Entertainment: 1990

Chapter 280 Miscalculation Leads to More Help
Although the representatives' protests were all deleted by Hou Tai, and their idea of ​​reporting the situation was distorted by Zhang Yan into an application for funding.

But at the banquet, the representatives from various TV stations appeared to be in high spirits. Those who had been the most vocal in their opposition in the afternoon even took the initiative to toast Zhang Yan, praising him for his promising young talent.

Nine-tenths of this is because everyone keeps public and private matters separate and doesn't let work ruin personal relationships. The remaining ninety-one percent is because someone revealed the former director's current situation to them.

Although the optoelectronics department cannot directly decide on personnel appointments and removals at the provincial station, it can still easily obstruct your decisions.

Zhang Yan originally thought that the controversy was over, but unexpectedly, when the wine was flowing freely, representatives from Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai suddenly approached him again.

They expressed that they were quite optimistic about the show, but the station was currently undergoing commercial reforms and needed to invest money in many areas. They inquired whether the three parties could jointly purchase the copyright.

Previously, Zhang Yan couldn't be said to be completely indifferent to the collusion with those poor provinces, but he was somewhat fearless.

However, he felt somewhat constrained by the united front of the Yangtze River Delta region. The Yangtze River Delta region and Guangzhou were his most favored buyers, as he had originally hoped that these companies would drive up prices for each other.

who knows……

Zhang Yan certainly wouldn't agree so easily.

These three companies, confident in their substantial capital and with a resolute attitude, held talks overnight, but failed to reach any agreement until midnight.

The next day, the southeast, southwest, Hubei and Hunan provinces, as well as Guangdong and Guangxi provinces, also chose to form pairs, ranging from two or three provinces to four or five provinces.

The representatives said that for the sake of the overall situation, they had to accept the marketization of copyright with a heavy heart, but since there were still three years left, they would proceed gradually, collect less first, and make a better living together.

Moreover, all provinces and cities agree that the copyright authorization period should be longer; three years is too short, ten years is too long, and five years is just right.

To put it bluntly, it's still the same old trick of colluding to drive down prices.

But this time the scale was incomparable to the previous ones. With a few wealthy men leading the way, almost all the provinces and cities present got involved, including Hunan TV.

Ouyang Changlin certainly supported Zhang Yan, but he was just a director and couldn't make decisions for the station.

The only one that didn't join in the fun was Shandong TV.

But after doing this, Zhang Yan did a quick calculation and found that it wasn't even enough to break even.

Of course, this is only the first round. If other miscellaneous income is included, the final earnings should be between several hundred thousand and millions.

But if it's just for these meager profits, why would Zhang Yan rack his brains to write scripts and go to great lengths to commercialize copyrights?
It was only then that Zhang Yan realized he had oversimplified the matter, assuming that the introduction of regulations on copyright marketization would solve the problem of not making money from TV dramas.

But unexpectedly, there are always countermeasures to policies from above.

Ultimately, this stems from a lack of competition among television stations.

Currently, the vast majority of provincial TV stations do not broadcast satellites. They each guard their own small territory, and there is only a struggle between them based on personal feelings, rather than a significant conflict of interest.

This resulted in the bidding process turning into a group 'bid rigging'.

The night of the 25st.

The middle and senior management of Yuanmeng Company gathered together to discuss how to deal with the current situation.

At the beginning of the meeting, Zhang Yanxian made a self-criticism: "This time I was too presumptuous. I should have negotiated with each province separately. Even if the price was lower, it would have been better than letting them band together to put pressure on us."

Wang Jinghua quickly smoothed things over, saying, "This can't be blamed on you, Mr. Zhang. There are indeed conflicts between the TV signals in Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Shanghai, especially between Zhejiang and Shanghai. No one expected that they would be the first to band together."

Zhang Guoli was the most worried. He rubbed his left temple and said, "Even if it's a group effort, this price is still much higher than before. If you include the second round..."

"You can't do it like that!"

Chen Hong interrupted Zhang Guoli and said firmly, "This is a great start for our company, and also a great start for the marketization of copyright. So many eyes are watching us."

If we back down now, the amount of money we earn is secondary; what's more, it will be a significant blow to our reputation for realizing our dream.

"Then let's try selling it to CCTV at a high price!" Liu Weidong suggested. "Didn't CCTV buy 'I Love You Without Hesitation', a Beijing-produced drama, at a high price last year? After CCTV finishes broadcasting it, we can sell it to provincial TV stations at a lower price for the second round. Isn't that how we did it before?"

“I think we should ask Tianjin TV first,” Li Songqiang said, not following his elder brother’s lead. “After all, the root of our dream is in Tianjin.”

Hearing this, Zhang Yan smiled bitterly and said, "If Tianjin TV could come up with so much money, I wouldn't have held the trailer auction in the first place. But recently, with the launch of satellites and the collaboration with August First Film Studio to build a film and television base, even if Tianjin TV has a lot of assets, it is now struggling to make ends meet."

This can be considered Zhang Yan's own doing. Whether it's the satellite or the film and television base, it was all his idea and the media he protected for the station.

His original plan was to wait for the second or third round of bidding and then sell it to the station at a lower price, so that he wouldn't hurt feelings or lose too much money.

But man proposes, God disposes...

Selling it directly to CCTV at a high price now could damage the relationship with Tianjin TV. Selling it to Tianjin TV at a lower price would mean that Yuanmeng Pictures' first move would be a dud.

Therefore, being too closely tied to local TV stations is not necessarily all good.

Zhang Yan's analysis left everyone looking at each other, unsure of what to do.

Seeing this, Zhang Yan sighed and said, "Never mind, I'll discuss it with Director Ma first..."

Just then, the mobile phone on the table rang.

When I answered the phone, it was Ma Yuan calling.

"Sir, what are your instructions?"

"I heard your auction ran into trouble?"

Zhang Yan smiled wryly and said, "Nothing can be hidden from your eyes. The Yangtze River Delta region has jumped out and formed a group. Now each province has formed an alliance to defend itself. No one can buy the copyright alone. My cooking is completely half done."

Ma Yuan laughed and asked in return, "Isn't there one exception?"

exception?

Zhang Yan said, "You mean Shandong TV? But they're a satellite station now..."

"So our two families can also stick together."

Ma Yuan interrupted him, saying, "The station is indeed facing some difficulties right now, so I plan to buy the first broadcast rights together with Shandong TV. Our station will contribute 250 million yuan, and Shandong TV will contribute 300 million yuan."

The condition is that you plan a variety show for them to help them launch their satellite TV program at the end of March—of course, Shandong TV won't let you help for nothing; they've promised to recommend Yuanmeng to shoot related commercials.

This is truly a case of losing one thing and gaining another; I never expected that going through the roundabout way of having Shandong TV contact Director Ma would have such an unexpected effect.

Although the promised advertising revenue sharing has been replaced by recommending that you film commercials to fulfill your dreams, there's still a considerable amount of profit to be made from it.

Moreover, with this initial success of 550 million, the game "New Dragon and Phoenix" has officially taken off.

Overall, this deal is worthwhile!
"to make!"

Zhang Yan readily agreed, "Don't worry, even if I rack my brains, I'll definitely come up with two good programs that will guarantee high viewership during the Spring Festival!"

"two?"

Ma Yuan asked in confusion, "Why are you offering a buy-one-get-one-free deal?"

“It’s definitely going to be given away, but not to Shandong TV.” Zhang Yan said solemnly, “One is sold to Shandong TV, and the other is for our Tianjin TV.”

"You kid!"

Ma Yuan laughed heartily. Because the station had been expanding too much recently, it was indeed in a tight spot. Taking out 250 million yuan put him under considerable pressure, but Zhang Yan's words made it all worthwhile, and he believed the station would have no objections.

“Then our station will follow Shandong TV’s example. From now on, all the commercials for the programs you plan will be handled by Yuanmeng. After all, that’s what you started out doing.”

Shandong TV made a recommendation, but Director Ma directly approved the dream-fulfilling proposal.

Although Zhang Yan hadn't landed any advertising deals before, shooting commercials was a dream come true for many celebrities, so the incremental increase wasn't that significant.

After Ma Yuan hung up the phone.

Just as Zhang Yangang was about to announce the good news, Leader Lin called.

He didn't ask Zhang Yan if he had encountered any trouble, but only said that the situation regarding the marketization of copyright was related to negotiations between optoelectronics and the Hong Kong film and television industry, so he decided to send someone over to find out the situation.

(End of this chapter)