Top of the Great Era

Chapter 2972 ​​Closed Ecosystem

The decline of the television industry has become an industry trend.

  How to deal with it?

For some giants in the television industry, transformation is too difficult. All their assets and employees are in the television industry. They can't transform even if they want to, and can only struggle to survive. Even if the company leaders know that the future is uncertain, they can only patch things up and rack their brains to find ways to persevere.

The approach taken is to further strengthen the monopoly to form a closed ecosystem.

The television industry in the United States has become a highly concentrated industry.

Comcast, the largest TV giant, has a market share of nearly 30%.

The top four TV operators together account for more than 90% of the market share.

But this is not enough.

Under the general trend, this kind of fragmented monopoly in the industry is no longer sufficient. There must be further industrial integration to achieve a more comprehensive monopoly, which will allow the company to survive in the long run.

This requires political lobbying.

The company needs to find relevant legislators, lawyers and professionals to put forward opinions and explain the situation, so that the relevant regulatory authorities can understand the development difficulties currently faced by the television industry and thus give the green light and relax restrictions.

The purpose is to integrate the TV operator, platform and content providers into one!

It is equivalent to being both a referee and an athlete. Only in this way can we minimize the intermediate costs, increase revenue and reduce expenditure, improve efficiency, and allow both operators and content providers to survive well.

The so-called content providers include Universal Pictures, MGM, and Sony Pictures.

Engaged in content production for film and television dramas.

After the content is produced, it will be broadcast on a TV station, and this TV station is the platform.

  But how can television stations reach thousands of households?

This requires an operator, who has a team that needs to lay cables, and then install antennas, signal lines, set-top boxes, and even launch satellites to provide satellite TV services.

The current American television industry allows content providers and platform providers to merge into one.

For example, HBO produces its own TV series and broadcasts them on its own TV stations. However, it cannot provide the operation services itself, but must hand them over to other companies to avoid a comprehensive monopoly in the upstream and downstream.

Among the Hollywood giants, except for Ziweixing Global, all of them have powerful television business behind them, such as Disney's ESPN Sports Channel and ABC Television Network, 20th Century Fox's Fox Television Network, Time Warner's CNN, Turner Television and HBO, and Viacom Television Network and CBS Television Network behind Paramount.

This integration model was basically completed in the 90s.

At that time, the television industry was too strong and the film industry became weak.

If Hollywood wants to develop internationally, it must have stronger strength and backing, so the authorities relaxed regulations and allowed the "content + platform" two-in-one monopoly. The six modern Hollywood giants took shape during that period, resulting in Hollywood sweeping the world and slaughtering the overseas film industry. European films, which had previously competed with Hollywood, completely lost their position.

It also brought back negative effects. Independent film companies in Hollywood found it difficult to survive due to market monopoly, and the diversity and innovation of Hollywood declined significantly.

Now, the television industry has become weaker.

There must be new adjustments in anti-monopoly policies. The two-in-one strategy is not enough. Operators must also be allowed to join in to complete the three-in-one monopoly of "operator + platform + content provider"!

The policy restrictions that need to be broken through are too great.

This is equivalent to the merger of China Mobile and Ziweixing in the Internet industry. How terrifying is this? This business monopoly can be described as terrifying.

However, whether it can be truly realized requires a game of chess between the two sides.

Regulatory authorities may not approve it.

The three-in-one monopoly model is really scary.

The main reason why Zhou Buqi came to Los Angeles this time was because of this matter.

Recently, there was a super big news in Hollywood - Comcast is going to acquire Time Warner!

Affected by this big news, the share price of Ziweixing Global fell from 38.7 US dollars to 32.2 US dollars within a month, and the market value shrank from 1800 billion US dollars to 1500 billion US dollars. This is because the market believes that the relaxation of regulatory policies and the birth of new industry giants will have a huge impact on Ziweixing Global, the current entertainment industry's largest giant.

Zhou Buqi asked: "Comcast is going to acquire Time Warner, is this true?"

Jason Kilar nodded. "Yes, really. We have already made several contacts. Now, two acquirers are bidding."

"Two?" Zhou Buqi was a little surprised, "Comcast has a rival?"

Kilar smiled and said, "It's also a big deal. It's another TV service provider, Charter Communications. Both companies have already made contact with Time Warner, so I guess there will be some struggle. Many people in the company are worried." "Worried?"

Zhou Buqi shook his head. He was not worried at all.

Kilar smiled and said, "Yes, they are very worried. They are worried that once the operator giant merges with Time Warner, it will have a serious impact on our own business."

Comcast is the largest television operator in the United States, and Charter Communications is the fourth largest television operator in the United States.

As the television industry declines and its scale shrinks year by year, they have to find new ways out, and they all set their sights on Time Warner, whose asset value is severely underestimated.

Zhou Buqi didn't take it seriously and said calmly, "Technology is the main theme of this era. What's TV? Even if they monopolize the TV industry 100%, they can't change the general trend of the world. The scale of the TV industry will only decrease year by year."

Kilar is a tech person himself, so he certainly understands this. He smiled and said, "I see it this way too. Televisions can exist, but the television industry will definitely disappear. Many families use their televisions to watch streaming content. Many families have given up on renewing their TV channels. But some people in Hollywood don't seem to recognize the magic of the Internet."

Zhou Buqi said: "So, if it rises to the strategic level of the company, filmmakers are unreliable. Those Hollywood filmmakers, no matter how impressive their performance is, can't be fully trusted. Just let them make good movies and TV series. Ziweixing Global's strategic decisions and the most important business execution are all the responsibility of us technology people."

"of course."

Kirar had already realized this and he had seen through it long ago.

When he left Amazon and came to Los Angeles to cooperate with several Hollywood giants to establish Hulu, he saw all this clearly at that time. These filmmakers had poor vision and had no overall strategic thinking at all.

To put it bluntly, it means having a low level of thinking and poor vision.

Actually this is not surprising.

It's related to IQ.

  The people with the highest IQ in the United States all go to the financial and technology industries when choosing a career, either Wall Street or Silicon Valley, Hollywood is not even on the list. People working in the film industry are often those who have learned nothing, and in the end have no choice... so they study film!

Those who work in finance can become big bosses of Silicon Valley technology companies, such as Dan Schulman, the current CEO of Paypal; those who work in technology can become CEOs of financial giants, such as Sam Altman we just met.

Because both parties are of the same "type".

The industries are different, but the people are the same, all of them are a group of geniuses with high IQs.

People who work in finance or technology can even cross over to produce beverages, do real estate, sell beef, build cars, do foreign trade, or design. Basically, they can do any of these things. It is impossible for people from other industries to cross over to become CEOs in the financial and technology fields.

Ultimately, businesses are managed by people.

In Ziweixing Global, Zhou Buqi obviously prefers Kirar and his team of scientific and technological talents.

Zhou Buqi asked: "What is Time Warner's attitude? Will they trade?"

"Yes!" Kilar has been paying attention to this. "As long as the price is right, they are willing to sell the company. The current board of directors is a bit exhausted. In the past one or two years, Time Warner has been adjusting its strategy, but it has not been successful at all. This year's performance has declined sharply. Now their market value has dropped to 400 billion US dollars. They can't even maintain their second place in the industry. They have been surpassed by Disney."

Zhou Buqi pondered and said, "Comcast and Charter Communications, are the two companies competing?"

"After all, Time Warner is an industry giant, and ordinary companies may not be able to take it over. The merger of TV operators with a TV platform and content provider like Time Warner can form a more complete closed ecosystem in terms of business."

Kilar comes from the Internet industry and has a deep understanding of some Internet concepts.

Zhou Buqi couldn't help but laugh, "Can this regulation pass? A closed ecosystem, this is an extremely dangerous monopoly!"

What the Internet is best at is creating a closed ecosystem.

But in fact, closed ecosystems are very sensitive monopoly models. If a closed ecosystem with a very high market share appears in a traditional industry, it will most likely be split up. The eight richest families in the United States, such as Rockefeller, Morgan, Carnegie, and DuPont, all became the world's richest people by relying on closed ecosystems. Later, the US authorities took action and wiped them all out, and all the super monopoly companies in closed ecosystems were forced to split up.

The Internet is different.

This stuff is very fresh.

The regulators don’t understand whether it is a closed ecosystem... Intelligent technology talents will also have many reasons to explain and explain it in a roundabout way.

The domestic Internet industry is particularly vigorous, and even clamors and does not shy away from saying that it wants to build a complete closed ecological industrial chain. Technology companies in the United States are much more restrained, and no one dares to publicly say that they are using a closed ecological model, which is simply giving antitrust agencies a handle.

Kilar said: "Whether it can be passed or not is uncertain. It depends on their lobbying skills. Maybe they can convince the regulatory authorities and get approval. When the industry is booming, the monopoly giants should be split up to maintain the vitality and competitiveness of the industry; when the industry is declining, the business should be integrated to form a monopoly giant to ensure the vitality of the industry. This is a process of mutual compromise. It depends on whether the regulatory authorities have realized the crisis of the television industry."

"That's tough!" Zhou Buqi wasn't too optimistic. "But if it really works, we'd better get a piece of the pie!"

"what?"

Kirar was slightly startled.