In addition to a detailed comparison of the financial data of Firefly, Time Warner, and Viacom, Forbes also used the examples of the three giants of the telecommunications industry to make analogies to prove its own points. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

In 1996, AT-T, the first hegemon in the U.S. telecommunications industry, had an annual revenue of more than $74 billion, and Verizon and Sprint, the second and third largest companies, had a total annual revenue of only $30 billion, less than half of AT-T. Although the gap between Firefly's revenue data and Time Warner and Viacom was not as great as the gap between AT-T and Verizon and Sprint, it clearly showed this trend.

At the same time, Firefly also has many similarities with AT-T in terms of industrial layout.

AT-T itself is a diversified telecommunications industry giant, involving industries including fixed telephone, mobile communications, cable television, communication software and electronic products, etc., if a single analogy is a business, AT-T can not be far behind competitors even if it maintains a lead, but all industries combined, AT-T is far stronger than Verizon and Sprint competitors in the same industry. The same is true of the current situation of the Firefly Group, in its TV business, film and television entertainment and other sectors, Firefly compared with competitors in the same industry, the leading margin is not too large, but when these businesses are integrated into a whole, it shows the oligopoly momentum of dominating the media field.

Eric sat in the dining room, patiently read all the articles about himself and the fireflies in this issue of Forbes magazine, and came back to his senses, more than half an hour had passed.

Christina still sat quietly across from her, having finished her breakfast, and just looked at him curiously.

Looking at his watch, Eric smiled and said to Christina, "You still have a training today, right, I'll ask the driver to take you to Burbank." ”

Although Eric's expression seemed very relaxed, Christina did not forget the frequent frowning appearance when he just read Forbes magazine, she is a girl who is very good at observing words and feelings, although she doesn't quite understand why Eric has this reaction, but she also knows that he must not have much mind to deal with himself at this time, nodded very obediently, put away the dishes in front of her, and left the restaurant with Eric.

The two came to the outside of the villa together, the car was already parked at the door, and after a few words to the driver, Eric kissed Christina on the cheek and sent her into the car.

Back at the restaurant, Eric hurriedly finished his breakfast and took another car to the Burbank Firefly headquarters, and on the way he called the female assistant Kelly, asking her to pay attention to this issue of Forbes magazine.

The article published by Forbes magazine will definitely cause heated discussions in the media in the coming period, and after so many years in this circle, Eric also knows how serious the substantive impact of media opinion on some companies is, so he must prepare some plans in advance to deal with possible events.

Because it was Monday, since Eric arrived at the headquarters, he personally attended the group's weekly high-level meeting, and before that, most of the time, it was Kelly who attended on behalf of Eric, and then sorted out the meeting minutes and handed them to him for review.

In recent times, the company's focus has remained on the global distribution of Titanic.

However, the TV episodes in the spring file have all landed on its major TV stations so far, and Robert Iger, the head of the TV business in New York, introduced to everyone through a video call the ratings of the dramas broadcast on ABC TV Network, AE TV Network, Disney Channel and other TV platforms, ABC TV Network and Disney Channel's ratings have risen steadily, and last autumn ABC TV station watched the dark horse "Everyone Loves Raymond" After the winter break, it has returned again, and the highest number of viewers has exceeded 22 million.

Driven by iconic dramas such as "Lust City", "Flyover Pride", and "American Supermodel Contest", Lifetime TV continues to launch new high-quality dramas, continuing to eat away at the female audience market, compared with the original prime-time average of less than 1 million viewers, Lifetime TV under the excellent operation of Anne Sweeney, the average number of viewers of the 12-hour prime-time launched every week has reached 3.5 million, "Lust City" and other core drama ratings have touched the cable station's record-breaking 8 million viewers, which makes Lifetime TV the most popular new star in the national cable TV station in recent years.

Since the final topic also involved the distribution and publicity of this year's summer firefly films, the regular meeting was held until eleven o'clock.

When the meeting ends, everyone will inevitably mention the "Forbes" magazine just issued today, or congratulate Eric seriously or ridiculously, of course, there are also people who see the impact that Forbes magazine's related articles may have on the Firefly Group, and solemnly remind Eric.

As everyone left, Katzenberg and Wells stayed behind and went with Eric to a small conference room nearby.

After the secretary brought him coffee, Katzenberg dismissed him and said, "Eric, I called Steve Forbes in the morning, they shouldn't have used the word 'oligarch', but unfortunately we didn't anticipate this in advance." ”

Katzenberg is clearly well aware of the impact that Forbes magazine's article on the Firefly Group's 'rise of the media oligarchy' could have on the company.

From Katzenberg's obviously angry expression, Eric could even guess that the hot-tempered Katzenberg and Forbes head of Forbes Group must not have been so happy on the phone, and it is not impossible for the two sides to have a direct dispute.

In this country, the president will be scolded by the media twice in three days, although the Firefly Group has a very strong influence in the media industry, but after all, it is impossible to control everyone's public opinion.

Taking a sip of coffee, Katzenberg didn't wait for Eric and Frank Wells to speak, and continued: "I'm going to say hello to Robert in the afternoon and cut the advertising budget for all of Forbes' media platforms this summer. They can't do this kind of surprise attack just to get attention. ”

It seems that Katzenberg did argue with Steve Forbes in the morning, and it was quite intense.

Eric smiled and shook his head, and was about to say something, but Frank Wells had already persuaded: "Jeffrey, if you do this, we will really become the media oligarchy in the mouth of Forbes magazine, I don't think the situation is so serious, so it's better not to tear your face." ”

Frank has always been a 'good cop' within the group, and Katzenberg has a lot of respect for him, hearing Frank say this, Katzenberg also calmed down, knowing that his thoughts were a little radical and had too many personal emotions, so he nodded slightly and turned to look at Eric.

"We don't need to sever our cooperation completely, but we still have to show our attitude, and you can let Robert take care of that," Eric said to Katzenberg, and then asked Wells, "Frank, do you think we might be in real legal risk?"

Frank Wells, who was originally a lawyer, thought for a moment and said: "There is no risk for the group itself to continue to expand in the short term, after all, we are still far from the real industry oligarchs such as ExxonMobil, General Electric, and AT-T." However, if the company continues to grow in other areas in the next few years, such as the expansion into cable operators that you mentioned, then we will be subject to very strict antitrust scrutiny, and there is a very high probability of failure. ”

Eric had discussed this with management two years ago.

The decline of public television in North America and the rise of cable stations are inevitable trends in the future of the television industry. If you want to stay ahead of this megatrend, in addition to continuing to produce a large number of high-quality content, channel resources are also very important. While federal law does not prohibit media conglomerates from owning cable television platforms, Firefly is too strong to run into antitrust issues.

"Anyway, it's going to be a few years away," Eric said, after a pause, "let's focus on the problem at hand." ”

Frank Wells nodded, "We don't have legal problems in our film and television business, but there can be some trouble in the digital field, and when we announced a few months ago that we would stop cooperating with foreign countries in the digital field, there were some people who encouraged the Justice Department to investigate it, and now, if the topic provoked by Forbes magazine is too hot, some people are likely to bring it up again." ”

"So, what we need to do now is to avoid the 'oligarchs' topic being exploited, and preferably to divert the media's attention away from the company," Katzenberg looked at Eric and continued, "Eric, I have a suggestion that maybe we can think about. ”

Eric nodded, motioning for Katzenberg to continue.

"I mean, let the media focus more on you. ”

Eric spread his hands and said, "Of course I don't mind if it helps, but do you think the company might be ignored when it comes to my topic?"

"So, we're going to artificially create a focal point," Katzenberg said, tapping on a copy of Forbes magazine on his desk and adding, "$98.7 billion, which is $60 billion more than Bill Gates, which is very difficult for most people to accept." Before Forbes was released, I had seen articles in many media outlets questioning whether you had so much net worth, so now we can stir up this controversy and divert the attention of the media and the public. ”

Frank Wells patted the table next to him and nodded in agreement, "Eric, this is a very good method. ”

Eric thought about it for a moment, and thought it was a very feasible solution. Forbes' statistics on his personal net worth of $98.7 billion can certainly attract a lot of attention, but at the same time, it will also raise a lot of questions, after all, people are always reluctant to believe in miracles.

The three of them discussed the detailed plan, and Eric called Kelly over at the end, and after lunch, Katzenberg and Frank went back to continue their work, and Eric personally directed the implementation of the established plan.

In this era, it is unlikely to find a large-scale water army if you want to attract Yulun, but Katzenberg's words when discussing the response plan also reminded Eric, before the publication of this issue of Forbes magazine, many people questioned Eric's personal net worth, so after the data of Forbes magazine far exceeded that of major financial media, this group of people will definitely be more skeptical.

What Eric has to do is get these people to have their voices heard in the media as much as possible.

The efficiency of the assistant's office is still very high, just after two o'clock in the afternoon, Kelly handed over a list of 45 people collected to Eric, all of whom are well-known financial media reporters or commentators, and they have all recently published articles questioning Eric's net worth.

Looking at Eric, who was looking through the folders, Kelly, who was sitting opposite, whispered, "We probably consulted about three hundred different newspapers and magazines, and this group of people has the greatest influence among them. If they can unify their voices in the media for a period of time in the future, it will definitely have a very large impact and cause more media platforms to follow up. In addition, we have listed the media platforms owned by News Corp., Hearst Group, and Condé Nast that are more suitable for publishing relevant articles, but these may require you to greet them in person before they will cooperate. On Yahoo's side, I've already spoken to Tina, and she'll be sending out requests for drafts to the list we have provided in the afternoon. ”

Eric read the general information of these people, called up an address book on the computer screen on his desktop, and joked to Kelly as he dialed the number, "Wouldn't these people be devastated if they knew that they were secretly being used as pawns by the people they questioned and opposed?"

Kelly smiled and saw that Eric had already answered the phone, so she didn't speak.

On the other side of the desk, Eric leaned lazily back in his chair with a pencil in his hand, and leisurely crossed his legs on the table, and an eager voice came from the microphone: "Hey, William, it's me, Eric, how are you doing...... Haha, of course, oh, you're at Saint-Simon's Castle right now, and I've wanted to see that place for a long time, but unfortunately you never invited me...... Probably not lately, it's too busy, but you can come to Los Angeles. ”

After a few idle words with William III, the current head of the Hearst Group, it was not until the other party took the initiative to ask that Eric got to the point: "Of course, it's just a small matter, and I hope that a few daily newspapers over there can invite some people to write a few special articles in the coming week." ”

Due to the joint ownership of AE Television Network and ESPN Television, Hearst Group has always had a very strong relationship with Firefly. Eric briefly explained, and William Hearst III immediately agreed, as the head of the world's largest print media group, William Hearst III certainly knew Eric's purpose for doing this, and after agreeing, he couldn't help but tease Eric on the phone.

Noting down the phone number of one of the top Hearst Group executives given by William Hirst III, Eric pressed the AFK button and dialed Murdoch's private number. While greeting Elizabeth would have worked, it was more efficient to contact Murdoch directly.

After making several phone calls in a row, Eric sat up straight, handed the list full of contact information in front of him to Kelly, and said, "Now, contact these people, you can talk to them directly about the specific implementation plan, and they will cooperate with you." (To be continued.) )