Chapter 432: with translation of chapter title

Jiang Heng's impression of the Blue Channel was quite ordinary, so if Beijing City Satellite TV offered comparable funding, he would naturally lean toward Beijing City Satellite TV; it just depended on whether they could come through, to catch this wave of fortune.

A little later, Li Xiaoping came over and said that the Deputy Director and Purchasing Director of Beijing City Satellite TV had arrived, and they were both female comrades.

Speaking of this, one cannot help but mention a current phenomenon in the television industry: the purchasing department is basically all female comrades.

Moreover, many TV station leaders will visit the set during drama filming, and then decide whether to buy that TV drama.

At this point, the director will organize the male actors to accompany the leaders for a meal, no longer organizing the female actors to do so as before.

What does it mean for male actors to accompany the leaders? Because the leaders who come are all female!

If the male actors are all substantive but not handsome enough, the director will pull out the energetic young men from the wardrobe and makeup departments, tidy them up, and have them accompany the leaders for a meal, while at this time no female actors are allowed to appear.

Why is the screen full of immortal hero, domineering CEO, and romance dramas? The root lies here!

Of course, one could also say it's because the audience for dramas is mainly female, so the TV station's purchasing director naturally picks dramas that women like to watch.

Compared to that, it is naturally women who have an advantage in doing this job.

"Please hurry and have them come in; ah, I should go out to greet them!"

Jiang Heng feigned politeness, Li Xiaoping secretly smiled, and she took Jiang Heng and Jing Tian out together, where they met the two female leaders of Beijing City Satellite TV.

After exchanging pleasantries and pleasantries, they still returned to Jiang Heng's office.

After sitting down, the Deputy Director got straight to the point, expressing a desire to purchase the broadcast rights for the first season of Running Brothers, and immediately named a price she considered high.

Jiang Heng laughed and directly stated his view: the price was too low, considerably lower than what Blue Channel offered.

The two female leaders looked embarrassed, and the Purchasing Director said this was already the maximum price and sincerity the TV station could offer, and they really couldn't raise the price any further.

However, Beijing City Satellite TV was very eager to reach this cooperation and hoped Jiang Heng would give it some thought.

Jiang Heng furrowed his brows slightly, wearing an embarrassed expression: "For this program, buying the rights from Korea already cost a lot, and we spent heavily on celebrity guests, with the production team numbering over a hundred. Not to mention the fees for my and Jing Tian's appearances, which haven't even been added to the budget! If all that were included, your offer would be even more insufficient!"

The Deputy Director and the Purchasing Director exchanged glances, both looking embarrassed.

They had previously visited other crews with great authority, but here with Jiang Heng they really couldn't pull rank.

All they could do was to curry favor and speak nicely.

After chatting for a while, Jiang Heng said: "There is indeed a way!"

"What way?" the Deputy Director asked.

"The advertising revenue of this program shall be split fifty-fifty!"

"That won't work!" the Deputy Director immediately said.

Jiang Heng laughed and said: "How come? Are you afraid the program will do too well, earn too much, and give me too much of the money?"

The two female leaders' faces flushed with embarrassment, naturally because Jiang Heng had voiced what they were thinking, yet they found it hard to admit.

Jiang Heng directly said: "Too bad I don't own a TV station; otherwise I wouldn't have to go through this, I could just air it on my own station and keep all the profits!"

The two thought to themselves, "You still want your own TV station—you really dare to dream!"

Jiang Heng continued: "You two also know I'm not short of money, so airing this program earlier or later makes no difference to me. I just want the advertising revenue split fifty-fifty; if your station disagrees, I'll talk to other satellite TVs. If none domestically agree, I'll buy a video website for an online premiere."

"You two also know I'm not lacking this bit of money!"

The Deputy Director and the Purchasing Director both blushed slightly, because what Jiang Heng said was true—he indeed wasn't short of money and had the capability to buy a video website.

But the most crucial point is that he has plenty of time to negotiate slowly with all the satellite TV stations.

Someone will surely agree; earning a little is better than earning nothing!

Furthermore, this matter also involves the influence of the satellite TV stations.

The Deputy Director pondered for a while, then asked Jiang Heng for a few minutes, as she needed to report back.

Jiang Heng naturally agreed, and had Li Xiaoping lead the two to the meeting room.

When only he and Jing Tian remained in the room, the latter said: "A fifty-fifty split on advertising revenue—there's currently no such cooperation model domestically, right?"

Jiang Heng said: "Probably not!"

Da Tian Tian said: "Brother, you're so capable, you're making history again!"

Jiang Heng gave an embarrassed smile and didn't pick up the conversation.

Da Tian Tian asked again: "You insist on splitting the advertising revenue because you think this variety show will be very profitable, right?"

Jiang Heng thought to himself, "Not just very profitable—it's going to make a killing."

It's a pity the company doesn't have a TV station; otherwise there'd be no need to seek their cooperation! He then thought of the video website idea—why he hadn't bothered with it before was mainly because he felt long-form video was labor-intensive and unprofitable.

It would be better to wait a few years and develop short videos, directly creating that final breakout app, "Douyin".

But after today's negotiation, he suddenly felt again that having a video website would actually be quite good.

"Running Brothers" wants greater influence; TV premiere and reruns are one aspect, online broadcast is also important, so we really need to set one up!

In the meeting room, the Deputy Director reported to the superiors, and the superiors were also torn, having never experienced such a thing!

No one dared to make the call alone, so they were told to come back first to hold a meeting and discuss a solution.

After hanging up, the Deputy Director and the Purchasing Director returned to say goodbye, asking Jiang Heng to definitely wait for the station's decision.

Jiang Heng laughed and said: "I can't keep waiting for your news; just give me one day! If a decision can be made, it actually wouldn't take that long, so if one day isn't enough, even more time would be pointless—right?"

What could those two say? They still had to express thanks to Jiang Heng before leaving.

Li Xiaoping could see that Jiang Heng still wanted to cooperate with Beijing City Satellite TV.

She just didn't understand: among the satellite TV stations, Blue Channel offers the most money, Mango TV has the greatest fame and its quotes aren't low either, so why didn't Jiang Heng choose them but instead insist on a profit split? Isn't that a movie mindset, treating TV stations like theaters? Li Xiaoping voiced her doubt, and Jiang Heng laughed: "Nothing much—it's not that I favor Beijing City Satellite TV; I just don't like those two you mentioned, that's all."

Li Xiaoping listened, eyes wide open, mouth slightly agape, she extended her right thumb and said: "Director Jiang, you're awesome!"

However, Beijing City Satellite TV that evening convened a leadership meeting, where discussion was intense, as there was no precedent and everyone feared problems and accountability.

Yet the market prospects for Running Brothers were also very good, and nobody wanted to give up the benefits about to be gained.

Thus, that night they discussed until past ten o'clock, and finally reached a collective vote, passing by a slim majority the decision to agree to a fifty-fifty split of the advertising revenue for the variety show Running Brothers with Outstanding Rising Film Company.

The next day, both parties signed the cooperation, and the program's schedule was also set.

December 30, 2011, a Friday! (End of chapter)