Joining TVB to manage Shaw Brothers, Li Ruigang takes action again. Who is the real beneficiary behind this?

Li Ruigang, a legendary figure in China's media industry, has attracted much attention in the industry with his every move.

And just this month, Uncle Li made another move. On October 17, he announced that he would serve as the vice chairman and non-executive director of Hong Kong TVB. On October 25, he became the chairman of Shaw Brothers, targeting the Hong Kong film and television industry.

The industry has raised questions one after another: what kind of game is this "Chinese version of Murdoch", who has been at the helm of SMG for more than a decade, planning this time? Who is the ultimate beneficiary behind Uncle Li?

Revitalize Shaw Brothers and Restart the Hong Kong Film Legend

Everyone in the industry knows that as long as Uncle Li is willing to take action, the company will have a chance to turn around.

As the soul leader of Shanghai Media Group in the past 20 years, Li Ruigang led the corporate restructuring of Shanghai Media Group and created a new reform model of "separation of production and broadcasting"; he worked with China Telecom to explore the IPTV business and helped BesTV to go public; he also laid out multiple businesses for Shanghai Media Group, including mobile TV, high-definition TV, broadband TV, and terrestrial wireless TV, and led Shanghai Media Group to obtain multiple new media licenses.

After leaving the system, Li Ruigang focused his career on CMC. In just over six years since its establishment, CMC has quickly become one of the most important investment institutions in China's media industry. Its investment projects are spread across the entire entertainment and cultural industry, covering not only content, platforms, technology, and services, but also film, television, animation, sports, music, fashion, games, artist management, live performances, news information, advertising and marketing, data services, smart TVs, virtual reality, cultural real estate, e-commerce, mobile social networking, Internet education and other sub-sectors.

Let’s take a look at Hong Kong’s current media and film and television industry. It has been on a downward trend in recent years, and the quality and reputation of its content such as film and television dramas are far inferior to its glorious period in the last century.

After taking charge of Shaw Brothers, Li Ruigang holds 29.73% of the shares of Shaw Brothers. He used nine years to lead Shanghai Media Group to achieve a nearly 10-fold increase in revenue, from 1.85 billion yuan to 16.73 billion yuan in 2011. Can Li Ruigang revitalize the sluggish Hong Kong film and television market?

After taking office, Li Ruigang launched a package plan. He said: "For quite a long time, Shaw Brothers has represented the entire Hong Kong film industry to a certain extent. It is a microcosm of Hong Kong's film tradition and the cradle of Hong Kong's film performing and creative talents. The talents and industrial system represented by Shaw Brothers, as well as the deep accumulation in the international market and brand, have unique value. In the future, as strategic shareholders of Shaw Brothers, CMC and TVB will closely link the superior film resources within their respective systems as well as those in mainland China, Hong Kong and even the world with Shaw Brothers to jointly innovate and break through and jointly develop the global Chinese-language film market."

Judging from the film list information released so far, Shaw Brothers will make efforts in multiple dimensions after Li Ruigang joins the company. The main and participating projects released this time span film and television, development, production, and investment. Among them, the film projects include live-action and animated films with diverse types and a wide range of themes. It also includes first-line artists, directors, and producers from Hong Kong and the Mainland, mobilizes high-quality IPs from the United States and Japan, and Hollywood and European filmmakers will also participate.

The TV screen is the biggest beneficiary

It is worth noting that among the projects invested by the Chinese Culture Industry Fund, Whaley Technology is undoubtedly the one that Li Ruigang himself attaches the most importance to and is personally involved in.

Objectively speaking, Whale TV is not early in the Internet TV field. In addition to the six traditional home appliance manufacturers, Internet companies such as LeTV and Xiaomi have already occupied a certain number of fans and users in the Internet TV market. But Uncle Li is still determined to make Internet TV because Whale Technology and even Chinese Culture have advantages that other Internet companies do not have.

In addition to his optimism about the Internet TV industry, in Li Ruigang's eyes, the greatest significance of Whale TV is to "open up the core link of the entire Chinese cultural industry." Chinese Culture is still enriching its content resources in the cultural and entertainment industry through investment and mergers and acquisitions, and these content resources still need platforms and terminal channels such as Whale TV to realize their final commercial realization.

A lean camel is bigger than a horse. Although TVB and Shaw Brothers are not as successful as they once were, we should not forget that TVB not only made a large number of the most popular Chinese stars, such as Andy Lau, Tony Leung, Stephen Chow, Chow Yun-fat, Carina Lau, and Louis Koo, but also produced TV series and movies that have influenced generations, such as The Bund, The Greed of Man, Genesis, The Legend of the Condor Heroes, and The Return of the Condor Heroes. For a long time, TVB could be said to be the vane of TV series and movies in the entire Chinese cultural circle.

Let's take a look at Shaw Brothers. Shaw Brothers has brokerage resources such as many outstanding artists, hosts and singers in Hong Kong and the Mainland; it works closely with Zeng Zhiwei, Wang Zulan and others to carry out film and television project development, production, investment, artist management, script and other businesses; it has in-depth cooperation with the mainland's Internet and traditional film and television platforms, and will invest in a series of film and television projects in the future, including the detective variety show "Game of Victory" co-produced with Youku Tudou, the web drama "He Doesn't Like Superheroes" adapted from a popular online novel specifically created for the younger generation, the comedy film "Legend of the Condor Heroes" written, directed and acted by Wang Zulan, as well as variety shows, web dramas and online movies in cooperation with major websites and TV stations.

From founding the Chinese Culture Fund and investing in entertainment and cultural content, to establishing Whaley Technology, joining the TVB board of directors, and serving as chairman of Shaw Brothers, the always calm Uncle Li seems to be doing a "trendy" new business, but in fact he is still constantly deepening his roots around the "television" screen.

From the current Internet TV landscape, there are not many companies that can truly connect the upstream and downstream of the industry chain. Basically, they maintain a state of specialization, divided into two camps: hardware manufacturers and content manufacturers. There are only a handful of manufacturers that have both hardware technology and content copyrights. LeTV is considered a pioneer, and Weijing followed later. PPTV, Baofeng, etc. are not yet established.

However, this year, LeTV's pace in content development has gradually slowed down. Apart from the online drama "Go Princess Go" and the movie "Lord of the Rings", it is difficult to find outstanding works. Judging from the current investment of Chinese Culture in content, it may soon be able to overtake others in the future.

After Uncle Li entered the Hong Kong market, Weijing TV also achieved added value. After all, the Internet TV market is in an era where content is king.

As the most influential operator in the media industry, Li Ruigang has always been a pioneer and leader in China's television industry. He knows that for a society or even a country, whether in the past of cable TV or the future of the Internet, the "TV" screen in the living room will always be the center of the media. Uncle Li's move not only gave the Hong Kong film and television market a chance to turn around, but also brought unique content to Whale TV.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.