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BUSINESS
Television Su e

into insurance and asset management. He’s
also weighing public listings of three units: its Nearly two dozen
e-commerce business, an agricultural arm, and superhero shows are
one that sells its less-expensive baijiu, known as on the air via TV, cable,
Xijiu, or Xi Liquor. Still, the surest way to lift
revenue is to boost prices on its core brands. or streaming services.
An 18 percent increase announced in December Unlike in movies, Disney’s
lifted Moutai shares more than 8 percent. Marvel hasn’t conquered
Beijing puts restrictions on the prices of high-
end liquor, and Moutai, as a state-controlled enter- rival DC Comics.
prise, is expected to display a certain public spirit. —Christopher Palmeri
So relying too heavily on price boosts for its core
brands isn’t sustainable. The company has said it’s
asked subsidiaries to keep prices stable and told A Crowded Field
retailers to prevent hoarding.
As a hugely profitable business in Guizhou, one Marvel and DC Comics Not all CW Network,
of China’s poorest provinces, Moutai—which is sit- superhero television superheroes are with two full
shows, by network
ting on a massive cash pile of more than 69 billion winners. Marvel’s nights of prime
yuan—also is expected to show a sense of social Netflix 6 Inhumans time devoted to
responsibility. So even as businesses around the launched on ABC superheroes—
country embrace automation, its factory floor CW 5 in September including Black
remains deliberately manpower-heavy. The rib- with a former Lightning
bons on each Moutai bottle, for example, are still Fox 3 Game of Thrones (above)—has
tied by hand. The liquor giant also just opened a star and big-time shifted its viewers
MOUTAI: QILAI SHEN/BLOOMBERG. BLACK LIGHTNING: COURTESY THE CW. *AMC, FX, HULU, AND NBC. **SCORES AS OF JAN. 19, 2018; CHARTS DO NOT INCLUDE CANCELED SHOWS, SHOWS IN
nonprofit school, Moutai University, the first in ABC 2 special effects. It from 70 percent
China to offer baijiu distillation as its core degree, was a critical and female to
to create even more experts on the production of Other* 4 ratings flop. half male. 19
the luxury drink. Wu Yuanjian, 20, who recently
enrolled, sees a distillation degree as a ticket into a
hot business. “I want to join the sales department Rotten Tomatoes scores** of television shows based on superhero comics
○ DC Comics ○ Marvel
of Moutai, actually,” he says. “You can make more
money there.” 100%
Such widespread faith across China about
Agents of
the company’s long-term prospects has handed S.H.I.E.L.D.
Yuan another difficult balancing act: managing Black
investor expectations. During 2017, Goldman Lightning 50
Sachs Group Inc. upgraded its price recommen-
dation on Moutai’s shares 14 times, data com- Iron Fist
piled by Bloomberg show, and other analysts also Inhumans
DEVELOPMENT, OR THE CW’S IZOMBIE, WHOSE PROTAGONIST IS UNDEAD; DATA: ROTTEN TOMATOES
issued bullish views. Currently there are 26 ana- 0
lysts with buy ratings, three with hold ratings, 2012 2018
and no sell recommendations. Year of series premiere
Tamping down such enthusiasm is proving dif-
ficult. As Moutai’s stock price surged last year, While older series such as the CW’s Arrow and ABC’s Agents
the state-owned Xinhua News Agency urged of S.H.I.E.L.D. have won high praise from critics on Rotten
investors to be more cautious, saying the shares Tomatoes, newer shows have drawn more mixed reviews.
should rise at a slower pace. The company issued
its own statement saying analysts’ stock price tar- Superhero shows draw a young, male
gets and valuations in the market were “overly audience that’s hard for advertisers to reach
high.” After a brief decline, however, shares outside of sports programming, says the
resumed their ascent. They ended about 109 per- The Real OMD media agency’s chief video buyer,
cent higher for all of 2017. —Rachel Chang and Attraction Chris Geraci. Because they’re based on
Daniela Wei existing comic characters and can be cross-
promoted with other related series, “you sort
THE BOTTOM LINE Mao Zedong toasted the founding of the of have a built-in audience,” he says.
People’s Republic of China with Kweichow Moutai’s baijiu liquor.
Decades later, the company can’t meet demand for the quaff.