"Yes, Hutchison Whampoa has acquired TVB shares held by HSBC and Time Life. Now, I already own 90% of TVB shares, so naturally I want to take over TVB." Chen Zhiwen nodded and said.
Shao Yifu asked: "I have long heard that Chen Sheng's business strategy for Hutchison Whampoa is to only develop core businesses, such as real estate, terminals, and trade. Is it difficult for Chen Sheng to also take a fancy to TVB's small business?"
Chen Zhiwen shook his head and said: "Compared with Hutchison Whampoa's existing major businesses, TVB is naturally a small business, but I don't care how much profit TVB can bring me, or even losing money. What I want is a TV station. "
"Then Chen Sheng is planning to drive me away?" Shao Yifu asked.
Chen Zhiwen shook his head and said, "No, but, Shaosheng, are you really willing to stay and work for others?"
"This" Shao Yifu fell silent. When TVB was first established, Shao Yifu did not take the TV station seriously. He only joined because of the invitation of his friends and only invested 2% of the shares. The reason why Li Xiaohe Inviting Shao Yifu was based on the fact that Shaw Brothers Cinemas has a large number of shooting resources, which can complement the start-up TVB.
But no one could have imagined that in just a dozen years, Shaw Brothers Cinema would be hung up and beaten by a rising star. Wireless, which was once indifferent, would become the dominant TV player in Hong Kong. However, his friend Li Xiaohe was seriously ill and could not run a TV station for a long time, so Shao Yifu slowly Slowly taking control of TVB.
Because Shao Yifu knows that Li Xiaohe's health is definitely not good. He is the potential owner of TVB in the future. Even if the three major foreign companies want TVB in the future, they will face a situation where all the management is controlled by him. Besides, foreign companies are just to make money. , as long as you spend your own money, you can definitely buy their shares.
However, Chen Zhiwen, who was much more entrenched than him, obtained the absolute controlling stake in TVB and suddenly fell into a deadlock.
Let him work for someone else? That's really difficult. Once one of the top ten richest people in Hong Kong, no matter how he declined, he would never fall to this point.
"Chen Sheng, is there really no room for negotiation?" Shao Yifu asked with a frown. It seemed that the only option was negotiation. There was nothing left to exchange on his side.
"I definitely want TVB." Chen Zhiwen said: "If Shao Sheng is interested, he can become a non-executive director at TVB and participate in the board of directors' management of the company."
Shao Yifu has good vision and ability, but his "picking" attribute is too strong. Isn't the reason why Shaw Brothers Film Company declined because it missed Li Xiaolong and Xu Guanwen in succession? This allowed rival Golden Harvest to earn massive box office revenue, which in turn led to Shaw Brothers being beaten.
In the history of TV stations, although TVB was still developing very well in the 1980s, and all TV series became popular and exported to various Asian countries, the root of the problem was also laid at this time. Although the stars were famous, their incomes were too high. Low-level, as low as second-tier celebrities are almost like wage earners. Third-tier celebrities, those who are familiar to most people but don't know their names, basically have to do some other side jobs to survive.
Although being a star is also a job, stars from all countries in the world eventually achieve high incomes, which is a choice of the market. Relying on a monopoly in Hong Kong to force their income down will only be counterproductive. When all contracts expire in the 1990s, All these people went to the film industry.
"Chen Shengdu owns 90% of the stocks, so what's the point of me being a director?" Shao Yifu laughed at himself.
"Shao Sheng, you decide for yourself." Chen Zhiwen nodded and said.
"I need to think about this. As for TVB's personnel issues, Chen Sheng is planning to do this now?" Shao Yifu said with some regret. There was really no other way. The other party had 90% of the equity and was richer, so he had to give up. , but with so many people following me, I have to ask questions. .
"I can stay with Shaw Brothers' team and continue to run TVB, as long as they cooperate with my future policies." Chen Zhiwen said.
The reason why Shao Yifu was not kicked out directly was that in addition to Chen Zhiwen's great appreciation for his charity behavior in the future in the mainland, another reason is that the current TVB TV station is still inseparable from the filming base of Shaw Brothers Film Company. Over the years, Because of Shao Yifu's relationship, TVB has saved a lot of costs in filming many plots. This is one of the reasons why TVB has been able to gradually defeat Li's.
Chen Zhiwen doesn't really care about this cost savings, but if it suddenly disappears, TVB will immediately be in big trouble. This is definitely not something that can be solved in the short term by throwing money at it.
Therefore, it is still necessary to stabilize Shao Yifu. Even if he is asked to leave, let him choose: either you leave, or you stay and work for me.
Shao Yifu will definitely leave on his own. This is the case for this kind of people. This will avoid driving the other party away. It is too embarrassing. There is no need to make it so ugly. After all, the other party is also a business tycoon level figure.
It's a pity that he has special plans for TVB. Shao Yifu's extremely picky character has ruined his own Shaw Brothers Film Company. Chen Zhiwen will not let him ruin TVB again.
On January 16, 1976, a piece of news shocked the entire entertainment industry. Hutchison Whampoa had acquired 90% of the shares of TVB and had reached an agreement with current TVB Chairman Li Xiaohe and General Manager Shao Yifu. The two immediately resigned from the TV station, and TVB officially entered the Hutchison era.
Today's TVB is not a listed company. Therefore, no matter how well-known it is among the public, it is not obligated to hold a press conference when changing equity. Besides, TVB itself is the largest gathering point for reporters in Hong Kong.
When the company changed hands, it was natural to hold a management meeting immediately. However, Chen Zhiwen would not arbitrarily interfere in an industry he did not understand. Instead, he made an appointment with Liang Shuyi, who was once Shao Yifu's right-hand man at TVB.
"Hello, Mr. Chen." Seeing Chen Zhiwen, Liang Shuyi did not feel nervous like many people. Instead, she behaved calmly.
"Miss Zhou, please sit down." Chen Zhiwen waved his hand.
Fang Yihua, the most famous female head of TVB in later generations, is still unknown today, but now there is a strong woman in TVB, namely Zhou Liang Shuyi.
This woman worked her way up from a clerk at TVB to a producer position. In the original history, one year later, she became the youngest deputy general manager in TVB history, and then left to go to the newly established TVB. At Jiayi TV Station, due to the various wireless environments at that time, there was no room for her to improve.
After arriving at Jiayi, she also relied on her own efforts to become the deputy general manager of Jiayi, but in fact she was the real manager of Jiayi and became the six core members known as the "Six Gentlemen of Jiayi" One of the characters.
It's a pity that no matter how talented you are, you can't overcome the inherent flaw of Jiayi TV: educational programs must be broadcast during prime program time. After Jiayi collapsed, Liang Shuyi turned to politics and became a member of Parliament for two terms. Then in the 1990s, she entered the already Yuan Li's TV station, which was renamed Asia Television, had been fighting with her old employer, TVB, for several years.
Until later, ATV was powerless, so Liang Shuyi went into politics again, serving in more than ten positions from the Municipal Council, the Legislative Council, the Executive Bureau, the Tourism Development Bureau, the Trade Bureau, the Airport Management Board, the ICAC representative, the Consumer Council, etc. In the past year, they have held a dazzling number of government affairs positions, and many of them even became chairman and became a political elite.
Ultimately, people like Liang Shuyi like to constantly challenge themselves. Once the challenge is no longer available, they want to leave.
Chen Zhiwen is naturally willing to keep such a person with all his strength. TVB has a big goal in his plan, enough to keep her busy for a long time. Moreover, such an ambitious person may be able to discover places that he has never thought of.
"Ms. Zhou, what do you think of the future of TVB?" Chen Zhiwen asked.
"Sheng Chen, TVB surpassed Lai's in market share three years ago and became the largest TV station in Hong Kong. However, the competition among TV stations has always been based on ratings, and ratings are sometimes a big factor in a TV series. can change, so we can't sit back and relax until we completely defeat Li's. In addition, the Hong Kong government also established a TV station called Jiayi a few months ago. Although there are many restrictions on prime programs, There are many business tycoons behind this company, so they should not be underestimated." Zhou Liang Shuyi said skillfully, obviously already prepared.
"Then how do you think we can completely surpass them?" Chen Zhiwen asked with a smile. This is indeed what Liang Shuyi said. Although TVB has been suppressing Li (ATV) for most of the time since the 1980s, it has never been able to do so. It could destroy it, but in some years, ATV produced a hit movie and put the pressure on TVB. Until the entire Hong Kong film industry declined, neither company could tell whether it was life or death.
"Long-term broadcasting of high-quality TV dramas and a large number of new dramas, as long as it lasts for a few years, is enough to destroy Li's profitability and make the shareholders behind them withdraw their shares." Zhou Liangshuyi said: "I think martial arts filming is very good, Li Xiaolong Although he has passed away, his influence is still there. We can find those martial arts that have been proven by the market and make them into TV series. As long as we are willing to spend money, it will be difficult to make them popular."
"Looking at you, have you mentioned this to Shao Yifu before?" Chen Zhiwen asked with a smile.
"Yes, I mentioned it, but it was rejected because it required too many copyrights and the cost of filming was relatively high." Zhou Liangshuyi said.
Chen Zhiwen nodded and said: "If you want to make a martial arts film by Jin Yong or Gu Long, that's no problem. I can pay for it, but the number of classic martial arts films is also limited. What should we do after we finish filming?"
"Then we can only make self-made dramas." Shuyi Zhou said: "TVB's current self-made dramas are not bad, but what is more troublesome now is that many of us used the resources of Shaw Brothers Film Company, and many screenwriters followed this time After Shao Yifu left, the filming staff and screenwriters have become more nervous in the past year."
"If you don't have enough people, you can recruit more people. If you can't find them, go outside or look for them in Li's." Chen Zhiwen said.
"Indeed." Zhou Liang Shuyi nodded and said.
Chen Zhiwen continued: "However, a mature TV station must cultivate its own talents, especially since there are only two or three TV stations in Hong Kong. Sometimes, even if you want to dig them, you can't."
"What Chen Sheng means is to increase the number of people in the wireless training class?" Zhou Liang Shuyi immediately understood what Chen Zhiwen meant.
(End of chapter)
