This year has seen a series of celebrity office exits and suicides.

Once again, I have been thinking about the state of talent (in the broad sense of the word here, including actors, comedians, and TV personalities) in the post-Corona. (Please read through without looking at the links first)

1. rethink the income structure of talent.

There are three major ones.
Performances (TV, film, stage) and advertising revenues (commercials, events, web) and related products (merchandising)

Aside from salaried salaried talents, most independent and successful talents receive more advertising revenue from commercials than from appearance fees.

◆Reference: How much do celebrities get paid? Celebrity 2020 Salary Update Rankings!
https://yorozu-do.com/guarantee/

However, in countries such as the U.S. and China, where talent rights are properly protected by contract, the income from film and drama appearances is more than that from TV commercials. Conversely, Hollywood movie stars, for example, do not appear in TV commercials.
This is because the U.S. and China have huge markets not only for network stations (i.e., key stations) but also for countless local syndication stations (i.e., local stations). Talent is not limited to appearances on key stations. They can earn additional fees each time their dramas are rebroadcast on local stations. In Japan, TV stations are networked and there are virtually no local stations, so appearances are a one-time fee.

The per capita fee for the six main members of the hit American TV show “Friends” was 2.5 million yen per episode when it first aired, but by Season 3, the fee had risen to 100 million yen per episode. In addition, 2% of reruns and related revenues (merchandising) were distributed to the six members, resulting in an additional income of 2 billion yen per year, for a total revenue of approximately 100 billion yen per year.

Also, as noted in the article below, Netflix paid Adam Sandler a 2019 fee of 3.3 billion (80% of Sandler’s total annual revenue of 4.1 billion), but that was not a fee calculation for new work alone, but for the cumulative 2 billion views of his previous libraries.

◆Reference : Most Profitable Actor Ranking 2020 Netflix is the major source of income
https://forbesjapan.com/articles/detail/36425

The fee for appearing in a top-class Japanese TV drama is about 5 million yen per episode. Since the basic series consists of 11 episodes, each drama costs 55 million yen, which is about the same as one commercial after a month of all-night filming. Even when appearing in a drama series on a key station in Japan, it is rare to receive an additional fee for local sales.

◆Reference : “Money” in the entertainment industry
https://bit.ly/2S8GNgX

China’s top actress Fan Bingbing is paid 50 million yen per episode. Since a Chinese TV series has 40 episodes per drama, the total gross is 2 billion yen. This is a very high figure in relation to the population, but in addition to this, the talent earns income from local stations, which makes their income extraordinary.

2. media transition. Review the history of television.

In Japan, the fee for celebrities is kept low due to the difference in media structure to begin with.
When Kakuei Tanaka became Minister of Posts and Telecommunications (now the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications) in 1957, he considered the new media “television” as a new vote-collecting machine. Therefore, instead of allowing new operators to enter this new media, a network of key stations and local stations was established with local newspaper companies as the capital source, and a blanket license was issued, thereby creating centralized control of the key stations. By allowing broadcasting and content production to be managed as a single entity, instead of being separated as in the U.S., TV stations were also able to own IP (intellectual property) rights to the works they produced and related products. Japan is probably the only country in the world where TV stations have acquired such absolute power.

In the U.S., for many years, concurrent work between TV stations and production companies was prohibited from the standpoint of fair trade. Hence, Hollywood became powerful as a production company. The TV stations concentrate on program distribution (distribution show), while Hollywood handles production, and the talent handles rights and a fair structure.

In Japan, TV stations have become so enormously entitled that a hierarchy has been created.
In the structure of TV stations→production→entertainment production→talent, the positioning of talent is positioned at the lowest level. Furthermore, entertainment production companies have restrained the freedom of talent to transfer to other companies by using their training fees as a shield. In addition, the industry associations have shown a very problematic view on fair trade in terms of the distribution of transfer fees and the burden of training costs when transferring. Where in the world would a company charge past training fees to transfer to a new company? It is unthinkable under normal circumstances. As for the cost of training, research shows that in many cases, the cost is only an investment that can be covered by the income from a single commercial appearance. This is not investigated or reported.

With the mass licensing of television stations promulgated by Kakuei Tanaka and the construction of Tokyo Tower, public interest in the 1960s shifted en masse from movies, radio, and theater to television media. New and unconventional content, such as “Soap Bubble Holiday” and “Laramie Farm,” became extremely popular. Because television was treated as a lesser form of media than film and theater, people were able to express themselves as freely as they wished, and this is what attracted them.
As an aside, it is no secret that the television industry has become increasingly uninteresting in content in recent years due to excessive moral censorship.

Twenty years after television’s pioneering days, in the late 1980s, key stations were finally able to produce 100% of their own prime time programming.

The so-called imported programs “Charlie’s Angels” (last episode broadcast in 1982) and “Operation New Spy” (ended in October 1991) were no longer available in prime time, and the “double Asano” bubble period (the program was broadcast in 1988 on the same station) began to take hold. Drama “I want to hug you! to boom).

At this time, people in the TV industry who were in their 40s when they were in their prime working years developed the entertainment production companies that we know today. Many TV dramas were produced, and by 1990 the market for secondary use, such as VHS and DVD, was booming.

However, in recent years, the closed world of TV stations and entertainment production companies has led to a decline in the flexibility of TV station programming, and with the rise of online media, viewer ratings are also on the decline. Is it possible that the current age of around 80 years old is making it difficult to keep up with the sensibilities of the times? It is an irony of history that television, once the new media, has been slow to switch to new media such as the Internet.

TV genre analysis over the past 40 years shows that the share of drama airtime has been declining while the share of news and sports has been increasing. The Japanese entertainment industry, which has been unable to produce new productions due to Corona, respond to the Internet media, and respond globally to Asia and Hollywood, is in a dying state.

I think it would be very helpful to have a modern and global strategy for the entertainment industry, such as JYP in Korea, which has been very successful.
◆Reference : JYP 2.0
https://youtu.be/08257W8sdNs

3. what will happen to the entertainment industry in the future?

A lot of talent has left major entertainment production companies in recent years.
The rise of online media and the TV recession (no advertising in Corona) have led to a sharp decline in opportunities to appear in dramas, combined with absurd economic conditions, and talent is becoming independent one after another.

However, even if a talent becomes independent from an entertainment production company, he or she cannot, of course, run a company by himself or herself. In 2019, many comedians became YouTubers, but for those without digital knowledge, the world was not so sweet that they could survive in it. In other words, the talent also know too little about how an entertainment production company functions as a company. All the talk is about money sharing and the rampant management structure, but as long as the actual entertainment production company is also a company management, it should be working with a marketing and branding strategy for the talent, whether consciously or not.

Although we may be a bit forward, the surge in requests to talent agencies such as ours is probably due to the fact that they have a certain reputation for proper management, transparent flow of funds, and the like. I believe that entertainment production companies should move away from the “I, you” world of the past and build fair and equal relationships with talent.

◆Reference: “Too abnormal” and “change the old structure” proposal by President of NON MANAGEMENT [Full text].
https://www.buzzfeed.com/jp/ryosukekamba/non2

People like Atsuhiko Nakata and Akihiro Nishino of Yoshimoto Kogyo, who are able to self-manage themselves and have a certain willingness to invest, have formed teams and succeeded in YouTube and salon businesses.
But in general, even the most famous comedians on TV can’t compete with the YouTubers out there in terms of revenue or traffic.

◆Reference: The end of the “entertainment industry and 20th century regime” (Soichiro Matsutani) – Y!
https://news.yahoo.co.jp/byline/soichiromatsutani/20200831-00195864/

The future that Kyoko Koizumi hopes for
The first step I took as a 15-year-old that gave me the courage to take has led me to where I am today.”
https://www.huffingtonpost.jp/entry/story_jp_5f45fbbac5b697186e2e666e

4. a paradigm shift occurred here.

Many of today’s popular TV personalities (influencers = KOL [Key Opinion Leader] ) do not even belong to an office. The reason for this is that “I can’t do what I want to express myself.” Conventional actors only “perform what others want to express,” but now it is difficult to get a job unless you express “yourself” more.

If the talent does not have the charm that they have and cannot express it digitally, clients will not look at them. That’s why YouTube, TicTok and Instagram were activated.

A famous actress, who is paid 50 million yen for commercials, is selling advertisements on her Instagram for 20 million yen for a set of four posts at 5 million yen each, with several major clients such as P&G and Volvic. Incidentally, this is the same level of SNS pay as Hikakin.

◆ Reference
For “The Three Musketeers of Hella Hella,” for example, clients reportedly wait six months or more for a job.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCI0xPNkgivK-FCcaCYDC8Yg
Tanaka Desu” launched a related commerce business from the frame of selling baked potatoes, and the products sold out immediately.
https://tanakadesu.theshop.jp/items/28395166
Genji is so popular that it has been called the “Japanet Takata” of smartphones!
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXrp0H7BPBHx2YTYMiiKEAA

In the TV media-centered era, the game was to be selected by major clients such as Shiseido and Toyota, but in the Internet media era, even if a client cannot spend 30 million yen per advertising campaign, it is possible to create effective ads by combining ad technology (called ad tech for short) based on the results of traffic. The new system is a “one-stop shop” for In other words, companies with small advertising budgets can now make money with digital media, even if the talent (influencers) are not famous nationwide.

They shoot interesting videos, gather traffic, and register with ad networks to be matched with companies. Even a celebrity with about 300,000 followers can earn 30 to 50 million yen a year just by doing this. This is a revolution in the way celebrities work.

Society is no longer formed solely by large corporations, including both clients and the media. Conversely, a new society is being created in which even small-scale companies can be successful as long as they can accurately grasp the needs of society and enrich it.

Reference: “What is Ad Technology?
https://www.innovation.co.jp/urumo/adtechnology/

And China is even more egregious. Advertising agencies no longer exist. Talent contracts directly with major brands. This is because digital media owned by the celebrities is a more efficient way to obtain brand image and actual sales.

The age of D2C (Direct To Consumer) by talent is beginning in Japan. Talent is not waiting for advertisers from companies. Talent themselves develop their own original products and sell them to their own followers to earn revenue.

Talent that is digitally strong (DX-ready) can have a large media outlet of their own by making full use of digital media. Recently, they have become more influential and outspoken than those who appear on TV shows. The era of talent 2.0 is dawning.

◆Reference : What is the difference between “D2C” and “mail-order”? I asked Takuya Noguchi, Bulk Homme’s representative.
https://www.wwdjapan.com/articles/990114

How to Create Effectiveness in Chinese KOL Marketing
https://www.live-commerce.com/ecommerce-blog/chinese-kol-marketing/#.X3e5i5P7Q1I

The Honest Company, a housewares brand founded by Jessica Alba in 2011, now has a market capitalization of $1 billion.
https://forbesjapan.com/articles/detail/7190

5. summary

Self-branding
Redefine your own characteristics. Have a strategy for your career path by becoming aware of what you want to do and who you are as a social being.
Create a proper official website and decide on the brand taste you want to protect as a product.

Immunity (strong body and stable mind) = VUCA power
A healthy body has been a prerequisite for talent activities since the beginning, but from now on, it is important to maintain a stable mind. Commercial offers from clients are also an investment in the talent’s own brand. Stable immunity will help them overcome scandals and flames.
https://www.kaonavi.jp/dictionary/vuca/

Compliance
The development of social networking services has made it impossible for entertainment production companies to control information to the public. It is necessary to collaborate with professionals who are digitally savvy and can control the image of the talent.

Digital Power (DX – Remote Trust)
Actively disseminate information on social networking sites and strive to gain as many followers as possible. Use new media to expand your market and fan base.
To take on new challenges as the media undergoes a major digital transformation.

Creating a Fan Community
We care about our fans and creating an online-based community.
Form a team and build your own media (salons and other owned media).
Create an income structure that does not rely on existing media or entertainment production.

Global orientation
We will find a good agent and place emphasis not only on Japan but also on Asia, especially China and Korea. Hollywood will be a challenge, with China as a foothold. You need to be able to speak at least a minimum of English, no matter how poorly you speak it.

… and upwards