Top of the Great Era

Chapter 3131 Local Protection

That night, the Beverly Hills Hilton Hotel was even more grand than the Golden Globe Awards ceremony.

Hollywood celebrities were present.

However, the theme of this dinner is that Hollywood must unite to seek justice for actresses who are frequently attacked by hackers. This is a charity dinner that will collect donations to seek justice for female stars whose reputations have been damaged, and will also provide them with some spiritual compensation.

This was called for by Zhou Buqi.

The atmosphere was a bit serious.

Because many producers, screenwriters, directors, and actors have received notices asking them not to rashly take sides and to protect the common interests of everyone. Zhou Buqi's behavior has crossed the line between the union and major film companies, and will seriously undermine the unity of Hollywood.

Industry insiders have already seen it.

  How can this be called justice?

It is clearly a struggle for the right to speak.

Who has the final say in this industry?

In the past few years, Ziweixing Global has indeed achieved amazing results in the film market, occupying half of the market. However, the film and television industry is not only about movies, but also about TV programs, and Ziweixing Global is much weaker in this regard.

Now Disney, Warner, Sony Entertainment, Paramount and other giants are standing together, and their power is obviously stronger than that of Ziweixing Global.

This caused many industry insiders who wanted to speak out to remain silent.

I don't want to get too involved, lest I get hurt.

You have to come.

If they don’t come, it would be too disrespectful to Mr. Zhou. Many people have made up their minds that they can come to donate, but they won’t express their opinions or stand in line, and just sit back and watch those Hollywood bigwigs fight for the biggest voice in the industry.

Because it is a donation, the more people there are, the more influence it will have.

Zhou Buqi also invited many friends outside Hollywood to participate, such as Lee Zairong of Samsung, Musk of Tesla, Larry Page of Google, Larry Ellison of Oracle, the retired Ballmer, as well as Alibaba's Mr. Ma, Sohu's Mr. Zhang, and so on.

Zhang Chaoyang likes this kind of occasion very much. When he went there with him, he found it difficult to understand, "What are you fighting for with these people in Hollywood?"

Zhou Buqi said: "The right to speak!"

"What do you mean by right to speak?" Zhang Chaoyang thought the concept was too abstract. "There are so many companies in Hollywood. Do other companies listen to you?"

Zhou Buqi smiled and said, "Of course not. The so-called 'right to speak' is actually a kind of consensus in the industry."

"consensus?"

“That’s who’s leading Hollywood.”

"This is a bit unrealistic." Lao Zhang shook his head, still thinking it was unreliable, "Just like Warner, will they still listen to you? Even if you win this time, will Warner still accept your leadership? This is nonsense!"

Zhou Buqi said: "They don't need to accept it subjectively."

Zhang Chaoyang raised his eyebrows, "What do you mean?"

Zhou Buqi said: "The market will force them to get closer to me."

"It's just about the distribution of benefits?"

Zhang Chaoyang still felt that this lacked logic.

"This is really not something that can be explained in a few words. For example..." Zhou Buqi thought for a moment, "In fact, the most important thing is to break the traditional ideas of many people in Hollywood and win their recognition. Now Hollywood thinks that I am an outsider who came to Hollywood from Silicon Valley to make money. They all treat me as an outsider and a guest. If I win this time and lead Hollywood to stand up, naturally many people in the industry will think that I am one of Hollywood's own and will be full of trust in me."

Zhang Chaoyang understood a little, "It's just that many people in the industry don't trust you very much now, so you have to strive for the industry's recognition."

Zhou Buqi said: "Yes, now that I have the industry's recognition, Ziweixing Global will naturally also have the industry's recognition."

“What is the meaning of this recognition?”

Zhang Chaoyang felt that as the big boss of Zhou, he did not need recognition from others.

Zhou Buqi said: "This is of great significance. It is related to whether my streaming platform Peacock can grow rapidly!"

"How to say?"

"In the American film and television industry, production and broadcasting are basically separated. Broadcasters also produce content, but the quantity is too small. Most of them are movies and TV series produced by external production companies. For example, Ziweixing Global, its several distribution companies have to release a total of 150 films a year, half of which can enter theaters, and half directly enter the DVD market. Among these 150 films, only 50 are produced by Ziweixing Global's production companies, and the rest are distributed for other film and television companies." "Distribution rights!"

Zhang Chaoyang is working on Sohu Video, which is also a streaming media platform and Sohu's core business at this stage. For this purpose, he specially poached a deputy director of Phoenix TV to serve as chief operating officer.

He certainly understands the importance of distribution.

For the streaming media industry, it doesn’t matter who produces the film and television content. What matters is who holds the distribution rights of the film and television content and who is willing to distribute the film and television content to their own streaming media platforms.

The domestic film industry is immature, and there is no DVD, videotape or on-demand market.

Since all TV stations are government-run, it is difficult to get much broadcasting fees from them.

If a movie wants to make money, the only way is to distribute it on streaming platforms on the Internet.

Hollywood is different.

Over the past hundred years, there has been a complete distribution system, and film and television works have many distribution channels to earn profits... Even if a movie does not meet the quality standards and cannot be shown in theaters, it can be distributed in the DVD market, or sold to local TV stations or on-demand channels, and still make a profit.

  Hollywood’s existing distribution system is so perfect, why should it distribute films to streaming media?

After arriving at the Hilton Hotel, Zhou Buqi was not in a hurry to go upstairs. He first drank coffee with Lao Zhang downstairs.

Wait for someone first.

Zhou Buqi said: "Netflix's dilemma must be resolved, otherwise it will affect Peacock and seriously restrict Peacock's development. I have made a requirement within the company that Peacock must achieve 1 million member users worldwide and annual revenue of more than 100 billion US dollars within three years."

Zhang Chaoyang curled the corners of his mouth.

His Sohu Video has been in operation for seven or eight years, but it currently has less than 100 million paying members.

"Why is Netflix in trouble?" Zhang Chaoyang was not very familiar with the current situation of streaming media in the United States, which was very different from that in China. "Netflix is ​​doing very well, its stock price has been rising, and it has become a monster stock. I heard that the number of paying members has exceeded 7000 million?"

Zhou Buqi said: "Netflix's success is mainly due to two reasons. One is my support. I have exclusively licensed many of Ziweixing Global's high-quality content to Netflix. The second is that Netflix's self-produced drama strategy is very successful. Without these two points, Netflix would not be able to succeed. Hollywood's existing distribution system will have a great suppression on Netflix."

"Why is it suppressed? Isn't the distribution of film and television content a bidding model?"

"If it was a bidding model, wouldn't it be easy? In fact, even if Netflix offered more money, many high-quality film and television content would not be willing to be released directly on Netflix."

"Ah?" Zhang Chaoyang was shocked. "Why? What kind of factors are interfering with fair competition in the market?"

Zhou Buqi said: "The power system in Hollywood is what I want to solve this time."

Zhang Chaoyang was an outsider after all, so it was still difficult for him to understand. "Please explain it clearly. This is really unexpected."

Zhou Buqi smiled and said, "It's actually very simple. It's nothing more than local protection of the power structure under monopoly. It looks like market competition in Hollywood, but in fact, the big giants have already reached a tacit understanding of monopoly. For example, if you are an independent filmmaker and you made a movie and you want to distribute it in the United States, who would you give the distribution rights to?"

Zhang Chaoyang said: "Why not give it to Netflix?"

Zhou Buqi glanced at him and said, "If your movie is terrible and the people in power in Hollywood don't like it, then you are lucky. If they like it and you distribute it to Netflix, then your future in Hollywood is basically cut off. Distribution rights are profits. If you come to Hollywood, you have to share the profits with Hollywood, not just give them to Netflix."

"Banned it..."

Zhang Chaoyang understood that there were many similar cases in China. Not to mention many small directors and actors, even big directors and actors would be banned. For example, if a TV series used a certain actor, the TV series would not be able to be sold to the TV station that banned him, and the only way was to contact other TV stations.

Zhou Buqi said, "It's not that you will be banned. If you are really talented and can make a lot of money, many people will come to you in the future. But your future development in Hollywood will be restricted everywhere, especially since you are not one of the six major Hollywood stars but belong to the independent film industry, which is even more troublesome. It is not easy to make money in this industry. After finally coming up with a profitable project, you don't share it with your peers in the independent film industry, but turn to Netflix. Do you still want to make a living in Hollywood in the future?"

Zhang Chaoyang asked, "Will there be rejection from directors, producers, actors, etc. when I make movies in the future?"

"That's for sure. Hollywood is a union system. 99% of actors, directors, producers, etc. are in the union, and they are all very united. Unless you use some actors, screenwriters, staff, etc. who are not members of the union, you will be constrained everywhere when making a movie in Hollywood. Any animal protection association can jump out and stop you from filming. In fact, it is local protection in Hollywood."

What Zhou Buqi opposed most were various "local protection" policies.

This is a serious disruption to the market economy.

The Internet is an innovative tool that is very effective in breaking through various existing systems.

Internet + film and television means streaming media!

Zhang Chaoyang understood now, "So this time you are taking on the entire Hollywood. If you win, you will be telling everyone in the industry in Hollywood that you have the ability to challenge the existing system. The streaming media platform you launched can change the existing distribution system! It will allow independent film and television producers to work with your streaming media platform without worrying about retaliation."

(End of this chapter)