Tokyo: The evil god doesn't want to be the top star

Chapter 221: Company B’s conspiracy?

"No, Director, Xia Fan's debut performance is not on the list of debut performance videos we released to the public..."

"You see, the account that uploaded this video is a personal account, not our program's official account."

Assistant Director Souta looked carefully at the video release details and shook his head in denial.

In order to promote the program, the program team and the accounts of various brokerage companies did release some direct-shot videos of the five-star trainees' first stage performances to attract traffic to the program.

But this naturally cannot include Xia Fan’s first stage video.

"Personal account? But the content of this video was indeed shot by our camera. Could it be that... someone in the production team leaked it?"

"Company B bribed the show's crew and stole the original video in order to attract traffic to Xia Fan?"

"Which bastard would betray the team like this?! It seems that we need to conduct an internal investigation..."

Akimoto Manjiro stroked the stubble on his chin, and his eyes gradually became sharp.

It was as if he was a gangster who was planning to "clean up the inside" after being tipped off by his younger brother to the police.

"Director-in-Chief, it couldn't have been leaked by one of our people!"

"All recorded materials for the program are cleaned up after each recording and stored in an encrypted computer. Every login authorization and operation is recorded."

"We have checked the records and no one has used Xia Fan's first stage live video."

The atmosphere of impending storm made the executive director panic and start to defend himself.

"Director, the program's broadcast data is good and everyone's morale is high. We are still in the recording stage. Conducting an internal investigation now will affect stability and affect the normal recording of the third episode."

"Whoever leaked it can come down and investigate secretly. The most urgent task is to eliminate the negative impact of public opinion."

Looking at Akimoto Manjiro, who was lost in some fantasy with an increasingly ferocious smile on his face, Assistant Director Souta hurriedly whispered to persuade him.

"Quick, continue reporting..."

"Even if Xia Fan's first stage performance video was leaked, those netizens wouldn't complain that the 'content doesn't match the promotion', right?"

He winked at the executive director, trying to get the subject back on track.

"After Xia Fan's debut video was released, it seemed like someone was secretly promoting it. It became popular somehow, and was praised by netizens as the best male cover of 'I Once Thought of Ending It All'."

"This video has been viewed over 10 million times on multiple platforms, and the search for "I once thought about ending it all, the most touching male voice version" has risen to No. 15 on the trending search list!"

"Many netizens were deeply moved after listening to this and came to watch our show, only to find that this first stage performance was not included in the second episode, so they chose to give a bad review in protest."

The executive director organized his thoughts and explained at a rapid pace.

"Just as I expected, this must be a conspiracy of Company B!"

"They stole our official materials, then used them to promote their content and incited negative public opinion to attack us..."

"Hurry up, go to those video platforms and file a complaint, asking them to take the videos down for copyright infringement!"

After being silent for a while, Akimoto Manjiro seemed to have figured something out and made arrangements in a frustrated manner.

"But, despite some negative public opinion, Xia Fan's debut video has a very good effect in attracting traffic to the program..."

The executive director's face instantly became tangled. As more and more netizens watched Xia Fan's singing, they gave various comments such as "very ordinary but very tear-jerking", "no skills, all emotion", "no matter how his white voice can move people", "other people's singing either costs money or life, Xia Fan's singing only costs paper", and then they became interested in watching the program itself...

The core of the KPI assessment for the executive director of the program team is naturally the number of views by paid members.

Therefore, some staff members noticed this video as early as yesterday, but because it had a good traffic-generating effect and no "complaints" occurred, they did not take it seriously.

"No matter how good the drainage effect is, the consequences of this will not be so simple... Souta, you do it yourself!"

"Yes, I'll do it right away."

At Akimoto Manjiro's extremely firm request, Assistant Director Souta hurried out to contact the platform by phone.

"Damn Company Be..."

Manjiro Akimoto frowned, took out his cell phone and dialed a number.

"Hexi old thief, you usually hype up topics, guide public opinion, and increase the number of views. But this time, you openly used commercial espionage methods for the sake of a primary election. Aren't you crossing the line?"

The person he was talking to was, of course, Company B's publicity and promotion director, Kawanishi Shigeo.

The entertainment industry is not a small circle. Although they belong to different companies, the industry veterans who have been in the industry for many years are very familiar with each other privately.

"Don't you know what I'm talking about? Xia Fan! You deliberately used your personal account to leak Xia Fan's first stage video. Where did you, Company B, get it? Do I need to tell you?"

"What, you don't know what Xia Fan is? Besides, you are very grateful to me for helping Yayoi Tsuki to become popular again, so you would never do such a thing?
"Are you in a meeting? Wait, don't hang up yet..."

Kawanishi Chengfu seemed to know nothing about this and ended the call after a few perfunctory words.

"These guys from Company Be are so arrogant that they dare not take responsibility..."

"In short, we can't let this video continue to spread. If it continues like this, the fairness of the entire program will be questioned!"

Staring at the dark screen of his mobile phone, Manjiro Akimoto was like an ant on hot pot, pacing anxiously on the spot, with no intention of "leaving get off work early" at all.

Because, if Xia Fan's first stage performance video continues to go viral, the program crew will no longer be able to hide the fact that they used the "Spring and Autumn style" to deliberately create a "black hot search" about Xia Fan and Yayoi Tsuki!
The main sources of income for the program are, first, the share of viewing revenue from paid members of the video platform, and second, the income from advertising title sponsorship, both of which are relatively fixed.

The part that can further tap into potential and raise the ceiling is the additional income generated by fans' consumption in various cooperative channels during the elimination phase in order to vote for the trainees.

Before the program enters the first elimination performance, it will arrange seemingly cumbersome links such as personal interview videos, initial stage ratings, theme song PK, etc., all of which are to allow the audience to have a certain feeling and sense of substitution for the trainees who meet their XP, and pave the way for the subsequent spending money on ranking and voting.

The "Idol Birth Festival" is ultimately a competition, so superficial fairness is naturally the most basic. If the credibility of the program team is questioned due to "malicious editing", the audience's desire to continue watching will decrease, let alone spending money to vote for the rankings.

"Director, we have contacted people from all the major video platforms, and those videos of Xia Fan's debut performance have been removed..."

Not long after, Assistant Director Caota came back jogging to report.

"Well, if we can calm down now..."

"Oh no, Director. After those videos were taken down, more newly registered accounts immediately re-uploaded the video!"

"What?! Keep reporting it and keep taking it down!"

Before Manjiro Akimoto could even breathe a sigh of relief, the executive director next to him reported news that made him furious.

(End of this chapter)