Ning Meng Pictures Su Xiao: TV dramas enter the era of oligarchs and will be developed in a three-dimensional manner

Zhou Yuan revealed that Ning Meng Films was profitable in 2015 and will also embark on the path of capitalization in the future. It has received better treatment than other film and television companies on the third board in terms of financing. Therefore, Ning Meng has higher requirements for herself and hopes to use It will take about three years to prove its sustainability based on the standards of the main board company.

"People's demand for high-quality content remains constant, and an era of super content has arrived." Su Xiao, president of Shanghai Ningmeng Film and Television Media Co., Ltd.(hereinafter referred to as: Ningmeng Film), said in an exclusive interview with reporters recently that only high-investment, high-quality and high-traffic content like "Legend of Mi Yue" can be called "super content". As BAT giants enter the film and television industry, workshop-style content production companies will no longer exist.

Accompanying super content are huge costs and financial needs. Recently, Ningmeng Pictures announced that its Series B financing has been completed, with a scale of up to 500 million yuan, led by Hony Investment, followed by Tencent and Mango Fund. In Su Xiao's view, the future will enter a TV series production cost of more than 300 million more than 500 million oligarchy era, TV series output decline, large investment super content will certainly pursue series three-dimensional full product development.

At the same time, Lime Pictures announced its TV series list to be broadcast in 2016, including "Good Mr.,""Little Separation," as well as TV series and online drama projects adapted from super IP, such as "The Choice of Heaven,""Nine States Ethereal Record,""Queen Fuyao," etc.

For the end of February at the annual meeting of the national TV drama industry proposed to strengthen the management of online drama and network self-made programs, Su Xiao said, The stricter censorship of online drama is a good thing for the industry, Will stimulate the development of network drama towards super content direction.

500 million Series B financing

In the Series B financing of Ningmeng Pictures, in addition to Tencent's continued investment and support, two new institutional investors have been added. One is China's leading PE institution and the first China PE fund manager Hony who invests equity in Hollywood; the other is China's most powerful radio and television investor: Hunan Mango.

Zhou Yuan, executive vice president of Ningmeng Film, said that this round of 500 million yuan financing will be used in content production, including investment in TV series, movies and other single content. Some TV series investment will exceed 300 million yuan. In addition, it will be applied to the upstream links of the production chain, including good IP, team and technology.

For the three investors, Ningmeng Pictures will also have further business cooperation. Zhou Yuan, for example, said that on the upstream side, this year's TV series "The Choice of Heaven" came from Tencent Reading Group's largest literary copyright. The online drama "Mr Surprise of China" is also adapted from the comic book copyright of Tencent Animation. In addition, Ning Meng Pictures also cooperates closely with Tencent Video and other Tencent media platforms.

"Ning Meng is equivalent to a bridge between Tencent's two major business groups. We have imaged many of Tencent's IPs and disseminated them on Tencent's platform. But this relationship is not 100% bound, and you can give priority to each other." Zhou Yuan said,"Hony can provide knowledge, team and management support for Ningmeng Pictures 'future capitalization path. In the future, Ningmeng will also give priority to Mango for younger products to be launched on the Mango platform."

Zhou Yuan revealed that Ning Meng Films was profitable in 2015 and will also embark on the path of capitalization in the future. It has received better treatment than other film and television companies on the third board in terms of financing. Therefore, Ning Meng has higher requirements for herself and hopes to use It will take about three years to prove its sustainability based on the standards of the main board company.

"Whether it is in the primary market, the third board market, the main board or the future strategic emerging board market, it is actually a platform to connect with investors. Ning Meng's management believes that the top priority is to make the company's basic business more solid and more growth-oriented." Zhou Yuan said.

Ning Meng Pictures was established in 2014. In the first round of financing in 2015, Tencent, as a strategic investor, made venture capital of more than 100 million yuan in Ning Meng Pictures. In 2016,"Lonely Empty Court and Late Spring" co-produced by Ning Meng Pictures ranked first among many new year's dramas, with satellite TV ratings and entire network broadcasts ranking first in the same period.

Super content connects the new public

In Su Xiao's view, the subversion of the TV drama industry in the past year has been very obvious. Whether it is the rise of "little fresh meat", the explosion of IP, the opening of paying users and breakthroughs in sales, they are all original unimaginable.

"I think this direction will continue in 2016, and the iteration speed of old and new resources in the entire market will be faster, and we will develop in the direction of super content without hesitation."

Su Xiao believes that the output of TV dramas will drop sharply in the future, but it does not mean that users have lost interest in TV dramas. It is precisely the result of more viewing and traffic concentrated on super content. The market value of modeling, art, post-term special effects, etc. resources that were not paid much attention to will also rise very rapidly.

Ning Meng Pictures defines super content as content with high investment, high quality and high ratings (traffic). For example, the ratings and clicks of "Legend of Mi Yue" exceed the combined number of other hit dramas in the same period. In 2015, the top 10% of video websites accounted for 69% of traffic generated by TV dramas. From an overseas perspective, more than 900 films were released in North America in 2015, creating US$11.1 billion in box office, and 5 blockbusters contributed 22%. What really dominates the market is big-budget series such as "Star Wars".

"Super content dominates the market. The trend of super content makes big IPs more and more expensive, front-line artists more and more expensive, visual production more and more expensive, and marketing investment more and more expensive. The threshold has been raised, and in the future, we will enter an oligarchic era where the production cost of TV series exceeds 300 million and 500 million. The output of TV series will decline. However, once a large amount of super content is invested, we will definitely pursue serialized three-dimensional full-product development." Su Xiao said.

Since super content has a high investment cost for a single project, Ningmeng Pictures requires product positioning based on the needs of users and proposes the concept of a new public, that is, people holding remote controls in their hands and people using mobile phones to view content. A young minded public group.

According to a large-scale data survey by Ningmeng Pictures, the new public has a total population of 110 million, accounting for 10.1% of the country's total population aged 15-64. People span ages, regions and media, and have strong actual purchasing power, content consumption power and opinion influence. If this 110 million yuan is converted into actual ratings, online clicks and theater box office, it will be immeasurable.

Su Xiao said that super content producers must also constantly track and study user needs, constantly update some insights and opinions on needs, and guide the entire product production. This is a process of continuous improvement.

In terms of risk control at high costs, Su Xiao said that every product positioned by Ningmeng Pictures cannot be viewed by a small group of people, or only targeted at TV or video websites, but needs to reach a wider audience and have social influence can ensure the success of the work and maximize it in terms of input and output.

Editor: yvonne