"Hey, hey, hey, send someone to keep an eye on Sid!" Just as RB's colleagues followed Britney and the others to the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo, the sneering European and American reporters kept an eye on Sid and his party. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

But to their disappointment, Sid did not immediately follow Britney and the others to the Imperial Hotel, but drove to a new location in a black Bentley luxury car.

"What is this!?" The reporter who was driving behind suddenly found himself in front of a tall building in Tokyo, and the logo on the building was eye-catching and clear - SONY Group Headquarters!

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Sid followed the greeters at Sony's headquarters to the top floor of the building in a high-rise elevator.

"Mr. Leon, this way, please. Although the person who greeted Sony was an RB man, he could speak fluent English, and Sid learned after talking to him along the way that he was the backbone of the elite recruited when Sony's president, Nobuyuki Idei, founded the European branch.

"Mr. Leon, this is the president's office. Sid and the others stood in an ordinary-looking wooden doorway, and Sony's greeter said to him with a smile.

Then the other man pushed the door open, and Sid followed.

As soon as he entered the office, Sid saw a tall middle-aged RB man standing up from the lounge area, and he smiled energetically and said, "Welcome, Welcom, Mr. Sid Leon, welcome to Sony." "It's not who Nobuyuki is, the current CEO of Sony.

Nobuyuki Idei's English is actually quite fluent. Come to think of it, Sony's French and British divisions were originally created in the 90s under the leadership of Shinyuki Idei. This also made the communication between the two sides more comfortable and smooth than expected.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Idei. Sid, of course, shook hands warmly with the other party with a smile.

After the two sides were seated, Nobuyuki Idei, as the host, was the first to speak, "Mr. Leon, how do you feel when you first arrive at RB?"

"The scenery is beautiful, the streets are neat and the people are more welcoming than I thought. Sid's witty remark immediately made the other party smile.

"I'm so glad you like RB so much. With polite words on their lips, Nobuyuki Idei and Sid exchanged pleasantries for a moment before they got to the real point of the day.

"I wonder how the film project 'Harry Potter' between Fire Lion Pictures and Columbia Pictures is going?" asked Nobuyuki Idei with a smile on his face.

Sid smiled slightly, and said quietly: "It's going well, Howard (Stringer) has given us a lot of support in global distribution and publicity. Filming of the film will also begin in the second half of this year. ”

"Oh, that's good, I've always loved your novels and movies, Mr. Leon. When Nobuyuki Idei heard this, he immediately smiled and greeted Sid.

In fact, to be honest, for the Fire Lion Group, a small and medium-sized media group that only has a certain influence in North America and Europe, it is undoubtedly whimsical to want to be on an equal footing with a truly huge multinational group like Sony.

But now Sid visited R, but directly became the guest of honor of Sony's CEO, the reason is also very simple - with the acceleration of Sony's internationalization, the market outside RB is becoming more and more important to Sony, among which North America, which has the world's largest consumption power, is undoubtedly the most important market second to none.

And since Nobu Idei took office, his tendency to transform Sony from a hardware electronics company to a new media media company has become more and more obvious. The unprecedented success of the PS2 home console in Asia earlier this year not only put Sony's gaming division far ahead of Microsoft and Nintendo, but also strengthened Idei's dream of transformation.

If Sony wants to transform, it is inseparable from the conquest in the Hollywood market, but although Sony's North American division led by Columbia Pictures has finally escaped from the financial black hole created by Peter Cooper (former CEO of Columbia Pictures), the weakness of Columbia Pictures is well known to passers-by.

At this time, the cooperation with Fire Lion Pictures, which originally seemed inconspicuous two years ago, suddenly became extremely important. The reason is also very real - although Howard Stringer became chairman of Sony North America, he effectively stopped the bleeding and reduced the injuries of Sony North America, and even achieved growth and profitability in the fields of music and camera products.

But not only has Columbia Pictures failed in the past few years, but a series of quasi-A-grade investments (between $50 million and $100 million in cost) films have been almost wiped out, leaving Sony North America almost in a state where the money earned by other divisions adds up to make the film guys lose money.

On the other hand, since the establishment of Fire Lion Pictures, although the number of films shot and distributed, it is far from being comparable with the seven major studios. However, the films filmed and released by Fire Lion not only failed without failure, but almost all of them staged a "miracle" of small and large.

Such outstanding production capabilities and promotional methods that also lead North America are definitely the best among Hollywood's small and medium-sized studios, especially last year, with the brilliant results of "Youth Musical", Fire Lion reached a strategic cooperation with AMC Cinemas in one fell swoop. Not only did they catch up with Carllock Films in the '90s, but they also dwarfed the Big Three's DreamWorks like Spielberg.

Such a small and medium-sized media group, which has sprung up and has no backing, is almost a godsend partner for Sony. Although Sid was hated by Time Warner's arrogant merger and acquisition, the cruel words of "the fire lion will not die and will be sold to any stupid big company" have long been a public saying in Hollywood circles.

But Sony had no idea of acquiring it, so the cooperation with Fire Lion was an instant hit. Moreover, with the successive successes of Fire Lion TV and Fire Lion Records, Howard (Stringer) and Nobuyuki Idei saw another huge space for cooperation - to promote the cooperation with Fire Lion from the film department to other departments, especially the television field that Sony North America could not get involved in.

In North America, Sony was unable to set foot in the field of television because of its status as a foreign company, so the strong rise of Sony's gaming division made up for their shortcomings in the field of television on the one hand, and on the other hand, it also made them move the idea of expanding from game consoles to set-top boxes.

Although Sony cannot open a TV station in North America, as long as it can provide one-stop entertainment services to North American and even world audiences in a machine that integrates entertainment, film and television and other functions, then Sony will be able to circumvent the legal ban in North America and build an indestructible media empire of its dreams.

And in terms of TV business, in North America today, which TV station can be more popular than Fire Lion TV?