Chapter 995: The Problem of Broadcasting "Asking for a Monthly Pass"

Fan Wuxian was not surprised to see that Putin agreed to his request so easily.

However, it is more understandable to think that not many Western media have entered Russia at this time, and that the local Russian media have relatively weak say on some sensitive domestic events.

It can be said that the current power of Russia's media industry is still relatively weak, and the Russian political axe has a strong control over the media, so generally speaking, there are indeed few people who want to directly consider salvaging the broadcasting rights of the Kursk like Fan Wuxi, and those who have the strength to pay this salvage bill for Putin are even rarer.

At present, most of the enterprises in Russia's media industry, except for a few media dominated by political axes, are under the control of a few financial oligarchs, who hold up half of the Russian media industry, and have even overwhelmed the voice of political axes.

One of the most famous is Alexander. Lebedev, if not into the KGB work, Alexander . Lebedev was supposed to be an economist.

Lebedev was born into a family of teachers, his father was a well-informed university professor, his mother was a secluded ordinary teacher, and his mother believed only in everything propagated by state radio. And his mother immediately retorted, how could this be done? That's against the law.

Perhaps since then, Lebedev has been determined to let ordinary people like his mother see news outside of official propaganda.

In 1982, Lebedev was studying for a doctorate in economics at the Institute of Economics of the International Socialist System in Moscow, where he was studying for a doctorate in economics on the problem of the national debt and the challenges of globalization.

The espionage in London was a happy memory for Lebedev, and he had access to a wealth of material that could not be read in the Soviet Union, and he traveled to various European countries, which was very beneficial to his economic research.

Of course, Lebedev's work in London was by no means limited to the study of economics, and it is said that he, along with a few friends, had already secretly tried his hand in the world of finance.

Before the collapse of the Soviet Union, he was abruptly recalled to Moscow by the counterintelligence agency to report to work, and a few months later appeared in Lausanne, Switzerland, as an investment adviser for a private bank, thus completing his magnificent transformation from spy to banker.

As one of Russia's few financial experts, Lebedev made his first pot of gold by buying and selling risky bonds in South America and Africa. In 1995 he established the National Savings Bank, which became the starting point of his vast wealth.

Among Lebedev's business associates are former KGB spies, such as the current chairman of the National Savings Bank, Yuri Brown. Kudimov used to be a journalist and lurked in London to spy on him. These colleagues, who once fought together on the secret front, are now united for monetary gain, constantly expanding the size of the company, and fighting their way through the chaotic Russian economy.

But Lebedev wanted more than just money, and when the quiet young man immersed himself in economics during the heavy work of the KGB, he was destined to be an idealist, and Lebedev, who had succeeded in the financial world, immediately aimed at his real target journalism.

In 1993, former Russian President Mikhail Gorbachev used his Nobel Peace Prize money to found Novaya Gazeta, which later became one of Russia's most influential media outlets, known for its sharp criticism of political axes and a unique reputation for Russia's harsh news environment.

The paper's employees hold 51 percent of the shares, while the other 49 percent belongs to Gorbachev himself and his close friend Alexander Brown. Lebedev.

Lebedev and Gorbachev have been cooperating for a long time, and every year Lebedev sponsors the Rysa Gorbachev Church. Gorbachev Fund Fundraising Gala, a charitable fund named after Gorbachev's deceased wife.

His friendship with Gorbachev allowed Lebedev to take a stake in the world-renowned newspaper, thus laying a solid foundation for his media empire. This foundation is not only due to the good reputation of "The New Paper" for many years, but also to be forged with blood.

Within a few years, four reporters of The New Newspaper were assassinated, and this media outlet, which had risen from blood again and again, gained great sympathy and goodwill in the Western world. And the master behind it Alexander. Lebedev also got the opportunity to open the door to the Western media industry.

However, some have questioned Lebedev's motives, one of the reasons being that he was born in the KGB, just like Putin.

A journalist once asked why Lebedev was not imprisoned with confiscated property like other Russian tycoons. He believes that there is only one explanation, and that is that he is Putin's man at all, that he was installed by Putin on Gorbachev's side.

A more rational view is that Lebedev's control of some Western media would also be good for Putin, which could greatly improve Russia's international image.

Lebedev remained silent about these speculations, and he rarely expressed his clear political views publicly, but he never hid his love for journalism, and he once said that when he was working for the KGB in London, he had to read a lot of materials, and these newspapers were very good, and he believed that there were some media in the world, and some good journalists, that were worth protecting from the reality of quick success.

Among all kinds of speculations, Fan Wuxian believes that Lebedev is Putin's person, as Yeltsin's dark hand in the process of replacing Gorbachev, Putin obviously used the huge power he formed in the KGB, which also became an important reason why Yeltsin chose him as his successor, and people like Lebedev obviously have an extraordinary relationship with Putin, otherwise with the sharp speech tendency of his media, he would have been banned a long time ago, how could he have stayed until now?

It's just that at present, with the strength of Russia's domestic media, it is indeed difficult to come up with more than 100 million US dollars at once to help Putin salvage the Kursk, and there will be more collateral to do so, and it is easy to trigger some other associations, such as the international community's speculation about the relationship between Lebedev and other Russian media tycoons and Putin, etc., which will make the little good impression he had finally erected in the Western world collapse immediately.

For this reason, it is only natural for Putin to hand over the broadcast rights to Fan Wuxian in exchange.

Moreover, in the recent stage, because of the Chechen issue and some other problems, the relationship between Putin and some private media in the country has become quite tense, for example, the famous Russian financial oligarch Gusinsky's media kingdom's trump card Reading TV was forcibly taken over, and the president of the Seventh Publishing Group made the decision to close down the "Today's Daily" and "Review" magazines, and the powerful media kingdom that Gusinsky had painstakingly operated for many years collapsed, and the editors and reporters under his command showed their talents one after another and sought their own way out.

Reading Power TV changed hands smoothly, and there was no imaginary large-scale resignation in the station, which surprised even the new leadership team itself, after the TV station learned of the formation of the new leadership team, its original team set off a huge campaign to defend the TV station.

After the forced takeover of the TV station, the new leaders made a speech, stating that they would reorganize the TV station according to their own ideas, and they called on the TV station staff to return to work, saying that the resignation applications submitted by the employees would be null and void, and the TV station would not fire anyone for the time being.

At the same time, the station's host and reporters continued to announce their departure.

According to media reports, more than 100 hosts and reporters have left the reading station, including more than 40 well-known program hosts, who have expressed their reluctance to cooperate with the new leadership team and are ready to set up another mountain with the original boss.

Although more than 100 people are a small part of a TV station composed of more than 1,200 people, the vast majority of those who left were well-known program hosts and reporters, which is still an irreparable loss for the TV station.

All in all, Russia's domestic media industry is in a mess, and the relationship with the Western media is relatively poor, even if it wants to host the broadcast of this salvage event, it seems to be powerless.

However, after taking on this project, Fan Wuxian also felt that his company might not be able to cope with it, mainly because he really didn't know much about the capabilities of his media department.

It stands to reason that Fan's Investment Group now has both a satellite communication department, a media organization department, a large number of artists and hosts, as well as a TV channel hosted by CCTV alone, and a very successful shopping and variety show.

Such a media department should have the ability to broadcast this time to the good operation, but Fan Wuxi also has some worries, that is, these departments under his own command have always been independent, and they have not combined the experience of holding a complete set of activities together, and he is a little skeptical that they can do a good job this time according to their own ideas?

So Fan Wuxian called Xia Donghai to inquire about the matter.

"Salvage rights to the Kursk?!" After hearing this, Xia Donghai immediately shouted.

"yes, we don't have any experience with that, do we?" Fan Wuxi rubbed his ears, took the phone and said to Xia Donghai, "I'm a little worried now, did I promise Putin too much?" ”

Although this business will definitely not be able to lose money, just selling regional broadcast rights to Western countries can make a lot of money, but Fan Wuxian also considered that if he engages in live broadcasting, there is still a big problem, that is, there seems to be a considerable shortage of translators in various languages, can it be said that he has to temporarily go to foreign Chinese universities to hire some foreign language teachers, or go directly to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to ask some professional translators to help?

It's not that this doesn't work, but I just feel a little too embarrassed, it is estimated that if it is in CCTV, it will be much easier to deal with this kind of problem than myself, it seems that although my side is very good in terms of profitability, but the comprehensive strength is still too poor, and when I encounter this kind of complicated thing, I suddenly feel a little blind.

"This kind of thing is a great opportunity to enhance the image of our Fan's Media!" Xia Donghai was very excited about this.

In fact, after hearing the news of Fan Wuxian, Xia Donghai's first thought was that this time Fan's media department could finally go from home to abroad through this incident, which was a very rare opportunity.

As a major event of worldwide concern, the sinking of Russia's Kursk has attracted the general attention of the world's media from the official to the non-governmental, and everyone hopes to get first-hand intelligence information, especially some countries that are very interested in the parameters of the Russian nuclear submarine, and they do not hesitate to pay a high price for this.

In particular, it is worth mentioning that through this salvage broadcast, we can carry out all-round cooperation with major media in various countries around the world, which can not only enhance the popularity of Fan's, but also allow its employees to experience the feeling of cooperation with large international media groups, which is very beneficial to their growth.

"Now there is another very important thing, that is, we should discuss how to cooperate with the media groups of various countries, at least we must negotiate the price first-" Fan Wuxian said in his heart that it would take a while for the salvage operation anyway, and he seemed to have stirred up this matter, raised the price of the broadcast rights, and made a lot of money.

If you really can't do it, you can temporarily rent people from media groups in various countries and set up a joint film crew, at least in this way, you don't have to worry about the obstacles to prophecy habits, you only need to get a few big language programs on your side, small languages really don't matter, I believe that the cannibals in Papua New Guinea obviously don't care about the sinking of nuclear submarines.

Of course, the first thing that should be talked about is CCTV, after all, we have been working together for many years, and if you don't talk to them first, it's really a bit uninteresting.

Therefore, Fan Wuxian entrusted Xia Donghai to communicate with the leaders of CCTV first, saying that he had obtained the Russian TV broadcast rights for the salvage of the Kursk, and now he wanted to ask them if they were interested in it.

After CCTV learned the news, it immediately contacted Fan's headquarters, and it was obvious that what they wanted was not just to obtain domestic broadcast rights.

(To be continued)