Chapter 213: Nobody Owes Anybody
Chapter 213: Nobody Owes Anybody
After Elizabeth closed the door behind her, Murdoch slowly picked up the coffee pot and refilled his cup before making a casual gesture toward Eric.
Eric lightly shook his head. “Drinking too much coffee at night isn’t a very good habit.”
Murdoch chuckled. “Young people don’t have to worry about things like that. Once you reach my age, you have no choice but to drink more coffee to keep your energy up.”
“There are actually many healthier ways to maintain abundant energy.”
Murdoch did not continue that topic and instead said, “Eric, speaking of which, your very first movie was made in cooperation with Fox. The collaboration between us has always been very pleasant, hasn’t it?”
“Of course. Even I never expected 17 Again to break a hundred million at the box office.”
Eric shrugged as he answered, while simultaneously hinting that emotional tactics would not have much effect on him.
It was true that he had entered Hollywood because Fox gave him the opportunity to participate in 17 Again. But he did not owe Fox anything either. Not only had 17 Again brought Fox tens of millions of dollars in box office profits, but once the later videotape sales and television broadcasting rights were added in, the total profits had definitely exceeded one hundred million dollars. Meanwhile, he himself had received less than one million dollars in compensation from it. Speaking of which, Fox had been rather stingy. After 17 Again finished its theatrical run, he had not even received a bonus for the film’s major box office success.
Eric felt this probably had something to do with Fox missing out on Home Alone. Although Fox themselves had rejected distributing Home Alone at the time, after the movie became a massive hit, Fox had definitely still shifted the blame onto him. It was the same principle: when a person committed a mistake too severe to bear, they would instinctively vent their anger on others instead of reflecting on themselves.
Murdoch had barely begun trying to build rapport with Eric before being directly rebuffed. Even on his face, which had seen all manner of worldly affairs, a trace of awkwardness flashed past.
“Eric, I heard the other television networks have all contacted you?”
The matter of representatives from the three major networks contacting Eric had already made the newspapers. Even famous publications like the Los Angeles Times and The New York Times had run analytical articles about it. Most newspapers held pessimistic views regarding whether Fox Television could retain the broadcasting rights to future seasons of Friends.
“Yes. The conditions they offered are all very tempting.”
Murdoch somewhat irritably picked up his coffee and took a sip. He also realized the young man before him was not easy to deal with. If he continued chatting in a vague and casual manner, this little fellow would certainly continue dragging things out with equally vague replies.
Setting down the coffee cup, Murdoch decided to go straight to the point.
“Eric, how about this? Fox Television will increase Firefly’s advertising revenue share to seventy percent in exchange for the first-run broadcasting rights to the next four seasons of Friends?”
As long as he could secure the broadcasting rights to the first five seasons of Friends, Murdoch believed that with the influence of this hit television series, combined with five more years of development, Fox Television would certainly establish itself firmly in North America. At that point, after five seasons, Fox would then have enough confidence to renegotiate the revenue-sharing percentages for Friends based on the show’s ratings.
Eric raised his head and stared at Murdoch. “Mr. Murdoch, is this what Fox calls sincerity?”
“And why would this not demonstrate Fox’s sincerity?” Murdoch countered.
Eric immediately shook his head. Under normal circumstances, that revenue-sharing ratio would indeed have been extremely sincere.
The television industry differed from the film industry. Because television networks were not constrained by the same antitrust laws, they could produce television programs themselves and operate self-sufficiently. Therefore, television networks were usually very dominant when dealing with independent American television productions. Under ordinary circumstances, networks typically bought out broadcasting rights from production companies outright. Even giants like Warner, who could leverage their strength to obtain advertising revenue sharing, generally received no more than forty percent at most, and usually only around thirty percent.
But this situation was completely different.
For Fox Television, which was still in its infancy, the extraordinarily high ratings brought by Friends were merely the foundation. The most crucial point was that Friends could rapidly increase Fox Television’s popularity and help it cultivate a loyal viewing audience while the network itself was still developing.
“Mr. Murdoch, before Friends, Fox Television’s average viewership was only several million people, less than one-tenth of North America’s fixed television audience. Let’s not even talk about the over twenty million viewers Friends can bring Fox during its broadcast run. Even after this season finishes airing, it will at least raise Fox’s average viewership to more than ten million. Compared to that, your current offer really lacks sincerity.”
Murdoch stared directly at Eric and said word by word, “Eric, you should know that the terms I just offered are already nearly double the revenue share other production companies can obtain.”
Under the gaze of this media tycoon, Eric showed no signs of intimidation and instead lightly smiled.
“Mr. Murdoch, I’m sure you’ve already conducted some investigations yourself. Then you should know that in order to take Friends away, the three major networks have offered revenue-sharing conditions not much lower than Fox’s. And someone has already calculated for me that if I aired Friends on one of the established broadcast networks, the advertising revenue would increase by more than ten percent. Once that extra ten percent is factored in, the final amount would actually be about the same as Fox’s current offer. Compared to Fox, cooperating with one of the older broadcast networks would definitely bring me greater profits.”
After speaking, Eric lowered his head slightly again and picked up the coffee in front of him, deliberately avoiding Murdoch’s expression. He believed the so-called seventy percent advertising share was merely Murdoch testing the waters.
Feeling the smooth white porcelain in his hand, Eric quickly noticed that the ceramic coffee cup actually had a light green plant painted on it, carrying something of an ink-wash painting style. Seeing this, Eric suddenly felt the urge to flip the cup over and check whether the bottom was stamped with the words “Made in China.”
But almost immediately, the thought made Eric laugh.
That abrupt laugh left Murdoch rather baffled, yet his expression also relaxed along with Eric’s smile.
“Eric, why don’t you tell me your conditions? What exactly does Fox have to do in order to secure the first-run broadcasting rights for the Friends sequels?”