Huayu: Director started with art films

Chapter 338 349 [Agreement on Cooperation to Control Asia Television, Yu Feihong Must Not Become a Director]

There are three main reasons why a TV station wants to make a profit: the first is advertising revenue, the second is the share of the broadcasting rights and videotape profits of the TV series produced, and the third is the revenue from cooperation.

One thing that ATV is better than TVB is that it has had pay channels for a long time. The vast majority of audiences in Hong Kong Island are already accustomed to ATV's pay channels, but whether or not to pay is up to personal freedom.

Although the pay channel is called pay, it is actually different from those midnight channels in the United States. This pay channel is a bit like the cable signal interface in the mainland in the millennium.

At that time, watching TV programs was mainly through traditional TV service providers. Users needed to pay a basic viewing fee of about 200 yuan per year, which included almost all TV programs.

This is also the reason why the use of satellite dishes in cities was severely cracked down on back then, because if you use a satellite dish, you don’t need a wired interface.

ATV was originally a paid cable TV program, while TVB was known as a wireless TV station at the time because it did not need to move a separate signal line. All it needed was a signal line and a small signal receiver hung on the rooftop to watch the programs for free.

Today, ATV is doing quite well in the pay channel sector. There are many wealthy residential areas in Hong Kong Island, and it is impossible for them to hang all kinds of signal receivers on the windows and rooftops.

However, although Hong Kong Island has the highest population density in the world, no matter how densely populated it is, there are only a few million people.

Unless everyone pays to watch TV, this pay channel is at most a dessert or an appetizer.

Therefore, there may be less than 10,000 households in Hong Kong Island that actually purchase ATV's pay channels.

At the end of last year, Li Yishu asked Yang Shoucheng to investigate the situation of ATV. He more or less knew a little about the current predicament of ATV, which mainly focused on excessive personnel expenses and unstable ratings, which led to a decline in advertising fees.

The advertising fees of TV stations are often related to the ratings. ATV has produced many good TV series in recent years, including "Heavenly Silkworm Change", "The Good Earth", "Heroes of the East", "Ma Yongzhen", etc.

But compared with TVB, it is a bit disappointing. The TV series produced by TVB in recent years, not to mention the TV series like "The Bund" that attracted a lot of people, there are "The Legend of the Condor Heroes", "Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils", "Rogue Tycoon", "The Greed of Man" and so on.

Which one is not popular in Hong Kong and Taiwan?
As for variety shows, TVB has the long-lasting "Happy Tonight" and "Jingge Jinqu", as well as "Super Invincible Prize Master" launched last year.

These programs and TV dramas are almost overwhelming, with the ratings being far ahead of others.

Based on these points, Li Yishu gave three rectification plans for ATV.

The first is the issue of personnel expenses. While retaining the artist department, we go to mainland film and television cities to shoot programs. In this way, excluding the pay and wages of the actors and crew members, the consumption level in the mainland is much lower than that in Hong Kong Island, and costumes and props can all be produced in the mainland.

To put it bluntly, even the boxed lunches for extras only cost two or three yuan in mainland China, and they include three dishes, a soup, and meat!
This will greatly reduce the cost of producing TV series.

Li Yishu's Hengdian Film and Television City, Yanjing Huairou Film and Television City, and the photography base to be invested in Shanghai in the future can all provide convenience for ATV.

There is no big problem in the reform of TV dramas. As for the quality issue, the worst that can happen is to hire more screenwriters.

Not to mention variety shows, Li Yishu has a lot of future well-known domestic and international variety shows in her mind, such as the reality show "Running Man", the music shows "The Voice of China" and "The King of Singers", the daily life show "Longing" and so on.

The fact that these programs were introduced from South Korea and remain popular in mainland China shows that the positioning of the programs themselves is in line with the public's curiosity.

The last one is people's livelihood news. Li Yishu's idea for its reform is that in addition to reporting local news in Hong Kong Island, the most important thing is to report more on mainland people's livelihood news.

In two years, Hong Kong will return to China. Except for Hong Kong businessmen and those who have relatives in the mainland, almost everyone is curious about the mainland.

Li Yishu's idea is very simple. In addition to opening a news channel dedicated to reporting on the people's livelihood in mainland China, he will also open a travel channel dedicated to reporting on the mountains and rivers of mainland China.

We then reached cooperation with official travel agencies in the Mainland to launch three-day, seven-day and fifteen-day mainland tour groups.

This will not only bring in extra income for the TV station, but also allow ATV to be valued and strongly supported by the higher-ups.

Hong Kong will be returned in two years. The real estate is being taken over by red capital. There is no reason not to provide more support and policy support in the area of ​​publicity.

By then, when ATV makes a TV series, it can sell it to thousands of TV stations of all sizes in the mainland, from CCTV to provincial TV stations, as well as city and county TV stations, at a relatively low price.

Even if the price is very low, only 100,000 yuan on average, with so many TV stations backing it up, it can be sold for tens of millions.

Lin Baixin hesitated and said, "Mr. Li's idea is very good, but are you sure the mainland will agree?"

It's not that he didn't think about integrating ATV into the mainland market, but he didn't have much contact with the mainland officials. Moreover, even TVB's Shao Laoliu failed to bring his Jade Channel into the mainland market, let alone his own ATV.

"If it's Mr. Lin, then it's hard to say, but if I control ATV, then there will be absolutely no problem."

Li Yishu is full of confidence. Not to mention his current international achievements in the film industry, his identity alone is also a legitimate one!

What's more, the mainland has begun to implement the separation of production and broadcasting. When it comes to TV drama production, mainland private companies lack experience. ATV has been operating in this field for many years. Even if it cannot beat TVB, it is still very competitive in the mainland.

Peter Lam glanced at his father, then at Li Yishu, and couldn't help asking, "How many shares of ATV does Mr. Li want?"

"At least I own the shares."

Li Yishu said, "There are some things I cannot say, but Mr. Lin should understand."

Lin Baixin nodded. Li Yishu's identity was there. He was a mainlander with a good family background and a cultural name card for China to the outside world. Only he controlled ATV, so he could talk to the mainland officials about many things that they could not do.

He pondered for a moment and said, "Okay! Just follow Mr. Li's advice. I will speed up the process of acquiring other people's shares in Asia Television and try to complete it within a month. By then, Mr. Li will control Asia Television."

If his previous intention was simply to save ATV and thus meet with Lee Yi-shu, then now Lam Pak-hsin is just hoping that Lee Yi-shu will take control of ATV.

The reason is simple. Compared with the small markets in Hong Kong, Taiwan and some Southeast Asian markets, the huge market of one billion people in the mainland is the future of ATV.

Even if the Lin family loses the controlling stake in the TV station, as long as they hold a certain percentage of shares and become the second largest shareholder of the TV station, they will definitely be able to take this opportunity to establish relations with the mainland in the future.

Hong Kong Island will be returned soon, and Lin Baixin must think about the future.

A family's century-long plan does not rely on a certain descendant, but on an industry that can continue to bring influence to the family.

The TV station is very good.

"Thank you, Mr. Lin!"

Li Yishu was delighted. Once he successfully took control of ATV, his art and entertainment group would be able to completely move towards the path of a media group.

"There's nothing to thank me for. If anyone needs to be thanked, it should be Mr. Li!" Lin Baixin said with a smile, "I have to thank Mr. Li for preventing me from losing so much money every year."

Yang Shoucheng beside him smiled and said, "In my opinion, Mr. Lin and Mr. Li are in a win-win situation!"

"That's right, win-win cooperation!"

Li Yishu nodded, stood up and held out his hand: "Boss Lin, I wish us a pleasant cooperation!"

"Happy cooperation!"

Lin Baixin laughed heartily.

After lunch, Lin Baixin took the bus back home. As he was old, he had to take a nap at noon.

Originally, Li Yishu wanted to go with Yang Shoucheng.

However, Peter Lam strongly invited them to visit his Media Asia Film Company. Li Yishu couldn't refuse, after all, he had just reached a consensus with his father to acquire Asia Television, so he went to Media Asia with Yang Shoucheng.

Currently, Media Asia Films has only invested in a handful of films. It's not that Peter Lam doesn't want to expand production, but since he is not yet the head of the Lam Group, he does not have enough funds on hand, and he is mainly working at the TV station responsible for Asia Television, the film company will have to be put on hold for a while.

During the visit, Peter Lam mentioned the plan of co-production more than once, which made Yang Shoucheng laugh. Li Yishu already owns 30% of the shares in Eagle King Entertainment, and she has only produced a script so far. Why do you, Peter Lam, have the right to snatch it away?

After a quick look around, Li Yishu gave a few encouraging words and then decisively left with Yang Shoucheng. There was nothing worth visiting in Media Asia now. It was just half a shell company.

There are no actors and no directors.

In the car, Yang Shoucheng asked, "Do you want to go to my place?"

"Forget it, Mr. Yang. It's Chinese New Year, and your company is probably closed for the holiday."

Li Yishu shook her head and asked, "Have you found the actors for New World?"

Yang Shoucheng said: "The male lead has not been decided yet, but the important supporting role has been chosen. The one who plays Ding Qing is Hua Zai."

It's okay for Andy Lau to play the role of Ding Qing. The role itself is about being cool and being an elevator god of war, which is quite suitable for Andy Lau now.

The role of Li Zicheng...

Li Yishu pondered for a moment and said, "Why don't we let Guo Rong play the male lead Li Zicheng? Guo Rong is quite suitable for the role of Li Zicheng. Let Li Jiaxin play the role of the Go teacher, and let Lan Jieying play the role of Li Zicheng's wife."

"No problem. I'll send them a notice after the New Year. Director Li wrote the script himself and also participated in the film's production. It will definitely be a big hit at the box office!"

Since Cheng Long's "Rumble in the Bronx" became a big hit in North America, it has successfully opened the Lunar New Year box office in mainland China this year, selling more than 8000 million RMB, and is still being shown in mainland China.
Yang Shoucheng has long admired Li Yishu's talent in film.

There is still at least half a month before Rumble in the Bronx is released in China. It may hit 1 million RMB, becoming the first film to break the RMB million box office record in China after Sword Rain. (Sword Rain was the number of moviegoers at the time, but it was converted into box office)

After asking Yang Shoucheng to send him to the villa halfway up the mountain, Li Yishu called Lan Jieying and told her about the role.

"No problem, Director Li. I just don't have any scenes in the first half of the year."

At this point, Lan Jieying hesitated on the other end of the phone and said, "Director Li, you...you came to Hong Kong?"

"Yes, I just arrived. Do you want to come over?"

"Okay, where are you?"

"This is the hillside villa, come over here."

Li Yishu gave an address.

An hour later, Lan Jieying drove over.

"Why did you buy so many vegetables?"

When Li Yishu went to the door to pick up Lan Jieying, he saw her carrying several bags of vegetables.

Lan Jieying smiled and said, "We bought a lot for the New Year. I thought that Director Li, you live alone and you might not have much food at home."

"I'm in for a treat that night, and I was thinking of just grabbing something tonight."

Li Yishu smiled. Although his villa was cleaned by people from a cleaning company every week, there was no one living there most of the time, so there was no vegetables or meat in the refrigerator.

"Then I will prepare now..."

"Don't worry!"

Li Yishu hugged the other person and said with a sly smile, "I just had lunch with someone, so I'm not hungry, but..."

He leaned over to the other person's ear and whispered something.

Hearing this, Lan Jieying's face instantly turned red, and she lowered her head and let Li Yishu pull her upstairs.

The next day, Lan Jieying sent Li Yishu to the airport with a beaming face.

the following few days.

Li Yishu was in Taipei to accompany Qingxia and the children, and the two families had a relatively harmonious relationship.

On the afternoon of the fifth day of the New Year, he and Qingxia sent their parents, grandparents, and grandparents to the airport.

After that, he stayed in Taiwan for a few more days. After the eighth day of the Lunar New Year, Li Yishu took a plane back to the mainland.

He did not rush to Yuhang, but went back to his hometown in Sichuan first, met Jiang Qinqin, and delivered the New Year gift to Jiang Qinqin's home.

After staying in Sichuan for a few days, Li Yishu set off for Yuhang to accompany Yu Feihong to attend her grandmother's funeral.

Although Yu Feihong's mother's family was not the main branch of the Qian family, the old lady was 83 years old when she passed away. She had a lot of younger generations, many of whom were university professors, leaders, or famous local businessmen... The funeral was still very grand.

Li Yishu had always been following Yu Feihong in a low-key manner. Except for a few close relatives and friends introduced by Yu Feihong's mother, most people did not recognize him.

The funeral lasted all day, and in the evening, relatives and friends left one after another.

Mother Yu looked exhausted: "Thank you for your hard work, Yishu."

Li Yishu said quickly, "You're too polite, Auntie. We are all family, so it doesn't matter how hard it is. You should go back and rest with uncle early. You are exhausted after a long day."

"Feihong, you and Yishu should go back to the hotel and rest early."

After the sadness, all that was left was exhaustion. Yu's mother and father briefly chatted with Li Yishu and then left in a hurry.

The funeral is over, but there are still many things to deal with afterwards.

As the first family in Liangzhe Road since the Song Dynasty, the Qian family has a complete clan system.

According to Yu Feihong, her parents had to work hard for at least a month.

On the way back to the hotel, Yu Feihong said as he drove: "Yishu, do you think I can make a movie in memory of my grandmother?"

"Sure. Zhao Fei also wants to try to be a director recently. You write the script and I'll let him direct it."

Li Yishu does not believe in Yu Feihong's directing ability.

That movie "Love Has Afterlife" was so badly made. It cost 5000 million and only grossed 200 million. It's terrible!

Not only was the box office poor, but the film was also hard to describe.

(End of this chapter)