After all, the background of Lifetime TV station is still somewhat insufficient. Eric checked the program list of Lifetime TV station in the past year. In the whole year of 1994, Lifetime TV station only released 11 low-cost TV movies and a few soap operas that were repeatedly replayed during prime time at night. , and the programs at other time slots have nothing new.
However, since "America's Next Top Model" and "Project Runway" have made a good start and accumulated a lot of popularity, it is logical to continue to increase investment in programs.
"Terry, I admit that you are right, but this situation will soon become history. Since Lifetime TV can create "Project Runway" and "America's Next Top Model", then of course we can continue to produce more. Many very successful TV shows. Although the two reality shows will be finished before the New Year, Lifetime TV has decided to start the production of the second season of "America's Next Top Model". Don't worry about Lifetime's popularity."
After Eric finished speaking, he thought of Cindy again when Baba came here to play tricks in the morning, and felt a little funny.
Because of the broadcast cycle of "Project Runway", two seasons a year are temporarily hopeless. Therefore, Eric can only hope that Cindy can start the production of the second season of "America's Next Top Model" at the end of the year to maintain Lifetime TV. Just rising in 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 a year and take care of many other jobs.
Eric has been thinking about how to persuade Cindy in the past few days, and even planned to increase the girl's salary if necessary. Then, before this matter could be said, Cindy delivered it to her door.
Terry Semel didn't know what Eric was thinking, so he naturally took the sudden smile on his face as a must, hesitated for a moment, and said: "Eric, 20 cents, this is what Warner can do. The highest price ever offered."
Eric put away his smile, looked at Terry Semel, and said, "For 20 cents, no problem, Terry, but I have one condition?"
Terry Semel reached out and said, "Please speak."
"Lifetime TV can sign a three-year fixed share contract with Warner Cable, and the price is fixed at 20 cents. However, Warner Cable needs to carry Lifetime TV signals in all its cable TV packages."
"Eric, that's impossible," Terry Semel shook his head immediately.
In the plan, Warner Cable will provide part of the cable TV package equipped with Lifetime TV station for users who need it to choose after receiving the broadcast authorization. After all, the audience of Lifetime TV station is limited. At that time, the subscribers of Lifetime TV station under Warner Cable are expected to increase to about 6 million subscribers on the basis of the original user base, and at most it will not exceed the 15 million total subscribers of Warner Cable. half of.
But Eric's conditions at this time are ambitious and want to annex all the user resources of Warner Cable in one go. Regardless of the consideration, Terry Semel will not agree.
Eric didn't react too much to Terry Semel's refusal, and said: "In this case, Terry, 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 station is only worth 20 cents at most."
Eric nodded noncommittally, took a sip of the coffee in front of him, and said, "In this case, let's stop here today, Terry, I'm actually not good at business negotiations, and Jeffrey and the others are usually responsible for these things Yes, you can think about it when you go back, and then send someone to contact the high-level Firefly."
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 this kind of sweets, but Joan does it very well." very good."
Terry Semel's face became a little ugly, and it was obvious that Eric was going to use the procrastination tactic again. If it enters the stage of formal business negotiations, within ten days and a half months, this matter will not be resolved at all. Eric already knows the current situation of Time Warner well, and Lifetime TV can afford it. After all, Concas Special, long-distance communication, and many other small cable TV operators and satellite TV operators are actively introducing Lifetime TV stations. Lifetime has no shortage of channels, but Warner Cable is losing tens of thousands of subscribers every day. It was impossible to drag on 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, twenty-five cents, no more."
Eric shook his head, shrugged and said, "Terry, I only have two options here. In fact, 30 cents is not too high. ESPN's broadcast fee is 1.3 dollars. Moreover, I actually recommend that you choose the first option. Believe me, in the next few years, the development of Lifetime TV station will definitely surprise everyone. At that time, it is inevitable that it will become a regular TV station in all operator packages, and Time Warner can also enjoy three years of cheap sharing prices."
Seeing that there was no room for bargaining, Terry Semel had no choice but to say: "Eric, since this is the case, I will give you an answer tomorrow."
"Of course no problem," Eric did not urge, he knew that Terry Semel's situation in Time Warner was not very good in the past two years, so the whole person became a little cautious, even this small-scale cooperation It should 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 chose the second option, raising the broadcast share to 30 cents.
The formulation of the specific cooperation plan is of course the management's responsibility, and Eric began to pay attention to the production of Lifetime TV programs in the following days.
At this time, no one mentioned the original $100 million budget plan. Everyone knew that they wanted to increase the ratings of Lifetime's other time slot programs to the same level as "America's Next Top Model" and "Project Runway". At the same level, an investment of 100 million US dollars is not enough in any case.
The biggest concern of Firefly Group and 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 high-quality TV programs.
"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, "Sleepless in Seattle", "Sleepless" and "Pretty Woman", in the spring of next year. "In the ABC headquarters office, Anne Sweeney reported the latest work results to Eric.
The original box office of the three films reached hundreds of millions of dollars. Even after a few years, the price of a single broadcasting right has remained above one million dollars. Although they belong to the Firefly Group, the financial accounting between each part still needs to be clearly accounted for. Yes, of course, Lifetime TV will definitely get a very favorable price.
Eric sat on the other side of the conference table, flipping through the memo Anne Sweeney handed over to him, and asked, "Then how do you plan to play them?"
"As a prelude to promote our new drama next year, Lifetime has won a total of six broadcast rights. The regular prime time is 22 hours a week, but the strength of Lifetime TV station is not enough to cover the entire time period, so I plan to broadcast it in the spring of next year. At the beginning, focus on creating two hours a day for five days a week from Sunday to Thursday, and one hour a day on Friday and Saturday, for a total of 12 hours of prime-time programs.”
Under normal circumstances, only the three major traditional TV stations can complete the coverage of 22 hours of prime time per week, even the current Fox TV station has not achieved this level, and Fox's weekly prime time programs currently only have 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 "Sex and the City"?"
"Well," Anne Sweeney nodded.
"Then what do you think?"
Anne Sweeney thought for a while, and said: "Bold, avant-garde, fashionable, and some little women's delicacy and cunning, I personally like this story very much, and I believe female audiences 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 programs, although during the user survey process, we found that "America's Next Top Model" Both "The Big Game" and "Project Runway" have nearly 30% of the male audience, but you must not think about broadening the audience of the TV station. TV stations of all ages, that is the business of several major public TV networks. What we want is precision Positioning, Lifetime TV must focus on the audience of fashionable women between the ages of 18 and 34 with strong spending power, and produce TV programs around women in this age group."
Eric shook his head, shrugged and said, "Terry, I only have two options here. In fact, 30 cents is not too high. ESPN's broadcast fee is 1.3 dollars. Moreover, I actually recommend that you choose the first option. Believe me, in the next few years, the development of Lifetime TV station will definitely surprise everyone. At that time, it is inevitable that it will become a regular TV station in all operator packages, and Time Warner can also enjoy three years of cheap sharing prices."
Seeing that there was no room for bargaining, Terry Semel had no choice but to say: "Eric, since this is the case, I will give you an answer tomorrow."
"Of course no problem," Eric did not urge, he knew that Terry Semel's situation in Time Warner was not very good in the past two years, so the whole person became a little cautious, even this small-scale cooperation It should 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 chose the second option, raising the broadcast share to 30 cents.
The formulation of the specific cooperation plan is of course the management's responsibility, and Eric began to pay attention to the production of Lifetime TV programs in the following days.
At this time, no one mentioned the original $100 million budget plan. Everyone knew that they wanted to increase the ratings of Lifetime's other time slot programs to the same level as "America's Next Top Model" and "Project Runway". At the same level, an investment of 100 million US dollars is not enough in any case.
The biggest concern of Firefly Group and 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 high-quality TV programs.
"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, "Sleepless in Seattle", "Sleepless" and "Pretty Woman", in the spring of next year. "In the ABC headquarters office, Anne Sweeney reported the latest work results to Eric.
The original box office of the three films reached hundreds of millions of dollars. Even after a few years, the price of a single broadcasting right has remained above one million dollars. Although they belong to the Firefly Group, the financial accounting between each part still needs to be clearly accounted for. Yes, of course, Lifetime TV will definitely get a very favorable price.
Eric sat on the other side of the conference table, flipping through the memo Anne Sweeney handed over to him, and asked, "Then how do you plan to play them?"
"As a prelude to promote our new drama next year, Lifetime has won a total of six broadcast rights. The regular prime time is 22 hours a week, but the strength of Lifetime TV station is not enough to cover the entire time period, so I plan to broadcast it in the spring of next year. At the beginning, focus on creating two hours a day for five days a week from Sunday to Thursday, and one hour a day on Friday and Saturday, for a total of 12 hours of prime-time programs.”
Under normal circumstances, only the three major traditional TV stations can complete the coverage of 22 hours of prime time per week, even the current Fox TV station has not achieved this level, and Fox's weekly prime time programs currently only have 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 "Sex and the City"?"
"Well," Anne Sweeney nodded.
"Then what do you think?"
Anne Sweeney thought for a while, and said: "Bold, avant-garde, fashionable, and some little women's delicacy and cunning, I personally like this story very much, and I believe female audiences 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 programs, although during the user survey process, we found that "America's Next Top Model" Both "The Big Game" and "Project Runway" have nearly 30% of the male audience, but you must not think about broadening the audience of the TV station. TV stations of all ages, that is the business of several major public TV networks. What we want is precision Positioning, Lifetime TV must nail the audience to the fashion 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.)