Three days later, in the morning, at Penguin Video's executive conference room.
CEO Ma Mingyuan looked at the executives gathered on either side of him and slammed his hand on the table in anger.
To put it simply, iQIYI Video and Gua Video had teamed up to play Penguin Video for a fool.
In three days, the grand period drama The Legend of Consort Chen would premiere on Shenlan TV. Its online streaming rights would be shared by iQIYI Video and Gua Video.
The Legend of Consort Chen had the most impressive cast of any TV drama in the past two years. It had at least eight actors whose fame rivaled Uncle Ming's, plus more than a dozen stars just below their level.
The Legend of Consort Chen was adapted from a hugely popular novel by one of the industry's top screenwriters. With an investment exceeding 400 million, it was a true blockbuster production!
After the executives at Penguin Video watched the preview, almost all of them were stunned by the drama's quality.
"This drama is bound to be a hit. We have to get its online streaming rights at any cost!"
That was the executives' unanimous opinion.
But Penguin Video wasn't the only one with an eye for quality.
IQIYI Video and Gua Video, two of the big three video platforms, were just as interested in this palace-intrigue epic.
The three companies kept raising their bids, until even the deep-pocketed giants began to feel the strain.
Still, none of them wanted to give up the drama.
So the three companies sat down and came to an agreement: why not stop competing and pool their money to buy the online rights together?
But today, iQIYI Video, Gua Video, and Tianji Media, the production company behind The Legend of Consort Chen, suddenly announced that they had reached a deal to transfer the online streaming rights. IQIYI Video and Gua Video would split the rights between them.
The current landscape among the three major video platforms was that Penguin Video and iQIYI Video were battling for the top spot, while Gua Video was struggling to keep up.
In other words, iQIYI Video's only real rival was Penguin Video. It was willing to share the rights to The Legend of Consort Chen with Gua Video to ease its financial burden, but not to work with Penguin Video.
Rumors had long circulated that iQIYI Video intended to acquire Tianji Media. It seemed the two companies had nearly reached a deal. Otherwise, as a production company, Tianji Media would never have risked making an enemy of Penguin Video just to accommodate iQIYI Video.
"The Legend of Consort Chen is about to go online, and it's practically guaranteed to be a hit. Two of the three major platforms will be streaming it, and we'll be the only ones left out. Tell me, what should we do?" Ma Mingyuan asked, sweeping his gaze around the room.
Not a single person in the spacious office spoke up.
"Gong Cheng, what do you think we should do?"
Gong Cheng from the acquisitions department stood up. "President Ma, the countermeasure is simple. We just need to release an excellent exclusive of our own in the same time slot! They have The Legend of Consort Chen and we don't, so we should make sure they don't have what we do!"
Ma Mingyuan nodded.
"Dai Ying, what do you think?"
Dai Ying stood as well. "President Ma, Minister Gong makes a good point. We absolutely need to release an excellent exclusive around the same time. But whether this will work depends on how our exclusive measures up to The Legend of Consort Chen. If the gap in quality is too wide, no matter what we do, we'll be at a disadvantage."
The executives in the room all nodded.
Ma Mingyuan nodded too. "How many worthwhile exclusive titles do we have right now?"
Gong Cheng smiled. "President Ma, our acquisitions department just finalized a deal yesterday for the online rights to another palace-intrigue drama. It'll be exclusive to Penguin Video."
Everyone turned to look at him. Gong Cheng continued with a smile, "Qianyu Media has signed with us. We've secured exclusive rights to Palace Scheme for Penguin Video!"
"Palace Scheme?"
"That's right!"
"Do you think it'll be a hit, Minister Gong?" Ma Mingyuan asked.
Gong Cheng answered seriously, "The investment wasn't as high as The Legend of Consort Chen's, and it doesn't have as many big-name stars. But in terms of plot and overall execution, I think it may even surpass The Legend of Consort Chen."
Ma Mingyuan nodded. He knew Palace Scheme. The original novel was just as famous as The Legend of Consort Chen, but its author had been so demanding that the drama had attracted less investment.
"Dai Ying, is post-production on the second arc of Young Bao Qingtian finished?" Ma Mingyuan asked suddenly.
"President Ma, I just spoke with Director Kong. Young Bao Qingtian still needs at least seven days for the final editing and scoring. I'm afraid it won't be ready to launch alongside The Legend of Consort Chen."
Ma Mingyuan sighed.
Although Gong Cheng had praised Palace Scheme to the skies, his instincts told him that Penguin Video would be on the back foot if Palace Scheme was its only offering.
Meanwhile, Young Bao Qingtian had maintained a Dou Miao Score of 9.2. As the first show to score above a 9, it had a huge promotional hook.
Young Bao Qingtian was a mystery drama, and mystery dramas naturally had a smaller audience than family dramas and palace-intrigue dramas. The first arc's 60 million views in a single day had been an unprecedented achievement for a mystery drama, but compared with phenomenon-level family dramas and palace-intrigue dramas, it was only entry-level.
The most popular palace-intrigue dramas had generally streamed on all three major platforms, and their daily views on a single platform could reach 70 million. Their total views across the internet far exceeded what Young Bao Qingtian had achieved.
But mystery dramas had an advantage that palace-intrigue and family dramas lacked.
A good mystery drama could often dominate when it came to word of mouth.
Many palace-intrigue dramas with far more online views than Young Bao Qingtian had not only failed to win official praise, but had sometimes even received public criticism from the authorities.
That made the official praise Young Bao Qingtian had received all the more valuable.
Palace Scheme alone really wasn't enough. If they could release Palace Scheme and Young Bao Qingtian at the same time, they might be able to hold their own three days from now. Unfortunately, Young Bao Qingtian still needed more time in post-production.
Ma Mingyuan sighed. "Meeting adjourned!"
After the meeting, Ma Mingyuan stopped Dai Ying on her own. "This timing is crucial. President Dai, please urge the production team again and see if they can do it."
Back in her office, Dai Ying messaged Kong Teng. "Director Kong, is there really no way to finish post-production on Young Bao Qingtian within three days?"
A moment later, Director Kong replied, "Three days? Absolutely impossible! We've only finished half the editing. We can't even complete the basic cut in three days. I need to keep discussing things with the editors, reviewing and analyzing the material. Unless you give me a complete drama to copy, it's simply impossible. But if we had a complete version, we could just release it. Why would we need to copy it?"
Dai Ying knew that asking Director Kong to finish post-production in such a short time was unreasonable, but this particular release window was just too important.
If there was truly no other way, they would have to release the first two episodes and work on the rest later.
"Wait, Director Kong said 'copy'? Hadn't he always said Li Xun already had the whole thing pictured in his mind? If we sent him over to help Director Kong, could they work faster?"
At the thought, Dai Ying couldn't help smiling.
"Li Xun? Why did I even think of him? It's impossible! He's never even worked on post-production. What good would sending him over do?"
Dai Ying quickly set the absurd idea aside and got back to work. But the thought seemed to have taken root in her mind, popping up again and again.
In the end, she couldn't resist drafting a message to Director Kong.
"Why not have Li Xun come help you out?"
She had just finished typing the message and hadn't sent it yet when Director Kong sent her one first.
"Why not have Li Xun come help me out? Maybe we could finish faster!"
Looking at Director Kong's message, Dai Ying burst out laughing.
For once, she and Director Kong had been completely on the same wavelength.
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