text|Zhang Ping.
Edit|Arvin.
TVB's new drama "News Queen" has recently become popular, not only with record ratings, but also on major social platforms. On various social platforms, TVB's classic nostalgia has set off waves of memories.
In addition to the excitement, we watched TVB back, but found that under the glamour, it had reached the point of life and death.
tvbFounded in the 60s of the last century, it is 56 years old.
TVB, the full name of Hong Kong Television Broadcasting*** is Hong Kong's first commercial TVB, founded in 1967 by Li Xiaohe, Qi Dezun, Run Run Shaw and others, is the world's largest Chinese-language commercial television station, since November 19, 1967, TVB has lasted 56 years.
The 70s was a decade of rapid development and expansion of TVB, and Run Run Shaw foresaw great changes in the television field in the future, so he gradually transferred his financial resources to the television industry, which shaped the film and television song industry in Hong Kong for the next 50 years
In 1971, TVB launched a training course for wireless artists
In 1973, she took over the "Miss Hong Kong" contest
In 1982, the Hong Kong Rookie Singing Contest was launched.
All these initiatives have brought a large number of talents to Hong Kong's cultural industry, and many of the Hong Kong stars we are familiar with come from these three projects.
In the 80s and 90s, TVB competed with ATV on the same stage and created countless film and television masterpieces.
The TVB of that era turned the martial arts world in Jin Yong** into reality;
The troubled times wrapped in purple and red in Shanghai Tang;
Thousands of Rivers, Thousands of Mountains are Always Love", the love between Ruan Tingshen and Zhuang Mengdie across thousands of rivers and mountains.
also gave birth to several actors and singers with their own styles.
The legendary and peerless "Aunt Mui" Anita Mui;
suave and incomparable Leslie Cheung;
There are also the four heavenly kings who are popular in Asia;
At its peak, TVB had more than 300 million household subscribers in Asia, Australia, Europe and the Americas, and was the only Chinese-speaking company in the world that could fully cover Hong Kong, Macau and mainland markets**.
In 2013, TVB's annual revenue was 56HK$8.6 billion, with a profit of 17HK$3.8 billion.
Fame and fortune are both gained, and the scenery is for a while.
Under the scenery, the loss in 5 years was 2.2 billion
Under the scenery, let's look at TVB's financial data.
In 2000, 2005 and 2010, TVB made a profit of 7HK$7.4 billion, HK$11HK$800 million, HK$13.13HK$300 million.
And in 2014 the profit was 14100 million Hong Kong dollars, in 2015, 2016, 2017, respectively, profit 13HK$3.1 billion, HK$500 million, 2HK$4.4 billion.
Changes in TVB's earnings data in some years.
It was also from 2014 that TVB's profitability gradually declined.
In the past five years, it has lost money year after year.
The 2023 half-year financial report shows that revenue in the first half of this year decreased by 14% year-on-year to 15HK$600 million, net loss widened year-on-year to 4HK$0.7 billion.
Since 2018, TVB's net profit attributable to its parent company has been negative for five consecutive years, with a cumulative loss of more than HK $2.2 billion. At the end of 2022, its net profit loss was as high as 72.4 billion, four times the number at the end of 2018.
TVB's revenue and profit in the past five years.
The capital market is the most sensitive, and the business declines, and the market value naturally shrinks sharply.
TVB market capitalization trend.
In 2013, TVB's total market capitalization was HK$25.5 billion. Ten years have passed, and only 15 are leftHK$600 million, or HK$14200 million RMB.
Laying off 300 employees again, TVB's road to reducing costs and increasing efficiency
In the face of declining business performance, on November 27, when the market share of "News Queen" continued to dominate the top three on the whole network, TVB issued an announcement on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, announcing that it would reorganize its TV broadcasting and e-commerce business.
According to the announcement, TVB plans to merge its two electric channel "J2" stations and "Wireless Finance and Sports Information" channels into "TVB+", and merge the original two e-commerce platforms into one "Neighborhood Buy".
If the two restructuring plans are successfully implemented, it is expected to save HK$100 million in content costs in 2024, as well as HK$50 million to HK$60 million in fixed costs and operating expenses in e-commerce, and will reduce the total number of business personnel by more than 300.
Source: TVB's announcement "Restructuring TV Broadcasting and E-commerce Business to Optimize Audience and User Experience, Improve Operational Efficiency and Enhance Revenue Potential".
This is not the first time TVB has laid off employees.
As early as 2019, TVB issued an internal notice saying that it would lay off 10% of non-artist employees. On March 24 this year, TVB Executive Chairman Xu Tao sent a letter to employees, announcing that he would lay off 5% of his staff to save operating expenses by optimizing costs2HK$600 million, based on TVB's original 3,907 employees, the layoffs involve nearly 200 people.
After reducing costs, it is TVB's attempt to increase efficiency.
According to the announcement released by TVB on November 27, we can see two attempts by TVB:
First, for television broadcasting services.
TVB will launch a new integrated channel called "TVB+", which will serve as a test bed for experimental content and formats, which is an important step in TVB's transformation into a more digital-focused TV broadcasting business.
Second, for e-commerce business.
As early as 2018, TVB founded Big Big Shop, and in 2021, it acquired the Ztob and Neighborhood Buying platforms. In September 2022, TVB closed the Big Big Shop after testing the waters of live streaming, and in this announcement, TVB announced the merger of Ztob and Linzhumai. With this, TVB hopes to provide a complete "entertainment-to-shopping" experience and achieve a more capital-efficient business model.
Go north to dig gold and look for a bigger market
It is not difficult for us to find that in recent years, Hong Kong artists, variety shows, and co-produced film and television dramas have appeared more and more frequently in our field of vision.
The lack of improvement in the performance of the TVB market for many years is also due to the small market in Hong Kong. If you want to reverse the situation of declining revenue and profit loss, you still have to rely on the huge mainland market.
Going north to dig gold has undoubtedly become the direction of TVB's reform.
In fact, the mainland business has become TVB's largest profit**, approaching 1HK$600 million, mainly through copyright distribution, co-productions, etc.
First, co-production of film and television dramas.
The recent hit "News Queen" was filmed by TVB in cooperation with Youku and Alibaba.
The poster of "The Queen of News" on the Youku platform.
According to previous news, TVB will also cooperate with mainland platforms to shoot four dramas: "Corporate Strongman", "The Cliff of Women and Heroes", "Criminal Investigation 12" and "Anti-Black Heroes".
The advantage of co-production is that it can not only obtain generous investment support from the mainland, but also get closer to the mainland market, win a larger audience, and then obtain economic returns.
Second, co-produce variety shows.
As early as 2007, TVB cooperated with Hunan Satellite TV to produce "Dancing Miracle", with a total of 22 TVB artists participating.
Last year, TVB, Zhejiang Satellite TV, and ** platform jointly produced the reality show variety show "Infinite Transcendence Class", which sparked heated discussions and achieved good results.
In addition to earning a share of the co-production of variety shows, TVB can also take the opportunity to let more mainland audiences, especially young audiences, know and understand their own artists, drive TVB into the vision of more mainland audiences and expand the mainland market.
Third, the first platform will be launched.
Youku, iQiyi, Tencent and other major ** platforms have launched TVB areas or Hong Kong drama areas.
Since the premiere of the drama "Dream of Love" in 1967, TVB has produced more than 1,500 TV dramas.
The huge drama resources can bring a steady stream of income to TVB.
Fourth, live broadcast with goods.
TVB has launched Douyin and **live broadcast with goods.
In the first half of this year, TVB and ** announced cooperation, and TVB officially called this round of cooperation a major milestone in creating an e-commerce live broadcast, which is expected to bring tens of millions of Hong Kong dollars to the company.
TVB brings goods on the live broadcast platform.