After the meeting ended, Ouyang Lin immediately returned to his office and called his secretary, asking him to find a way to get the four episodes of Liang Jian that had already aired within an hour. To his surprise, ten episodes of Liang Jian were placed before him in a short while.
It turned out these were ten sample tapes previously sent by Tangren Film and Television to Hunan TV for selection. This indicated that Tangren Group had indeed come close to cooperating with Hunan Satellite TV, only to be intercepted by CCTV halfway through.
"Hmm, I have another task later, so I'll watch one episode first to see the quality of this TV drama!" Ouyang Lin thought, and then inserted a videotape into the VCD player in his office.
"What's going on? The new hosts at the station are waiting for the station director to speak to them. Why hasn't the director come out yet? It's almost time to get off work!" As it turned to 6 PM, a staff member rushed to the director's office.
According to the plan for the day, Ouyang Lin was supposed to address the newly recruited batch of hosts and other staff members, welcoming them to Hunan TV.
However, the event, scheduled to start at 3 PM, had dragged on until 6 PM. The new recruits had been sitting in the conference room for a full three hours, and Ouyang Lin still hadn't appeared.
The person in charge of this matter had no choice but to go to the director's office to inquire.
"Shh, keep it down, the director is reviewing the sample tapes!" the secretary said.
"But when I called two hours ago, you said the director was also reviewing sample tapes!" the person in charge asked, surprised.
"Yes, is there a problem with that?"
"How many sample tapes does the director need to review today? It's been three hours, and it's still not finished. Didn't it used to take at most an hour?"
"Ask me, who am I going to ask? Anyway, the director has been reviewing for three hours today. If I'm not mistaken, it might take another three hours. How about this, I'll ask for you!" The secretary said with a wry smile, then gently knocked on the door. Before he could say anything, he heard Ouyang Lin's voice, "I know about the situation. Tell those new recruits to go back. I'll speak to them tomorrow. Remember to apologize on my behalf!"
Hearing Ouyang Lin's words, the person in charge finally felt as if they had been granted a great amnesty, but they were also extremely curious. What kind of sample tape could possibly require Station Director Ouyang to review for six hours?
Time dragged on until around 10 PM when the door to Ouyang Lin's office suddenly opened. Ouyang Lin, with somewhat red and swollen eyes, asked his secretary, "Is there any more?"
"What?"
"These sample tapes of Liang Jian, are there only ten episodes? Shouldn't they have sent the entire series when we were reviewing? Ouyang Lin said impatiently, "I was just about to watch Old Li dating. How can it all be gone at once? I can't stand it!"
"..." The secretary opened his mouth, confirmed that his station director hadn't been replaced by someone else, and then said with a wry smile, "Director, there are really only ten episodes. I already asked Director Xiao in advance. He also requested Tangren Film and Television to send all 30 episodes, but Tangren Film and Television made excuses."
"This guy, he can't even handle this small matter. Go and tell Xiao Ning to immediately ask Tangren Film and Television for the remaining 20 episodes. I want to watch them tonight!" Ouyang Lin shouted.
"But Director, what's the reason? We don't seem to have any reason to demand this from Tangren Film and Television!" the secretary said softly.
"Reason? Tell Xiao Ning that Hunan Satellite TV wants to buy the second broadcast rights for Liang Jian and air it in our Golden Eagle Theater tomorrow night. Tell him to go find someone from Tangren Film and Television tonight to negotiate the purchase of the second broadcast rights for Liang Jian!" Ouyang Lin said.
"Director, are we really going to buy it? This is snatching something from CCTV..."
"Just go if I tell you to. What do you mean by snatching something from CCTV? Am I stopping CCTV from re-airing Liang Jian? Besides, CCTV did not sign an exclusive broadcast agreement with Liang Jian, nor did they sign an agreement restricting second broadcasts. I am legally and validly buying the second broadcast rights from them. If CCTV has any objections, we'll go to the General Administration to sue. Hunan is not to be trifled with!" Ouyang Lin said very forcefully. The secretary nodded and went to handle it.
Meanwhile, Xiao Ning had already gone home. After receiving the call from above, he had no choice but to rush to call Tangren Film and Television to discuss this matter.
"What? Hunan Satellite TV wants to buy the second broadcast rights for Liang Jian?" Huang He was also startled when he received this call.
Of course, he had guessed that after the TV series aired, many TV stations would come to buy the second broadcast rights. However, Huang He did not expect that after only four episodes had aired, Hunan Satellite TV would jump out to buy the second broadcast rights.
As expected of Hunan Satellite TV, which would later dominate the industry, their intuition was incredibly sharp.
"Sell, of course we'll sell. We let CCTV broadcast it at almost a giveaway price, so the cost must be recouped from Hunan Satellite TV!" Huang He said with a smile.
Although Liang Jian was successfully broadcast on CCTV, it was not due to its own merits, but rather as compensation to Jiangnan Group by CCTV.
In fact, as early as February of that year, the completed Liang Jian was sent to relevant departments of CCTV for selection, but it was directly rejected. Not only was it not allowed to be broadcast in the prime-time slot in the evening, but it didn't even qualify to be aired on CCTV.
The reason given was simple: they said the protagonist Li Yunlong was not sufficiently positive, swore a lot, and violated organizational discipline and orders in various ways, not fitting the image of a soldier in history, and therefore could not be broadcast on platforms like CCTV.
This result made Huang He rather upset. He hadn't expected such a masterpiece to be blocked by CCTV.
So, Huang He had to change his primary goal and turned to Jiangsu Satellite TV, Hunan Satellite TV, Zhejiang Satellite TV, and Southeast Satellite TV for distribution. These were the four major satellite TV stations in the country, and being able to air on any of these four platforms was also a very good choice.
To Huang He's further surprise, among the four major satellite TV stations, Hunan Satellite TV and Southeast Satellite TV explicitly refused. Jiangsu Satellite TV had a rather ambiguous attitude, never giving a definitive answer.
The only one that gave a positive response was Zhejiang Satellite TV, but it could not be broadcast in a short period, and would be delayed until 2004. This was not all; the price offered by Jiangsu Satellite TV was also very low, only 600,000 yuan per episode, for a total of 18 million yuan for the entire series.
Furthermore, they required exclusive buy-out of all broadcast rights, meaning that whether it was the first, second, third, or even hundreds of subsequent broadcasts, these rights belonged to Zhejiang Satellite TV. How they sold it was their business, and how much they earned was their money, with no relation to Jiangnan Group.
The price was considered mid-level among the prices of TV series nationwide. If it were an ordinary TV series, it would be fine. But this was Liang Jian, and how could Huang He be willing to sell this TV series for a mere 18 million yuan, and also sell all the broadcast rights?
It is worth noting that Liang Jian is the only TV series in China, besides the Four Great Classical Novels and My Fair Princess, that has been re-aired over 3,000 times nationwide, and this was achieved within a short span of five years.
Within five years, TV stations of all sizes across the country re-aired Liang Jian over 3,000 times. Note that this was not 3,000 episodes, but 3,000 times, ranking first in the national TV series replay charts.
The second-ranked Journey to the West was only re-aired over 2,000 times, Romance of the Three Kingdoms over 1,000 times, and My Fair Princess over 600 times.
Therefore, how could Huang He be willing to sell a TV series that could be re-aired 3,000 times for a mere 18 million yuan, and also all the broadcast rights? However, after being frustrated by the major TV stations nationwide, Huang He originally planned to take a step back and find a second-tier satellite TV station to broadcast it, to spite the stations that had rejected him.
But no one expected that due to the unexpected 315 incident, CCTV owed him a favor, and they proactively offered to broadcast "Liang Jian."
In fact, at first, Liang Jian was selected to be broadcast in the golden prime time slot after the weather forecast. But the problem was that CCTV not only demanded the purchase of all broadcast rights but also required that it not be sold to other TV stations for re-runs within a year, which was unacceptable to Huang He.
Huang He began negotiating with CCTV, and finally, both sides compromised. CCTV did not demand exclusive broadcast rights, but Huang He also did not insist on broadcasting in the golden prime time slot, and it was moved to the midnight slot after midnight.
In CCTV's view, this was a TV series broadcast after midnight, so its influence would be very small. Even if the TV series had some flaws that were not suitable for broadcast, or could not be exclusively broadcast, it would not be a big deal. Perhaps many people wouldn't even know that this TV series had been broadcast on CCTV, while also repaying a huge favor to Jiangnan Group, which was very worthwhile.
However, Huang He had his own considerations as well, which was that since the TV series was primarily broadcast on CCTV, it would receive the attention of the largest audience media in the country, maximizing the possibility of it becoming a hit in the shortest time.
At the same time, due to these considerations, the price CCTV paid for the TV series was extremely low, only 100,000 yuan per episode, totaling only 3 million yuan, which was less than 1/10 of the production cost.
Of course, CCTV was not targeting Jiangnan Group alone. In fact, the acquisition prices for all TV series nationwide wanting to be broadcast on CCTV were halved. Otherwise, why would CCTV be CCTV!
Huang He agreed to this price because he had already decided to recoup his losses from other TV stations through second broadcasts. For example, the Hunan Satellite TV that had suddenly appeared was Huang He's first target.
Therefore, when Xiao Ning drove to Shanghai overnight to negotiate with the relevant负责人 of Tangren Film and Television and proposed to purchase the exclusive second broadcast rights, he received a shocking price.
"What? 2 million yuan per episode, totaling 60 million yuan? Xu, are you crazy or am I crazy? You want to sell second broadcast rights for this price? I misjudged you!" Xiao Ning almost jumped up. Spending 60 million yuan to buy the second broadcast rights of a TV series was simply a joke. Hunan Satellite TV's revenue for the entire last year was only 300 million yuan. This was completely absurd.
"Heh heh, let's take it one step at a time. You're asking for exclusive second broadcast rights, so this is the price. As long as you buy these exclusive rights, only Hunan Satellite TV can broadcast it within a year, even CCTV can't re-run it. You'll profit!" Xu He, who was responsible for the negotiation, said with a smile.
However, although Xu He looked confident, as if he wouldn't sell at this price, he actually felt that this price was very exaggerated, surpassing the limit price of any domestic TV series at that time.
However, this price was not entirely unimaginable. For instance, two years later, Hunan Satellite TV would spend 8 million US dollars to acquire the exclusive domestic broadcast rights for "Dae Jang Geum."
Before it was broadcast on Hunan Satellite TV, "Dae Jang Geum" was first aired in Korea, and then on TVB Jade. Therefore, Hunan Satellite TV bought what was essentially the third broadcast rights, at a sky-high price of 8 million US dollars.
Of course, as it turned out, this was worthwhile because Hunan Satellite TV later earned a total of 20 million US dollars in advertising revenue from "Dae Jang Geum," and earned more from each subsequent re-run.
At the same time, this also had a more profound impact: Hunan Satellite TV realized the immense appeal of Korean dramas, and then became the largest, most frequent, and most frequent importer of Korean dramas in China.
Later, Hunan Satellite TV even went on to import Korean stars, Korean star-making mechanisms, various Korean entertainment cultures, and so on. This also laid a solid foundation for Hunan Satellite TV to be later known as the "Korean Hunan Dao TV Station."
So, there is nothing in this world that comes out of nowhere; everything starts from a small seed and grows.
"So, there's no room for negotiation then!" Xiao Ning spread his hands.
"No, this price is for exclusive second broadcast rights. If it's just for second broadcast rights, then the price is different!" Xu He said with a smile. He had known all along that Hunan Satellite TV would not accept this price, so he immediately brought out what he was truly prepared to sell.
"How much?" Xiao Ning asked.
"300,000 yuan per episode, a total of 9 million yuan!" Xu He said.
"This price is acceptable!" Xiao Ning nodded. Compared to the previous price of 2 million yuan per episode, the price of 300,000 yuan per episode suddenly seemed so wonderful.
If it were exclusive second broadcast rights, Xiao Ning would have signed the contract without hesitation.
But this was for second broadcast rights.
"If a third TV station comes to negotiate with you tomorrow, will you sell it?" Xiao Ning asked.
"Of course!" Xu He nodded. "If other TV stations want to buy it, why wouldn't I sell it? That wouldn't make sense, right?"
"Then we would be fools. If several TV stations broadcast it in rotation, what scarcity would there be?" Xiao Ning said angrily.
"Of course there is. You'll be first, you'll finish broadcasting first, so everyone will watch yours!" Xu He said with a smile.
"Then according to you, I have CCTV ahead of me too!"
"Hey, everyone knows about CCTV. They encounter all sorts of problems every day and might cut off the original broadcast schedule at any time. Sometimes they only air TV dramas one day a week, and the other six days are for special programs."
"Not to mention, this is a sensitive period. I received news that CCTV will broadcast a special program after midnight the day after tomorrow, and will suspend our midnight theater. Wouldn't this allow you to catch up by two episodes in one go?"
"I estimate that in a few days, you will catch up with CCTV and become the TV station with the fastest broadcast progress! If you're willing, you can even broadcast all 30 episodes in one day, that's your business, isn't it?" Xu He said.
"Does this price include re-run rights?" Xiao Ning asked.
"If you want re-run rights, you need to add 200,000 yuan, making it 500,000 yuan per episode. You can re-run it as much as you want within a year, even every day!" Xu He said.
"But at 300,000 yuan without exclusive broadcast rights, this price is still too expensive, and the station won't agree!" Xiao Ning frowned.
"That's your station's business, not mine."
"Can't this price be a little more flexible?"
"Director Xiao, if this TV series were mine, I wouldn't even ask for a penny. Of course, this is the boss's. The boss said it's a fixed price, the same for any TV station, no discounts allowed. I'm just a messenger!" Xu He said.
No matter how Xiao Ning negotiated the price afterward, Xu He stubbornly refused to budge. Helpless, Xiao Ning had to call the station the next morning to report the results of the negotiation.
Ouyang Lin was naturally very dissatisfied with this price. He even lost his temper on the spot, asking Xiao Ning to continue negotiating and try to lower the price by about half.
Thus, the negotiation for the day entered a stalemate. In the afternoon of the same day, Ouyang Lin obtained the latest ratings data, and his hands began to tremble.
According to the statistical results, the ratings for episodes 5 and 6 of Liang Jian were 4.7% and 5.1% respectively. Liang Jian had broken through the 5% ratings mark in just six episodes, making it the fastest-breaking TV series since My Fair Princess. This further strengthened Ouyang Lin's determination to acquire Liang Jian, but the price was simply too high, and it was difficult to make a decision.
Thus, the day dragged on. When the ratings for episodes 7 and 8 came out the next day, Ouyang Lin was completely stunned, because the ratings for the seventh episode had a surge, reaching an astonishing 8.1%. Although the eighth episode only increased by 0.1 percentage points, it was still 8.2%, just one step away from breaking the 10% barrier that deterred 99.9999% of TV series in China.
More importantly, Ouyang Lin had heard many people around him discussing the TV series Liang Jian, and various media and magazines had also begun reporting on Liang Jian.
Even when Ouyang Lin took the company elevator to work wearing sunglasses the next day, he found that half the people in the elevator were discussing the plot of Liang Jian.
Although many of them were TV professionals who paid close attention to television, when half of the people in a TV station were discussing a TV series, it indicated that the TV series was on the verge of exploding.
Therefore, Ouyang Lin decided not to delay any longer. He immediately called Xiao Ning, demanding that Xiao Ning purchase the second broadcast rights immediately and that Liang Jian must be aired in the Golden Eagle Theater that evening.
Ouyang Lin was even considering whether to air four episodes in one night, to catch up with CCTV's progress as quickly as possible, thereby attracting viewers who originally belonged to CCTV.
Hunan Satellite TV paid the money and signed the contract. Xu He promptly signed his name, and then Xiao Ning drove for seven hours and finally arrived at the station with the complete 30-episode broadcast copy before the Golden Eagle Theater broadcast began.
At this moment, the audience of Hunan Satellite TV was surprised to find that the TV station's promotional advertisements that morning were still promoting "The Eighteen Lohans" which was to be broadcast that evening.
However, after 12 PM, it was uniformly changed to "Liang Jian" which would be broadcast hotly in the Golden Eagle Theater.
And this promotional offensive was not ordinary; it was a comprehensive, all-encompassing promotion.
Generally, promotional clips like TV drama previews are aired once every hour or two hours. However, Hunan Satellite TV added promotional clips of Liang Jian to all commercial breaks, informing everyone that "Liang Jian" would be airing episodes one and two in the Golden Eagle Theater.
This was the best that Hunan Satellite TV could do. The rest depended on the market reaction.
Ouyang Lin was restless all day, especially after the Golden Eagle Theater began broadcasting. Ouyang Lin was even more uneasy.
This time, Ouyang Lin had made a big gamble, buying the second broadcast rights of a TV series at an unprecedented price. If the ratings of this Liang Jian were poor, Ouyang Lin would be in deep trouble.
No, even if the ratings were ordinary or just above average, Ouyang Lin would not have a good time. Some people would use this as an excuse to launch various attacks against Ouyang Lin.
Therefore, Liang Jian had to be a big hit, achieving an average rating of over 5% to silence everyone and at the same time highlight his own prestige and achievements.
Amidst this anxiety, when the ratings were finally announced the next day, Saurifey Company delivered the relevant ratings details to each TV station's email on time.
When Ouyang Lin opened the email, his hands were trembling, but he opened it resolutely. Then he was completely stunned, looking at the data in the email with a bewildered expression.
"7.8% and 8.5%, how is this possible? How is this possible!!!" Seeing the final data that appeared before him, Ouyang Lin's mouth could not close.
Although Hunan Satellite TV had experienced the miracle of "My Fair Princess" with a 65% rating, Ouyang Lin was not the director of Hunan Satellite TV at that time, and the credit had nothing to do with him.
Now, a TV series that broke through 8% ratings upon airing was placed before him. It was only natural for Ouyang Lin to be so excited.
"How could it be so high?" Ouyang Lin muttered to himself, unable to understand.
After his subordinates conducted a detailed investigation, Ouyang Lin finally understood that it was all thanks to CCTV.
Earlier, CCTV had scheduled Liang Jian for broadcast at midnight. Although the ratings were high, not many viewers could watch Liang Jian at midnight, as most viewers were asleep by then.
However, there were still some people who saw Liang Jian and then started enthusiastically recommending the TV series to those around them, talking about how good it was and what a pleasant experience it was during this period of lockdown due to yQ.
As a result, more people deliberately stayed up late to watch Liang Jian at midnight, and then they were blown away, becoming night owls who stayed up until midnight every day. This was also why the ratings of Liang Jian gradually increased.
But this also brought a huge problem: those viewers who came later had no opportunity to see the earlier episodes of Liang Jian, as CCTV never had a habit of re-airing TV series from the midnight slot.
This made viewers who saw the later episodes feel extremely anxious and expectant about the earlier plot. As a result, when Hunan Satellite TV officially announced that it would re-air Liang Jian from the beginning, all those viewers who were following Liang Jian on CCTV flocked to Hunan Satellite TV.
At the same time, these viewers also brought their friends and family members to watch.
They had tried to persuade their friends before, but since it was broadcast in the early morning, many people couldn't stay up that late. However, when Hunan Satellite TV moved Liang Jian to the prime time slot, the situation changed. Whether it was the elderly, children, or housewives, they all had time to gather in front of the television to watch this TV series that everyone around them was enthusiastically recommending.
Let's see how good this TV series is!