Sohu's two current CEOs, in fact, have a very clear division of labor, Gu Yong will be in charge and Zhang Chaoyang will be outside.

Attending the award ceremony, touring the country, holding press conferences, representing Sohu to participate in industry summits, and receiving leaders at all levels who came to inspect, Zhang Chaoyang was responsible for all of them. Even Sohu's branches, if they want to be spun off and listed in the future, the IPO roadshow will let Zhang Chaoyang run.

Anyway, Zhang Chaoyang loves to show off and play, so let him play enough, show enough, and he will be a living signboard of Sohu in the future.

Make the best use of your talents, use them perfectly!

Zhang Chaoyang quickly adapted to his new role and took the initiative to take over the errand of buying the copyright of film and television dramas. This job seems to be running errands, but Zhang Chaoyang enjoys it, because he can deal with many powerful people in the entertainment industry. When negotiating a film purchase agreement, it is a common thing to call two actresses to accompany and cooperate.

The Chinese entertainment industry is roughly divided into the following factions: Beijing circle (Renyi School, Beiying School, Beijing circle in the narrow sense), Northwest circle, Northeast circle, Shanghai circle, Hong Kong circle, Taiwan circle - in the 90s, there was also a Guangdong circle, which could compete with the Beijing circle, but it gradually cooled down in the new century.

Under Jiang Wen's recommendation, Zhang Chaoyang quickly opened up the relationship between the Beijing circle.

CCTV's TV drama production center alone, Sohu Video has bought more than 400 TV series, about 4,000 episodes. Some TV series are seventy or eighty episodes long, some TV series only have a few episodes, some simply only shoot one or two episodes, and many have never even been broadcast publicly.

Regardless of whether the filming is completed or not, whether it is broadcast or not, Sohu bought it in one package, spending a total of 1.6 million yuan, with an average price of 400 yuan per episode. These include the old versions of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", "Water Margin", "Journey to the West" and "Dream of Red Mansions".

In addition, some privately produced film and television dramas that have not been released or broadcast have also been won by Sohu at this price. For example, Chen Xiaoer and Xiaogang Cannon's companies made some films that could not pass the review, and they were all packaged and sold in good films, with an average of less than 300 yuan per episode, and the price of the movie was less than 6,000 yuan per film.

After a sweep in the Beijing circle, Zhang Chaoyang was introduced to the northwest circle by Jiang Wen.

Most of the films produced in the northwest circle are literary films, so they are also called "award-winning circles", in fact, many companies in this circle are located in Beijing.

The films of Lao Mouzi, Gu Photography, Jia Section Chief and others were swept away by Sohu Video. Some of these films are very expensive, each costing 20,000 or 30,000 yuan, such as "Hero", but most of them are very cheap, and you can buy a niche literary film for two or three thousand yuan.

In general, the closer the production time and the more refined the production level, the higher the purchase price.

Major local film studios were also taken away by Zhang Chaoyang, and they were packaged and bought by Sohu to buy a lot of high-quality products. Take "That Mountain, That Man, That Dog" as an example, you can buy the exclusive copyright of the Internet for 10,000 yuan, and it is a high-definition copy made by the Japanese side, which is not too cost-effective!

Sohu Video intends to implement a dual-track system of free and paid, and netizens will be able to watch all the films for free, but the pictures of these films are very blurry. It's not that Sohu video is disgusting, but the quality of the old film is like that, and the requirements for network speed are too high when converted into high-definition pictures.

However, netizens can also recharge to become VIP members, and with the help of video caching technology, they can enjoy the pleasure of watching movies with high-definition picture quality.

And Sohu Video also promised major film and television companies that the on-demand fees generated by VIP members watching the high-definition version will be distributed to the producer 20% of the profits - permanently valid!

The high-definition transformation of film and television dramas is hard work, anyway, little by little, Sohu Video will specially launch a high-definition film and television area. Classic literary films like "That Mountain, That Man, That Dog", or Chinese blockbusters like "Hero", must be prioritized.

The current Chinese film industry is very miserable, and Sohu Video can be regarded as increasing the income of the producer.

Take "That Mountain, That Man and That Dog" as an example, which won the Golden Rooster Award for Best Film and Best Actor that year, but not a single copy was sold in China, and it could not be released in theaters at all, and finally it could only be sold to CCTV Movie Channel to fill the film library.

Fortunately, a Japanese benzene distributor came to China to participate in the event, and saw the film by chance, and then bought the overseas distribution rights to get the Japanese benzene back for release. "That Mountain, That Man, That Dog" has been released in Japan for a year, and it sold 350 million yen (more than 20 million yuan) at the box office in more than 10 theaters. The Japanese side also bought the copyright of the original author, made a collection of short stories, and sold books with the help of the movie, which was reprinted five times within a year.

The Japanese side made a lot of money, because whether it was a movie or a movie, the copyright fee was negligibly low.

The funniest thing is that after this film became popular in Japan, it became popular in China when it was exported to domestic sales. won glory for the country, CCTV movie channel was broadcast repeatedly, schools and other government agencies also organized movie viewing, and various film seminars were held, but these have nothing to do with the producer.

Investors lose blood!

Even in another two or three years, online movie viewing is already very popular, and the price of a small-budget film sold to a video website is only about 10,000 yuan (non-exclusive), and only two or three websites are willing to pay for the genuine version.

The TV drama industry is not much better, and about two-fifths of the TV series produced every year cannot be broadcast, and they are directly thrown into the warehouse to dust after filming. No matter how small the mosquito is, it is still meat, these TV series are packaged and sold to Sohu, even if they can only be sold for one or two hundred yuan per episode, they add up to tens of thousands of dollars, and the production company is very happy, waste utilization.

Zhang Chaoyang only spent more than 8 million yuan to fill the copyright library of Sohu Video, but tired the technicians and editors like dogs.

And Zhang Chaoyang is also very happy, after running across the country in two months, he has made friends with the bosses and producers of many film and television companies, and has also met a lot of entertainment stars. Well, Mr. Zhang had a great time, and even accompanied an actress to participate in the awards event at the end of the year.

When he returned to Shenghai again, Zhang Chaoyang had no resentment and seemed to be enjoying his current life very much. He is still the CEO of Sohu outside, although the news has been leaked, everyone thinks that he took the initiative to promote Gu Yongjiang, which is similar to Duan Yongping and Wang Shishi's operation.

What's more, Zhang Chaoyang's stake is 1% more, and he is playing more happily than before.

"This time I met a lot of film and television company owners, among which the boss of Hairun was the most interesting," Zhang Chaoyang took a cigarette in his mouth and said with a smile, "This person is a real Confucian businessman, a cultural businessman, and I can talk to him very well." ”

Song Weiyang nodded and said, "Haiyan is really powerful. ”

Zhang Chaoyang said: "I think Sohu can set up a film and television company to invest in film and television dramas, and I will be responsible for it in the future." Gu Yongjiang is also very supportive of this idea, he originally wanted to do the film and television entertainment industry, and he also invested in film and television projects before joining Sohu. ”

"Yes. Song Weiyang said with a smile. He recognizes Zhang Chaoyang's vision in this regard, and Sohu Video has indeed invested in some popular models, at least it is much more reliable than Ma Xiaoyun's films.

"Then it's decided, I'll set up a film and television investment company when I go back," Zhang Chaoyang said happily, "Now I'm optimistic about a film, I think it's worth investing." ”

"What film?" Song Weiyang asked.

"It's called 'Bright Sword', and it's an adaptation," Mr. Zhang said, "When I met Hai Yan, he was in a hurry to attract investment, and he recommended the original book to me." It's okay to write, but it's a bit difficult to adapt, and it will definitely not pass the review if it was last year. ”

Song Weiyang asked: "How can I pass the trial this year?"

Zhang Chaoyang said with a smile: "To commemorate the 60th anniversary of the victory of the anti-Fascist X, as long as the war film is not messed around, it will be a green light all the way." ”

In fact, as early as 2001, the copyright of "Bright Sword" was bought by two companies successively. But it was too difficult to change the script, and it couldn't pass the review when it was changed, so both companies gave up. At the beginning of this year, police and gangster films were suddenly not allowed to be broadcast in prime time, so TV drama companies looked for new genres, and war films and spy war dramas became the first choice.

The investment budget of "Bright Sword" is as high as 16 million yuan, which is an absolute large-scale amount. Due to the high production cost, after the project was established, Hairun found several other companies to invest, but only three were willing to try, because the film would be cut by the review if they were not careful.

When Zhang Chaoyang was drinking with Haiyan, Haiyan was worried about investment, so he wanted to fool Sohu into throwing money in, blowing the prospect of the drama "Bright Sword" to the sky.

Song Weiyang said with a smile: "I have also watched "Bright Sword", you can invest, you can let it go, and by the way, take down the exclusive online copyright of this drama." ”

As a result, Sohu Film and Television was born, and it will merge with Sohu Video in the future. And Zhang Chaoyang has completely deviated and has become a well-known domestic film and television investor, and he especially likes to play tricks in film and television dramas - another time and space, Zhang Chaoyang made cameo appearances in "Sling Man" and "Pancake Man", and countless stars in "Pancake Man" are Zhang Chaoyang's friends.