Beijing Cultural Opera Is Hard To Sing

Accepting chaos may be a required course for the beginning of performing arts.

On April 26, Zhang Heng, the former boyfriend of female artist Zheng Shuang, made another surprise. In the video released on his microblog, Zheng Shuang directly pointed out that Zheng Shuang earned 160 million yuan in the project of "beautiful girl ghost" through the yin-yang contract, and his daily salary exceeded 2.08 million yuan based on 77 working days. It is worth noting that this figure is far beyond the salary limit of 50 million yuan in the industry, and there are various tax evasion behaviors.

Zheng Shuang did not directly respond to the various evidences published by Zhang Heng, including wechat voice, text records and bank statements.

At the other end of the event, Beijing culture, the producer of "beautiful girl ghost", is even more in a chaotic cycle. According to the previous announcement of Beijing culture, the operating cost of Qiannv Youhun reached 195 million yuan, and due to its internal reasons, the money of the play is likely not to flow into the company. Of course, based on the various incidents caused by Zheng Shuang, it is unlikely that qiannu ghost will be broadcast.

According to the performance express in 2020, Beijing's cultural revenue was 431 million yuan, down 49.66% year-on-year, and the net loss was 772 million yuan.

As for the yin-yang contract mentioned by Zhang Heng, the reporter of 21st century economic report once asked the person in charge of Beijing's culture. Up to the time of publication, there was no response.

feast

The story begins in 2016.

At that time, Beijing Culture completed the acquisition of 100% equity of century partner with 1.35 billion yuan, the latter being the main investor of Qiannv Youhun. In 2019, Zheng Shuang was already in the "unstable" controversy when the production of "beautiful girl ghost" started. Although he had the big play "youth fight" directed by Zhao Baogang, his reputation in the film and television industry was quite contradictory. One example is that in 2020, she is mainly participating in variety shows. For various reasons, Lou Xiaoxi, the former chairman of century partners, chose Zheng Shuang as the star of "beautiful girl ghost".

According to the Beijing Culture announcement, in 2018, Tianjin Jiaxuan and century partners signed a joint investment agreement and supplementary agreement on the TV drama "beautiful girl ghost", which agreed that both sides would jointly invest in the joint production of TV series, with the investment ratio of 40% for Tianjin Jiaxuan and 60% for Century partner. As the producer of the drama, Tianjin Jiaxuan is responsible for the production and completion of the play, including but not limited to: adaptation of the script, formation of the drama team, hiring of performers, completion of various shooting and post production.

According to the supplementary agreement, century partner will pay the investment funds to Tianjin Jiaxuan's designated account in five phases. The first payment is agreed as follows: 30 million yuan after signing the agreement and 75 million yuan after receiving all the copyright certificates of the play; The second payment is 20% of the investment paid by the shooting team when it is officially established; The third installment is 20% of the investment money paid by the camera team when it starts up; The fourth payment is 20% of the investment paid by the film crew when shooting more than half of the time; The fifth installment is 10% of the investment fund paid by the shooting team when they are killed.

The announcement also shows that century partners paid Tianjin Jiaxuan 15 million yuan on March 1, 2018, 75 million yuan on March 16, 2018, and 10 million yuan on December 6, 2018. As of December 31, 2018, it has paid 100 million yuan of investment funds to Tianjin Jiaxuan.

According to the above announcement, the payment made by century partner to Tianjin Jiaxuan is not enough to pay Zheng Shuang's remuneration. The question is, why is star Zheng Shuang so valuable?

The answer lies in the burning battle of Internet platforms. A well-known director disclosed to the 21st century economic reporter that before the Internet era, TV stations paid for everything, but the purchase price of TV stations depended on advertising revenue, which actually formed a kind of total amount control.

However, after the Internet giants joined, the industry ecology changed fundamentally. For the Internet platform, the growth rate is more important, and the amount of investment for TV stations, forming pressure of rolling.

Before the entry of the Internet platform, the number of TV dramas purchased by national TV stations was about 10 billion. According to the financial report, iqiyi has spent 45 billion yuan on content cost in the four years since 2015. According to the calculation of China CITIC Construction Investment Co., Ltd., Tencent video invested more than 70 billion yuan in the same period.

It is this crazy investment that led to the excessive prosperity of the film and television industry before, and Zheng Shuang, who has the advantage of traffic, has become the biggest selling point in the eyes of data platform.

The premium was born.

End of the curtain

But the Internet platform, the engine of the prosperity of the film and television industry, is gradually dying out.

Gong Yu, the founder of iqiyi, has repeatedly stressed the inflection point of content cost. Iqiyi itself is changing from a story of growth to profitability. Tencent video has also recently raised the price of its members. Revenue has become the key word of recent long video.

For the film and television industry, there are layers of supervision. The tax storm burst the last bubble. According to the data of the State Administration of radio, film and television, in 2019, 905 TV dramas were shot and put on record, with a year-on-year decrease of 22.18%; 254 plays were approved to be released, with a year-on-year decrease of 21.36%. The overall supply of the TV drama industry is still oversupply, the inventory is overstocked seriously, and the capital turnover of the industry is slow.

Influenced by the environment, the culture of Beijing is also changing. On April 29, 2020, Beijing Culture released the "announcement on the transfer of 100% equity of century partner", which plans to transfer the 100% equity of century partner to Beijing Fuyi Xingda at a low price of 48 million yuan. Almost at the same time, Lou Xiaoxi reported the systematic financial fraud of Beijing culture through her real name microblog. It was mentioned that Beijing culture used projects such as "beautiful girl ghost" to assist the unfinished subsidiaries and transfer benefits through TV dramas.

"On May 23, 2019, Tianjin Jiaxuan submitted the" situation statement ", in which century partner paid Tianjin Jiaxuan 89 million yuan for the investment in Qiannv Youhun and 30 million yuan for the model student. Tianjin Jiaxuan transferred to its designated company and studio according to Lou Xiaoxi's requirements. After checking with Tianjin Jiaxuan and checking the use of relevant project funds, the verified amount was 115 million yuan. In order to protect the interests of listed companies, the company shall take corresponding legal measures immediately after receiving the "situation statement". Century partner prepayment has the risk of irrecoverable. According to the principle of accounting prudence, the company has made an impairment loss of 30 million yuan. " Beijing Culture notice said.

In addition, the project also directly linked to Beijing's cultural performance fraud, and eventually led to a letter of inquiry.

According to the Beijing Culture announcement, in 2018, century partners transferred the right to return on investment in the TV drama "beautiful girl ghost", and transferred 60% of its investment share of the play to yagert, with a price of 380 million yuan. Century partner confirmed the transfer income of 358 million yuan (including tax of 380 million yuan), and carried forward the corresponding cost of 195 million yuan. Yagert paid 55 million yuan in March 2019 and received 57.528 million yuan from three network platforms, and the remaining amount was 267 million yuan overdue.

As for the accounting error of the project, Beijing Culture said that yagert paid 55 million yuan in March 2019, and subsequently yagert failed to fulfill its payment obligations as agreed. In 2019, the company's internal audit and asset inventory team continued to pay close attention to the progress of the transfer agreement of qiannu ghost.

Through interviews with yagert legal person, Beijing culture confirmed that the relevant rights and obligations were not transferred to yagert, but were still implemented by century partners, and yagert had no arrangement to pay the follow-up contract payment. According to the actual implementation of the contract, the rights and interests of qiannu ghost did not transfer to yagert in essence. On April 2, 2020, Beijing Culture interviewed Lou Xiaoxi and confirmed by herself that the original transfer agreement of "beautiful girl ghost" confirmed that the income was not real. On April 26, 2020, century partner and yagert signed the termination agreement on the transfer agreement of "beautiful girl ghost", and century partner took back 60% of yagert's investment share in Qiannv ghost.

Objectively, the single project of Qiannv Youhun has limited influence on Beijing culture, but the evolution of the big environment behind the play has thoroughly intensified the internal contradictions of Beijing culture.

This is a company without a controller. According to the financial report, Fude life insurance is the largest shareholder of Beijing culture, with a shareholding of 15.6%; Qingdao West Coast holding the second place, holding 10.87%; Tibet jinbaocang holds 5.29% shares; Huali holding 5%. In February 2016, according to the announcement of Fude department, Zhang Jun, the actual controller of Fude life insurance, was taken away by the relevant departments to assist in the investigation. Since then, Beijing culture has fallen into the situation of no real controller.

On the evening of March 12, Beijing Culture replied to the inquiry letter of Shenzhen Stock Exchange, admitting that the first largest shareholder, Fude life insurance, and the second largest shareholder, Qingdao West Coast holdings, voted against the proposal on the appointment of an accounting firm submitted by the board of directors to the first extraordinary general meeting of shareholders in 2021. Contradictions are intensifying.

As for the cultural change in Beijing, many industry insiders, including Beijing Cultural stakeholders, admitted to the 21st century economic reporter that this is a situation under the influence of many parties. The lack of real controller brings unstable fundamentals to the company, and the falling industry intensifies contradictions.

Under layers of information, Zheng Shuang's career prospects are uncertain, and Beijing culture, which once held her high, is also in this situation. It's hard to say that the Zheng Shuang incident has a fundamental relationship with Beijing's cultural vortex, but some incentives are similar and fatal.

As the tide recedes, each subject is redefining its position（ Editor: Li Qingyu)

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