TVB's midlife crisis: declining profits, New works are difficult to form the influence of the past

Today's TVB has gradually lost its once heyday momentum, showing a lonely appearance. Not only is it difficult for new works to form a strong influence in the past, but their business performance is also shrinking, as if they have encountered a midlife crisis.

TVB, who is about to bid farewell to the middle-aged, has encountered a "midlife crisis" at this time. However, as an established television company that has accumulated in the industry for decades, today's TVB has gradually lost its once heyday momentum, showing a lonely appearance. Not only is it difficult for new works to form a strong influence in the past, but their business performance is also shrinking, as if they have encountered a midlife crisis. In the face of the current situation, TVB is also deepening cooperation with the mainland and strengthening new media business, but can this help the middle-aged TVB to find a new turning point?

< strong > profit declines < / strong >

"the 50th anniversary of TVB turned around and walked together", which was the theme of TVB's 50th anniversary lighting ceremony, from which we can not only see the urgent hope of TVB seeking to turn around, but also highlight the difficulties faced by TVB in recent years.

through observation, we can find that 2014 is a threshold for TVB. In this year, the highest-rated series on TVB was the Apostles, but the average television rating of the show was only 27.6%, the first time in the previous 20 years that the average rating of the highest-rated series on TVB had fallen below 30%. In addition, TVB's net profit in 2014 fell for the first time in five years, down 18.9% from the previous year.

after that, the development of TVB is not optimistic. According to the annual report released by TVB, after the decline in net profit in 2014, TVB's total revenue in 2015 also ended its previous continuous growth, while the profit attributable to shareholders continued to decline, down 6 per cent from the previous year, while the profit attributable to TVB shareholders halved to HK $500m in 2016 from HK $1.331 billion in the previous year. The downward trend has not stopped this year, with profit attributable to TVB shareholders falling to HK $170 million in the first half of this year, down from HK $300m a year earlier.

< strong > looking for vitality < / strong >

in the face of the current development, TVB more or less feels the sense of crisis, and tries to recover the current decline in a variety of ways. First of all, TVB chose to work together with the mainland.

in fact, the cooperation between Hong Kong and the mainland in the film and television industry began a long time ago, but at first, most of the Hong Kong actors set foot on the mainland to shoot relevant film and television programs. However, with the gradual development of the mainland market, Hong Kong film and television companies have also begun to seek cooperation with mainland companies. So far, TVB has reached cooperation with Ali Pictures, iqiyi, Tencent and so on. Most crucially, TVB has been introduced to mainland shareholders, media tycoon Li Ruigang, who has been approved to join the board of TVB. In the view of Liu Deliang, founder of Xinyuan Wenzhi, in recent years, the mainland film and television industry has developed rapidly and has a large market space, while the market in Hong Kong has shrunk. Through cooperation with mainland companies, they can use each other's resources to carry out related business in the mainland.

in addition to embracing mainland capital, TVB also strengthens its layout on the new media side. According to public information, TVB has spent hundreds of millions of Hong Kong dollars on building OTT (Internet TV) platform my TVSUPER, and in July this year, TVB launched Big Big Channel, a social media platform that can perform star live streaming, social networking and other functions. Industry insiders believe that at this stage, many viewers have gradually become accustomed to obtaining and browsing relevant resources with the help of new media, and TVB layout of new media also conforms to the market development trend, but there is a problem in new media, that is, high investment, which is a problem that TVB must face.

< strong > effect to be tested < / strong >

judging from the current layout of TVB, projects in cooperation with mainland film and television companies have been completed or delivered one after another. In addition, although the new media business has yet to make a profit, according to the annual report for the first half of 2017, TVB's new media business achieved revenue of HK $122 million, an increase of 46% over the same period last year. This is the only business segment of TVB that has achieved revenue growth. According to Chen Liqiang, a professor at the School of Journalism and Communication at Tianjin normal University, strengthening the integration of new media is one of the ways for TV stations to retain viewers.

whether it is to strengthen cooperation with the mainland, or to strengthen the layout of new media, if TVB wants to achieve a magnificent turn, the key is still to strengthen the core competitiveness of content. Practitioners believe that if you want to expand the mainland market, you can not only achieve the goal by cooperating with mainland film and television companies, but also need to attract the attention of mainland audiences, and in recent years, the mainland film and television industry is also moving forward, with the emergence of many film and television works with a good reputation, which is also a warning and challenge for TVB, which means that if TVB wants to master the mainland market, the key lies in the production of high-quality works.

Edit: mary