On April 8, Ningmeng film and television media Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Ningmeng film and television") submitted a prospectus to the Hong Kong stock exchange again. In January 2021, the company signed a listing guidance agreement with China International Capital Corporation Limited(601995) and planned to land a shares. There has been no progress. In September of the same year, the company submitted a prospectus to the Hong Kong stock exchange for the first time.
Comparing these two prospectuses, Ningmeng film and television is trying to expand customer resources other than Tencent. According to the prospectus, Tencent held 19.78% equity of Ningmeng film and television before the IPO. In 2020, Tencent was the largest customer of Ningmeng film and television, while in 2021, Tencent fell to the third place in the customer list.
For the relationship between the two sides, the reporter contacted the relevant person in charge of Ningmeng film on April 10. The other party said that everything was subject to the prospectus. In the prospectus, Ningmeng film and television said, "if we cannot maintain the business relationship with Tencent group, the company's business, financial condition and operating performance may be significantly and adversely affected."
"thirty only" contributed 430 million yuan
According to the data, Ningmeng film and television was established in 2014 and is mainly engaged in the whole industry chain operation of drama investment, production, distribution, publicity, derivative authorization and so on. In the past three years (20192021), the company's revenue was 1.794 billion yuan, 1.426 billion yuan and 1.249 billion yuan respectively; The gross profit is 400 million yuan, 545 million yuan and 559 million yuan respectively; The profits during the year were 80.398 million yuan, 62.545 million yuan and 60.913 million yuan respectively.
From the perspective of revenue composition, the revenue of Ningmeng film and television is mainly divided into three parts: copyright drama, content marketing and others. Among them, copyrighted dramas are the main source of revenue of the company, accounting for 91%, 84.7% and 84.2% of the revenue of copyrighted dramas from 2019 to 2021 respectively.
From 2018 to 2020, Ningmeng film and television produced and released seven copyrighted dramas. Ningmeng film gained revenue by selling the broadcasting rights of these dramas. The purchasers are TV stations and video platforms, and the purchase cost of the latter is significantly higher.
From 2019 to 2021, Ningmeng film achieved procurement revenue from TV stations of RMB 333 million, RMB 276 million and RMB 269 million respectively; The purchase revenue from the video platform was 1.257 billion yuan, 897 million yuan and 722 million yuan respectively.
"Ningmeng film and television focuses on high-quality dramas. The annual output is not high, but the selling price is S-class. Therefore, it is a company with high profit margin in the industry." An executive of a film and television drama enterprise told the reporter of Securities Daily.
Specifically, at the project level, take the popular drama "thirty only" in 2020 as an example. The main broadcasting channels are Oriental satellite TV and Tencent video. Ningmeng film and television plays the role of exclusive investor and product executor. The revenue of the drama was confirmed to be 420 million yuan in 2020 and 9.434 million yuan in 2021. During the reporting period, the company's representative works also included "little parting", "20 years of no doubt", "little willing", "Xiaomin's family", etc.
In the prospectus, Ning Meng said, "in the past, the company usually produced two to four film and television dramas every year. The financial performance of a single series may affect the company's operation. If the cost of one or more film and television dramas is seriously overspent, the company's financial performance may be adversely affected."
film and television drama profits may be further compressed
"But the life of the video platform is also difficult. Tencent video has suffered losses for years. At the recent business sharing meeting in early spring, Tencent video has released the wind direction of 'cost reduction and efficiency enhancement'. It can be predicted that the profit space of the production company will be further compressed in the future." The executives of the aforementioned film and television drama enterprises further said.
In fact, the distribution mode of network channels in the film and television industry is quietly changing. In the past few decades, film and television dramas have been tob's business, mainly paid by TV stations and video platforms. At the same time, the sales of film and television dramas are usually pre-sale system, that is, most dramas are shot after the sales contract is determined. Therefore, the producers often make a steady profit without losing.
In contrast, a play often costs hundreds of millions of yuan, and the broadcasting effect is affected by many factors. Once no one cares, the risk bearer is the broadcasting channel. This is also one of the reasons why video platforms have been unable to make ends meet in the past few years.
In this context, the video platform began to change. Recently, iqiyi announced to change the sharing mode of online movies. From April 1, the cooperation mode of online movies will be officially upgraded. After the upgrade, the distribution mode of iqiyi online movies will be changed into "cloud cinema Premiere" and "member Premiere". At the same time, the sharing of online movies will be upgraded from effective viewing in the first six minutes to long-term sharing on time.
"In an ideal situation, the income of film and television dramas should be market-oriented, taking the broadcast volume, broadcast duration and other factors as the assessment criteria. The income of dramas concerned by the market is naturally high. However, the broadcast volume of video platforms is not public, which is also the contradiction." At this stage, the reporter of the Securities Daily said that it is still based on the low cost of the video procurement platform to improve the price of the Securities Daily.
