Entering the Chinese entertainment industry is like entering a deep sea

Chapter 690: Qiyi’s Cold Reception

It was already late at night in Beijing when Li Chen received a call from his wife.

"When did you come back?" As soon as the video call was connected, Liu Yifei saw her husband's slightly tired face.

"I just came back." Li Chen wiped his hair casually and leaned against the head of the bed. He had just finished taking a shower and felt much more relaxed.

Liu Yifei felt very distressed. As far as she could remember, this was the fifth time her husband had come home late at night during this period.

"I have good news for you. I have finished recording Little Lucky."

"Okay, I'll listen later and leave the rest to me."

Liu Yifei frowned slightly: "Should I come back early for rehearsal? If I really come back in time for the first trial in October, people will definitely gossip about me!"

Li Chen smiled and said, "What kind of gossip can there be? Everyone talks behind others' backs, and no one talks behind their backs. If they want to talk, let them talk."

"In my heart, your voice has a kind of pure taste in it, which is most suitable for singing this kind of youthful tune. Don't worry, I will take care of everything."

No matter what Li Chen said, Liu Yifei made up her mind that even if she had to ask for leave from the crew, she would go back a week in advance to rehearse.

In fact, she didn't know that even if "Little Lucky" didn't appear on the Spring Festival Gala this year, it would be on it in the future.

The next day, Li Chen met with Gu Yongkeng and Cao Guowei separately and gave them some reassurance.

Ever since the news of Li Chen's meeting with Penguin and Ali spread online, many video websites and Internet companies have smelled something different, and CCTV's copyright management department has been extremely busy.

Many video websites including Youku, iQiyi, LeTV, Penguin, and Sohu Video have begun to take action.

For video websites, traffic is money.

A program like the Spring Festival Gala, which has high attention and high traffic, will naturally become the focus of competition among various video websites.

This situation continued until mid-September, when the outcome became clear.

After meeting Li Chen, the head of the copyright department complained with a smile that Li Chen's idea had made them so busy, but in fact he was very happy in his heart.

After sending Li Chen out of the office, Director Liu finally said the key point: "Mr. Li, we have decided to grant the live broadcast rights of the Spring Festival Gala of the Year of the Horse to Youku and Penguin."

Director Liu did not say anything about the media, but Li Chen has learned from Cao Guowei that Sina Weibo has obtained the exclusive authorization.

Li Chen quickly pretended to be grateful to his eight generations of ancestors: "Thank you, Director Liu."

"Mr. Li, what you said is wrong. Youku now has the largest market share. Just based on this, choosing Youku is in line with our original intention."

“As for other ad spaces, this”

Director Liu hadn't finished speaking when Li Chen couldn't help but laugh and said, "Of course, the advertising space goes to the one who offers the best price."

Director Liu also laughed. No wonder he could achieve such a big career at such a young age. This can be seen from his cleverness in understanding the elegant meaning of music.

Li Chen is not so arrogant as to think that he can tell CCTV's copyright department what to do with his influence.

In fact, as long as they get the live broadcast rights, Youku and Penguin can make their own advertisements and find someone to sponsor them, killing two birds with one stone.

It’s just that there is a certain gap between its advertising space and CCTV’s.

Two days later, CCTV announced a major news.

"On the afternoon of September 9, the National Press and Publication Administration issued a notice on its official Weibo account: "The CCTV Spring Festival Gala is an important cultural product that has attracted great attention from all walks of life, is deeply loved by the people, and has a wide range of influence."

"The live broadcast rights of the Spring Festival Gala of the Year of the Horse are now granted to Youku, Penguin and Sina Weibo...except Youku, Penguin and Sina Weibo, which have been authorized by CCTV International Network Co., Ltd."

“Any other organization or individual may not, without the permission of the rights holder, disseminate videos, audios, pictures and other works of CCTV’s 2014 Spring Festival Gala through the Internet, IPTV, OTT platforms, by providing live broadcast, on-demand, download and other services.”

The atmosphere in a meeting room at Aiqiyi's Beijing headquarters was depressing.

Baidu had just acquired iQiyi, and Gong Yu, the founder and CEO of iQiyi, was hit hard.

Among the three major video websites, iQiyi is the only one that did not obtain the live broadcast rights for the Spring Festival Gala.

He didn't know how to explain it to the head office.

"Mr. Gong, even if those two companies get the live streaming rights, it won't have much impact on us. After all, we are still in the 3G era, and the Internet speed and technology have limited the application and popularity of video websites and mobile phones."

iQiyi's Chief Marketing Officer Wang Xiangjun is Gong Yu's confidant. Seeing that others did not dare to speak, he was the only one who spoke up and said some nonsense that was more like comfort than comfort.

Gong Yu's expression remained unchanged, and his calm eyes swept over every executive present: "Tell me the reason for this failure."

Silence suddenly returned to the conference room.

No one was in a hurry to express their opinions. In fact, everyone knew in their hearts that the most fundamental reason was that among the three video websites, iQiyi's number of users and content were inferior to the other two.

Youku is backed by Rongchen Pictures and Alibaba, so it has a natural advantage in terms of content, not to mention funding.

Like Penguin, he is very close to Director Li of Rongchen Pictures and even sold his luxury house in Hong Kong Island to him.

In addition to this fundamental reason, another reason is that iQiyi is too isolated from the news. Youku must have known it early on, and Penguin may not be too late either.

However, iQiyi only learned about the Spring Festival Gala news through the Internet.

Maybe there is another reason, but no one dares to say it, that is, iQiyi and Huayi are too close.

Li Chen's entry into the Spring Festival Gala has caused a huge fight between the Internet and video website circles.

In addition to the live broadcast rights, the battle for the "exclusive interactive rights" mentioned by Li Chen has become even more intense.

In addition to Alibaba and Penguin, Baidu also entered the market.

The final result was somewhat unexpected.

Jack Ma is worthy of being Jack Ma. He first took the lead on Weibo, saying that in the Year of the Horse, he, Ma, will send red envelopes to audiences across the country on Alipay. He even made fun of himself and said that he would set up a password quiz to find out who looks most like an alien.

For this question, any idiot knows who is responsible. It is obvious that they want to give money to the people of the whole country.

As soon as the Weibo post was released, it attracted cheers from netizens across the country.

Soon after, at the CCTV prime resource advertising bidding conference, it won the bid for the "Spring Festival Gala exclusive interaction" rights and secured the exclusive cooperation for CCTV's Spring Festival Gala in the Year of the Horse with an advertising fee of 5805 million.

Jack Ma actually won the bid for "Exclusive Interaction", which was really a surprise to Li Chen. All he could say is that experience still makes the most sense.

The competition for the exclusive interactive show at the Spring Festival Gala in the Year of the Horse ended with the victory of the old horse Jack Ma.

After much consideration, Zhang Guoli finally accepted Li Chen's assignment.

In his words: "Boss Li has spoken, so Zhang Guoli has no choice but to do his best."

A Weibo post by Zhang Ziyi became a hot topic. The accompanying picture showed four people, all half-length photos, obviously sitting at a dining table in the cabin of a luxurious private jet.

Next to Zhang Ziyi was the smiling Liu Yifei, and sitting opposite her were Leonardo DiCaprio and Chiyou Pictures president Tim Smith.

The message was: When Yu Jiaolong and Jin Yanzi stole the spotlight, Xiao Li and Mr. Smith could only become supporting roles.

A large number of media flocked to the airport, but they failed to block people.

Netizens joked: The goddess can't live without Leo, and Hollywood also has a double, but why is this double swollen? Some netizens also lamented that the international Zhang and the goddess in the same frame are too pleasing to the eyes.

Tianxian's fans came out to refute the rumor, saying that Leo and Zhang Ziyi were just flying along.

At the Beijing airport, a group of bodyguards escorted Leonardo, Liu Yifei and others as they quickly passed through the VIP channel.

After leaving the airport, someone naturally came to pick up Zhang Ziyi.

"Aunt, Yifei, I'm leaving first. Yifei, see you in Qingdao."

"See you in Qingdao." After seeing Zhang Ziyi off, Liu Yifei felt relieved. She was not actually that familiar with her.

However, Zhang Ziyi has also been promoting her movie "Perfect Match 2" in Hollywood recently. When I learned that she would also attend the Qingdao Oriental Movie Metropolis Superstar Red Carpet Event held by Wanda on the 21st, I wanted to return to China with her.

The Oriental Movie Metropolis red carpet has invited many Hollywood A-list stars and internationally and domestically renowned A-list artists, including Leon and Nicole Kidman.

There are also CEOs of major Hollywood film and television companies and the heads of the world's four largest artist management companies.

Boss Wang obviously invested a lot of money this time. Not only did he sign an agreement with Rongchen Pictures, he also reached preliminary agreements with many film and television companies at home and abroad.

Every year, about 30 foreign films and no less than 100 domestic film and television works will be shot and produced here.

With Wanda’s financial resources and the government’s involvement, even the six major Hollywood stars came to show their support. Naturally, domestic artists had no objection, not to mention that being invited was itself a reflection of their status.

Even a top domestic actor like Huang Xiaoming is inconspicuous in the film.

After being away from the capital for two months, Liu Yifei felt all the hairs on her body dancing as soon as she landed.

The only flaw was that her husband didn't come to pick her up this time.

The person who came to pick them up at the airport was Yang Siwei. As soon as they met, he greeted Liu's mother and the blond "Little Leo", and then gave Liu Yifei a big hug.

"You're not happy to see me. Is it because the person who picked me up at the airport is wrong?"

"No way, the first trial of the Spring Festival Gala will start soon, I know he is busy."

"Our boss lady is not only beautiful and kind, but also reasonable. The boss is really blessed in his previous life!" Yang Siwei said with a smile.

"You should tell this to your boss, not to me. I won't appreciate it."

Leonardo's assistant and translator were in another car and couldn't understand what the two were saying, so they could only interrupt and say, "(English) Crystal, don't forget your date tonight. I'm flying away early tomorrow morning."

"I dare not promise on his behalf. You have his phone number, so call him." Liu Yifei shrugged and smiled.

"Okay, I'll call him." Leon called as he said, but the call didn't go through after two tries.

It was still Yang Siwei who smiled and said, “No need to fight, Leon, the boss should be on the show.”

Yang Siwei was right. "I Want to Be on the Spring Festival Gala" had invited Li Chen several times, but Li Chen was always too busy to spare the time.

"Well, he's a busy man."

"That's right, you think everyone is like you, surrounded by beautiful women in bikinis every day! I almost couldn't recognize you like this."

Leon has indeed gained a lot of weight this time. He has been hanging out with a group of bikini beauties on the Gold Coast for the past six months, and he is so greasy that he is almost unrecognizable.

Netizens all lamented that Jack and Fat Wen looked more and more like a couple.

Leon laughed heartily and said, "Yang, if Crystal said this to me, I might still be embarrassed, but you..."

Leon looked at Yang Siwei's burly body with a playful look, which immediately made Liu Yifei laugh.

Yang Siwei said indifferently: "I'm not an actor, but you are different, Leon!"

The two of them argued all the way.

At the recording site of "I Want to Be on the Spring Festival Gala", Li Chen's arrival became the focus of the entire audience.

The news that Zhang Guoli would become the host of the Spring Festival Gala spread like wildfire, but at the instruction of Li Chen, Zhang Guoli still strongly denied it to the media.

But there are many people who know this news.

Dong Qing, who has hosted the Spring Festival Gala for many years, is one of them. So when she met Li Chen today, her first words were full of gunpowder: "Mr. Li, except for the male hosts, the female hosts of the Spring Festival Gala are all excellent."

Li Chen naturally understood what this meant. Not only Li Chen understood it, but Zhang Guoli also heard it clearly. However, it was not appropriate for him to speak in this situation, so Li Chen had to deal with it himself.

Dong Qing said this simply to express his dissatisfaction with Li Chen's decision to hire Li Sisi as a newcomer to CCTV.

However, once Li Chen has made a decision, he will not easily change it just because of anyone’s opposition.

"That's right. Our CCTV hosts are naturally one in a million in terms of both skills and professionalism. Otherwise, they wouldn't be able to join CCTV." Li Chen did not express his opinion, but just followed Dong Qing's words.

Dong Qing snorted in his heart, but pressed on: "I feel relieved when Mr. Li said that. Then I will wait for good news from Mr. Li."

Li Chen smiled and said, "What good news or bad news? Who will host the Spring Festival Gala depends on the audience. I dare not be too particular."

The person in charge of the publicity team of the "I Want to Go to the Spring Festival Gala" column saw that the situation was about to become tense, and immediately stepped out to smooth things over: "Xiao Dong, Mr. Li, please take your seats quickly, the show is about to begin."

"Please give me more suggestions, Mr. Li."

Li Chen seemed to not care about Dong Qing's attitude. He turned around and said with a smile, "I took this job because I was eager to find a good program. Naturally, I hope that "I Want to Be on the Spring Festival Gala" can give me a surprise."

“That’s right, that’s right!” The program crew didn’t dare to offend this person, as they were not the only ones who had selected programs for CCTV’s Spring Festival Gala.

In the end, this person has a veto power over whether someone will go on to the stage or not. It is no exaggeration to say that he has the power of life and death.

He didn't know why his superiors agreed to such an unreasonable request.

As soon as Li Chen looked at the registration list handed over by the program team, he saw several familiar names.

Like Wang Xiaomin and Hua Chenyu.

"I remember that Happy Boys hasn't ended yet?"

"That's right, Mr. Li, but this guy is very popular, and Tianyu has already signed him up."

"Tianyu? It seems that Tianyu is planning to sign this Martian brother."

"Mr. Li also watches Happy Boys?"

"I don't have the time. It's just his fans cheering for him on my Weibo. I don't appreciate his music."

"This Wang Xiaomin is good."

The person in charge of the column group was very insightful and understood it instantly.

I thought to myself that Mr. Li was blatantly using a backdoor. Everyone knows that Wang Xiaomin made her debut through "The Voice of China".

After the program was recorded, the person in charge of the program team put a check mark on Wang Xiaomin's registration form.

(End of this chapter)