After Dragon Films' post, HBS released an article soon after.
'The Insiders' storm follows To Your Heart. Nowhere to escape for the AxisPlay Drama. Click to find out the full story...'
Another article was released alongside the former one around the same time.
'Ventage members unite through dramas. Theon follows after his fellow member.'
Other media houses and marketing accounts covered this story as well, finding it interesting and attractive for the masses. After all, trending topics meant clicks, shares, and profits.
A barrage of similar articles flooded the feeds:
'Running turns futile. Dragon Films chases after AxisPlay like a predator on the hunt.'
'Will To Your Heart stand its ground or flee once more?'
'What will be AxisPlay's next move? Is there any escape for them?'
In no time, new hashtags surged to the top of PulseX trends:
#TheInsidersVsToYourHeart#
#AxisPlayVsDragonFilms#
Netizens reacted with lightning speed, as if they had been waiting for this exact moment.
[LOL. This is even more interesting than watching dramas. AxisPlay thought they could escape, but behold the counterattack from Dragon Films.]
[It seems Dragon Films wants viewers to choose between The Insiders and To Your Heart. They will air at the same time, after all.]
[Exactly. They are both flagship dramas of their respective platforms. At least the audience won't be able to watch them both live.]
[Indeed... Live viewership will take a hit for both shows by this confrontation. Why is Dragon Films even pursuing a clash?]
[Isn't it obvious? It's because they are confident in their show's superiority.]
[Right. I myself will watch The Insiders. Who even cares about To Your Heart?]
[+1. The Insiders has such a great cast. What does To Your Heart have? I don't even know anything about that show other than Aren featuring in it.]
Conversations like these erupted under every related article, amplifying the frenzy.
But the real chaos brewed in the To Your Heart cast's LinkChat group.
Gisha:
[Gosh! The Insiders has also advanced to clash with our drama. What the hell is going on?]
Leon:
[I also just saw the announcement. Are we really going to clash with such a top-tier drama?]
Even though To Your Heart's budget had increased due to the success of the first season, it still wasn't great.
Its budget was only increased in comparison with AxisPlay's other dramas.
Most of AxisPlay's bulk dramas had a budget comparable to a shoestring.
Compared to other platforms' shows, To Your Heart was still shot on a modest budget.
Even regular dramas of other platforms had a higher production budget.
Now, when they had to go against an annual blockbuster drama of Dragon Films, they couldn't help but shake in their boots.
The Insiders had the highest production budget of this year. Aside from their regular dramas, Dragon Films only produced two shows a year where they put most of their support and resources, and The Insiders was one of them.
Anyone could guess who would come out on top if they clashed with To Your Heart.
Leon and Gisha were both the leads and were counting on To Your Heart to launch their careers to greater heights.
This was their first drama, which had received so much attention from the viewers. Their fans were also excited to see them rise; however, if they were to clash with The Insiders, everything would go downhill.
Mikhail:
[Chill guys. The higher-ups will take care of this. Leave it to them. They don't want the clash either.]
Mikhail was actually the nephew of one of the executives of AxisPlay, and thus was aware of the insider news about the platform.
A meeting of the executives was being held about this exact topic in the boardroom, trying to come up with a countermeasure.
"What should we do? Do we change the release date again?"
"It would change nothing. Dragon Films would just follow after us."
"But the starting week of spring is the optimal release time for dramas. We only advanced the release date to escape the clash. If the clash is inevitable, let's just proceed with the original schedule and release in the starting week of spring."
"I agree. Let's release in spring. As for the clash, why don't we just change our airing time?"
"But prime time slots attracts the most number of viewers. We can't change it to too late."
"I think you all are thinking in the wrong direction. To Your Heart has a different audience than The Insiders. The Insiders is a spy thriller, while our drama is a romantic comedy thriller."
The meeting went on for quite a while.
It was only in the evening that they released their announcement on their official account.
[We would like to apologize. To Your Heart needs another week to finish some final touches. It will release as promised in the opening week of spring.]
The post naturally attracted ridicule from the netizens, its comment section getting filled with mocking comments. This resulted in the post trending on PulseX.
Articles from marketing accounts covered this news, some mocking their shamelessness, some calling it a simple publicity stunt.
Similarly, Dragon Films also posted a similar announcement, citing the same flimsy excuse as AxisPlay. It was final; a clash of dramas was on its way.
Meanwhile, Aren was busy going for recording voice-overs to finish the post-production.
With the hard efforts of the production crew, The post-production was over eight days before the release date of To Your Heart.
The following day, To Your Heart and AxisPlay's official PulseX account dropped the Season 2 trailer.
Shortly after, Dragon Films and The Insiders also released their drama's trailer, offering a stark contrast of high-stakes espionage and star power.
Viewers now had previews to weigh their choices: which to stream live, which to catch later.
Both dramas would air on their respective streaming platforms and television at the same time.
The prime time slots were sought after because they attracted the most number of viewers and popularity score.
Both were going to air on Friday and Saturday nights in the prime time slot. The platforms would release two episodes on Friday and one episode on Saturday, staying an episode ahead of television broadcasts to attract viewers to buy subscription to watch an episode ahead of television.
Sasha turned on her computer after getting a message from Misha about the trailer release of To Your Heart.
She decided to check both The Insiders and To Your Heart's trailers.
~
[Author's Announcement - This is the last free chapter. I hope I can count on your support going forward. ^..^
Now that that's out of the way, I want your opinion on some things.
I want to ask how detailed and immersive drama scenes should be?
Would you like a whole short story of the drama or simply some scenes description?
For example, when an episode airs, would you like the story to be like a novel with their dialogues, expressions and situations, or just skim through altogether?
Next, I would like to request a small review or feedback for the chapter until now. This is just a request, so ignore me if you want.
Lastly, Thanks for reading as always. ^..^
]