TV Empire Tycoon Beginner’s Guide: Tips, Tricks & Strategies for Running a Cutting-Edge TV Network

Television! Is it fascinating or is it just candy for the brain? Is it a medium for learning or does it drive people crazy?

You’ve probably been there before: sitting on your couch, wondering how all your favorite TV shows are run, who’s on the set, how the newscasters read their reports, how sports anchors can keep up with the different happenings of the sporting world, etc. Let’s face it, TV is a dying medium with the rise of streaming services, YouTube, and our smartphones.

Series and cartoons are given to us on demand, commercials can be skipped, and reception and static are no longer a problem; it’s a medium that’s definitely going but many of us still never got to appreciate or understand how TV stations worked. You’ll get to see and understand the inner-workings of a TV station (at base-value, of course) through Codigames’ latest mobile idle game, TV Empire Tycoon. The company is responsible for a number of popular idle games such as Idle Supermarket Tycoon and Hotel Empire Tycoon to name a few, so if you are fond of this genre, then be sure to check those titles out as well.

Like many other idle games, TV Empire Tycoon is a relaxed game where you gain your in-game funds simply by waiting things out but in this case you’re airing TV shows and news programs instead of waiting for things to grow or waiting for gold to be harvested. There is a catch to this, however: you’ll be spending money to earn money. This means you’ll have to always remember that you’re also hiring people. These people don’t simply work for free, and the more people you have, the more you’ll be spending on their wages.

Let’s not forget the decor, the equipment, the quality of your shows, the facilities of the break rooms, the dressing rooms, so on and so forth. There’s so much to take in here and you’ve been given a huge amount of responsibility by the head of the network, William Cash! You’ve been given such a monumental role in saving the network. So how will you fare? Will your network crumble due to mismanagement and file for bankruptcy or are you going to become the number one network with ratings that soar above all else?

Let’s not cut to commercial here and get straight to the meat of the program. In this TV Empire Tycoon beginner’s guide, we’ll teach you how to maximize your earnings and how to spend your gems wisely. If you’ve just picked this game up and you’re looking to make your very own TV station of TV stations, then read our comprehensive TV Empire Tycoon guide below!

1. Fulfill Your Advertising Contracts

As this is standard in most games, you’ll have a quest list for direction. Here in TV Empire Tycoon, your advertising contract requirements will act like a quest list. If you happen to fulfill any of the requirements here, you will be rewarded with gems and a few steps closer to getting a product advertised by your station.

Advertising the products of numerous sponsors will earn you more ad revenue per commercial break. This means more money for wages and you even get to have a cut of it so you can further improve the station. But advertisements aren’t just the only way in which you can gain funds quick…

2. Don’t Scrimp On Your Equipment

As we said up there, you’re spending money to make money in TV Empire Tycoon. If you can get that coffee machine an upgrade because you think a lot of your workers frequent it, make it better. If that microwave is too slow, improve it. You can get a ton of earnings through spending on expensive equipment. But let’s not stop at the break room’s everyday appliances.

If you really want to earn more from whichever program you are broadcasting, be sure to improve its cameras, lighting, props, and screens if you have any. Naturally, you’ll be leveling some of these up through fulfilling your contract requirements. Though, if you manage to do any of these in advance, the next time you get another sponsor offer, you’ll notice that the requirements have already been fulfilled and you’ll be able to claim your gems without so much effort involved.

With art imitating life, you’re bound to actually attract audiences to your new, shiny TV programs through clear reception, excellent picture quality, and stunning visuals. This, therefore, will get you more cash. But this is only the equipment! Let’s talk about the people behind all this.

3. More People, Less Problems

It isn’t very wise to stick to just one department in your building. Each department is involved in the betterment of your station and if you don’t have a healthy balance of productivity and cleanliness, you’re bound to find your station in a state of disarray. The game’s official guide also talks about how each worker and department’s function is intertwined with one another.

 

Keeping a steady flow of your funds in the station are your workers, the geese that lay the golden eggs. If you hire them, they’ll expect that you have space for them. Let’s first break down the different workers and why each of them correlate with one another:

Presenters – The presenters, naturally, are the stars of the shows that you air. Without them, you won’t have a show. Some presenters are best suited for news programs while others might host children’s shows or variety programs, so always look out for the right person for the job. Most of the time, it’s the presenters that earn the most for your station but some of these can be eccentric personalities, especially if they’re rising stars or celebrities. More on this later.

Camera Persons – These are the partners of the presenters. Obviously, if you don’t have them, your show won’t be broadcasted. These guys don’t require any makeup put on them, so they’ll always be on the set ahead of everyone else. More cameras set up means more camera persons needed.

Makeup Artists – These help the presenters look good before they go live. Applying makeup takes time, so it’s always a good thing to upgrade their desks if you want to avoid delays. More presenters means more makeup artists needed. If your presenters are stars, then you might want to build their very own dressing rooms.

Receptionists – The receptionists check the presenters and camera persons into the building. It’s a standard-operating security procedure in almost every other business out there, so giving them good computers and filing cabinets should speed up the process.

Cleaners – With only a few cleaners in your station, you’ll be sitting on piles and piles of garbage. Not only will your station look like a complete mess, but your workers will become unhappy.

Janitors – Not to be confused with cleaners, the janitors are actually maintenance personnel. If something breaks down, you’ll need them to fix it. Naturally, the more shows you run, the more janitors you’ll need as more often than not, things will break down after airing.

Control Room Staff – The control room staff are in charge of re-running pre-recorded sessions of your shows. If you don’t hire any, you’ll fall behind in earnings and wages.

Reporters – When you unlock the second station, reporters are key for your sports news program. Without them, the presenters won’t have any material to work with. The more presenters you have for the sports program, the more reporters you will need.

As you can see, everyone is connected. If one group of people falls behind, the rest of the station suffers. Aside from this, it’s also important that you don’t bite off more than you can chew. Don’t hire a great number of personnel that you won’t be able to pay them.

Delays are possibly one of the worst things that could happen to your shows. Perhaps a piece of equipment is broken, or the set is dirty, one of the presenters is still getting their makeup put on, or one of the presenters is trying to get their coffee but a janitor’s still fixing the coffee machine. This can greatly cost you your expenses and the happiness of your employees.

For instance, a couple of makeup artists with well-upgraded makeup tables will make the show run on time if the reception is also up to par, and this is just for the first airing of the day!

Always scan your sets and work areas to see if anyone is lagging behind in manpower. If manpower isn’t an issue, then you might as well start upgrading your equipment. At least, if the presenters were average persons and not stars, you wouldn’t have to worry about them going on strike.

4. Spend Your Gems Wisely

Gems are the premium currency of TV Empire Tycoon. You earn these mostly by fulfilling advertising contract requirements. Once you get these gems, hold onto them! Don’t spend them to speed up a room that you’re building, instead spend them on the Headhunter.

The Headhunter will get you talents for any show that you might have in your station. These can range from camera persons to presenters, and it comes with some classic gacha RNG. If you get yourself some talents, you’d better be prepared to build them their own dressing room. If you don’t, then they might become unhappy and go on strike. Having these talents on your programs will increase the show’s ratings and, in turn, increase the amount of money you gain after.

If you’ve already a full cast of presenters and you happen to hire a talent, you’re going to have to let one of those presenters go. It might be harsh, but hey, that’s show business for you!

5. Decorate, Decorate, Decorate

So maybe you’ve noticed how we’ve mentioned happiness. The happiness of your workers is very, very important since getting this to a low will cause them to go on strike and demand a bonus in their pay. To avoid this, you might as well spend your money on the decor of many parts of your station.

Decorate the reception, the break room, any other room you can decorate and then you’ll notice how nobody is dissatisfied with their work environment. A clean station is a happy station, after all.

6. Keep Your Energy High

The TV is an electronic device and a TV station runs not just on money, but electricity, too! This is why keeping your Electricity and Maintenance Room running like a well-oiled machine, pun intended, is another important part of this guide. Let’s first talk about the generator.

The generator is the heart of your station. If it’s too small, it’ll be too weak to pump in all that electricity into the equipment you have. Upgrading the generator might be expensive, but it should be worth it since you’ll be needing all the energy you can get.

Energy is spent on some equipment upgrades, appliances in the break room, makeup tables, dressing rooms, and new sets. If you don’t have enough energy, the game will be sure to tell you that you’ll need more.

Complementing the generator are the batteries. The first station will have only four batteries while the second, bigger station will have eight. While these don’t provide as much energy as the generator itself, these certainly help if you need that extra energy boost in a pinch. It’s much cheaper to get or upgrade new batteries, so keep a lookout if you need more of these.

Despite having a plus indicator on the energy icon (located on the upper right portion of your interface), you cannot buy energy with real money.

7. Complete The First Station

Once you have reached 40% in shares (indicated by the circle-shaped meter on the upper-left corner of your screen), Mr. Cash will inform you that it’s time to open up a new station. This second station is a bit more padded out and has a greater variety in TV shows; a sports news program, a fortune-telling show, a children’s program, and a game show. In this case, you’ll start with the sports news program.

To keep up with the ever-changing trends in sports, the plays of the game, and various other happenings out there in stadiums and fields across the country, you will need reporters. Without these reporters, as we mentioned earlier, your presenters will have nothing to work with.

To make the most out of your sports news program, we would suggest you fill out all the reporter slots so they can return to the station with a large number of reports at a time. If you upgrade their vehicles, they’ll be able to go to and from the sporting events much quicker. This means more reports in a short span of time.

In addition to this, your second station will now have a room where you can air programs from other networks. If you pay the other networks to broadcast their shows, you get a cut from their earnings, too, and these will last for a few in-game days.

If the shows have been fully upgraded (a small, yellow bar is the indicator below the scrolling name of the set after tapping your chosen set), you earn massive sums from every broadcast. Just because you have this brand new TV station doesn’t mean you could leave the first one alone. There’s always work to be done!

8. Watch Ads For Offers

If you need that extra boost in cash real quick, chances are, you’ll want to watch some ads. Consider them as a way you could pass time while you play the game (or an actual commercial break from watching your favorite program!).

Some ads only offer a thousand dollars as a grant, but others might offer three-thousand or even five-thousand. Keep your eyes peeled and take offers when you need them. At the end of a busy work day, you’ll be offered an instant sunrise.

The only time we recommend you use this is when the station is left squeaky clean. For some reason, the sunrise doesn’t mean that the cleaners have de-cluttered the studio mid-ad viewing, so after a quick scan of your studio, take that instant sunrise and watch your employees come back to work that next morning.

Another way you can easily earn funds from this is by doubling your earnings from idle play. When you come back to your game after letting it idle, you should have gotten a lot of money. If you still need more, you can double that by watching an ad. There’s the option of quintupling it by spending gems, but we’d rather you just save them for stars or celebrities, as we’ve said earlier.

9. Grab Those Ratings

Whether you’re out to make the best station out there or if you just want to broadcast some high-quality entertainment to the masses, our TV Empire Tycoon guide will surely help you make the most out of your earnings in this fast-paced, albeit difficult, idle game. Avoid having employee strikes, always keep the morale of your workers high, don’t overwhelm your staff, and make sure there is always someone to fit the jobs that are needed. That’s all you should remember.

If there is any other trick that we might have left out or that you’ve discovered on your own, be sure to hit us up in the comment section!