Chapter 2195 Careful Budgeting (Second Update)

Yin Jun was watching TV in Robert Egger's office at this time.

ABC's TV series is called "Friends."

Unlike the six male and female protagonists in the previous life who were all white, this time in "Friends", one is a Chinese actress and the other is a black buddy.

This is also the typical strategy of ABC and even the North American branch of Kirin Group in TV, movies and variety shows.

That is, everyone has a share, and there will be no preference for anyone.

Although this is criticized and criticized by some white supremacists, it is a huge good thing for these ethnic minorities in the United States.

The United States does not belong to the white people, but to everyone.

In the past, white people were given priority in everything, but now everyone can perform, which makes many people feel that it is fairer.

Yin Jun never paid attention to those who protested. He only knew that when it came to making trouble and messing around, no one could be better than the black brothers.

As long as I win over them well, if anything happens against me in the future, they will definitely jump out to help me fight the injustice.

In fact, Yin Jun was targeted several times before, and then without Yin Jun having to say anything, the gangsters held hundreds of protests, large and small, which made those people very passive.

In this way, although Yin Jun is suspected of using his black buddies to show his self-respect, what does it matter?

Do you have to be like the Chinese, who are honest and do not say anything when being bullied?

That’s how I am, I just want to make a scene, I just want to make a noise that makes you restless, what’s wrong?

The black buddies in history relied on such shamelessness to become more and more prosperous in the United States.

Even if Yin Jun doesn't copy everything, he will try his best to learn.

"Friends" has been airing since the end of May.

Different from Yin Jun's previous habit, the current TV series produced by ABC have gradually changed to a broadcast mode of one episode per week.

Because only in this way can various advertising effects be maximized and benefits can be obtained to the greatest extent.

Robert Iger did this, and Yin Jun did not stop him. After all, it was for the good of the company.

Only a direct descendant like him, who Yin Jun valued very much, could actively question Yin Jun's decision and make changes according to the situation.

"Friends" has now aired 3 episodes, and the effect is very good. Although it does not have the 70-80 million viewers like "Happy Hotel", the 30 million viewers still set a record.

You know, this is only 3 episodes!

What if it reaches episode 30? Wouldn’t it cost hundreds of millions?

Even if it is less than 100 million, it can always be thought of with 70 to 80 million viewers.

Robert Egger was also full of confidence when he spoke to Yin Jun.

"The most important thing for our ABC TV News Network now is to settle down." Robert Egger said, "On the one hand, we must do a good job in our own business, and on the other hand, we can build a cable television station. With both approaches, we are the well-deserved No. 1 in the United States. one!"

Yin Jun's strategy of building a cable TV station gave Robert Iger great career ambitions.

Originally, he only wanted to work hard at ABC, and when the time was right, he would move up a level and take charge of the entire North American branch of the Kirin Group.

But after the idea of ​​a cable TV station came up, he felt that he could work harder and strive to use a result that was so beautiful that no one could ignore it, so that he could powerfully take over the North American branch of the Kirin Group and become a president that everyone could trust.

The five TV series produced by Yin Jun are all wonderful and have the potential to be watched.

Although two or three of them are not suitable for TVB, as paid TV series, they are perfect.

When he mentioned this aspect, Yin Jun also nodded slightly.

It is definitely important to build a good ABC television news network.

But on the other hand, cable TV stations are absolutely priceless.

In 2016, Cable and Telephone Company, the operator that now buys Kirin mobile phones and dominates the US market, announced that it would acquire the entire Time Warner Group for a sky-high price of US$85.4 billion.

Among them, HBO’s valuation exceeds 30 billion US dollars!

Time Warner has important assets such as Warner Bros. Movies, DC Comics, CNN, TBS, Time Magazine, etc., but the value of each of them individually is not comparable to HBO.

Once ABC's cable TV station develops, it will inevitably replace HBO's original market number one position. By then, not to mention US$30 billion, it may be US$50 billion!

Don't think it's incredible yet.

Before 2018, could you imagine that Netflix, a company that rents videotapes and optical discs online and also produces its own homemade dramas, could have a market value greater than Disney?

Only a crazy person would think so.

But it became a fact!

So Robert Iger's current emphasis on cable TV stations is definitely a very smart decision.

In his previous life, Robert Iger was the true master of the Disney Kingdom. If we add a cable TV station that is more powerful than HBO to him, I really don’t know how to describe this terrifying group.

When Hollywood reaches that time, the so-called six-power struggle for hegemony will definitely turn into a situation of one super power and multiple powers!

Just thinking about it, I think this is very interesting!

"How are the cable TV stations preparing?" Yin Jun asked about this topic.

"It's not bad." Robert Iger smiled, "Our Kirin Group has money. Whether it's from HBO or other cable TV stations, we can recruit good managers. With them to prepare, plus our original Some networks are, of course, very smooth.”

"What about TV dramas?" Yin Jun said, "This is the basis of a cable TV station, so we can't take it lightly."

"Of course it is!" Robert Egger said, "I selected a total of about ten of the most famous TV drama directors, plus three movie directors, and let them compete, and finally decided on the candidate. Now they are already actively working on it. We have built our own team, and the fastest "Grey's Anatomy" is already setting up the venue and preparing for filming."

After a pause, he added, "In order to make this TV series, we bought an old building and converted it into a hospital. In addition, there are more than a dozen hospital experts to guide us. These actors We have also started training on medical knowledge and strive to master as much medical knowledge as possible, which can be said to be very serious!"

Yin Jun nodded slightly and said, "Being able to make good preparations is the first step to success."

"It's just that this way, we spend a lot of money." Robert Egger said, "If "Grey's Anatomy" produces 20 episodes in the first season, our overall cost will be more than 20 million U.S. dollars. One episode is equivalent to It’s over 1 million US dollars, which is really exaggerated for a TV series.”

He's right.

Nowadays, it doesn’t cost that much to produce a TV series in the United States.

An ordinary movie costs around US$5 million, or between US$10 million and US$30 million, which is considered a seriously produced movie.

Nowadays, even the most expensive "Happy Hotel" has repeatedly exceeded 100 million viewers, and an episode is only about 1 million US dollars. The most is the dividends of the actors.

But the more than 20 million US dollars mentioned by Robert Egger is not the real figure.

If you exclude the cost of buying the building and renovating the hospital, it would only cost around US$10 million.

"We should spend what we should spend, and we should never spend what we shouldn't." Yin Jun said, "Have the contracts between the production team and the actors been settled?"

"No problem!" Robert Egger said seriously.

He knew what Yin Jun was talking about.

When producing film and television works, the most important expenditure is actually labor cost.

Among them, the salaries and dividends of actors, producers, and directors are the largest part.

Salaries in the TV drama industry are not high to begin with, but if the TV drama is effective, gets support from many people, and advertising fees increase significantly, then they can continue to ask for salary increases.

Robert Egger believes that this is a very bad behavior and is not conducive to the development of the company, so it must be restrained.

Even first-rate movie stars only get paid two to three million or five to six million for a movie. You don't need to be paid that high for an actor in a TV series.

On this point, he admired Yin Jun very much.

The contracts signed by Yin Jun and superstars such as Stallone, Schwarzenegger, Eddie Murphy, Fei Xiang, etc. are very smart.

It’s either a 20-year, 10-movie contract, or a 30-year, 20-movie contract.

In addition to the basic salary of US$1 million, everything else depends on their own performance to get 2% of the North American box office share.

Of course, the price has now increased and it has become a 2% share of the global box office.

But it’s also a very good deal.

Compared with the achievements and status of these big stars, these dividends are actually directly paid for in sponsorship and advertising in many cases.

If we followed the old Hollywood rules, it would not be impossible to give them a basic salary of 5 million or 10 million.

It seems that when they are filming movies outside now, the remuneration has exceeded 5 million US dollars. For example, if the two biggest superstars, Stallone and Schwarzenegger, are even less than 10 million US dollars, you should stop talking.

Look, how important this foresight of the boss is!

It directly saved the company so much money!

As his loyal subordinate, Robert Iger is of course cautious about spending on these TV series.

All major actors and directors have signed contracts for 10-15 series, and their salaries will increase every season, but the increase will not exceed 10%.

This ensures that the company will not bear such heavy production costs due to large salary expenditures.

When costs are reduced, profits will naturally increase!