Global monopoly of technology

"US$958 million? NO, the Miramax movies are not worth the price. If you add the works of Pixar Animation Studios, it's almost the same. I can accept this price."

At this moment, Luo Sheng's voice resounded in a conference room at Bluestar Technology's headquarters, and the person sitting opposite him was the head of Disney's negotiator called Pallock.

What is going on is that Bluestar Technology and Disney are negotiating on the introduction of the copyright of the film, to obtain the digital copyright, so as to introduce the long video content to the BV video website.

It can be said that this is after the secret stalemate between Bluestar Technology and Hollywood for several years, and in the end, the film company was unable to handle the big wave of streaming media platforms first and took the initiative to come to talk.

There are several film companies under Disney, and Miramax is one of them. This film company has produced movies including "Psychedelic Train" and "Old Nowhere".

This negotiation involves the copyright of more than 700 movies, and Disney’s sale price is 958 million US dollars.

"OK, Mr. Luo, you think the price is unreasonable, how much do you think?" Pallock asked rhetorically.

"500 million dollars." Luo Sheng stretched out his big hand and said calmly.

Hearing him report this number, Palloc suddenly yelled at him, but he still behaved very gentlemanly. He shook his head straight and said: "NO, this price is too unreasonable, and there is no difference from a low sale. Mr. Luo, Miramac Sri Lanka owns a large amount of high-quality content, not to mention that Netflix is ​​also very interested in Miramax’s movies and intends to obtain exclusive digital rights."

Luo Sheng laughed softly when he heard it, and immediately watched Pallock bluntly said: "Don’t be here, Netflix will push me out. Exclusives are not popular in the Internet industry. If Disney wants to put Miramax movies The digital rights are sold exclusively to Netflix. The big deal is the same when I go to Netflix to ask for a secondary license. To be honest, our people are also negotiating with Netflix people, hoping to exchange video library resources with each other."

Strictly speaking, there is also a certain competitive relationship between BV video sites and Netflix, but there is still a big difference in the models of the two parties. They do not touch the core territory of the other party, and naturally there is no conflict of life and death, at least for a long time. It won’t happen for a while, let alone now.

Luo Sheng also doesn't want to enter the core territory of Netflix. The same is true of Netflix. Both parties do not have each other's core genes, but they still have a place for cooperation.

Because content demand is very expensive, this is true for Netflix, and the same is true for BV video sites.

Take a look at Disney's food, the price is about 1 billion US dollars.

The entertainment industry is extremely profitable, and that’s right. Once the movie giants accumulate the film library, profits will soar upwards, and various licensing fees will be softened.

Even if the digital rights of Miramax’s 700-odd movies are squeezed in price, it will cost four or five billion dollars even if the price is cut in half. Self-made web dramas or movies are easily worth hundreds of millions of dollars. Even tens of millions of dollars is not a small amount. If the number is over, it's okay if you can pay back, if you lose it, you will lose the rhythm of your grandma's house.

This is just content expenditure, but in fact, the total operating costs such as bandwidth expenses and human resources add up, which is an extremely terrifying consumption.

Online video business can't really burn without strong financial resources.

Whether it is Netflix or BV video network, this kind of large-scale burning of money is very painful, not to mention other petty bourgeoisie.

The two sides talked for a long time, and after constant bargaining, they finally reached a consensus on the price tag of US$660 million.

On the afternoon of the third day, Luo Sheng and Paloque, the representative of Disney, formally signed the film rental service cooperation agreement. The contract value is 660 million US dollars. The content of Miramax includes "Old Nowhere" and "Psychedelic Train". "15-year lease contract for 729 films.

They are all old movies. If it is a movie that has just been released, especially a movie with a big box office, the rental amount of a movie may be as high as tens of millions or even tens of millions.

After acquiring the digital rights of these hundreds of movies, the complete movie content can be watched normally on the BV video website. Consumers can rent movies for $2.99~$3.99. The general rental period is 24 hours or 48 hours.

However, Luo Sheng did not expect to recover the US$660 million in licensing costs by renting these movies to consumers, because it is impossible!

These are all old movies. Even if it takes 30 years to calculate the inflation rate, it is impossible to recover the huge licensing cost of 660 million U.S. dollars. The reason why this money is still spent is to fill up the inventory!

And the purpose of replenishing inventory is only one-user experience.

Users don’t look at it, consumption is not consumption, not the point.

The point is that when a user searches for a movie name on a BV video, and he just wants to watch it, the website must be able to provide services.

This is very important. A good user experience and rich content are the foundation. As long as the user stays on the BV video network, he will always bring value to the website from other places. The longer the time, the higher the commercial value.

It is far from enough to win the digital rights of more than 700 films. Ten times the digital rights are not enough, more.

Don't think about it. With the money paid for content, it is impossible to build a huge content ecological foundation without billions of dollars. For this, Luo Sheng will not be stingy with money.

After the contract was signed, the fact was announced on the same day.

In the following week, the style of painting completely changed, and other film companies could not sit still seeing Disney happily taking away $660 million from Bluestar Technology Group.

The second company soon came to talk about the film digital rights lease contract. This company is currently the world's most successful independent film production company-Lionsgate.

In the end, Bluestar Technology Group signed a digital copyright lease agreement for 428 films with Lionsgate at a price of US$257 million, which was also a 15-year period.

When the news broke, other film companies were finally unable to sit still, including the five major Hollywood film giants.

This Nima, hurry up and make money!

Paramount Pictures, a subsidiary of Viacom, also came uninvited.

There is no way, the lawsuit has not been won, and the combat effectiveness of the legal affairs team is no weaker than that of Disney. It is not easy to provoke, so let the local tyrants make friends.

...

On the morning of March 28, at the media conference at the headquarters of Bluestar Technology Group, under the lens of many media, reporters present took pictures of Luo Sheng shaking hands with Paramount's vice president.

After the handshake is over, take a group photo again.

Today, Bluestar Technology Group and Paramount officially signed a $700 million cooperation agreement, which will provide online rental services for nearly 500 Paramount movies including "Hugo" and "The Godfather".

Compared with the contract of Miramax under Dinis, there are more than 200 fewer movies, but the contract cost has increased by 40 million US dollars.

This result depends of course on the quality and influence of the movie content. It is obvious that these 500 films under Paramount Pictures are more valuable.

The media reporters who came to the scene were very curious about why the two companies had been facing each other in court for a year or two, why they could put aside their differences into this licensing agreement, and the terms and conditions of the agreement were not further disclosed. The media can only speculate. .

However, what is there to guess? Paramount Pictures saw that its peer company took away hundreds of millions of dollars from Luo Sheng.

I'm jealous!

Everyone is making money. If you don't make a quick one, Bluestar Technology won't buy it by then, and you won't be able to find the ground crying.

No face and nothing are as good as tickets.

What's more, the ultimate goal of the previous lawsuit was not for votes?

At the media conference at the moment, Luo Sheng picked up the microphone again and smiled at the media at the scene: "We have been discussing various matters with the film company, and Paramount is still a valuable partner of BV Video Network. After we decide to launch the movie rental business, we will continue to increase the number of digital movies for BV Video Network."

"Now we have signed film rental agreements with five of the six major film companies, as well as more than a dozen independent production companies, including Lionsgate, so that they can use a total of nearly 13,580 films. Thousands of films are available for consumers to rent on BV video sites. Other than that, we do not comment on rumors and speculations."

The non-parties on the scene saw Luo Sheng chatting and laughing with Paramount's vice president, and they were full of emotion.

The lawsuit between the two sides in the court last year was so intense that it gave outsiders the feeling that water and fire were incompatible. In a blink of an eye, the style of painting suddenly changed, and the outside world did not react.

Shopping malls really have no permanent enemies and no permanent friends, but only permanent interests.

...

(Ps: It’s not as good as a ticket in face, and it’s rolling all over asking for it~~)