Freed from the public and secret fighting over celebrities and attempts to one up each other with increasingly lavish stage decorations, local domestic TV stations in China seem to be rethinking their approach to celebrating New Year's Eve.
Feeding frenzy
At the end of 2005 Hunan TV held its first end-of-the-year gala. The leading producer of entertainment programs in China, Hunan TV was able to bring a large group of the most popular singers to the stage, such as Zhang Liangying and Zhou Bichang, both of whom had become rising stars on the station's hit talent show Super Girl that year.
Capitalizing on performers' popularity plus the presentation of dazzling stage shows, Hunan TV's New Year gala was a huge success that quickly developed into a trend as a large number of local TV stations followed suite the following year. Since then New Year galas have become a strategic occasion for domestic TV stations to stand out from the crowd. By 2011, not only had the number of galas increased to 16, but the money spent on celebrities, performers and fancy stage effects had skyrocketed.
These 16 New Year galas cost stations more than 150 million yuan ($24 million) in total to produce, but returned little in the way of profit. As for the New Year galas at the end of 2012, the large demand for popular talent led appearance fees to increase exponentially. According to reports, Hunan TV paid Hong Kong actor and singer Andy Liu 2 million yuan to perform at that year's gala, while Jiangsu TV shelled out 3 million yuan each to singers Jacky Cheung and Jay Chou.
This blind scramble for New Year performers amongst these State-owned stations caused production costs to go through the roof, eventually getting to the point that the government had to step in and take action. In August of 2013, the then State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television issued regulations limiting not only the number of galas on TV but also their overly high production costs.
Transition to rationality
Over the past two years since the regulation took effect, only three local TV stations have been issued licenses each year to stage New Year galas. In 2013 these three were the Hunan, Dragon (Shanghai) and Guangdong TV stations, while for the just wrapped up year of 2014 Hunan, Dragon and Zhejiang TV, stations traditionally known for their strong line up of variety programming, all staged low-key and down-sized New Year galas.
Though lacking big name stars, the New Year galas held these past two years have featured some new spotlights. As domestic competition shows have become increasingly varied over the past two years, so to have the stage performances for New Year galas.
For example, Zhejiang TV's 2014 gala saw the station bring its popular Running Man, a show featuring popular celebrities competing in games against each other, to the live stage. Throughout the 4-hour celebration the show's cast and other guests competed on stage before a live audience. As for Hunan and Dragon, while the former invited singers from their hit show I am a Singer, the latter brought famous actor Huang Xiaoming and the contestants he previously mentored on Chinese Idol back to the stage.
Compared to the big spending needed to bring in a large list of super star singers, bringing back audience favorites from talent competitions not only strengthened audiences' recognition of a station's brand, but is also an effective way to lower production costs.
Although other local stations did not receive licenses to present a gala on New Year's Eve, many decided to adapt to the limitations by broadcasting similar events on the evening of New Year's Day. For instance, Anhui TV held the Domestic TV Series Ceremony on the evening of January 1.
An award show evaluating domestic TV series from the year, the Domestic TV Series Ceremony was first produced in 2008. However, it has only started to earn a wider reputation over the past two years. By broadcasting the ceremony during such an important period, this demonstrates Anhui TV's determination to firmly establish the program as the station's brand show. Additionally, while other stations were still holding musical concerts, the change to an award show may just end up carving a new path for New Year celebrations in the future.
The problem of profitAlthough TV stations may finally be coming to terms with reality when it comes to their lavish New Year parties, these galas are still far from able to turn a profit. Even Hunan TV, which ranked No.1 with its 3.55 percent viewership on December 31, suffered losses according to a report on qq.com, one of China's most heavily trafficked Web portals.
According to the report, other stations, including Dragon, Zhejiang and Jiangsu TV (one of those stations that skirted regulations by holding a gala on January 1), all suffered losses ranging from 1 to 2 million yuan. Between the high cost of inviting stars and giving most tickets to attend galas as year-end-thank-you presents to advertising clients instead of selling them, it seems it will be a long time before Chinese TV stations turn a profit off of these programs.
However, it may be that stations just don't care. As the perfect platform to show off a station's entertainment production capabilities, these galas may be seen by executives as an important pillar worth supporting no matter what the cost may be.
(Origin title: "Return to Reality")