Zhu Yan immediately wanted to confront Zhao Xuming for an explanation.
Although the contract had already been signed in black and white, as long as both parties could negotiate, there was still room to salvage the situation.
However, before that, the problems on the streaming platform’s side needed to be addressed first.
Zhu Yan immediately sent a message to his administrators: “Spoilers are strictly prohibited in the ICL League streaming room! Anyone who posts spoilers will be banned for 5 hours!”
There was nothing that couldn’t be solved with authority, and if it couldn’t be solved, then just use more authority!
Spoilers had too great an impact on the ICL League viewing experience. Zhu Yan couldn’t afford to be careless, so he could only ban these viewers who were posting spoilers to ensure the best viewing experience for the majority of the audience.
Otherwise, before this issue could be resolved through negotiation, with people constantly posting spoilers, wouldn’t the heat of the ICL League streaming room plummet to nothing?
The administrators quickly complied and began a killing spree in the ICL League streaming room. Soon, a stream of red text announcing user bans floated up.
But banning aside, the viewership in the streaming room was still declining.
Although this crude method ensured the viewing experience for most viewers, the problem was that most viewers now knew the fact that “Wolfjaw Streaming was 30 seconds behind Bunny Tail Streaming.”
Not everyone could ignore this delay.
Moreover, those active viewers who were banned were definitely angry and naturally wouldn’t continue to stay on Wolfjaw Streaming.
As a result, a batch of viewers inevitably migrated to Bunny Tail Streaming, becoming part of someone else’s viewer count.
Zhu Yan was furious. He immediately pulled out his phone and dialed Zhao Xuming’s number.
……
At this time, Zhao Xuming was in his office, monitoring the viewership of the ICL League across various platforms.
Unlike Bunny Tail Streaming, the other streaming platforms displayed fake data, with heat indices around 2-3 million. Although he knew the actual number of viewers wasn’t that high, such impressive figures still made Zhao Xuming very happy.
It was wonderful that the ICL League rights had been distributed!
So many streaming platforms broadcasting together would definitely be beneficial for cultivating and expanding the ICL League’s audience base. Longyu Group absolutely wouldn’t lose out.
Just then, the phone on his desk rang.
Zhao Xuming immediately answered: “Hello? Mr. Zhu, what can I do for you?”
Zhu Yan’s voice was very unhappy: “Mr. Zhao, you haven’t handled this matter properly!”
Zhao Xuming was taken aback: “What matter? How was it improper? Mr. Zhu, you’ve got me confused.”
For Zhao Xuming, this was completely baffling. The only recent project with Wolfjaw Streaming was the ICL League. What was improper about that?
I’ve been mediating constantly, helping you successfully obtain the broadcasting rights for the ICL League. You should be thanking me, if anything. How could you be complaining?
Seeing Zhao Xuming deliberately playing dumb, Zhu Yan became even angrier: “Mr. Zhao! Your suggestion about the 30-second delay has really hurt us! Viewers discovered that our broadcast time differs from Bunny Tail Streaming by 30 seconds, and they’re all flooding into the streaming room to post spoilers, severely affecting the entire bullet comment environment. Now many viewers have gone back to Bunny Tail Streaming!”
“Isn’t this impact serious enough?”
“Mr. Zhao, both we and Bunny Tail Streaming are partners of Longyu Group. You shouldn’t be showing favoritism!”
For Zhu Yan, the value of the ICL League to Wolfjaw Streaming mainly lay in the heat and platform prestige.
On Wolfjaw Streaming, the actual number of viewers for the ICL League wasn’t large, and there wouldn’t be many wealthy users sending gifts, so there was no expectation of profit. But this kind of league could bring heat to the entire platform, making it more competitive in terms of content, and could recuperate costs through sponsorships and other means.
Many streaming platforms weren’t profitable now, but as long as they could hype up their heat, they could continuously secure financing, allowing the entire company to grow and expand.
But now, with Wolfjaw Streaming’s ICL League heat constantly draining away, it was obviously more painful for him than cutting his own flesh.
Zhao Xuming was completely bewildered.
What does this have to do with me?
At the time, I just brainstormed a suggestion for you all, and none of you raised any objections about this 30-second delay, did you?
How can you blame me now!
What made Zhao Xuming feel most speechless was that Zhu Yan had implied he was “showing favoritism,” meaning he was helping Bunny Tail Streaming scheme against other streaming platforms.
Zhao Xuming had grievances but couldn’t express them. Why the hell would I do that!
Mr. Pei and I aren’t related in any way, and we’re even competitors. Why would I be bored enough to help him scheme against you all!
But there was no point in Zhao Xuming explaining now, because looking back from the results, it was indeed easy to misunderstand.
Longyu Group had first sold the exclusive broadcasting rights to Bunny Tail Streaming, then took the lead in bringing in other streaming platforms to distribute the broadcasting rights, and finally proactively suggested a 30-second delay…
It could only be said that this blame was unwarranted, but it was reasonable.
Zhao Xuming immediately responded righteously: “Mr. Zhu, that’s absolutely not the case!”
“When I proposed the 30-second delay at that time, it was mainly because Bunny Tail Streaming was at a slight disadvantage in this transaction. I made this suggestion to facilitate the deal! You didn’t strongly object either, did you?”
“The contract has already been signed, and now you’re pushing all the responsibility onto me. That’s a bit inappropriate, isn’t it?”
“In my view, Mr. Zhu, since this friction has already occurred, we should think about how to resolve this issue. How about this: I’ll go talk to Mr. Chen from Bunny Tail Streaming and see if we can cancel this 30-second delay…”
“Of course, to amend the contract details, your side will definitely need to make concessions in other areas. And if Mr. Chen doesn’t agree, I won’t be able to do anything about it…”
Zhu Yan nodded: “I guess that’s all we can do.”
After all, both parties had already signed the contract, and the penalty for breach of contract was usually very frightening. If they forcibly breached the contract, not only would they be unable to broadcast the ICL League, but they might also have to pay a large sum of money if they went to court.
Zhu Yan regretted it immensely, feeling that he had been completely duped!
What he had previously thought was a harmless minor issue had now become a bone stuck in his throat.
If Mr. Pei’s side firmly insisted on adhering to the contract, then neither Zhu Yan nor Zhao Xuming would have any recourse; they could only rage impotently.
……
Meanwhile, Pei Qian was still in his office, going through the materials submitted by the HR department, considering who should be selected as the person in charge of the “Street Food Market.”
Finding the right person among Cold Face Girl’s many employees who could accomplish his task was not easy; careful selection was necessary.
After reviewing so many profiles, Pei Qian had more or less determined his target.
Pei Qian checked the time—it was already past five in the afternoon, time to get off work.
So he stretched and prepared to leave.
“Oh right, isn’t today when many streaming platforms start broadcasting the ICL League?”
“In that case, Bunny Tail Streaming’s heat should decrease, right?”
Pei Qian suddenly thought of this and opened Bunny Tail Streaming to check the viewer count in the ICL League streaming room.
Since the viewer numbers were all real data, he didn’t even need to log into the backend to see the actual changes.
Previously, the peak viewership for the ICL League had been around 80,000. Now he hoped this number could be cut in half, which shouldn’t be a problem, right?
Pei Qian saw the number of viewers in the ICL League streaming room and, as expected, only about 60,000 remained.
Today was also a spotlight match, so theoretically, the number should have remained around 80,000. The 20,000 that had disappeared had obviously gone to other platforms.
This was only the first day, and many ICL League viewers still had the habit of watching on Bunny Tail Streaming. As time went on, the number of viewers migrating to other platforms should increase.
In other words, in the future, there might not even be 60,000 viewers.
Pei Qian couldn’t help but nod slightly.
Although it hadn’t reached his highest expectation of halving to 40,000, losing 20,000 was still cause for celebration!
While the density of bullet comments was completely unaffected, Pei Qian was still happy to see the decrease in the streaming room’s viewer count.
But just as Pei Qian was about to close the streaming room, he saw a stream of bullet comments floating by and suddenly felt something was off.
“Hey, why does it seem so much faster here?”
“Indeed, it’s so fast here!”
“It really is 30 seconds faster than the enemy platform!”
“Coming from Wolfjaw Streaming!”
“I’m from ZZ Streaming!”
“Brothers from YaYa Streaming, raise your hands!”
“Don’t spam other platform names, aren’t you afraid of being banned by the moderators?”
“No worries, the moderators here are very tolerant and won’t ban people for this.”
“Damn spoiler trolls, forcing me to come here to watch the match!”
Seeing these bullet comment discussions, Pei Qian suddenly had an ominous premonition.
Then, something even more terrifying happened.
The number in the streaming room suddenly began to grow. The original 60,000+ viewers kept increasing—sometimes by hundreds, sometimes by thousands—changing every second!
Especially after an exciting team fight, this change would be particularly dramatic, and you could even see several thousand people flooding in simultaneously!
By the end of the first match, the number of viewers for the ICL League on Bunny Tail Streaming had successfully reached a peak.
91,377 people!
That was 10,000 more than the previous peak viewership!
Pei Qian rubbed his eyes, almost thinking he had seen wrong.
After triple checking, it was correct—indeed 90,000 people!
Obviously, these 90,000 people were the result of some viewers from other streaming platforms coming to Bunny Tail Streaming to watch the match.
In fact, there was a group of people who originally didn’t watch the ICL League.
But after the ICL League was distributed to various major streaming platforms, all platforms were frantically promoting and redirecting traffic, attracting these viewers who originally didn’t watch the ICL League.
However, during the viewing process, they were inexplicably annoyed by spoiler trolls, so some of them came to Bunny Tail Streaming to watch the matches. As a result, the number of viewers on Bunny Tail Streaming increased rather than decreased!
It could be said that this 30-second delay objectively served to absorb heat from other streaming platforms…
Chen Yufeng had previously shown Pei Qian the contract, but at that time, Pei Qian’s main focus was on the specific amount in the contract and the miscellaneous items other platforms had offered besides cash. He hadn’t paid attention to this “30 seconds.”
Only now did he suddenly realize that this 30-second clause was a huge problem!
Pei Qian couldn’t help but slam the table, almost blurting out.
“Damn! We’ve been deceived by Zhao Xuming!”