my return 2002

Chapter 347 Copyright tightening
There is another piece of good news after the Spring Festival. Relevant departments are about to launch an investigation of the Internet industry, mainly targeting some color and borderline behavior.

However, judging from some internal rumors, the online copyright of the film and television industry will also be within the scope of this action. The tightening of copyright that Shen Lang has planned for two years is coming soon.

This caused many video website investors to panic. Those who could withdraw their funds quickly withdrew their funds, and those who could not escape began to avoid continuing to invest and stop losses in time.

Affected by the subprime mortgage crisis, it was difficult for video websites to raise funds. However, this is an extremely money-burning industry. The cost of servers and bandwidth remains high. If they pay expensive copyright fees, many video websites will not be able to survive.

Almost overnight, the video industry began to reshuffle the cards, and the situation of video sites with no hematopoietic ability such as 56.com and Liujianfang became extremely embarrassing.

Even leading video sites like Youku and Tudou are facing a serious shortage of funds. Of course, there are also LeTV, which relies on Accountant Jia's wonderful pen to make money, and is stunned to make money through video business.

And 360 Video is also in a state of loss at this time, and it has lost a lot. The reason is very simple. 360 Video’s advertising revenue and membership recharge alone are currently unable to maintain the huge server, bandwidth costs, and copyright purchase costs.

Although the copyright purchase is now at the price of cabbage, it is scary if the quantity is too large. Every year, 360 Video spends more than 2000 million on copyright purchase.

After hearing the news, Zhou Shengjun was so excited that he didn't fall asleep all night, and came to Shen Lang's office early the next morning with dark circles under his eyes.

"Mr. Shen, can we let go now?"

Shen Lang saw Zhou Shengjun's expression: It's the expression that made me wait until today, and he couldn't help laughing secretly. In the past two years, due to copyright, anyone can pirate broadcasts, but Zhou Shengjun was suffocated, and he had to pay several times out of thin air every year. Tens of millions of expenses, but unable to generate income, resulting in 360 Video's annual loss, although he does not have to pay for it himself, but every time he has a meeting, he is always one of the worst in business, and he always feels inferior.

"Don't get too excited too early, copyright tightening is not a matter of a day or two, follow-up piracy will still occur, and don't underestimate your opponents, Youku and Tudou have also been actively purchasing copyrights in the past two years, It has also accumulated a large number of loyal users, and it is not so easy to defeat." Shen Lang reminded.

In Shen Lang's view, if the mainland's video industry wants to make a profit, it must form a monopoly. In addition to reducing the cost of copyright purchases, the more important thing is to facilitate members' top-up.

The reason why Netflix can make money and continue to output high-quality online dramas is that it is rich enough.

When Netflix first decided to make self-made content, in fact, the mainstream Hollywood circle at that time also dismissed Netflix, and even hated it. Don’t think that the ideas of Americans are open and advanced. In fact, most Americans Middle-aged and elderly white people are particularly conservative in thinking.

But then what?Netfly's first self-produced hit drama [House of Cards] in the true sense invested 300 million US dollars in the first season alone. The rise of the fly.

Netflix has a global market and can obtain funds from global audiences, while mainland video sites obviously do not have such an advantage. The dramas produced can basically be digested internally, and better ones can be sold to some countries in Southeast Asia. That’s all. That's all.

Therefore, in Shen Lang's view, if video sites want to make money, they must reduce undisputed internal friction and spend money on content production, so as to attract more users to recharge their memberships, so that they can continue to output high-quality content.

"Mr. Shen, since the copyright is about to be tightened, can Mountain Dew Films and Television get started?" Zhou Shengjun asked earnestly.

Mountain Dew is a company just established by Shen Lang last year. It is also a content production company specializing in providing self-made drama series and variety shows for 360 video. However, due to the serious problem of piracy before, Shen Lang has not increased investment, but only made some In the preliminary work, we searched for some behind-the-scenes team of film and television production, among them are many variety show producers who left Mango TV.

Shen Lang nodded: "Well, the [Ghost Blowing Lantern] project can indeed be started first."

The script of [Ghost Blowing the Lantern] was prepared last year. The reason why it has not started filming is mainly due to the cost issue. Big profits, so this project has been kept under wraps. It will be almost the end of the year from the start of the project to the completion of post-production and broadcasting. By then, under the tightened copyright policy, a large number of video sites will not be able to pirate, which will inevitably cause users to 360 Video aggregation, even at a loss, is worth it.

Zhou Shengjun was about to leave full of joy, but Shen Lang stopped him.

"Don't just focus on film and television dramas, self-made variety shows are also a great tool to attract users."

At this time, variety shows in mainland China are also in full bloom. Since Mango TV's "Super Girl" became popular, other local satellite TVs have also begun to create their own variety shows, such as Jiangsu Satellite TV's "Absolutely Singing" and Dragon TV's "Come on!Good Man] have achieved good ratings, and even CCTV has launched [Avenue of Stars].

Afterwards, Zhou Shengjun called all the producers of Dew Mountain for a meeting, and Shen Lang was also present to listen in. After Zhou Shengjun announced the official launch of the [Ghost Blowing Lantern] project, the meeting room was full of joy.

No wonder they were excited, they were all recruited by the company, but after the results came, they were only asked to polish the script without a single approved project, which inevitably made people think that the company was unreliable, although it is good to get paid for nothing, But the main source of money for doing this is to get project bonuses, and it is easy to lose their value if there is no work for a long time.

But what surprised them even more was yet to come. Zhou Shengjun then announced the launch of a self-made variety show plan, and there was no limit on the number of projects, as long as the project was good, they could do it.

This instantly ignited the enthusiasm of all the producers. After the meeting ended, they immediately began to conceive the variety show project. In just three days, Zhou Shengjun received five or six project proposals.

In the end, these project proposals also arrived on Shen Lang's desk, and Zhou Shengjun came to ask for funds.

However, Shen Lang flipped through it casually, and rejected all these items.

"Why are they all singing talent show variety shows? What's the difference between these and those broadcasted on TV platforms? Why do users come to 360 Movies and TV to register as members to watch?"

Zhou Shengjun looked puzzled: "But, the variety show with the highest ratings on the market is the singing talent show."

In fact, there are two important reasons why there are all singing talent shows on the market. One is the auditing reason. It is very difficult to pass the audition on the TV platform for variety shows like the 101 girl group in later generations. After all, many dances will be considered tempting by parents. Sex, you must know that when Fei Xiang sang the fire in the spring in the Spring Festival Gala, the live director only dared to cut close-ups of his upper body.

Another reason is to consider the production cost. After all, the singing talent show only needs one stage, improve the sound a little bit, and invite a few judges and teachers to work together. The production cost of Super Girl is only 3000 for the first phase. Ten thousand, and outdoor variety shows like "Running Brother" can easily cost hundreds of millions.

In contrast, singing talent shows are easy to recruit. Some young people want to be famous and dream of being a star, and they have a fixed audience, so they will naturally be welcomed by TV platforms.

Shen Lang pondered for a moment, and said to Zhou Shengjun: "Well, in the future, you should be responsible for the 360 ​​video. I will find someone to do the content creation."

Zhou Shengjun is a technical talent, and has grown to a certain extent after years of training, but content creation is a very professional field, and it is really difficult for Zhou Shengjun to manage it.

Seeing Zhou Shengjun hesitated to speak, looking disappointed, Shen Lang patted him on the shoulder and comforted him.

"Actually, the simple 360 ​​video is enough for you to be busy. Don't think that the video platform only needs to make content, and it needs to be continuously iterated in technology. Now users' demand for video is only for content. 1080P, 2K or even 4K, 8K, how to meet the user's demand for image quality as much as possible under the premise of reducing server and bandwidth costs, this alone is enough for you to work hard. "

Just imagine, even if the pirated broadcasting website is pirated, it is impossible to have a high image quality. 1080P is already the best, because they cannot afford the huge server and bandwidth costs.

The domestic audience’s demand for picture quality is not as high as that of the content, but if they can see better picture quality, the audience will definitely be willing to pay for it, which is also a cornerstone of building a moat.

Zhou Shengjun thought so too. In fact, he doesn't know much about content creation, so there's no need to get involved. Anyway, he still has the right to purchase the copyright.

After Zhou Shengjun left, Shen Lang began to think about who to hand over Mountain Dew's business to.

After thinking about it, Shen Lang finally called Wang Zhonglei. In the film and television industry, it seems that there is no one who is more familiar than him.

"Hou Hongliang? Oh, I have an impression of this person. His ability is still very strong, but he lacks qualifications." Sure enough, Wang Zhonglei knew who he was when he heard the name.

Shen Lang asked: "Can Mr. Wang get his contact information? Recently Mountain Dew has a project and I want to talk to him."

Wang Zhonglei couldn't help being a little puzzled. With Shen Lang's status at this time, he actually wanted to meet such an unknown person. Obviously, this project must not be that simple.

"No problem, I'll send it to you in a while." Wang Zhonglei agreed, and then asked insincerely.

"By the way, Mr. Shen, I heard that the higher-ups are going to tighten the copyright soon. Congratulations."

Shen Lang smiled: "We are all happy together, the standardization of copyright is good for us, Huayi's copyright can also be sold at a good price."

Wang Zhonglei broke out in a cold sweat when he heard it: "Mr. Shen was joking. With our relationship, Huayi's copyright will never be sold to a second company."

Since the beginning, Huayi has been preparing to go public, and has been queuing up. This year, it finally got some clues, and finally encountered the subprime mortgage crisis. Fortunately, Huayi's own business is not bad. At this time, it will maintain its relationship with Inspur Group. It's much more important than earning that little money.

"Boss Wang's words are enough, but friendship is friendship and business is business. If someone else bids higher than us, we are willing to gamble and admit defeat." Shen Lang said lightly.

Movie resources are actually not very useful for video websites, because most movies will be released on video websites after they are offline in theaters. During this period, audiences have basically watched them through pirated websites, and relatively For example, TV dramas can improve user stickiness through episode updates, and movies can be finished after watching one episode, which is a pity to discard them after they are tasteless.

After a few more pleasantries, Wang Zhonglei hung up the phone, and immediately found Hou Hongliang's phone number.

"Hello, are you Producer Hou? I'm Wang Zhonglei."

Hou Hongliang's first reaction was, is this a liar?But soon Hou Hongliang confirmed the identity of the other party from a business card.

"It's me, Mr. Wang, hello, do you have any orders for me?"

Wang Zhonglei's tone was very kind: "Haha, Producer Hou is too outsider, we are all friends, it's not worth talking about orders, but there is a good thing that is true."

Hou Hongliang's eyes brightened: "Could Mr. Wang have some kind of project?"

Before he finished speaking, Wang Zhonglei interrupted with a smile: "It's not me, it's Boss Shen of Inspur Group who has a project. No, after thinking about it, I think you are the most suitable."

Hou Hongliang was dumbfounded. Of course he knew about Inspur Group, and he had also heard that Inspur Group had set up a film and television production company, but he heard that the company had been in operation for more than half a year, and there was no movement at all. When chatting with many colleagues, they even joked It is good to go there to retire.

"Producer Hou, are you listening?"

Only then did Hou Hongliang come to his senses: "President Wang, here, even if Mountain Dew Films has any projects, it is not necessary for President Shen to do it himself, right?"

Wang Zhonglei said with a smile: "So let me tell you, this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for Producer Hou. If you seize it, you may meet in the future. I have to ask you to take care of me. Don't pretend to I do not know."

Hou Hongliang felt that Wang Zhonglei's words were getting more and more mysterious, but he still said: "Mr. Wang is joking."

Wang Zhonglei didn't waste any more time, he just sold the favor, and he still had to send Shen Lang his phone number.

After hanging up the phone, Hou Hongliang's heart began to grow grass. As a frustrated producer, he also has ambitions. Unfortunately, there has been no chance for these years. If he really told Wang Zhonglei, he could catch the wave Maybe the giant ship of the group can really set sail.

On the other side, Shen Lang also received a mobile phone number from Wang Zhonglei.

The reason why Shen Lang chose Hou Hongliang was that if everything went according to the original timeline, Hou Hongliang would start a film and television company two years later, and this film and television company was called: Noon Sunshine.

(End of this chapter)