Chapter 565 Tengda Begins to Transform the Film and Television Industry
July 22nd, the Great Heat. Beijing welcomes the hottest time of the year.
Inside the Tengda Culture Conference Room, the air conditioning was on full blast, making it cool and pleasant.
Around the long conference table, a group of senior executives of the company sat upright, and the semi-annual meeting was in a crucial stage.
President Liu Rong spoke clearly into the microphone: "Based on the company's long-term development considerations, the division of responsibilities among presidents will be adjusted as follows for the second half of the year:"
I will personally oversee the advertising business, Mr. Liu will be responsible for back-office operations and support, and Mr. Wang will be in charge of the film and television sector.
As soon as the division of labor was announced, a commotion broke out in the conference room.
The department heads exchanged surprised glances, and the advertising manager looked even more bewildered.
According to the newly released financial report, Tengda Culture's revenue in the first half of 2013 was 1.4 billion yuan, and its profit was 420 million yuan.
The film and television business led the way, contributing 1.32 billion yuan in revenue, making it the company's undisputed pillar.
Liu Rong has been personally in charge of this core business since he took office.
It's truly puzzling that he's suddenly handing the reins to Vice President Wang Qiang, while he himself is directly managing the lukewarm advertising business.
Ignoring the murmurs in the room, Liu Rong turned to his deputy beside him and solemnly instructed:
"President Wang, the company has seven TV series and three movies starting production in the second half of the year, including 'One Servant, Two Masters,' 'Boss & Me,' 'Ma Xiangyang Goes to the Countryside,' 'Fleet of Time,' and 'The White-Haired Witch.' It's a heavy workload, so you'll have to put in a lot of effort."
"Don't worry, Mr. Liu," Wang Qiang replied calmly.
Before the conference, the three presidents had already held a small meeting, and he understood the deeper meaning behind this adjustment.
Liu Rong nodded and said calmly, "Yesterday, I attended the joint meeting of the presidents of the Group's content platform and entertainment business groups."
The key points of some important meetings have been conveyed to everyone, as they relate to the company's strategic direction for the next two years.
The executives present all adjusted their posture, opened their notebooks, and prepared to take notes.
"At the current rate of development, Tengda Culture will soon reach the ceiling of the size of domestic film and television companies."
Liu Rong paused, then added, "I'm referring to the film and television sector, excluding advertising."
She looked around the room and, seeing the thoughtful expressions on everyone's faces, further explained: "The market capacity is limited."
The number of prime-time slots, recommended placements on video websites, and television broadcasts throughout the year is limited. A company cannot produce film and television works indefinitely.
Wang Qiang subconsciously considered the matter in his mind.
Excluding overseas investment projects, Tengda Culture produces more than 20 film and television dramas a year, which is indeed approaching the limit of market capacity.
If multiple works from the same company are released at the same time, they will inevitably compete with each other, diverting viewers and creating an awkward situation of "fighting against myself".
“An even more crucial point!” Liu Rong’s voice pulled him back to reality. “Top directors, screenwriters, and actors are not assembly line workers.”
Their time, talent, and creativity are the scarcest resources in this industry, and they cannot possibly serve only Tenda.
As she spoke, she leaned forward slightly, her voice exceptionally clear through the microphone:
"In order to balance the quality and quantity of works, strengthen project risk control, and maximize the use of the group's ecological advantages, the company will implement more refined management in the future."
Then, a bombshell was dropped: "In the second half of the year, Tengda Culture will join hands with Toutiao Video to jointly formulate film and television project rating standards."
A murmur of surprise rippled through the conference room. A collaboration with Toutiao Video to set industry standards?
This is clearly not a simple business adjustment, but rather a redefinition of the rules of the game using the power of the platform and capital!
"The new standard will, based on the scale of investment, comprehensively consider multiple dimensions such as the creative team and IP value, and divide projects into four levels," Liu Rong began to elaborate.
"Tier 1, S+ level. Cost per unit is over 5 million, and total investment is no less than 200 million."
The main creative team must consist of top-tier actors with the strongest appeal, and the director and screenwriter must be winners of top-tier awards or have a proven reputation.
She paused for a moment, letting the number settle in everyone's mind, "For the S+ project, it will enjoy the full ecosystem traffic allocation of the group."
This includes splash screen ads on Weibo and Toutiao, trending topic pre-rolls, and prominent placement on the Toutiao video homepage.
Those present were all industry veterans, and they immediately understood that the S+ project aimed to create a phenomenal hit, not only to be profitable but also to achieve widespread online influence.
"The second tier, S-level," Liu Rong continued, "3 million to 5 million per episode, with a total investment of 100 million to 200 million. It requires A-list stars to play leading roles and a mature production team."
Positioning is the absolute mainstay of the company's revenue and market share, enjoying promotional resources at the level of key dramas within the group.
"The third tier, Level A, focuses on categorization and stable returns, used to consolidate the core audience. The cost per episode is 1.5 million to 3 million, with a total investment of 50 million to 100 million. It mainly relies on targeted promotion within Toutiao Video."
“The last tier, Class B,” she said in a slightly gentler tone, “is positioned as a low-cost innovation testing ground, used to incubate new IPs and cultivate new talents, with investments controlled below 50 million.”
Newcomers or faded celebrities can be cast, and new directors and screenwriters can be boldly employed. Promotion and distribution rely primarily on word-of-mouth on social media and algorithmic recommendations, with minimal involvement from platform resources.
Liu Rong finished speaking in one breath, picked up her teacup, took a small sip to moisten her somewhat dry throat, and gave everyone time to digest.
Because he was in charge of the film and television sector, Wang Qiang listened with particular attention, his brows furrowed slightly.
He keenly realized that what the president said was not how traditional film and television companies operated at all.
The collaboration between Toutiao Video and Tengda Culture to set industry standards is clearly a profound internet-based transformation of the traditional film and television industry by a large internet group leveraging its ecological advantages, data capabilities, and platform rules.
Just as Wang Qiang was lost in thought, Vice President Liu Zhijun spoke first, his tone cautious:
"Mr. Liu, what you just described seems to be a typical internet thinking model."
“That’s right.” Liu Rong put down her teacup and frankly admitted, “Traditional film and television projects rely on the personal experience and artistic intuition of producers and directors.”
The decision-making process is like a craft workshop, full of uncertainty and personal bias.
The Tengda model aims to quantify the value of a project into an assessable and comparable indicator system by comprehensively considering factors such as IP popularity, the market appeal of the main creators, and historical data of the genre.
Transforming decision-making from "what I think" to "data-driven" is precisely the core of the data-driven mindset in the internet industry.
Everyone looked at each other in disbelief. With Tengda Culture and Toutiao Video working together to set benchmarks and build an integrated closed-loop platform for production, distribution, and evaluation, how could other film and television companies possibly compete?
After a moment's hesitation, Wang Qiang couldn't help but speak up: "President Liu, I understand the Group's intention to pursue efficiency and risk control."
But for film and television production, will an overly standardized assembly line stifle artistic creativity and diversity?
After all, true blockbusters often come from innovations and breakthroughs that were initially not favored by the data.
Assembly lines can produce acceptable products, but can they produce masterpieces that move people and set trends?
Liu Rong's gaze suddenly sharpened as she looked directly at Wang Qiang: "President Wang, do you think it's useful to say this to me?"
This grading system is of paramount importance to your work in the second half of the year. You must take it very seriously!
In truth, she felt a sense of helplessness, but the person sitting at the pinnacle of power at Tengda Technology only cared about data, ecosystem, and algorithms, and had no interest in so-called "art."
The group's strategy is to use internet standards and algorithms to tame the inherent uncertainties in the film and television industry.
This will make content creation more controllable, predictable, and better able to develop in synergy with the entire ecosystem.
Wang Qiang's expression hardened, and he immediately straightened his posture: "Understood, I will do my best to do a good job in the classification work."
Liu Rong rubbed her temples, feeling a bit tired after a long meeting. She let out a long sigh and forced herself to stay alert: "Quiet, let's continue the meeting!"
The meeting room fell silent immediately.
"After film and television projects are classified, the classification of artists is almost a logical extension of Tengda Standards!"
These words completely stunned the executives present. Ranking celebrities? Is this even possible?
"Based on three dimensions—commercial value, professional ability, and traffic data—artists are also divided into four levels."
S+ level, possessing national popularity across different social circles and strong appeal for viewership and box office revenue.
They are the absolute protagonists of top-tier projects, greatly enhancing the project's early-stage attention and investment attraction capabilities.
S-level artists are top-tier celebrities who possess significant influence and a stable fan base in specific genres such as historical dramas and modern dramas, bearing the heavy responsibility of carrying dramas and ensuring their basic needs are met.
Those present understood that these two artists were the top choices for quality projects and would monopolize leading film and television resources in the future.
"A-level actors are promising talents with some representative works and a certain level of public appeal, but their appeal has not yet been widely proven. They are capable of playing important supporting roles in S-level projects and leading roles in A-level projects."
Category B comprises newcomers and actors with distinctive talents. This serves as a testing ground for innovation and a talent pool for the future.
Wang Qiang sighed inwardly, thinking that the classification of artists was indeed an extreme application of the standardization, datafication, and platformization of the Internet mindset.
He seemed to already see that once this standard was introduced, Tengda would part ways with the traditional film and television industry, and there would inevitably be many conflicts in the future.
A scene involuntarily came to mind:
If a renowned director insists on casting a B-level "drama fanatic" as the male lead in an S-level drama, that certainly doesn't meet the rating criteria.
The thought of this situation gave him a headache. But circumstances were beyond his control, so he could only sigh silently and take it one step at a time, figuring out the classification system first.
"Mr. Liu, will this artist rating system be made public?"
What are the specific weightings for artist classification? What percentage do commercial value and professional ability each account for?
Faced with questions from her subordinates, Liu Rong calmly replied: "The artist rating system will not be made public; it is confidential internal information."
The specific grading standards and weights are not something you need to worry about; Toutiao Video will take the lead in handling them, leveraging the group's big data to create a complete evaluation system.
Seeing that the president did not reveal any more substantial details, everyone could only suppress their doubts and shock, and wait for the official release of the future artist evaluation system.
“President Wang!” Liu Rong suddenly turned to look at Wang Qiang, “You need to take careful notes on what I’m about to say.”
"Yes, Mr. Liu, please go ahead."
Liu Rong carefully chose her words and explained in detail: "Based on big data guidance and traffic allocation strategies, Toutiao Video will adjust its annual drama series schedule next year."
Around 200 web series will be broadcast each year. Among them, 8 to 12 are S+ projects, accounting for about 5% of the total number of web series.
The platform will allocate more than 50% of its exposure resources to these projects, and top-tier resources such as homepage top bar, splash screen ads, and popular recommendations will be provided on a long-term basis.
The company plans to invest in and produce two to three units of this size each year.
Wang Qiang quickly took notes, understanding the logic behind it:
Due to limitations in user time, platform recommendation slots, and business efficiency, the number of TV series that Toutiao Video can effectively digest each year is limited.
I quickly calculated it in my mind:
Toutiao Video currently holds about 40% of the market share, and it broadcasts about 200 videos a year. Therefore, the effective capacity of the entire video industry is about 500 to 600 videos.
“For S-level projects, the platform broadcasts about 20 to 30, and the company produces 5 to 7 per year. These are the reserve force and mainstay of hit shows, and the foundation for Toutiao Video’s membership retention.”
Liu Rong added, "For these two levels of projects, the company must take the lead in investment and control, and in principle, they should be exclusively broadcast on Toutiao Video."
"clear."
"Level A: The platform broadcasts 60 to 80 films per year; the company produces 8 to 12 films."
Level B: The platform broadcasts 70 to 100 films annually; the company produces 12 to 15 films.
Both levels of projects allow for external investment and multi-platform broadcasting.
At the same time, an important meeting was also taking place on the seventh floor of the Tengda Technology Building, hosted by Toutiao Video.
Zhou Juan sat in the main seat and spoke eloquently: "The key to future platform strategy lies in strengthening the top, stabilizing the middle, and revitalizing the bottom."
The screen behind him displayed detailed data analysis charts: "At the S+ level, we must take decisive action to ensure the platform's influence over the entire industry."
S-tier and A-tier products should have a stable supply to ensure a solid user base and high user activity. B-tier products should be more open and dynamic, encouraging innovation and experimentation.
Looking around, his gaze lingered on the faces of each department head for a moment. "Now I will explain in detail the platform's play volume allocation strategy for next year."
She switched to a different slide in the PowerPoint presentation, displaying a complex resource allocation diagram: "S+
S-level and A-level projects focus on differentiation and high cost-effectiveness, filling the gap in viewership outside of top-tier content.
Next year, the platform will undergo three major reforms: operation of vertical-category theaters, optimization of the revenue-sharing model, and staggered scheduling of release dates. Specific details will be announced later.
Finally, she talked about the B-level project: "The cost of the tail content must be strictly controlled, and the allocation of resources is strictly limited. It can only be recommended in secondary channels such as the campus zone, and there are no homepage resources."
Seeing the hesitant expressions on the faces of the several people in charge, Zhou Juan added, "Of course, this is not absolute! The platform will strictly implement a data elimination mechanism and dynamically adjust resources in real time."
B-level projects that perform well in broadcasts are very likely to receive resource upgrades.
Conversely, if the broadcast effect and popularity are insufficient, even an S+ project may experience reduced viewership and exposure.
At this moment, in the Tengda Culture conference room, Liu Rong's presentation was also nearing its end.
"You all need to understand that the essence of this system is to establish an internet operating system for the content industry."
We set the standards, we build the platforms, and we allocate the resources.
This is not only an innovation in business model, but also a restructuring of the ecological niche.
After Wang Qiang finished recording the last point, he looked up and brought up the old topic again: "President Liu, in the specific implementation process, should we consider some flexibility?"
For example, projects with exceptional artistic merit, or actors strongly recommended by the director?
Liu Rong was silent for a moment, then slowly nodded: "There can be some flexibility. But it must be controlled within 5%. And any exceptions must go through a strict approval process."
Standardization is not about stifling creativity, but about allowing creativity to realize its maximum value within a controllable framework.
(End of this chapter)
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