Chapter 439: with translation of chapter title

On the fourth day of the Lunar New Year, Jiang Heng did not stay in Jingcheng but returned to Xianggang, which he had not visited for a long time.

When he had just been reborn, he feared that making a lot of money would attract harassment from local gangs, so he had always stayed in Neidi.

Now that he had achieved fame and worldwide acclaim, he naturally didn't need to worry about those things, but he planned to stay a bit longer.

It wasn't that he wanted to immediately enter a state of rest; rather, he wanted to come back and set up a TV station.

Although in the era of self-media, the influence of TV stations was waning, Xianggang Satellite TV suddenly became popular, showing great influence.

And Jiang Heng couldn't possibly keep making films forever; if he wanted to maintain huge influence in the circle, being a media mogul was a good choice.

Just like Cheng Long Elder Brother, after Kung Fu Yoga, his film box office kept sliding, clearly he couldn't pull in audiences anymore, yet he kept launching new films—why? Because as long as he kept launching new films, a large entourage would gather around him; but if he truly ceased operations and retired, he would merely be a former kung fu superstar.

Cheng Long Elder Brother, who had enjoyed a lifetime of glory, couldn't bear that kind of loneliness!

Jiang Heng wasn't saying he liked the feeling of being surrounded by stars; he simply thought that becoming a media mogul would give him greater influence and be safer.

"Mr. Jiang, this is the ATV data you requested!"

Inside the Xianggang Faction: Outstanding Rising Film Company Company, a lawyer from the legal department handed over a document.

However, after Jiang Heng initially shifted his work focus to Neidi, his Faction: Outstanding Rising Film Company in Xianggang did not close down; each year he would participate in investing in low-budget Hong Kong film productions, merely his strength and influence were far inferior to Neidi's A-Outstanding Rising Film Company.

The advantage is that whenever he returns to Xianggang, he can use the local manpower.

Jiang Heng took the documents and casually flipped through them.

Speaking of, Asia Television is the abbreviation of "Asia Television"; it was the first television station in Xianggang's history and also the world's first Chinese-language TV station.

When it opened in 1957, it was named Lai's Ying-sheng, operating as a subscription cable broadcast. Starting in 1973, it switched to free wireless broadcast and was renamed Lai's Television. By 1982, it was renamed again to Asia Television.

During its heyday, it produced classic films such as "Heavenly Silkworm Transformation" and "Great Hero Huo Yuanjia".

Asia Television's artist training program also cultivated many well-known artists.

Such as Wan Ziliang, He Jiaping, Ye Zimi, Zhang Jiahui, Zhang Min.

However, after entering the 2000s, Asia Television's program quality and competitiveness continually declined, and due to frequent changes in ownership, its viewership remained weak for a long time, and its operations began to fall into crisis.

Starting from 2014, due to repeated wage arrears disputes, bankruptcy rumors kept surfacing.

By September 2015, CIC Group purchased shares of Asia Television and proposed to integrate it into a media conglomerate, but never took any concrete action.

And on April 1, 2016, Asia Television (Lai's Television), which had once dominated Xianggang for 59 years, had its broadcast signal cut off, leaving it permanently blue-screened.

All in all, during the 59 years that Asia Television dominated Xianggang, it was mostly being crushed by TVB, and financially it could be described as perpetually impoverished and weak.

Take the period when Lin Baixin's elder was in charge (1989–1998): Asia Television's total losses reached as high as 3 billion HK dollars, and it was called the most loss-making deal he ever made in his lifetime.

To be honest, if he really wanted to buy such a TV station, Jiang Heng would have no confidence either!

There are too many problems, and the burden is heavy.

If it weren't for the fact that he thought starting a TV station from scratch would be too troublesome, he would truly be unwilling to jump into this Asia Television pit.

"Alright, I'll take a look first and let you know if I have any ideas!"

"Okay, Director Jiang, if you have any questions, just give me a call!" the lawyer said, then turned and left.

Jiang Heng then sat on the sofa, silently lighting up a cigar.

What lay before him were nothing more than two options: acquire Asia Television or set up his own TV station. Just like the later popular Xianggang Satellite TV, which had only been established for over three years at that time.

It completed commercial registration in December 2008 and only began official broadcasting in October 2010.

So if Jiang Heng were to only now think of registering and establishing a TV station, from official launch to development, he would likely need at least two to three years.

However, upon second thought, he wasn't aiming to dominate the Chinese-language TV sphere by running a station; he merely wanted a media outlet of his own to voice his views and expand his influence, so there was no need to rush.

Thinking of this, Jiang Heng called the lawyer and asked him to recommend a few Asia Television executives capable of preparing a TV station.

"Mr. Jiang, are you preparing to set up your own TV station?"

"Well, I can only say I have such an intention; let's first see if there are any suitable talents."

"Okay, I'll get in touch right away!"

After hanging up, Jiang Heng lingered a bit in the office before heading home, and he also had the company staff leave early.

In Xianggang, the Spring Festival holiday is usually three days, and work resumes very early.

In Neidi, most people at A-Outstanding Rising Film Company and Broad Sodium Film Industry also took holidays, except those responsible for film distribution, who were still working overtime at the company.

The main task was to continuously increase publicity efforts, leading the "online army" to post positive reviews and delete negative ones.

Given Jiang Heng's film quality, there should originally have been no need for an online army.

However, in recent years, doubtful voices have grown louder, the claims of "Jiang Lang's talent exhausted" never cease, and various slanderous comments keep emerging. After investigation, it turned out that some companies were buying "online armies" to cause trouble.

Since that's the case, A-Outstanding Rising surely also needs its own "online army commander".

"I think Director Jiang's retirement from the industry is truly wise, a typical case of 'Jiang Lang's talent exhausted'! Between Battle Through the Heavens and Lion Camel Ridge, there's a gap of the three Matrix films plus a Three Body."

"In the Battle Through the Heavens tieba, someone posted that they felt Jiang Heng's new film was too trashy, not even as good as 'One Hundred Million Years BC'."

Not long after the post was made, it attracted a flood of replies, most of which were rebuttals.

As for those illogical, purely smearing posts, they basically end up being deleted.

Some netizens also said that the masses have discerning eyes; Battle Through the Heavens grossed over one billion in three days, setting a new box office record for the Chinese mainland market, and its Douban score reached as high as 7.9, clearly indicating that the vast majority of viewers thought it was good, and it cannot be smeared by just a few "trash" remarks.

"Exactly, not only do domestic audiences love it, but its overseas box office performance is also decent; if the 'haters' were right, its overseas results would have collapsed long ago!"

"However, speaking of which, Director Jiang's films over the past few years have indeed fallen short in total box office!"

"It's probably because he's been making too many mythological works, causing audience aesthetic fatigue!"

"He should continue making sci-fi, which overseas audiences like!"

"When will we be able to film Three Body 2? I've waited too many years; I want to see the water droplet annihilating humanity's space fleet!"

"That would be truly shocking!"

"If we're going to film, it should be The Infantry Glory; otherwise, those original actors would have grown old by now!"

"We should film The Little Soldier's Legend; the first installment had such high box office, the second might just break records!"

"Impossible, the first film succeeded because of its subject matter and the novelty of the 3D format; nowadays everyone's used to 3D, making it hard to achieve such high box office again!"

I estimate that the global first box office record of "Legend of the Little Soldier" is something even Director Jiang would find hard to break! (End of chapter)