Chapter 247 Asia TV
Back at ATV, Liu Zhicheng also convened a high-level meeting.

"Manager Li, how is ATV's preparation for listing going?" Liu Zhicheng asked a young man in his thirties.

He is Li Baoan, the 'God of Wealth' of TVB in later generations. With his financial expertise, he was eventually promoted to the group general manager of TVB. He was a talent that Liu Zhicheng asked Chow Liang Suk-yee to poach from the Lai Sun Group.

Of course, before being poached, Li Baoan could only be said to be a talent valued by Lin Baixin, rather than his right-hand man.

“Everything is ready and can be launched at any time!”

“Can it be controlled in late June and early July?”

"Yes, we are a high-quality company, and we can go public without any obstacles!"

"Okay, then wait for my notification!"

In this case, it is natural to wait until early July when the stock market is at its peak before going public. This way, more funds can be raised, which will be beneficial to the future development of ATV.

The Hong Kong government requested that Asia Television be listed, and after communicating with the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, it can be approved at any time.

Then, Liu Zhicheng arranged: "President Liang, you will prepare the 'Asia Satellite TV' team. The programs of Asia Satellite TV will be our dramas and TV programs. You also need to make a 'Entertainment Frontline' to show the entertainment industry in Hong Kong to all the audiences."

Zhou Liang Shuyi immediately asked, "Boss, do you want to export Hong Kong's entertainment overseas?"

All the executives looked at Liu Zhicheng. They felt that their boss seemed to be setting up a big plan. He established YG Entertainment, broadcast the "Music Bank" program, planned the "Four Heavenly Kings", and now vigorously promoted it overseas!

Seeing that everyone had questions, Liu Zhicheng decided to be honest with everyone.

“Yes, after ATV went public, it formed a complete communication industry chain through satellite TV channels.

And I am preparing a complete entertainment industry chain, making Hong Kong a star-making factory, and exporting entertainment culture to the mainland, Japan, and South Korea in the future..."

Liu Zhicheng talked a lot, and everyone was shocked. It turned out that the boss was planning the development of Hong Kong's cultural industry, and he also had the support of the Hong Kong government.

In fact, Liu Zhicheng has a lot more to say. As soon as the mainland opens up next year, ATV can cooperate with the mainland to form a huge industrial chain and teach a lesson to the newly born "Korean Wave" that only appeared in the late 1990s.

Finally, Liu Zhicheng said: "The Great Wall was not built in a day. Just know this and there is no need to worry too much! We are crossing the river by feeling the stones now. There is no such thing as failure. At worst, ATV can crush TVB!"

Everyone nodded. With such a genius idea, how could TVB be a match?

Liu Zhicheng asked Zhao Zhenqiang, "How is the preparation for The Legend of the New White Snake going?"

To put it bluntly, Liu Zhicheng has already listed the story outline, and the screenwriter just needs to find information and complete it according to the outline.

We have already decided on two classic songs, and the rest will just follow the style.

Zhao Zhenqiang said: "We haven't negotiated with Zhao Yazhi yet. She is taking care of her family now and said that filming in the mainland takes too long!"

Liu Zhicheng smiled and said, "That's just talk. Go and negotiate. The salary can be higher. You can also give her preferential treatment when filming in the mainland. She can go home once in a few days. She is the absolute protagonist of this play. We can't do without her!"

Zhao Zhenqiang nodded and said, "Okay, I will definitely complete the contract this month!"

Zhao Yazhi is about the same age as Lin Zixia this year. Liu Zhicheng should just forget it. He shouldn't think about it. That is immoral behavior.

As Liu Zhicheng's real estate business grew bigger and bigger, he suddenly felt uneasy.

As far as he knew, in the 90s, when Hong Kong entered its previous life, public opinion was calling on the Hong Kong government to legislate to crack down on property speculation, and the Hong Kong government was also concerned about real estate developers' monopoly on wealth.

Some financial scholars said: "Due to various factors, the wealth distribution is unfair. Hong Kong's economy is an export-oriented economy. The main industries that earn foreign exchange and accumulate wealth for Hong Kong are trade, shipping, industry, etc.

Real estate developers have made the most profit in the redistribution of social wealth, and their profits are ridiculous. Nowhere else in the world is the richest class concentrated in the real estate industry like in Hong Kong.

Hong Kong was not like this in the past. The wealthy were scattered across industries such as trade, retail, shipping, finance, real estate, and industry.

Now the rich people in other industries are gradually squeezed out of the rich list - unless they hold on to real estate. This phenomenon is actually a precursor to Hong Kong's economic recession."

Luk Hiu-pui, an outstanding builder in Hong Kong, built countless buildings for real estate developers and property owners throughout his life, among which the HSBC Building is his masterpiece.

He only knew how to build houses but not how to sell them. After working hard all his life, he accumulated very little wealth, while the real estate developers who partnered with him all became wealthy.

In his later years, people still praised his construction achievements. He said: "I am the stupidest person in the world. I didn't know to get into real estate in my early years."

The anger of the common people without shells and the criticism of the real estate industry by those with shells will undoubtedly give the Hong Kong government a shot in the arm in curbing real estate monopoly and cracking down on property speculation.

Liu Zhicheng knows that after the new Financial Secretary takes office next year, he will take action against real estate developers (increasing down payments, cracking down on speculators, etc.). Of course, the real estate developers are not pushovers.

But Liu Zhicheng doesn't want to be the one who is scolded the most. He seems to be the chairman of the board of directors of the real estate company with the largest market value now!

Today, ATV is a thriving communications company with a certain influence in the world. Because the copyright of "How to Make a Millionaire" was successively purchased by the United States and the British Broadcasting Corporation, ATV made a profit of 1500 million US dollars.

In the conference room, Liu Zhicheng was looking at ATV's financial statements and was in a very good mood.

He has already thought of a bright future for ATV, which is to make huge profits by producing programs and then selling the copyrights.

Since he took over ATV, all the programs that Hong Kong had originally had, such as "The Voice of Hong Kong", "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" and "Music Bank", have been huge successes.

However, Liu Zhicheng felt heartbroken when he thought about making only 800 million US dollars from selling the copyright of "How to Make a Millionaire".

You know, in 2001, the American Broadcasting Corporation spent 7000 million US dollars to purchase the British "Pop Idol".

By the same token, it can be inferred that in the past, the United States ABC TV purchased the British copyright of "How to Make a Millionaire" in 1998 for more than 5000 million US dollars.

He lost a lot of money selling it!

"Pop Idol", "American Idol", "Britain's Got Talent", "America's Got Talent", these are all solid cash flows.

Of course, "The Voice of Hong Kong" is actually the "pioneer of talent shows", but because the two seasons were only held in Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan, its influence was limited, so it has only created a wave of popularity in Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan.

The copyright has not been sold yet, but it has helped ATV select many potential singers and increase the ratings.

Liu Zhicheng was tapping on the table, thinking about how to make a lot of money from "producing programs".

In the future, ATV can become world-famous just by copying the popular programs of the past and selling the copyrights. This is Liu Zhicheng's idea.

"Yes, we will first use satellite TV to expand the auditions of The Voice of Hong Kong to all of Asia, especially the Chinese in Southeast Asia."

"As long as ATV is famous enough, they will not sell the copyright at a low price in the future!" He has so many programs in his mind, from Europe, America, South Korea, and Taiwan. Once they are all copied in advance, it will be like a money-printing machine.

In the past, South Korea sold so many copyrights to the mainland, and Running Man alone sold for 2 million.

He watched few TV series in his previous life and was keen on watching variety shows, so he had too many memories in his mind about the production of the shows, the structure of the mini-games, etc.

Thinking of this, Liu Zhicheng made a plan. He would first plagiarize European and American programs in the 1990s, and then plagiarize Korean programs after the millennium.

There is no need for several programs from Taiwan. Although Liu Zhicheng often watched them in his previous life, he has never heard that the copyrights have been sold. Perhaps they are too explicit and not suitable for children.

At the meeting, Liu Zhicheng said: "The Voice of Hong Kong is a good program, but my original intention was to attract Chinese people from all over the world to join, but it seems that I have not yet achieved this.

So I plan to hold auditions after the third season starts on Asia TV. I want to expand the scope to the world, mainly Asia.”

ATV plans to use four satellite receivers, which will allow Asia Satellite TV to cover the whole of Asia, which can be regarded as a good tool for publicity.

At present, the Hong Kong government has agreed to issue a satellite license to ATV (leasing Liu Zhicheng's satellite channel), but Li Chaoren has not yet obtained it.

Because of this news, Uncle Shaw was almost defeated. It was said that TVB was in chaos at that time and Uncle Shaw could not control it.

Wireless now has no way to set up a satellite station because Liu Zhicheng did not agree to lease them a satellite receiver.

ATV is moving quickly and the preparatory team has officially started work, and the show is expected to start broadcasting by the end of the year.

Zhou Liang Shuyi nodded and said, "Boss, you are right. The program 'The Voice of Hong Kong' is very good and is the real 'first talent show' in the world. It is indeed a little buried at present. It is right for Asia to increase investment!"

Everyone agreed that the wider the audition scope, the higher the production cost would naturally be.

But ATV is rich now, especially its "How to Be a Millionaire", which not only sells copyrights but also costs HK$60 to produce one episode.

But now the advertising fee has risen to more than 130 million Hong Kong dollars, which means a profit of 70 Hong Kong dollars per episode, and more than 3500 million Hong Kong dollars a year.

Not only that, if a program has high ratings, it will also drive up the ratings of other programs.

Therefore, now ATV and TVB not only have a 50-50 viewership rating (with one TVB winning occasionally), but also have an advertising fee ratio of 40% to 60%, or even 50% to 50%.

Asia Television is worth HK$30-50 billion, but its shares are registered for sale at a market value of HK$25 billion, so I believe it is very tempting.

The 6.25 million yuan raised from the listing accounted for almost one-eighth of the total funds raised from listings in Hong Kong throughout the year. It was a giant listing. After the stock market crash, the market was still greatly affected.

However, the listing of companies under Liu Zhicheng is itself a high-quality asset, and coupled with his personal influence, investors are naturally willing to follow.

The funds raised will mainly be used as start-up capital for the construction of ATV's Tseung Kwan O headquarters and as preparatory funds for Asia Satellite TV. The account will also have sufficient cash flow.

Having done so much for ATV, Liu Zhicheng's chairman's fee will increase to HK$150 million per month after ATV goes public, which can be considered as some pocket money.

Then, everyone reported to Liu Zhicheng on the plans for the series and programs, which were generally very stable.

Even though Liu Zhicheng does not bring many programs and dramas to ATV, it is like fighting a war. Once the war goes smoothly, it will increase the overall momentum.

At present, ATV is really flourishing and its talents are no weaker than those of TVB.

Finally, Liu Zhicheng asked, "Did the host of the World Cup make an appointment with Ho Sau-sin in advance?"

The Olympics and the World Cup are both powerful tools, and the host is very important.

Liu Zhicheng had calculated that Uncle Shao would target Ho Sau-sin, so he had already given instructions to the ATV management.

"Well, the deal was made at the beginning of the year and the contract has been signed. I'm afraid Uncle Shao is a few steps late again!" Zhou Liang Shuyi said with a smile.

As for sports program hosts, Ho Sau-sin is currently the best because he knows sports. James Wong is good at speaking but his sports knowledge is a little weak.

Thinking of James Wong, Liu Zhicheng suddenly thought of a good program.

He immediately said, "How about we, ATV, plan a talk show for James Wong, hosted by him alone? It will be called 'James Wong Show' and we will invite celebrities to be the guests."

He briefly talked about the American shows like "The Ellen Show" in his previous life. This kind of show is familiar to everyone, after all, "Tonight's Unguarded" is also a similar show.

Not inviting James Wong to host the World Cup must have offended him a little. James Wong is a frequent guest of ATV, but has rarely cooperated with TVB.

Zhou Liang Shuyi immediately said: "Well, I think it's very good!"

Everyone quickly passed the resolution!
They trust their boss too much. He is successful in everything he does, so there is no way they can doubt him.

After quickly finishing his work at ATV, Liu Zhicheng officially prepared to take a weekend off. He now works five and a half days a week.

I usually spend half of Saturday at ATV, and I always spend half a day every week dealing with the affairs of this company.

…………

The main reason for the recent plunge in oil prices is that Kuwait is committing suicide by desperately increasing production, which has driven down crude oil prices.

Iraq's debt this year has reached 140 billion US dollars, and it relies entirely on oil for survival. If Kuwait does this, Iraq's oil will not be able to be sold at a high price, which will naturally kill Kuwait.

Of course, both sides are courting death.

Kuwait was courting death, and several members of the royal family died; Iraq was courting death, and was severely punished by the United States.

The greater the risk, the higher the profit!
If Hongli Investment opened a position at an average price of US$16 per barrel and started closing the position when the price rose to US$32 per barrel (the price actually rose to US$41 per barrel), based on a 10x leverage, the profit could be almost x.

Therefore, Liu Zhicheng only planned to buy 10 billion Hong Kong dollars of crude oil futures in batches, and then use 20 billion Hong Kong dollars to ensure that his position would not be liquidated.

He will stop after making 100 billion Hong Kong dollars to avoid being targeted.

Liu Zhicheng decided to make good arrangements for crude oil speculation and invest in these high-risk financial products. Sometimes, even if you know the general trend, it is not safe.

Fortunately, he had long since gotten rid of gambler-like investments!

No matter what kind of financial investment it is, even if there is a loss, Liu Zhicheng will not be seriously hurt, nor will he make another huge bet.

(End of this chapter)