Heads Up Hollywood

Colorado is next to California, and it only takes three hours to fly from Los Angeles to Denver.

After landing, Tang En and his party went directly to the headquarters of the STA TV network.

Professional cable television was originally a niche field, because the content scale was too large and subscription fees were high, so it was originally an exclusive space for many adult channels. (Note)

Later, HBO and SHO entered this field, and quickly established a force, giving this market a new vitality.

In the early 1990s, cable TV tycoon John Malone saw the potential of the professional cable TV market and began to get involved in this industry. He asked his two subordinates, Tony Grammer and Martin Tang Wen, to create a company comparable to HBO and SHO. Professional cable TV network.

Therefore, STA Television Network came into being.

But John Malone is so smart that he almost has a vision beyond the times.

With the advent of the Internet tide, John Malone realized the crisis of the TV industry. The traditional TV industry would definitely be impacted by the Internet, and began to sell the assets of his companies frantically.

The STA TV network was also acquired by Tang En under such momentum.

After completing the acquisition, Tang En did not immediately reorganize and adjust the TV station. After waiting for a whole year, Tang En Pictures completed the personnel change under this year's strategy of gathering all resources and developing professional cable TV stations.

The two founders, Tony Grammer and Martin Tang Wen, were directly taken down by Tang En without warning, and replaced by Chris Albrecht, the content guru he dug from HBO.

Now, Chris Albrecht and his team of 17 people have been stationed in the STA TV network for almost two months. Tang En came over in person to check and accept the results.

This is a very new office building, which shows the short history of the STA TV network.

Chris Albrecht led a group of high-level executives of the company, dressed in formal attire, to greet and wait at the door of the company from a distance.

Seeing such a scene, Tang En almost burst out laughing.

Americans also know the scene very well!

With a smile on his face, Tang En shook hands with everyone one by one, and when he walked up to Chris Albrecht, he couldn't help laughing and scolding: "Don't do this in the future, we are a company, and what we look at is performance, not bureaucracy. !"

Chris Albrecht said: "Only this once! The main purpose is to let you see the spirit of the company's employees, and everyone is your fan. They all want to see you and shake hands. I can't refuse."

Tang En looked around in a big circle, nodded in satisfaction, "It seems that your work is good."

The two founders of the STA TV network were taken down, and then 6 members of the founding team followed and left, which will definitely cause a lot of shock within the company.

Chris Albrecht was able to complete STA's management transition tasks in less than two months, reintegrating employees and putting them into work.

This performance alone is no small achievement.

What's more, after he joined the job, he reorganized and adjusted the content of Starz TV and Encore TV under the STA TV network, following the model of HBO1 and sister channel Cinemax. The former broadcasts more well-produced and more exciting episodes and movies , the latter plays relatively low-quality, but more pornographic content.

Such a new integration of clear content chains, coupled with the hit drama "Under Six Feet", has allowed STA TV Network's installed users, subscribers, and tidy users to grow like crazy!

Now, the installed capacity of the STA TV network has exceeded 38 million households, of which only 8 million have not used trial rights.

In other words, more than 30 million household users in the United States have watched Starz TV!

It should be known that before May of this year, STA TV Network was established for 7 years, and served a total of 8 million household users.

This is an amazing achievement!

As for paid subscribers, although they still haven't surpassed the two old rivals HBO and SHO, the momentum of growth is very gratifying.

HBO has 7.5 million North American subscriptions and SHO has 5.1 million paying subscribers.

And STA... has broken through the 4 million mark!

More than 70% of the subscribers have chosen the 3-month subscription package of $23.99, 25% of the users have subscribed to the half-year package of $45.99, and 5% of the users have chosen the annual $89.99 package.

So much so that in the past two months, the subscription revenue of STA TV network has exceeded 100 million US dollars!

The money will be collected by the operator Comcast, and then about 8% of the operating service fee will be deducted, and then transferred back to the STA TV network.

But this is not an instant transfer. Generally speaking, it is settled every six months.

In other words, Comcast can freely spend this money in the second half of this year!

Putting it in the bank to eat interest is several million dollars!

Such a great God of Wealth shocked everyone in Comcast. This kid, Tang En, needs to be prosperous!

Tang En has been worrying about whether Comcast and Viacom will operate secretly to squeeze the living space of STA TV network, but this is all right, this huge sum of money has arrived, allowing Comcast's The president, Brian Roberts, personally called Tang En to express his congratulations.

It's very simple. Starz TV, which has only over 4 million subscribers, generates $100 million in revenue in two months, and the Nickelodeon Channel, which has more than 88 million subscribers, has an average two-month subscription revenue of no more than $40 million!

Although the former is an accidental outbreak and the latter is an average income, the results of such data are enough to explain the gap between cheap basic cable TV stations and professional cable TV stations!

If the STA TV network can continue to develop according to this momentum, the future will be limitless!

Chris Albrecht led Tang En and his party through various offices. Everyone was very enthusiastic about Tang En.

Tang En was very satisfied with the mental outlook of the employees, and talked with him while walking, "Today is Saturday, let everyone work overtime here, so no one will give any advice?"

Chris Albrecht explained with a smile, "Well, the TV station has a special job. There will be no programs when everyone is on vacation, so I will take a shift. Besides, tomorrow night is the penultimate season of the first season of "Six Feet Under" It is estimated that the ratings scale will skyrocket, and everyone has enthusiasm for work."

"Six Feet Under" has a total of 13 episodes. Starting from June 3, one episode will be broadcast every weekend night at prime time.

So far, 11 episodes have been aired.

Tomorrow, August 12, the penultimate episode will air.

"Oh?" Tang En's eyes lit up, his face expectant, "Will the ratings increase further?"

"It's the number of viewers, not the ratings. We are a cable TV station. This data is of little reference value." Chris Albrecht shook his head solemnly.

Tang En rolled his eyes, this Chris Albrecht is really not very good at it, no wonder he didn't get along well with his immediate boss when he was at HBO, he was a little annoyed, "Then you just say it's meaningful !"

Chris Albrecht smiled sarcastically, "The number of viewers will definitely increase. We have created a growth curve. If there is no accident, tomorrow night...the number of viewers will exceed 2 million."

The STA TV network has a total of more than 4 million subscribers, and half of them are waiting in front of the TV to watch "Six Feet Under", which is already a good achievement.

When HBO was in full swing in later generations, the hit drama "Western World" had an average of 12 million viewers per episode on each platform.

"Six Feet Under" has achieved such ratings in such an era and environment, which is already amazing enough.

After all, there is only one Band of Brothers!

"Subscribers... How long will it take to surpass SHO?"

Tang En's question was very difficult.

Chris Albrecht's answer is very cautious, "STA's future goal is to beat HBO, but our time is short after all. SHO also has a history of development for decades. If we want to squeeze out the position of SHO... I think I have to wait until Band of Brothers airs to leverage the influence of this miniseries. As for HBO, I need three years!"

Tang En frowned and opened his eyes wide, "You didn't say that two months ago!"

Chris Albrecht frowned, and said in a deep voice: "At that time, I did say that HBO would be pulled down within a year. But after taking over STA, I discovered that the hardware facilities, software conditions and HBO There are obvious gaps, and I need time for unified rectification and replacement."

Tang En was silent for a while, and then laughed, "Chris, it seems that you don't have enough confidence in "Band of Brothers"! I spent 80 million US dollars to buy the North American copyright of this TV series, not to defeat SHO So easy."

"Trying to beat HBO with just one miniseries...hard!"

Chris Albrecht shook his head, and added: "Cable TV is a long-term market. If you want to firmly grasp the audience, one TV series is far from enough. You must continue to provide high-quality content. .Otherwise viewers subscribe to Band of Brothers and may abandon STA Network in a few months."

Tang En nodded, "So, one "Band of Brothers" is not enough. We need to produce more and better TV dramas, and bind the audience with sustained appeal! Tang En Pictures has launched "Six Feet" this year. Underneath 2" and "The Wire" are two episodes. In October, there will be a comic adaptation of "The Punisher" to start filming. Your side should also be synchronized. Didn't you bring the content team together? There are no good projects ?”

"There is a project that is being conceived."

"What?"

"A comedy about urban life, "Sex and the City" is a female theme. This is a story about two male protagonists who come to Hollywood to struggle and want to become stars."

Tang En narrowed his eyes slightly, and he correctly remembered that this was "Entourage" broadcast by HBO in 2004.

"Is copyright okay?"

"No, it's just an idea at the moment. When we were at HBO, we didn't leave any paper documents, and we all communicated verbally."

"Um."

Tang En narrowed his eyes, thinking about it.

Chris Albrecht is a comedian by training, and he is best at comedy. Although I also strongly advocated investing in such billion-level productions as "Rome" and "Spartacus", it seems that it was many years later.

He jumped to the STA TV network. According to the normal logic of thinking, he would definitely launch a big enough sensational production to show his ability, but he was only conceiving a comedy, and he obviously lacked confidence.

Tang En took a deep breath. It seemed that he still had to shoulder the burden of the content himself!