Top of the big era

Universal Pictures' split plan has been approved, and all parties are currently conducting asset audits and evaluations, one of which is very important is the distribution of copyrights.

In the past few years since the establishment of NBCUniversal, NBC and Universal have cooperated to produce many TV series content. The main method of cooperation is that Universal Television Production Company is responsible for the production, and after the production is completed, it will be broadcast on the NBC television network.

Many of the creativity, content, and ideas were thought up by NBC TV and Universal Pictures. It stands to reason that NBC should also enjoy part of the copyright.

But this operation is too complicated, and the cutting is too fine and the internal friction is too great. Anyway, they are all from NBC Universal, so the left hand is the right hand.

In the past few years, Universal Pictures has taken too much content to broadcast on the NBC television network, and it must finally get some benefits from NBC.

But now we encountered a very difficult problem.

The fifth season of "The Office," the hottest and most popular TV series currently being aired in the United States, was produced by Universal's television production department and then broadcast on NBC.

This is incredible.

The middle and lower classes in the United States have not received much systematic knowledge education. Their cognitive level is very limited. In addition to being able to weave conspiracy theories that deceive the world, they have difficulty understanding the complexity of normal society.

This has resulted in them being unable to appreciate many high-quality film and television dramas with depth and complex plots. For example, top American dramas such as "Rome", "Game of Thrones", "The Walking Dead", "Breaking Bad" and "Westworld" are simply unbearable to them.

But sitcoms are different.

The plot of this thing is simple, there is no viewing threshold, and even the relationship between each episode is not big, so it is okay to jump to watch. Therefore, the most popular TV series in the United States are definitely not high-quality productions that cost hundreds of millions of dollars to create, but "shoddy" sitcoms.

The three top TV series in the United States are all sitcoms, namely "Friends", "Seinfeld" and "The Office".

During the streaming media war in later generations, "Friends" was acquired by Warner for a copyright rental of US$100 million per year, "Seinfeld" was acquired by Netflix for a rental of US$100 million per year, and "The Office" was also acquired by Netflix for US$100 million per year. The rent was taken over by Peacock, a streaming media platform owned by Comcast, for $100 million per year.

This shows the importance of these three major American dramas.

Coincidentally, these three major TV series all premiere on NBC.

Now, "Friends" and "Seinfeld" have ended, and only "The Office" is still being serialized and can be filmed for several years.

This is a lot of money!

Next, "The Office" will start filming its sixth season, with a budget of up to $90 million. There is no way. Although the production cost of sitcoms is very low, the actors' salaries are too high. With the popularity of the TV series, the net worth of several leading actors has also increased.

So the question is, once NBC and Universal Pictures split, how much will NBC spend to buy the premiere rights to "The Office"? $100 million, $200 million, or $300 million?

If NBC's offer is low, Universal Pictures will go directly to CBS or ABC, and it can easily get the sky-high first broadcast fee.

When it comes to the split between NBC and Universal Pictures, everything else is easy to say. The copyright of "The Office" is the one that attracts the most attention.

On this day, Masayoshi Son came to Los Angeles again. He wanted to completely resolve the MGM equity issue with Sony and sign an agreement.

Zhou Buqi was about to rush over when he received a call from Mr. Collins, the copyright transaction consultant of the Mergers and Acquisitions Committee, telling him about "The Office".

"Copyright?" When Zhou Buqi heard this, he immediately paid attention to it. Although he had never watched "The Office", he also knew that it was the most popular TV series in the United States at the moment. Its momentum was not much worse than "Friends" back then, so he said it without thinking He blurted out, "No, copyright is a red line. No matter what, we must win it!"

Then, he left Son Zhengyi aside and made an appointment with Collins at a coffee shop in the city for a face-to-face interview.

Mr. Collins is the chairman and president of Kongcheng Entertainment Company, specializing in copyright transactions in the television business. This time he was hired as a consultant at a price of US$3.75 million.

After the meeting, Zhou Buqi immediately reiterated, "The issue of copyright cannot be discussed and must be firmly in hand!"

Collins said: "NBC is very sincere."

Zhou Buqi was very determined, "This has nothing to do with sincerity, this is strategy!"

Collins coughed slightly and said: "Even so, I should make their suggestions clear. Universal Pictures' assets are worth approximately US$4.4 billion, and the expected transaction price may exceed US$8.5 billion. If in "The Office" "If concessions are made in the copyright of Universal Pictures, the transaction price of Universal Pictures will be significantly reduced."

"Concession? How? How much is the premiere right to "The Office" worth?"

"The offer for the fifth season is US$180 million, and the sixth season may reach US$220 million. However, this is NBCUniversal's internal offer. If the market is open to bidding, I believe ABC or Fox can offer US$500 million to grab the premiere. right."

"Then we can't give in anymore." Zhou Buqi said with a nonchalant attitude, "I have the final say on this matter! It doesn't matter if SoftBank agrees!"

M\u0026A cases are mainly led by SoftBank’s team.

There are specializations in the technology industry, and SoftBank is good at doing this kind of thing. They have successfully executed mergers and acquisitions of dozens of companies. But in terms of business strategy design, Zhou Buqi must have the right to speak.

Collins frowned and suggested: "Zhou, this is a big deal. "The Office" may have to be filmed for another 3-5 seasons, which means tens of billions of dollars in advertising revenue for NBC. This matter cannot be handled. Well, it may affect the overall situation and hinder the spin-off sale of Universal Pictures."

Zhou Buqi smiled and said, "You may have misunderstood. I said that copyright is a strategy and does not mean profit. I want to get the copyright of "The Office", but I can give away the profit."

"ah?"

Collins didn't quite understand.

What?

If you give away the benefits, then the copyright is useless!

Zhou Buqi said: "The price of the premiere rights of "The Office" is very high. It guarantees the highest ratings in the United States during the same time period. This is something NBC cannot afford to lose. It doesn't matter, then give them the premiere rights, but "The Office" "The complete copyright of "The Movie" must be in the hands of Universal Pictures."

Collins asked, "How?"

Zhou Buqi said: "It can be implemented according to the current cooperation plan between NBC and Universal Pictures. What did you just say about the premiere rights for the next season?"

"$220 million."

"Okay, after the sixth season of "The Office" is filmed, the premiere rights will be transferred to NBC for US$220 million. Is that OK?"

"Well……"

Collins looked at the young man with complicated eyes.

Isn’t this too courageous?

"The Office" may have 3-5 more seasons to shoot. If it were a normal public bidding in the market, the premiere rights alone may bring in 1.5 billion to 2 billion US dollars.

If the premiere rights are transferred to NBC at an internal price according to the existing cooperation template, it may not even be able to recover US$1 billion. One by one, a billion dollars may have been lost.

Such a big matter was decided with just one word?

Don't you even discuss it with SoftBank?

Zhou Buqi waved his hand and said, "That's it. The next few seasons of "The Office" will be transferred to NBC for premiere at an internal price according to the model of the past few years. Um...the premiere fee will increase by 25% for each season?"

Collins shook his head and said: "That's not the calculation. It's based on the production cost. But it's about the same, with an increase of 25%-30% every season."

Zhou Buqi said proudly: "Okay, that's it, just follow my plan! You can communicate with the people at SoftBank about the specific situation and try to get benefits from Universal Pictures' case. The quotation of US$8.5 billion It’s too high. Universal Pictures’ assets are only over 4 billion US dollars. This has doubled. Try to suppress it as much as possible.”

Collins took a deep breath and said, "Okay."

Zhou Buqi remembered something, "By the way, I remember that "Friends" and "Seinfeld" were also premiered on NBC, right?"

"right."

"The production and distribution rights of Friends are in the hands of Warner Bros., which I know. But what about 'Seinfeld'? Who owns it?"

Zhou Buqi is looking forward to it.

NBC also has a television production department. If the copyright of "Seinfeld" is with NBC... humph, then there will be no way to make a splash and try to grab it from Universal Pictures.

Collins said: "The copyright of "Seinfeld" is more complicated. Back then... it was produced by a small company called Castle Rock Pictures and distributed by Columbia Pictures. Later, Castle Rock Pictures was acquired by Warner Bros., and Columbia Pictures It was acquired by Sony. In other words, the content copyright of "Seinfeld" is now in the hands of Warner, and the distribution rights are in the hands of Sony Entertainment."

"Sony..."

Zhou Buqi nodded, his eyes deep.

Warner doesn't have to think about it. The copyright is in their hands, so don't even think about taking it out. As for Sony...it feels like there is no chance. Sony is mainly promoting Blu-ray high-definition DVD, which shows how short-sighted Sony's board of directors is.

Moreover, SoftBank is a company listed in Tokyo.

Although Masayoshi Son is unpopular in the Japanese business community and has been called a traitor, his influence is strong enough that he might be able to hold some discussions with Sony's board of directors.

The distribution rights of "Seinfeld" are just a gadget. The key is the film and television rights of "Spider-Man" and related characters held by Sony Entertainment!

This is the most important!

The reputation of "Spider-Man 3" in 2007 was not satisfactory, and Sony could only temporarily seal the series.

Now is the best time to take action.

If "Iron Man 2" is released next year and achieves unprecedented success, the whole world will know that Marvel's era will come. As long as Sony successfully restarts the "Spider-Man" series, it will be impossible to take it back.

Purple Star Global is not positioned as an entertainment company, but as a content company. To put it bluntly, the main business is copyright business. As long as it is high-quality copyright, we must get it as much as possible!