Xiang Nan stayed in Xiangjiang for half a month and then returned to Hollywood.
During his stay in Hong Kong, ATV began to prepare three variety shows, "Super Girl", "Talent Show" and "Wise and Brave" based on the planning plan he provided.
Back then, Wireless started with variety shows. On the second day after the launch of the TVB station, "Happy Tonight" began, performing short plays, singing, dancing, and telling jokes to make the audience happy.
It defines itself as a lower-level TV station that broadcasts whatever the people like to watch.
At that time, Li's main audience was the middle and upper class people in Hong Kong society. Because Li's TV was paid at that time, and those who could afford cable TV were not ordinary people.
Therefore, its program targets taste. When the wireless station aired "Happy Tonight", the program it aired was about teaching housewives to arrange flowers. Naturally, such a program cannot have high ratings.
Therefore, TVB quickly took away the ratings of Li's TV station, which made Li's TV show fall into disgrace. After that, although Li's also made reforms and launched some variety shows, it was never as grounded as Wireless.
In addition, Wireless owns China Star Records, which has signed many singers. Moreover, they have also established an offensive and defensive alliance with record companies. If singers want to promote their albums, they can only come to Wireless. If you go to ATV, you will be banned.
As a result, ATV's variety shows do not have singers to support them, and the stars are dim, so naturally there will be no audience to watch them.
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The three programs launched by Xiang Nan are all aimed at the citizen class and do not require the support of celebrities. Therefore, there is no need to pay too high transportation fees, and most of the funds can be spent on the program.
Moreover, this type of reality show is more immersive for ordinary viewers and can win ratings. After all, standing on the stage and performing by yourself will naturally make you feel better than watching celebrities perform on the stage.
Therefore, after the launch of the three programs, they quickly achieved good ratings.
The most popular program among the elderly is "Hong Kong's Talent Show", because the people on the show are regardless of gender, old or young, as long as they have certain talents, they can perform on the show.
If you perform well, you can advance to the next round. The winner of the final championship will receive a bonus of HKD 5 million, and even the second runner-up will receive HKD 500,000. Naturally, everyone is brave.
Moreover, their performances are diverse. There are common talents such as singing, playing, martial arts, and magic, as well as rare talents such as throwing words on white sand, shaking diabolo, changing faces, and throwing knives. It is naturally lively and interesting.
What young people like to watch is "Super Girl". On the one hand, the contestants are basically girls between the ages of sixteen and twenty-five, and most of them are young and beautiful. In terms of looks alone, they are more likely to be popular among young people.
On the one hand, the unique SMS and email ranking mechanism also increases the participation of young people. Watching the contestants you voted for succeed all the way through the competition will naturally give you a greater sense of accomplishment.
The "Wisdom and Courage Challenge" has the richest prizes. As long as you participate, you can receive prizes. And if you pass a level, there will be a prize for each level. If you pass all the levels in the end, there will also be a cash reward of HKD 500,000.
Therefore, it has really attracted a group of friends who like fitness and challenges. And the embarrassment they often make when they pass the test is also fun for the audience.
The ratings of the three programs were all around 1 million. Although they still lost compared to TVB, the losses were much less.
After that, ATV launched TV series such as "Forensic Pioneer" and "Up to the Sky". These TV series are shot with huge investment and are well-produced.
The production cost of "Up to the Sky" alone was as high as HK$50 million. Because ATV actually rented several Airbus planes for filming.
And he did not hesitate to invite movie stars such as Andy Lau, Leung Jiahui, Lai Lai, Guan Zhilin, Zhang Manyu, Zhu Yan and other guest stars, and naturally the ratings were high.
Since its launch, the average viewership has been 1.62 million, which is higher than "Master Nai Qiang Ren" broadcast by TVB at the same time.
The ratings beat TVB, which also excited everyone at ATV.
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Entering 1999, ATV's development has become increasingly prosperous.
On the one hand, with Xiang Nan's heavy investment, ATV's program production funds are abundant, so it is willing to spend money on large-scale productions.
For example, in the 1999 drama "The Monkey King, the Monkey King", the TV drama did not hesitate to invite the king of ratings, Zhang Weijian, to play the role of Sun Wukong, and the salary per episode was as high as 100,000 Hong Kong dollars.
And for the sake of visual effects, they even invited Xuke's New Visual Effects Studio to help produce special effects. The effect is naturally much better than the wireless Wumao special effects.
In addition, stars such as Ng Mang-tat, Sammi Cheng, Karen Wu, Liu Qingyun, Chen Baixiang and other stars have also joined the cast, so the cast is unprecedentedly strong and has been very effective in boosting ratings.
Therefore, although the production cost of this drama is as high as 60 million Hong Kong dollars, which is about 1.5 million Hong Kong dollars per episode, it is really exciting, and the ratings are higher than "Forensic Record 2" that was broadcast by TVB at the same time.
On the one hand, ATV's three variety shows have also attracted a lot of new blood to the company.
For example, Zhang Bozhi, Cai Zhuoyan, Wu Dingxin, etc. who debuted through the "Super Girl" audition are quite popular.
Some of the talents selected by "Hong Kong Talent Show" have outstanding images and talents, and were signed by ATV, such as Li Nuoyi, Huang Zongzao, Zhang Jicong, Qiao Baobao, etc.
They may be beautiful, handsome, or funny, but they all have their own talents. After joining, ATV also has a lot more available talents.
In addition, the film and television base in Zhongshan City has started construction, and it is expected that the first scenic spot will be put into use in the first half of this year. By then, ATV will no longer have to worry about where to film palace dramas and costume dramas.
Therefore, at the beginning of 1999, ATV's development was booming.
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It's just that although ATV is booming, it has spent nearly 600 million Hong Kong dollars in more than half a year. And its revenue was less than 300 million, which means it lost 300 million in half a year.
Such a loss-making approach has also made many people worry about how long ATV can continue to burn money. After all, no matter how rich Xiang Nan is, he can't always do loss-making business.
Just like the Far East Group and the Lin Group are both very wealthy, but they are reluctant to invest huge sums of money in ATV.
After they took over ATV, they were very ambitious at the beginning, poaching people, and investing huge sums of money in filming. They made it prosperous. However, they stopped after being unable to last for a year. They all invariably adopted the route of "increasing revenue and reducing expenditure".
Therefore, everyone at ATV also has such concerns, worrying that such prosperous days will not last too long.
However, they obviously underestimated Xiang Nan's determination and financial resources.
In 1990, Xiang Nan's net worth exceeded 10 billion US dollars. In the past few years, he has successively invested in high-tech companies such as Netscape, Apple, Amazon, Yahoo, EA, Dell, and HP. His net worth has grown by leaps and bounds, and is now close to US$100 billion.
ATV can sustain a loss of HK$600 million a month, let alone a loss of HK$600 million a year.
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