Chapter 407 The popular TV series "The Legend of the Condor Heroes"
Chapter 407 The popular TV series "The Legend of the Condor Heroes" (asking for monthly tickets)
In front of a Rediffusion Television branch in Admiralty, Hong Kong:
At this moment, there are a large number of people queuing in front of the door. If it were an ordinary merchant, they would be very happy at this moment, but the employees of the Rediffusion branch were frowning, because everyone who came here was here to cancel their cable business.
Even because the first year of the new contract is paid in full, many people who have only been in the contract for a year come here to make trouble and want a refund, making everyone embarrassed. If there were only one or two people, they could just call the police, but now there are too many people like this, and the police can only try to smooth things over.
"Hurry up, it's already 30 today. Are you deliberately waiting until September 9st so you can collect an extra month's money?"
A woman shouted loudly, and immediately, many people around her echoed her. It was the end of the month, and the good thing was that the money paid for this month was used up, but the bad thing was that next month was coming soon, and they had to quickly handle the business and cancel the cable TV.
A female salesperson quickly said, "Everyone, we are doing business as quickly as possible, but please think carefully. Our TV station has served Hong Kong citizens for more than five years, and its content is well-loved by everyone. Isn't it a pity to just withdraw it like this?"
"Five years? 5 a month, I have spent 30 in these five years?" Another woman felt heartbroken after calculating.
Even though the housing prices in Hong Kong are very high nowadays, you can still buy a small toilet in Central for 1800.
"Hurry up, we still have things to do when we get back."
"That's right."
Suddenly, there were more impatient people.
The salesperson was thinking about saying something else when he was immediately retorted: "I don't watch free TV, why do I watch your paid TV? Their content is no worse than yours? How can you choose at home?"
With just one sentence, the salesperson was speechless. In fact, she also watched TVB TV station last night. The content was really not bad, except that there were no variety shows. However, as long as the TV station develops normally, there will definitely be such shows.
If she didn't work at Rediffusion, she would just want to watch TVB. No one would complain about having too much money, unless the paid TV station has particularly good content.
Changxing Group Headquarters:
Yang Wendong looked at the scene of people queuing at Rediffusion Bank's business hall in the newspaper in his hand and said with a smile, "It feels like the size of this queue is even bigger than the run on the Liao Chong Hing Bank a few years ago."
Qin Zhiye said: "From the perspective of individual business outlets, they are almost the same, but Rediffusion is not a bank, its business is not that complicated, and it only has 4 business outlets in Hong Kong.
Now these business locations are full of people lining up to cancel their orders. I guess the loss to Reed is not small.”
"It's expected. After the free TV stations came out, the days of pay TV stations became difficult." Yang Wendong said with a faint smile.
Not to mention that they have sufficient resources to invest in TVB. Even in the past, after the emergence of TVB, ATV was defeated and eventually had to ask the Hong Kong government to change it into a wireless free radio station. However, after missing the opportunity, it fell behind step by step.
Qin Zhiye said: "TVB is also preparing to release The Legend of the Condor Heroes, which was already half-filmed. This way, we can not only get higher TV ratings, but also use this content to attract more consumers to buy TV sets."
"Okay, I also want to know what kind of results Zou Wenhuai's The Legend of the Condor Heroes will achieve." Yang Wendong said with a faint smile.
A lot of Hong Kong's history has changed, including the television adaptation of Jin Yong's novels.
He is now pushing for the early birth of TVB and has also acquired a large number of copyrights from Zou Wenhuai and Jin Yong Gu Long, all in order to promote the early birth of Hong Kong film and television culture.
Qin Zhiye said with a smile: "Mr. Zou is full of confidence. I have also watched the first few episodes. Both the scenery and the fighting scenes are pretty good. How about I ask Mr. Zou to send the negatives over?"
"No need, I'll watch it on TV later." Yang Wendong shook his hand and said.
As someone who has read many of Jin Yong's novels, he didn't have very high expectations for this. It was enough for him to be able to read it, and he wasn't in a hurry.
"Okay." Qin Zhiye added, "In addition, Zou Sheng also hopes that I will do my best to promote the TV series before it is released. He said that only if it achieves good results in Hong Kong can it be sold at a good price abroad. This TV series can also be sold to TV stations in other countries."
"Okay, you fully cooperate with him." Yang Wendong nodded and said, "Hong Kong has a population of several million. Even if its economy develops in the future, it can't support a TV station. The only way out is to go overseas."
In the 80s and 90s, TVB was so powerful that hundreds of millions of people in the mainland grew up watching Hong Kong dramas. But after the 21st century, mainland films gradually rose. It might have been better 10 years ago, but 10 years later, TVB was completely ruined.
Although it is also due to the lack of young talents, this is also an indirect consequence of the lack of market, because without market there is no money, and naturally it cannot attract enough film and television talents.
Qin Zhiye agreed and said, "No problem."
In another building in Central, several foreigners were sitting together, smoking.
A blond foreigner said: “Everyone, you have all seen the success of TVB. Now many Hong Kong citizens want to withdraw their cooperation with us;
This will be the biggest crisis we have faced since entering Hong Kong. Please think about what we should do now. "
"Fuck, these Chinese are so abominable. They always try to steal our British business." A foreigner with a thick hair said angrily.
"That is, some businesses in Hong Kong should not allow Chinese people to enter, especially the media."
Many foreigners were also discussing with each other.
The blond foreigner sitting at the top looked miserable and immediately said, "Hong Kong is no longer under the control of the British. Don't you know more about the situation in Singapore than I do?"
After hearing this, everyone present shut up, because they knew that the British Empire could no longer control the local forces in Southeast Asia, so it had to allow many countries to become independent. Originally, it wanted to keep Singapore, but even with such a small area, it was no longer possible.
Therefore, in other places, the only option is to win over local forces. Otherwise, if they continue to be arrogant, they will have to get out, and the losses will be even greater.
The blond ghost continued, "Besides, this matter has nothing to do with Chinese and British capital. If the Hong Kong TVB was opened by other British capital today, wouldn't we be facing the same situation today?"
There was silence again, and then a blonde woman said, "Mr. Avil, according to the development of television stations in Europe and the United States, cable TV stations are naturally no match for wireless TV stations, because the former charge fees and the latter are free. Consumers are not fools when faced with free TV stations.
The only way to break the deadlock is to learn from Europe and the United States. Their cable TV stations basically have no advertisements, but only a large number of high-quality programs. In this way, they form a misaligned competition with wireless TV stations with a large number of advertisements. In this way, cable TV stations can protect their own customer base. "
"Phoebe, you're right." Ivel nodded and said, "However, Hong Kong has such a small population. How can it support us to produce high-quality programs?"
This is the core issue. After the program is produced, it is the same whether it is watched by one person or 100 million people. The recoverable profits are different. If a place has a small population, it is impossible to produce any good programs.
Not to mention Hong Kong, even Europe is also caught in the same problem. Even though the economy of the entire Europe is not as good as that of the United States, it is not much different. However, the language difference leads to mediocre television programs in countries like Germany, France and Italy, which are far inferior to those of Britain and the United States.
Phoebe paused and said, "There's really no other way, unless we buy the copyrights of overseas programs, but..." Everyone present understood that this trick would not work. It had been tried before, but Hong Kong's population was so small and its economy was far inferior to that of Europe and the United States, and they had lost everything.
Therefore, they could only make some programs on their own. Hong Kong is a small place and there is no choice anyway. But now there is a competitor, which is a free TV station. This is completely different.
Everyone discussed this for a long time, but still couldn't find a solution. They had no idea where to start. Finally, Avel said, "Then everyone go back and think about it carefully. Besides, I estimate that TVB should also be losing money by broadcasting like this. It depends on how long they can sustain it."
The others looked at each other, wanting to say something, but no words came out;
Although he is British, they all know the name of Yang Wendong. This Chinese upstart is second only to Jardine Matheson, HSBC and Swire in terms of financial strength. How could he care about such a small amount of money? What follows is bound to be a bloody fight.
September 9, the eleventh day of TVB's broadcast:
Qi Ruifan came to Changxing Building again and handed Yang Wendong a document, saying, "Mr. Yang, this is the estimated financial data. In the past few days since we opened, our daily loss is about 3000 yuan."
"3000 a day? So much?" Yang Wendong asked.
Qi Ruifan explained: "Yes, but it is also because our early investment will be spread over the first five years. For this alone, the daily spread cost is 3500 yuan;
In addition, there are tower maintenance, electricity costs, all labor costs, filming costs, copyright purchase costs, etc., and our current revenue is still insufficient. We mainly rely on a few advertisers, plus customers within the Changxing Group, otherwise the losses will be even greater. "
"If that's the case, it doesn't matter." Yang Wendong said, "There are too few TV users right now, so you can't collect much from TV advertising. You have to wait until there are more TV sets in Hong Kong."
If the customer base is too small, it will inevitably make it difficult for the TV station to operate. This also needs to be gradually followed by social and economic development, so the TV station will definitely lose money in the early stage;
However, in business, few projects can make money right from the start. Most of them burn money in the early stage and make money lying down in the later stage. For example, in the past Internet companies, the battle of thousands of groups, online car-hailing wars, and payment wars in the mainland almost made the whole nation crazy, but after the burning, the whole nation became big leeks.
Of course, TVB will not do this, it is impossible for it to charge viewers.
Qi Ruifan nodded and said, "Yes, I am also going to launch more high-quality programs as soon as possible. As long as our programs are good enough and can become the gossip of Hong Kong society, it will definitely attract more people to buy TVs.
The day after tomorrow, September 9th, TVB is going to broadcast The Legend of the Condor Heroes, and I think it will also attract a lot of people.”
"Yes, using the fame of Jin Yong's novels is a good idea." Yang Wendong agreed and said, "Jin Yong is very famous. When the time comes, you can ask him to write a review in Ming Pao, and it will be even more popular."
In an era when there were almost no TV and movie stars, Jin Yong, a literary celebrity, was extremely famous. Even for many people, they would not care about Yang Wendong, but they would care about Jin Yong.
Qi Ruifan added: "Actually, what I'm thinking of is giving some of the audience members the original books signed by Jin Yong at random. I think that would also be helpful."
"Okay, this is also a good marketing." Yang Wendong nodded: "But you guys go find Jin Yong yourself, I won't get involved."
Although his relationship with Jin Yong seemed to be pretty good, he couldn't just step in person for such a small matter. If he did, his face would be worthless.
"Okay, no problem." Qi Ruifan agreed.
At 9:10 in the evening of September 7, the Yang family members all sat in front of the TV, ready to watch "The Legend of the Condor Heroes".
Soon, the TV program started, and the shocking music sounded, along with the hero and heroine, different supporting roles, and different swords and sabers.
"Brother Dong, this music is really nice." Bai Yushan said, "Is it sung by someone from TVB?"
Yang Wendong shook his head and said, "No, the Hong Kong Commercial Radio under Changxing Media has long been focusing on cultivating music talents, including composers, lyricists and singers;
After so many years of hard work, the company has been operating at a loss, but it has also cultivated a lot of relevant talents and produced a lot of good songs. The theme song and interlude of "The Legend of the Condor Heroes" were all composed by them."
Bai Yushan asked curiously: "Since it is losing money, why do you keep doing it?"
Yang Wendong said with a smile: "That's because at the beginning, radio was the only channel for music to make money. But when I looked at the development path of European and American music, I knew there would definitely be other ways in the future.
It will be too late to start at that time, so we need to get up early to cultivate relevant talents. This art team is not a factory. If you want to develop, throwing money is useless. Only time can make it happen. If you lose money in the early stage, you will make money when the market matures. "
Bai Yujie followed up by saying, "Can we make a profit from the TV station now?"
Yang Wendong said: "Yes, TV stations will be one of them, and although TV sets are expensive, people will rely on them much more than radios, and music will also become famous with some TV dramas;
Later, when the economy gets better, maybe we can make money from music by selling records and tapes like in Europe and America. That will be a golden opportunity for music.”
If any art wants to be popular, it must be profitable enough to attract talented people to create. Otherwise, it will inevitably decline.
This is true for movies, TV series, music, and even variety shows. In the past Internet era, there were too many pirated music, which led to a major gap in mainland music. It was not until the emergence of TikTok that music had a way to monetize and make money that it recovered a little bit, but it was still not as good as the peak in the last few years of 2000.
Su Yiyi smiled and said, "Brother Dong's layout is very deep. The investments many years ago seemed uneconomical at the time, but later we found that each one was very valuable."
"Haha~" Yang Wendong smiled and said, "Watch TV, the plot has begun."
On TV, the first thing that appeared was the background of the Song Dynasty, which took about a minute to introduce. Then Wanyan Honglie was chased and killed, and then he fled to Niujia Village, the place where all the tragedy began.
Then, I watched it until 9:2, a total of episodes, with a lot of commercials in between.
"It's so beautiful, the fight is so exciting, just like in the movies." Bai Yujie said with a smile.
"It's really good." Yang Wendong nodded and praised.
Although there are no special effects, the fights are life-like, with punches hitting the flesh, swords flashing, and sabers flashing, thanks to the martial arts skills, guidance, and wirework. Although not as good as those between the 90s and 2010s, they are much better than the fights in various stupid fairy tale dramas after 2010.
Su Yiyi said, "Two episodes a day?"
Yang Wendong said, "What are you thinking about? Today is the first day, so there are only two episodes. From now on, there will be two episodes a week, on Wednesday and Saturday respectively."
In the past, many people watched TV in one go, but in fact, only mainland China likes to do this. Many places overseas shoot and broadcast at the same time. This can also avoid shooting a TV series at a high cost and then seeing it fail completely, which would result in heavy losses.
If the content is popular and is broadcast slowly, it can also ensure higher subsequent advertising revenue, which is a model that kills two birds with one stone, but the audience does not like it very much.
"Ah~" the three women complained.
Yang Wendong said with a smile: "But if you want to watch it, you can go to the TVB building in Tseung Kwan O, where you can watch the last 20 episodes."
The next afternoon, Qi Ruifan came to report again and said with a smile: "Mr. Yang, our "The Legend of the Condor Heroes" is a big hit. The ratings last night haven't been counted yet, but it's estimated to be no less than 65%;
And this morning, I was on the street and heard many people discussing the TV series "The Legend of the Condor Heroes"?
At this time, Liu Huayu from Carrefour also knocked on the door and said, "Mr. Yang, this morning, the TVs here are also suddenly selling like hot cakes."
PS: Please give me a monthly ticket
(End of this chapter)