Liu Heping, new chairman of the screenwriter committee: Original high-quality dramas will restore "four stars in one drama"

Famous screenwriter Liu Heping revealed at the general meeting of the China TV Drama Writers Working Committee that he had received "absolutely certain news" from the Propaganda Department of the CPC Central Committee and the State Administration of China that "in the future, for original masterpieces, each drama should have four stars."

The 2017 Beijing Spring TV Program Fair opened in Beijing on the 20th. Although the TV drama market is sluggish and various trade fairs have become "chicken ribs" in the industry in recent years, two pieces of news were launched yesterday that fundamentally boosted the industry: the country's first film and television copyright expert appraisal committee was officially established, and the smoky "plagiarism" has finally been controlled; Famous screenwriter Liu Heping revealed at the general meeting of the China TV Drama Writers Working Committee that he had received "absolutely certain news" from the Propaganda Department of the CPC Central Committee and the State Administration of China that "in the future, for original masterpieces, each drama should have four stars." The so-called "four stars for one drama" means that a TV series can be broadcast on four satellite stations at the same time. Once this policy is introduced, it will greatly reverse and encourage the creation of original dramas, and will have a major impact on the upstream and downstream of the entire industry.

On the afternoon of March 20, at the 2017 Spring Beijing TV Program Fair, the TV Drama Writers Working Committee held its first general meeting of members. The second leadership team of the TV Drama Writers Committee was newly released, with Liu Heping serving as the new president.

It is understood that starting from January 2015, the State Administration of Radio and Television promulgated a new policy for TV drama broadcasting, that is, a TV series can only be broadcast on two satellite TV stations at most, which means that a TV series that has been in operation for 10 years can be broadcast on up to four satellite TV stations at the same time. The policy of simultaneous broadcast on satellite TV has withdrawn from the TV drama stage. Industry insiders say the move is to control overcapacity in TV dramas.

But this means an increase in distribution costs and increased economic pressure for TV series production and distribution companies.

90% of TV drama production companies only produce one drama a year

. At the opening ceremony, Zheng Weidong, deputy general manager of Media Research at China Broadcasting Television Sofury, used data to talk about "a TV drama market restructured in competition," and polarization became keywords. He said that in 2016, the polarization of provincial satellite TV stations gradually became apparent, with the viewing share of top satellite TV stations increasing, and the competitiveness of second-and third-line satellite TV dramas declining. At the same time, the ability of terrestrial channels to control the TV drama market is also weakening. "Overall, the share is stable, but the competitiveness of TV series procurement and broadcasting is declining."

Due to the policy regulation of the State Administration of China, the overall TV drama production volume, especially the production of new dramas, has been reduced. CCTV and provincial satellite TV received 40% of the premieres of new dramas in 2016. During this process, various TV series production organizations have adjusted their production one after another."90% of TV series production companies only produce one drama a year." The risks are getting bigger and bigger.

In terms of subject matter, it is also relatively polarized. Whether it was in 2015 or 2016, the theme of military struggle is the number one drama in terms of volume produced and broadcast. The second is the anti-spy war, the third is modern legends, the fourth is urban life, the fifth is social ethics, and the sixth is romance. "Whether produced or broadcast, TV dramas are increasingly entering a fully competitive market, showing a polarization trend. The strong pole gradually monopolizes the market, and in the process of monopoly, the resource benefits of TV dramas are further released. The trend of the TV drama market in recent years, judging from the comparative relationship between production, broadcasting, and viewing, tends to be a more stable and diluted market pattern."

The above are what the industry did in 2016. What are the results? According to the viewing data provided by Soffrey, in 2016, 76% of dramas had ratings less than 0.5%, 17% of dramas had ratings between 0.5% and 1%, and a total of about 7% exceeded 1. There were 6%, and the ratings were greater than 2. In 2016, it was less than 2015, only 0.4%. The conclusion is "I saw the increase in ratings, the increase in star prices, and the increase in unit price of big dramas, but I didn't see the birth of big dramas."

Zheng Weidong also focused on analyzing the market situation in Beijing. Among them, Beijing Satellite TV tried to broadcast high-quality costume IP dramas, and "Legend of Mi Yue" and "The Glorious Love" were both successful. In addition, facts have proved that realistic themes that are in the north and modern themes that are in the modern urban society are also suitable for Beijing Satellite TV. "Little Farewell","China Style Relations", and "My Father-in-Law Can Martial Arts" are remarkable. The film and television channel is a very stable broadcast platform, with an average audience rating of more than 2. Each drama is relatively stable and has a large broadcast volume. It is the exhibition and broadcast platform for major dramas in Beijing. In addition, the newly developed weekly drama is mixed, but it has the effect of effectively adjusting the audience structure and actively rejuvenating the elderly subjects.

Plagiarism is closer to the truth.

At yesterday's "Spring Promotion Conference", one of the major achievements was the announcement of the establishment of the country's first film and television copyright expert appraisal committee. With the popularity and even proliferation of IP dramas, news of suspected plagiarism of original novels or scripts of various popular drama series continues to appear in the media. From 2014, Qiong Yao sued Yu Zheng for plagiarizing her work "Plum Blossom" by "Palace Lock Liancheng", and finally won the case and received a compensation of 5 million yuan; to 2016, Yu Zheng was again accused of plagiarizing "Evil Hypnotist"; At the end of 2016, after the popularity of "Fairview", it was exposed that the original work had been copied from more than 200 novels. The hit "Three Life Thirty Miles Peach Blossom" in 2017 also fell into a plagiarism storm. The old past of the original author Tang Qi and Dafeng was mentioned again... Since the definition and ownership of film and television copyright has always been an extremely cumbersome task, and it takes time, energy, and money to file a lawsuit, many infringements have disappeared. The establishment of the "Beijing Film and Television Copyright Expert Appraisal Committee" has filled a gap in the judicial appraisal of film and television copyright.

The newly established "Beijing Film and Television Copyright Expert Appraisal Committee" consists of 26 experts, including 14 legal experts and 12 experts in the literary and artistic circles. Su Zelin, vice chairman of the Law Committee of the National People's Congress, vice president of China Behavioral Law Society, and president of the Judicial Behavior Research Society of China Behavioral Law Society, said that looking at the copyright cases tried by courts in various places in recent years, film and television copyright cases have ranked first all year round. Not only are such cases large in number and account for a high proportion, but new situations and new problems emerge one after another. In particular, the identification of script plagiarism, plagiarism between plays, and the identification of originality, uniqueness, expression and other issues not only greatly increase the difficulty of hearing the case, but also add a huge workload to the judge., costing the judge a lot of working time. In addition, in film and television copyright cases, determining the amount of infringement compensation is also a difficult problem in the court hearing process.

In response to this phenomenon, Su Zelin pointed out,"Although my country has established a number of professional intellectual property appraisal agencies, including professional copyright appraisal agencies, as of now, the appraisal agency specifically for film and television works is still a blank. The content of film and television works is very large. A TV series often plays dozens of episodes, and a film and television script has more than 100,000 words in words. The expression forms involved are complex, involving words, work scripts, and the film and television script itself. It also involves various work forms such as music and art used in film and television dramas. Therefore, the appraisal of film and television copyright is highly professional, and it is imperative to establish a professional appraisal agency. Identification in film and television copyright cases is the basis for determining infringement. Only by accurately identifying the factual basis can the case be successfully resolved. Therefore, entrusting identification issues in film and television copyright cases to professional identification agencies by purchasing services is also an important task of deepening the reform of the field of intellectual property rights."

However, the establishment of the appraisal committee is only the first step to eliminate plagiarism chaos. Yu Fei, a screenwriter who just determined that the fourth season of the online drama "Hot Blood Chang 'an" was plagiarized and directly led to its removal, said that to this day, some people in the legal profession still think that plagiarism means that the two texts are the same,"but those who have done written work know that plagiarism can copy your ideas completely, but not a word is the same. For example, disrupting the narrative order of the original work, for example, establishing relationships similar to those of the original work but changing their names, or for example, changing the scene at a certain plot point." Precisely because there are few standards to judge plagiarism,"borrowing" and "paying tribute" are used as shields for many speculators."Whether it is plagiarism or borrowing, many times we can only get close to the truth."

Editor: yvette