Depressive Screenwriter

By the end of March, the news of Su Yan's departure from Sakura TV had completely fermented, with the heat spreading everywhere.

Major news outlets reported on this endlessly.

[“To the Moon” Writer Su Yan’s Departure from Sakura TV is a Done Deal, Where Will His Future Lead?]

[Some People Mistake Platform for Ability; After Leaving Sakura TV, the Genius Writer Su Yan May Become Just Another Ordinary Person.]

[Young People Are Too Impulsive and May Taste the Bitter Fruit; After Achieving Some Success, They Want to Leave Their Original Platform. This is a Typical Case of Ungratefulness!]

[Su Yan's New Work, “Your Lie in April,” Trends on Social Media! Fans of “Rurouni Kenshin,” “To the Moon,” and “Ancient Love Poetry” Collectively Express Their Support for Su Yan.]

[Sakura TV Production Department Director Akasaka Yoshitoki Denies Suppressing Su Yan and States Directly That Su Yan Has Extremely Poor Interpersonal Skills at the TV Station, is Arrogant and Self-Satisfied, and Even if Su Yan Did Not Leave Sakura TV, He Would Not Be Able to Stay There for Long.]

[Several Anonymous Screenwriters from Sakura TV's Screenwriting Department Gave Interviews Commenting That Su Yan Has No Respect for Seniors, Has Extremely Low Emotional Intelligence, and is Basically a Character That Everyone in the Screenwriting Department Dislikes Very Much.]

[According to Rumors, the Reason Why Screenwriter Su Yan Was Determined to Leave Sakura TV Was Because His Partner, Last Year's Best New Producer Award Winner, Shinozaki Ikumi, Was Unfairly Transferred Due to Lack of Ability.]

Su Yan's departure storm was also a major news event in the film and television industry at the end of the quarter. For more than a week, all kinds of outrageous information emerged day by day, some true and some false.

Some were even Akasaka Yoshitoki bribing some media to smear Su Yan.

They described the reason for Su Yan's resignation as his own character and moral cultivation problems.

However, Su Yan's fans certainly didn't believe it.

The whistleblowers in those smear news reports were even anonymous. Who are you trying to fool with this kind of thing?

In fact, Su Yan, who was in the midst of this public opinion storm, basically stopped speaking after accepting several media interviews last week.

Frankly speaking, Su Yan has no hatred for Sakura TV.

At least Su Yan became famous at Sakura TV. He was only targeting Akasaka Yoshitoki.

He didn't intend to let the TV station be smeared by the media too much.

Soon, it was the end of March.

“Be cautious in your actions after leaving Sakura TV. Starting your own company is no joke. Even if you have ten works that are well-received, as long as one or two works receive bad reviews and losses, it is likely that you will not be able to recover!”

“I understand, thank you for the reminder, Master Sawai.”

“If you, Su Yan, change your mind and want to return to Sakura TV, you are welcome here at any time.”

“Understood, thank you, Director Miyagi.”

“Have you thought about which TV station your company will broadcast its new drama on after you leave?”

“This, I haven’t discussed it yet. I hope it can be broadcast on the three major TV stations.”

“You have offended Akasaka Yoshitoki, so at least you have no hope here at Sakura TV. He will definitely not import your drama for broadcast on the TV station. Although the two major TV stations, Zhongxia and Hudu, will also import some film and television companies' dramas, most of the ones they import are dramas by evergreen screenwriters in the industry who they know well. You are not familiar with others, so it may be quite difficult to promote your drama to them.”

“Man proposes, God disposes!”

Su Yan smiled, looking at several people in the screenwriting department who were familiar with him.

This included his screenwriting master, Sawai Teruhiro, several colleagues from the same period, and even the head of the screenwriting department, Miyagi Terukichi, who still wanted to keep Su Yan at the last moment.

“Okay, everyone doesn’t need to be too sad.” Su Yan waved to them.

“I just left Sakura TV, but I’m still in Hudu. If you need anything, just call me directly.”

After speaking, Su Yan hugged the things he had packed up and left the Sakura TV screenwriting department.

A certain room in the Sakura TV high-rise.

Akasaka Yoshitoki looked at Su Yan's leaving figure through the one-way glass, his expression gloomy.

Su Yan would rather resign from Sakura TV than meet him even once, or say even a word to him. Akasaka Yoshitoki experienced that kind of contempt from the bottom of his bones for the first time in his life.

“Okay, I’ll see what great things you, the so-called genius, can do after leaving Sakura TV.”

“Don’t want to work under me? Then be an enemy!”

Akasaka Yoshitoki sneered and pulled down the blinds, and Su Yan's leaving figure disappeared from his sight.

Outside Sakura TV.

Shinozaki Ikumi's red car was parked by the side of the road, the car window slowly lowered, and Shinozaki Ikumi's smiling face was revealed.

“Let’s go, get in the car!”

Driving along the city ring expressway, Shinozaki Ikumi said while driving.

“During these few days that you were muddling along at the TV station, I finally managed to get our company’s business license through my mother’s connections. Moreover, the leasing of the company’s office space and the manpower that the company needs to recruit have also been contacted almost completely, just waiting for them to directly join the company. But…”

“But what?” Su Yan asked.

“I didn’t put much effort into Sakura TV. Hudu TV and Zhongxia TV don’t have a very strong desire to purchase the broadcasting rights of your new drama.” Shinozaki Ikumi paused for a moment.

“What’s the specific situation?” Su Yan asked calmly, actually he could guess it himself.

The two TV stations would definitely welcome Su Yan if he joined them.

But if Su Yan wanted to sell them the broadcasting rights to his works, then their enthusiasm would definitely dissipate by more than half.

“They know that the total capital of this film and television company that I jointly invested in with you is only 20 million, and this money will be used entirely for the filming of “Your Lie in April.” My idea is to at least hope to win the second prime time slot of Zhongxia or Hudu TV, similar to the broadcasting time slot of “To the Moon.” But the people who contacted me at the two TV stations indicated that this is impossible…”

Su Yan looked at Shinozaki Ikumi.

“They said that if we only sell them the broadcasting rights of “Your Lie in April,” then they are only willing to offer 8.5 million at most. And they will not give this drama the second prime time slot. They will only give the broadcasting time slot of the level of 9 pm from Monday to Thursday… They want to reserve all the really good time slots for their own TV station’s self-produced dramas.” Shinozaki Ikumi continued.

The fees that the two TV stations gave Su Yan were only broadcasting copyright fees. If Su Yan's drama was launched on an online broadcasting platform, all those revenue shares would belong to Su Yan, and would have nothing to do with the TV station.

Including GG placements in film and television dramas, peripheral products, overseas copyrights, etc., all belong to Su Yan.

The only profit point for TV stations to import these dramas lies in the GG fees that the TV station obtains after the drama achieves good ratings.

Therefore, the prices that TV stations generally give for importing the broadcasting rights of these dramas are often less than half, or even one-third, of the production cost.

After all, it is a one-shot deal. The TV station spends the investment of a c-level drama to obtain b-level or even a-level episodes for broadcasting, saving production costs and increasing the profit of obtaining GG fees.

The producers of the imported dramas gain traffic and attention through the TV station, and whether they can recover the cost through other channels later depends on their abilities.

“Of course, the heads of the two TV stations also have another proposal. Although they haven’t seen the script for “Your Lie in April” yet, out of trust in you, they are willing to directly buy the full copyright of this drama for 35 million, and are willing to broadcast it during the prime time slot of the TV station. If they do this, we will definitely make a profit without losing money. After the TV series becomes a big hit, we can also earn a reputation.”

“Sure enough, I knew it wouldn’t be that easy.” Su Yan smiled upon hearing this.

“Can you still laugh?” Shinozaki Ikumi said.

“What’s there not to laugh about? I left Sakura TV, and I’m not joining Hudu and Zhongxia, so people definitely don’t want to use a good time slot to broadcast an imported drama without full copyright.” Su Yan said.

“But it’s too simple to think about buying the full copyright of “Your Lie in April” for 35 million.”

It is certainly good to sell a 20 million investment for 35 million, which is a profit margin of 80%.

However, Su Yan's “Ancient Love Poetry” and “To the Moon” have such high playback volumes on the online broadcasting platform, how could Su Yan sell the full copyright for such a small profit.

But there is also a balance here.

That is, a drama must be broadcast on a TV station with traffic during a good time slot in order to have popularity, and only then will it gain the favor of a large number of paying users on the online broadcasting platform and other channels, and ultimately achieve profitability.

If it is really broadcast during the garbage time slot of the three major TV stations, then the exposure of this drama will not be enough, and the profitability on other channels will definitely be affected, and the probability of losing money is not small.

Therefore, for these independent film and television companies, these trade-offs in balance are also difficult to control.

A small profit is at least safe.

If you want to gamble for great benefits, you also have to risk a big loss.

“I will first rule out the proposal of buying out the copyright.” Su Yan said.

“If I accept this condition, what did I leave Sakura TV for? I directly signed the deed of sale, I still earn money, and I save a lot of trivial company management matters.”

Shinozaki Ikumi was not surprised by Su Yan's words.

“Then we only have two choices. First, really sell the broadcasting rights of “Your Lie in April” to Zhongxia or Hudu TV for 8.5 million, but the broadcasting time slot is on a mediocre weekday. Let’s gamble that “Your Lie in April” can also create miracles like “Ancient Love Poetry” in a weak time slot.”

“Second, sell the broadcasting rights of “Your Lie in April” to one of the other five major TV stations in Xia Guo. With your popularity, I think your new drama is likely to get a prime time slot on their TV station.” Shinozaki Ikumi said.

There are a total of eight TV stations in Xia Guo that can be called major TV stations.

But apart from Sakura, Zhongxia, and Hudu, the popularity and scale of the other five TV stations are obviously inferior.

“Although the attention of these five TV stations is not as good as the three major ones, it is not completely crushed. Occasionally, some hit dramas will have ratings of more than 4%. And unlike the three major TV stations, basically less than one-third of the dramas broadcast each quarter are invested and produced by themselves. The other dramas broadcast are basically works produced by these independent film and television companies.”

“These non-three major TV stations are the largest broadcasting locations for dramas produced by these film and television companies in Xia Guo.”

“Actually, Su Yan, based on my experience, if you compare the weekday time slot of the three major TV stations with the weekend time slot of these five major TV stations, I prefer the latter…” Shinozaki Ikumi said.

“Of course, you are the chairman of the company, so my words are just suggestions. The specific decision must be made by you.”

“Well, you can talk to them and see what their conditions are.” Su Yan thought for a while and said.

“But I’m not very familiar with the high-level executives of these five TV stations.” Shinozaki Ikumi said a little embarrassedly at this time.

“After all, people from our Sakura, Hudu, and Zhongxia TV stations have always looked down on them somewhat. I have to find someone in the circle to inquire about their contact information.”

“Don’t worry, although I’m not familiar with the high-level executives of these five TV stations either. But I have their contact information, and I have a lot of it.” Su Yan smiled.

“Huh?” Shinozaki Ikumi’s eyes widened.

At this time, Su Yan began to rummage through a pile of documents that he had taken out of Sakura TV.

There was a large pile of business cards inside.

Among them…

The business cards of the production department directors, screenwriting department directors, and even some TV station operation decision-making personnel of these five TV stations were impressively among them.

“They were frantically calling me a few months ago, inviting me to join them. Now…” Su Yan smiled.

“I feel like these business cards that I collected at that time can finally come in handy.”