Legendary Hollywood Director

The representatives of this hbo are quite good at speaking and chatted for a long time.

Lehman only felt that they had learned the essence of their tai chi skills.

For a while, the meeting room suddenly became strangely quiet.

After a while, Ryman really felt the atmosphere was awkward, so he didn't continue to go around in circles with them at all.

"The Walking Dead is still filming, we need to find a platform to host the pilot, and hbo is an ideal partner for our company after considering it. After all, our relationship with Warner is not bad, right?"

"We are also optimistic about this drama. We can talk about the conditions first."

"Hbo doesn't have ads, right?" Lehmann asked suddenly.

"Yes, we do not have an advertising business. But we are different from other wireless TV stations in that the user's subscription fee can replace this part of the revenue. Moreover, we are always the most courageous to buy broadcast rights, I believe your company will also I can hear."

Lyman listened and wanted to laugh.

The reason why you have the most courage to buy dramas is not because the coverage area of ​​the cable TV network is inherently inferior to that of the wireless TV network.

However, hbo's self-operated business is still very good, although the total market share is not too much, but in terms of profits, they are still not bad.

"How is the share of the subscription fee calculated?"

"The number of new people watching "The Walking Dead" and the number of old users renewing to watch episodes, the former is 64%, and the latter 82%."

Well, old users are generally accustomed to paying for renewals. Even if the new drama "The Walking Dead" is replaced with other projects, it will be the change in the number of viewers at most. After all, hbo does not only operate this TV series, but also has a lot of fans from other series.

"It's fair. Warner has a close and mutually beneficial relationship with me. Sometimes, it's better for both of us to deepen our cooperation a little bit."

The representative nodded, as if to express his approval, "Mr. Barry Mayer said that you value your feelings, and you are right. Well, it seems that in your new drama project plan, the shooting budget for the first season is in Around thirty million dollars?"

When Lyman heard it, he understood that this person wanted to start making an offer for broadcasting rights.

As for the importance of friendship, just listen to it. It is estimated that it is a pretext to facilitate the subsequent price reduction, but this attitude is not a bad thing for Lehmann. After all, the people of hbo are satisfied with the new drama project. , want to strive for.

"The filming budget is probably enough, and I haven't heard of any delays from the crew."

The man smiled and thought for a while before saying, "The first season consists of 24 episodes, and the average production cost per episode is no more than 1.25 million US dollars. So, we are willing to pay 3.2 million for each episode, how about that?"

"3.5 million in a single episode?"

"No, 3.3 million."

"3.4 million?"

"3.35 million per episode, a total of 8,040 US dollars, we have been very sincere."

"Well, for Barry Mayer's sake, we agreed to the price."

The 80 million US dollars, after deducting the production cost, minus the share of the two directors and creative teams, Firefly Pictures can get more than 35 million yuan, which is not a bad deal.

Looking at the rising corners of the mouth of the representative team of hbo, Lehman also knew that the big head was still eaten by the broadcast platform. Even if the first season of "The Walking Dead" only had 70% of the market prospects of the previous life, it is estimated that the total value of the project will be more than 300 million.

Of course, there is no deduction for operating costs, as that is the sole responsibility of hbo.

However, Lehmann has nothing to envy. The channel has always been the upstream of the industry.

Whether it's a movie or a TV show, it's the same.

He was used to it too. After all, if there is no channel to broadcast, no matter how good his dramas are, they will not be able to sell for the price.

Just like behind the beautiful film market every year, more than 80% of the works that fail to make money in theatrical release are buried.

Another example is the Blue Butterfly Pictures he acquired, which was able to live very well by relying on those small companies that did not have distribution channels.

There are countless production companies that go bankrupt every year, but I have never heard of a company with a North American distribution channel going bankrupt.

At most, the profit is not high, and it is sold as a tasteless asset.

This is the current state of the Hollywood film and television industry.

Lehman said again at this time: "However, I still have a condition."

The representative frowned slightly, thinking that the cooperation would be repeated, and quickly replied: "What other conditions?"

"It's not a big problem." Lehmann laughed: "After hbo broadcasts "The Walking Dead", your company can be responsible for the rotation rights of the first season, but in the offline CD distribution market, can the two of us work together? Operation?"

Yes, after the first round of the TV station broadcast, it can still be sold to local TV stations and even the UK market and other regions to continue making profits, but the second round of broadcast rights are sold at the price of cabbage, and it will be cheaper in the third round. , which is basically used to enrich the playback time period.

The offline market is different. Because the United States attaches great importance to copyright, it is difficult for pirated copies to flow into the underground market. The American people are also used to buying DVD collections for supported film and television dramas. After all, it is only a dozen or twenty dollars.

When you have free time, you can take it out and watch it again.

Of course, the revenue shared by the two parties is still in accordance with the rules of the industry.

hbo has nothing to do with this, and it didn't hurt their interests anyway. The representative thought for a moment and nodded in agreement.

After the two parties officially signed the broadcast contract, hbo immediately started the publicity work of the matter.

Well, to say an extra point, hbo rarely cuts dramas. Generally, if you buy the copyright, it will definitely work and play.

According to the plan of the hbo party, they will arrange "The Walking Dead" on January 15th to be broadcast in prime time at 8 pm on Saturday.

It's settled.

After the cooperation between the two parties is reached, the circle of www.readwn.com will naturally know about it.

For those wireless TV networks, it was nothing more than a failure of competition, but for wb TV station, it was not so good news.

Their TV business is already overlapping with hbo, and their program production capabilities are not as good. The board of directors has always had shareholders who want to promote wb TV station to separate the production business, merge and reorganize, so as to make the coverage of the business map clearer and facilitate the inclination of resources. .

As for Lehman, the internal affairs of Warner, the power struggle will naturally not affect their company.

He just chose a more win-win partner based on the profit prospects of the project.

But from Andrew's point of view, he was clearly subconsciously standing in line with this kind of signs, and he was naturally uncomfortable.

But the "Prison Break" project is the trump card of their TV station, and they can't help but support it, how depressing it is.

This is business...

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