American Entertainment: Starting with playing the role of Little Beaver

Chapter 93 Admitting Defeat, Lying in Hibernation, and Seeking Help

2003 7 Month 25 Day.

Manhattan.

New York is gloomy today, with occasional light rain.

News Corporation headquarters.

Rupert Murdoch, sitting in his chairman's office, was as gloomy as the weather that day.

Murdoch only put down the documents he couldn't concentrate on after his secretary knocked on the door to announce the arrival of Robert Thomson, the former editor of The Times. He then asked his secretary to invite Thomson over.

Then, a middle-aged white man with glasses and a buzz cut appeared in front of Murdoch.

Upon seeing the visitor, Murdoch laughed.

He stood up and extended his hand.

"Robert, long time no see."

"Oh, boss, it's been a long time."

Thomson replied with a smile.

Murdoch and Thomson are both Australians. Moreover, Thomson's first job was in the Herald, which Murdoch's father left him, which led to a friendship that has lasted for more than 20 to 30 years.

When they first met, Murdoch was new to politics and his opinions were often naive. Therefore, Thomson, as the editor, often took the blame for Murdoch's mistakes. Perhaps because Thomson didn't complain, Murdoch always remembered his goodwill. Whenever he went to a new place, he would take Thomson with him, using Thomson's words to test the waters of the market.

After a while, Thomson became Murdoch's go-to writer.

So this time, after deciding to attack Isabella, Murdoch sent his top henchman. From a mission standpoint, he did a pretty good job, but…

"I'm sorry, Robert, you've really had to go through this."

“If you don’t leave The Times, we might be in trouble.”

"Oh—boss—don't do this—it's nothing—"

Thomson waved his hand, indicating that he didn't care at all, but at the same time, he was also very curious, "Boss, if it's convenient, can you tell me what exactly happened this time? In the past, when something happened, we would just publish an apology in the newspaper."

Thomson has been taking the blame so many times that he understands that if things go wrong, he'll get punished.

In the past, no matter how badly they crashed, no one dared to actually touch them.

And this time...

“Oh, it’s a procedural issue,” Murdoch sighed. “Although News Corporation’s registered office has been changed to the United States, the main entity is still in Australia. This isn’t illegal, but…”

“Okay, I understand.” Thomson nodded.

To the general public, the United States today may be a symbol of freedom and democracy, but to those who truly control resources, it's all nonsense, because the United States today has many unspoken rules and regulations that cannot be explicitly stated.

For example, only Americans can control the American media.

For example, media outlets whose main activity is in the United States cannot register in other countries.

Murdoch immigrated to the United States from Australia for these reasons, and then moved his company there as well.

However, even though he changed his nationality and moved his company, he didn't bring all the related assets with him. Through affiliation agreements, he left all his wealth in his home country, Australia.

The business environment in the United States is quite harsh. Without fully understanding the situation, moving around carelessly could easily turn you into a pig.

Legally speaking, his actions were problematic, but in practice, these are things that officials don't investigate unless the public complains, so nothing serious happened initially. But when the enemy is keeping a close eye on you...

To put it bluntly, if Robert Iger had someone submit a whistleblower letter to the Federal Communications Commission, News Corporation would have been shut down. The reason Robert Iger didn't submit it was simply because the two sides hadn't reached the point of mutual destruction.

So, after receiving a call from Robert Iger, Murdoch readily raised the flag of truce.

Yes.

On Fox's side, Robert Iger was in direct contact.

The Times' apology letter to Isabella was requested by Iger.

If you apologize, things will stop. If you don't apologize, then I'm going to take you down.

"Oh—so do we really have to stop?"

Thomson understood his old friend's predicament, but he also shook his head and said, "If before it was just our guess that only one of 'The Voice' and 'American Idol' could remain, then now..."

"If The Voice doesn't die, American Idol might really be gone..."

Because of the manipulation by Eger and Mayer, Isabella emerged from the storm as a victim.

Therefore, at present, the North American people's affection for her is truly beyond compare.

The city competition of "The Voice of China" officially started on July 11, and then the ratings were ridiculously high.

Take Los Angeles, for example, where statistics are available. The live broadcast of The Voice city competition boosted the viewership of Los Angeles City Network to over 30%. To put that into perspective, Los Angeles alone could provide The Voice with 100 million viewers.

Based on this data, even with a 20% discount, the viewership for the national finals of "The Voice of China" would likely start at 30 million. Isabella's starting point for popularity might very well be the end point of her career on "American Idol."

Murdoch knew this, so when he heard the question from his "official writer," he immediately laughed.

He pointed to the computer in front of him and said, "You know how to use this, right?"

“Yeah—” Thomson nodded.

"Okay, come here and go up and down the bulletin board."

Murdoch stood up to offer his seat, and Thomson sat down familiarly.

After Thomson helped the elderly man, who was unfamiliar with computers, to get the bulletin board up...

The number one song in the Top 100 is "Party in the USA".

This fact made Thomson laugh heartily, and as the product details page was displayed, countless positive reviews poured out like a waterfall—

"Oh my god! 'Party in the USA' is definitely the best song of the year!"

"Dxxn! I now believe one thing: that being an actress is a waste of Isabella's musical talent! The hook for 'Party in the USA' is absolutely fantastic!"

"Party in the USA might be the best diss track ever! Seriously! I never thought there were any other genres besides hip-hop and rap that could be used for diss tracks!"

"Wowww—Miss Beaver is super cool!"

"Isabella is truly amazing! To be honest, if I were Isabella, I probably would have exploded after facing a bunch of accusations! But she actually wrote 'Party in the USA' in such a short time? Oh... that's really..."

"I think 'Party in the USA' might become the most frequently performed song on 'The Voice'! Because this song is so easy to sing! It's only 96 beats per minute, and it's in F# major, which is too easy for girls! Of course, the most important thing is that it's also beautiful! It's extremely beautiful!!!"

"Ah—I feel like I love Miss Beaver even more now—"

"Ahhh—I absolutely adore Miss Granger—"

Although Thomson is a media person with a political background, media and entertainment are inseparable, aren't they?
Therefore, he has a relatively good understanding of the music industry.

That's why, when he discovered that "Party in the USA" was at number one on the Billboard charts and all the reviews were positive, he was immediately overwhelmed with emotion...

"Is this a top-ranked single?" Thomson asked his boss.

Murdoch, who was sitting directly on his desk, nodded and shook his head. "The crown has been empty for three weeks."

In this day and age, the ranking algorithm on Billboard is actually very simple: it's all about spending money.

The score for a work is calculated as follows: radio play count * score ratio + song sales * score ratio. The artist with the highest score is ranked number one.

The latter, song sales, are simply numbers generated by fans spending real money.

The former, although radio play count includes both the number of times the radio station actively plays the song and the number of times fans request songs, the number of times songs are requested is the most important thing, since music radio stations make money from fans' song requests.

Therefore, when Billboard's work points are closely related to money, Billboard's rankings are actually a fan spending leaderboard.

In most cases, the top spot on the weekly chart is worth no less than 500 million.

US dollars.

However, this is only the general case.

The other common scenario is an album like "Party in the USA," which debuts at number one on the charts in its first week of release.

What does this mean?

公告牌是1958年创办的，截止到2003年7月1日，45年的时间里只出了11首空冠。

The first time an empty crown appeared was in 1995, with MJ's "You Are Not Alone".

The second song is Mariah Carey's "Fantasy".

Then came Whitney Houston's "Exhale," Mariah Carey's "One Sweet Day" with a collaboration between an adult and a child, Puff Daddy's "I Will Be Missing You" with Biggie's widow, Elton John's "Candle in the Wind 1997" (a tribute to Princess Diana), Celine Dion's "My Heart Will Go On," The Blacksmith's "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing," Lauren Hill's "Doo Wop"...

That's right.

All of the songs with the title "Empty Crown" are divine among divine.

The lowest label a person can have is "King of Pop" or "Queen of Pop".

So, Party in the USA won the no-show?
"We can no longer stop 'The Voice of China'."

Murdoch sighed and said with some emotion, "Although Isabella's empty crown is related to us, if we hadn't targeted her, and if it had been released normally... 'Party in the USA' probably wouldn't have reached the empty crown."

"We've given her a lot of attention and a lot of buzz."

"But an empty crown is still an empty crown, isn't it?"

"All songs that have no top rankings mean that fans have spent at least 20 million on them."

"This kind of public opinion..."

"It's already difficult to fight back."

From a spending perspective, the value of the Sky Crown is many times higher than that of the top spot on the Billboard weekly chart.

It's easy for a single song to rake in 20 million in a week.

However, for songs that can win top prizes, making money is the least important thing.

Most importantly, a song that reaches the top spot requires the mindless support of over a million fans to achieve that.

To put it dramatically, this is actually the will of the people.

Once this fact came to light, Murdoch realized that the birth of The Voice was unstoppable.

If anyone still wants to stop "The Voice" from being released, their enemy will not be Isabella, but tens of thousands of American people. No company can withstand such an impact.

therefore……

Murdoch sighed, patted Thomson on the shoulder, and said, "Let's leave The Voice aside for now."

"We throw in the towel."

"but……"

"We will still keep an eye on them."

"Since Isabella, Aiger, and Meyer have ruined my business... then I won't let them get away with it..."

Murdoch accepted reality because he was a businessman who prioritized profit. Once he realized that the risks of the attack outweighed the rewards, he was no longer willing to gamble. However, the others in the anti-government alliance were different.

Take, for example, Edgar Bronfman Jr., the vice chairman of Vivendi Global.

He was in California at the moment, meeting with Stacey Snyder, chairman of Universal Pictures, in a bad mood.

He felt like someone had kicked his butt.

Tell me—

Why did DreamWorks suddenly release an announcement saying our collaboration is ending???

Because it is very difficult to establish overseas distribution channels in the film industry, in June 1995, DreamWorks, which had just been established and was in dire need of development, reached a ten-year cooperation agreement with Universal.

The contract stipulates that Universal will be responsible for the overseas distribution of all DreamWorks films for the next ten years.

This collaboration brought Universal over $10 billion in revenue because the overseas distribution rights agreed upon by both parties included theatrical releases and home theaters, which included videotapes. So, when DreamWorks was able to produce films like "The Ring," "Saving Private Ryan," and "Shrek," Universal was practically rolling in money.

This contract increased the value of the entire Universal Pictures!
but now……

Has DreamWorks decided not to renew its contract after it expires?

This……

This……

This……

This is absolutely killing Bronfman!
Keep in mind that Vivendi Universal is currently in talks with General Electric to sell Universal Pictures!
If DreamWorks' distribution revenue were to disappear, GE would definitely drive down the price drastically!
Thinking of this, Bronfman Jr. gasped for breath, his eyes fixed intently on Stacey Snyder.

When asked by his boss, Snyder pursed his lips and said, "Boss... according to my information, Barry Mayer met with Steven (Spielberg) in the past few days. It's said that Mayer said Warner Bros. could help DreamWorks distribute movies. They can even discuss the revenue sharing ratio. So... Steven is interested."

"Oh! Fxxk!" Bronfman Jr. was furious. "Bang—" He slammed his right fist hard on the table in front of him.

This sight made Snyder's eyes flicker.

Just as she was pursing her lips, wondering whether she should comfort her boss...

Bronfman Jr. yelled again, "Isn't there any chance we can even try?"

"I don't mean that we absolutely have to renew our contract with DreamWorks!"

"What I mean is to get Steven to reconsider his decision not to renew his contract. Let's talk about this after we sell Universal Pictures!"

"..."

Snyder was stunned.

She stared silently at her boss, and seeing that Bronfman Jr. didn't seem to be joking, she shook her head and said, "Boss, I think you should know that DreamWorks releasing this news at this time is actually helping Mayer to disgust us."

"As for why they did this..."

"Personally, I think there are two reasons."

"The first reason is related to Isabella."

“We all know that Isabella is Hermione Granger in Harry Potter, and the film is directed by Chris Columbus. So, if Isabella is ruined by public opinion, causing Harry Potter to be canceled, then Chris’s interests will also be affected. And Chris… he’s Steven’s student…”

"The interests of my own students have been ruined?"

Do you think Steven will be happy?

"He won't."

"The second reason is also related to Isabella."

Steven is a very proud person.

"Although he didn't make any extreme comments about losing Harry Potter back then, only saying that it was a scheduling problem and he didn't have time to take over the project, everyone knew that he wasn't happy about being kicked out by Rowling."

"That's why Steven pushed Chris to be the director. He wanted to prove to the world that he was still the undisputed king in the industry, and that he could get any project he wanted!"

"But we all know that this kind of 'taking it down' is just self-deception, isn't it?"

"Because Steven only helped Chris land 'The Sorcerer's Stone' and 'The Chamber of Secrets,' he had no chance of getting 'Azkaban' or 'The Goblet of Fire.' In their original plan, they would make two movies and then find an excuse to leave gracefully, because Rowling would not continue to offer Chris film contracts. But now?"

Chris stayed.

"Lowling let Chris stay because of Isabella."

"And Rowling gave Chris a lot of respect."

"I think you should understand what this means!"

"If Chris can make seven Harry Potter movies in a row, then Steven's reputation will be completely saved!"

"This is a very important matter!"

"Steven is already financially independent!"

"Steven has long been adorned with numerous honors!"

"Apart from his reputation, there's nothing else that he cares about too much now!"

"So..."

"The girl who could save his face was maliciously attacked?"

Do you think he'll be in a better mood?

Snyder paused at this point.

His eyes were wide open as he stared at little Bronfman.

The blunt question made Bronfman clench his teeth.

He really is a spendthrift—

But that only applies to the business aspects.

He's not an idiot—

Therefore, after putting himself in Spielberg's shoes, he realized that Spielberg would not side with him in this current battle.

This……

"M-Fxxk!"

"Why is it Isabella everywhere I go?!"

"How disgusting is this person?!"

At that moment, Bronfman Jr. felt that he might be the one most seriously injured after the mission failed.

Because he lost a key general—

He can't get Doug Morris out of there!

Someone must bear the cost of failure!

He could only compensate Doug Morris in other ways!

Because his business suffered losses—

Not only did Warner Music not manage to acquire it!

The value of the group's stock in his hands will shrink due to Doug Morris's disappearance and DreamWorks' decision not to renew his contract!
This is an absolute rip-off!
but……

at the same time.

Other guys who felt disgusted included Steve Case, Ted Turner, and Michael Eisner.

Let's start with Steve Case and Ted Turner.

Although removing the name 'America Online' from 'America Online Time Warner' was a decision everyone had already made, and it had been discussed at the board meeting at the beginning of the year.

There's nothing we can do about it; the name AOL is really lagging behind these days.

The situation was so dire that even Steve Case himself realized that AOL no longer deserved to be ahead of Time Warner.

In the mega-merger of the early 2000s, he was the biggest loser!

Not only has his net worth shrunk by 70%, but even the names of his companies are now considered trash by the public!

Even though Steve Case had already resigned himself to his fate before the new year, the actual implementation, that is, the vote, would not take place until the shareholders' meeting at the end of the year. In other words, as long as no one leaked the news, his dignity could have been maintained until November or December.

But now?

The news has been leaked?

Decent...

there is none left?
"It's all settled; the information was leaked by Richard Parsons."

California.

In a private residence in Los Angeles.

Ted Turner was on the phone with a gloomy expression on his face.

"The specific process was that Barry Mayer approached Richard Parsons. Barry wanted Richard's support, and Richard agreed because... supposedly... Richard recognized Isabella's value."

"..."

new York.

Steve Case took a deep breath as he listened to the phone call.

He understood the meaning behind Ted Turner's words.

Richard Parsons's release of the information signifies that the Rockefeller family has officially issued a warning to them.

They were warned not to harm Isabella again.

Because Isabella's presence does indeed benefit the group.

And this benefit is not just a tiny bit.

Since the Rockefeller family has started summoning Captain Dragonfly for an audience, then they too...

"Let's find another opportunity."

Ted Turner raised his right hand, rubbed his face vigorously, and said to Steve Case, who was silent on the other end of the phone, "War is always long, isn't it? As long as we hold the equity, we still have a chance."

"and……"

"We will definitely fight them to the end, won't we?"

What we lose today, we will take back tomorrow!

Steve Case gritted his teeth upon hearing these words.

A moment later, he suddenly laughed. "You're right, Ted, we will fight them to the end."

"By the time……"

"I want them all to die!"

"Whether it's Barry Mayer or Robert Iger, they both have to die!"

"Oh, right—and Isabella—"

"She's very popular now? She has a lot of fans? Isn't that a good thing for us?"

"Once we take over the company, we can just send her away, and then all her money will be ours!"

"Don't her fans like her?"

"Okay!"

"I'll make sure her fans send her flowers every year!"

"Hahahaha-"

Ted Turner and Steve Case can choose to lie low.

Because they are legitimate major shareholders of the group.

Michael Eisner, however, is not an option.

Because Disney's bylaws contain this clause:
'If a member of the Group's Board of Directors is unable to continue performing their duties due to death, retirement, or other reasons, the Board of Directors will skip the term limits and proceed directly to a new election until the required number of Board members is reached according to the Articles of Association.'

So……

In other words, once Roy Disney's swordsman, Stanley Gold, officially announces his retirement, Disney's board of directors will have to be replaced, at which point his enemies will launch their fiercest attack on him.

Michael Eisner narrowed his eyes at the thought that he might lose his chairmanship and be kicked out of Disney.

"Humph--"

He casually tossed aside Roy Disney's resignation letter, which was seen as a declaration of war.

He got up and left the office.

Now that Roy Disney has decided to bet on Robert Iger, then...

We'll see!

Let's see who can influence more shareholders!
In North America, the anti-government and pro-government alliances are all busy with their own problems and are on the verge of collapse.

Meanwhile, in England, Isabella was cheering with joy.

August 9, 2003, Evanhoe.

"Harry, keep going!"

Amidst the commotion, a little girl dressed in Hogwarts uniform shouted loudly at Harry in the arena.

Upon hearing her words, Harry, clutching his flying broom, smiled and tilted his head.

This action elicited a burst of screams from the crowd—

"Go Gryffindor!"

"The Lion Wins the Cup!"

(End of this chapter)