Chapter 1210： Copyright in May

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In 2005, several deals were settled in the entertainment industry, leading to huge changes in the entertainment industry.

Since the DreamWorks acquisition that started at the beginning of the year, Universal Pictures has oscillated between $700 million and $800 million. In September, Paramount stepped in and made everyone look at it. But the precarious Paramount announced in October that it would withdraw from the competition. They have no interest in the acquisition. It seems that Universal Pictures has become the only buyer of DreamWorks. Universal Pictures’ entanglement over the transaction price led to negotiations that proceeded to November. Although Universal Pictures finally decided to acquire DreamWorks for $800 million, Paramount rushed out halfway to complete the acquisition of DreamWorks for $900 million. The acquisition of the factory -- including, of course, DreamWorks' debt of nearly $700 million, ended up at around $1.6 billion. Universal Pictures passed DreamWorks because of the tangle of 100 million US dollars, which is astonishing.

Disney, which was rotten inside, finally resolved the pain, fired Michael Inas, and supported Robert Iger, who was more friendly to the people, to take office, which brought Disney and Pixar back to the negotiating table after a two-year gap. But obviously, Disney's arrogance has kept Pixar from getting the most correct treatment. Disney's hesitation eventually led to the rise of Eleven Studios. After Eleven Studio successfully acquired Pixar with Xiaoboda, it has become the leader of the second-tier film production company-of course, the three acquisitions of Eleventh Release before this are also the foreshadowing work that cannot be ignored.

Disney, which has lost Pixar, Aardman Studios, whose partner DreamWorks has gone bankrupt, and Sony Columbia, which has been repeatedly defeated in the animation market, have come together to start a new round of negotiations at the negotiating table. confrontation. As a seller's market, Aardman Studio's capabilities and resources are their capital, while Disney and Sony Columbia in the buyer's market are not qualified to be picky. At present, Aardman Studio is the best choice, and they must launch a fierce competition. Hand to hand combat. Different from its previous rival Eleven Studio. The rivalry between Sony Columbia and Disney is definitely a close encounter on thin ice.

It is worth mentioning that Blue Sky Studios, whose cooperation agreement with 20th Century Fox is about to expire, was also involved in this contest in the Hollywood animation market in early December, but 20th Century Fox is much wiser than Disney. Twentieth Century Fox CEOs Thomas Rothman and Jim Gianopoulos were clearly more decisive than Robert Eagle in the competition for leadership, and they signed with Blue Sky Studios on the spot. another partnership agreement.

In fact, the current Blue Sky Studio is definitely not comparable to Pixar. After the success of "Ice Age", Blue Sky Studio launched "Robot Adventures" this year. Not only did not get the expected results, but also received a lot of challenges in word of mouth. But 20th Century Fox saw the potential of Blue Sky Studios, especially the prospects of the "Ice Age" series, so Thomas-Rothman resolutely renewed his contract with Blue Sky Studios. This also strengthens Blue Sky Studio's position to continue to cooperate with 20th Century Fox, while leaving Disney with only Aardman Studios as an option.

In addition to these deals, the rise of uTube and Facebook has been a huge contributor to the changes in the entertainment industry. These two sites have changed the proportion of Internet power, making people have to pay attention to the works that this emerging media can play in the future. Although the commercialization of digital music still faces the challenge of piracy, the implementation of the past few years has brought the major record companies to taste the sweetness. Now, the rise of uTube has made film companies and TV companies face the historical crossroads: converting video Is it feasible to grant copyright to the network to promote paid viewing on the network?

This is much more difficult than the commercialization of digital music, because the film industry involves a wider and more complex aspect, and the problem of piracy is even more serious. and. The commercialization of digital music is very intuitive, that is, downloading for a fee. Reasonable prices and convenient methods make the commercialization of digital music popular without encountering too many problems. But the commercialization of digital video is still a big question mark.

Under this situation, Eleven Studio, which is currently proud of the United States in the Internet field, proposed a new cooperation plan to Disney: Pixar currently has seven works, all of which are products of cooperation with Disney. Eleven Studio will Set up a Pixar channel on uTube, and then upload all seven works to set up a paid rental business. There are also paid download services. Disney agrees to the added bonus of this partnership. Eleven Studio made some concessions in the interests of the surrounding area.

This is where the issue of copyright comes into play.

Originally, Pixar and Disney signed a cooperation agreement, which contained provisions on copyright. During the period of the agreement, Disney can enjoy the copyright of the work, but after the agreement is terminated, the copyright will return to Pixar, and if Disney wants to continue to use it, it must re-sign the agreement. Although Disney wanted to hold all the copyrights in their hands once and for all, but Steve Jobs was not a fuel-efficient lamp, and naturally he did not let Michael Inas succeed.

The current situation is that Pixar has been acquired by Eleven Studio, and the cooperation agreement between Pixar and Disney will end in May 2006. In other words, before May next year, the copyright of Pixar's works still belongs to Disney's, and after that it will go back to Eleven Studios.

Disney is in trouble because of that, because after May 2006, they had a lot to say about Toy Story I and II, A Bug's Life, Monsters, Inc., Cars, All copyrights to Finding Nemo and The Incredibles will be void. When Eleven Studio expressed its willingness to continue to hand over the peripherals to Disney for production, this is naturally the best news for Disney, but the price is a bit high, and Eleven Studio is a hard bone.

However, Eleven Studios has now expressed its willingness to use Pixar's seven copyright works for five months - from January to May 2006 - as part of the terms of the deal, allowing Disney to use the peripheral rights. Get some upper hand. That's enough for Robert Iger to come to Miami himself.

Imagine that Disney has only owned the seven works of Pixar for the last five months. After that, it completely belongs to Eleven Studio. The copyright of the work itself or the copyright of the surrounding production must be re-established with Eleven. The studio signs an agreement. Now. This five-month copyright can actually play an additional role, and even give Disney a certain advantage in the interests of the surrounding area, which is really good news.

This idea of Robert Eagle couldn't be more normal. For most, this idea is very correct. It is definitely a good deal. But it's that thought that determines none of them are Evan Bell.

How fast the development of the online world is, Evan Bell can't be more clear, five months in real time seem to be nothing. But five months in the online world were decisive: Facebook developed in just three months. And uTube has only been ten months since its establishment, and it has become the largest video site in the United States.

There are currently 40 million short videos on uTube, which attracts 8 million views every day, officially surpassing a competitor in the just-ended November. Be the most visited website of the century. uTube's appeal to grassroots netizens is beyond everyone's expectations, especially a series of video shorts produced by Evan Bell, including the Toronto Film Festival series, and the ongoing world tour series, which have become the most popular on the Internet. 's video. What's more, Eleven Studio also has the authorization of music websites such as Warner Records, Sony Bertelsmann Records, EMI Records, etc. At present, two-thirds of music companies in the United States have signed cooperation agreements with uTube, which makes uTube's future development. bright. It is said that Google has begun to collect uTube's website information. There seems to be an interest in making a bid for Eleven Studios.

Evan Bell knew it was time for the channel business to go live. The channel business is a huge breakthrough to the current video business landscape, and its promotion is not easy.

Evan Bell hopes to launch the Eleven Studio Channel in January 2006, and put all the copyrighted film works and TV works of Eleven Studio into the channel. Bud," "Prison Break," and "NCIS" will be the subjects of the first experimental videos.

The channel business will provide free viewing of most videos, as well as a small number of paid rentals and paid downloads. At the beginning of the launch of the channel business, free functions must be the main focus, mainly to launch high-quality and high-level videos for netizens to watch. As for the paid part, it will be expanded in a small local area For example, the ninth episode of "Prison Break" just played last night. If you missed the live broadcast and TV reruns, want to get a sneak peek on the web. Then you can do it through paid features. Of course, those who are willing to wait can also wait until the ban is lifted a month later, but they can watch the ninth episode that they missed for free.

The initial revenue of the channel business will not be paid services, but high-quality advertisers, especially those in TV dramas, so that they can also believe that uTube can bring clicks and sales. After the initial development and winning the support of the audience, the paid business can slowly expand and finally achieve profitability.

Once the experiment of the channel business is successful, it will be more convincing to convince other film companies and TV production companies with samples in the first place. But relying on Eleven Studios alone is definitely not enough, so Evan Bell turned his brains to Pixar. The role of a Pixar channel is definitely not trivial. The five-month copyright that Disney currently holds is enough to fully develop the channel business. This is why Evan Bell is willing to trade concessions of peripheral interests in exchange for a five-month copyright. After the channel business is fully developed, the revenue of the uTube channel business will definitely not be inferior to that of the peripheral business. If there are enough film companies willing to establish their own channels, it is not a problem that the revenue exceeds the peripheral business.

It's just that I don't know what Robert Iger thinks about this "five-month copyright" cooperation case.

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