text | Mia
"Long night is coming, I will watch from now on, and I will rest until I die. I will not marry a wife, will not have a fief, will not have children. I will not wear a crown, and I will not fight for honor. I will do my duty and live and die. I am the sword in the dark, the guard on the Great Wall. I am the flame against the cold, the light at dawn, the horn to awaken the sleeper, and the shield to guard the kingdom. I dedicate my life and glory to the night watchman, tonight. , Night and night."
On April 14, North American time, the much-anticipated "Game of Thrones" (hereinafter referred to as "The Tour of Power") finally kicked off. After the first episode was broadcast, related topics formed a "slaughter list" trend on Twitter. The eighth season of the hotly searched topic Game of Thrones on Weibo reached 200 million views, and the first episode of Tencent Video "Quanyou 8" was closed before press. The playback volume is 55.006 million times.
In this traffic feast, not only the brands that launched the "Quanyou" co-branded version have made a lot of money: Johnnie Walker’s co-branded alien version of whiskey has received more than 260,000 purchase reviews on JD.com. Calculated at the price of 259 yuan per bottle, sales on JD.com exceeded 67.34 million.
domestic broadcast platforms and unofficial channels have also used it to expand its influence and attract more mid-to-high-end brands. Tencent Video, which obtained the exclusive copyright of "Quanyou", vigorously promoted new membership, and won the subtitle group approved by "Quanyou fans"-the closet subtitle group as a link in the derivative industry chain, with a total of 260,000 Weibo fans. Get a piece of the pie. Previously, the closet subtitle group relied on the user viscosity accumulated over the years to plan offline activities in conjunction with the brand many times.
Snow will know his life experience? What is the ownership of the Iron Throne? The night king leads the dragon to fight the mortals in the ultimate battle? …Many big holes dug in the seventh season need to be answered in the eighth season. Since the sixth season, after George R.R. Martin stopped participating in the screenwriting, fans continue to complain about the screenwriter and let him go, and the story line has been forcibly narrowed.
However, after a full year of suspension, the final season, which was filmed in ten countries around the world and declared that "every episode is at the same level as a movie", the audience data may set new records again. The current duration information is as follows: Episode 1 54 minutes, Episode 2 58 minutes, Episode 3 82 minutes, Episode 4 78 minutes, Episode 5 80 minutes, and Episode 6 80 minutes. At the time when the nine families of the seven kingdoms of Westeros staged the ultimate battle, the iron throne battle between HBO and Netflix (Netflix) has long been raging. The birth and end of the
Quanyou era: Can HBO recreate the drama?
is based on the historical "War of the Roses" as the prototype of the conspiracy struggle, plus the "Lord of the Rings"-style fantasy special effects, plus 694 flesh and blood characters on the scene, a huge world view, and R-rated yellow storm restricted content, which together constitute The epic drama "Quan You" covering 1.2 billion fans in 170 countries and regions around the world.
has made great contributions to the growth of HBO's users and its conquest of streaming media. According to survey data, 48% of users who say they subscribe to streaming media for a specific episode account for 48%. Since the launch of "Quanyou" in 2011, HBO's global users have grown from 93 million to 140 million, an increase of 52%. Its total revenue last year was $6.6 billion.
HBO, which is famous for its "yellow storm", can harvest a batch of dramas, because he pursues the strategy of "invaders", "breaking walls" and "seeking change" (according to "HBO Content Strategy" written by Jr. Bill Messi). As the world’s first pay-TV channel and the nation’s first satellite TV station in the United States, HBO, which relies on original content to drive growth, adopts adventurous and innovative strategies: with Martin Sikoses, David Lynch, and Stephen Spielber Grid and other famous film directors cooperated and gave creators the greatest tolerance and support. This year, Netflix, who collaborated with David Fincher on Love, Death and Robots, learned this.
Emmys host Jane Lynch once introduced HBO at the awards ceremony: “It’s abhorrent for some fake TV stations to come in, such as'film production companies' like HBO.” In the 90s, "Sex and the City" and "The Sopranos" "" and other American dramas that have profoundly influenced American society and became popular cultural symbols, bringing the "Golden Decade" to HBO.
At the beginning of "Quanyou" was born, fantasy subjects were not favored by the industry. This project originally belonged to Showt of CBS Groupime failed because the budget for each episode was 3 to 5 times that of ordinary American TV series. After HBO took over, then CEO Richard Popler approved this "most expensive TV series in HBO history." From the reality outlet of "Sex and the City" to the fantasy outlet led by "Quanyou" and "True Love Like Blood" to the science fiction outlet led by "Western World", HBO has always innovated the entire film and television industry. Amazon's announcement that it spent $1 billion to shoot "Lord of the Rings" was inspired by "Quan You".
The second season of "Battle of the Black River" cost 8 million US dollars, the sixth season cost 15 million US dollars, mobilized 600 staff, 500 performances, 70 horses, shooting time of 25 days "illegal son" The episode of "The Battle" has brought the industrialization of American dramas to a new level, which is on par with the famous epic war scenes such as "Lord of the Rings" and "Battle of the Helm Valley". In the final season, it took 55 days to film the "Ultimate Battle".
In China, the concept of "HBO=American TV" has been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people. HBO's major dramas already planned include "Time Traveler's Wife", "Dark Materials", "Watchmen" and "Quan You Front Story". With the end of the ace drama, who will carry the banner of the drama will be HBO's anxiety. Although the new drama "My Gifted Girlfriend" has a good reputation, it has not yet caused "Quanyou" level popularity in the world. However, for a long period of time, the "Quanyou" IP will continue to release huge commercial value.
HBO VS. Netflix's iron throne battle: when I grow up, I will be you
"Before HBO becomes us, we must be the first to become HBO." In 2013, Netflix's "House of Cards" premiered with its chief content Official Ted Sarandos told "GQ" magazine. Nowadays, domestic streaming media giants have been benchmarking against Netflix. At the beginning of Netflix's transformation, it was HBO that imitated learning and benchmarking. The word
is true. After 6 years, Netflix is striving to grow into HBO, which is known for its high-quality drama series. It even surpassed the latter’s 108 nominations with 112 nominations at last year’s Emmy Awards, ending HBO’s seventeen-year dominance. In the history of the most nominations, the number of awards won by both parties was the same. With the exploration of "Black Mirror: Pandanski" at the end of last year entering a new stage in the exploration of film and game linkage technology, "Love, Death and Robots" won the title of the annual drama, cooperating with South Korea, "Li Shi Dynasty", and Taiwan. Explosive styles such as "The Distance Between Us and the Evil" and the "localization and originality" strategy continue to succeed. The brand effect formed by Netflix's many top-quality dramas has formed a great threat to HBO. CNBC survey shows that Netflix has a market share of 51%.
is the only one in the boutique IP hoarding, sitting on the "Western World", "Game of Thrones", "True Detective", "The Sopranos", "Brothers" and other phenomenal American TV shows, HBO, unexpectedly , Due to the weakness of the Internet layout, one day I need to work hard to catch up with Netflix.
If only looking at profitability and cash flow, HBO beats Netflix. According to the 2018 Q4 financial report, Netflix invested as much as US$12 billion in cash in streaming media content and US$7.5 billion in content amortization, which expanded its operating cash flow gap to US$2.68 billion and free cash flow gap of US$2.89 billion. . Netflix achieved a total of US$1.2 billion in net profit in 2018, while HBO has achieved a net profit of US$2 billion in the past three years, with an annual content investment of US$2 billion.
However, streaming media represents the future. Data show that American consumers' acceptance of streaming media services continues to rise, with more than 76.4% of households using streaming media services. In 2015, this figure was 52%. On the other hand, only 74% of households use traditional pay TV services. In addition, Ampere’s research report shows that in 2019, global streaming media revenue will exceed 46 billion U.S. dollars, while global theater box office revenue will be slightly less than 40 billion U.S. dollars.
HBO's layout for streaming media began in 2010. That year, the first streaming media service platform HBO Go was launched, but Time Warner executives did not pay enough attention to the threat posed by rival Netflix. Initially, this application can only be used by logging in to a web browser. The technology is outsourced to other platforms and cannot be synchronized on iPad or mobile phones. Otto Burks, CTO of HBO Go, trying to get through the eraWarner's full platform content but ended in fruitless. As the internal conflict between the technical team and the senior management intensified, the development of HBO's streaming media became more and more stagnant. In 2014, a large number of users flocked to HBO Go to watch the fourth season of "Game of Thrones" and "True Detective". The website continued to crash, and social media commented on it.
In 2015, HBO Now was officially released. In the summer of 2018, HBO Now officially ended the use of Bam Tech's technical services (Time Warner's old rival Disney holds 33% of the company's shares). According to the latest ranking of OTT video subscription services in the United States released by consulting agency Parks on November 7, 2018, HBO Now has ranked among the top five with 8 million paying users in the United States. But compared with the 58.49 million paying users in the U.S. (2018 Q4 financial report), there is still a big gap.
In 2019, the giant "encirclement and suppression" Netflix battle has entered a new white-hot stage. In addition to the three major streaming media giants Netflix, Amazon's Prime Video, and Hulu, Disney announced the launch of Disney+ last year. Comcast plans to launch a streaming video service called Xfinity Flex in March this year. Apple, Wal-Mart, etc. Announcing a bet on streaming media can be described as a pack of wolves.
, which acquired Time Warner (Warner Bros., HBO, CNN, DC Comics, etc.) last year, announced that it will launch a new streaming media service based on HBO and supplemented by Warner Bros. and Turner TV network content at the end of 2019. , The price is higher than HBO Now's $14.99. As a telecommunications giant, AT&T clearly has more technical advantages in the upcoming 5G era. The above-mentioned giants will also withdraw the film and television content they have licensed to Netflix one after another, and Netflix's original pressure has further intensified.
"HBO is like Tiffany, and Netflix is like Wal-Mart." AT&T CEO Stephenson said. HBO has produced no more than 200 series in the more than 40 years since its birth. In 2018, China received a total of 1163 TV dramas. However, after selling as a new owner, HBO may have to lean towards the latter between the high-quality route and the rich choice of popular routes. According to foreign media reports, at the meeting in June last year, Warner Media CEO John Stanza, who represented AT&T, hoped that HBO would make changes: richer content, broader business positioning, and user coverage, duration, and participation to be improved. profit. -In short, more Netflix.
How long can the Netflix model of continuing negative cash flow and relying on continuous financing to maintain content burn money run wild, and when will it usher in a turnaround? Among these new entrants, who will be the ultimate streaming media iron throne? Perhaps the pattern will change this year.
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