Wei Yang was filming in Thailand, but he did not give up paying attention to the situation in China.

After the summer strategy, the frequency of big moves by Blue Whale series and PPTV has decreased a lot, but there is still no shortage of good news.

Among them, the most worth mentioning is "The Legend of Wu Mei Niang".

This drama, which is disguised as Bingyang Entertainment but is actually produced by Blue Whale, has quickly achieved a series of great successes since its premiere in October, allowing everyone to see the influence of a popular star.

This drama was exclusively broadcast on Hunan TV, and the final average viewership rating exceeded 3!

This result not only surpassed the previous "The Journey of Flower", but also became the third TV series this year with a viewership rating of over 3, and surpassed "The Legend of Mu Mansion" broadcast on CCTV, basically confirming that it will take the second place in the national ratings this year.

Unfortunately, with "Joy of Life 3" in front of them, "The Empress of China" overshadowed Zhao Liying and Liu Shishi and still did not win the highest honor.

Compared to "The Journey of Flower" which is more oriented towards the Internet, the majority of the market for "The Empress of China" is on the TV platform.

The TV series, which consisted of more than 90 episodes, was broadcast for more than 40 days. During the broadcast period, the average market share exceeded 6%, and the highest market share was as high as 17%. It ranked first in the ratings during the same period for 44 consecutive days, which was the first time in history.

This is something that none of the "Joy of Life" trilogy has achieved. Of course, this is mainly because the number of episodes in each part is not as many as "The Empress of China".

At the same time, the drama is also being broadcast simultaneously in Hong Kong and Taiwan.

In Hong Kong alone, the ratings of "The Empress of China" reached 29.49 in a short period of time, and remained at the top of the list for many days. About 1.9 million viewers watched it. Based on the population of 7.24 million in Hong Kong, 26% of the people were watching this drama.

In the words of Ming Pao, Fan Xiaopang crushed TVB with his gorgeous costumes and grand scenes.

In Taiwan, the number of people with this income has reached one million, causing Taiwanese media to lament that young people in Taiwan are being "brainwashed" by Chinese dramas.

Although this statement is exaggerated, it is not groundless. Currently, Taiwan's local film and television market is in a state of retreat.

The film industry is almost dominated by Hollywood, while the TV drama industry is impacted by mainland and South Korean TV dramas in turn.

Some media outlets posted the top ten TV series in terms of Google search index in Taiwan in 2014.

Among them, there are four Korean dramas, three mainland TV series, and only three local Taiwanese dramas.

These three mainland dramas are "Joy of Life 3", "Gu Jian Qi Tan" and "The Empress of China", among which "The Empress of China" has the highest rating, temporarily ranking second, and it is very likely to rush to the first place.

In comparison, the performance of "The Empress of China" on the Internet is weaker.

But this is only relative to phenomenal blockbusters like "The Journey of Flower" and "Swords of Legends".

The peak popularity of the "Empress Wu" episode on the entire Internet exceeded 12,000+, winning dozens of daily popularity championships, and the serialized broadcast volume exceeded 5 billion, which added a lot of fuel to PPTV's summer strategy.

Fan Xiaopang became a legend in his role in "My Love from the Star" and has not acted in any TV series for several years.

This time she is carrying "The Empress of China" alone. Perhaps the work itself is not the most explosive, but with her popularity and influence, her momentum is extremely strong, forcing all the other actresses to avoid her, and letting everyone see what the ratings queen is.

However, Fan Xiaopang is different from Liu and Zhao, who are still in their rising period. The latter two are not in a stable position yet and need these achievements and honors to prove themselves.

It’s not that Fan Xiaopang doesn’t need it, but he is much more relaxed than the other two in this regard.

The outside world did not make a big deal about how popular Fan Xiaopang was because of this drama. Instead, they were more concerned about how much money she made.

This was the treatment that only Boss Wei had received in the past. It can also be seen from this that many people's views on Fan Xiaopang have changed.

It can be seen that by independently operating such a successful project, Fan Xiaopang's capital attributes are gradually beginning to outweigh his identity as an artist.

It’s actually not difficult to find out how much money Fan Xiaopang has earned.

Bingyang Entertainment, which was in charge of the project, had no intention of hiding it and announced at the time that the first round of exclusive TV broadcast rights had been sold for 220 million yuan.

The price of online copyright was also high enough to force PPTV to bleed heavily.

Although the exclusive online copyright worth over 100 million yuan is not a sky-high price that will shock the industry, it is still rare in the current market.

At least compared with "The Journey of Flower" and "Swords of Legends", the bidding price of "The Empress of China" is more advantageous, which shows how strong Fan Xiaopang's appeal is.

This is also thanks to Wei Yang. The TV series "My Love from the Star" became popular in Asia, making Fan Xiaopang the most commercially valuable actress in China and even in East Asia.

The big-budget costume drama she starred in had the gimmick of Wu Zetian, and if the price was lowered, it would be an insult to the IQ of the publicity and promotion team.

The TV and Internet copyrights alone are worth over 300 million, plus advertising revenue, second and third round copyrights, Hong Kong and Taiwan copyrights, peripheral marketing, and very likely overseas copyrights, the industry estimates the total revenue of "The Empress of China" to be 450 to 500 million.

Although the cost of this drama is not low, it is not as high as imagined. After deducting expenses and taxes, the remaining net profit is estimated to be 200 to 300 million.

Fat Fan is now in power!

Even if she had to split the money equally with Wei Yang, she would have earned nine figures at once, not to mention that during the filming, Fan Xiaopang had already received tens of millions in salary.

What is more worthy of mention is not the cash, but the valuation of Bingyang Entertainment.

In addition to its most impressive work, The Empress of China, Bingyang Entertainment also has four other artists who have signed or are expected to sign contracts: Wang Ou, Zhang Zixi, Jiang Shuying and Mao Zijun.

All four of them appeared in "The Empress of China" and played many important roles. Mao Zijun even played the male lead and was highly praised by Fan Xiaopang.

Now that the TV series is a hit, the four artists have each gained considerable fame, which has also become an important achievement for Bingyang Entertainment.

The performance of film and television production and artist management also made Bingyang Entertainment highly favored by the capital market. From a fledgling company, it has become an entertainment upstart with a valuation of over 3 billion.

This valuation is definitely inflated. After all, "The Empress of China" is very popular, so some exaggeration is inevitable.

But then again, with the current crazy growth momentum of the entertainment market, this bit of water may become the real valuation in a few days, so no one can say for sure whether this market value is overestimated or underestimated.

After all, from the perspective of capital, Bingyang Entertainment has highly controlled Fan Xiaopang, has a deep cooperative relationship with Blue Whale and even Wei Yang, and has several promising artists in its hands, so it has a lot of good cards to play.

The most important thing is that "The Empress of China" has proved its strong ability to attract money.

No matter what kind of company it is, as long as you can make money and have a high profit margin, the valuation will definitely not be low.

In addition, Bingyang Entertainment has officially announced its next development plan, planning to invest in four film and television works, including three TV series and one movie.

Among them, Fan Xiaopang is responsible for three projects alone, including a movie, a costume drama and an urban drama.

The film has not yet been announced, but some details about the costume drama and urban drama have been revealed, and the urban drama has even been announced to be launched.

My First Half of Life

This TV series is a typical Shanghai-style urban elite drama, with the background basically set in big cities like Shanghai. It is under the guise of female independence and ostensibly about career struggles, but in reality it is still a Mary Sue drama.

But relatively speaking, this kind of plot is much more subtle and tactful than the previous plots about the ugly duckling and the prince.

The main reason is that the market has become further refined. Idol dramas continue to focus on teenagers, while the target audience of this type of drama has shifted to female college students, female white-collar workers and married women.

Therefore, judging from the audience group and the market alone, this type of drama will become mainstream in the future.

Even the rise of the Shanghai entertainment industry in the previous life was related to this east wind, so this type of drama is also called Shanghai-style urban drama by some people.

The drama "My First Half of Life" can be regarded as a representative work of this type of drama.

An abandoned single mother returns to the workplace and makes a career with the help of her best friend and elite bosses.

Many plots in the whole drama were severely criticized for having incorrect values. The biggest complaint was that the heroine became a mistress and stabbed her best friend in the back to steal her man. When Boss Wei read the script, he always felt that the screenwriter was implying something about him.

However, although there are many flaws, this kind of bloody and dramatic plot is often precisely the ratings flaw and is very popular in the market.

So Boss Wei would not throw the baby out with the bathwater. The only humane thing he did was not advocate or promote this idea in his story.

This work is organized and uploaded by Liujiu Book Bar~~

It is rare that the plot does not give the heroine who did something wrong a happy ending. Instead, after a short period of cooperation, everyone is well and never sees each other again.

Blue Whale originally planned to produce this drama by itself, but it did not have any suitable artists.

After all, the heroine is a divorced young woman and her child is several years old. The actresses that the company is promoting are not old enough and have certain concerns about playing the role of a "mother". However, Fan Xiaopang has achieved a certain degree of transformation and does not care too much about this.

So, Wei Yang took out the notebook and cooperated with Bingyang, with Blue Whale providing money and effort, while Fan Xiaopang and Bingyang provided money and manpower.

In addition to My First Half of Life, another major costume production is currently tentatively called "The Legend of Yang Yuhuan" or "The King's Woman".

That’s right, Wei Yang turned the movie he originally filmed with Li Tianwang into a TV series.

The success of "The Empress of China" has already proved Fan Xiaopang's advantages in historical biographical themes. Normally, he would definitely increase his output.

The plot of "The Legend of Yang Yuhuan" tells the story of the illicit and sadistic love between Yang Guifei and Emperor Minghuang of Tang. It is much shorter than "The Legend of Wu Mei Niang", starting with the story of Princess Shou and ending at Mawei Slope.

However, there are some objections to this project. Boss Wei and some people feel that it is too similar to "The Empress of China". After all, the time periods are too close, making it difficult to distinguish.

At the same time, in terms of character experience, Yang Yuhuan is much simpler than Wu Zetian, which is also a test for the shaping of the plot.

If we really want to make a biography, Yang Yuhuan is not the best choice. From ancient times to the present, there have been many "strong female protagonists".

"The Legend of Empress Lü", "The Legend of Dugu", "The Legend of Liu E", "The Legend of Princess Pingyang", "The Legend of Liang Hongyu", "The Legend of Li Qingzhao", these ancient heroines are all very interesting materials. Even in the Republic of China and modern times, there are quite a lot of extraordinary women.

In comparison, although Yang Guifei was beautiful and died tragically, she did not have a very impressive resume. Therefore, although the project of "The Legend of Yang Yuhuan" has been launched, it is still in a pending state and the follow-up will depend on the script.

Wei Yang was not impatient. Fan Xiaopang's "The Empress of China" had a very successful start and immediately made a name for himself.

If it can steadily output legendary projects, it will become the pillar series of Bingyang Entertainment, worth at least tens of billions or even hundreds of billions, and will also be Bingyang's biggest bargaining chip before and after its listing.

For a project of this size, steady and cautious progress is the right approach. The most taboo thing is to be impatient. The more impatient you are, the easier it is to make mistakes. If you ruin your reputation, the loss to Bingyang will be fatal.

On the business level, Fan Xiaopang follows the orders of Boss Wei.

As the saying goes, one’s own family knows one’s own business. Fan Xiaopang knows that he is somewhat clever, but he does not have much confidence that he can independently support a successful business.

Wei Yang's resume is here. He founded an entertainment empire in one go. Even "The Empress of China" was filmed with his support. As long as Fan Xiaopang is not stupid, he will know who should be in charge of the development of this key company.

Anyway, Boss Wei didn't think highly of her small temple, and as long as the general direction remained unchanged, he would not compete with her for the right to speak and control.

Fat Fan was still very proud of himself. His wealth and status increased dramatically and he successfully became Mr. Fan.

What's the point of Liu Shishi and Zhao Liying fighting to the death? In the end, they still have to look at men's faces. The right thing for me to do is to pull the trigger and do it myself.

With her career looking bright, this woman's ambition also began to grow. She intended to make Bingyang Entertainment bigger and stronger and become a new entertainment upstart.

In fact, Fan Xiaopang has already started dreaming that one day Bingyang will become an entertainment giant and acquire Blue Whale and PPTV. He will then spend some money to keep that bastard and have him work like a slave for him every day.

Wei Yang didn't quite understand her idea! No matter how big Ni Bingyang became, even if he acquired Blue Whale, wouldn't he still be the company's major shareholder? But it was also good this way. Fatty Fan was feeling fresh about starting a business and was very ambitious. When he was focused on this aspect, he lost interest in other aspects.

At least in the short term, she didn't catch his graduate student children for no reason, and Boss Wei was relieved.

In addition, the new variety show "Sisters Over Flowers" and other dramas produced by Blue Whale or even purchased by outsiders, although not as explosive as "The Empress of China", also firmly supported PPTV's data.

PPTV's popularity and heat began to decline after its summer strategy, but with the support of these projects, it has remained in a relatively healthy downward trend.

By November, some data even began to stabilize and even rebound.

This also shows that PPTV has finally returned to its normal development trend after experiencing a strategic boom and a cold period during the summer.

Even in this relatively normal and stable period, PPTV still relies on the afterglow of its previous explosion, and its comprehensive data ranks among the top three in the entire network.

It is second only to iQiyi and Penguin, and has a slight advantage over Youku. If there are no major changes before the end of the year, this pattern can basically be maintained.

In just one year. Strictly speaking, it took eight months to go from a second-tier video website to the top three in the industry.

Even though there is a lot of luck involved and the confidence is not yet solid, it is enough to make Wei Yang and all the employees of PPTV proud.

What made Wei Yang even happier was that in the face of his aggressiveness, although Suning also decided to increase its investment, the amount of funds was not enough to compete with Wei Yang.

This also indicates that Suning's attitude towards PPTV has changed.

The original intention was to seize control and it began to shift to a pure investment mentality. After all, this was still a video website with great prospects, and owning enough shares was definitely a sure win.

Suning’s “retreat” directly fulfilled Wei Yang’s wish. It was only a matter of time before he gained absolute control of more than 67%.

In this way, even if the worst happens, Suning will let Alibaba in, and Wei Yang will have absolute control over the company and will be able to fight against it.

But Wei Yang felt that Suning would not be that stupid.

Now that PPTV is so popular, wouldn't it be nice to keep it for listing to make money? It's just a waste of time to cash out at a low price...

(End of this chapter)