Huayu: From charlatan to great entertainer

Chapter 449 Head-on Battle
If we start counting from when he officially took over as the chief director of the Olympic Games in 2006, Lu Kuan has been officially retired from acting for almost two years.

Apart from reshooting the final scenes in September 2007 after Xiao Liu recovered from his speech loss, his next film is currently nowhere in sight, with no news coming out.

However, his temporary withdrawal from the entertainment industry has not affected the continued progress of Wenjie, this cultural and media behemoth.

Besides the Iron Man project, which amazed the world and made a fortune in July, another high-quality drama exclusively produced by Wenjie Films will premiere on Travel Channel during the summer.

However, unlike the global success of "Iron Man", "Meteor Shower", starring Jing Tian, ​​a relatively unknown actress still studying at the Beijing Film Academy, was targeted by competitors from the very beginning of its trailer promotion.

The top-ranking satellite TV channels below CCTV in terms of viewership and advertising revenue, such as Hunan TV, Jiangsu TV, Zhejiang TV, and Dragon TV, are all taking notice.

In the film industry, Wenjie is second to none in China and has already set its sights overseas, having established a preliminary foothold for Chinese capital in Hollywood.

However, in the domestic TV drama industry, Travel Channel is not the dominant force.

Leaving CCTV aside for now, even Hunan TV is currently slightly ahead of Travel Channel, given its strong fan base.

In an effort to narrow the development gap, a few years ago Boss Lu used some underhanded tactics to get Ouyang Changqing into trouble at the Double Meeting.

However, the closed-loop ecosystem between Hunan and Taiwan has already been established, and Wenjie's focus has always been on the film industry, so it will take time to catch up.

For example, the head-to-head competition during this summer's movie season.

Located on the North Third Ring Road in Chaoyang District, Beiping, this is the site of the Beiping Production Center of Travel Channel, which was also converted from the old Hainan Provincial Government Office in Beijing.

The center covers an area of ​​approximately 8000 square meters and includes three standardized studios, two post-production centers, and supporting office areas. It is the only subsidiary of Wenjie Holdings that does not have its headquarters office.

Although Travel Channel is a satellite TV station in Hainan Province, its production center is located in Beiping (Beijing), having moved there long before Wenjie and China Film Group invested in it.

TV stations such as Hunan TV and Dragon TV have some production teams located in Beiping because, from the perspective of television programs including dramas and variety shows, Beiping is the absolute center.

As the cultural center of the country, Beijing is home to leading media organizations such as CCTV, as well as top art schools such as the Central Academy of Drama, Beijing Film Academy, and Communication University of China. It also boasts the most complete film and television production industry chain in the country and the largest China Film Group Huairou Digital Production Base in Asia.

In addition, the ease of inviting guests, the improved efficiency of policy approval, and the convenience of attracting investment from all top domestic and foreign companies in Beiping are all important factors.

In this life, another important consideration that could attract the production team to move north was:
The top special effects production company in Asia, Butian Pictures, is also located in Beiping.

Aside from the technology that Hollywood has but Butian Pictures doesn't, after asking around the world, only this special effects company, which belongs to Wenjie Holdings, offers high-quality products at low prices and has basically monopolized most of the special effects business in China.

On the afternoon of July 25th, the crew of "Meteor Shower" and the team including station leaders, production director, art director, and advertising department members organized by Long Danni gathered together.

Tonight is the premiere of the TV series on Travel Channel. This afternoon is the station's mobilization meeting, which is also a coordination meeting involving other departments.

Long Danni sat at the head of the desk, her neat ponytail and work jacket giving her a smile that exuded confidence.

He joined Hunan TV Economic Television in 1995 and participated in the production of variety shows such as "Lucky 3721";

In 2001, he was held accountable for the failure of the revamp of "Happy Camp" and was transferred to Hunan TV's Lifestyle Channel.
And in 2004, she was poached by Lu Kuan to join Wenjie, where she has been in charge of developing variety shows such as "Super Girl" and "The Voice of China" ever since.

Long Danni has been serving as the executive vice president of Travel Channel for two years.

His current demeanor and composure would probably earn him a thumbs-up from even his former leader and station director, Ouyang Changqing.

Living environment influences one's temperament, and upbringing influences one's physical condition; this principle applies to everything.

Many of the middle managers and team leaders present at today's meeting were people who followed her from Hunan TV to Beijing four years ago, leaving their hometowns behind, or people who were recruited from universities such as the Communication University of China when the "Super Girl" variety show team was formed.

People are privately discussing that when Travel Channel truly surpasses Hunan TV in average viewership and advertising revenue across all its programs, that might be when Longtai TV will finally reach the top.

Although Travel Channel has a complex shareholding structure, it is difficult for an "outsider" like Long Danni to become the top leader in the local TV station system.

But don't forget who the big boss of Wenjie is.

The employees within Wenjie never doubted his abilities, nor did they ever question the company's system of clear rewards and punishments.

The meeting was about to start at 2:30, but a big-name guest unexpectedly showed up.

"Consort Yi, what brings you here today?" Long Danni was pleasantly surprised, her previous serious expression vanishing completely.

Everyone in the meeting room looked at this top actress and female celebrity in the Chinese entertainment industry, along with her girlfriend, with surprise.

The girlfriend of the richest boss.

Jing Tian entered a few seconds later than Xiao Liu. Upon hearing this, she smiled and said, "I just watched Sister Qianqian rehearse at the Beijing People's Art Theatre. She came to keep me company. We'll watch the premiere together tonight."

"Oh, okay, please have a seat." Long Danni has already become the station director, how could she be bad at dealing with people?
He immediately pushed Liu Yifei's shoulder to get her into her place.

Xiao Liu smiled and waved his hand modestly, saying, "No, no, Sister Long, you all need to start your meeting right away. You know me, I'll sit right next to Jing Tian."

"Well... okay, Yifei, please give us your feedback later." Long Danni clapped her hands to signal the cast and crew to pay attention: "Director Liu is here to guide our work today, let's give him a round of applause!"

"Clap clap clap!"

Aside from the Wenjie employees who had met Liu Yifei at the Wenjie 8th Anniversary Celebration, the most curious people at the event, besides Hu Ge, were the male leads who were collaborating with Wenjie for the first time.

Liu Yifei had just sat down when she gracefully stood up again: "Thank you everyone, Sister Long, let's start the meeting."

Long Danni wields considerable power at Travel Channel and enjoys a high reputation in the industry. Her guests are usually prominent business executives and celebrities.

Even though Xiao Liu has a special status, he expressed himself appropriately and quickly got into work mode.

In the industry, performance is the only measure of success.

"Okay, let's start the meeting now."

"Tonight's 'Meteor Shower' is a project that the entire company has high hopes for, and it is also our station's first foray into self-produced youth idol dramas."

"As everyone knows, last year's 'Struggle' contributed a lot of traffic and revenue to the collaborative industry chain of Huayi Brothers, Ali, and Alispace. 'Meteor Shower' has an even heavier task to shoulder!"

Long Danni listed examples on her fingers: "Several luxury brands such as Audi R8, LV, and Fendi, the sponsors, need viewership data, the number of Weibo discussion topics, and the number of clicks on Zhijie Video's link ads."

"The more than 30 costumes in our series that we designed and produced in collaboration with Wang Daren Studio are also waiting for feedback. Some small accessories, figurines, and quantum toys for the male and female leads have also been molded and are waiting for orders."

"Everyone needs to remember that the success or failure of this drama depends not only on ratings and various viral metrics, but also on word-of-mouth and its ability to attract viewers and drive sales. I think everyone has heard that latter term a lot recently." She paused, signaling her staff to report on the relevant information about the competitors.

"Director, Director Liu, leaders and colleagues, I will now briefly introduce the summer drama lineup of Jiangsu Satellite TV, Zhejiang Satellite TV, Dragon TV, and Hunan TV."

In 2007, these four, along with Travel Channel, were the local satellite TV stations in Taiwan with the highest advertising revenue and top-tier viewership.

"Suzhou Satellite TV's summer lineup includes Deng Chao and Che Xiao's 'Difficult Love,' and its regular variety show is 'Absolute Singing.'"

"Zhejiang Satellite TV's summer lineup is the anthology series 'Strange Tales of Liaozhai,' produced by Sugarman and directed by Li Guoli."

Liu Yifei flipped through the documents in her hand, which contained information about the creators of "Strange Tales of Liaozhai", the genre of the series, the synopsis, the premiere date, and the ratings.

This drama is quite eye-catching because of the participation of various stars, including Nicky Wu, Sun Li, Pan Yueming, and Fann Wong, who are all familiar faces to drama fans.

Suddenly a familiar name came into view: Liu Shishi, who played the fox spirit in "Xin Shisi Niang".

Cai Yinong initially made the bet after seeing Xiao Liu reveal his secret at his birthday party, but unexpectedly, things took an unexpected turn and she ended up losing money.

The last long-term contract was sold back to Sugar Man by an unscrupulous agent. Unexpectedly, on this piece of paper, she reunited with her cousin who had wanted to cultivate her.

This is also Liu Shishi's first appearance on camera after three years of being untraceable.

Cai Yinong is not running a charity. Since she signed a contract, she has to work, whether it's socializing, business performances, or joining production crews, she is at the mercy of the company's arrangements.

Without the added boost of her role as Long Kui, the current Liu Shishi is worlds apart from Yang Mi and others who debuted around the same time.

Liu Yifei couldn't quite describe her feelings; she simply sighed softly to herself and turned the page.

The competition situation report continues: "Dragon TV's main summer drama is the live-action version of 'The Prince of Tennis,' which is linked to their talent show 'Go! Good Boys' from the past two years, the latter of which has taken up 90% of the roles."

Xiao Liu followed the introduction and turned to this page. Wenjie Film and Television positioned this series as a "youth inspirational drama to celebrate the Olympics," which bundled tennis with talent show idols for marketing, in line with the national sports craze of 2008.

Long Danni interjected, "We can't keep focusing on Hunan TV all the time. SMG, the company behind Dragon TV, is doing the same thing as Tianyu Media."

"It can be said that all the major local TV stations are currently imitating the path of producing their own dramas to promote people, signing agency contracts with ordinary people, and pushing them to the market to harvest fans."

She gestured to her subordinate to pause: "Xiao Fan, let me speak for Hunan TV."

"Okay, Longtai."

"Everyone, the reason I'm personally here to deliver this message is because Hunan TV has made adjustments to its program broadcasts."

The meeting room was filled with murmurs and serious expressions; it was clear that everyone was there because of "Meteor Shower"!

"The original plan for the Taiwanese drama 'Romantic Princess' was moved to after the Olympics. Tonight, we will be competing with the newly imported Korean drama 'My Girl'."

Long Danni frowned and said, "If we discuss this behind closed doors today, we can say that the dramas from the top three companies do not pose a significant threat to us."

"The Jiangsu Satellite TV show 'Difficult Love' focuses on urban romance and business warfare elements, and its core audience is married women over 30 years old, which does not overlap with the teenage audience of 'Meteor Shower'."

"The Zhejiang TV series 'Strange Tales of Liaozhai' is a period drama series produced by Tangren Films. It is essentially a combination of the Liaozhai IP and a star-studded cast, lacking the appeal of a continuous storyline."

"Not to mention Dragon TV's 'The Prince of Tennis,' the way these non-professional idol boy groups swing their rackets looks no different from swinging a hoe."

A soft laugh rippled through the room, only to be interrupted by Long Danni's light tapping of the table as a warning: "Compared to ours, these three shows either have a mismatched target audience or serious quality issues, but Hunan TV's 'My Girl' is different."

"The reason why Hunan TV dared to broadcast the show without large-scale promotion is because the show has already proven its market success in South Korea, where it achieved a viewership rating of over 20% last year, and pirated DVDs have accumulated a considerable audience base in China."

"This time, we deliberately staggered our promotional period, waiting until the materials were released before rescheduling, and also bundled our marketing with 'Happy Camp.' We will invite the female lead, Lee Da-hae, to the show this weekend."

Whispers filled the meeting room. Regarding the development of the Korean wave in China over the past two years, the statistics from Wenjie Film and Television Department have always been quite clear.

In terms of viewership ratings, "Dae Jang Geum" was rebroadcast three times on Hunan TV in 2006, with the highest single episode viewership rating exceeding 12%. According to data from the Korea Agro-Fisheries & Food Trade Corporation, it boosted the export of Korean kimchi to China by 35%.

After "Full House" aired on Dragon TV in 2007, Rain's endorsement fee for his China tour soared from $50 to $200 million.

Korean dramas even brought a boom to the domestic piracy industry chain. In 2007, Korean drama DVDs accounted for 32% of the pirated market, and the dramas covered third- and fourth-tier cities through underground channels. The pirated sales of a single drama, "Full House," exceeded 200 million sets.

Even in the gradually declining ringtone market, in 2007, Korean pop songs such as "Lies" and "Cotton Candy" ranked among the top in terms of ringtone downloads.

Two years ago, Jang Nara's downfall in China seemed like just an insignificant episode. With the combined efforts of industry forces, the Korean wave swept across the country with great force, and even CCTV could not escape it.

Without external intervention, this trend will only intensify and continue until THAAD is deployed.

Long Danni reported the situation and reminded her subordinates, who had been winning battles, to guard against arrogance and complacency, and to take seriously the Korean drama that Hunan TV had put forward to compete.

Actually, she gets frustrated sometimes too.

Given Mr. Lu's personal connections with South Korea's CJ Entertainment, if he wanted to import Korean dramas, his channel advantages wouldn't be much worse than Hunan TV's; it's just that this option never seems to be considered.

In other words, from the day Travel Channel was taken over by Wenjie, it has been following the path of producing high-quality original dramas, and it is even less likely that it will turn back the clock and become a proponent of the Korean wave.

Ignoring the stance of the cultural front, if Travel Channel followed Hunan TV in embracing the Korean wave, and then re-examined itself after the ban on Korean entertainment, it would find that it has not grown at all over the years, and has simply become a middleman for the Korean wave, making a profit from the difference.

But Hunan TV has a foundation built up since "Princess Pearl," so how can Travel Channel surpass it?

Although the path of producing original dramas is difficult, compared to the Korean drama model which brings out "translation teams," Travel Channel has gradually formed talent training and reserve teams in various lines.

To paraphrase Lu Kuan's instructions at the roundtable meeting, this is a "time arbitrage," which means using a temporary lag in short-term viewership ratings to gain long-term industry influence.

With Hunan TV launching a surprise attack, Travel Channel can only temporarily rely on advertising tools such as Zhijie and Focus Media to limit and promote viewership based on the opponent's situation.

The next focus of the publicity and propaganda campaign will have to wait until the first few episodes have aired to see the audience's reaction and word-of-mouth before making a decision.

The meeting ended quickly, and at 6 p.m., Jing Tian and Liu Yifei returned to Wenyuhe Prefecture together.

The latter invited Su Chang, Tang Yan, Zhang Liangying, and Yang Mi, who were in Beijing, to his home, ostensibly to watch Jing Tian's screen debut together.

Xiao Liu, whose real intention was not the wine, thought of the information Zhao Liying had previously revealed and decided to test the big-breasted girl a little.

(End of this chapter)