Chapter 120 Complex MBC
"bite!"
"Sorry, let me check my text messages!"
Zheng Xiuheng thought it was a message from the Crystal Princess, but when he opened it he was slightly startled, and an expression of surprise and weirdness appeared on his face.
Yoo Jae Suk once again looked over curiously out of the corner of his eye, and he couldn't help himself because of his curiosity.
"PD Li just called and asked you to go over the day after tomorrow to complete the formalities and temporarily join the MBC Broadcasting Station as a special recruit!"
Zheng Xiuheng was a little stunned. This seemed like a joke. Special recruitment was nothing if it was in a small company, but it was different if it was a large company like MBC.
"Sorry, Senior Jae-seok, I have to go out for a while!"
"Okay, go and get busy first!" Liu Zaishi read a few words and knew that she was going to return a call. Although Lee Hyori asked him to watch her, it was impossible for him to really watch her.
However, Yoo Jae-seok was a little surprised. After reading the text message, he and this cousin Soo-heng were really going to become colleagues? However, after talking, Yoo Jae-seok became more and more curious. This cousin Soo-heng really didn't have any shortcomings. If he had to compare it with what Lee Hyo-ri said, he was indeed a little cold and spoke indifferently.
“It’s really strange!”
“Bang!”
"ah!"
Liu Xilie and the other two who were walking towards the parking space nearby were startled by a big hand that suddenly patted their shoulders. Especially when they felt that the pat was quite strong, Liu Xilie was the first to scream.
When they turned around and saw Zheng Xiuheng standing behind the three of them with a smile on his face, the expressions of the three giants were amazing.
…
“That’s about it!”
Zheng Xiuheng frowned, and after a moment he understood the current situation. He asked in disbelief, "What you mean is that PD Li Zhongmin and his team didn't like the arrangement from above, so they raised objections, but the result couldn't be changed, so they proposed such a strange test?"
Liu Xilie looked at Zheng Xiuheng's doubts and explained seriously: "Yes, although the result is basically determined, the director of the broadcasting bureau cannot ignore the attitudes of these old employees. Maybe you don't know, but everyone who works at MBC knows that there are always one or two strikes organized by the MBC union every year, but most of the time it's just a sign. Although the behind-the-scenes workers are just employees at the TV station, they have a lot of say under the coordination of the union!"
"So, if the top management wants to give orders to the production department, it's not a one-shot deal, especially for a very experienced program team, unless the head of the production department is a top management person."
In South Korea, labor unions have a legal basis and protection, and companies are not allowed to arbitrarily fire employees who are on strike. Therefore, many companies in South Korea choose to "prevent the establishment of labor unions" to solve such problems. For example, Samsung Group, one of the largest groups in South Korea, uses various rewards to prevent the establishment of labor unions within the company.
In fact, as a well-known Korean company, although the work at MBC is hard, the treatment is definitely not bad. Logically, there should be no strikes or union confrontations.
But in fact, MBC was established in the 1960s. During this period, many private TV stations in Japan were eyeing the undeveloped Korean market across the sea. The Korean government at that time was deeply worried and fearful about this. Therefore, under the instruction of the government at that time, private funds established the "Seoul Private Broadcasting Company" in Seoul, which was later renamed "Culture Broadcasting" and opened a TV channel in 1969. Although the station survived the "forced merger of TV stations" in 1980 (during this period, two other private TV stations in South Korea, TBS and DBC Voice, were merged by the Korean state-owned TV station KBS), it survived.
However, the South Korean government established the "Broadcasting Culture Promotion Association" under the government to be the major shareholder of MBC TV station in order to control the TV station. In the 1990s, the atmosphere of freedom in Korean society was rising, and the "Broadcasting Culture Promotion Association", the major shareholder of MBC TV station, also underwent certain reforms. The nine directors of the organization were changed from being appointed by the government to being nominated by the ruling party, the Blue House (South Korean presidential office) and the opposition party, and finally appointed by the president.
This complex ownership, which is completely different from the other two major TV stations, coupled with the special role of "TV station" as a prop for disseminating public opinion, has led to MBC becoming the forefront of political struggles, which easily explains the problem of frequent strikes.
Yoo Hee-yeol gave Jung Soo-heng a brief introduction to the history of MBC, and he roughly understood the relationship between the major broadcasting stations of MBC and the senior management of MBC.
"So what this means is that you want me, a paratrooper, to deal with another paratrooper? And there's a high possibility that I'll become cannon fodder?" Zheng Xiuheng asked in disbelief after organizing his thoughts and figuring out the situation.
Yoo Hee-yeol also found it a bit ridiculous. Under normal circumstances, there would be no conflicts between the production department and the management. Even if everyone was unhappy with each other, work was work, and a strike was just a means of threatening the upper level to compromise. It was not a life-and-death struggle.
Because the three major TV stations have different structures, their internal situations are naturally different. MBC can be seen as three parts: company management, major broadcasting and production departments, and shareholders.
MBC has only two major shareholder groups. One is the Broadcasting Culture Promotion Foundation which holds 70% of the shares, and the remaining 30% is held by the Jung Su Scholarship Association. The Jung Su Scholarship Association is one of the most important scholarship institutions in South Korea. It was established in memory the late South Korean President Park Chung-hee and his wife Yuk Jung-soo. The current president is Park Chung-hee's daughter, Park Geun-hye.
Simply put, the two public welfare organizations are at the highest level of controlling MBC's public opinion. Although the Jeongsu Scholarship Society cannot be said to have the final say, it is basically controlled by one group.
But the Revitalization Council is different. It has nine members, belonging to the ruling party, the Blue House (South Korean presidential office) and the opposition party.
Without going into the details of this, let's look at the fact that the president of MBC TV station is elected and appointed by the "Broadcasting Culture Promotion Association", so which faction of the committee members has the majority will largely determine the future direction of MBC TV station.
This complex structure is the current management and shareholders of MBC.
Of course, each production department is different from the others, but most of them work as a whole, and because of the establishment of the trade union, they also have a certain ability to communicate with higher-ups.
Therefore, if the management and shareholders want to place their own people in the TV station, it is of course possible. However, if you just arrange someone to be the PD of "Infinite Challenge" or the chief creator of the program group, even if this is an alternative "production line", not just anyone can be accepted.
Arranging a clerk is completely different from arranging a host or a PD.
Liu Xilie thought about the current situation for a while, and then said: "How should I put it? Because my program belongs to the last program, its status in the broadcasting bureau is relatively not very high. So those senior executives want to place an airborne soldier, and the announcer is indeed a very suitable position. Besides, I just decided to leave this program!"
Zheng Xiuheng listened carefully and was slowly digesting this knowledge that he had never thought of before. He really didn't know that the internal situation of a TV station was much more complicated than he imagined.
"In TV stations, there are also people who take sides. Some are close to the top management, while others are just doing their own business. However, most people still have common interests. Even practitioners who want to curry favor with the top management will not like their team to have an extra parachutist every now and then. PD Li Zhongmin is a senior person and is more responsible for his work. Judging from his tone, this arrangement is difficult to cancel. It is said that he is a relative of a certain member of the revitalization association!"
"Then what's the point of me going there?" Zheng Xiuheng asked in confusion. If that's the case, what's the point of going there as a special recruit? Is he really going to work at MBC? And then build relationships with these people?
Seeing Zheng Xiuheng's strange expression, Liu Xilie smiled and said, "This is very simple. I don't understand politics anyway, but it is definitely not easy for those senior executives to place people in the TV station if it is a key department. Although the ratings of program are not high and are at the bottom, it is also a major channel for information dissemination. So if someone places people here, naturally there will be people who are dissatisfied. Even if the purpose is pure, there will always be some obstacles!"
Zheng Xiuheng suddenly felt that his brain was not enough. At this moment, he realized that the TV station was far more complicated than he had imagined. He also understood that TV station practitioners were, to some extent, a whole. It was no wonder that ordinary employees of Korean TV stations had higher status than most artists.
