However, watching TV at home or even watching TV online is mostly free, compared with watching movies with tens or even hundreds of dollars.
Seeing this, it is estimated that many people don't understand that the production cost of a TV series is very high. The star's salary alone may reach tens of millions. Coupled with other people's wages and production costs, the cost of a TV station is relatively high.
Since the production cost of TV plays is so high, why are TV plays free of charge? How do they make money?
In fact, after the production of a TV series is completed, there are still many channels for him to make money. There are usually the following ways to make money.
First, sell the broadcasting rights. A good TV series can't worry about making money. On the contrary, once the TV series is produced, major TV stations and online platforms will compete to buy the right to broadcast TV series, especially the right to premiere it.
Under normal circumstances, after the production of a TV series is completed, it will be sold not only to a TV station or an institution, but also to many institutions.
For example, the 20 18 drama "The Story of Yan Xi Palace" is said that the copyright has been sold to more than 90 countries, and the copyright income is estimated to be more than 300 million yuan, so the average copyright fee for 70 episodes is as high as 4.28 million yuan, which is very high.
But in reality, there are not many phenomenal TV dramas like this, and only a few TV dramas are produced a year. The copyright fees of most TV dramas are not very high, and many may be in the hundreds of thousands or even tens of thousands of dollars.
After purchasing TV broadcasting rights, major TV stations or online platforms mainly earn income through advertising fees or membership fees. If a TV series is very popular and plays a lot, then these TV stations or online platforms can make more money.
Second, sponsorship fees Many TV dramas will find investors before shooting. Some of these investors may be for copyright income, while others are purely for advertising sponsorship.
So we can see that in some TV series, some sponsors will be listed at the end. These sponsors may be for advertising, and some are to support the hero and heroine to get jobs.
Third, the premium income At present, many TV dramas that actors participate in are basically invested by the companies they signed. Once the TV series they participate in is on fire and their popularity is improved, in addition to the income of TV itself, their own worth will also rise.
Then their business activities will naturally increase, such as participating in various business activities and receiving various commercial advertisements. And part of the income earned by actors participating in these activities will be given to the company they signed.
Iv. copyright income if a TV series is very popular, its commercial value is very high. There will naturally be many people who want to rub the popularity of this TV series. For example, some clothing brands may use some characters, some toy companies may design cartoon characters of the protagonists in TV dramas, and some game companies may directly adapt them into games.
But a TV series is copyrighted from beginning to end. If you want to use something in it, you must pay the copyright fee to the producer.
This shows that there are still many places where a TV series can make money.
Of course, there are more and more companies making TV series at present. The quality of these TV plays is uneven, and the market capacity is so large. When consumers have more choices, there will definitely be some TV dramas that will eventually lose money, and the TV dramas that lose money are not a few, but most.
The author has worked as a producer in TV station for many years, and also engaged in TV drama procurement business. According to my analysis, there are mainly several ways to make profits in TV series at present.
First of all, the first way to make money is to sponsor advertisers. At the end of each TV series, in addition to the cast, there will be a lot of enterprise lists, usually advertising sponsors. Nowadays, the implantation of soft advertisements in TV plays is very serious. For example, if Wang Laoji sponsors a TV series, then in a TV series, both male and female protagonists may drink Wang Laoji's water. Nowadays, many viewers will complain when watching TV that the advertising is too serious and can't be helped. These are all paid advertisements.
The second is the sales revenue of broadcasting rights, that is, selling the filmed TV series to David or various video websites, such as iQiyi, Tencent and Youku. Generally, after TV dramas are made, hundreds of thousands of episodes are sold to David, local TV stations and county TV stations. You may wonder, how did David make money through TV series? Or advertising fees. The cost of advertising on TV is calculated by seconds, usually tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands or even higher.
Good TV plays can improve the ratings. After the ratings are high, the advertising cost of this TV series will increase greatly. When the advertising revenue of TV stations is high, they can spend money to buy more TV dramas. Video platforms also earn money by advertising, which is why every time we watch TV on our mobile phones, there will be advertisements for ten or dozens of seconds. Now the video platform, advertising time is getting longer and longer. If you don't want to see advertisements, you have to spend money to buy members.
Generally speaking, TV plays mainly make money in the above two ways. In addition, there are various sponsorships, and this fee is generally not on the table. For example, some women who want to be number one or number two will be sponsored by the money behind them. These savings are also a lot of income for this crew.
In addition, at present, domestic TV dramas have a great market in Southeast Asian countries and Africa, and many foreign TV companies will also introduce China TV dramas. TV drama production units can also earn income by selling copyrights.
As for how directors make money, directors earn wages. Making a TV series is like building a house. The producer is the financial father of Party A, the director is the project manager, and the screenwriter is the design engineer. The photography, lighting, sidewalk and other departments below are the construction teams led by various contractors. After the project was completed, the salary was fixed and the people left. As for whether this property can be sold, it is a loss or a profit, which is the business of the owner's father. Making money or not has nothing to do with people who used to work. The director is also a worker. But he is in charge of the work. Producers sell TV dramas to TV stations and then make money. As for how TV stations make money. I remember eleven years ago, my head was just released. At that time, this TV series was the highest-selling single episode in that year, and the 43-episode TV series was sold to four TV stations at the price of 654.38+0 million per episode. These four TV stations have all broken their heads in order to grab the right to premiere. Later, Jiangsu Satellite TV premiered "My Head and My Regiment" at midnight, and the ratings of this TV station later increased by 10 times. For advertisements inserted before, during and between episodes, the advertising fee is too high and will be turned over. Sometimes there are embedded advertisements in TV dramas, and these are also money. If the TV series is sold to CCTV, I'll show you the price list of advertising space in each time period, taking comprehensive channel 1 and post-TV series channel 8 as examples.
Generally speaking, there are only four profit models of TV series: the first round of broadcasting rights, the second round of broadcasting rights, the audio network broadcasting rights and the overseas broadcasting rights. Take the highest CCTV broadcasting right as an example, the purchase price will not exceed 800,000 yuan per episode. Although the effect is still minimal, TV producers are constantly exploring new profit models and increasing the intensity of advertising implantation.
Advertising placement will become the mainstream profit model.
Last year was recognized as a big year for domestic TV dramas, and the ratings of domestic TV dramas were frequently refreshed. The vast number of TV viewers showed the "production workshop" the powerful food intake that the car could not carry. This momentum continued into this year, which also led to more and more fierce competition between production companies and TV stations. As we all know, compared with the monopoly pattern of several domestic film performing arts brokerage companies, the TV drama production industry is a "disputed world" for producers.
In 2008, an "Ugly Woman Invincible", known as the "peak of cottage drama", brought Hunan Satellite TV to the forefront of the industry again-introducing international copyright for the first time; The concept of "seasonal broadcast" was introduced for the first time, and the audience decided the plot direction while broadcasting; Of course, more importantly, it is the first time to use product placement on a large scale.
Zhu Lu, senior distribution manager of the TV drama division of Light Media, said: "The profit model of TV dramas is relatively simple and stable, and selling films is our main profit model at present." However, she stressed: "We have seen that some domestic TV production companies are already advertising implants. In the future, Light Media will also increase its investment in TV drama advertising. "
"Modern dramas and fashion dramas are more likely to be implanted with advertisements, such as cars, mobile phones, banks, clothing, alcohol and so on." Li, director of Pony Pentium Planning Department, said that they are also trying to implant advertisements for costume dramas and historical dramas. For example, they will contact the hometown of Shandong Wuxun and jointly develop with the local TV series "The Great Biography of Wuxun".
Nowadays, in the increasingly competitive TV drama market, the important criterion to test whether a TV drama can serve as a "hit drama" is not only whether it has aroused strong social repercussions, but also whether it is objectively and clearly summarized as "two rates" from the perspective of the industry: the "ratings" of TV dramas broadcast, which is naturally the first and unquestionable evaluation method, and the "click rate" of TV dramas on video websites is the most important. Network platform is favored by the younger generation of TV viewers because of its unique controllability, rapidity, interactivity and low viewing cost. As a result, the carrier of TV drama broadcasting is stepping up its extension from traditional TV stations to new media represented by video websites, which has not only become the general trend of the industry, but also achieved a new profit model in the TV drama market.
In the past, the profit of TV drama distribution almost completely depended on the traditional industries represented by TV stations and audio-visual products. Nowadays, due to the sudden emergence of video websites, the share of online distribution in the recovery cost of TV drama distribution has become more and more important. It is reported that several major video websites, such as Youku, Tudou, LeTV and excited net, are all committed to defending and bidding for TV drama copyright resources, and the market price of online video exclusive rights of genuine TV dramas has even exceeded the purchase price of the first broadcast of TV stations.
Recently, the contemporary urban emotional drama "Addicted" has set a new sales record for the online premiere rights of the same theme drama at a sky-high price of 40,000 yuan per episode. This TV series, adapted from Wang Shuo's novels, is directed by a director with a very distinctive personal style and supervised by Xu himself, with young urban men and women as the core audience, which is highly consistent with the main audience characteristics of current TV series and it is reasonable to sell it at a high price. Previously, the purchase of TV dramas by video websites has always been regarded as a supplementary means of TV drama marketing. In a short period of two or three years, the transaction price of the acquisition rose rapidly from several thousand yuan to an average of 20,000 yuan to 30,000 yuan, a tenfold increase. Now this price has been "relapsed" to a new high, which is equivalent to the purchase price of the ground broadcasting station. Therefore, it can be predicted that it is also possible to triple the price to10,000 to 200,000 in the next two or three years, which is expected to be the same as the prime-time purchase price of satellite TV. By then, online shopping will form a powerful supplement to the traditional profit model of TV series, and more importantly, it will form a brand-new broadcast model, which is different from the current first round of four David TV broadcasts, forming 4+ 1, that is, TV stations.
Nowadays, the distribution of TV series on the internet is increasing, and video websites have higher and higher requirements and directionality for the quality, characteristics of the times and audience of TV series. It can be seen that the combined development of TV series and video websites, a new media, not only opens up new market growth points in the TV series industry, but also promotes the maturity of video websites, and the traditional TV media will also move towards a more refined and diversified development path in this situation.
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The first way to make money is the title sponsorship of advertisers. At the end of each TV series, in addition to the cast members, there will continue to be a lot of business directories, which are generally advertisers. Nowadays, the soft and wide placement in TV plays is very serious. For example, Jiaduobao sponsored a travel TV series, so in a travel TV series, the drinking water of the male and female protagonists will be Jiaduobao. Now many viewers are poking fun at the placement of advertisements when watching TV dramas, which is too serious. I can't help it, but I have paid the publicity fee.
The second is the sale of broadcasting rights, that is, selling TV dramas to David or various video platforms, such as iQiyi video, Teng Xun video and Youku video. After the TV series is finished, hundreds of thousands of episodes are usually sold to David, city TV programs and county TV programs. You may think, how can David also make money by TV series? Or promotion fee. The cost of advertising on TV is calculated by seconds, which is usually tens of thousands of yuan or hundreds of thousands or even higher.
A good TV play can improve the ratings of TV plays. After the ratings of TV series are high, the promotion cost of this TV series will increase greatly. When the advertising revenue of TV stations is high, they can pay a lot to watch TV dramas. Video websites also make money by advertising, which is why every time people watch TV on their mobile phones, there are advertisements for more than ten seconds or dozens of seconds. Nowadays, the advertising time of video websites is getting longer and longer. If you don't want to watch advertisements, you must pay for vip members.
Generally speaking, the key of TV series is to make money by these two methods. In addition, there are various title sponsorships, which are generally not on the table. For example, if some women want to be No.1 or No.2, the president behind them will send money for the title sponsorship, which is also a great benefit for the film crew.
Tv dramas do not directly charge the audience as income. What the audience pays is time and attention.
First of all, the marketing of TV series is actually a dual structure, that is to say, the buyer and the audience are not the same person, and the buyer is the major platforms, such as TV stations or platforms such as iQiyi, Tencent Video and Youku. These platforms directly pay the producers to buy the copyright of the film source.
After the TV series is finished, the producers will set a price, and then the buyers of these platforms will buy it. For example, you may have heard that TV series used to be several thousand yuan an episode, but later it became tens of thousands of episodes, which is the purchase price.
Second, advertising is one of the main revenue sources of the platform. What the audience pays is time and attention. Before the scheduled broadcast, the platform will invite companies that want to advertise in the film to advertise. For example, a modern drama, starring in high value, looks good in clothes, there will be a lot of post-90 s dramas after the broadcast, and then buy the same paragraph. A clothing brand wants to buy clothes for the post-90s generation, so it wants to advertise this film.
Internet advertising forms include cpm, cpc and other advertising forms. Simply put, when the audience is watching TV series, they watch or order advertisements. What enterprises put in advertisements is the audience's attention. If the audience does the corresponding behavior, the platform can charge the corresponding fees to the enterprises that want to advertise, so what the audience needs to pay is not money, but time and attention.
Third, all major platforms now have membership fees. After paying, viewers can watch vip content or order in advance. This also costs a little, but with the increase of copyright fees, the competition between platforms is also fierce. Even if there is an epidemic this year, the number of video paying members has soared, and the payment by members is still not enough to support the video platform.
(1) Sponsored by advertisers.
When shooting TV series, many advertisers will implant their products into TV series according to the nature of their products, and the cost of advertising will be determined according to the number of products implanted. For example, a brand of mineral water sponsors a TV series, so the hero and heroine in the TV series drink a brand of water. This is why at the end of each episode of TV series, in addition to the list of actors, there is also the name of the sponsoring company.
(2) TV drama copyright sales revenue.
Producers will buy their own TV series to David, iQiyi, Tencent, Youku and other major online platforms. And charge them a lot of copyright fees to realize the sales of TV drama products. David and the network platform re-inserted advertisements during the broadcast, realizing the resale of goods. This is also the main reason for the proliferation of advertisements in David and online platforms.
(3) Other sponsorship income.
For example, if someone wants to play the No.1 or No.2 TV series, the money owner behind it will send money to sponsor the TV series and so on.
Television stations and online platforms don't charge us money, but they charge sponsors' fees, so they also make money. Broadcast sponsors attract viewers to buy their products through advertisements, and also achieve the effect of making money.
Everyone should know how movies are profitable, mainly by the cinema box office. After the movie goes offline, you can still make profits on major video websites by movie copyright. How are TV plays profitable?
How are TV plays profitable? Like movies, TV dramas also rely on copyright, but in different ways. Movies are mainly cinemas, and TV plays are mainly David, all of which are copyrighted. This is the problem. We usually watch TV dramas on TV without paying. How can it make a profit? There are two main aspects.
First, TV stations.
You really don't pay for watching TV, but the TV station pays, and the TV station pays through advertisements, and the TV producer also gets a commission from the advertisements. Advertising is also divided into soft and hard, it is a very huge system, and it is the source of huge profits for a TV series.
Second, the network platform.
The profit of TV series comes not only from TV stations, but also from major video websites. Nowadays, with the popularity of smart phones, the way people watch TV plays is not limited to TV sets, and the major video websites on mobile phones are becoming more and more popular. I don't know if you feel the same way, but now I want to relive the TV series I watched on the Internet a long time ago. If I find that I need to charge, I still need to recharge my membership. Whether it's a new TV series or a classic TV series, I have to collect money online. This is the copyright effect. If a video website wants to broadcast a TV series, it also needs to pay the producer's fee.
In the final analysis, both TV dramas and movies are copyright benefits. After all, you have to charge money for listening to songs now, unless you are a member.
Simply put, TV dramas earn money from TV stations, TV stations earn money from advertisers (businesses), and businesses earn money from consumers (viewers).
Simply put, TV dramas will be sold to TV stations according to the number of episodes, and TV stations will earn ratings. At the same time, we need to quote some TV dramas. For example, before and after the Spring Festival this year, anhui tv spent thousands of W to introduce "The Legend of the 83rd Edition of the Condor Heroes", and the holiday ratings soared to the first place in the country ... Selling copyright to TV stations, don't think that TV stations broadcast TV dramas for free! Good TV plays can improve the ratings. The higher the ratings, the higher the advertising revenue of TV stations, so you can spend more money on TV dramas.
Some TV dramas are invested by TV stations and sponsored by enterprises, so there are a long list of enterprises behind TV dramas.