The "Hunting Ground" drama company complained that it was not established or Dongyang Qingyu lost 200 million yuan in half a year

Based on current market prices, the 45-episode "Hunting Ground" can sell for at least 7 million yuan per episode, while the 40-episode "If You Can Love Like This" can sell for at least 5 million yuan per episode. If you calculate the difference, Dongyang Qingyu made a total of 207 million yuan less on these two dramas.

Original title: Behind the war of words, it is only because of the loss of 200 million yuan in half a year?

Hu Ge's new TV series "Hunting Ground", originally scheduled to hit the screen this summer, was disrupted by a complaint. Last week, Dongyang Qingyu, the producer of "Hunting Ground", issued an announcement stating that she had sued the broadcast platform Hunan Satellite TV to court for "failing to make payment as agreed." It is not uncommon for a war of words between TV series producers and TV stations, but this dispute unexpectedly gave rise to a different voice.

On

May 10, Dongyang Qingyu Media Co., Ltd.(referred to as "Dongyang Qingyu"), the producer of the TV series "Hunting Ground", suddenly issued an announcement stating that because "Hunan Satellite TV failed to fulfill the payment obligations of the TV series" Hunting Ground "and" If You Can Love Like This "within the agreed time, and it still failed to fulfill it after urging," the drama company believed that its behavior "constituted a fundamental breach of contract" and asked Hunan Satellite TV to terminate the agreement. After being refused, the local People's Court filed a lawsuit.

When this article was published, public opinion was in uproar. The new drama "Hunting Ground", starring Hu Ge and written by Jiang Wei, author of "Hidden", is Hu Ge's first drama after "Nirvana in Fire". It was originally scheduled to land on Hunan Satellite TV in July this year and is widely regarded by the industry as a dark horse in the TV drama market this year. Another TV series,"If You Can Love Like This", starred Tong Dawei and Liu Shishi, and is also considered to be a popular masterpiece. According to the information disclosed in the announcement,"Hunting Ground" and "If You Can Love Like This" signed the rights to broadcast to Hunan Satellite TV as early as December 10 last year. However, the broadcast is approaching, so why did the sudden trouble happen?

Since Hunan Satellite TV did not make any response to the outside world that day, the industry began to have different opinions based on the issue of "Hunan Satellite TV defaulted on payments" pointed out in the announcement."It is common for Party A to pay back on the broadcast platform" and "it is rare for Party B to fight back" and other opinions became rampant. However, two days later, a joint statement issued by Hunan Satellite TV and LeTV once again turned the situation around. The statement pointed out that after signing the contract, they "paid progress payments in strict accordance with the contract" and did not defaulted on the film payment as alleged by the producer. It also believed that the drama company "unilaterally terminated the contract, fabricated and fabricated the facts and reasons for breach of contract, and maliciously terminated the contract", and called on companies to "be honest, trustworthy and respect the spirit of the contract." The statement also revealed that Hunan Satellite TV and LeTV firmly believe that the law will give a fair verdict and report it to the relevant administrative authorities in accordance with procedures.

Announcements and statements tracking

the reasons for the drama company's complaint or not establishing

the drama company or the broadcast platform were thrown out one after another, which made the onlookers a little silly. At first, they wanted to support the weak film company, but why did the style suddenly reverse and become the drama company's "malicious termination"? There is still no final conclusion on which one is right and which one is wrong. However, statements from relevant parties have provided some clues to this dispute.

Wang Jun, a lawyer at Beijing City Yingke Law Firm, has previously represented many lawsuits in the film and television industry. This time, he represented LeEco's lawsuit against Dongyang Qingyu. According to him, Dongyang Qingyu stated in the announcement that Hunan Satellite TV "failed to fulfill the payment obligations stipulated in the above two agreements (Note: the agreement signed by the two parties on the right to premiere the two TV series) within the agreed time, which constitutes a fundamental breach of contract." However, the definition of "fundamental breach of contract" actually depends on the specific terms."Whether one party has delayed payment depends on whether there are some preconditions, such as delivery of program tapes, signature certificates of copyright, etc."

Wang Jun revealed that the specific amount of money Hunan Satellite TV failed to pay was not pointed out in Dongyang Qingyu's announcement. According to his experience, under normal circumstances, TV stations will make payments for the purchase of dramas in three times."The first time is a prepayment or deposit payable after the contract is signed, accounting for about 20%. The second time is payment after seeing the play's ownership certificate and the master tape is broadcast; the third time is after the series is broadcast."

Wang Liyan, another lawyer representing the lawsuit, said that LeE.com has not received the master tape of the series provided by Dongyang Qingyu."The payment conditions are not met yet. How can we accuse the platform of not paying?" Wang Liyan revealed that under normal circumstances, such disputes can often be settled in court, but this time, it is different. LeTV invested funds to support the filming of the series before the series was completed, and the purchase price paid for the series was also calculated at the time of transaction. It is high in the market."Faced with the new requirements of the drama company, LeTV has made a great degree of efforts and communication, but the drama company still insisted on terminating the contract and had to go to court."

Exploring the cause and

interests first,

"plot reversal" can occur on anything. Although there is a "highlight", the economic motivation behind the dispute is the key to a correct understanding of this incident in the eyes of many industry insiders.

It is understood that the TV series "Hunting Ground" was launched in Hangzhou in August last year, and "If You Can Love Like This" was launched in Hunan in October last year. According to an announcement issued by the drama company, the two dramas sold the TV premiere rights to Hunan Satellite TV in December last year, before they were completed. Although Hu Ge became famous at the time with "The Pretender" and "Nirvana in Fire", Hu Ge finally signed the contract for "Hunting Ground" for less than 20 million yuan because he valued Jiang Wei's script. Judging from the current market situation where Hu Ge cannot be signed for a drama for 60 million yuan, the cost invested by the drama company at that time was not too large.

According to industry insiders privately, at that time, Dongyang Qingyu sold the first broadcast rights of "Hunting Ground" for a total price of less than 4 million yuan per episode on one TV and one Internet, while the price of "If You Can Love Like This" on Taiwan and Internet was less than 3.2 million yuan per episode. Judging from the TV drama market at that time, it was already a high price for satellite TV to purchase dramas exceeding 2 million yuan per episode. However, after only half a year, the purchase price of TV dramas has undergone earth-shaking changes. For example, just after the Spring Festival this year,"Jianghuai. The Legend of Ruyi "sold an online single episode of 9 million yuan, and two satellite TV stations jointly purchased it for 6 million yuan, totaling a sky-high price of 15 million yuan per episode.

Based on current market prices, the 45-episode "Hunting Ground" can sell for at least 7 million yuan per episode, while the 40-episode "If You Can Love Like This" can sell for at least 5 million yuan per episode. If you calculate the difference, Dongyang Qingyu made a total of 207 million yuan less on these two dramas.

At this point, many people seem to understand the root cause of this dispute. As TV producer Xie Xiaohu bluntly said: "TV drama prices have soared, and the increase in the past three months has exceeded the level of the past four to five years. In the past, if the drama company considered the cooperative relationship with TV stations and other platforms, it would still be acceptable to lose 20 to 30 million yuan because it sold early. However, the sales of the two dramas have been reduced by more than 200 million yuan. Which drama company it is, I think they will have to reconsider." He emphasized that due to the decline in advertising profits in the past two years, competition between satellite TV stations has become increasingly fierce, and it is not uncommon to poach each other. The competition for big dramas such as "The Hunting Ground" has become even more intense."With such bright interests in front of you, anything can happen."

Editor: Nancy