I’m in Hollywood - Chapter 757

[Chapter 749: Two Schemes]

Chapter 749

The background of Lifetime TV is still somewhat lacking. Eric checked the program list of Lifetime TV in the past year. During the whole year of 1994, Lifetime TV only made 11 low-cost TV movies and several repeated Reruns of soap operas and other programs in other time periods have nothing new.

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However, since “American Model Contest” and “Project Runway” have already made a good start and accumulated a lot of popularity, then it is logical to continue to increase the investment in the program.

“Terry, I admit you’re right, but this situation will soon be a thing of the past, and since Lifetime can make Project Runway and America’s Model, of course we can continue to make more A very successful TV show. Although the two reality shows will be roughly completed before the new year, Lifetime TV has decided to start the production of the second season of “America’s Model”, which will be launched on time tomorrow in the spring, so you don’t have to worry at all. The popularity of Lifetime TV.”

After Eric finished speaking, he thought again of Cindy’s appearance in the morning when Baba came to play with his thoughts, and he didn’t feel a little funny.

Due to the broadcast cycle of “Project Runway”, there is no hope for two seasons a year. Therefore, Eric can only hope that Cindy can start the production of the second season of “America’s Model Contest” at the end of the year, so as to maintain the lifetime TV station just now. Rising popularity.

However, although there are many workaholics around him, the two beauties, Cindy and Linda, are obviously not. It must be very tiring to produce two seasons of the show a year and have to take care of many other jobs.

Eric has been thinking about how to convince Cindy in the past few days, and even planned to give the girl some salary if necessary. Then, before this matter could be said, Cindy delivered it to the door.

Terry Semel didn’t know what Eric was thinking, so he naturally regarded the smile that suddenly appeared on his face as his ambition, hesitated for a moment, and said, “Eric, 20 cents, this is what Warner can do. The highest price offered.”

Eric put away his smile, looked at Terry Semel, and said, “If it’s 20 cents, no problem, Terry, but I have one condition?”

Terry Semel

“Please say,” said Er.

“Lifetime TV can sign a three-year fixed-sharing contract with Warner Cable, and the price is fixed at 20 cents. However, Warner Cable needs to carry Lifetime TV’s signal across all its cable packages. ”

Eric,

that’s impossible,” Terry Semel shook his head immediately.

In the plan, after obtaining the broadcast authorization, Warner Cable will provide some cable TV packages equipped with Lifetime TV for users who need it to choose.

After all, the audience of Lifetime TV is limited. At that time, the subscribers of Lifetime TV under Warner Cable are expected to increase to about 600,000 subscribers based on the original user base, which will not exceed the total subscribers of 1500,000 under Warner Cable at most. half of .

But Eric’s condition at this time is ambitious to swallow all the user resources of Warner Cable in one go, no matter what kind of consideration, Terry Semel will not agree.

Eric didn’t react much to Terry Semel’s refusal, saying: “In this case, Terry, then, another option is to increase the broadcast share to 30 cents, and then we can renegotiate the share every year. Price.”

Terry Semel shook his head again and said, “30 cents is too high, Eric, I just said that Lifetime TV is only worth 20 cents at most.”

Eric nodded noncommittally, He took a sip of the coffee in front of him and said, “If that’s the case, then let’s go here today, Terry, I’m not good at business negotiation. These things are generally handled by Jeffrey and the others. You can think about it when you go back. Then just send someone to contact the Firefly executives.”

After finishing speaking, Eric looked at his watch seriously and said, “It’s lunch time soon, you can try my apple pie later. I don’t usually like to eat this kind of sweets, but Joan did it well. Very good.”

Terry Semel’s face became a little ugly, and it was obvious that Eric was going to use procrastination again.

If it enters the formal business negotiation stage, it will not be resolved within ten days and a half months. Eric already knows the current situation of Time Warner like the back of his hand, and Lifetime TV can afford it. After all, Comcast Special, telecommunications, and many other small cable TV operators and satellite TV operators are actively introducing Lifetime TV. Lifetime has no shortage of channels, but Warner Cable is losing tens of thousands of users every day. It can’t be delayed any longer.

Terry Semel hesitated for a few minutes, Eric knew that he was considering the pros and cons, so he didn’t bother and waited patiently.

After a while, Terry Semel finally said again: “Okay, Eric, 25 cents, it can’t be higher.”

Eric shook his head and shrugged: “Terry, I only have two kinds here. The choice is actually 30 cents is not high, espn broadcast fee is 1.3 US dollars. Moreover, I actually recommend you to choose the first option, believe me, in the next few years, Lifetime TV show will definitely surprise everyone , by then, it is inevitable that it will become a regular TV station in all operators’ packages, and Time Warner can also enjoy the cheap share price for three years.”

Seeing that Terry Semel had no room for bargaining, he had to say: ” Eric, since that’s the case, I’ll give you an answer tomorrow.”

“Of course no problem,” Eric didn’t rush, he knew that Terry Semel’s situation in Time Warner in the last two years was not very good, so the whole person It has also become a little cautious, and even such small-scale cooperation must be discussed with the senior management of the group or the board of directors.

…

The next day, Eric received a call from Terry Semel, and Time Warner finally opted for the second option, increasing the broadcast share to 30 cents.

The formulation of the specific cooperation plan is of course the responsibility of the management, and Eric began to pay attention to the production of Lifetime TV in the following days.

At this point, no one mentioned the original $100 million budget plan, and it was clear to everyone that they wanted to increase the ratings of other Lifetime TV programs to equal the popularity of “America’s Model” and “Project Runway”. The level of investment of 100 million US dollars is not enough in any case.

The biggest concern of the Firefly Group and the Hearst Group is how to maintain the strong popularity brought by the two reality shows as much as possible.

Of course, the answer is also very simple, make or buy more quality TV shows.

“I have already communicated with the headquarters that Lifetime will be able to get the rights to broadcast three films that are very popular with women, including “Sleepless in Seattle”, “Ghosts” and “Pretty Woman”. “In the aBc headquarters office, Anne Sweeney reports to Eric on the latest work.

The box office of the three films reached hundreds of millions of dollars at the beginning. Even if it has been a few years, the price of a single broadcast right is maintained at more than one million dollars. Although they both belong to the Firefly Group, the finances between each part still need to be accounted for clearly. Yes, of course, Lifetime TV is sure to get a very good price.

Eric sat on the other side of the conference table, flipped through the memo that Anne Sweeney had submitted to him, and asked, “Then how do you plan to arrange their broadcast plan?

” Lifetime has won the right to broadcast six times in total. The regular prime time is 22 hours a week, but Lifetime TV is not strong enough to cover the whole time, so I plan to start the broadcast next spring, focusing on creating weekly Sunday to Thursday Two hours a day for five days, one hour a day for Friday and Saturday, a total of 12 hours of prime-time programming.”

Usually, only the traditional three major TV stations can complete the 22-hour prime-time program, even if it is the current one. Neither does Fox TV, which currently has only 18 hours of prime-time programming per week.

Eric was satisfied with Anne Sweeney’s programming plan, nodded, and asked, “Have you read the original book and the first two episodes of “Wanted City”?”

“Well,” Anne Sweeney asked.

Sweeney nodded.

“Then what do you think?”

Anne Sweeney thought about it and said, “Bold, avant-garde, fashionable, and a little woman’s delicate and cunning, I personally like this story very much, and I believe female audiences will also like it very much. Eric smiled and said:

”

That’s right, and, avant-garde and fashion, these two words can be used as the standard for future Lifetime TV production programs, although in the user survey process, we are now “American Model”. “The Contest” and “Project Runway” both have nearly 30% male viewers, but don’t think about broadening the audience of TV stations. TV stations of all ages, that’s a matter of the major public TV networks. What we want is precision Positioning, Lifetime TV must nail the audience to the fashionable female group with strong spending power between 18 and 34, and produce TV programs around women in this age group.”

Eric shook his head and shrugged: “Terry , I only have two options here. In fact, 30 cents is not high, and the broadcast fee of espn is 1.3 US dollars. Moreover, I actually recommend you to choose the first option. Believe me, in the next few years, Lifetime TV’s exhibition It will definitely surprise everyone, and it is inevitable that it will become a regular TV station in all operators’ packages, and Time Warner will also enjoy three years of cheap share prices.”

Terry Semel sees that there is no bargaining anymore. There was room for him to say, “Eric, since that’s the case, I’ll give you an answer tomorrow.”

“Of course no problem,” Eric didn’t rush. He knew that Terry Semel’s situation at Time Warner in the last two years was not a problem. How good, so the whole person has become a little cautious, even such small-scale cooperation has to be discussed with the senior management of the group or the board of directors.

…

The next day, Eric received a call from Terry Semel, and Time Warner finally opted for the second option, increasing the broadcast share to 30 cents.

The formulation of the specific cooperation plan is of course the responsibility of the management, and Eric began to pay attention to the production of Lifetime TV in the following days.

At this point, no one mentioned the original $100 million budget plan, and it was clear to everyone that they wanted to increase the ratings of other Lifetime TV programs to equal the popularity of “America’s Model” and “Project Runway”. The level of investment of 100 million US dollars is not enough in any case.

The biggest concern of the Firefly Group and the Hearst Group is how to maintain the strong popularity brought by the two reality shows as much as possible.

Of course, the answer is also very simple, make or buy more quality TV shows.

“I have already communicated with the headquarters that Lifetime will be able to get the rights to broadcast three films that are very popular with women, including “Sleepless in Seattle”, “Ghosts” and “Pretty Woman”. “In the aBc headquarters office, Anne Sweeney reports to Eric on the latest work.

The box office of the three films reached hundreds of millions of dollars at the beginning. Even if it has been a few years, the price of a single broadcast right is maintained at more than one million dollars. Although they both belong to the Firefly Group, the finances between each part still need to be accounted for clearly. Yes, of course, Lifetime TV is sure to get a very good price.

Eric sat on the other side of the conference table, flipped through the memo that Anne Sweeney had submitted to him, and asked, “Then how do you plan to arrange their broadcast plan?

” Lifetime has won the right to broadcast six times in total. The regular prime time is 22 hours a week, but Lifetime TV is not strong enough to cover the whole time, so I plan to start the broadcast next spring, focusing on creating weekly Sunday to Thursday Two hours a day for five days and one hour a day on Friday and Saturday for a total of 12 hours of primetime programming.”

Under normal circumstances, only the traditional three major TV stations can cover 22 hours of prime time per week. Even the current Fox TV station has not achieved this level. Fox’s weekly prime time programs There are currently only 18 hours.

Eric was satisfied with Anne Sweeney’s programming plan, nodded, and asked, “Have you read the original book and the first two episodes of “Wanted City”?”

“Well,” Anne Sweeney asked.

Sweeney nodded.

“Then what do you think?”

Anne Sweeney thought about it and said, “Bold, avant-garde, fashionable, and a little woman’s delicate and cunning, I personally like this story very much, and I believe female audiences will also like it very much. Eric smiled and said:

”

That’s right, and, avant-garde and fashion, these two words can be used as the standard for future Lifetime TV production programs, although in the user survey process, we are now “American Model”. “The Contest” and “Project Runway” both have nearly 30% male viewers, but don’t think about broadening the audience of TV stations. TV stations of all ages, that’s a matter of the major public TV networks. What we want is precision Positioning, Lifetime TV must nail its audience to the fashionable female group with strong spending power between the ages of 18 and 34, and produce TV programs around women in this age group.” (To be continued.)

[End of this Chapter]