Millennium director

Wu Yuan, who is far away in the United States, of course knows the news that "Soul Ferry" has been successfully launched.

He has high hopes for this TV series.

Although he can't get to the stars, he is very aware of how popular "Soul Ferry" was back then.

It is said that it was the emergence of the web drama "Yu Zui" that made China's web dramas formalized, getting rid of the dilemma of low-cost and shoddy production, and began to truly transform into TV dramas as sophisticated as those on the stars.

But in Wu Yuan’s view, what really made online dramas popular and became mainstream film and television culture was the emergence of the nonsensical online mini-series "Unexpectedly", which promoted the formation of the online drama market.

Then under the influence of "Soul Ferry", a long-form online drama with excellent production and excellent content, online dramas truly entered the public eye and became an important part of Chinese film and television culture.

Finally, the emergence of "Yu Zui" completely detonated the online drama market, allowing countless hot money to pour in, and also allowed major video platforms to transform from simply purchasing online broadcast copyrights to making their own TV series.

Even after 2018, online dramas have completely overwhelmed celebrity dramas. The self-made dramas produced by the three major online broadcast platforms every year occupy the list of all TV drama viewers.

Now Wu Yuan has produced "Soul Ferry" more than six years in advance. Of course, he hopes that the mainland's Internet TV drama industry will accelerate.

This year is the first year that mobile Internet has begun to become popular. 3G networks will become popular on April 1, and the first generation of iPhone has already been released.

Network broadband has also entered the era of speed up, and home networks will enter the 10M era within the past two or three years.

By the time "Soul Ferry" is officially launched, the conditions for watching on-demand videos on computers have basically been met. It has transcended the barbaric growth stage of online film and television dramas, and Wu Yuan has directly produced mature online dramas, which is good for the industry. .

For the company, it can also occupy the position of industry leader.

The six years that Wu Yuan took the lead was the development period that Wu Yuan grabbed for Light and Shadow Quick Broadcast.

Whether it can occupy a share of the cake and secure its market position in the era of popular online dramas will depend on these six years.

Even if he doesn't make any money and makes money at a loss, Wu Yuan has to seize this market!

"Soul Ferry" is just the first appetizer, and there will be a series of main courses to follow!

The company signed a series of contracts with more than ten actors from the end of last year to this year, but not just to be mascots, they all have to be used!

On the second day after "Soul Ferry" was successfully launched, Wu Yuan, who had a routine phone call with Li Xiaoping, told her: "The company's TV drama business will be busy next."

“Twinkle Twinkle Star by Jin Sha and Yuan Hong”

"Battle of Changsha" by Wang Likun and Yan Kuan"

"There is also "White Night" by Zhang Yi, Duan Yihong and Chen Zihan"

"Coupled with the fact that "Soul Ferry" has now started shooting, we will have to produce four TV series at once this year, which is not easy."

Of course, it is impossible for these four TV series to all use the online broadcast mode.

Although it would not be a loss for Guangying Times to sell all the dramas to Guangying Express, it would be a real loss for Wu Yuan.

Nowadays, making online dramas is purely about losing money to gain market. The money from advertising on video platforms cannot cover the cost of purchasing the film. A movie like "Soul Ferry" will probably lose all money.

If the webcast of this drama is successful and makes the video platform Kuaibo popular, only subsequent webcasts will be able to sell pre-title advertising space. However, it is unlikely to make money. It will just progress from a total loss to a half loss.

How much does online advertising cost now?

If this thing can make money, several currently popular video websites will not suffer losses every year and will have to raise funds every year.

This is because they didn’t spend any money to buy the copyright!

Their annual advertising revenue is not even enough to cover the cost of renting servers, so they have to go to the investment market to make PPTs to ask for money from investors!

Therefore, in the first year after Light and Shadow was launched, Wu Yuan only planned to make two dramas.

Just one "Soul Ferry" plus another "White Night".

In their original trajectory, these two web dramas relied on word-of-mouth and plots to become popular on the Internet, and they were dark horses in low-cost counterattacks.

Just for the online broadcast of these two dramas, Wu Yuan conservatively estimated that he would have lost 50 to 60 million.

If the show becomes a big hit and attracts tens of millions of viewers, it is estimated that the loss will be even greater, possibly as much as 100 million.

Because the more viewers you have, the more servers you need to rent.

It can only be said that as an Internet company, its main focus is to burn money. It does not regard money as money. It is commonplace to burn hundreds of millions a year.

Otherwise, Wu Yuan wouldn't be in a hurry to get money from Hollywood. It's true that the landlord doesn't have enough food left in his family to squander it like this.

The establishment of the other two TV series is also to make money to make up for the losses in online dramas.

A romantic idol drama "Twinkle Twinkle Shining Star" and a serious drama "Battle of Changsha" are both popular and easy-to-sell film and television genres on TV stations now. Coupled with the good reputation of producers in the light and film era, These two dramas can make money as long as they are produced.

Wu Yuan, who has always been careful with calculations, can only use this method to try to control the balance of payments on the funds he has. At least in the first three to five years of the start of Light and Shadow Quick Broadcast, he must bite the bullet and start it on his own.

It's not that he doesn't want to raise shares in exchange for money, but he doesn't want to start financing too early.

For Internet companies like this, financing is inevitable. Whether it is the three giants or the various taxi-hailing software, food delivery software, shared bicycles, etc. that emerged later, they all went public after ABCD rounds of financing.

The cost of doing this is that by the time the company is finally listed, the founding team will not hold many shares, perhaps less than 20 percentage points, and it will have lost its final say in the company's decision-making level.

Unlike those industrial companies, the founders can basically retain about 30%-40% of the equity, and they can still basically hold on to the company's rights.

Therefore, Wu Yuan would rather spend more of his own money in the early stage to pour into the bottomless pit of the streaming media platform, rather than start financing too early and use investors' money.

It is indeed a pleasure to use investors' money, but the price of comeback is not small at all.

The company he owns is not just Guangying Kuaibo. Sooner or later, Guangying Group will be established to include film and television companies, theater companies, and video websites under its umbrella.

If you want to form such a large entertainment group, you must first ensure that you have absolute control over these companies.

Even if the AB share system is used, and the same shares have different rights, Wu Yuan must hold at least 30% of the shares in order to have absolute control over Guangying Kuaibo.

If there are too many rounds of financing and the equity held in hand is too small, Guangying Kuaibo will become a company independent of Guangying Group, and it will not be able to use its fingers.

Therefore, before the company goes public, he can only raise money for Guangying Kuaibo 2-3 times at most, and the money must be spent carefully.

"I hope this money is enough." Wu Yuan murmured.

From its establishment to its listing, Youku raised a total of six rounds of financing from November 2005 to November 2010, receiving US$160 million in funding to develop the company.

In this regard, Youku lost a total of 1.382 billion yuan in the three years from 2010 to 2013 after its listing.

This was before the era of self-produced dramas and copyrights began, so we lost so much.

The US$600 million in profits expected from Light Times in the next two to three years is what Wu Yuan plans to use for the development of Light and Shadow Qvod from 2008 to 2014.

As for after 2014?

Of course, we need to start financing and start the listing process!

In the Internet video war after 2014, Wu Yuan really couldn’t stand it alone!

By 2021, Youku has lost 6.118 billion a year, and in 2020 it has lost 11.446 billion.

Another giant, Qiyi Video, had net losses of 9.06 billion yuan, 10.28 billion yuan, and 7 billion yuan respectively from 2018 to 2020...

Even if Wu Yuan's positioning of the Light and Shadow Era is small and sophisticated, not as large and comprehensive as the Big Three, he would have lost at least two to three billion that year, right?

If he really had to spend his own money to fill this bottomless pit, he would really be taken advantage of.

The Internet industry really doesn’t treat money as money!

"Within this year, we must film these four TV series." On the phone, Wu Yuan categorically told Li Xiaoping: "Not only TV series, but also movies must keep up."

"Zhang Guorong's new film project, the company's second phase of the young director support program, and Li Yang's new film are all being prepared."

"Although only two movies, "Gravity" and "Li Wen", will be released this year, the company will have at least four movies released next year, which will be doubled!"

"By the way, how are the broadcasts of "The Best of Us" and "Hello, Old Times" going?"

Now all Wu Yuan's mind is thinking about is how to make money, and the two company-produced dramas that he had forgotten are also coming to his mind.

Li Xiaoping on the other end of the phone heard Wu Yuan mention this, and there was a smile in her voice: ""The Best of Us" has been broadcast simultaneously on Mango Channel and Jiangsu and Zhejiang Channels."

"One episode cost two million, and the two TV stations bought it together, and the total sold was 46 million."

"The second round is expected to be sold to a dozen TV stations, and it can also be sold for 50 to 60 million."

"If the response after the broadcast is good enough, there may be a chance to sell the third round."

Now is the golden age for TV drama sales, because the authorities have not yet issued a restriction order that a drama cannot be broadcast on more than three TV stations at the same time.

Although in the first round of broadcasts, powerful TV stations mostly use the first-round exclusive format. For some popular dramas, two TV stations will premiere simultaneously. For some TV dramas with large investment and high price, the TV stations will use four TV stations to buy them. The way.

But at most four TV stations will premiere it together.

But in the second round, the situation will be different. Because the price has dropped, as many as ten TV stations will buy and broadcast together.

When "Dragon" was aired, at its peak there were 17 TV stations (including terrestrial stations) broadcasting it at the same time, so that during the prime time slot in the evening, it was always the same drama.

Every year during the summer vacation, there are often cases where more than a dozen TV stations show "Journey to the West" or "Huan Zhu Ge Ge" during the day.

This makes these TV drama production companies very profitable. Although the selling prices of the second, third, fourth and fifth rounds are cheap, there are enough TV stations that cannot afford to buy them, and the profits created are no less than those of the first round.

By 2010, this situation was curbed. Even the second and third rounds could only be broadcast by up to three TV stations at the same time, which greatly affected the over-selling situation.

The advantage is that viewers no longer have to switch between different TV stations broadcasting the same drama. The disadvantage is that the cost of purchasing movies for TV stations has started to soar.

Since it can no longer be broadcast on multiple channels, the price for the first round of broadcasts will naturally increase.

Rare things are more valuable! Production companies don't want to suffer.

""The Best of Us" is still in talks with the film purchasing departments of major companies. Now the most likely ones to win the first broadcast rights of this TV series are Huizhou Satellite TV and Dragon TV."

"The two companies also bought together. Because the leading actors are Yuan Hong and Guan Zhibin, both of whom have acted in movies, the price is higher. The two companies sold a total of 55 million."

Upon hearing these two sets of numbers, Wu Yuan's face smiled brightly.

The cost of this kind of campus drama is the lowest among all TV dramas. The combined cost of the two TV dramas is less than 30 million. Over time, a profit of more than 70 million has been made.

In addition, if the subsequent two or three rounds can be sold, there will still be a profit of 150 million yuan.

This money can at least allow Guangying Kuaibo to lose one or two online dramas!

"Good, good, well done!" Wu Yuan praised cheerfully: "Keep up the good work, now is the blue ocean in the TV drama industry, and we cannot miss this opportunity."

From 2000 to 2014, it was the most glorious era of TV stations. Because TV was completely popularized in rural areas, there were 7.8 billion TV viewers across the country watching prime time in front of the TV every day.

The major TV stations can generate tens of billions of revenue in a year from advertising revenue alone. Most of this money is used to buy movies, and a small amount is used to produce variety shows.

As long as the Light and Shadow Era can profit by a few percentage points, it is already making money.

"Pirates of the Caribbean 3 is about to be released here. I don't have time to return to China for the time being. I'll leave the company's affairs to you."

Wu Yuan said to Li Xiaoping on the phone in an encouraging tone: "I can rest assured that you are doing the work!"

The TV industry is really making money at this time, much more than the film industry.

At the end of the 1990s, "Kangxi's Private Interview" was able to sell 200 million yuan in advertising.

In 2010, mainland movie box office revenue exceeded 10 billion yuan, while radio and television revenue was nearly 200 billion yuan (of course not just advertising revenue)

When I found this data, I was shocked.