I’m in Hollywood

Early on Sunday morning, Eric had a phone call with Chris, who was far away in Tokyo, to learn about the situation in Southeast Asia. In the morning, he rushed to Century City to meet with Harvey Weinstein. After the ffm TV station was handed over to Weinstein, the headquarters of ffm was set up near the Fox Century City studio.

Last weekend, on June 15, Black Road Family experienced thirteen weeks of broadcasting, and the first season officially ended.

With Harvey Weinstein's skilled operation, the word-of-mouth of The Black Road continues to spread like a virus. With a good start of 1.76 million viewers for the premiere, the ratings of the series have also soared. When the final episode of the first season was broadcast, the highest number of viewers had rushed to 3.25 million, which was almost double that of the premiere.

Affected by the influence of Black Road Family, ffm's popularity has further expanded, and its subscribers have also risen sharply. By the end of the first season of Black Road Family, the number of subscribers to ffm TV station has approached 6 million.

The user base of ffm was only about 4.5 million before the launch of Black Road Family. Due to the relatively low starting point and the support of the three major media giants, everyone had a premonition that ffm TV station would just germinate in fertile soil. grows as fast as a seedling. However, in just one quarter, the number of new subscribers is close to 1.5 million. This kind of user growth rate is still unbelievable. You must know that the number of new users of HBO TV station in the same period is less than 500,000 in a quarter.

Since the idea of ​​establishing ffm TV station, Eric has been thinking of competing with hbo. Therefore, while giving full support to ffm TV station, Eric did not relax his attention to the operation of the TV station at all. Since its launch in September last year, Eric has participated in at least two or three ffm TV operations meetings a month.

After an initial brief period of misfit, Harvey Weinstein quickly demonstrated his ability to run the television business. The number of users of ffm TV station has skyrocketed in the recent quarter. To be honest, the credit for Black Road Family can only be counted at most 30%, and the remaining 70% is the result of Weinstein's excellent business operation ability.

Just like the PR operation process of hedging the Austrian film, since the word-of-mouth was established after the broadcast of The Black Road, Weinstein carried out a deeper operation of The Black Road through all available channels such as newspapers, TV and the Internet. During the three-month broadcast cycle, the plot of almost every episode of The Black Road Family will become the focus of heated media discussion. By the end of the first season, the sacred drama of The Black Road Family will already be in the minds of many people. It has become deeply ingrained, and accordingly, the brand of ffm TV station has become more deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, which has brought a large number of new users.

Speaking of which, Weinstein's operation of ffm TV during this period is very similar to that of netflix in his previous life.

After the original time and space in 2013, when it comes to Netflix, most people think of House of Cards for the first time. House of Cards is naturally a work that can be called a divine drama, but just like The Black Road Family at this time, strictly speaking, the two dramas only play a role as a catalyst, which really makes Netflix rise. Or the company's excellent business operations. Of course, just like some chemical reactions cannot be carried out without a catalyst, without House of Cards, it is impossible for netflix to increase the number of subscribers from 26 million before the broadcast to 40 million within two years of the show's launch. Similarly, Black Road Family can not be regarded as a decisive role in the development of ffm, but it can never be ignored.

However, behind the surge in the number of users is also the rapid increase in the operating costs of ffm TV stations.

Although it has the support of the three major media giants, ffm TV station is after all an independent company that needs to be responsible for its own profits and losses. Whether it is Firefly or Fox, it is impossible to provide film and television rights to ffm for free.

To compete with hbo,

ffm not only packaged and bought a batch of film and television copyrights to fill the broadcast time in the early stage, but in addition to the self-made drama Black Road Family, the TV station will also introduce a new film every week on average. Taken together, ffm is in terms of film and television content this year. The expenditure will exceed 300 million US dollars, and the TV station's advertising and marketing budget will also be close to 200 million US dollars. In addition to the operating expenses of the TV station itself, the annual operating cost of ffm TV station will reach 700 million US dollars.

On the other hand, in order to attract new users to subscribe, ffm has also implemented a large number of discounts and promotions in terms of charges, which has also greatly lowered the average subscription cost of users. The total revenue will not exceed 500 million US dollars, which is only about one-third of HBO's annual revenue. This also means that in 1997, ffm will bring at least a loss of 200 million US dollars to various shareholders.

In fact, if the ambition is smaller, in the context of the overall explosion of the cable TV industry, relying on the rich content resources of the three major media giants, ffm only needs to significantly reduce the budget expenditure on content and marketing, even if it is only by virtue of the existing subscribers. , you can quickly achieve profitability, and live your small life nourishingly. But in this case, ffm TV station will forever lose the possibility of becoming a giant of paid cable stations, and even, in the future streaming media era, ffm is destined to become the first batch of traditional cable platforms to be eliminated.

Eric will naturally not let this kind of thing happen, either don't do it, or do the best as possible, even if the final result is not satisfactory, Eric will not allow ffm to be content with the status quo from the beginning.

What's more, the average annual loss of 200 million US dollars, according to the shareholding ratio of each company, is only tens of millions of US dollars. In recent years, everyone's situation has been very good. Paying tens of millions of dollars a year for a premium cable station with huge growth potential is not an unacceptable thing. However, Eric also knew that after the burst of the Internet bubble, the life of cable TV operators who are also the beneficiaries of the new technology wave will become very difficult for a long time. Losing expenses is more difficult for them to accept, and Eric also expects to be able to get back 20% of the shares that were allocated to the major cable TV operators at that time.

With the current growth rate of ffm TV station, by the end of 1997, the total number of users will exceed 8 million, and it will be almost certain to exceed 10 million subscribers next year. However, after the number of subscribers exceeds 10 million, just like a fast-growing seedling entering a mature stage, the growth rate will also slow down, and it will start a more direct hand-to-hand combat with hbo.

In the conference room of ffm TV headquarters, Eric listened to Harvey Weinstein's report and said: Harvey, your contract period is not five years. So, if you can transfer ffm during your contract period grow to 20 million subscribers, and I can promise now to increase your share of options by 50%.”

Harvey Weinstein left the presentation stage and returned to his seat, smiling: Eric, your conditions are indeed very attractive, but it is not an easy task. Whether it is Firefly, News Corp or Rice Gaomei does not have a nationwide cable TV network like Time Warner, and several major operators are only minority shareholders in ffm, so it is impossible to support TV stations too wholeheartedly. Time Warner's cable TV network will definitely crowd out ffm, telecommunications The company is also eager to build its own pay cable station starz, as well as the basic cable companies, they have a very close relationship with Viacom, these factors will limit the further expansion of ffm TV. In my opinion, the scale of ffm users has grown to Around 15 million, it will enter a bottleneck. If you want to break through, the three of you must buy a national cable TV operation system that is enough to support the further development of ffm TV. Otherwise, I can only guarantee that during my term of office, ffm's The number of subscribers has grown to 15 million.”

Harvey Weinstein's contract started in July last year and ended in July 2001, a five-year period, which happened to be the most turbulent period of the new technology wave, although when Harvey's contract expired, the Internet bubble must have been It broke, but Eric couldn't shoot too hastily. Of course, Eric is even less likely to buy cable companies before the dot-com bubble burst, which would simply be making a fortune. In this case, Eric must not be able to meet Harvey's request.

In the eyes of Weinstein's expectation, Eric finally shook his head and said: I have no such plans in recent years, but you can discuss it with Rupert.

Weinstein shrugged helplessly. He had actually discussed this topic with Murdoch. News Corporation itself already had a satellite TV and cable TV network, but it was relatively small. Moreover, in recent years, News Corporation has put more energy on the development of TV stations, and is not too keen on the basic cable TV operation business.

No longer talking about this topic, everyone in the conference room chatted about other things, and it was not until around 12 noon that the conference finally ended.

Harvey Weinstein packed up the documents in front of him, glanced at Peter Rich who had been sitting next to Eric today, and still had a fat, harmless smile on his face: Eric, let's have lunch together later. Bar?

Eric followed with a smile: Of course, even if you don't mention it, I will let you invite me to dinner.

Eric came over today. In addition to participating in ffm's recent operations meeting, he also had another purpose: to formally introduce his assistant Peter Rich to Harvey Weinstein. In fact, at the beginning of this year, Eric He had already talked to Weinstein about it, and he was already prepared. When ffm was formed, Eric didn't get involved too much in personnel issues. At this time, it was nothing to just install a manager.

In the restaurant near Century City, most of the management of ffm TV has been dispersed, and there are only four people in the box, Eric and Peter Rich, Weinstein and ffm's vice president and head of production Bula De Grey, as for Harvey's brother Bob Weinstein, is still focusing all his energy on Miramax and not working at ffm.

Eric was not too in favor of ffm TV's acquisition of Weinstein's former assistant Brad Gray's production company. However, Weinstein eventually brought him closer to the company in charge of the programming department, and spent $5 million to buy Brad Gray. De Grey's production company bought it. The deal involved a small amount, not even as much as ffm's cost of buying the rights to broadcast a hit movie, so Eric didn't hold back too much.

After ordering lunch, a few people talked about the arrangement of The Black Road to impact the Emmy Awards in September, and Harvey Weinstein took the initiative to mention the arrangement for Peter Rich: Peter, I hope you can First go to the marketing department as Mark's deputy, Mark Levinson, I introduced him in the morning, his current position is the marketing department manager. First familiarize yourself with it for a while, if you have a more interesting position, I can adjust it appropriately.

The current scale of ffm is actually not too large, with less than 200 employees. As a paid cable TV station, the core functional departments are film procurement, program production, and advertising and marketing. In the future, after ffm's self-made content is more abundant, it will add a copyright operation department. Other departments such as finance and personnel are the same. Important, but doesn't have much impact on the development of ffm. In recent years, due to the rapid expansion of ffm, the company's advertising and marketing department has become more important. If you can join this department, the future development space will be broader.

Although Eric had discussed it with him before, Peter Ritchie was still a little excited after hearing Weinstein's formal proposal. The deputy manager of the marketing department, the next level up, is the vice president of ffm. Although it is beautiful around Eric, at this time, Peter Rich can be regarded as the starting point of a career with a wider display space.

After a brief excitement, Peter Ritchie nodded quickly: Thank you, Harvey, I will try my best to do this job.

Weinstein's smile didn't change, he glanced at Eric, and said, So, when are you going to join the job, I'll arrange it in advance?

Peter Rich also looked at Eric.

Eric put down the cutlery in his hand, smiled, and said: Next month, I'm going to the UK soon, and it's too late to change people. Of course, Peter, you can also apply for a month's leave after returning from the UK. , I remember that you haven't had a rest since you were with me?

Peter Ritchie shook his head with a bit of urgency: It's not necessary, I can get to work immediately.

Eric nodded with a smile and said, Of course, this is your choice.

Weinstein also laughed and said: Actually, young people, that's how it should be. Look at each of us, it's Sunday now, and we're not all working. In fact, I admire Eric even Able to do that. If I had your money, I'd be living on some private island by now.

Eric shrugged and laughed, and said, Well, it seems that my current style of painting is very incongruous in your eyes.

A few people were talking and laughing. After lunch, Weinstein asked again: Eric, the first three episodes of Prison have been completed. Do you want to watch the finished film together in the afternoon?

I still have something to do this afternoon, which has been delayed for two weeks, Eric shook his head and said, So, let me send a sample to Jiaojiao Manor, and I'll take a look at it.

No problem, Weinstein nodded and gave Eric another shot, However, Eric, I don't think this show is too good, at least, it is definitely far from being able to compete with The Black Road Family.

It's natural, the work of any production company has its ups and downs, but I never expected that all the films produced by ffm would be like The Black Road Family.

The overall strength of a TV station has always depended on the quality of its overall episodes, and it is the best state to be accompanied by one or two popular episodes uninterruptedly. If all the dramas produced are of the top level, not only is it unrealistic, but even if it is really realized, it will turn into an overall 'mediocre' after raising the audience's aesthetic requirements.

Eric's expectation for Prison is as long as it can exceed the average.

Separated from Weinstein and Brad Gray, Eric drove to Trousdale Manor, sent away his assistants and bodyguards, and walked into Drew's mansion alone.

In the living room of the villa, Drew was lying on the glass coffee table in the center of the living room, flipping through a pair of aircraft documents and drawings. A pile of paper was scattered on the carpet and sofa next to it. The twins were kneeling on both sides of the coffee table, helping the girl softly.

Seeing Eric coming in, the girl immediately raised a blueprint in her hand, with a tone that was obviously more excited than troubled, and said, Eric, what a mess, I didn't expect it to be so troublesome to buy a plane.

Eric came over and sat down on the carpet beside the girl at will. He took over the blueprint in her hand and looked at it. He said to Natasha next to him: Wait for a guest to come over, and clean up the surroundings.

Okay, master, the two women responded, quietly getting up and tidying up.

Focusing on the blueprint in her hand, the little girl's head has come over: Eric, I suddenly don't want to buy 777.

Oh?

The Boeing 777 is a twin-engine. I heard that the 747's four-engine is safer, so the presidential plane is the 747.

Eric smiled and said, If you are worried about this, you can't take the plane.

Hehe, people are afraid of death.

Then buy a 747.

Eric smiled and said as the girl meant. In fact, he has also read a lot of aircraft information recently. The reason why the 747 adopts a four-engine design is mainly because the power of the aircraft engine was not enough at that time.

Since the beginning of the Boeing 757, due to advances in aerospace materials and engine design, Boeing has generally adopted a twin-engine design. As for the fact that four engines are safer than twins, there is some truth to this claim. But in fact, during the flight, even if all the engines of the aircraft suddenly fail, it will not fall directly from the sky, but will continue to glide. As long as the operation is done properly, it can still land safely. What's more, the simultaneous failure of the twin engines is hundreds of thousands of times lower than the probability of the aircraft being struck by lightning, and the probability of the aircraft being struck by lightning during flight is still quite high. As for the single engine failure, it will not have much impact on the flight.

But, the 777 is bigger, and I still want to build a party plane.

Then 777.

Wow, your tone is too perfunctory, be careful I buy both.

Eric continued to nod: That's fine. (To be continued.)