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墨書 Inktalez
This is not just a casual boast from Li Hong; it is a solid fact.
The influence of the Goddess Alliance has now spread across the globe. Not to mention the one hundred million players on the National Server, there are also one hundred million players on the NA Server and Korean Server combined.
Those private television stations abroad are not fools; they will not miss this great opportunity. After contacting Riot Games, those stations showed a very positive attitude.
Eagle Sauce is a rich gamer, and given the large market potential, they offered ten million dollars for the American Broadcasting Agreement.
However, the situation with the Korean side was not as generous. SBS took a long time to negotiate and could only offer a few million Soft Sister Coins for broadcasting rights.
Nevertheless, considering this is the first event and they have yet to see results, their willingness to pay is already a pleasant surprise.
For other Broadcast Rights, Li Hong essentially adopted a half-sell, half-giveaway approach. Because aside from these major viewing regions, the ratings in other areas are barely worth mentioning.
Li Hong entrusted all negotiations with these television stations to Mark, who was responsible for dealing with the notoriously difficult Huaxia Television Station.
Mark's progress was relatively smooth, but Li Hong's situation was somewhat dismal.
Upon learning that Li Hong had secured so many broadcasting contracts, Zhang Bin was understandably shocked.
"With this premise in place, we can move forward," Zhang Bin sighed.
Li Hong felt helpless; he hadn't even managed to secure deals with provincial television stations before the other party hung up on him.
Zhang Bin picked up a coffee spoon and stirred it for a while before asking, "Mr. Li, to be honest, we can agree to this live broadcast. E-sports has already been classified as the 99th national sport, so broadcasting is fine. However, I hope we can negotiate the broadcasting fee further!"
Li Hong smiled wryly and replied, "Director Zhang, we never intended to make money from broadcasting fees. This is just the first competition; we merely want to establish a smoother live streaming channel. How about this: I’ll give you the Broadcast Rights for this S1 World Championship as a gesture of goodwill. However, Riot will take a 5% cut from advertising revenue."
"Deal!"
Zhang Bin would never refuse something that costs nothing. However, his intentions were not solely focused on this aspect.
"Then s, s..."
"Director Zhang," Li Hong interrupted, "let's not discuss that for now. We're only talking about S1 at the moment; we can address the rest later."
Zhang Bin had hoped to take advantage of the situation, but Li Hong was not going to let that happen. The S1 deal was unavoidable; to open up the live broadcast channels, sacrifices had to be made. However, with the broadcasting channels already established, the subsequent S events and future competitions were opportunities for significant profit—there was no way he would just give those away.
It wasn't just with Zhang Bin that they were only discussing S1; even with F and SBS, it was all about S1.
Li Hong knew that losing money on the S1 broadcast rights was a given. But it was a necessary loss; without it, they couldn't open up the live broadcast channels or enhance the event's influence. Once the event gained traction, there would be plenty of opportunities to make money—there was no way they could continue to incur losses.
After several unsuccessful attempts to negotiate, Zhang Bin reluctantly set aside discussions about S and other upcoming events. He clearly understood that unless he offered Li Hong something substantial, there was no way Li Hong would let go.
"Ten million! I want the S and S broadcast rights!" Zhang Bin finally declared.
That was the highest offer he could make at this point. Given the uncertain market outlook, making such a move demonstrated that Zhang Bin had a keen eye for opportunity.
However, Li Hong simply shook his head, showing no interest.
Zhang Bin sighed, tucking away his disappointment.
The two then tacitly avoided discussing S and turned their attention to contract matters.
"We also want the broadcast rights for the Preseason and Selection Tournament!" Zhang Bin argued persuasively.
Li Hong smiled wryly and asked, "Director Zhang, that's not very reasonable! You won't even broadcast these events; what do you need them for?"
"That's not your concern, Mr. Li. Just tell me whether you will grant them or not," Zhang Bin replied lightly.
Who said they wouldn't broadcast? If it's free, why not take it?
Li Hong, unaware of Zhang Bin's true intentions and seeing his insistence, had no choice but to compromise: "Fine, but just like before, we will take 5% of the advertising revenue."
"That's acceptable." In this regard, Zhang Bin had no objections.
This is also a common practice in broadcasting events. Generally, for free broadcast rights, there are usually advertising revenue-sharing agreements involved. This is an industry norm, and Zhang Bin couldn't do much about it.
In any case, bringing these rights back would only enrich the copyright library; whether they broadcast or not makes little difference, and it's uncertain if there will be any advertising revenue at all.
Aside from these terms, there were also personnel arrangements from the World Championship and Huaxia Channel Five.
Since it was a live broadcast, there could be no mistakes during the transmission. For this aspect, the entire event process would need to be overseen by the staff from Huaxia Channel Five.
Li Hong knew this was a necessary step; live broadcasts were not like recorded ones. If something went wrong during a live transmission, it could lead to significant trouble.
There had been opportunities for live broadcasts of League of Legends events before, but Riot Games was unwilling to let television stations interfere with the World Championship process, which was why they hadn't contacted any TV stations for broadcasting.
As for Goddess Alliance, Li Hong didn't mind. The personnel sent by Huaxia Channel Five at least had substantial live broadcasting experience. They might not make it particularly exciting, but at least there wouldn't be any major incidents.
However, this clause was merely taking advantage of someone like Li Hong who lacked connections. If it were the Olympics or some large official event, Huaxia Channel Five wouldn't dare to impose such demands.
But if it were an event organized by a specific company or organization, Huaxia Channel Five would have to intervene before the broadcast.
With these matters settled, the broadcasting arrangements were essentially complete. What remained was for Huaxia Channel Five to send professionals to coordinate with Riot Games and collaboratively finalize the entire broadcast process.
Li Hong didn't need to worry about the contract; Huaxia Channel Five already had a mature contract system in place. They just needed to fill in the agreed-upon terms to finalize the broadcasting agreement.
After concluding the discussions, Li Hong suddenly remembered something and quickly asked Zhang Bin, "Director Zhang, do you have any English-speaking hosts over there?"
"Yes, we do. Why do you ask?" Zhang Bin replied with curiosity.
"Could you lend one to me? I forgot to arrange for an English host. This is a global broadcast; it wouldn't work to just find anyone who speaks English. Your hosts are so professional; I really need one," Li Hong said with a sheepish smile.
He wasn't wrong; in such situations, it wasn't enough to just find someone who could speak English. At the very least, they needed a qualified host with stage presence. After all, Huaxia Channel Five was a major channel and surely had such talent available.
"Lend you one?" Zhang Bin's face lit up with amusement.
"Yes, let me borrow it!" Li Hong nodded.
"Ha!"
Zhang Bin replied irritably, "Dream on. You can use it, but don't think for a second that the appearance fee will be any less. It's 10,000, take it or leave it."
With that, Zhang Bin picked up the briefcase resting on the chair and turned to leave the café.
Feeling exceptionally pleased with himself for managing to extort Li Hong, Zhang Bin's steps became lighter.
He couldn't help but feel buoyant; after all, he had forgotten to bring money with him. What if Li Hong insisted on him paying the bill later?
Meanwhile, Li Hong was completely unaware of Zhang Bin's calculations. At that moment, he was still in disbelief over the 10,000 appearance fee.
What kind of host charges 10,000 just for an appearance? That's so much money! How many visits to a spa would it take to earn that back?
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