Chapter 338 Switching to CCTV
It took Meng Bai a few days to chat with Hou Hongliang, Fu Binxing and others, and basically figured out the interest chain behind it.
In fact, there were reports of fake ratings as early as ten years ago. After entering the 10s, with the development of the film and television industry, related news broke out every two years.
Even in 2015, the TV Drama Department of the General Administration and CCTV asked provincial and above TV stations across the country to jointly sign a "Self-Discipline Convention", requiring "not to sign clauses that price and negotiate based on ratings and ratings rankings in TV drama purchase and sales contracts", and oppose the theory of ratings only.
But signing is signing, and whether to abide by it is another matter.
With the implementation of the "one drama, two stars" policy in 2015, the TV drama industry has obviously experienced overproduction. In a situation where supply exceeds demand, TV stations naturally "bully customers with their big stores".
As long as the production agency does not promise to guarantee the ratings, they will refuse to purchase the film, and then force the producer to continue to spend money to buy ratings.
By now, the entire market has basically formed a vicious cycle of "advertisers require TV stations to guarantee ratings - TV stations require producers to purchase ratings - producers reversely require TV stations to pay high prices due to increased costs - TV stations raise advertising prices due to increased film purchase costs".
"Producers have suffered from TV stations' forced purchase of ratings for a long time, and now they are basically on the edge of patience. If someone makes a call, it is estimated that everyone will follow."
This is what Hou Hongliang said when chatting with Meng Bai, but he always felt that this brother was instigating Arclight to be the "first bird to come out".
In contrast, Guo Jingyu was very direct and directly scolded the TV station.
"This group of people are just mosquitoes sucking blood from our producers. Sometimes I really want to dig out all the dirty things they do under the table for everyone to see!"
Looking at Guo Jingyu who was slamming the table and cursing, Meng Bai couldn't help but smile. It must be said that this brother is also a person of temperament.
Seeing that the other party finally stopped talking, Meng Bai said, "It seems that the production companies have indeed suffered from the TV station for a long time. Director Guo might as well make a call, and then everyone will follow."
Guo Jingyu glanced at him, sighed and smiled bitterly, "Brother Meng, it's easy for you to say, but it's really not easy to do. There are so many people following you for a living, who would be willing to be the 'first bird' unless it is absolutely necessary."
In fact, it is like this in all walks of life. As long as they can still make a living, few people are willing to stand up.
After all, everyone is smart. It is hard to say whether the first one to come out can succeed, but it is certain that he will be the first to be killed as a warning to the others.
"Brother Meng, how much did you ask for from you?" Guo Jingyu asked.
There is nothing to hide about this matter, Meng Bai directly replied: "500,000 per episode."
"That's OK, this price is cheap." Guo Jingyu said: "Generally, the standard for satellite TV stations below the third line is 300,000-400,000, and the second line is 400,000-500,000. First-line satellite TV stations like Oriental, Mango, and Zhejiang are all above 500,000 or 600,000, and some can even open to nearly one million."
100 million to buy the film, 90 million to buy ratings, plus deferred payment and publicity costs, the producer's "paying money to make a movie" is really not a joke.
From this point of view, Mango TV really gave Arc Light a discount. Meng Bai suddenly had such a thought in his mind. A
long time ago, there was a story that in order to better manage the slaves, the slave owner picked out a "slave leader", gave him better food and conditions, and gave him the right to supervise other slaves.
So in order to keep his position, the slave would supervise extra seriously. And other slaves were jealous of his treatment, and would work harder in exchange for the same "promotion".
In the end, only the slave owner sat back and enjoyed the fruits of his labor.
The current situation is very similar to this situation. Each production company has its own connections and channels. Some get more money, while others get less. They are not united internally, let alone uniting to force the TV stations.
However, although Meng Bai did not want Arclight to be the first to come forward, he was not interested in being a slave or a "slave leader".
After returning to Arclight, he went directly to Liu Jun's office.
"Stop the negotiations with several satellite TV stations."
Liu Jun was stunned and asked in confusion: "Why, you are not going to broadcast on the satellite TV but just go online?"
In fact, it is not impossible. It is difficult for online dramas to be broadcast on satellite TV, but it is very simple for TV dramas to be broadcast on the Internet. The three major platforms now have a good relationship with Arclight. If they want to broadcast on the Internet, just say so.
The only pity is that Arclight's plan to enter the field of TV dramas has to be interrupted.
"No, since we are shooting a TV series, let's do it as a TV series." Meng Bai said.
Seeing Liu Jun's puzzled expression, he smiled softly and leaned on the sofa and said, "Don't forget, in addition to these satellite TV stations, there is another more awesome TV station."
"You don't want to sell it to CCTV, do you?"
"We have to admit that although CCTV also has many problems, at least it is not so open and disgusting."
Liu Jun took a deep breath, but this is indeed a solution. Especially as "Peace Hotel" is a spy war film, there is no sensitivity in the subject matter, so there will naturally be no censorship issues.
"But the price CCTV gives for buying the film is much lower than that of major satellite TV stations." Liu Jun reminded.
For the same drama, the price sold to CCTV is generally only about 60% of that of satellite TV stations. Moreover, CCTV is also very exclusive, and basically broadcasts it exclusively.
"It's lower, anyway, the bulk of the revenue is still on the website." Meng Bai said, "And if you count the money for buying ratings, the difference is actually not that big."
The satellite TV side offered a price of 1.8 million per episode, minus the "ratings guarantee deposit" of 500,000, which is equivalent to 1.3 million.
The price that CCTV can offer is also about one million. Taking into account CCTV's own ratings base, a lot of publicity and promotion costs can be saved. So in the end, the total revenue is only a few million. Anyway,
Meng Bai would rather earn less than a few million, and he doesn't want to use the money to "feed the dog" and nourish those black industrial chains.
What's more, there is another invisible benefit of cooperating with CCTV, which is that it will have more advantages in the award selection in the future.
For Arclight Film and Television today, there is no shortage of funds, projects, and industry influence. The only thing missing is these official honors.
There was no chance to shoot a web drama before, but now it's a TV series, so I can't let it go.
After agreeing on the basic conditions for cooperation, Liu Jun began to contact CCTV to discuss cooperation.
Compared with satellite TV stations, CCTV is undoubtedly a lot more huge, and its attitude is also more indifferent.
Fortunately, Arclight Film and Television has been developing for so many years, and it is not without any relationship channels at the top. After climbing the relationship, everyone sat down and talked several times, and it was considered a successful cooperation.
And unexpectedly, Arclight's cooperation seems to have just caught up with a good node.
In recent years, CCTV has been facing an unfavorable situation in purchasing dramas. First, CCTV's purchase price of dramas is not competitive, and many good dramas have been snatched away by satellite TV stations; second, the increasing strength and voice of video websites in purchasing dramas have also aggravated the difficulties faced by CCTV.
So after a long period of discussion, CCTV proposed "five new policies" and decided to start the reform from next year.
The specific content includes raising the purchase price of CCTV1 and CCTV8 and shortening the subsequent payment time. For dramas that have received good responses after being broadcast on CCTV8, they can be upgraded to CCTV1 for broadcast, which is equivalent to a disguised "one drama, two stars".
The most important one is to strengthen cooperation with video websites. Implement "simultaneous broadcasting on TV and the Internet" or even "first Internet, then TV" system.
It can be said that each of these measures accurately hits the pain points of the film and television market. After implementation, it will inevitably greatly enhance CCTV's competitiveness.
CCTV is still discussing the specific details of the reform, and this cooperation with Arclight happened to be at this node.
The film purchasing department of Channel 8 said that if Arclight agrees to broadcast after the Spring Festival next year, a contract can be signed according to the reformed standards.
Meng Bai and his team naturally would not disagree, after all, there were only two months left before the Chinese New Year. Compared with the normal schedule, it was not much different.
As for the price of the film, CCTV offered 1.1 million per episode. And promised that as long as the ratings were above the baseline, the balance would be paid within half a year.
This condition was far beyond what Meng Bai and his team had imagined before. Especially the latter, which was much more important than the extra one or two hundred thousand yuan for the film. In other words, it was a good thing
to lose something in one place, even though it was not as high as the satellite TV station, this wave of cooperation was not a loss at all.
(End of this chapter)
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