Top of the Great Era

Chapter 3138 Internet TV

Next, we talked about film and television copyright.

Robert Iger was very depressed and complained that the contract with Netflix was signed too early two years ago, which caused Disney to suffer huge losses. It sold its own movie streaming rights at a bargain price, and the sale lasted for five years. It was really a living contract trap.

Zhou Buqi naturally disagreed, saying that different periods have different market conditions. In 2012, the price of streaming media copyright was that, which was fair and just.

  Who could have expected that in just two years, the price of streaming rights would more than double?

Robert Iger didn't believe it and hit back, saying that others could not predict it, but you, Boss Zhou, certainly could predict it. The current booming streaming media industry was driven by you, Boss Zhou. This is a new industry that you created.

In the past, I relied on Netflix and made money on the outskirts of Hollywood.

It’s different now, it’s blossoming inside Hollywood!

Ziweixing Global is about to launch its own streaming platform Peacock.

Now we can work together internally and externally, relying completely on the new concept of "Internet + Movie" and streaming media to subvert Hollywood's traditional distribution channels.

Zhou Buqi laughed and said that this was the general trend of the times.

Besides, Disney only authorized the streaming rights of movie content to Netflix. However, as a media giant, Disney also owns ABC Television, one of the three largest television networks in the United States, as well as the most popular children's channel, Disney Channel!

Disney’s TV content is far more than its movie content!

Robert Iger was in a dilemma. “I’m afraid this plan will be difficult to pass. TV content needs to be supplied exclusively to our TV stations. This is the biggest competitive advantage of our TV stations.”

Zhou Buqi shook his head, "Too conservative!"

"ABC's independently operated system is somewhat different from that of Disney headquarters."

Robert Iger gave some explanation for this.

Disney's headquarters is in Hollywood and ABC Television Network's headquarters is in New York.

Hollywood has already begun to move towards streaming media, but the transformation speed in New York is obviously much slower than that of Hollywood. Even if they are moving towards streaming media, it is more of live streaming... that is, the concept of online TV.

Zhou Buqi said: "Streaming media is about to penetrate Hollywood's traditional 'safe' policy, but it can't even crack the TV station's supply system? Can't some old movies be used?"

Robert Iger said with a smile: "For old films, we also have long-term partners. We need to license them to local TV stations with whom we have long-term cooperation and provide them with content. Other TV stations may be different, but ABC will definitely not be able to open this door in the short term."

Zhou Buqi said it was terrible.

This guy is still showing off!

It seems that the signing of the contract between Netflix and Disney two years ago has made him deeply wary, and he dare not easily engage in any licensing cooperation for streaming media copyrights.

"Then you can consider it. I just think this is a win-win opportunity, which can generate more licensing revenue for Disney." Zhou Buqi didn't dwell on it too much, but turned to the next topic, which was the main purpose of his visit today. "What do you think about the live broadcast of sports events?"

Robert Iger didn't understand what he meant, "What do you mean?"

Zhou Buqi asked: "ESPN is going to launch the streaming media ESPN+?"

"Yes." Robert Egger nodded. "It's urgent. As you already know, I have sent someone to contact Major League Baseball to promote cooperation with BAMTech."

Zhou Buqi asked knowingly: "That's strange. Since Disney lacks relevant technology, why doesn't it seek cooperation with a technology company? Why go to a sports company?"

Robert Iger laughed and said, “What do you think? It’s not just me. HBO, CBS, WWE, Verizon and other online live broadcast businesses have all chosen to cooperate with BAM. None of them would choose Silicon Valley.”

“If BAM can do it, then Silicon Valley’s big tech companies can definitely do better things with less money!”

  Zhou Buqi has this confidence. Although BAM is good, it is a business under the baseball league after all. It has technical content, so how can it be compared with Silicon Valley?

The live streaming of sports events is indeed more difficult than that of film and television streaming, for example, it requires regional protection technology.

The copyright of sports events will be divided into different areas and authorized differently.

Also in North America, the United States and Canada are different copyright holders.

This means that Canadians cannot watch games whose copyright belongs to the United States, and Americans cannot cross the border to watch games purchased by Canadian copyright holders. This is much more complicated than film and television streaming, and requires more technical restrictions, auditing of user IPs, and docking with the scope of copyright holders to ensure the rights and interests of different copyright holders.

But this technical requirement is no problem for Silicon Valley.

Robert Iger said tactfully: "BAMTech is a more trustworthy partner. If we look for big companies like Amazon or Google, they may indeed do better than BAM, have more powerful technology, and a wider coverage. But once these technology companies figure out some things during the cooperation process, they will easily replace us."

Zhou Buqi laughed and said, "Such risks do exist, but even if we don't cooperate, won't those technology companies stop doing it? It's a bit self-deceptive to think that you can limit Silicon Valley's technology giants by not cooperating."

"At least you can't surrender voluntarily."

Robert Iger is very cautious in this regard, and he is even wary of Apple.

Zhou Buqi said: "I don't think it's necessary. The technology of Silicon Valley giants is far more powerful than BAMTech, and they have more resources."

Robert Iger said with a smile: "BAMTech is also very powerful. The HBO_Now case is amazing enough."

HBO is a television station.

But nowadays young people like to watch TV on the Internet.

So HBO launched the live streaming service HBO_Now, which is equivalent to HBO's online TV station. The two are synchronized. Whatever content is broadcast on HBO, the online TV station HBO_Now will also broadcast the same content.

Zhou Buqi said, "It's just online TV, how amazing can it be? HBO doesn't need regional copyright protection like live sports broadcasts, so what's the technical difficulty? Any two college students can set up an online TV station."

"how is this possible?"

Robert Egger was shocked.

Zhou Buqi was speaking the truth. "It's true. What's so difficult about online TV? There are so many of them!"

He was not in a position to elaborate on the specific details.

At this time, there were at least hundreds of online TV stations in China, and it was not easy to develop them. However, most of these online TV stations did not have legitimate content authorization, and many of them were pirated foreign film and television content, so he could not use them as an example.

But the reason is clear.

Internet TV is very simple. Those small pirated companies can easily steal other people's film and television content and send it to their own Internet TV. The technical difficulty is more difficult than genuine Internet TV because there is an additional link of circulation and content capture.

HBO_Now is also an online TV, how difficult can it be?

Robert Iger said: "When HBO was about to launch HBO_Now a few years ago, the plan given was that it would take five years and cost $5 million to complete."

"what?"

Zhou Buqi was stunned.

  Depend on!

These technology laymen in the film and television industry are so cruel!

  A mere crappy online TV required five years of development and a total cost of $5 million?

This is too dark!