Chapter 18: Good Things Come in Pairs
Editor: Henyee Translations
The eventful October soon passed.
Entering November, all major satellite channels had all finished broadcasting Blazing Teens, no matter how early or late they had started.
Jiangchuan Children's Channel, the first to broadcast the show, had even finished the second round and was preparing to show it for the third time, so as to drain Blazing Teens of all their potential.
As Blazing Teens came to an end, numerous networks came to Pengda Pictures, trying to get the exclusive broadcasting rights.
The three colossal video websites Penguin, YouKu, and Potato had the most abundant financial resources and they all offered Meng Lang a price that was almost too good to reject.
In the end, the exclusive online broadcasting rights of Blazing Teens went to Penguin, the seemingly most resourceful website of the three.
The final price was half a million for an episode to show it exclusively on Penguin.
That was a rich penguin!
It had never occured to Meng Lang that the exclusive online broadcast rights could be sold at such a high price, for he had never expected that Blazing Teens could be sold that way when he was shooting it.
Did Penguin have too much money to burn? Why would they purchase the exclusive online broadcasting rights for half a million for an episode of Blazing Teens, which the website's target customers wouldn't watch?
Meng Lang asked the other party that question. Since the contract had already been signed and stamped with company seals, he didn't have to worry about offending anyone with the question any more.
The person in charge of the project from Penguin only smiled and told him a shocking fact.
There were over 100 million active users on Penguin, most of whom were under 18. The viewing history of some of the users above 25 consisted of nothing but cartoons…
Hm… how interesting!
Exactly how many parents would play some cartoon on a video app for their kids just to the little ones off their back?
From this point of view, Penguin's decision of purchasing the exclusive broadcasting rights of Blazing Teens at such a high price indeed made sense.
After bidding the video websites' personnel, Meng Lang entertained some foreign friends.
…
"Meng San, please!"
Meng Lang was utterly baffled when Mr. Ishikawa gave him a 90-degree bow.
TBS wanted to introduce Blazing Teens to Japan because some vlogs made by Japanese students studying in China had sparked a frenzy of yo-yo's in their home country. Seriously?
It had even given rise to a business known as "yo-yo purchasing agent".
How incredible was that!
One had to admit that the two waves of visitors today had both shocked Meng Lang like he had never experienced before.
The exclusive broadcasting rights of Blazing Teens was sought after first and had been sold at half a million for a single episode. What happened next made his jaw go slack. A foreign TV channel wanted to broadcast Blazing Teens! For real?
Damn it!
"I must still be asleep. I'm daydreaming here."
Patting his own cheeks, Meng Lang asked his visitor from a foreign land. "Mr. Ishikawa, are you sure that TBS wants to broadcast Blazing Teens? With exclusive broadcasting rights?"
"Yes!"
Mr. Ishikawa could speak English, but had a strong accent. Blazing Teens sounded more like Blazing Chins when he said it, but apart from that, everything was fine.
"Meng San, we've done our research. Over 38% of the audience were interested in yo-yos from your country and children of my country want to be able to buy yo-yos in department stores, too…"
"So, are you reminding us that we should export yo-yos now?" thought Meng Lang.
Meng Lang was overwhelmed. After making more soap operas or crappy shows than he could count, this was the first time that he actually had to "export" a TV show. He had no idea where to begin.
How about giving the broadcast rights to TBS for free?
No, that wouldn't do!
Regardless of the amount, he had to charge TBC. Otherwise, if word got out, other people would think that TBS was only showing Blazing Teens because it was free. That wouldn't look good.
Even if he sold it to TBS for one dollar, that counted as "export", which would sound very nice when the others heard about it. The online community would be singing praise for him!
Hence, after the initial contact, Meng Lang probed with a price of one million.
"One million? No problem!"
Mr. Ishikawa replied without hesitation, so much so that Meng Lang thought that he was relieved.
Meng Lang was rendered speechless.
Had he made the price too low?
However, he had named the price and it wouldn't be appropriate to raise it again.
And frankly, Blazing Teens was not the most well-made show on earth and it was already very generous of TBS to accept that price.
Rather than being greedy, Meng Lang decided that he would take this chance to build some rapport. It might come handy one day.
So far, TBS was the only foreign TV channel that was willing to purchase Blazing Teens and no other foreign TV channels had shown such intention.
Meng Lang decided that he would use TBS as a touchstone. If the show was received well, not only would he have a better relationship with TBS, but other foreign TV channels might be interested when they saw the great response from the audience.
"Don't worry about the dubbing. We'll take care of it!" Mr. Ishikawa had gotten what he wanted for the trip and he followed the local custom, offering to buy Meng Lang dinner.
It was difficult to turn down such a kind offer and Meng Lang was more than happy to oblige.
The two of them chatted casually about Blazing Teens in a hotpot restaurant.
TBS was going to dub the entire series and invite a popular girl band to sing its Japanese theme song known as "Teenager".
Meng Lang supported their plan and wished Blazing Teens all the best, earning TBS more advertisement revenue!
"I'm sure we will!"
Mr. Ishikawa had had a little more to drink and his cheeks were flushed. "Our kids have been brainwashed by Otaku-oriented animations. What they need are heros! Yoyoman is a great choice…"
What the hell is a Yoyoman?
Sipping his beer, Meng Lang suddenly understood why a Japanese TV channel was the first foreign channel to purchase Blazing Teens.
Rather than the yo-yos, they preferred the hot-headed teenage passion about Blazing Teens.
These people were hopeless!
…
By the time Meng Lang got back home, it was eight in the evening.
His parents were watching TV on the sofa and their Siberian Husky was sitting innocently on the side with a carton box over its head.
"What's going on? What's that carton box doing?"
Talking off his shoes, Meng Lang went to the sofa to take the box off the Husky's head.
Mr. Old Meng pursed his lips. "We have to send the dog away. I didn't walk it for one day and it bit a hole in our cupboard. I found a carton box to cover its head. This way, it won't bite anything."
"That won't work. The stupid dog may look well-behaved now. As soon as you look away, it will throw the box off with a few sways of its head. It'll go back to tearing the furniture apart without hesitation…"
After taking a can of coke from the fridge, Meng Lang turned to ask about the factory.
Mr. Old Meng was very proud at the mention of the factory. He had "I'm the one who makes the most money in this household" written all over his face.
After showing off the factory's business, Mr. Old Meng suddenly asked, "How's the shooting of Balala the Fairies going? I heard you changed the actress for your leading role?"
"Yes. We did!"
-- Gift
received