. Therefore, from the perspective of investment value, the long video industry has long-term investment value.
Resources:
Dongxing Securities: "The Enlightenment of TVB's Rise and Fall in 50 Years on Domestic Long Video Platforms"
Disclaimer: This article is only for knowledge sharing, only for the purpose of transmitting more information, does not constitute any investment advice, anyone makes investment decisions accordingly, at their own risk.