An online drama costing 120 million yuan per hour is not an exaggeration in an era of fierce competition

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As the number of new development projects in the TV drama industry has soared, the chain reaction of the golden age of television has also begun to be reflected in the production budget: streaming media giants that do not follow traditional rules have entered the market, and prices from venue leasing to shooting equipment to post-production have also risen. David Wells, chief financial officer of Netflix, said,"If we had a sufficient audience base, we would certainly be willing to produce such high-quality, high-cost TV series.

"if we have a sufficient audience base, we are certainly willing to make such a high-quality, high-cost TV series," said David Wells, chief financial officer of

Netflix.

original title: TV Series Budgets Hit the BreakingPoint as Costs Skyrocket in Peak TV Era

is it possible to cost $20 million an hour for a TV series? Of course! "if we have a sufficient audience base, we are certainly willing to produce such a high-quality and high-cost TV series," said David Wells, chief financial officer of Netflix. "

not long ago, Wells would only laugh at such astronomical suggestions. But for now, the cost of $20 million an hour seems like a reasonable figure for Netflix and other competitors-their competitor HBO's over-budget series Game of Thrones has a budget of $15 million per episode.

poster

there has been a saying among traditional producers that Netflix spends a lot of money on content production in order to gain more market share and drive some outdated studios out of TV production. That's why the streaming giant is willing to pay $20 million-twice the price of its HBO counterpart a few years ago-to invite Alan DeGeneres to record a talk show, according to a senior person.

but Netflix is not the only company with an aggressive expansion strategy. Almost all streaming media have invested heavily in TV series promotion and budgets, driving up the lowest prices in the overall market: Amazon has to pay about $775000 per episode for Robert De Niro's performance in a crime comedy; HBO's special series Westworld is on a par with the Crown's budget; Starz's "American Gods" season 1 costs more than $8 million per episode. FX has a production budget of about $350 to $4 million per hour, while its production of Ryan Murphy's "American Crime Story" has an hourly budget of nearly $6 million.

HBO's special effects series" Westworld "traditional TV stations generally have a maximum budget of about $4.5 million per episode (but most projects are under $1 million). Traditional established television production companies ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox are all trying to accept the fact that they are not the first choice for hot projects. Fierce competition has led television stations to consider increasing production budgets because of declining ratings and advertising revenue.

A more ambitious and bold production style is not the only expense, and the prices of actors and producers are also rising.

Netflix invited the famous talk show host David Letterman (David Letterman) of the Tonight Show to return to the TV screen to produce a six-episode talk show scheduled for next year. They offered an eye-popping price of $2 million per episode.

actors have also gained a lot of attention by negotiating with television stations and streaming media for higher pay. The addition of popular stars can bring traffic and revenue to streaming media, and if streaming media giants want to control the global distribution window for the next 10-20 years, it will be difficult to hold down the prices that can bring traffic factors.

this is the business principle behind the sky-high budgets of Netflix and Amazon: more stars, big productions and more production budgets actually bring more royalties, and studios make more profits from it, so they have good reason to push up their budgets. In the past, in the traditional model, studios had to rely on outside capital from the beginning, so they had to tighten their budgets to save money, and the royalties of their new shows could not even afford the entire production cost.

another reason for the rise in costs is that some inexperienced production teams are involved in the production of the series, and the lack of experience in executive producers, technicians and stuntmen has led to a sharp increase in studio accidents in recent months, which has led to a sharp increase in the price of experienced teams.

at the same time, a large number of filmmakers have poured into TV series production, making the cost of transporting people and materials skyrocketing. As television production is on a par with the visual effects of movies, the number of shooting equipment needed for special scenes is also increasing dramatically. Ten years ago, a standard semi-trailer could hold the equipment needed for a TV series. Today, none of the three heavy trucks is enough to hold all the set equipment, and these trucks need to be parked outside the venue because multiple heavy vehicles are not allowed to park on the city streets at the same time.

the high-budget TV series brought about by streaming media have made the demand for actors and original stories a hot topic in the field of cultural creativity, but there are also persistent expectations that the market is overheated and is about to decline.

"this is an arms race, but it will continue until the producers find there is no way to go," said one researcher. Not only that, practitioners also complain that it is pointless for some shows to spend so much on filming and post-production.

producers respond to the increasing spending to produce high-quality shows that can stand out. But even if it is a well-regarded series, practitioners can not turn a deaf ear to some of the numbers they get.

A CW TV executive believes that the higher the budget, the better, and that it is more effective to work under some kind of control: "most projects are carried out under a reasonable budget, and not all TV stations inject large amounts of money into the project. A reasonable budget forces you to be creative. "

however, streaming media believe that high investment is the norm in the TV industry in the future. An executive at Netflix said the pace of change in the TV industry required all participants to put aside their prejudices to meet the challenge. "this is no longer the television industry we imagined, but we also see a lot of interesting changes taking place," she said. "although there are setbacks from time to time, but in the long run, I am still looking forward to the future of the television industry. It's time to meet the challenge. "

author: Maureen Ryan

from foreign media Varie

Editor: mary