I'm in Hollywood

Chapter 223: Impact of Friends

The day after Friends' success party, Murdoch couldn't wait to use News Corp's vast media empire to release the news that Firefly will obtain a 10% equity in Fox Network, Friends will continue to broadcast on Fox Network, and that Firefly and Fox will continue to closely cooperate in the future.

When this news came out, most of the media which had been pessimistic about Fox's chances of retaining Friends due to the influence of the Big Three immediately changed their stance by 180° and began expressing their optimism about the future prospects of Fox Network.

Not to mention the fact that Firefly will work closely with Fox, just the already existing Friends is more than enough for Fox to seize significant market share, create more sophisticated TV shows and cultivate a loyal audience. This will allow Fox to cement its position as the fourth largest network in America. In addition, it's even possible for Fox to overtake one of the Big Three in the future.

Thanks to this good news, Fox Network's original market value of less than $1 billion rose rapidly. After hearing about the imminent deal between Firefly and Fox, the Big Three not only did not give up on Friends, instead they began to contact Eric more frequently. After all, the transfer of the network's equity won't be completed overnight.

Among the Big Three, ABC, which had been in a slump since its merger with Capital Cities Communications in 1985, was the most eager and even offered equity similar to Fox. However, Tom Murphy, the Chairman and CEO of ABC, only managed to obtain the board of directors approval to sell 3% equity to Firefly.

Even though the value of ABC's 3% equity is more than twice the value of Fox's 10% equity, Eric was not interested. He was aware that ABC has been losing money for the past four years and will continue to do so until its acquisition by Disney which means that he will receive no dividends from ABC for the next few years.

Therefore, investment in ABC will bear no fruit. In addition, a tiny 3% equity stake is not likely to give Eric a large voice within ABC. As long as one has a little sense, one can see which network has a higher potential between the booming Fox and the decrepit ABC. As a result, Eric's choice is obvious.

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On the evening of September 10th, under the close attention of the Big Three and laughter of the audience, Friends' second week of broadcast came to an end. Two hours later, Nielsen released the episode's ratings data. The average viewers for the third and fourth episodes of Friends reached 24.6 million while the highest ratings even reached 29 million.

The Big Three also received this data and began to analyze the factors behind the success of Friends. Finally, they concluded that the reason behind Friends' high broadcast ratings was that, in addition to its humorous writing, the first two episodes had been directed by Eric.

Of course, there have been many film directors who have been involved in the production of TV shows in the past and a few have even personally directed a number of episodes, but those film directors had done that because they didn't receive work anywhere else. Unless they had no other choice, no film director would stoop so low as direct TV shows since it was considered taboo in Hollywood.

Therefore, the publicity gimmick that Eric, a young man who has directed many hit films and has become famous enough to rival Spielberg and Lucas, would personally direct a TV show has aroused a strong curiosity within the audience. They wanted to see the TV show directed by Eric who has performed one box office miracle after another. Eric did not disappoint them as the quality of Friends more than lived up to their expectations.

After they understood this, the Big Three rushed to follow suit almost simultaneously. Soon, Steven Spielberg, Francis Coppola, George Lucas, Martin Scorsese, Tim Burton and many other bigshot Hollywood directors received extremely generous invitations.

The Big Three even stated that they would be willing to pay them millions of dollars even if they just put their name in the credits. Although most directors refused monetary offers due to their pride, some still capitulated. The results were also quite good. A few TV shows with the name of a film director in the credits obtained higher ratings than expected.

As a result, it became a trend to invite famous film directors to direct the first two episodes of a TV show. In fact, if a TV show lacked a famous film director, it's reputation would plummet and the audience would feel that the quality of that TV show was likely lacking which would, in turn, result in a loss of ratings and this vicious cycle would continue.

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After Friends' second weekly broadcast, some people discovered that any news regarding Friends on TV shows of other networks, besides Fox, had vanished. Even the talk shows that like to discuss the current events in the country and the entertainment industry seem to have never heard of Friends.

Obviously, this was deliberately done by the Big Three after Eric refused all of them. However, this "gag order" has not caused any harm to Friends. After all, Fox's parent company, News Corp, owns major paper media in all English-speaking countries in the world. It can publicize Friends in paper media or TV media in every corner of the world.

Even though the Big Three control most of the TV media in America, they are still pure TV networks as they have not been merged into media conglomerates. Thus, they own few newspapers and magazines. During this era, the word-of-mouth of a TV show was mainly spread through newspapers and magazines.

The Big Three, as Fox's competitors, have not failed to publish some attacks on Friends in newspapers and magazines which they can influence such as pointing out the incessant use of laugh tracks in Friends. However, it didn't have much of an impact since the more authoritative newspapers have given good reviews for Friends.

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Eric was sitting in his office reading a piece of news about Friends in the Los Angeles Times.

"According to Nielsen ratings, the second weekly broadcast of Friends has removed the unstable audience. They predict that the average number of viewers of this sitcom will remain at around 22 million, which will undoubtedly make Friends the king of ratings amongst the TV shows this fall.

According to sources, the average advertising revenue of Friends has reached $3 million. Therefore, Friends will bring in more than $70 million in ad revenue each season. Although we are unaware of the exact ad revenue distribution between Firefly and Fox, with the dominant nature of Eric Williams, the ad revenue share obtained by Firefly will definitely be unprecedented in the industry.

In addition, just the first round of reruns can bring nearly $30 million in revenue to Firefly. What is even more surprising is that the copyright of Friends is held exclusively by Firefly. Afterwards, the licensing income from the syndication and the sale of videotapes will bring in at least three times the ad revenue of the original run.

All of this comes from the less than $5 million investment of Friends. Eric Williams, the young man who has been the center of attention in Hollywood for the past two years, has proven to the world that he can not only shine in the film industry, but also in the TV industry.

While writing this article, I suddenly had a thought: Will Eric Williams extend his reach to the music industry next? After all, in all the films he has directed, the soundtracks have always been written by Eric Williams, himself. A Silent Voice during the bus scene between Tom Cruise and Brooke Shields in Running Out of Time had touched many fans. The media even praised Running Out of Time as the most beautiful film of the year thanks to this song.

So, I would like to give some advice to the CEOs of the major record labels. Look at the turmoil within the Big Three networks and learn from their mistakes. Why not send an invitation to Eric Williams before someone else does?"

After reading the article in the Los Angeles Times, Eric fell into deep thought.

When he had filmed Pretty Woman and used the song It Must Have Been Love by the pop duo Roxette, he had thought about producing a few songs and entering the music industry. The '90s was the final glory of the global recording industry. As long as a record company had several singers, the profits were no less than those of a successful film company or TV station.

In addition, even if the recording industry declines in the future due to the rise of the advent of the internet, the copyrights of songs owned by record companies would remain a huge asset that would bring long-term income, especially in the West where intellectual property protection was taken very strictly. While thinking this, he wrote a few notes on his memo.

Eric was about to pick up another newspaper when he received a call from his secretary, "Mr. Williams, Miss Murdoch is here."

Soon, Elisabeth Murdoch, wearing a blue and white plaid shirt and dark jeans with a large dark blue purse on her arm, slammed the door and walked in before rudely sitting down opposite Eric. Then, she stared directly at him without any hesitation as if to say that she was unaffected by Eric's kiss that night.

She glanced at the newspaper in Eric's hand and mocked, "I didn't think you were so narcissistic. Even secretly hiding in your office to read articles about others praising you."

Eric ignored Elisabeth. If he was just a film director, he wouldn't have to care about anything else and just focus on filming. However, he is also the chairman of a film company, so it is necessary for him to remain aware of the industry's happenings.

-TO BE CONTINUED-