My dad doesn't understand what I'm trying to do, but that's not important; as long as he fully supports me, that's enough.
He'll understand once the initial results start to show.
At the same time, Eric couldn't help but sigh, feeling truly lucky to have such a good father.
In Harry Cooper's eyes, as long as his son wanted to do something, even if it seemed absurd, he was still willing to try.
The model Eric spoke of was, of course, Netflix; in China, there were also Youku, Tudou, Tencent Video, and similar platforms.
Although Netflix had been established for several years, the company was still in the video rental business, competing with Blockbuster for market share, and couldn't spare attention for anything else.
The limitations of the era meant it hadn't yet realized the importance of streaming platforms.
Well, then, apologies, but I'm going to seize the initiative.
As for investing in Netflix or acquiring Netflix, first, they certainly wouldn't agree to an acquisition, especially since Blockbuster was in retreat and Netflix was in a great position.
If it's about investing, I might as well do it myself; how can someone else's compare to my own?
However, just as my dad worried, if I really create this platform, it will inevitably be seen as a thorn in the side by all major TV stations.
It's imaginable that they would absolutely not authorize any films or TV shows to me, and then MGM would face a situation where only its own film library could be used.
To break this deadlock, we can only continuously output high-quality content and increase user stickiness through excellent works and price wars.
At the same time, Eric also needs to develop two mutually supportive wing companies: Facebook and YouTube.
Neither of these companies exists yet, making it a good time to acquire them.
The former will provide strong social media support and traffic, while the latter can be used for secondary creation and promotion of MGM's new works.
Once accounts are interoperable, it will form a tripartite structure.
Later, it could be supplemented with a chat software similar to WeChat or QQ for support, but this area is difficult due to Microsoft's MSN and Google.
If I want to venture into that, I'll have to wait until the overall situation is stable; otherwise, Google and Microsoft could easily hamstring me with technical support, and I'd be forced to kneel.
Then there's Twitter; its style is different from these three, and even if created, it wouldn't immediately provide mutual support, so it can be put aside for a while.
On March 10th, Eric flew to Oregon to check on the "transformers" film crew; everything was progressing normally, and Patty Jenkins was a very reliable executor.
He also visited Weta Digital on-site to check the progress of the special effects, which was not slow, with more than a third already completed.
The person in charge told him that over half of the company's machines were working on "transformers," and even Peter Jackson's "the lord of the rings: the return of the king" had its space compressed.
Eric knew the other party was certainly lying, but he still expressed his gratitude.
It should be known that "the lord of the rings" trilogy was launched simultaneously, and even if the progress varied, it was probably in its final stages now.
Not everyone knows the plot as well as I do; the big beard wouldn't fight an unprepared battle.
On the film front, the script for "get out" has been completed, and Leigh Whannell specifically ran to Eric's house for him to review it.
The two then holed up in the study and revised the script for an entire day, with the script largely finalized.
After that, it's about finding a script doctor to add jokes that only the black community would tell, and to include some racial humor.
Neither Eric nor Leigh Whannell are proficient in this area, so a black screenwriter must be found to make it work; casting for the film is expected to begin in half a month.
Over at AK Films, the script for "the purge" has been completed; Eric didn't even look at it and just told them to start filming, with a budget set at 4 million US dollars.
The director chosen was not James DeMonaco from the original timeline; Eric learned that this guy was currently only a screenwriter, and although he had been in the industry for a while, he had no independent production experience and couldn't handle the responsibility of directing.
This position ultimately fell to Anthony Ferrante, the director of "sharknado."
His work for this year has been confirmed: filming "the purge" in the first half of the year and "sharknado 2" in the second half, gradually binding him closely with AK Films.
Additionally, AK Films' knock-off movies, "Saw Elf" and "Dragonfly Man," have also sold their copyrights, both to local TV stations.
"Saw Elf" was sold to 42 stations, and "Dragonfly Man" to 61 stations, generating a total profit of approximately 4.8 million US dollars.
The total cost for the two knock-off movies was only 1.5 million US dollars, with no marketing, resulting in a gross profit of 3.3 million US dollars.
Furthermore, as a small company, there were tax incentives and subsidy policies, so in reality, only about 100,000 US dollars in tax needed to be paid on that 3.3 million US dollars.
Even after deducting operational costs like utilities and labor, the net profit would still be approximately between 2.9 million and 3 million US dollars.
And how long does it take to shoot a movie of this type?
The answer is about a month; if fast, it can be done in half a month or twenty days, but the already crude quality would become even worse.
Eric's target for AK Films is to shoot no less than 20 films a year, with no upper limit.
As long as it can piggyback on the traffic of popular films and TV shows, then shoot fiercely.
As for DVDs and merchandise, these knock-off films shouldn't even think about it; only films of the caliber of "sharknado" can enjoy such treatment.
As of now, about 240,000 sets of "sharknado" videotapes have been sold, and this number continues to grow.
Wednesday, MGM Building, Eric's office.
As the head of the marketing department, Volvo's efficiency was as high as ever; I set Friday as the deadline, but he always managed to finish early.
Volvo handed over the report.
"During this time, we visited all major cable stations and completed internal screenings, and all TV stations reacted very well.
"They all praised it, saying it was a groundbreaking TV series, everyone was generous with their compliments, and every TV station wanted to acquire it," Volvo said with a smile, recounting his experiences of the past few days.
He used to be just a manager at a small film company, and this was the first time in his life he had experienced such glory.
Eric asked Volvo to sit down and carefully reviewed the report.
First, AMC, the broadcaster of "the walking dead" in the original timeline, offered a price of 4 million US dollars per episode for the first three episodes, with subsequent episodes determined by viewership ratings.
Viewership ratings are calculated based on cable TV standards, using the 18-49 age range, with 4% as the baseline.
For every 5 percentage point increase, the price of each subsequent episode increases by 1 million US dollars, with no upper limit.
Regarding broadcast time, AMC was willing to air it during the semi-prime time slot, which is between 7 PM and 8 PM.
If the results are good, it will be adjusted to the prime time slot.
After reviewing the agreement offered by AMC, Eric felt it was just barely acceptable, not meeting his expectations.
Although the viewership-based algorithm is relatively fair, and the 18-49 age range is acceptable, a 4% baseline is not a low starting point.
Based on 2002 data, the total household population in the United States was about 900 million, with approximately 97 million households, of which about 85 million households, or about 500 million people, subscribed to cable channels.
Among these, the total population aged 18-49 was about 1.5 billion people, and the total population aged 18-49 who subscribed to cable channels was about 95 million people.
And 4% of 95 million people is 3.8 million people.
That is to say, when "the walking dead" airs, at least 3.8 million people must watch it simultaneously during the same time slot to meet the basic standard.
And to move up a notch, the viewership rating needs to increase by 5%.
To rephrase, when the viewership rating reaches 5%, with 4.27 million people watching simultaneously, subsequent episodes of "the walking dead" could fetch a price of 5 million US dollars per episode.
When the viewership rating reaches 5%, with 4.75 million people watching simultaneously, subsequent episodes of "the walking dead" could fetch a price of 6 million US dollars per episode.
This data might confuse many people: why is the 18-49 age group used as the statistical standard? Can't all age groups be used?
The answer is no, because it relates to advertising placements; in the eyes of advertisers, the 18-49 age group has the most consumption potential.
Businesses will invest high advertising fees for this age group; as for other age groups, a 50% cut is light, and a direct cut to 30% is very normal.
And some people might wonder, aren't cable stations not selling ads but living off paid subscriptions?
However, this understanding is not entirely comprehensive; accurately speaking, cable stations are divided into two types: basic and premium.
Basic cable stations still sell ads, and AMC belongs to a basic cable station, so even if users pay a subscription fee, it will still intersperse commercials.
The trade-off is that the subscription fee is lower than premium cable stations; in 2003, subscribing to the AMC channel cost 99 cents per month.
Premium cable stations, on the other hand, are purely content-based, with no commercials whatsoever, but their subscription fees are more expensive.
HBO, FX, Starz, etc., all belong to premium cable stations.
Taking HBO, the strongest with the most paying subscribers, as an example, subscribing to it in 2003 cost 99 US dollars per month.
The difference between the two is 4 dollars, which accounts for the advertising fees.
Furthermore, in the United States, subscribing to cable channels is not as simple as many Chinese people might think.
In China in 2003, CCTV-1 was almost universally available nationwide, similar to public television stations like ABC, CBS, and NBC.
However, without installing a satellite signal receiver, commonly known as a 'big pot' device, relying solely on an antenna would typically only receive CCTV-1 and some local channels within the province; watching channels from other provinces was almost impossible.
This 'big pot' was what many people in China at the time referred to as cable TV or cable channels; the entire process only required a one-time payment, regardless of whether you obtained the set-top box through legitimate or illegal channels.
However, in the media-developed United States, this was not the case at all; by 2003, there were already over a hundred cable channels in the US.
And for viewers, to watch a certain channel, you had to pay for that channel; if you wanted to watch shows on both AMC and HBO simultaneously, you had to subscribe to both.
If you also wanted to watch works from FX and Starz, you would have to continue paying for subscriptions.
Well-known cable stations each have their unique strengths, compelling viewers to pay for their desires.
But the average family cannot subscribe to all channels; they will only choose a few that they prefer.
Therefore, among the 85 million households subscribed to cable TV, the weight held by each station is not the same.
The strongest, HBO, released data in 2002, having already surpassed the 40 million subscriber mark.
AMC had around 25 million households, Starz around 22 million, Showtime around 20 million, and FX around 28 million.
At the same time, a viewer subscribing to your channel does not mean they will watch all programs on that channel; they might only watch one or two.
Any show on a cable station that can achieve a 5% viewership rating is rare.
Once this logic is understood, looking at the agreement offered by AMC, it becomes clear why Eric wasn't too satisfied.
He continued to flip through the report; FX's conditions were stronger than AMC's, and Showtime's were significantly stronger than AMC's, proving that premium cable stations indeed have a better eye for quality.
The best conditions were offered by HBO and Starz.
The former was willing to buy the entire season for 8 million US dollars per episode; if, after the season ends, it brings HBO over 3 million new subscribers, HBO is willing to pay MGM an additional 10 million US dollars.
This means that if the goal is met, HBO would spend a total of 106 million US dollars to purchase the first season of "the walking dead" from MGM.
Although the price is not as high as the 200 million US dollars for "band of brothers," that was, after all, a work by the great director Spielberg, with many stars involved; "the walking dead" is far behind in this regard.
Starz offered 7 million US dollars per episode, and if, after the season finale, it could bring the channel over 5 million new subscribers, Starz was willing to make up the difference of 3 million US dollars per episode, totaling 200 million US dollars, exactly matching "band of brothers."
Looking at the intentions of the two TV stations, Eric was also hesitant; he looked at Volvo and asked, "What do you think? Tell me your opinion."
Knowing that the boss would ask this question, Volvo had obviously done his research.
"I personally lean towards cooperating with Starz."
"Reason."
Volvo organized his thoughts and said, "By choosing them, we can earn an additional 14 million US dollars, and I think that's the biggest reason. As for the condition of attracting 5 million new subscribers, I don't think that's a problem."
"Starz currently has only 22 million subscribers, ranking second to last in market share among the major cable giants. In fact, everyone knows that the smaller the base number, the easier it is to increase."
"Many TV stations fail to develop not because of funding, but often because they lack good creative ideas, which is the core issue."
"Starz is like that; it just lacks a breakout hit show. When that show appears, it's easy to boost subscriptions by stealing from other channels."
"In contrast, with HBO's current scale, I don't think 3 million new subscribers is simple, even 'band of brothers' only attracted a little over 3 million new users in the end."
"That was back in 2001, and as HBO develops, that number will only become increasingly difficult to achieve."
Volvo finished speaking and looked at Eric, then heard an unbelievable decision from the latter.
"Choose HBO; prepare to sign the agreement."
Volvo seemed not to have understood, opening his mouth to ask, but apparently felt that questioning the boss's decision was not what a qualified subordinate should do, and Eric's decisions had always been correct.
Seeing his astonished look, Eric didn't explain much, waving his hand to dismiss Volvo; he had his own considerations.
Once MGM's own video website is established, it will definitely need to create hit programs to attract viewers.
According to MGM's current filming schedule, even if "transformers" goes on the platform, it will have to wait until next year, so "the walking dead" can undoubtedly serve as this year's hit.
Since it's a hit, it must be known to more people, and HBO's user base is clearly larger than Starz's, giving it a stronger advantage.
For the sake of the future, giving up that 14 million US dollars is not out of the question.
After all, once the video platform is stable, the entire DVD business will be significantly affected, and cutting into that meat will hurt even more.