Heads Up Hollywood

In business, there are no permanent friends, only permanent interests.

The sanctions imposed by the Big Five on New Global are still ongoing.

Of course New Universal must fight back!

The strategy of going to the courts has been implemented, but the Big Five has not flinched.

Prosecuting such matters, especially intellectual property disputes within the closed Hollywood, is very complicated to characterize such incidents, and it is difficult to hold a trial without two or three years of investigation and evidence collection.

After such a long time, the chaos in Hollywood has subsided long ago.

This is why the Big Five alliance will not worry about legal means.

Legal means are too slow, Tang En still has economic means!

At present, almost all of the most popular TV programs in the United States come from Universal Television Production Company. Such as "American Idol", "Universal Next Top Model", "Truth or Dare", "Dancing World Congress" and so on.

New Universal has the absolute dominance of these reality shows, with one signing per season.

Now, it's time to take the content to the knife!

That year, the first season of "American Idol" was launched on CBS, and it quickly became popular all over the United States. After so many years, a lot of data has been settled.

In the first season of "American Idol", New Universal brought in a total of US$320 million in net profit through TV broadcasting, pay-per-view, record sales, concert tours, program advertising fees, copyright sales, and derivative licensing.

Considering the measly $6 million production cost of the first season of "American Idol", this shows the profitability of this blockbuster reality show.

Not much worse than the world's best-selling Hollywood blockbusters!

Later, because of the competition between New Universal and Viacom, Dunn and Redstone fought, which resulted in "American Idol" falling to Disney's abc TV station from the second season.

This summer, the fifth season of "American Idol" has aired. Although the current reality show market is full of flowers, no one can shake the position of "American Idol" as the industry leader.

Now is the time to make a change.

Disney was ungrateful and stabbed in the back!

Tang En wants to start in the content field, the first thing he needs to do is "American Idol"!

He wants to send "American Idol" back to cbs!

Let Disney cry!

When the Five Big Alliance was besieging New Universal, cbs TV station separated from Viacom and began to operate independently. Instead, it did not join in and continued to maintain a good cooperative relationship with New Universal.

Since it is a partner, it is natural to treat each other friendly.

...

The atmosphere on Disney's board was chill.

Everyone understands what "American Idol" means.

These seasons of "American Idol" broadcast on ABC have much higher earning power than the first season, earning about $500 million per season. Among them, the bulk of the profit was eaten by Universal, reaching 350 million US dollars. Even so, ABC makes $150 million a year.

This is only direct income, and there are indirect benefits.

The broadcast of "American Idol" on ABC is equivalent to improving the ratings of users of ABC, and it also has a boosting effect on the ratings of other programs.

This influence is too great.

If you lose the broadcasting rights of "American Idol", it will be like losing the distribution rights of Pixar movies back then!

This will ebb and flow, and cbs will become the largest public television network in the United States again!

"This Tang En knows how to play tricks like this! Shameless and hateful!"

Disney's director and chief operating officer, Peter Murphy, could not wait to curse on the spot.

He was the absolute henchman of Michael Eisner.

The confidant has reached the point where both are prosperous and all are lost.

If Michael Eisner steps down, Peter Murphy must be fired too. So, he is the last director who wants to see Michael Eisner step down.

Ray Watson's face was serious, "This matter must be dealt with. "American Idol" is to Disney's television business, just like Pixar is to Disney's animation business. We have lost Pixar, and we must not lose "American Idol" again." gone."

Michael Eisner said nothing, his face livid.

It seems difficult to make a final decision.

"Twain's meaning is obvious. He wants us to make concessions and even withdraw from the Big Five alliance." Peter Murphy spoke on his behalf, and said seriously, "One side is New Universal, and the other side is the collective power of Hollywood. It’s hard to offend.”

"I said ten years ago that we should deploy in the channel industry, but in the end we bought a wireless TV network!" Ray Watson used to be the chairman of Disney, and later abdicated to Michael Eisner.

His remarks are already clichés within Disney.

Ten years ago, there was an argument within Disney that it wanted to make breakthroughs in TV distribution channels, that is, to become a powerful content provider like Time Warner, Comcast, and News Corporation, but also to become a powerful content provider. TV operator.

TV programs are like commodities, and TV stations are like shelves.

But it is useless to have products and shelves. If you want to truly realize the products, you need a storefront!

There is a channel that can connect goods and users, which is the operator.

Disney only has a traditional wireless signal transmission mechanism, but this method has a limited transmission rate, unstable signals, and poor clarity. With the progress of the times, the current TV operations are all cable TV and satellite TV.

Even for traditional wireless TV stations such as cbs and nbc, users still receive signals through cable TV because they are more stable and have better clarity.

However, Michael Eisner is not interested in TV operations, he is a "creative", he is interested in content and brands. He rejected the company's internal request, not only did not acquire an operator, but continued to bet on the TV station, spending a huge sum of money to acquire the abc group!

Due to limited operating channels, when Disney and Time Warner had a conflict at the beginning of the century, Time Warner shut down Disney's operating signals.

As a result, nearly ten million household users can no longer receive Disney Channel and ABC.

This led to the chaos at Disney at the time.

This is the pain of being choked. Later, when the users protested collectively, the Federal Communications Commission came forward, and Time Warner made concessions and reconnected to Disney's TV station.

Another time, the satellite TV operator Echostar complained that Disney's ESPN channel was too expensive, so it found an excuse for the channel to change hands, trying to give Disney a little face. Disney is very nervous, because DirectV and Echostar are the largest and second largest satellite broadcasters in the United States. Once they join forces, they can monopolize the satellite platform.

Directv also has a high-sounding reason: there are 250 channels that must be carried by the government, and there are also local news channels in each market, so it must be a strong alliance to survive, and channels with few viewers also need to "give way."

This has led to the risk that the family channel of the abc television network will lose its satellite TV broadcast.

Through this crisis, Disney realized that its status as a media kingdom was not solid. Time Warner, News Corporation, and Comcast all had their own distribution channels, while Disney relied entirely on the appeal of its own programs. Once a conflict occurs, the "storekeeper" will drive you away from the "shelf".

Later, in Roy Disney's "anti-Eisner" campaign, one of the slogans was Michael Eisner's strategic mistake. He should not acquire the ABC TV network, but should make efforts in the operation channel.

This can be said to be a topic that Michael Eisner could not touch, but it was unexpectedly brought up by Ray Watson.

"Enough! Abc Television Network has created billions of dollars of wealth for Disney, and ESPN is thriving! Facts have proved that the decision to acquire ABC Group was extremely correct!"

Michael Eisner spoke, his tone unquestionable.

There are 16 directors on Disney's board of directors, 10 of whom serve in various positions at Disney. In other words, they are all subordinates of Michael Eisner.

Through this relationship, Michael Eisner can firmly control Disney's board of directors.

The atmosphere of the board of directors became more and more solidified.

At this time, Secretary Dong received a call, his face became very complicated, and then he quietly walked to Michael Eisner and whispered a few words.

Because of the "American Idol" incident, Michael Eisner's face was already very ugly, but when he heard about it, he became even more ferocious and terrifying, like a jackal, his eyes were red.

The directors present at the meeting all looked at each other with astonishment on their faces.

What the hell happened?

What would make Michael Eisner so groggy?

Ray Watson mentioned a sensitive topic just now, and Michael Eisner's face is not so gloomy and dignified!

"Mike, what happened?" An independent director couldn't help but speak out.

Michael Eisner took a deep breath. Knowing that this kind of thing could not be concealed, he gritted his teeth and said coldly: "Our major shareholder proposed to hold a general meeting of shareholders!"

"ah?"

Everyone gasped.

Holding a general meeting of shareholders?

In addition to the annual summary meeting, when is the general meeting of shareholders required? That's when there's board-level turmoil!

Only the general meeting of shareholders has the right to appoint and remove directors!

Sure enough, the secretary of the board explained: "Mr. Swift said that he just bought a large amount of Disney stock, but got the news that "American Idol" was going to switch platforms. Disappointed. It is a pity that he is not eligible to participate in the board of directors, he wants to participate in the management of the company."

The directors just stared at each other and stopped talking.

Every director is a spokesperson for the corresponding interests.

Now, Scott Swift is joining the board, as a matter of course. But when someone joins, someone has to quit.

who left?

All of a sudden, the mountain rain was about to come and the wind filled the building.

(Some book friends can see that it is coming to the end. In fact, it is far from the end, but there is no way, the chapters are always blocked, and the ban is not lifted after modification, and the editor pretends to disappear, which is very annoying. Find some time every day to write I published two chapters, but I still encountered the screen, and I lost my mood at all. The grades almost didn’t matter, and I didn’t plan to rely on writing, the main thing was to have fun with myself. Now that the fun is gone, I can’t write anymore. Within a month Finish the book.)

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