A drama earns more than 100 million yuan, and 90 million yuan is used to buy ratings
ratings fraud investigation
● The problem of falsified ratings has existed since the 1990s, and later became more concealed, complicated and diverse under the influence of capital.
More and more film and television institutions and data companies have joined the ranks of counterfeiting, either becoming accomplices of satellite TV counterfeiting, or directly becoming the masterminds of counterfeiting.
At present, there are still two common methods of fraud: one is to contaminate sample households, and the other is to falsify data.
● Falsified and chaotic ratings have dealt a heavy blow to the entire film and television industry.
Especially after 2012, a large amount of capital entered, and a large number of new companies did not have creative resources, but they quickly grabbed half of the country by buying ratings. Old-brand production companies had to follow up. The entire industry was kidnapped by ratings and the level of TV dramas fell in reason.
● The key to solving this kind of chaos lies in nationalizing data assets and receiving Internet data rights into the hands of the government.
At the same time, government departments should guide the society to change the "view rate only" evaluation method
□ Our reporter Wen Lijuan
"More than 90% of TV dramas are buying ratings. Falsified ratings are a big cancer that plagues the film and television industry." Li Xuezheng has said this in various public occasions for four or five years.
What makes him feel sad is that after so many years, this malignant tumor has not been engulfed.
As the director of the Golden Shield Film and Television Center, the director system and the general distributor of "The Name of the People", Li Xuezheng knows what "rating" means for a film and television work.
In 2017, before the broadcast of "In the Name of the People", he and his team members also struggled with whether to buy ratings, but eventually gave up and used 30 million yuan for publicity and promotion.
What is gratifying is that the ratings of "In the Name of the People" are strong, and this is also a declaration of war by Li Xuezheng on the falsification of ratings.
At the beginning of December 2021, at the Golden Shield Film and Television Center, Li Xuezheng frowned and fell into a long silence when talking to a reporter from the Rule of Law Daily about the falsification of ratings.
Previously, he had ambitiously declared that "the fight against false ratings must start from "In the Name of the People", and we are confident to resist this evil current"; now, he feels that he is fighting against the beasts, but if If you don't fight, you may watch the industry fall into a vicious circle.
Capital promotes fake ratings
Contaminated sample households falsify data
In the film and television industry, ratings fraud seems to be a secret "hidden rule."
In 2016, when "Beauty's Private Kitchen" was exploded because it had not purchased the ratings, the China TV Drama Production Industry Association convened a meeting with its member units, and dozens of production representatives expressed that they had purchased the ratings.
The basic meaning of ratings refers to the percentage of viewers who watch a certain channel or program in a certain period of time in the total market audience.
Assuming that there are 100 viewers in market A, if 10 of them watch a certain drama, the audience rating of the drama in market A is 10%.
Liu Yannan, a professor at the Communication Research Institute of Communication University of China, once wrote: The ratings are based on surveys, and the ratings surveys are not an indicator, but a series of indicators. The ratings are the most representative indicator among them.
In her article, she introduced the process of generating ratings.
First, determine the sampling frame according to the market size (national, provincial or municipal market) and audience characteristics, and select a certain number of sample households according to the principle of random sampling to form a fixed sample group for the ratings survey, such as 300 households, 500 households Or more, aiming to deduce the population through the sample.
Then, ask each member of the sample households to record their viewing behaviors through a personnel measuring instrument or a diary card by pressing buttons or taking notes while watching TV.
Finally, the survey company processed the collected raw data statistically to obtain the viewership rate on a per-person basis (not a household-based unit).
According to Li Xuezheng, the problem of fraudulent ratings has existed since the 1990s, and later became more concealed, complicated and diverse under the influence of capital.
From a logical point of view, this matter is not difficult to understand: TV stations have obtained more and more expensive advertisements with high ratings, and producers can get the TV station’s payment faster (generally TV stations will only pay part of the money in advance. Producer), advertisers can trade with high ratings.
Director Guo Jingyu once publicly stated on Weibo in September 2018 that his film and television drama "Mother Way" was shelved by the TV station for a long time because he was unwilling to spend money to buy ratings, and the cost was as high as 72 million yuan.
As soon as the news came out, the credibility of the ratings was widely questioned.
This situation has not improved much so far.
A TV drama in which Li Xuezheng participated in the investment was broadcast on satellite TV in April this year. According to him, the drama sold more than 1 billion yuan, but it spent 90 million yuan to buy ratings.
"All the money earned is spent on this."
In Li Xuezheng's view, compared with the cost of buying ratings, what is more worrying is that professional counterfeiting agencies have grown stronger.
More and more film and television institutions and data companies have joined the ranks of counterfeiting, either becoming accomplices of satellite TV counterfeiting, or directly becoming the masterminds of counterfeiting.
"Several data companies later transformed into production. These companies have limited program production levels, but no matter which platform they produce, regardless of their quality, the ratings are not low." Li Xuezheng revealed. The company has in-depth cooperation with powerful production companies. The former is responsible for manipulating data behind the scenes, and the latter is responsible for production, making a lot of money.
The screenwriter Guo Ming (pseudonym), who has participated in the creation of many online dramas, has done detailed research on ratings.
He found that the third-party institutions that used to hide in the dark and specialize in buying ratings and polluting sample households have become more blatant in recent years.
"These third-party agencies have turned into so-called'propaganda companies', claiming that as long as they outsource the promotion part, they can help you spread across the country. The ratings will reach how much the effect will be, and it will be effective within a week. But the real The propaganda team dare not make ratings guarantee, because they know very well how much ratings the propaganda can bring." Guo Ming said.
Corresponding to the increase in audience rating fraud subjects, the methods of fraud have not changed much in recent years. There are still two common methods of fraud: one is to pollute sample households, and the other is to falsify data.
For example, Li Xuezheng said that a ratings research agency has tens of thousands of sample households scattered in various provinces across the country, and the number of sample households allocated to each region is only a few hundred. The measuring instrument is used for statistical analysis after recovering the data.
Because the number of sample households is limited, this provides "convenience" to counterfeiters to a certain extent.
"For example, there are 500 sample households in Beijing, and a certain TV series hopes to increase its ratings in this area. As long as 10 sample households are identified and manipulated, the TV series’ ratings can increase by at least 0.5%." Li Xuezheng said.
How to "manipulate" it?
He told reporters that by analyzing the data released by the ratings research agency, the counterfeiters analyzed the area where the sample households were relatively concentrated, and carried out key publicity in this area. By purchasing community media, such as mailboxes, elevators, and advertising spaces, they affected Residents’ viewing habits, thereby increasing the ratings.
Some counterfeiters also visited the house after obtaining sample household information and kept lobbying. Some gave money directly, while others gave rice, peanut oil and other daily necessities.
"The sample households have become the hot cakes, they are the object of everyone's competition. The sample households earn a lot of income each year, and some 20% of the entire cost of the drama goes to the sample households." Li Xuezheng pointed out.
Compared with buying sample users, there is a more advanced way of falsifying ratings-falsifying data.
Guo Ming revealed that some counterfeiting companies would use hackers and other means to interfere with the data uploaded from the sample households' homes to the server, just like stealing the box office of a movie, "stealing" the ratings.
"For example, the TV station watched by a certain sample household is TV A, but the data output from its measuring instrument becomes TV B. This method will also be more expensive. If the TV series ratings want to rank in the top 3, the price will be possible. Up to 500,000 yuan per episode."
The ratings become the interest just needed
Buying ratings is a pain point in the industry
In fact, ratings fraud has been around for a long time, and although it has been exposed repeatedly, it has become more and more serious.
Why do advertisers, TV stations and producers choose to survive the illusion of high ratings?
Zeng Jian (pseudonym), who once worked for an advertising company in Guangzhou, told reporters that apart from the phenomenal film and television dramas, the most important measure for them to evaluate the value of their advertising is the ratings.
Before signing a contract with a TV station, advertisers will conduct a comprehensive assessment based on the station's ratings performance in multiple periods of time. If the ratings do not meet their expectations, the TV station will be "kicked out" directly.
Some advertisers will also indicate the required ratings in the advertising contract. The ratings are 1 and 2, and the fees paid by the advertisers are completely different.
"At present, in China, most of the TV stations' annual revenues are still based on advertising revenue, and advertisers are talking about ratings. For TV stations, advertising revenue will increase only if the ratings are increased. In addition, the ratings are A direct reflection of the propaganda ability of a TV station, the society also evaluates the TV station through its ratings. In this way, the TV station will inevitably pursue high ratings." Guo Ming said.
If a TV station wants to get high ratings, it is closely related to the works it broadcasts.
As a result, the pressure is transmitted to the production company.
Guo Ming revealed that some TV stations will sign a "gambling agreement" when they sign a TV drama purchase contract with a production company.
The so-called "gambling" means that when the film is selling a drama, it must provide a viewing guarantee to the TV station-the drama must reach the guaranteed ratings value in the agreement when it is broadcast, so that the film party can get the full purchase price from the TV station.
Otherwise, the money will be deducted according to the agreement ratio.
"For example, a single episode of a 40-episode TV series has a price of 2 million yuan, and the agreement promises to the TV station that the average viewership rate is over 1, and the single-episode purchase fee is deducted by 0.1 million yuan. When it is actually broadcast, the average The ratings are only 0.9. According to the terms, 200,000 yuan per episode will be deducted accordingly, and the last 8 million yuan will be gone.” Guo Ming said, there is another way that both parties set a relatively low ratings bottom line. If it is not reached, the production company will lose everything and get no money.
In fact, as early as June 2016, the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television issued a document “Provincial TV stations across the country signed the “Convention on Observing the Social Responsibility of the Media and Opposing the Self-Regulation of Viewing Only””, emphasizing that “from the date of publication of this Convention, the purchase and sale of TV dramas The contract does not enter into terms of pricing or bargaining based on ratings and ratings."
However, the above-mentioned conventions have not been strictly enforced.
The China TV Drama Production Industry Association once proposed that after the TV stations signed the gambling prohibition convention, the broadcasting organizations had to act in violation of the huge pressure on advertising revenue due to the huge pressure of ratings.
Li Xuezheng also told reporters that in the past, the publisher and the TV will sign a two-version contract, one is an open contract, and there is no requirement for ratings; the other contract has specific requirements.
Nowadays, the default of both parties is more adopted. If the ratings requirements are not met, the broadcaster may delay the time for payment and return, and some even deduct money.
"The ratings value cannot be guaranteed. This forces the production company to buy the ratings, otherwise it will not be able to check out in time. Some TV stations pay part of the money in advance to buy the ratings. For example, a single episode gave 800,000 yuan. It’s just to let you buy the audience ratings with this 800,000 yuan.” said Wang Hailin, the famous screenwriter and vice president of the China Film and Literature Society. It costs 300,000 to 500,000 yuan for an episode, which basically robs the profits of a TV series.
In Wang Hailin's view, this kind of fake ratings has dealt a heavy blow to the entire film and television industry.
Especially after 2012, a large amount of capital entered, and a large number of new companies did not have creative resources. After studying the market, they found that although they can’t make movies, they can directly buy ratings. They soon used this method to bring resources and experience to established companies. After being defeated, the market was taken up by half of the market by these companies that could not make films. The established production companies had to follow up after “recognizing the situation”. The entire industry was kidnapped by the ratings, and the decline in the level of TV dramas made sense. "Because the drama is so good Well, no one cares anymore".
Promote the nationalization of data assets
Change the status quo of "viewing only"
In order to rectify the chronic problem of falsified ratings, the State Administration of Radio and Television has launched a set of "combined punches" starting in 2019.
At the end of 2019, the State Administration of Radio and Television’s program ratings comprehensive evaluation big data system was launched, using a massive data collection model, with the characteristics of "full network, full sample, big data, and cloud computing", which is more suitable for current TV program viewing methods and multiple channels, The new trend of diversification.
In April 2020, the State Administration of Radio and Television issued the "Regulations on the Administration of Statistics in the Radio and Television Industry", emphasizing that radio and television authorities should rely on the big data statistical information system to coordinate the statistics of ratings (click rate), and conduct data collection and release. Supervision.
No institution or individual may interfere with or disrupt the statistics of the ratings (click-through rate) carried out by the competent radio and television authorities in accordance with the law, and must not create false ratings (click-through rates).
In Wang Hailin's view, this is a positive signal to rectify the false and chaotic ratings.
He believes that the key to solving this kind of chaos lies in the nationalization of data assets.
"Currently, the movie box office data terminal is in the hands of the National Film Fund Office, that is, in the hands of the state. Therefore, my country's movie box office is relatively objective and transparent. The TV ratings data is handed over to data companies that contain foreign capital. Over the years, the data has been contaminated and lacks truthfulness. Now that the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television has launched a big data system, it is also working hard to reclaim data statistics rights to the state. However, Internet data is controlled by private commercial institutions. These institutions create and use false data for commercial speculation and undermine the market economy. Therefore, it is urgent to protect Internet data rights. Receive the hands of the government and realize nationalization."
According to Li Xuezheng, in addition to the big data system of the State Administration of Radio and Television, there is currently a "People's Rating List" of the People's Daily. "Both platforms use big data. Data cannot be artificially tampered with. It is not possible to make fakes. It is recommended that TV use it. ".
Li Heng, a Beijing lawyer who has been engaged in research on the entertainment industry for many years, pointed out the current lack of ratings in laws and regulations.
He suggested that the legislature should think more rigorously about what is the real audience rate and what is the statistical method of the real audience rate.
"If we want to combat ratings falsification, first of all, laws and regulations need to be clear, what is the legal meaning of ratings. In my country's current laws and regulations, there is actually no clear definition of'viewing rate', and only in national standards. GB/T 30350-2013 "Television Rating Survey Guidelines" mentions the concept of'rating', but this standard only targets television (broadcasting rights) and does not apply to mobile, which is currently much more popular and widely used. Internet equipment (information network dissemination right)." Li Heng said.
Li Heng called on government departments to guide the society to change the "view rate only" evaluation method.
"The State Council’s Report on the Development of the Cultural Industry" has long emphasized the importance of market mechanism and market demand, but not only box office, only circulation, only viewership, and only traffic. But so far, some local government agencies have been "'S recruitment, awards, and ratings are still almost the only quantifiable factors among various evaluation factors."
In the end, Li Xuezheng put his hope on his work: "As long as you are going to make movies and television in the future, you will definitely be troubled by the ratings problem. Without ratings, there is no vitality, but if you want to create good ratings, you can only work hard. Quality, with good works, capital is chasing you."
After all, "In the Name of the People" gave him hope and a way out for cracking down on ratings fraud.
Manga / Takaoka