A Telepathic Connection

Three days later, morning, Penguin Video's executive conference room.

CEO Ma Mingyuan, looking at the executives on both sides, slammed the table in anger.

Simply put, Penguin Video had been tricked by iQIYI Video and Gua Video working together.

Three days later, the large-scale historical palace drama The Legend of Consort Chen would premiere grandly on Shenlan TV, and its online broadcast rights would be shared by iQIYI Video and Gua Video.

The Legend of Consort Chen was the drama with the strongest cast in the past two years, boasting at least eight actors of similar caliber to Uncle Ming, and over a dozen more of the next tier of stars.

Adapted from a super popular novel by top screenwriters in the industry, The Legend of Consort Chen had an investment exceeding four hundred million yuan. This was a super production in the truest sense!

After Penguin Video's executives watched the preview of the drama, almost all of them were stunned by its quality.

"This is a drama destined to be a hit. We must acquire its online broadcast rights at all costs!"

This was the unanimous opinion of the executives.

But Penguin Video wasn't the only one who recognized its value.

IQIYI Video and Gua Video, two of the three major video websites, were also intensely interested in this palace intrigue drama.

Thus, the three companies kept bidding and increasing their offers, and soon even the well-funded major video websites began to feel the strain.

Yet, no one was willing to give up on the drama.

So, the three companies sat down and discussed. Fine, why don't we stop competing and jointly purchase the online broadcast rights?

But today, iQIYI Video, Gua Video, and the production company of The Legend of Consort Chen, Tianji Media, suddenly announced jointly that they had reached an agreement for the transfer of online broadcast rights. The online broadcast rights for The Legend of Consort Chen would be split equally between iQIYI Video and Gua Video.

The current landscape of the three major video websites saw Penguin Video and iQIYI Video vying for the top spot, while Gua Video struggled to keep up.

This meant that iQIYI Video's true competitor was only Penguin Video. Therefore, iQIYI Video was willing to share the online broadcast rights of The Legend of Consort Chen with Gua Video to alleviate its cost pressure, but not with Penguin Video.

There had long been rumors that iQIYI Video intended to acquire Tianji Media. It seemed their negotiations were nearing completion. Otherwise, as a film and television production company, Tianji Media would not dare to offend Penguin Video so severely just to cooperate with iQIYI Video.

" The Legend of Consort Chen is about to launch, and this drama is 99.9% going to be a hit. Now, two of the three major video websites can stream it, and we can't. Everyone, tell me, what should we do!" Ma Mingyuan said, scanning the room.

No one in the spacious office dared to speak.

"Gong Cheng, tell me, what should we do?"

Gong Cheng from the procurement department stood up and said, "President Ma, the countermeasure is actually very simple. We just need to launch our excellent exclusive works during the same time slot! They have The Legend of Consort Chen and we don't, so conversely, what we have, they shouldn't have!"

Ma Mingyuan nodded.

"Dai Ying, you speak too!"

Dai Ying also stood up and said, "President Ma, Minister Gong's point is very valid. We absolutely need to launch our own excellent exclusive broadcast works at the same time. However, whether this plan succeeds hinges on the quality of our exclusive network broadcast works compared to The Legend of Consort Chen. If the quality difference is too vast, no matter how we operate, the outcome will be passive."

The executives in the office nodded in agreement.

Ma Mingyuan nodded and asked, "How many exclusive network broadcast copyright works do we have on hand right now that we can showcase?"

At this moment, Gong Cheng said with a smile, "President Ma, our procurement department just finalized a contract yesterday for the online broadcast rights of a drama with a similar palace intrigue theme. It will be exclusively broadcast on Penguin Video."

Seeing everyone's gaze turn towards him, Gong Cheng smiled and said, "Qianyu Media has signed with us. The online broadcast rights for Palace Scheme will be exclusively transferred to us at Penguin Video!"

"Palace Scheme?"

"That's right!"

"Minister Gong thinks this drama will be a hit?" Ma Mingyuan asked.

Gong Cheng said seriously, "Although the investment for this drama isn't as high as The Legend of Consort Chen, and it doesn't have as many big stars, in terms of plot and completion, I think it can even surpass The Legend of Consort Chen."

Ma Mingyuan nodded. He knew about Palace Scheme. The original novel was as famous as The Legend of Consort Chen, but because the original author was too strong-willed, the drama's investment was lower compared to The Legend of Consort Chen.

"Dai Ying, has the post-production for the second unit of Young Bao Qingtian been completed?" Ma Mingyuan suddenly said.

"President Ma, I just contacted Director Kong Teng. The post-editing and soundtrack for Young Bao Qingtian will take at least another 7 days. Time-wise, it's likely too late to launch simultaneously with The Legend of Consort Chen."

Ma Mingyuan sighed.

Although Gong Cheng praised Palace Scheme to the skies, his intuition told him that with just one Palace Scheme, Penguin Video would definitely be at a disadvantage in terms of momentum this time.

And Young Bao Qingtian's Dou Miao rating had stabilized at 9.2. A Dou Miao rating of over 9 for the first installment was a huge selling point.

Young Bao Qingtian was a mystery drama. Mystery dramas naturally had a smaller audience base than family dramas or palace intrigue dramas. The single-day viewership of 60 million for the first unit of Young Bao Qingtian was outstanding among mystery dramas, but compared to phenomenal family ethical dramas and palace intrigue dramas, it was merely entry-level.

In the past, the hottest palace intrigue dramas were mostly broadcast jointly on the three major video platforms, and their single-day viewership on one platform could even reach 70 million, with their total online viewership far exceeding the achievements of Young Bao Qingtian.

However, mystery dramas had an advantage that palace intrigue dramas and family dramas lacked.

Good mystery dramas often excelled in terms of reputation.

Many palace intrigue dramas with viewership far exceeding Young Bao Qingtian not only failed to receive official praise but occasionally even received official public criticism.

This made the official public praise label on Young Bao Qingtian even more precious.

Just one Palace Scheme was indeed not secure. If Palace Scheme and Young Bao Qingtian could be launched simultaneously, perhaps they could avoid being at a disadvantage three days later. Unfortunately, the post-production of Young Bao Qingtian required time.

Ma Mingyuan sighed, "Meeting adjourned!"

After the meeting, Ma Mingyuan called Dai Ying aside and said, "This timing is too critical. President Dai, please urge the production team again and try your best to make it happen!"

Upon returning to her office, Dai Ying messaged Kong Teng: "Director Kong, is it completely impossible to complete the post-production of Young Bao Qingtian within three days?"

A moment later, Director Kong Teng replied: "Three days? Absolutely impossible! The editing is only half done. Three days isn't even enough to finish the most basic editing. I need to constantly discuss, research, and analyze with the editors. Unless you give me a complete drama to copy, it's truly impossible. But if there was a complete work, we could just launch it directly, why would we need to copy it?"

Dai Ying knew it was asking too much of Director Kong to finish post-production in such a short time, but this particular timing was critical.

If there was absolutely no other way, they might have to release two episodes as soon as they were done.

"Right, Director Kong said to copy? Didn't he always say Li Xun already had a complete vision in his mind? If we assigned him to help Director Kong, wouldn't that improve efficiency a bit?"

Thinking of this, Dai Ying couldn't help but smile.

"Him? How could I have thought of him? Impossible! He hasn't even touched post-production editing before, what use would he be there?"

Dai Ying immediately dismissed the bizarre thought and started working on other tasks, but the idea had taken root in her mind, popping up now and then.

Finally, she couldn't resist sending Director Kong a message.

"How about letting Li Xun come help you out?"

Before she could even send the message she had just finished typing, Director Kong sent her one first.

"How about letting Li Xun come help me out? Maybe it'll speed things up!"

Looking at Director Kong's message, Dai Ying chuckled.

She and Director Kong were surprisingly in sync this time.