Chapter 133
Chapter 133
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 133
Chapter Title: 2009/2010 Season Kickoff -3
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Meanwhile, at that moment.
“GOOOOOOAL! It’s in! Yannick Foith! Yannick Foith’s shot rattles the Köln net!”
“The Union Berlin attack line, the pride of the club, is already breathing fire from the opening match!”
The Korean broadcast team relaying the game on Guten erupted in cheers.
[Guten Exclusive Bundesliga Broadcast! Charging soccer fans money from now on?]
└ F*** off, you greedy company sucking Korean fans dry!
└ But what messenger would you use if you ditch Guten? It’s got the cleanest UI.
└ Whatever, just get out!
Guten had snagged exclusive rights to broadcast the Bundesliga this season.
And succeeded in drawing endless curses from countless soccer fans.
After all, what they’d watched for free on TV was now behind a paywall.
And since overseas soccer was still in its growth phase, plenty of the existing audience bailed at the news of having to pay.
- F*** that, how many bowls of rice soup could I get for that price?
- I’ll have a hearty bowl of rice soup and catch the highlights.
- ??? Where do you get the highlights?
- They’re up on the app Guten developed.
But Union Berlin had put on a wild show even in friendlies.
Soccer fans had no choice but to grudgingly subscribe to Guten’s OTT platform, tears in their eyes.
Which made it impossible to resist Guten’s siren call: “You’re not gonna watch Union Berlin soccer?”
- Park Chan-hyuk’s one hell of a businessman. F***er. Fine, I’ll trust you and subscribe once.
- Subscribe go go, no regrets.
- But why hate on Park Chan-hyuk? Is he running Guten?
- Isn’t he the majority shareholder?
- Yeah, but doesn’t Guten handle operations themselves?
- Oh, right.
- What’s this? Soccer and dramas too?
- Yeah, feels worth the price actually.
But once they subscribed, Guten’s content turned out to be surprisingly solid.
Especially uploading completed dramas via deals with broadcasters—that was a killer move.
People watched soccer on game days. On off days, dramas or movies.
And the kids spent time on TikTok, which Guten had launched.
But while Guten had hooked a massive audience like this, its stock price was wobbling badly.
[Wall Street maintains SELL on Guten stock. “Guten is heading down the wrong path right now…”]
Wall Street in the US was unloading negative takes one after another.
OTT platforms like Netflix hadn’t quite taken root yet.
Netflix was in the midst of shifting from its DVD rental business to streaming.
And even Netflix had faced backlash for the switch from DVD to OTT, so this was par for the course.
People often resisted new things more than you’d expect.
- But why’s Guten scouting drama writers?
- Heard they’re producing original dramas too?
- F***, throwing money into the void.
- For real, do they think making dramas is easy?
Anyway.
Guten charged ahead without doubting its direction, despite the negativity.
To retain subscribers, they needed killer content.
So they decided to produce originals.
The industry rained curses on Guten, but some sniffed opportunity.
They saw Guten was dead serious about breaking into OTT with its astronomical spending.
“They’ve got money to burn, huh. Just dumping it like idiots.”
“Yeah. If that was our station, we could’ve made a drama for half of half that budget.”
“Sigh, pouring that much into dramas and expecting black ink? Bound to fail.”
The broadcasters might curse Guten’s doom.
But they didn’t bother clamping down on its turf invasion.
They were already raking in tidy profits selling finished dramas to Guten.
“We need to check Guten now! They could eat our lunch in the future!”
“Hey, Director Choi! Guten’s the one that covered the drama division’s near-loss this year!”
Sure, some voices inside the industry called for reining Guten in now.
But the majority favored partnering for profits.
That way, they could party with bonuses this year.
“Tch. Hey, Director Choi! Be real—how many of us will even be here by then?”
“T-That’s…!”
As employees, not execs, the network’s future wasn’t their top concern.
What mattered was the bonus hitting their accounts now.
And partnering with Guten looked like it’d deliver record bonuses.
For the record, higher-ups making baffling choices isn’t because they’re dumb.
It’s just because it doesn’t benefit them.
In any case.
With no real pushback from the industry, Guten steadily locked down content. Mostly rookies over vets, but their fresh ideas were the real deal.
“Boss’s office says buy the whole IP on this one.”
“What is it?”
“Dunno. Some survival game with prizes? Like Red Light, Green Light, but for adults. Who’d watch grown-ups playing kids’ games?”
“Boss is young, probably thought it looked fun.”
***
[Union Berlin crushes Köln 3-0 in season opener.]
[ Köln manager faces the disaster called Union Berlin. “A whole different level from when we met in the 2. Bundesliga. I had no idea the gap would be this wide.”]
The opener against Köln ended in a massive Union Berlin win.
Bundesliga fans shuddered at Union Berlin’s overwhelming strength.
[Soccer expert claims ‘Union Berlin’s squad was underrated!’]
Despite winning the league last season, Union Berlin was projected for 2nd this time.
Blame Bayern Munich’s summer spree signing Louis van Gaal and his wishlist.
‘Tch. Munich’s prestige still dominates.’
Bundesliga fans still ranked traditional powerhouse Bayern above Union Berlin.
Even though Union Berlin had held onto all its key players from last season.
‘Guess we’ll have to burn Union Berlin’s strength into the eyes of those who underestimated us.’
Our goals this season: Champions League and Bundesliga titles.
For reference, Bundesliga teams earn a star on their kit for 3 titles.
One star for 3 wins, two for 5, three for 10.
Then one per 10 after that.
‘Sigh… I want a star on my kit too.’
Three stars might be tough, but two seemed doable.
Anyway.
Key to Union Berlin’s success this season: keeping players injury-free.
We’d built a double squad for the Champions League push.
But the gap between starters and subs was still noticeable.
‘That’s why we poured cash into the medical center.’
Taking a break from tactics for the next Schalke game, I headed to the medical center.
And ran into Assistant Coach Daniel Teixeira.
“But Boss, now that we’re scoring instead of conceding, you gonna do celebrations?”
Assistant Coach Daniel Teixeira asked.
“What’re you talking about? We’re celebrating even if we concede.”
I replied with a straight face, like it was the most obvious thing.
***
[Union Berlin demolishes Schalke 5-1 at home.]
[Six Roars Echo in GL-Guten Arena.]
[Union Berlin’s Champions League venue: Roar Stadium?]
└ LMAO Roar Stadium f***ing gold
└ Nah, Roar Stadium is straight fire lol
[Union Berlin settles on Iron and Blood Stadium amid fan backlash…]
└ Iron and Blood chills
└ Bismarck chills
└ Chance-mark chills
[Park Chan-hyuk predicts victory ahead of Bayern Munich clash. “We won’t lose to Bayern Munich in this rivalry match.”]
└ ??? Since when were Union Berlin and Bayern rivals?
└ Since God Chan-hyuk declared it this very moment.
└ Chills
[Northern Germany’s Union Berlin vs. Southern Germany’s Bayern Munich! The birth of a new derby?]
[Guten announces global OTT push; stock plummets.]
└ AAAAAH! Stock’s crashing!
└ Wtf, why? I kept seeing Guten everywhere lately so I jumped in f***
└ F*** those desk-jockey analysts, stay in your lanes.
└ Where there are Koreans, that’s the homeland….
***
“Scheiße (Shit)! If you don’t believe in it, sell your stock back to me and get lost!”
Lately, with Guten’s ventures tanking, my little sister’s hysterics were worsening.
Investors were freaking out over the OTT push.
Which meant our “family” holdings in Guten kept climbing.
“…Why are you here?”
I opened the door to her room, and her glare screamed murder.
Her overwhelming aura made me flinch instinctively.
‘Don’t back down.’
I shook my head, steeling myself.
She’s my little sister.
I couldn’t show her big bro cowering like a punk.
“Water.”
I cast the water spell right in front of her.
“Oppa, sorry, I’m busy right now.”
She brushed me off arrogantly, but I nagged again.
“Sigh. Water.”
She stomped off to fetch it, grumbling.
Yes.
That’s my little sister.
That day, I reined her in without lifting a finger.
‘Good thing it wasn’t puberty. I was ready to crush it with brute force if needed.’
No matter how she ruled a global empire, at home she was just my water fetcher.