Chapter 223: The Trend Begins
Chapter 223: The Trend Begins
The day after the Friends ratings celebration party, Murdoch could not wait to use News Corporation’s media outlets to announce that Firefly would be taking a stake in Fox Television Network. At the same time, he also stated that not only would Friends continue airing on Fox, but the two sides would also cooperate even more closely.
As soon as the news came out, most media outlets that had originally been pessimistic about whether Fox could keep Friends under the covetous eyes of the Big Three networks instantly made a complete one-hundred-eighty-degree turn and began expressing optimism about Fox Television Network’s future development.
Setting aside Murdoch’s revelation that Firefly would cooperate more closely with Fox Television Network, just the fact that Fox had retained the hit series Friends meant that as long as Fox could seize the opportunity and produce better television programs to cultivate a loyal audience base, its fourth-place position in the North American television industry would become unshakable. It was even possible that through several years of dedicated development, it could surpass the original Big Three networks. Affected by this positive news, Fox Television Network’s original market value of less than one billion dollars rapidly climbed.
The transfer of shares in a television network could not be completed overnight. After Fox Television Network released the news, the Big Three networks not only did not give up trying to seize Friends, their contact with Eric instead became even more frequent.
Among them, because ABC had suffered continuous losses for several years after its 1985 merger with Capital Cities Communications and was most eager to turn things around, it eventually even offered Eric a stake. However, ABC CEO Tom Murphy only obtained board authorization to transfer 3% of the shares. Although that 3% stake was worth more than twice the value of Fox Television’s 10% stake, Eric was not tempted in the slightest.
Based on ABC’s history of continuing to lose money until being acquired by Disney, even if he obtained that 3% stake, he would not receive any dividends for the next several years. Instead, it would consume a large amount of Firefly’s cash. Moreover, that 3% stake could not bring Eric much speaking power either. Therefore, between the flourishing Fox and the deeply mired ABC, anyone with even slightly normal intelligence would know which choice to make.
On the evening of September 10, amid the laughter of Friends viewers and the close attention of other television companies, Friends entered its second week of broadcast.
Two hours later, Nielsen immediately released the ratings statistics. The average viewership of episodes three and four of Friends was 24.6 million, with peak viewership still reaching 29 million.
Seeing this data, the Big Three networks also began analyzing the elements behind Friends’ success. In the end, they discovered that aside from its humorous and witty plot and dialogue, the most important reason the series had achieved such extraordinarily high premiere ratings was that the first two episodes had been personally directed by Eric.
Of course, there might have been film directors who moved into television production before, but those were certainly film directors whose careers had fallen into decline and who had no other options. When their fame was at its peak, no film director would “willingly degrade himself” by filming a television drama.
Therefore, the fact that Eric, whose previous films had all achieved enormous success, personally directed a television drama became a gimmick that aroused the audience’s intense curiosity. They very much wanted to see what kind of television drama this director, who had created a series of box office miracles, would produce.
And the quality of Friends itself also met audience expectations. Thus, when all these factors were combined, the sitcom became the explosive hit it was now.
After understanding this, the Big Three networks almost simultaneously began taking action.
For a time, Hollywood directors such as Steven Spielberg, Francis Coppola, Martin Scorsese, Tim Burton, and others all received high-priced invitations. The Big Three networks even offered conditions where, as long as a director was willing to attach his name to certain episodes, they were willing to pay millions in compensation.
Under this powerful money offensive, although most directors refused due to various concerns, some still made attempts, and the results were very good. The ratings of several American dramas carrying the names of famous Hollywood directors all exceeded expectations.
Thus, over the next several years, inviting famous film directors to direct the first one or two episodes of American dramas quickly formed a trend. When a new American drama premiered, if its promotion did not feature a famous Hollywood director sitting in or attached by name, audiences would instinctively feel that the drama’s level was not high, and its ratings naturally would not be very good either.
Of course, all of that would happen later.
After the second week of Friends aired, observant people discovered that on television programs outside Fox, news about Friends had almost completely disappeared. Even on entertainment talk shows that liked using current hot topics for jokes, the hosts acted as though they had never heard of Friends.
Clearly, this was the Big Three networks’ response to Eric repeatedly refusing their attempts to win him over.
However, this “blacklisting” could no longer cause Friends any real harm. Don’t forget, standing behind Fox Television was News Corporation, which could promote the television drama comprehensively from print media to television media.
Although the Big Three networks controlled most of North America’s television media, at present they were still pure television networks and had not yet been acquired by media conglomerates, so they had very little involvement with newspapers and magazines. And in this era, newspapers and magazines still played a major role in spreading word of mouth for a television drama.
Although Fox’s competitors did not forget to publish attacks against Friends in newspapers they could influence, such as criticizing the series for having too many adult topics unsuitable for broadcast on public television, none of those attacks caused any major impact. This was because the more heavyweight newspapers all maintained highly favorable attitudes toward Friends.
Eric was currently sitting in his office reading a news article about Friends published by the Los Angeles Times.
“According to a Nielsen data analyst, the second week of Friends has already eliminated around 70% of unstable viewers. Ultimately, the sitcom’s average viewership will remain around 22 million. Without question, it will become this year’s ratings champion among television dramas.
“According to sources, the average advertising revenue per episode of Friends has already reached three million dollars. Therefore, this television drama will bring in more than seventy million dollars in revenue. Although we have no way of knowing the specific revenue-sharing arrangement between Firefly and Fox Television, given Eric Williams’ consistently strong style, the advertising revenue share for Friends will certainly reach the industry’s highest standard. Based on this calculation, just the first-run broadcast on Fox can bring Firefly nearly thirty million dollars in revenue.
“What is even more astonishing is that Firefly exclusively owns the copyright to Friends. Therefore, the later broadcast-rights transfers and videotape releases for this sitcom will bring in more than three times the advertising revenue from its first-run broadcast. Yet the total investment in this sitcom was less than five million dollars. Eric Williams, this ‘brat’ who has stirred up storms throughout Hollywood, has proven to the world that not only can he shine brilliantly in film, he can also move with ease in the field of television drama.
“While composing this article, the writer kept wondering whether Eric Williams’ next step would be to extend his reach into music. After all, in several films he directed, the soundtrack column clearly carries the name Eric Williams. In Running Out of Time, the song ‘Wordless Love’ during the bus encounter scene intoxicated countless movie fans. The image of Tom Cruise and Brooke Shields leaning against each other, enhanced by that score, was also called by the media the most beautiful film shot of the year. CEOs of the major record companies, look at the currently battered Big Three networks and take this as a lesson from history. Why not extend an invitation to Eric Williams before anyone else makes a move?”
After reading the Los Angeles Times article, Eric thought for a moment.
Back when he filmed Pretty Woman, because he had remembered a famous song by the pop group Roxette, Eric had once entertained the idea of cultivating singers and entering the recording industry.
The 1990s would be the final glorious era of the global record industry. As long as a record company had a few leading singers, its profits would not be inferior to those of a film company or television network. Even after the recording industry completely declined due to the rise of the internet era, the song copyrights held by record companies would remain an enormous fortune capable of generating long-term income in the West, where intellectual property protection was extremely strict.
After writing and sketching a few strokes on the memo beside him, Eric was about to flip to the next newspaper when there was a knock on the office door.
“Mr. Williams, Miss Murdoch is here.”
Eric casually acknowledged it, and Elizabeth Murdoch, dressed in a pale blue-and-white plaid shirt, dark jeans, and carrying a dark-blue women’s shoulder bag, stormed in like a gust of wind. She sat down opposite Eric very unceremoniously, still carrying that careless manner, as though Eric’s forceful kiss that night had not affected her in the slightest.
After taking off her shoulder bag and placing it on her lap, Elizabeth glanced at the headline of the Los Angeles Times article in front of Eric and disdainfully curled her lips.
“I didn’t expect you to be this narcissistic, hiding in your office reading articles where other people praise you.”
Eric did not care about the sarcasm in the girl’s tone.
If he were only a film director, then of course he could ignore the outside world and focus solely on making good films. But he was also the chairman of a film company, so maintaining enough attention on industry news was necessary.
Because he had been too busy recently, Eric could only ask his assistant to organize some of the more important news for him and skim them quickly each day before handling company affairs.