Chapter 749

After all, the background of Lifetime TV is still somewhat lacking, Eric checked the broadcast list of Lifetime TV in the past year, and in the whole of 1994, Lifetime TV released only 11 low-budget TV movies and a few soap operas that were repeatedly rerun in the evening primetime time, and there was nothing new in the other time slots.

However, since "American Supermodel Contest" and "Flyover Pride" have taken a good start and accumulated a lot of popularity, it is logical to continue to increase the investment in the show.

"Terry, I'll admit you're right, but that's going to be a thing of the past very quickly, and if Lifetime can make 'Flyover' and 'America's Top Model,' we can certainly continue to produce more highly successful TV shows. While the two reality shows will be largely finished airing by the New Year, Lifetime has decided to kick off production on the second season of America's Top Model Contest, which will be available tomorrow spring, so you don't have to worry about Lifetime TV's popularity. ”

After Eric finished speaking, he remembered again that Cindy had come running around in the morning to play a little funny.

Because of the broadcast cycle, there is no hope for two seasons a year for the time being, so Eric can only hope that Cindy can start the production of the second season of "America's Top Model Competition" at the end of the year to maintain the fledgling popularity of Lifetime TV.

However, although there are many workaholics around him, Cindy and Linda, two big beauties, are obviously not. Two seasons of the show are produced a year. There's a lot of work to be done. It must be very tiring.

Eric has been thinking about how to convince Cindy in the last few days, and even plans to increase the girl's salary if necessary, and then, before she can say anything, Cindy sends it to the door herself.

Terry Semel didn't know what Eric was thinking, so he naturally hesitated for a moment when the smile that suddenly appeared on his face was determined to win. "Eric, 20 cents, that's the highest price Warner can offer." ”

Eric put away his smile, looked at Terry Semel, and said, "20 cents, no problem, Terry, but I have one condition?" ”

Terry Semel stretched out his hand and said, "Please." ”

"Lifetime TV can sign a fixed-share contract with Warner Cable for three years at a fixed price of 20 cents. However, Warner Cable needs to be fully equipped with Lifetime signals in all of its cable packages. ”

"Eric. It can't be," Terry Semel shook his head at once.

Planned. With the broadcast license, Warner Cable will provide some cable TV packages equipped with Lifetime TV for users to choose from. Lifetime TV has a limited audience after all, and when the time comes, the subscribers of Lifetime TV, a subsidiary of Warner Cable, are expected to increase the total subscription number to about 6 million on the basis of the original user base, and at most it will not exceed half of Warner Cable's total subscribers of 15 million.

But Eric's conditions at this time are ambitious to swallow up all the user resources of Warner Cable in one go, and Terry Semel will not agree to it for whatever reason.

Eric didn't react much to Terry Semel's refusal, saying, "In that case, Terry, then, the other option, raise the broadcast share to 30 cents, and then we can renegotiate the share price every year." ”

Terry Semel shook his head again and said, "30 cents is too much, Eric, as I said earlier, Lifetime TV is only worth 20 cents at most." ”

Eric nodded noncommittally, took a sip of the coffee in front of him, and said, "In that case, let's stop here today, Terry, in fact, I'm not good at business negotiations, these things are generally Jeffrey's responsibility, you can think about it when you go back, and then send someone to contact the firefly high-level." ”

After saying that, Eric looked at his watch and said, "It's lunchtime soon, you can try my apple pie later, I don't usually like this kind of sweet, but Joan is doing very well." ”

Terry Semele's face turned a little ugly, and it was clear that Eric was going to use procrastination again. If it enters the formal business negotiation stage, there are not ten days and half a month, this matter will not be solved at all, Eric this is already well aware of the current situation of Time Warner, Lifetime TV can afford to drag on, after all, Comcast, remote communications and many other small cable operators, satellite TV operators, are actively introducing Lifetime TV station, Lifetime has no shortage of channels at all, but Warner Cable is now losing tens of thousands of users every day, it is simply impossible to drag it out any longer.

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

After a while, Terry Semel finally spoke again, "Okay, Eric, 25 cents, it can't be any higher." ”

Eric shook his head and shrugged, "Terry, I only have two options here, in fact, 30 cents is not too much, and ESPN's broadcast fee is 1.3 dollars." And, I actually recommend that you choose the first option, believe me, in the next few years, the development of Lifetime TV will definitely surprise everyone, and when the time comes, it is inevitable that it will become a regular TV station in all operators' packages, and Time Warner can also enjoy a cheap share price for three years. ”

Seeing that there was no room for bargaining, Terry Semel had no choice but to say, "Eric, in that case, I'll give you an answer tomorrow." ”

"Of course, no problem," Eric didn't urge, knowing that Terry Semel's situation at Time Warner had not been very good in the last two years, so he became a little cautious, and even this kind of small-scale cooperation had to be discussed with the group's top management or the board of directors.

……

The next day, Eric received a call from Terry Semel, and Time Warner eventually chose the second option. Increase the broadcast share to 30 cents.

The development of specific cooperation programmes is, of course, the responsibility of the management. In the days that followed, Eric began to focus on the production of Lifetime TV programs.

At this time. No one ever mentioned the original $100 million budget plan, and it was clear to anyone that $100 million would not be enough to raise the ratings of the rest of Lifetime to the same level as "America's Top Model" and "Flyover."

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

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

"I have already communicated with the headquarters that Lifetime can get the rights to broadcast three very popular movies for women, "Sleepless in Seattle", "Ghost Love" and "Pretty Woman" next spring." In the ABC headquarters office, Anne Sweeney reports to Eric on the results of her recent work.

The box office of the three films reached hundreds of millions of dollars, even after a few years, the price of a single broadcast right has been maintained at more than one million dollars, although they both belong to the Firefly Group, but the finances between the various parts still have to be accounted for, of course, Lifetime TV will definitely get a very favorable price.

Eric sat on the other side of the table, flipped through the memo Anne Sweeney had handed him, and asked, "And how are you going to schedule them?" ”

As a preamble. To promote our new drama for next year, Lifetime has received a total of six broadcast rights. The regular prime time is 22 hours per week. However, Lifetime TV is not strong enough to cover the entire time slot, so I plan to start next spring and focus on creating a two-hour prime-time program for five days a week, Sunday to Thursday, and one hour a day on Friday and Saturday, for a total of 12 hours. ”

Normally, only the traditional three major broadcasters are able to cover 22 hours of primetime per week, and even the current Fox TV station does not achieve this level, which currently only has 18 hours of primetime programming per week.

Satisfied with Anne Sweeney's programming plan, Eric nodded and asked, "Have you read the original book and the first two episodes of "Lust City"? ”

"Yes," Anne Sweeney nodded.

"And what do you think?"

Anne Sweeney thought for a moment and said, "Bold, avant-garde, fashionable, and some little women's delicacy and cunning, I personally like this story very much, and I believe that female audiences also like it very much." ”

Eric smiled and said, "That's right, and the words avant-garde and fashion, these two words can be used as the standard for the production of programs on Lifetime TV in the future, although in the process of user research, we found that "American Top Model" and "Flyover" both have nearly 30% male viewers, but you must not think about expanding the audience of TV stations." Television stations for all ages, that's a matter of the major public television networks. What we want is precise positioning, and Lifetime TV must nail the audience to the group of fashionable women between the ages of 18 and 34 who have strong spending power, and produce TV shows 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 too much, and ESPN's broadcast fee is 1.3 dollars." And, I actually recommend that you choose the first option, believe me, in the next few years, the development of Lifetime TV will definitely surprise everyone, and when the time comes, it is inevitable that it will become a regular TV station in all operators' packages, and Time Warner can also enjoy a cheap share price for three years. ”

Seeing that there was no room for bargaining, Terry Semel had no choice but to say, "Eric, in that case, I'll give you an answer tomorrow." ”

"Of course, no problem," Eric didn't urge, knowing that Terry Semel's situation at Time Warner had not been very good in the last two years, so he became a little cautious, and even this kind of small-scale cooperation had to be discussed with the group's top management or the board of directors.

……

The next day, Eric received a call from Terry Semele, and Time Warner eventually chose the second option, increasing the broadcast share to 30 cents.

Of course, the development of the specific cooperation plan was the responsibility of the management, and Eric began to focus on the production of the Lifetime TV program in the following days.

At this point, no one mentioned the original $100 million budget plan, and it was clear to anyone that $100 million would not be enough to raise the ratings of the rest of Lifetime TV to the same level of popularity as "America's Top Model" and "Flyover."

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

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

"I've already communicated with the headquarters that Lifetime will be able to get the rights to three very popular women's films, 'Sleepless in Seattle,' 'Ghost Love' and 'Pretty Woman' next spring," Anne Sweeney reported to Eric in the ABC headquarters office.

The box office of the three films reached hundreds of millions of dollars, even after a few years, the price of a single broadcast right has been maintained at more than one million dollars, although they both belong to the Firefly Group, but the finances between the various parts still have to be accounted for, of course, Lifetime TV will definitely get a very favorable price.

Eric sat on the other side of the table, flipped through the memo Anne Sweeney had handed him, and asked, "And how are you going to schedule them?" ”

"As a prelude to promote our new show next year, Lifetime has received a total of six broadcast rights. The regular primetime program is 22 hours a week, but Lifetime TV is not strong enough to cover the entire time, so I plan to focus on creating a prime-time program of two hours a day from Sunday to Thursday and one hour a day on Friday and Saturday starting next spring. ”

Normally, only the traditional three major broadcasters are able to cover 22 hours of primetime per week, and even the current Fox TV station does not achieve this level, which currently only has 18 hours of primetime programming per week.

Satisfied with Anne Sweeney's programming plan, Eric nodded and asked, "Have you read the original book and the first two episodes of "Lust City"? ”

"Yes," Anne Sweeney nodded.

"And what do you think?"

Anne Sweeney thought for a moment and said, "Bold, avant-garde, fashionable, and some little women's delicacy and cunning, I personally like this story very much, and I believe that female audiences also like it very much." ”

Eric smiled and said, "That's right, and the words avant-garde and fashion, these two words can be used as the standard for the production of programs on Lifetime TV in the future, although in the process of user research, we found that "American Top Model" and "Flyover" both have nearly 30% male viewers, but you must not think about expanding the audience of TV stations." Television stations for all ages, that's a matter of the major public television networks. What we want is precise positioning, and Lifetime TV must nail the audience to the group of fashionable women between the ages of 18 and 34 who have strong spending power, and produce TV shows around women in this age group. (To be continued.) )