Chapter 141 Christmas Speech

“Christmas is the anniversary of the birth of Christ more than two thousand years ago, but it is much more than that, it is a celebration of the birth of ideas and ideals.

From another perspective, I feel that the Golden Jubilee is more than just an anniversary.

These celebrations are enjoyable occasions, but they also seem to evoke something more lasting and profound - a sense of belonging and pride in a country, town or community; a sense of sharing a common heritage, a common heritage Enriched by the cultural, ethnic and religious diversity of our 21st century society. "

On Christmas Day, the Queen gave her annual message to people across the UK through television.

It can be said that the Queen still encountered many things during this year, including the death of her sister and mother at the beginning of the year, and then ushered in the Golden Jubilee celebration of the 50th anniversary of her accession to the throne in June.

Later, because the late Princess Diana's butler was involved in the "theft incident" of stealing and selling her belongings, the Queen was also involved, and the prestige she had gained after the Golden Jubilee celebration was frustrated.

In addition, there are many scandals in the royal family that have been reported in the press.

It is also because of this that there are rumors that he is preparing to "abdicate".

Her speech this time can be regarded as a response to this.

…

Before Christmas, Digital UK acquired British set-top box manufacturer PUMA PLC for £10 million.

Puma PLC is not a large company, only owning a small factory in Birmingham, but their technical level is quite good.

After acquiring Puma PLC, Digital UK changed its name to Puma Electronics (Puma Electronics), and with subsequent orders and 20 million pounds of capital, it took shares in Digital UK's three foundry factories in China, occupying its 60% of the shares.

As a result, these three factories in Shenzhen will be merged into Puma Electronics (China), using the funds invested by Digital UK to upgrade equipment and open a larger new factory to fully produce Freeview platform set-top boxes.

This decision was made because within this month, the first two batches of set-top boxes produced by the Huaxia factory had arrived in England and were distributed to users of the Freeview platform. Their quality was recognized by Digital UK - although the quality was lower than Compared with locally produced set-top boxes, the failure rate is slightly higher, but the significantly reduced costs and faster production efficiency have made Digital UK extremely satisfied.

After all, this kind of set-top box product, to put it bluntly, will only be a transitional product. With the popularity of digital TV in the future, the current set-top box products will definitely be continuously upgraded, so it can give users a lifespan of two to three years, which is fully satisfactory. Needed.

Therefore, Digital UK also spent a certain amount of funds. After acquiring Puma PLC, another local set-top box manufacturer, it established Puma Electronics Company and invested in the Chinese factory on a larger scale.

After that, in addition to mainly producing set-top boxes for Freeview platform users, Puma Electronics (China) will also participate in the competition of set-top boxes in the Chinese market.

The reason why we first acquired the local Puma PLC company is to obtain the technical personnel of this company. On the other hand, it is also to use the British brand Puma, which will make it easier to provide users with "high-end products" whether in overseas markets or the local Chinese market. "impression.

According to Digital UK's estimates, the number of users accessing the Freeview platform will exceed 200,000 before New Year's Day in 2003. With the release of larger set-top box production capacity, in the first quarter of 2003, the number of Freeview platform users will be directly The number of users exceeded 2 million!

Based on the current user reservation situation, it is very possible to increase the number of households by 1 million per month in the future.

It is worth mentioning that at this time in 2002, the local government of China was very welcoming to projects like Puma Electronics (Huaxia) that accepted foreign investment and whose main products were "export-earning foreign exchange".

Because of this, when Puma Electronics acquired these three factories and expanded its operations, the local government was extremely cooperative and provided Puma Electronics (Huaxia) with a piece of land in the development zone at a low price to build new factories. of factory.

When the DSTV TV channel was about to launch and the series "Downton Abbey" was broadcast, there were also different voices in Summit Media.

In particular, Bonnie, who is responsible for the production of "Downton Abbey", believes that the number of users of the Freeview platform at this time is only 200,000, which is far less than the wide range of users of the ITV1 channel when they broadcast "The Traitors". In this case Next, "Downton Abbey" will be broadcast to only the 200,000 viewers on the Freeview platform. For "Downton Abbey" to be so carefully produced, it is really disappointing.

Indeed, the Freeview platform has only been promoted for two months. Previously, it was limited by the production of set-top boxes. Now, its number of users is still pitifully small.

However, in Barron's previous life, even in 2010 when the audience for TV shows was dwindling, "Downton Abbey" was still a phenomenal TV series. It aroused great repercussions not only in the UK but also around the world, with countless fans. ——This also means that the first film version, which cost only 30 million pounds to produce, has earned hundreds of millions in box office, relying on its huge fan base.

But if it is played on the Freeview platform now, I am afraid its effect will be greatly reduced.

In this regard, Barron still insisted on the original plan and still premiered "Downton Abbey" on New Year's Day. The reason is that even in the early days, due to the small number of users of the Freeview platform, the audience of this TV series may There will be very few.

But you must know that the Freeview platform where the SDTV channel is located is a digital TV platform. Up to now, Digital UK has been innovating the technology and will soon withdraw from the on-demand service.

By then, the way TV programs will be broadcast will no longer be that viewers have to wait for program schedules to watch their favorite TV programs or TV series. Instead, they can watch the programs that have been broadcast directly through the Freeview platform at any time through on-demand. Some programs can even be downloaded to their set-top box - the set-top box itself provides a certain amount of storage space. Of course, the downloaded content is encrypted and cannot be transferred to other playback platforms.

Of course, this additional service will definitely require a certain fee.

But it also solves the problem of insufficient users of the Freeview platform in the initial stage. After the user scale later expands, new users miss out on the episodes that have been played before.

This is a bit similar to the future video platform. The most important thing is not the number of views of the first broadcast, but the total number of clicks. Anyway, whether it is the content of the series or the advertisements inserted in it, the most important thing is not one-time Delivery quantity, but cumulative delivery range.

And as long as the episodes of "Downton Abbey" are good enough, when the users of the Freeview platform are restricted at this time, it will have an effect similar to "hungry marketing", making more users eager to join the Freeview platform.