The next day.
In the morning.
"Zhang Ye, wake up." Chenchen pushed him.
Zhang Ye rolled over and said drowsily, "Don"t disturb me."
Chenchen pushed harder and said, "Zhang Ye, get up. Zhang Ye, get up."
Chenchen was like a little alarm clock and proved to be more effective than any other alarm clock. Zhang Ye was so affected that he could not sleep anymore and helplessly got out of the bed while yawning away. He then went out to buy breakfast for Chenchen without even was.h.i.+ng his face.
At a stall selling breakfast outside the district.
Many people were sitting in the open air area and enjoying their breakfast.
"Yo, Little Zhang."
"Teacher Zhang, you"re awake?"
"Good morning, Teacher Zhang."
"Brother Zhang, you"re here for breakfast?"
The old neighbors and the vendor of the breakfast stall greeted Zhang Ye in the way they always did.
Some of the people who did not live around here or were just pa.s.sing by and having breakfast here for the first time were clearly clueless about what was going on. When they saw Zhang Ye"s sloppy image walking leisurely toward them, some of them nearly peed their pants from being shocked and dumbfounded. F**k, wasn"t that Zhang Ye! They could even b.u.mp into a B-list celebrity while having breakfast? Their first reaction was that they must have seen something wrong. How could a B-list celebrity dress so sloppily and come out onto the streets! Besides, who had ever encountered such a big shot celebrity eating their breakfast at such a dirty, everyday stall? Were they shooting a TV drama or a movie? But why were there no director or cameras to be seen anywhere? There were all kinds of thoughts.
Zhang Ye greeted the old neighbors and then said to the vendor, "I"ll have three fried dough sticks and two bowls of tofu pudding. Carryout." Then he took a seat listlessly.
At this moment, a reporter who was lying in ambush at a nearby spot came running out towards him. Holding out a recording pen, he interviewed him, saying, "Teacher Zhang, I"m from Entertainment Weekly Magazine."
Zhang Ye said as he fought his droopy eyelids, "Oh, h.e.l.lo."
The reporter said, "I heard that after you joined Central TV Department 1, the new program The Voice of China is already undergoing production preparations, but many industry insiders and audience members do not seem to acknowledge it. They"ve raised many doubts and feel that it would be a mistake to subvert the concept of the talent shows and that it would conflict with the market trends."
Zhang Ye said, "Oh."
The reporter immediately asked, "What is your view on that?"
Zhang Ye said, "Nothing much."
The reporter exclaimed, "Are you confident about your new program?"
"—Pa.s.sable." Zhang Ye said.
The reporter was shocked and said, "Ah? What do you mean by pa.s.sable? Are you not confident about it at all?"
"—So-so," Zhang Ye said.
That reporter was puzzled. This shouldn"t be Zhang Ye"s style. Shouldn"t he be more outraged? Wasn"t he supposed to come up with a poem or two to scold those doubters? Wasn"t he supposed to give a strong and spirited comeback at those people? What the heck was with this att.i.tude? Why was he so dispirited today? This was not his style at all! As an entertainment reporter, he was not used to Zhang Ye"s current indifferent att.i.tude. After a barrage of questions, Zhang Ye was answering like he was still half-asleep and had absolutely no fighting spirit.
Doubts?
Criticism?
Zhang Ye was already numb to all of these. Not only him, as long as they were in the entertainment industry, no one could escape from it. Wasn"t Zhang Yuanqi famous as well? Wasn"t she reputable? Wasn"t she popular? Those who scolded her would still scold her every day and those who doubted her would still continue to doubt her, let alone Zhang Ye. He was more interested in getting his breakfast and going back to sleep awhile longer before heading to work.
……
Later in the morning.
At Central TV.
When Zhang Ye led Chenchen into the office, they heard someone speaking in a loud voice.
Fu Sihong said, "We are spending all of the 20 million on this?"
Zhang Zuo grunted, "Uh."
Fu Sihong asked, "Was it even necessary to use all of that 20 million to purchase the equipment?"
Zhang Zuo replied, "It was instructed by Director Zhang."
Zhang Ye also joined in and asked, "Brother Fu, what"s the matter?"
When Fu Sihong saw Zhang Ye, he had a face full of displeasure. Then he said, "Teacher Zhang, you might be in charge of the program production but for such a big matter, but shouldn"t you at least discuss it with me beforehand? If all of the 20 million was going to spent on equipment for the set, then what about the other expenses? How would we be able to invite the coaches? How can we pay for the contestants" transport, food, and accommodation? And as for all other miscellaneous expenses, how will we deal with those? Your decision this time was too ras.h.!.+"
Zhang Ye said, "Yesterday, I wanted to meet with you on this but you"d already left, so I intended to tell you about it this morning. We can"t scrimp on what"s essential and must spend on what"s necessary. We cannot afford to be indecisive on such things as this is also a responsibility for the program and audience."
Fu Sihong retorted with a question, "How do we solve the lack of funding then?"
Zhang Ye said, "I"m preparing to apply for more funding from Director Jiang."
Jiang Yuan happened to be just outside the office and heard a little of their conversation, so he asked, "What do you want to apply from me?" It was a habit of his to make the rounds at the respective program teams every day before he started work.
When Fu Sihong saw that the leader had arrived, he immediately reported to him about the situation.
After hearing about the situation, Jiang Yuan was also very shocked. He said, "You"re going to spend 20 million on purchasing the equipment for the stage"s set?"
Zhang Ye nodded and said, "Yes."
"Is there really such a need?" Jiang Yuan could not understand his motivation.
Zhang Ye said, "This is a must if we want to guarantee a high viewer rating. We can"t save on this amount of money because what we"re selling is the quality of vocals."
Jiang Yuan said, "We already have the basic equipment in the station, are they really so different from those top-tier equipment? Most people would probably not be able to differentiate it, right?"
Zhang Ye shook his head and said, "This was something I did some research into last night. During the television broadcast transmission, if the equipment used is different, the quality and performance of the sound and other aspects would not be as good. That is also the reason why those top-tier equipment are so expensive. Director Jiang, you have to trust me on this and leave the production of the program to me. Give me a little more funding for the program and I will surely return the trust with a program that exceeds all expectation in terms of the viewers.h.i.+p ratings."
Jiang Yuan immediately said, "You"ve spent 20 million just like that, so no matter how much more is given to you, it won"t be enough!"
Zhang Ye shouted, "But you can"t just make a horse constantly run without feeding it. The station has set a 0.8% viewers.h.i.+p rating as a target. Everyone knows that this number will be difficult to hit, but if we want to reach this target, then we must invest proportionately. In fact, the amount invested now will be returned by multiple times that in the future. But if the investment now is discounted, then the future viewers.h.i.+p ratings will also be discounted."
Jiang Yuan spoke, "The details of the new program and auditions were already released yesterday. You should have seen the response online. Other than your fans, everyone else did not have high expectations for this program. The overall market response was also quite negative. I know that the program is still in pre-production and the final product is not out yet, so no one knows how it will turn out. But the reaction of the audience and their expectations are also a kind of feedback, so me approving more funding to you really puts me in a very difficult situation. I"m unable to make the decision on my own."
Zhang Ye wasn"t too happy either. Oh, before he came here, he was promised to be given full control with complete support and extensive funding. But when he was ready to produce the program, he was given all sorts of excuses? Why was it so difficult just to get some things done!
He knew that Central TV had its advantage in that it had a huge amount of resources. But similarly, it also had its disadvantage: the traditional thinking of the organization. They always sought stability in their projects and were afraid of bearing responsibility. With such a culture, it would be difficult to do anything and things would surely get delayed!
Fu Sihong asked, "How much do you still need? You have to at least give us an estimation."
Zhang Ye honestly said, "At least 60 million more."
Jiang Yuan immediately responded, "That"s impossible. Even if the response from the audience is good, the station will still not grant 80 million RMB in production fees. Do you know the total budgeted production expenses for this year"s Central TV Department 1"s programs? So how can just you alone take up so much of it just like that? Unless you can sell the t.i.tle of the program and get the money ahead of the broadcast, then with advertis.e.m.e.nt revenue injected, the funding you require will be met. But these days, singing programs are saturating the market, thus leading to a market downturn. In the eyes of those companies, it would not be wise to buy a t.i.tle. For other similarly performing singing talent shows with good viewers.h.i.+p ratings, the t.i.tle money can only fetch around 20 million RMB or so, while many others can only price their t.i.tles like a cabbage at the market and sell it for less than 10 million RMB with the advertising rights fee even less. That is the current situation of the market, so even if you manage to land a 20 million t.i.tle sponsors.h.i.+p, it is still not close to your requested amount and would not be enough for you to use."
10 or 20 million?
The t.i.tle sponsors.h.i.+ps of this world were that low?
That might also be true. If there were no good programs and with variety programs continuing to be in a downturn while the market shrank and the audience base dispersed, the t.i.tle sponsors.h.i.+p rights would also naturally decline in value.
But what if there was a good program? What if there was a television program that could sweep all the other programs off their feet in the variety world? Then the t.i.tle sponsors.h.i.+p would definitely not be something that was worth just tens of millions! Zhang Ye believed, no, to be accurate, he knew that The Voice would be a world-cla.s.s program which defied all logic. That was why he had high expectations of the t.i.tle sponsors.h.i.+p and already had designs on this large piece of the pie.
Zhang Ye immediately said, "Director Jiang, so what you mean is that the t.i.tle sponsors.h.i.+p can directly be injected into the program team"s funding and be allocated freely by me?"
Jiang Yuan looked at him and said, "Your program hasn"t even been finalized yet, so how could you find any sponsors?"
Fu Sihong looked at Zhang Ye as though he were a layman and said, "Normally, we would have to at least confirm the core team and guests for the television program before we contact the sponsors and advertisers. Right now, we only have a program plan and the coaches have also not been decided yet, so which company would dare buy the t.i.tle sponsors.h.i.+p? That would be too hasty. Besides, if they bought the t.i.tle sponsors.h.i.+p at this point, the price would also not be very high. At most it would work out to a base price."
Zhang Ye probed, "But it will be our funding, right?"
Jiang Yuan said, "Yes, as long as you can sell it, I can decide to give you the full sum of the t.i.tle sponsors.h.i.+p. But as for the fees other than the t.i.tle sponsors.h.i.+p, like the advertising rights fees, all of those must go to Central TV Department 1. You can"t touch it, and neither can I."
Zhang Ye smiled and said, "Alright then."
That"s just what he wanted to hear.
If you aren"t going to be supportive? Then I will think of a way by myself!
At this moment, Zhang Ye felt that it was time to work on his eloquence. The amount of money he needed to bring in would be dependent on how well he used his mouth. If he could really restore that world-renowned program, The Voice, from his previous world back as it was, and do it well, he definitely couldn"t skimp on the production costs. Otherwise, he would be better off not doing it at all!