Wu Yuan, who is far away in the United States, of course, knows the news that "Soul Ferry" was successfully launched.

He has high hopes for this TV series.

Although he can't be on the stars, he knows very well how popular "Soul Ferry" was back then.

It is said that it is the emergence of the online drama "Residual Sin" that has made Huaxia's online dramas move towards regularization, get rid of the dilemma of low-cost shoddy production, and begin to truly transform into a TV series as sophisticated as star dramas.

But in Wu Yuan's view, the source that really makes online dramas popular and becomes mainstream film and television culture should be the emergence of the nonsensical online miniseries "Never Expected", which has promoted the formation of the online drama market.

Then, under the influence of the well-made and excellent content of the long-form online drama "Soul Ferry", the online drama really entered the public eye and became an important part of Chinese film and television culture.

In the end, the emergence of "Residual Sin" completely detonated the online drama market, causing countless hot money to pour in, and also making major video platforms transform from simply buying webcast rights to self-made TV series.

Even after 2018, online dramas have completely crushed star dramas, and the self-made dramas of the three major webcast platforms every year occupy the list of all TV drama audiences.

Now Wu Yuan has taken out "Soul Ferry" more than six years in advance, of course, he hopes that the mainland Internet TV drama industry can be accelerated.

This year is the first year of the popularization of mobile Internet, and the 3G network will begin to be popularized on April 1, and the first generation of iPhone has been released.

Network broadband has also entered the era of speed-up, and the home network has entered the 10M era in the past two or three years.

By the time "Soul Ferry" was officially launched, it basically had the conditions to watch on-demand videos on the computer, and after the stage of savage growth of online film and television dramas, Wu Yuan directly took out mature online dramas, which is good for the industry.

For the company, it can also occupy the position of industry leader.

The six years of preemption are the development period that Wu Yuan grabbed for the light and shadow fast broadcast.

Whether it can occupy a cake and stabilize its market position in the era of online dramas depends on the past six years.

Even if he doesn't make money, he makes money at a loss, Wu Yuan has to grab this market!

"Soul Ferry" is just an appetizer at the beginning, and there is a series of main dishes to be served!

From the end of last year to this year, the company has signed a series of more than a dozen actors, but they are not signed to be mascots, they all have to be used!

On the second day after the successful launch of "Soul Ferry", Wu Yuan, who had a routine call with Li Xiaoping, instructed her: "The company's TV drama business will be busy next." ”

"Jinsha and Yuan Hong's "Twinkle Twinkle Twinkle Star"

"Wang Likun and Yan Kuan's "Battle of Changsha"

"There are also Zhang Yi, Duan Yihong, Chen Zihan's "Chasing the Murderer in the White Night"

"Coupled with "Soul Ferry", which has now been launched, we will do four TV series in one go this year, which is not easy."

Of course, it is impossible for these four TV series to go through the webcast mode.

Although it is not a loss for the Light and Shadow Era to sell all the dramas to Light and Shadow Express, it is a real loss for Wu Yuan.

Now doing online dramas is purely to lose money and make money in the market, and it is impossible for the money from selling advertisements on video platforms to make up for the cost of buying films, such as "Soul Ferry" is estimated to be a total loss.

If the webcast of this drama is successful, it will bring fire to the video platform of Light and Shadow Express, and the subsequent webcast dramas will be able to sell the opening advertising space, but it is unlikely to make money, but it will only progress from a total loss to a loss of half.

How much money is there for online advertising now?

If this thing can make money, several currently hot video sites will not lose money every year, and they will have to be financed every year.

That's because they didn't spend money on the copyright at all!

Their annual advertising revenue is not enough to even cover the money for renting servers, so they have to go to the investment market to make PPT and ask investors for money!

Therefore, in the first year of the launch of Light and Shadow Express, Wu Yuan only planned to make two dramas.

A "Soul Ferry" plus a "Chasing the Murderer in the White Night" will do.

On the original trajectory of these two online dramas, they both relied on word-of-mouth and plots to become popular on the Internet, and they belonged to the dark horses of low-cost counterattacks.

Just for the webcast of these two dramas, Wu Yuan conservatively estimated that he would have to lose fifty or sixty million.

If the show is a big hit and attracts tens of millions of viewers to watch, it is estimated that it will lose even more, and it is possible to lose 100 million.

Because the more viewers you have, the more servers you have to rent

It can only be said that being an Internet company is really a money-burning, not treating money as money, and burning hundreds of millions of dollars a year is commonplace.

Otherwise, Wu Yuan would not be in a hurry to make money from Haolaiwu, it is really that the landlord's family has no surplus grain to squander so much.

The establishment of the other two TV series is also to make money to make up for the losses in online dramas.

A love idol drama "Twinkle Twinkle Twinkle Star" and a drama "Battle of Changsha" are all popular and easy-to-sell film and television genres on TV now, coupled with the good production reputation in the light and shadow era, these two dramas can make money as long as they are made.

Wu Yuan, who has always been careful in his calculations, can only use this method to control the balance of the funds in his hand as much as possible, at least in the first three or five years of the start of the light and shadow fast broadcast, he must grit his teeth and do it himself.

It's not that he doesn't want to take out share financing for money, but he doesn't want to start financing too early.

For Internet companies like this, financing is inevitable, whether it is the three giants or the various ride-hailing software, food delivery software, shared bicycles, etc., which have gone through the ABCD round of financing before they were successfully listed.

The price of doing so is that by the time the founding team finally goes public, the shares in their hands are not much, perhaps less than 20 percentage points, and the decision-making level of the company has lost its decisive role.

Unlike those industrial companies, the founders can basically retain about 30%-40% of the equity, and they can basically grasp the company's rights.

Therefore, Wu Yuan would rather use his own money to smash into the bottomless pit of the streaming platform in the early stage, rather than start financing too early and use investors' money.

Investors' money is really good to use, but the price of a comeback is not small at all.

The company in his hand is not only light and shadow express, sooner or later he will establish a light and shadow group, including film and television companies, cinema companies, and video websites.

If you want to form such a large entertainment group, you must first ensure that you have absolute control over these companies.

Even if the AB share system is used, with different rights for the same shares, Wu Yuan must have at least 30% of the shares in his hands in order to have absolute control over the light and shadow express.

If there are too many financings and too few shares in hand, Light and Shadow Express will become a company independent of the Light and Shadow Group, and it cannot be used as a finger.

Therefore, before the company went public, he could only raise 2-3 times at most, and the money had to be used carefully.

"I hope it's enough." Wu Yuan muttered.

From its inception to its listing, from November 2005 to November 2010, Youku raised funds six times and received $160 million in funds to grow the company.

That's it, after listing, Youku lost a total of 1.382 billion yuan in the three years from 2010 to 2013.

This is still without opening the era of self-made dramas and copyrights, so much has been lost.

In the next two to three years, the profit of 600 million US dollars that is expected to be obtained by the light era is what Wu Yuan plans to use for the development of Light and Shadow Express from 2008 to 2014.

As for after 2014?

Of course, it's time to start raising funds and then start the listing process!

In the Internet video war after 2014, Wu Yuan really couldn't stand it on his own!

By 2021, Youku will lose 6.118 billion a year, and in 2020, it will lose 11.446 billion.

Another giant, Singular Video, from 2018 to 2020, had net losses of 9.06 billion yuan, 10.28 billion yuan, and 7 billion yuan respectively......

Even if Wu Yuan's positioning of the Light and Shadow Era is small and fine, not as big and complete as the Big Three, it will be at least two or three billion losses that year, right?

If he really asked him to pay for this bottomless pit by himself, it would really be a big injustice.

The Internet industry really doesn't treat money as money!

"Within this year, we must shoot these four TV series." On the phone, Wu Yuan categorically instructed Li Xiaoping: "Not only TV series, but also movies." ”

"Zhang Guorong's new film plan, the company's second phase of the young director support plan, and Li Yang's new film must be prepared."

"Although only two films, "Gravity" and "Levin", will be released this year, the company will have at least 4 films released next year, which will be doubled!"

"By the way, how is the broadcast of "The Best of Us" and "Hello, Old Times"?"

Now Wu Yuan is full of thoughts about how to make money, and the two company-made dramas that have been forgotten in the back of his mind are also remembered by him.

Li Xiaoping on the other end of the phone heard Wu Yuan mention this, and there was a smile in her voice: ""The Best of Us" has been broadcast simultaneously on Mango Channel and Jiangsu and Zhejiang Channel. ”

"Two million per episode, the two TV stations bought together, and a total of 46 million was sold."

"The second round is expected to be sold to more than a dozen TV stations, and it can also be sold for 50 or 60 million."

"If the response after the broadcast is good enough, maybe there will be a chance to sell the third round."

Now is the golden age of TV drama sales, because there has not yet been a restriction order that no more than three TV stations can broadcast a drama at the same time.

Although during the first round of broadcasting, powerful TV stations mostly adopted the form of the first round of exclusivity, and for some popular dramas, two will premiere at the same time, and some TV dramas with large investment and high prices, TV stations will use the method of 4 joint purchases.

But at most, it will be premiered on four TV stations.

And in the second round, the situation is different, because the price has dropped, there will be as many as a dozen TV stations to buy and broadcast together.

When "Dragon Babu" was broadcast that year, there were 17 TV stations (including terrestrial stations) broadcasting at the same time during the peak period, so that in the prime time of the evening, it was the grand occasion of the same drama in exchange for the same drama.

Every summer vacation, there are often more than a dozen TV stations that show "Journey to the West" or "Huanzhu Gege" during the daytime.

This makes these TV drama production companies make a lot of money, although the selling price of the second, third, fourth and fifth rounds is cheap, but there are enough TV stations that can't resist buying, and the profits created are not lower than the first round.

By 2010, this situation was contained, even if it was two or three rounds, at most three TV stations could broadcast at the same time, which greatly dealt a blow to the situation of overselling.

The advantage is that the audience will no longer be exchanged, and all TV stations are broadcasting a drama, and the disadvantage is that the cost of purchasing films from TV stations has begun to soar.

Since there can't be multiple simulcasts, the price of the first round of broadcasting will naturally have to increase.

Scarcity is expensive! The production company doesn't want to suffer.

""The Best of Us" is still negotiating with the film buying departments of major companies, and now the most likely to win the premiere rights of this TV series are Hui Provincial Satellite TV and Dragon TV."

"The same two families bought together, because the starring roles are Yuan Hong and Guan Zhibin, both of whom are actors who have acted in movies, so the price is higher, and the two platters sold a total of 55 million."

Hearing these two sets of numbers, Wu Yuan's face was bright with a smile.

The cost of this kind of campus drama is the lowest among all TV dramas, and the combined cost of the two TV series is less than 30 million.

In addition, if the next two or three rounds can be sold, there will still be a profit of 150 million.

This money can at least make Light and Shadow Express lose one or two webcast dramas!

"Good, good, good, good!" Wu Yuanle praised happily: "Keep up the good work, now is the blue ocean of the TV drama industry, and the opportunity period cannot be missed." ”

From 2000 to 2014, it was the most glorious era of television stations, because television was completely popularized in rural areas, and there were 7.8 billion TV viewers across the country who watched prime time in front of TV sets every day.

The advertising revenue of major TV stations alone can add up to tens of billions of dollars a year, and most of this money is used to buy films, and the fraction is used to make variety shows.

In the era of light and shadow, as long as you can share a few percentage points of profit from it, you will already make money.

""Pirates of the Caribbean 3 on my side is about to be released, and I don't have time to return to China for the time being, so I'll leave the things on the company's side to you."

Wu Yuan said to Li Xiaoping on the phone in an encouraging tone: "You do things, I don't worry!" ”

The TV industry is really making money at this time, much more money than the film industry.

At the end of the 90s, "Kangxi Weifu Private Interview" was able to sell 200 million in advertising.

In 2010, the box office revenue of mainland films only exceeded 10 billion yuan, but the revenue of radio and television was nearly 200 billion yuan (not only advertising revenue, of course)

When I found this data, I was also stunned.

(End of chapter)