While The Voice is conducting national auditions and recording programs, Star TV is also building its own TV broadcast network.

ON APRIL 18, STAR TV LEASED A SATELLITE TRANSPONDER FROM SATELLITE TELEVISION SERVICE PROVIDER DIRECTV FOR $8 MILLION PER YEAR. Star TV can use satellite transponders to build 30 TV channels, which can cover hundreds of millions of TV users in North America such as the United States, Mexico, and Canada.

On April 20, Star TV leased the cable network of cable service provider Comcast for $15 million a year.

In '99, there were about 50 million cable paying subscribers in the United States, and the company has 18 million cable TV subscribers, 8 million broadband network subscribers and 3 million IP phone subscribers, making it the largest cable TV company in the United States.

The predecessor of Star TV, Belo TV, was also a cable TV station, but it only had a measly 5,000 subscribers.

On April 23, Star TV once again leased the Time Warner cable network, the second-largest cable service provider in the United States, for $10 million a year. With 9 million cable subscribers, 4 million broadband subscribers and 1.2 million IP phone subscribers, Time Warner Cable is the second-largest cable company in the United States.

Through these three transactions, Star TV paid more than $30 million a year in expensive rent, and initially had its own television broadcast network, which can cover hundreds of millions of wireless TV users in the United States, as well as 27 million cable paying subscribers to watch "The Voice". This is unthinkable in China, because private enterprises are currently not allowed to run TV stations in China, and the procedures for renting satellites are very complicated, and even if there is a relationship for approval, it will take several years.

Since then, all the preparations for "The Voice of America" have been completed, and the time has finally arrived on May 1.

At 10 a.m., Star TV Day hosted a grand press conference for the world premiere of The Voice of America at the Hilton Hotel in downtown Austin. ”

THE PRESS CONFERENCE ATTRACTED A NUMBER OF MAINSTREAM U.S. MEDIA OUTLETS, INCLUDING CNN, FOXNEWS, AND ABC.

More than 20 media organizations and nearly 100 reporters gathered at the press conference.

A few days before the press conference, a post broke out on a forum on Google's website that four mentors joined "The Voice of America" at a sky-high price, and the post broke the news of the franchise fees of the four mentors. Among them is $20 million from Mike Jackson and $20 million from Whitney. Houston is $15 million, Arthur Kid is $10 million, and Liu Dehua is $10 million.

CNN reporter Lei Luo first questioned the four mentors about this post, because the four mentors have always claimed to be attracted by the excellent creativity of the show in previous promotional activities, and some netizens suspected that they were just attracted by money as soon as this post came out.

"Mike, you have always said that you joined The Voice because the show is very good, and now the sky-high franchise fee has exploded on the Internet, and some people say that you are in debt, and you joined this show for the sake of the sky-high reward. What is your objection to this statement? ”

"I still say that, there is only one reason why I joined, that is, the show is very good, I am happy to participate, as for how much authenticity is there in the post that broke the news on the Internet?"

"Mike, since you think the post is fake, how much do you really get paid?"

"I'm sorry, but the remuneration issue is a trade secret, and I can't answer you."

"Is it difficult to answer, or is the post on the Internet revealing that it is true?"

"Please don't dwell on that. I'm not going to answer any more questions about compensation, so please ask other questions. ”

Michael Jackson was a little upset when asked by a reporter from CNN, but American reporters don't have superstar worship, and they dare to ask "Mr. President" directly in front of the president. What color panties did you wear today? Mike's displeasure naturally cannot simply make the reporter give up asking questions.

When Relo was about to fire again on Mike's debt, Lawrence Brown, CEO of Star TV, who was familiar with the American media people. Bello picked up the topic in time.

"You don't have to embarrass the four mentors, let me answer the reporter's question." Lawrence smiled and continued, "You should also know that the remuneration is a trade secret. It's impossible to tell you the exact number, but I can responsibly tell you that the posts on the Internet are unreliable, let me put it this way. Several mentors are "zero" pay to join, I will say again that it is "zero" pay to join, but it can also be said to be a sky-high salary to join, and this sky-high price is more than the amount of revelations in the online post. ”

What is "zero" remuneration and how can it be said to be sky-high remuneration? Lawrence's contradictory statement was immediately met with a burst of questions from reporters.

But they were disappointed, Lawrence is a master of dealing with the media, in Chinese Tai Chi is very good, he always smiles, always answer the reporter with one sentence: "Please pay attention to our program, the truth will be known to everyone sooner or later, now please forgive me for keeping it a secret." ”

The reporter hated Lawrence in the face of the oil and water, and the four mentors also unified their voices and did not answer questions about remuneration, as for the producer Chen Lin, who sat on the rostrum and kept silent, he was also a little fox, and he showed the same urine as the old fox Lawrence in the face of reporters' questions.

Seeing that this question was fruitless, the reporters began to change the topic and asked a few questions related to the Voice program, and seeing that the press conference was about to end, CNN's Lei Luo reporter fired again, this time his artillery fire was sharper, aiming at the only Chinese face among the four mentors - Andy Liu Dehua.

"Mr. Andy, you are the least experienced of the four mentors, is it a lot of pressure for you to work with the other three?"

is not a loss to CNN, which has been focusing on black China for 30 years, Lei Luo discriminated against him as soon as he opened his mouth, saying that Liu Dehua's qualifications were not as good as the other three.

Liu Dehua smiled slightly, didn't care about the ridicule of the other party's words, and said with a smile: "The cooperation with the three mentors is very pleasant, very relaxed and pleasant, the voice is a pleasant show, and the four of us tutors don't feel any pressure, some are just happy." That's all I have to say, as for whether what I'm saying is true, please pay attention to the world premiere of "The Voice of America" at 8 o'clock tonight. ”

Lei Luo didn't end the trouble, and asked a tricky question again: "As far as I know, Mr. Andy, the producer of the show, Mr. Chen Lin, and Mike have a very good relationship, is it because of the relationship between the two of you that you can join the ranks of mentors?" ”

Lei Luo's words were very mean, and he was clearly saying that Liu Dehua must have left the relationship to become a mentor, otherwise he would not be qualified. (To be continued......)