"Nonsense!" Huang He slammed the detailed content handed over by Xiao John onto the table, startling the tall and strong Xiao John.
"You brat, who gave you the right to negotiate with others behind my back? Do you think I'm a saint?" Huang He sternly reprimanded him, scolding Xiao John thoroughly.
Xiao John mused that he had failed his escape attempt and had no chance of turning things around. Just as he was about to confront Huang He head-on and leave, he heard Huang He say, "Your salary for this year and next year is all gone. This is your punishment for not following orders and acting on your own!"
"Wait... this is my punishment?" Xiao John was stunned. Wouldn't a normal punishment be a demotion, or simply being kicked out? Why was it a salary deduction?
Of course, a salary deduction was a severe punishment. However, considering that Xiao John had just received the $20 million promised by Boss Huang, from this perspective, the salary of several hundred thousand over two years was indeed not too harsh a punishment.
"What, do you have an opinion on my punishment?" Huang He asked impatiently, seeing Xiao John's confused expression.
"No, I have no doubts. It's just, Boss, don't you have any other punishments?" Xiao John couldn't help but ask.
"None!" Huang He waved his hand. Xiao John was even more confused but didn't know what to say, so he stood up and said, "Then, Boss, I'm going back to work!"
"What work are you going back to? You don't need to do that job anymore. I'm changing it for you!" Huang He continued. Xiao John's heart sank. It seemed he was going to be demoted after all. He just didn't know what he would be demoted to. If it was something like looking after the water cooler, he'd rather just resign, change countries, and start over.
However, he then heard Huang He say, "From now on, you will be fully responsible for the introduction of Prison Break. Hurry up and finalize the agreement with HBO, and do a great job!"
"However, your job will be adjusted. You won't be the Vice President of Los Gatos Television anymore; that job isn't suitable for you. I think you're more suited for the group's content acquisition work, which is your original profession. This job was originally handled by Jimmy, the vice president, but he's wholeheartedly focused on Red Box and unwilling to get involved with Los Gatos Media!"
"So you'll take over his original duties. However, you won't be getting the position of Vice President of Los Gatos Media. After all, you're a spy and a traitor. If I suddenly make you a vice president of the company, I won't be able to placate the internal opposition."
"So, for now, you'll be the Deputy Director of Content Acquisition at Los Gatos Media. There won't be anyone appointed to the positions of Director above you or Vice President overseeing it for now, so you'll actually be the head of the content acquisition department. I'll give you three years. If within these three years you can introduce or invest in the filming of 10 hit TV series... that is, series with viewership exceeding 25 million... then you'll become the Vice President of Los Gatos Company!"
"With these achievements in hand, no one will dare to object to your promotion!" Huang He said lightly, while Xiao John was too surprised to know how to react.
"Boss... if I understand you correctly, you agree with my introduction plan?" Xiao John asked incredulously. He had just been severely reprimanded by Huang He, and hadn't even had a chance to explain why he wanted to introduce Prison Break or how he could prove it would be a hit, yet Huang He had directly approved his plan!
"There are no issues with your plan. The group is already vigorously acquiring the copyrights of various film and television content to enrich its library. Buying HBO's entire inventory of TV series copyrights for $200 million was already part of the plan. Moreover, the group's true bottom line is $250 million, meaning you actually bought Prison Break for $70 million!" Huang He said, a smile appearing at the corner of his mouth. "This deal isn't a loss!"
"Seventy million to buy, and not a loss for twenty million?" Xiao John mumbled, then his face lit up with surprise.
Did Huang He see the immense potential of Prison Break without needing his explanation, and thus agreed immediately?
"Alright, although you've lost your salary, your bonus is still there. How about this, I'll set up a floating reward mechanism for you!" Huang He tapped the table.
"From now on, you'll be responsible for the introduction and filming of TV series or movies. Whether you buy them from other TV stations or other film and television production companies."
"Or scripts bought from others, or script and framework recommendations given by the company's big data algorithm for TV series, etc., as long as you approve a TV series, it will be tied to the bonus of your entire department!"
"The company will have an algorithm to calculate the revenue of a TV series and its production costs. For any TV series or movie approved by your department, if it makes a profit, your department will receive 20% of all profits as your annual bonus!"
"But if this TV series loses money, 10% of the loss amount will be deducted from your department's bonus until your bonus is depleted."
"Of course, if your bonus is depleted in any year, you should resign as Deputy Director yourself; it would look better!" Huang He said lightly.
"Okay!" Xiao John nodded. A 20% share of profits, but only 10% of losses. In other words, to completely deplete the annual bonus, the losses from TV series investments in a year would have to be twice the profits from TV series.
Such a poor performance would indeed warrant Xiao John's dismissal!
"Then, sir, I'm going to work!" Xiao John said with renewed vigor.
"Go ahead!" Huang He waved his hand, and Xiao John excitedly left the company and went directly to HBO to complete the final negotiation with them.
With the previous negotiations as a foundation, the entire process went very smoothly. Within a single day, the contract was signed. HBO's board of directors smiled foolishly as the new $320 million funds appeared in their account, while Xiao John smiled foolishly at the large cart of original files and materials related to Prison Break in front of him.
However, this was just the beginning. He still had to liaise with the entire Prison Break crew, meet with cast members, screenwriters, and inform them that their future contract terms would be transferred to him.
American television stations, like domestic ones, have their own TV series production departments, but these departments are only responsible for the introduction and design of TV series; they do not directly oversee the filming of TV series.
The filming of TV series is generally completed by professional film and television production companies or by a crew formed under the leadership of a director.
Therefore, Xiao John did not need to worry about the entire Prison Break crew having too many connections with HBO, leading to a lack of direction or the disintegration of the crew when filming sequels.
In fact, in the United States, TV series crews are generally considered a notch below film crews, much like leveling up in online games. If one performs well in a TV series crew, they have a chance to be promoted to a film crew.
High-end talent is in films, while newcomers or those struggling tend to stay in TV series crews, having very little bargaining power with capital. Thus, capital has much stronger control over TV series crews.
For example, a crew like Prison Break, signing contracts with all its members for a future nine-season, ten-year filming plan... no film crew would do such a thing.
Because once this contract is signed, any member of the TV series crew, no matter how popular they become in the future, must obediently return to the crew to film, and cannot demand a salary increase. Essentially, their future is locked into the crew. Many TV series actors sign such contracts with several TV series simultaneously. Therefore, even if the TV series becomes a hit, like Friends, they still cannot enter the film industry.
This is partly because the film industry looks down on them, and partly because they are too tightly bound to TV series crews and have no time to film movies, so even if film crews want to hire them, they cannot.
This is also why Xiao John was determined to secure the contract for subsequent seasons from HBO. Otherwise, if Prison Break became popular, but the actors left and the script was gone, the truly profitable sequels would be in jeopardy.
This is a contract for nine seasons and ten years!
And the sequels in this contract are unilateral; it doesn't mean they will necessarily film nine seasons. Whether future sequels will be filmed and how many seasons will be filmed is decided by the production company.
If the TV series becomes popular, they will continue filming sequels. If the TV series doesn't make any splash, then they part ways, and all sequel contracts are null and void. The actors and crew members can only act according to the production company's decision.
In fact, the entire Prison Break crew was bewildered when they learned that their boss had changed from HBO to Los Gatos Media. Some actors even showed expressions of great anger and made a big fuss with Xiao John, demanding to terminate their contracts.
This is also normal. In the eyes of these actors, television stations that broadcast via cable are the legitimate path, while network television stations are considered unorthodox. They felt that the TV series they worked hard to film would eventually be tied to network television, which would certainly reduce the audience by tenfold, and their prospects and futures would be ruined. It would be strange if they were willing to cooperate with Xiao John.
In fact, even in China in 2022, TV series broadcast on major satellite channels looked down upon web dramas!