My Peninsula 2007

Chapter 444 Negotiation
If, as An Rusong claims, KBS sold the online rights to its films, television shows, and variety shows to LeTV, a Chinese company, thereby creating competitive pressure for a similar South Korean internet company, and if this news were to spread, then given the increasingly strong nationalist sentiment in South Korea in recent years, KBS would likely face a barrage of criticism from the public.

Of course, if KBS were dealing with someone other than Ahn Yeo-song, they wouldn't care about such "taboos." After all, for such news to spread, there must first be a channel for disseminating it, and KBS itself is a "mouthpiece," so they can naturally guide public opinion to a certain extent.

The problem is that, as the chairman of NGN, An Rusong also controls a channel for disseminating information. He also has his own "mouthpiece," although this "mouthpiece" is a little quieter, it still has influence.

Now, after a near-forced personnel reshuffle, KBS is in the eye of the storm, and Lee Nam-ki, who has just taken over as vice president, certainly doesn't want to avoid getting into trouble.

Moreover, as An Rusong said, if Lee Nam-ki gets caught up in some kind of public opinion storm at this time, the whole thing will affect not only himself, but also Miss Park, who is standing behind him and providing him with support, and she will probably be implicated as well.

This is an issue that Lee Nam-ki has to be extremely cautious about.

Upon hearing An Rusong's words, Li Nanji's expression changed. This guy was clearly a strong person. Faced with An Rusong's almost blatant threat, the smile on his face vanished instantly, replaced by a frosty expression.

"Chairman Ahn" pushed the glass of red wine in front of him to the side and said in a deep voice.

“President Nam-ki, I haven’t finished speaking yet,” An Ru-song interrupted him, continuing on his own, “What I just said was only from a political perspective. From a business perspective, KBS’s choice to cooperate with LeTV is not a wise choice either.”

He flicked his cigarette ash and chuckled, "President Nam-ki may not be aware, but the preparation for our CieloTV platform has been going on for quite some time. Over the past few months, Chairman Han has been investing heavily in acquiring the online rights to various movies, TV dramas, and variety shows. CJ, Showbox, and Lotte have all signed copyright agreements with CieloTV. Currently, our focus is on several television stations, including KBS."

"It doesn't matter that President Namki chose LeTV instead of us," An Rusong said with a relaxed expression, shrugging. "Although we don't know what the future holds for SBS and MBC, one thing is certain: it won't be so easy for Secretary-General Park to place his own people in these two TV stations when personnel changes occur, just like he did with KBS."

“In that case, SBS and MBC might not make the same choice as KBS regarding the online rights to their works,” An Rusong said with a smile, turning his gaze to Lee Byung-soon beside him. “In other words, in the end, KBS might be the only TV station that doesn’t choose to cooperate with CieloTV. From another perspective, even if CieloTV fails to acquire the rights to KBS’s works, it can still dominate the vast majority of the domestic market in terms of online rights. At that point, even if LeTV enters the Korean market, how much market share can it capture?”

He stopped there, but everyone present understood the implication of his words.

An Rusong's meaning is clear: CieloTV has already gained an absolute first-mover advantage in the field of online copyright acquisition, at least in South Korea. Under these circumstances, once the CieloTV platform is launched, it will quickly achieve a dominant position in the same market within South Korea.

Although South Korea, like most countries in the world, has its own anti-monopoly laws, enforcement is difficult in the internet sector. Like NGN, which effectively holds a monopoly in the South Korean instant messaging software market, nearly wiping out MSN.

CieloTV is essentially replicating this path. Once launched, with its vast library of film, television, and variety show content, similar platforms in South Korea will lose their foothold. At that point, KBS, which chooses not to partner with CieloTV, will lose revenue from online streaming rights.

Sitting in the main seat, Lee Byung-soon, the president of KBS, remained silent throughout, eating and drinking without stopping, as if he hadn't eaten enough.

At this moment, perhaps sensing An Rusong's gaze turning towards him, he finally managed to shift his attention away from the dessert in front of him.

He glanced up at An Rusong, smiled broadly, then turned to look at Li Nanji, whose face was grim. Finally, he put down his chopsticks and said, "Chairman An has misunderstood President Nanji's meaning. He doesn't want to cooperate with those Chinese people; he's just not satisfied with the price Chairman Han offered and wants to renegotiate it." "Hehe, if that's the case, President Nanji should have just brought it up directly," Han Meiyan said with a smile. "We at CieloTV are very interested in KBS's copyright library, so we're quite sincere. Actually, we already clearly stated our intentions when we contacted Director Choi. We can confirm our intention to cooperate first, and then discuss the price."

She shrugged and said with a helpless expression, "But the Minister of Personnel knows about Director Cui. He is currently under investigation for job-related crimes at the Supreme Prosecutor's Office, and the demands he made were extremely unreasonable. So, we haven't even discussed the specific price issue yet."

Han Mi-yeon said a lot, but her real points boil down to two things: First, CieloTV is very sincere and can afford to pay a high price for the online rights to the works. Second, CieloTV's negotiations with KBS haven't even officially started yet, let alone discussed the price, so Lee Nam-ki has no reason to be dissatisfied with the price offered by CieloTV.

However, Lee Byung-soon seemed not to understand her meaning. He took a napkin, wiped his mouth, and then said, "Actually, just as Chairman Lee said, the online copyrights of those works that Chinese people want to buy are limited to mainland China and do not involve the Korean domestic internet market."

“They want to acquire the online rights to 13 dramas, including ‘First Love,’ ‘Winter Sonata,’ and ‘Autumn in My Heart,’” Lee Nam-ki interrupted before he could continue, “offering 38 billion won. Hmm, judging from their attitude, that price is negotiable, and perhaps it can be increased a bit.”

An Rusong didn't say anything more. He stubbed out the cigarette that was still half-smoked in his hand, picked up a fork, and started to eat the fruit platter in front of him.

38 billion Korean won is roughly equivalent to 2000 million RMB. Considering that the dramas LeTV wants to buy are likely classic series, this price isn't actually that high. This shows that LeTV is probably looking for a bargain.

Of course, considering LeTV's current size, especially the new financing it received just two months ago, it is estimated that they will not be able to raise more funds. Therefore, if Lee Nam-ki really cares about prices, CieloTV can squeeze LeTV out simply by competing on price increases.

However, President Namki was clearly not the kind of person who truly cared about prices. An Rusong could tell that what the other party had just said was absolutely not from a business perspective, but purely from a political perspective. To put it bluntly, he was just making things difficult for CieloTV from a political standpoint.

That's why An Rusong intervened and directly confronted the other party. Now that the other party has adopted a more serious attitude and started discussing the price, it's Han Meiyan's turn to negotiate. He won't interfere in the price negotiations.

Most importantly, Lee Nam-ki immediately mentioned LeTV's offer of 38 billion won. From this perspective, his ambition was obviously not that great. In An Rusong's view, as long as he could acquire KBS's copyright library, even if the other party offered 100 billion won, it would be worth it.

“President Nam-ki, the situation in China is different from that in South Korea,” Han Mi-yeon said with a smile. “You know, CNNIC just released the latest statistics recently, saying that China has over 2.7 million broadband users, which is six times the total population of South Korea. More broadband users mean more online viewers, which means more potential software users. Therefore, the price LeTV offered is very reasonable. No, I even think they offered a bit too low.”

“All ColaTV wants is the online rights to 13 dramas, but CieloTV wants to take away KBS’s entire library of copyrighted works, doesn’t it?” Lee Nam-ki interrupted Han Mi-yeon, shaking his head before speaking.

“Hehe, President Namki, don’t be in a hurry. Just like I said, LeTV’s offer is indeed a bit low,” Han Mi-yeon waited quietly for the other party to finish speaking before explaining with a smile, “If it were me, I would offer a higher price. For example, a package price of 50 billion won would be reasonable in my opinion. Of course, I’m referring to the online rights in South Korea.”

Lee Nam-ki fell silent, then turned to look at Lee Byung-soon beside him.

"Hehe, President Namki, I think it's best to leave matters like price negotiations to Minister Ma," Lee Byung-soon chuckled. "What do you say?"

(End of this chapter)