The Wind of China Entertainment 2005

Chapter 591 Buyout
"See you next time, Director Park."

Outside the coffee shop, Park Jung-hwan watched his good friend Kim Eun-sook drive away.

Whether it is PPS or iQiyi, it makes no difference to Kim Eun-sook. She just hopes that her drama will have a chance to be broadcast in China.

Since HWA chose to cooperate with iQiyi, there is no need for her to stay.

After she left, Park Zhenghuan returned to the coffee shop, walked up to Lu Yuan, and bowed deeply at a 90-degree angle: "President Lu, I'm very sorry."

Both South Korea and Japan like to bow, and the degree of bending represents the degree of sincerity.

Lu Yuan helped him up: "It has nothing to do with you. This is a conflict between PPS and iQiyi."

He took 30 billion from Baidu and also snatched away PPS, which the other party originally liked. Given Baidu's style of doing things, it would be strange if it didn't retaliate. This scene was still expected.

"What are your plans next?" Park Zhenghuan asked, and spoke before Lu Yuan could answer.

"I can introduce you to other writers, such as Kim Eun-hee, who is good at suspense and mystery themes, and his works include "Sign", and Lee Yoo-jung, who is good at delicate emotional portrayal and warm life stories. This year's hit "Reply 1997" is her work."

"No need." Lu Yuan waved his hand.

"Okay." Park Zhenghuan was suddenly interrupted. He paused for a moment, sat down again and said no more.

Lu Yuan noticed his expression and tried to comfort him in case he thought too much, "Director Park, this will not affect our cooperation on "My Love from the Star."

Park Jung-hwan immediately smiled happily.

Lu Yuan picked up the coffee and took a sip.

iQiyi is now a wholly-owned subsidiary of Baidu. It is wealthy and powerful, and has been targeted by Gong Yu. No matter what drama he is interested in, there is a risk that it will be snatched away.

If that's the case, why bother anymore?

It’s the variety shows that he’s more worried about.

It is not known whether Lu Jing's talks with KBS and other three TV stations went smoothly, and whether iQiyi interfered.

……

After saying goodbye to Park Jung-hwan, the two went to the supermarket, bought some fruits, and then returned to the hotel.

Lu Jing knocked on the door quickly and just happened to see Liu Shishi coming out of the bathroom carrying washed fruit.

She picked an apple with surprise, took a bite and said with emotion: "It's quite sweet. I went to the supermarket twice yesterday, but it was too expensive, so I didn't buy any."

"That's right. Your brother and I were also shocked when we first came to Korea. Converted into RMB, an apple costs 13, a pear costs 15, and the worst thing is a watermelon, which costs 100. It's really a rip-off." Liu Shishi also sighed.

"The Korean people are so miserable that fruit has become a luxury. Why don't they import it from our country? If we give them a little bit of our production, it will be enough for them to eat their fill." Lu Jing smacked his lips.

Lu Yuan replied to the message on his phone and said casually, "The country's land area is small, there are only so many orchards, and there are many varieties of fruits. We have to grow a little bit of everything, so it's impossible to go the route of small profits but quick turnover. If we import from abroad, how can fruit merchants make money? The Korean Agricultural Cooperative Association will be the first to disagree."

After finishing this topic, Lu Jing walked around the room for a while and talked about business.

"Brother, you mentioned iQiyi on the phone, what happened to iQiyi?"

Lu Yuan put down his phone and explained, "We originally wanted to introduce a Korean drama to be broadcast on PPS in a revenue-sharing model, but iQiyi snatched it away."

"boom!"

After hearing this, Lu Jing slammed the table, his eyes widened, and Liu Shishi was startled.

"This is too much. I think Gong Yu is clearly trying to use this drama to gain popularity. When My Love from the Star is aired next year, it will dampen the limelight of PPS. Gong Yu, that bitch, has the nerve to post such hypocritical messages. Bah, disgusting. Did she give birth to a son?"

She cursed and slammed Gong Yu.

Seeing that her insults were gradually rising to the other party's ancestors, Lu Yuan stopped her and said, "Okay, when you went to Japan SoftBank to take pictures and secretly threaten Alibaba executives while you were having dinner with them, he smashed several computers in the office."

"Hehe, you deserve it." Lu Jing smiled shyly, feeling a little proud of it.

She continued, "I think Gong Yu is just daydreaming. Who is my brother? He is the uncrowned king of Chinese TV dramas. There are millions of fans on Weibo who voted for my brother to act in idol dramas. How can a few Koreans compare to him? What an international joke! No Oppa is good enough in front of my brother. When "My Love from the Star" starts airing, my brother will slay everyone!"

Lu Yuan felt a little embarrassed listening to his cousin's flattery. Although this girl was a little ugly, she seemed to be pleasing to the eye more and more recently.

"Brother, I've recently seen a set."

Ugly as always... Lu Yuan automatically ignored it: "Stop, stop, stop, save these words to praise your boyfriend, and talk about the variety show."

"Hahaha." Liu Shishi watched the show and laughed out loud.

"Sister-in-law, look at my brother."

"Buy, buy, buy. I'll buy it for you." Liu Shishi comforted.

"Sister-in-law, you are the best." Lu Jing moved his butt away from his cousin and stayed close to his sister-in-law.

Afterwards, he reluctantly reported the progress of work in the past few days.

“iQiyi doesn’t seem to have any idea about variety shows. Our contacts with several Korean variety shows went smoothly, but we are not sure whether they can be successful after localization.

So after careful consideration, we finally chose to introduce only two shows, namely "Running Man" and "Two Days and One Night". The licensing fee for the former is 7 per episode, and the latter is 5. The contract can be signed at any time."

The price is reasonable.

In fact, the current international copyright market is divided into three categories.

The first category is European and American countries, where copyright prices are the highest. The second category is Japan, South Korea, Singapore and other countries, where copyright prices are relatively cheap. The rest are in the third tier, and China belongs to this category.

Currently, Korean variety shows are still a new model imported into China. Basically, only Hunan Satellite TV is doing it. Other influential variety shows are mostly still based on the European and American model.

Therefore, the market licensing price of Korean variety shows is really not high, and it’s even a bit cheap.

In addition to the fact that there are no successful cases of localization in China, another reason is that the competition among Korean TV stations is too fierce.

With a population of over 5000 million, there are over 100 reality shows.

Take the three major traditional TV stations in South Korea as an example. There are more than 50 programs from these three TV stations alone.

SBS (Seoul Broadcasting System) has "Running Man", and KBS (Korean Broadcasting System) has variety shows such as "Two Days and One Night".

MBC has been ranked third for five consecutive years. In order to overtake, it has launched several programs, including "Where Are We Going, Dad?" and "Real Men".
Among them, "Where Are We Going, Dad?" was introduced by Hunan Satellite TV.

Lu Yuan suddenly realized something was wrong and asked with a puzzled expression: "Why, you don't want to buy out the contract and want to renew it season by season?"

Lu Jing nodded: "SBS does not agree to buy out, and the price of the buyout is very high. The most important thing is that we are not sure whether the localization of Korean variety shows can succeed. At present, only Hunan Satellite TV has introduced "Where Are We Going, Dad?" as a condition for "My Love from the Star" to be broadcasted exclusively on Hunan Satellite TV. Didn't the program sign an agreement with the company? It will be broadcasted simultaneously on PPS next year. That's what we think."

"There's nothing to think about." Lu Yuan interrupted: "SBS certainly doesn't want to buy out the entire show all at once. If the first season becomes a big hit in China, then they'll just be making money in the following seasons."

After that, he asked again: "How much does it cost to buy it out?"

"For Running Man, SBS's offer is 20 billion won, which is 1000 million RMB. The same price is for Two Days and One Night."

"Buy out!" Lu Yuan waved his hand, leaving no room for questioning.

"If Xu Weifeng has any opinions, let him come to me to discuss it. You have to understand the difference between us and other video websites. Although we lack experience in variety shows, when I acquired PPS, I invited Shanghai SMG to invest in it. After buying the variety show copyright, I will use the team of Dragon TV to localize it together. If it still doesn't work, let PPS come to Korea to poach people, poach directors, poach planners, and offer them high salaries!"

“But there is one thing, as a content director, you have to remember that I allowed PPS to introduce Korean creativity in the early stage, because Korea also learned from Japan, Europe and the United States at the beginning and developed slowly through learning.

But creativity always runs out, and I hope PPS can develop its own production team as soon as possible, learn from Korea's experience in program production and other aspects, and then create originality, independent research and development, and build a trump card that belongs to PPS alone."

"I understand, brother." Lu Jing nodded seriously.

November in China is particularly lively.

First, the release of "New World" was postponed, which caused a lot of discussion in the circle.

In less than two days, the five major distribution companies led by China Film Huayi, which controlled the source of Lunar New Year films, officially united and issued an ultimatum to theaters across the country in written form.

It issued a "Notice on Adjusting the Proportion of Domestic Films' Distribution," stating its own problems such as high costs and difficulty in recovery, and openly challenged major cinema chains led by Wanda.

It was clearly stated that cinema chains were required to give up two points of their profit sharing ratio, and the film company's share would be increased from 43% to 45%.

Wanda, the largest cinema chain, also expressed strong dissatisfaction in writing with this "taking advantage of the fire".

It said that the cinema did not make any demands to the distributor regarding equipment investment fees, screening costs, and especially virtual copy fees, which is a manifestation of taking the overall situation into consideration.

At a time when cinemas and theater chains are having a difficult time developing, a sudden increase in the profit sharing ratio will cause fatal damage to the film terminal industry, and theater chains firmly oppose this.

In addition, the 13 major cinema chains led by Wanda also listed the eight sins of the five major distribution companies.

He doesn't know the rules, he doesn't know history, he is unreasonable, he doesn't know the timing, he doesn't understand politics, he doesn't know the methods, he doesn't care about friendship, and he forgets his principles when he sees profit.

At the same time, Wanda expressed in harsh terms that it was prepared for both sides to suffer losses.

Even if the distributor refuses to provide the film source, the major cinema chains will have to close down and lose money during the entire Lunar New Year golden period.

The situation developed rapidly and the two sides have been in a stalemate since then.

Major media outlets repeatedly called Wang Zhonglei and others, and without exception received the responses "I don't know the situation" and "It's not convenient to answer at this time."

On November 11, the incident in South Korea was over, and Lu Yuan and Liu Shishi returned to China in a low-key manner.

As for Lu Jing, he continued to lead PPS employees to work hard to buy out the copyrights of "Running Man" and "Two Days and One Night".

China World Trade Center, Yuanfang Media office.

“President Han notified China Film to bypass the cinema chain and directly contact the theaters below to ask them if they are willing to give up two spots. If not, the theater will no longer be eligible to show these films.

Many small cinemas could not withstand the pressure and accepted their request. The cinema chain also frequently met with Wang Zhonglei and others in private. This is the situation. "

Wu Lang briefly describes the current situation of the entanglement between the five major distributors and theaters.

"Okay, I got it." Lu Yuan nodded and continued walking towards the meeting room.

Wu Lang turned to leave, but then he remembered something and said, "Oh, Boss, Makino posted on Weibo that the release of New World will be postponed for a month, and the reason he gave was his admiration for Director Feng Xiaogang's sense of responsibility as a filmmaker. Director Feng Xiaogang replied on Weibo, inviting you to attend the premiere of 1942 at the end of the month."

"Well, the filming of Partners had already started at that time." Lu Yuan frowned: "He didn't call."

"beated."

"I'll reply to him later and I'll definitely go when I have time."

"What has iQiyi done recently? Has the story about The Heirs been reported?"

"No, I guess I'll keep it to myself until next year."

"Row!"

Only then did Wu Lang feel at ease to leave, and Lu Yuan walked straight into the meeting room.

Pan Yuemin and Lin Gengxin were both in the conference room. Besides them, there were also Chen Zhixi, Li Weng, Jiang Xueman and others.

"Mr. Lu."

"Mr. Lu."

"Everyone, please sit down." Lu Yuan stretched out his hand in the air and pressed it down.

He pulled out a chair and sat down, looking at Lin Gengxin and Pan Yuemin first, and asked: "You have all read the contract for Soul Ferry, what do you think?"

Even after a period of preparation, Pan Yuemin was still not in a good condition to play two roles well.

So Chen Zhixi simply suggested changing the play for him to "Soul Ferry".

"Fourth brother, I'm OK with it. Instead of taking a fixed salary of a million before tax, I would rather take a share of the profits. Maybe I'll get more than that in the end." Lin Gengxin said.

He almost went to court with Cai Yinong because of the termination of his contract with the company. He was forced into a desperate situation and had to shamelessly find Yi Jie, hoping for help in pleading for him.

Yijie has extensive connections, and her boyfriend just made a phone call to Cai Yinong and the problem was solved smoothly.

Although he still had to pay Tangren a penalty for breach of contract, compared to the initial astronomical figure, the current amount was within his acceptable range. Besides, no one in this industry wanted to get into a fight with their old employer.

The reason why he agreed so readily to star in a web drama was because he believed in Lu Yuan's vision for choosing dramas.

Since his debut, the TV series and movies that Lu Yuan has participated in have all had good ratings, except for "The Ming Dynasty" which had poor ratings.

"Me too."

Compared to Lin Gengxin, Pan Yuemin spoke much less, but he also kept saying that he was fine.

At Chen Zhixi's instigation, he sued Dong Jie's agent Ren Jiaying.

The official announcement showed that Ren Jiaying had slandered and spread rumors about him, but netizens did not care about the truth.

Impotence is the most vicious slander against male celebrities.

With this label, his image has been ruined. He had few resources to begin with, and now he can’t even get a supporting role.

Although it is a web drama, according to Chen Zhixi, this is the best time to establish a relationship with Yuanfang Media and PPS. Once you miss this opportunity, you will never get it again.

Lu Yuan tapped the table with his fingertips, paused after hearing this, and said, "Since everything is fine, Director Li Gen, the filming of Soul Ferry can begin."

"Okay!" Li Weng replied. After training on the set of "New World", he, who is a student of directing, volunteered to start practicing with web dramas.

Lu Yuan continued, "Due to the subject matter, this drama cannot be broadcast on TV and can only be broadcast online. The total cost of filming is 800 million. Compared with the current TV drama industry, this number is very low.

But since both the leading actors and the director have chosen to split the profits, this means that this low-budget web series has plenty of funds to use, and the quality of the production will not be inferior to that of a TV series that is broadcast on TV.”

“Soul Ferry is a pilot project of PPS. Whether you can get a share that exceeds your actual salary and make the audience pay for clicks depends on you.”

"Meeting dismissed."

PS: To prevent arguing, the data in this article is authentic and verifiable. The domestic variety shows were dominated by the "Chinese version" of Korean variety shows only after the popularity of "Where Are We Going, Dad?", which was around 2013-2014. The licensing price before that was not high.

(End of this chapter)