Talk show actors are busy at the annual meeting. Is this industry chain really hot?
Editor’s note: This article is from the micro-channel public number “puffer Film Archives” (ID: htysda), Author: Kim Jin Jin.
The lively talk show has been on the screen for more than half a year, with various social issues, all the way from social media to offline.
An independent comedian in Beijing mentioned when he summarized his 2020: Due to the epidemic, offline performances in the first half of the year were completely suspended; but in the second half of the year, the number of commercial performances received was higher than that of 2019. More.
The talk show industry is booming, but from the perspective of the entire industry chain, variety shows are only the upstream and downstream of the chain, and the talk show training in the upstream and offline polishing in the midstream are far from mature.
Entertainment Capital interviewed several Beijing talk show labels and chatted with them about other links in the industry chain.
At present, in the upstream training market, many mature brands have been creating training courses, mostly in the form of offline teaching. Practitioners generally believe that online The way is not suitable for the talk show industry. In addition to professional training, there are also application-oriented training for enterprises and artists. However, there are problems such as the low retention rate of professional training students and the small scale of applied training.
In the mid-stream open wheat and offline commercial performance links, due to the saturation of the market and weak profitability, several clubs did not regard open wheat as their core business. The ability to undertake commercial performances is also not strong enough. In order to ensure quality, it is difficult to mass-produce.
The talk show is still a long way from forming a complete industrial chain. But fortunately, the current market is hot enough, there is a lot of room to be tapped, and there are still many things that can be done.
“Online training is not effective”
Starting in 2019, Shan Liren has upgraded its comedy training department. The “Single Liren Academy” was formally established. The opportunity for this upgrade is It is due to the perception of the market’s growing demand for talk show training.
Currently, a monthly stand-up comedy system training courseThe 21st issue has been opened. Judging from the course introduction, the instructor is Gohan, a contracted actor of Shan Liren. The course is 2 days in total, and the cost is 2999 yuan per person. The course content includes four modules: “understand stand-up comedy, find comedy materials, strengthen your expressiveness, and open your mind and laugh.”
One of the main businesses of Single Liren College is R&D. In addition to R&D courses, it also needs to face the immature entire industry to develop a training system. In the development of curriculum content, it is mainly based on the instructor’s years of practical experience, as well as targeted reference to foreign teaching materials.
Zoe, the person in charge of the Single Liren Academy, told Entertainment Capital that in order to ensure the quality, the number of offline classes will not exceed 12 in each period. “Because our courses are still more practical, there are a lot of exercises. There may not be so many theoretical parts. So if there are many people and the teacher needs real-time feedback, it may not take care of every student or the time is too short, and the learning effect will not be achieved.”
This year, due to the impact of the epidemic, offline classes could not be held normally. Single Liren Academy tried to move the courses online and tried to connect tutors and students through live broadcast.
The reason for adopting the live broadcast method, Zoe explained, “We are the actual combat group. The teacher may only teach the theory for half an hour, and the rest is to practice by ourselves. The most important thing is the feedback from the teacher, such as your Whether the idea is right, or whether your direction can be extended further down, it is difficult to achieve this effect in the recorded and broadcast class. In fact, this is why our online class will reduce the price, because there is no way to fully present your actions to teachers and classmates. , There will be a loss, so everyone’s understanding will definitely deviate from the communication below the line.”
The founder of Beijing Talk Show Club Xi Jiangyue also has a similar view. He believes that “online training is completely impossible to achieve results. Talk shows should be taught in accordance with their aptitude. , I can only excavate you to the maximum on your ability, and it is impossible to turn you into another person, noCan teach according to a unified model. The advice I give to everyone is actually different. Some people will let him speak faster, but some people will let him speak slower; for some people you may let him talk fun, and some people just tell Don’t talk funny about him. People have different states, different stages, different temperaments, and different ways of giving them. “
Talk shows are an art that emphasizes interaction and immersion. Therefore, it is difficult for training courses to be online on a large scale. However, offline, due to the limitations of space and time, more of them are small class teaching, which is greatly affected by the region, and the tuition is high. Xijiangyue believes that it is not easy to commercialize training for talk show labels that are just starting out.
As the talk show industry heats up, the corresponding training business is gradually increasing. Labels such as Xiaoguo Culture, Comedy United Box Country, Beijing Comedy Center, and clubs that are slowly appearing in other cities besides Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen, all have training-related businesses.
“But the purpose of each label is different. For example, some clubs in second and third tier cities do this to find actors, because they really don’t have actors. Like us, we give everyone a chance and then I can make a little money by the way,” Zoe said.
The low retention rate and low professionalism of talk show training are big problems in this industry. Zoe believes, “Most of this industry is part-time. It doesn’t mean that you have received a few trainings to be able to accept commercial acting. You are a talk show actor; a real professional talk show actor is both in terms of content output speed and energy input. There is a request.”
“Because our courses are really not cheap, students who can sign up are most likely to have a decent job and a decent life. For them, there are many other choices, only really He likes it very much, he can have the driving force, otherwise the cold field is really a big blow to people. Moreover, it is necessary to maintain the original work and life rhythm, but also to create and contribute to the hobby, and open the wheat every night to polish the jokes. In fact, it’s not easy.” The extremely low retention rate means a brain drain. Although Boss Shi, the founder of the stand-alone comedy, often tells her to adapt, Zoe still feels “a pity”.
In addition to professional training, there is another applied training, including corporate training, artist training, etc.
As the end of the year is approaching, the convention economy is beginning to rise again. Some companies will cooperate with comedy labels through advertising companies and intermediary companies, inviting talk show actors to provide short-term training for company employees, so as to add new ideas to the annual meeting programs. Especially in the Internet, real estate, finance, advertising and other industries. “The people in their own company say that they have a stronger sense of resonance than we do, and the annual meeting is also a corporate culture construction, which is better.” Xi Jiangyue said.
But at the same time, Xi Jiangyue also said that this type of training is not a lot, and it is usually a company with a relatively large scale and a relatively sufficient budget. There are basically no small companies.
There is also artist training. Zoe told Entertainment Capital, “Some newcomers signed by companies usually have a lot of training courses, such as dance, body, etc., because now the talk show is hot, they will add the talk show into an elective course. We also do Like this.”
But none of these trainings can become a fixed routine business. “Applied training still requires the public to have more awareness of this culture, know what it is, and know what it can do. This still needs Time.” Zoe said.
“Recently, the number of open wheats is decreasing.”
An unquestionable fact is that Open Mai has been well known by more and more audiences. Shan Liren and Beijing Talk Show Club both started to make open wheat labels very early. In the early years, this business could not make a profit or even made a loss, and now it has begun to gradually make a profit.
In Beijing, Nanluoguxiang is a gathering place for talk shows and open wheat. There are more than a dozen bars nearby, which makes it easier for actors to catch the stage. Performances are generally concentrated on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. However, as the market is becoming more and more saturated, the number of open wheats held recently by the stand-alone comedy is decreasing.
“Because there are a lot of labels in Beijing, and there are also many open mics, but in fact there are still so many actors. No matter how many open mics are, it’s useless. It’s very tiring to complete. Now there are many clubs who are doing open wheat, so whether it is for old actors or new actors, the chance for everyone to be on stage is enough. So this opportunity is basically relatively saturated.” Zoe said.
Xi Jiangyue also told Xiaoyu that at present, Beituo has fixed open wheat fields twice a week, and the fields are basically full. But Beituo does not rely on open wheat to make a profit. The reason why it is still doing open wheat is just “I hope everyone can have a practice occasion to continue it.Just keep playing. “
Beituo has formed a fixed cooperation with Sanjiachang in Beijing, and basically does not charge money. “A long time ago, no tickets were collected, but now there are too many people. There are not so many spectators. Tickets are a basic screening and are not profitable. The venue does not require money, because our drainage ability is very strong, and the drink money is definitely enough, so it is good if we don’t charge the venue.” There are also some The label and the venue will cooperate in a way of sharing.
Even if the opening of the microphone is very important in the talk show industry, in the financial statements of Beituo, the opening of the microphone is an overlooked link. Xijiangyue said, “We never count offline revenue. Although everyone knows that our method is offline, Beituo’s main source of income is still online. Even the offline suspension of work this year did not affect the company. How much impact does revenue have.”
Beituo’s online business is mainly composed of two parts, one is information flow advertising, and the other is programming. Xi Jiangyue told Entertainment Capital that only relying on the information flow advertising business, “We as an actor can now earn more than 10 million yuan a year”, Beituo has reached cooperation with more than a dozen advertising companies, and the main customers are online education and finance. enterprise.
For the film and television program part, Beituo has been involved in the behind-the-scenes work of a large number of comedy shows on the market for a long time. In recent years, it has invested in two Internet universities. In addition, “I did three seasons of “Good Night Circle of Friends” with iQiyi. , I will be a celebrity talk show next year.” Cooperation platforms include Douyin, Bilibili, Mango tv, etc.
But Xi Jiangyue made it clear that in the future, Beituo will not face the competition in the long variety show field, even if the competition is in the short video field. “We are a company that does content and artists. We can make advertising into good content. This is a very good future.”
“In the eyes of others, we have some cruel competition, but in fact it is not. The cultural industry has a lot of space. Unlike the e-commerce industry, competition has become extremely fierce.There is still a lot of room for the creative cultural industry. Everyone’s track is different. We feel that the money is still very profitable. If you say it, others think it’s quite Versailles, but it is true. In some industries, the market is very large and rich. There is a company in Beijing that does information flow advertising. , The annual turnover is 20 billion. Everyone does not know them at all. You think Chinese movies only cost 60 billion a year. “
Beituo has grown from a club to a company with more than 90 contracted artists. Xi Jiangyue’s energy is now more on the line. The role of open wheat in cultivating new forces is irreplaceable. It is precisely because of this that no club can give up a business that is vital but cannot be profitable on a large scale, and more and more people are even joining .
“We are less than 1% in the entire commercial performance market”
In the third season of “Talk Show”, actor Yang Mengen talked about his participation in an annual meeting. “In the beginning I really didn’t want to go, but the other party said it was 800. My mind buzzed. Although 800 yuan seems to be nothing now, it was a huge sum of money for me back then, so I calmly squeezed it out. Three words, after tax?”
Although it is a joke, the income of talk show actors in the early years is indeed difficult to make a living. Xiaolu of the stand-alone comedy said in an interview before that the income of talk show actors is basically dependent on commercial performance, but the average income per show is only 300.
After the market heats up, it is difficult to find a single ticket for individual special performances. Most of them are actors who have gained a certain reputation through online. For most ordinary talk show actors, business performances and hall meetings are still the main ones. The way to monetize.
(Talk show actor Fu Hang’s Weibo)
Beituo has been doing commercial performances since about 15 years ago. It has its own customized team and will give more consideration to Party A’s opinions in creation. Regarding the selection of actors, Xi Jiangyue said, “Our commercial actor is an actor that the public can recognize. Unlike some actors, he is only suitable for performing in the theater. He has some things only suitable forIn the theater, it is not suitable for commercial performances. And for an actor that the public can recognize, the distance between him and the audience will not be so obvious. “Therefore, Party A will also recognize actors who have been exposed online.
By the end of the year, there will be more collaborations with major brands. “If Shan Liren involves customization, the charges will be higher, so it is impossible to move the quantity like an assembly line. We still have to maintain quality.” Zoe said. “And for different types of companies, we will send actors to make adjustments. For example, an Internet company will give priority to some actors who have related stories or have experience such as programmers.”
In some product launches, presentations, and media events, more talk show actors have also begun to appear. For this year’s Golden Rooster and Hundred Flowers Award, Beituo cooperated with the organizer to hold the “Praise Conference”. Beituo is responsible for hosting and content output. Similar industry cross-border cooperation has also begun to appear.
Xi Jiangyue believes that this market space is still very large, “There is a market for business performances, such as the annual car conference and mobile phone conference. , The opening of the real estate has to be an event. In the past, money was used to invite celebrities to sing, but now it is replaced by a talk show. In fact, the market is still very big and there is no excavation. We are now in the entire commercial performance market. Less than 1%.”
In 2020, a large number of talk show actors will come to the fore. The talk show is at a new starting point for commercialization, but the entire industry chain is far from mature.
In addition to not having enough exports—there is only a way for variety shows, not having enough talent reserves is also an urgent problem. In Zoe’s words, “Without sufficient talent reserves, it will be difficult for the actors above to continue to move up. Only with sufficient talent reserves can mature actors do more.”