Chapter 791 **** Family

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In the mid-1990s, the U.S. cable television industry was on the verge of breaking out, taking advantage of the new technology wave. ?

As long as ffm operates properly, the market value will only double at the peak of the new technology wave in five years, five times ten times is a very conservative estimate. The options that Eric promised Weinstein worth more than ten million dollars at this time may even bring hundreds of millions of dollars in return. As long as the development of ffm TV reaches expectations, Eric will also pay management compensation. Definitely not stingy.

However, Harvey Weinstein obviously does not think so, after all, not everyone can see the future, he shook his head and said: "Eric, I can accept the annual salary of 250,000 US dollars, but the option of 1 million shares too little."

Eric said: "Harvey, after this cable company is handed over to you, according to the annual growth rate of 30%, the market value of the company in five years will be about four times what it is now, and your final salary will also be It will be more than 40 million US dollars, which is already very generous, whether it is Firefly or News Corporation, there are no more than ten executives with an annual salary of tens of millions."

Harvey Weinstein opened his mouth to refute, but couldn't say it. He couldn't say he didn't have the confidence to achieve the company's 30% annual growth rate, right?

It is not easy for a company that has passed the period of rapid development to achieve an annual growth rate of 30%, but for a newly established start-up company like ffm that has sufficient funding and resource support, if the annual growth rate of 30% cannot be achieved , is not really a success.

Seeing that Weinstein hesitated, Eric thought for a while and said, "If you think options are too risky, we can take another approach and set up a special bonus. As long as you achieve your annual performance goals, you can Get the bonus. However, I can only give you a bonus cap of $5 million per year."

When Sony hired Peter Cooper to manage Columbia, it used this method. Peter Cooper's contract was also for five years, and Sony set a bonus amount of 50 million US dollars. In the end, Peter Cooper took the prize and left Sony with a mess.

Sony will be pitted only by outsiders. Of course, Firefly and News Corp. will not make such mistakes. However, at the level of the CEO of Peter Cooper, the bonus amount is only 50 million US dollars. Of course, Eric cannot set too high a bonus amount for Weinstein, otherwise the two companies are at the same level as Weinstein. of executives will surely be dissatisfied.

Harvey is obviously also aware of the rules, and his expression is more hesitant. It is undoubtedly very safe to choose a bonus.

Although he has received a lot of money from Miramax in the past two years, this is also when the year is good, and the variables in the film industry have always been great. Maybe next year, he will not get a cent of dividends because of losses.

but,

The high rate of return of options is also very attractive, but it also comes with very high risks. The continuous growth described by Eric is only an optimal state. If one of the years is due to huge losses and other factors, the valuation of ffm drops sharply. , then the efforts of the previous year or two are likely to be wasted. ??

In the end, Weinstein said, "Eric, can you give me a few days to think about it?"

"No problem," Eric nodded, he didn't expect Weinstein to agree on the spot, and added: "If you're not in a hurry to leave, maybe you can listen to my thoughts on ffm, which should decide for you. Whether it helps to accept the job."

Harvey smiled cheerfully and complimented: "Of course I'd love to, I don't think anyone would pass up this opportunity."

Since its establishment in the early 1970s, hbo has changed its slogan a total of eight times. This is actually the process of hbo's exploration of the business model of paid cable stations.

The current slogan of hbo is 'we\reoutoftowntoday (Let us stay away from the crowd)', which was established in 1993. And hbo is the most classic and the longest-used slogan, implying that hbo's business model is completely mature, "this is not TV, this is hbo", which has not yet been released.

"This is not TV, this is hbo" actually represents the core business philosophy of hbo, which not only gives viewers a viewing experience that is completely different from ordinary TV programs. It is precisely around this core that while introducing hundreds of excellent movies every year, hbo has persistently invested heavily in producing a large number of high-quality dramas with rave reviews with production specifications and concepts that are not inferior to those of the movies.

Since hbo has not launched his own classic slogan, Eric did not hesitate to replace it with 'this is not tv, this is ffm'.

Combining the memory of the past life and the materials reviewed in the recent period, he discussed in detail with Murdoch and Weinstein the development ideas he planned for ffm TV station.

Now that it has decided to use the slogan of 'this is not TV, this is ffm', this paid cable station must completely de-television, completely eliminate the profit model of conventional TV stations based on advertising revenue, and obtain profits through user subscriptions and copyright operations. While introducing high-quality content, ffm needs to produce more high-quality self-made dramas. Of course, this does not mean blindly spending money to pursue big investment and big production, but according to the status quo that ffm audiences are mostly social elites, the production is in line with this More open and more ideological and artistic works required by the audience's taste.

The three then discussed other details such as branding and paying attention to user satisfaction. Eric also talked about some big data concepts that appeared more than ten years later, and so on until eight o'clock in the evening, after dinner, the three talents leave each other.

After a busy day and a little tired, Eric did not rush back to the Sharphorn Manor, but went to Drew's residence in Trousdale Manor. to read a book

The girl didn't know where she went. There was no one in the villa. Eric sent the driver away and took out the key to open the door and enter the house.

I simply took a shower, went to the living room in a bathrobe, turned on the TV, and sat on the sofa with my laptop in my arms, watching TV while checking today's emails.

Judging from Weinstein's reaction when he left not long ago, he has basically decided to accept the job, and at most he will only fight for another salary. After finding a suitable manager, Eric began to consider his next plan.

In the field of media, the core of competition is, after all, content.

If you want ffm to quickly become famous and build a brand, it is definitely not enough to introduce external film and television copyrights. Self-made content with sufficient topicality is essential.

In addition to "Yuwang City", which has been taken to life, the first thing Eric thought of was "Black Road Family".

In the original time and space, because of the rise of the Internet, mainland audiences are obviously more familiar with "House of Cards" produced by flix than "Black Road Family". It is precisely with the strong influence of "House of Cards" that flix surpassed hbo in the number of subscribers, and in the following years, it left hbo far away. And the status of "Black Road Family" in hbo is actually equivalent to flix's house of cards. Although there have been many high-quality dramas such as "Yuwang City", "Under Six Feet", "Band of Brothers", but the one that really pushed hbo to the dominance of paid cable channels is actually "Black Road Family".

Back then, even in China, Eric often heard the famous "Black Road Family".

This masterpiece of TV drama ranks first in the "ranking of the greatest TV dramas in history" by many Western media. Although the influence of "Yuwang City" was great, it was limited to women, but "Black Road Family" was able to become the focus of the topic at the national level.

Under normal circumstances, for the same quality dramas, the public stations are usually larger than the basic cable stations in terms of ratings, and the basic cable stations are larger than the paid cable stations.

Because of the inherent disadvantage of the audience base, few TV programs of paid cable stations can squeeze into the top positions of the ratings list, but "Black Road Family" did it. This TV series was at the peak of hbo, even With more than 10 million viewers, compared to the total number of subscribers of other premium cable stations, which are only tens of millions, the viewership data of "Black Road Family" is nothing short of a miracle. Although there used to be many high-quality drama series such as "Yu Want City", "Under Six Feet", "Band of Brothers", it is because of the "Black Road Family" that can be regarded as the sky-defying ratings data, hbo was able to enter the premium cable TV The status of Taiwan hegemony.

There are many reasons for the rise of "Black Road Family", but after all, it is inseparable from the excellent quality of the episodes and inadvertently catering to the tastes of the American media and audiences.

Although history has changed because of Eric's appearance, David Chase, the screenwriter of "Black Road Family", still wrote the script, because the idea of ​​the script was based on some personal experiences of David Chase when he was a teenager. Conceived through experience, the story has been brewing in David Chase's mind for many years.

David Chase is already a well-known producer in the TV industry, and has participated in the production of the cbs hit drama "Northland".

It's just that the sales of the script of "Black Road Family" was not so smooth. Before Eric paid attention to this matter, several major TV stations, including abc, had received the script, but the senior management of the four major TV stations were very concerned about this script. This kind of grim alternative gangster film has no interest at all, so he chose to reject it without exception.

In the past, the production process of "The Black Road" was even more bumpy. After selling unsuccessfully to several major TV networks, David Chase turned his target to cable TV stations. hbo eventually picked up the script in 1997, but the will to make it wasn't that strong. At the strong request of David Chase, hbo finally approved the production funds for a pilot episode. David Chase personally acted as the director to shoot the pilot episode, but was suppressed by hbo for more than a year until 1999 In 2008, "Black Road Family" landed on the TV screen, and then it was a miraculous rise.

Eric only recently let Firefly's copyright department approach David Chase again to get the script. There is another coincidence in this. The agent of David Chase's script is named Brad Gray, who used to be Weinstein's assistant and now creates a production company by himself.

Of course Eric wouldn't come forward in this matter, otherwise he would clearly tell others, come and grab it.

Eric specially explained that the person in charge of the copyright department reported the negotiation progress of "Black Road Family" to himself in a timely manner, opened the mailbox, and quickly found a related email.

Perhaps it was because of the change in Firefly's attitude towards the script of "Black Road Family", David Guzhen asked to be the director and producer himself in the negotiation, and to participate in the selection of the role, Brad Gray also refused to completely let go of the drama. production.

Compared with the huge size of Firefly, Brad Gray's production company is like an inconspicuous small workshop. As long as the other party is not greedy and wants to share the copyright, Eric doesn't mind giving the other party a little sweetness. As for David Chase's desire to participate in the production of the series, it is what Eric wants to see.

After writing a reply, Eric closed the mailbox interface and opened the Yahoo portal to freely browse the latest news.

I don't know how long it took, when Eric was about to fall asleep on the sofa, Drew in a blue evening dress came back from outside with the twins.

"Eric," the girl entered the door, threw herself into Eric's arms and kissed greasy.

Eric pushed away the laptop sandwiched between the two, put his arms around the girl's waist, and asked, "Where did you go crazy and come back so late?"

"I'm not crazy, Godfather's party, I can't help but go," the girl said, twisting her body, pressing it closer to Eric's body, and raised her calves to shake, The twins stepped forward quietly, helped the girl take off her high heels, and took the initiative to put away the laptop that was lying on the side. One of them asked softly, "Boss, do you want to take a shower?"

"Well, wait, I'll wash with Eric."

Eric smiled and said, "I have washed it."

"Then wash it again," the girl hugged Eric's neck coquettishly.

Eric had no choice but to nod, and when the twins left to prepare hot water, he asked again, "What party did Steven invite you to this time?"

"It's still some business cooperation." The girl obviously didn't have the heart to say this, she just said: "Anyway, I always feel that the godfather and the others have not done much this time."

Eric smiled. At the end of last month, with the support of Microsoft, Steven Spielberg, David Geffen, George Lucas and others officially announced plans for a major studio, perhaps It was Eric who took away the name of DreamWorks in advance. The new studio did not rename it, but integrated all the resources of several parties into Spielberg's Amberlin Pictures.

Microsoft's first investment of 500 million US dollars, and promised to provide technical support in film and television special effects and computer animation, to obtain a 25% stake in Amberlin, George Lucas merged Lucasfilm and Industrial Light and Magic under his name into the company , also holds 25% of the shares, Amberlin will also obtain the production rights of "Star Wars", and the remaining 50% of the shares, Spielberg holds 30%, and as the earliest sponsor of the big studio project, Big Wei Geffen only got 20% of the equity this time, and there is a faint trend of ******. It is conceivable that as long as Microsoft conducts the second and third rounds of capital injection, the equity will be diluted first. It's David Geffen.

At the same time, Amberlin also signed a distribution deal with Paramount for eight films over the next five years.

Eric has been paying attention to these things. Like the girl's feeling at this time, Eric also feels that it is unlikely that Spielberg and others will make the studio bigger this time.

Not to mention the shortcomings of distribution channels, the secret pressure of the original seven studios, etc., Spielberg and George Lucas, they are not the kind of ambitious people, although many people call him Steven Spielberg and George Lucas. Pierberg is a film businessman, but his indecisive personality makes him totally unfit to run a major studio.

Take this time, it is said that during the cooperation negotiations, Spielberg also told other partners that he would do his best to run the company, but at the same time maintain the right to cooperate with other film companies alone. Does this sound like something an ambitious person could say?

Spielberg's talent in movies is undeniable, but he can't be a traveler with the advantage of a prophet like Eric after all. In the original time and space, DreamWorks has been established for many years, and the live-action film business has basically not achieved much profit. The only development that is relatively stable is DreamWorks Animation, which is under the control of Katzenberg. Later, DreamWorks Animation simply chose to leave DreamWorks. After the listing operation, several companies became even more distant and eventually parted ways.

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...(To be continued.)

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