Chapter 1182： The rain is coming, the wind is filling the building

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

Sanctions by the Big Five against New Universal continue.

Of course, New Universal will fight back!

The strategy of going to court has been implemented, but the Big Five have not backed down.

Prosecution of such matters, especially intellectual property disputes within closed Hollywood, the characterization of such incidents is very complicated, and it is difficult to go to court without two or three years of investigation and evidence collection.

After such a long time, the turmoil in Hollywood has long since subsided.

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

Legal means are too slow, Dunn also has economic means!

At present, almost all of the most popular TV programs in the United States come from Universal TV production companies. Such as "American Idol", "Global Top Model", "Truth or Dare", "Dancing Forest Conference" and so on.

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

Now, it's time to take content!

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

In the first season of "American Idol", Huixin Universal brought a total of 320 million US dollars in net profit through TV broadcasts, pay-on-demand, record sales, concert tours, program advertising fees, copyright sales, and derivatives licensing.

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

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

Later, because New Universal and Viacom fell into competition, Dunn and Redstone fought in the ring, resulting in "American Idol" from the second season on Disney's ABC TV station.

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

Now, it's time for a change.

Disney is ungrateful and stabbed in the back!

If Dunn 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 Big Five Alliance was besieging New Universal, CBS TV started to operate independently because of its separation from Viacom. Instead, it did not join in and continued to maintain a good cooperative relationship with New Universal.

Since they are partners, they naturally have to be friendly to each other.

……

The atmosphere on the Disney board was chill.

Everyone knows what American Idol means.

The seasons of "American Idol" on ABC have been much more profitable than they were in the first season, making 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, but also indirect benefits.

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

This influence is too great.

If you lose the broadcast rights of "American Idol", it will be as heavy as losing the distribution rights of Pixar movies!

One thing will change, another will grow, and CBS will become the No. 1 public television network in the United States!

"This Dunn will play such tricks! Shameless and hateful!"

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

He was Michael Eisner's absolute confidant.

The confidant has reached the point where one is prosperous and one is lost.

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

Ray Watson's face was solemn, "This matter must be handled well. American Idol is to Disney's TV business what Pixar is to Disney's animation business. We have lost Pixar, and we must not lose American Idol again. already."

Michael Eisner said nothing, his face ashen.

It seems difficult to make a final decision.

"Dawn's intention is very obvious, just want us to make concessions, or even withdraw from the Big Five." Peter Murphy spoke in his place, saying very heavily, "On one side is New Universal, on the other side is the collective power of Hollywood, on both sides It's hard to blame."

"I said ten years ago that it should be deployed in the channel industry, but I ended up buying a wireless TV network!" Ray Watson was 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 Corp. TV operator.

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

It is useless to have products and shelves. To truly realize the products, you need a storefront!

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

Disney only has a traditional wireless signal propagation 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 cable and satellite TV.

Even in such a traditional wireless TV station, users receive the signal through cable TV because it is more stable and clearer.

However, Michael Eisner is not interested in TV operations, he is a "creative", he is interested in content and branding. He rejected the company's internal request. Not only did he not acquire an operator, but he continued to bet on TV stations and spent huge sums of money to acquire the ABC Group!

Because of the limited operating channels, when Disney and Time Warner went to war in the early 2000s, Time Warner shut down Disney's operating signal.

As a result, nearly 10 million home users can no longer receive Disney Channel and ABC station.

It led to the chaos of Disney at the time.

This is the pain of being strangled by someone. Later, users protested collectively, and the Federal Communications Commission came forward. Only then did Time Warner make a concession and reconnect to Disney's TV station.

Another time, satellite TV operator EchoStar complained that Disney's ESPN channel was too expensive, and found an excuse to change the channel, trying to give Disney a face. Disney is nervous because Star is the largest and second largest satellite broadcaster 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 local news channels in each market, so it must be a strong alliance to survive, and channels with few audiences also need to "give way".

This puts the ABC television network's home channel at risk of losing its satellite broadcasts.

Through this crisis, Disney realized that its media empire was not solid. Time Warner, News Corporation, and Comcast all had their own distribution channels, while Disney completely depended on the appeal of its own shows. Once there is a conflict, the "store" will drive you off the "shelf".

Later, in Roy Disney's "anti-Eisner" campaign, one of the slogans played 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 can't touch, and I didn't expect it to be brought up again by Ray Watson.

"Enough! The ABC television network has created billions of dollars of wealth for Disney, and ESPN is booming! Facts have proved that the acquisition of ABC Group was the right decision!"

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. That is to say, they are all subordinates to 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 solid.

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

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

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

What happened?

To make Michael Eisner so gaffe?

Just now Ray Watson mentioned a sensitive topic, and Michael Eisner's face was not so gloomy and solemn!

"Mike, what happened?" An independent director couldn't help speaking.

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

"what?"

Everyone took a deep breath Hold a general meeting of shareholders?

In addition to the annual summary meeting, when do you need to hold a general meeting of shareholders? 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 explained: "Mr. Swift said that he had just bought a large amount of Disney stock, but got the news that American Idol was going to switch platforms. He was very shocked and very surprised. Disappointment. Unfortunately, he is not qualified to sit on the board of directors, he wants to be involved in the management of the company.”

The directors just stared at each other with big eyes, and stopped talking.

Every director is a corresponding interest spokesperson.

Now, Scott Swift is joining the board, of course. If someone joins, someone leaves.

Who left?

All of a sudden, the mountains and the rain were about to come and the wind filled the building.

(Some book friends can see that it is coming to an end. In fact, it is far from the end, but there is no way, chapters are always blocked, and the ban will not be lifted if they are modified. After two chapters were published, I still encountered the screen, and I lost my mood at all. The grades were almost okay, and I didn’t plan to rely on writing. The main thing was to make myself happy. Now that the fun is gone, I can’t write anymore, and I will meet it in a month. Finish the book.)

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