Chapter 2627 HR changes at HBO

Zhou Buqi asked: "What's the trouble?"

Ning Lu pursed her lips and said, "It has something to do with you."

"Is it related to me again?"

Zhou Buqi felt a little helpless. He felt that wherever he went, no matter which company he was in, he was affected by him in every aspect.

Ning Lu came over, sat by the bed, and whispered: "It's really related. HBO has encountered some management adjustments this time, mainly because the parent company Time Warner is dissatisfied with them. The main reason for dissatisfaction is because of Netflix Too strong."

Zhou Buqi said: "Naifei is so powerful, you can't blame me."

Ning Lu said with a smile: "A few years ago, HBO had the opportunity to acquire Netflix for US$1-1.5 billion, but they thought the price was too high. With these US$1 billion, they might as well invest in content. . Then you seized that opportunity, became a major shareholder of Netflix, and provided Netflix with a lot of content, helping Netflix grow and becoming a serious problem for HBO."

"Well……"

If you put it this way, Zhou Buqi feels that it really has something to do with him.

When Americans watch TV series, in addition to watching some bad TV series, old movies, and sitcoms on some free channels, if they want to watch high-quality TV series, the best choice is HBO.

It's different now.

Netflix shows up.

Although one is a TV station and the other is a streaming media platform.

But this is just a difference in channels. What audiences care about most is the content.

HBO has 50 million paying users in North America. Although Netflix has only 35 million paying users in the United States, there is still a big gap between HBO and HBO... but Netflix is ​​growing too fast!

According to predictions from many organizations, Netflix will catch up with HBO within a year!

The biggest driving force behind this phenomenon is Zhou Buqi!

One of the most typical cases is that Zhou Buqi cooperated with HBO to produce the American TV series "Game of Thrones". In terms of the cooperation model, the TV copyright belongs to HBO, and the streaming media copyright belongs to Ziweixing Global. Then Boss Zhou changed hands and authorized the streaming media rights to Netflix to encourage Netflix to compete with HBO.

It’s like eating at HBO’s expense and ruining HBO’s business!

Ning Lu continued: "There is also a technical aspect. HBO's online product HBO_Go has broken down many times in the past year. Therefore, in this personnel adjustment, HBO's chief technology officer has also been changed."

"Fault? What fault?"

"If there are too many people online, it will be very laggy, and it will crash directly on several occasions."

"What?"

Zhou Buqi was a little unbelievable.

In what age is this, can such low-level technical errors still occur? You know, HBO is not a free product, only paying users can watch it.

In other words, this HBO_Go product cannot have many users at all.

This all collapsed, which shows how poor their Internet development team is.

Shi Jinglin was standing aside and suddenly turned around. Her face was covered with a black mask and a pair of big black glasses, which was a bit scary. She asked, "What does HBO_Go do? Is it a streaming media platform?"

Ning Lu said: "It's not streaming media, it's online TV. It caused several major paralysis when playing "Game of Thrones"."

"Huh?" Zhou Buqi raised his eyebrows, a little surprised, "Game of Thrones"? Streaming Game of Thrones on the Internet?

You must know that the streaming media copyright of "Game of Thrones" is in the hands of Ziweixing Universal, which has not authorized it to HBO. It is currently only authorized exclusively to Netflix.

Ning Lu said: "This is an online TV, and it uses TV copyrights."

"Is this legal?"

Zhou Buqi opened his eyes wide.

Ning Lu was helpless, "It should be legal, otherwise I wouldn't dare to do it."

Zhou Buqi said: "This is really a side game!"

HBO launched HBO_Go, an online TV product, on the Internet when the technology was immature, presumably to prevent viewers from going to Netflix to watch "Game of Thrones."

Netflix's streaming media platform allows viewers to order any favorite film and television programs here; the logic of online TV is different. This is a TV station on the Internet. TV cannot be on-demand. The audience can only watch what is broadcast on the TV station. What to see.

In comparison, the difficulty of operation and development of online TV is far lower than that of streaming media platforms. And it can rely on the TV rights of "Game of Thrones" held by HBO to prevent Netflix from broadcasting it exclusively on the Internet.

If viewers want to watch "Game of Thrones" on the Internet, they must subscribe to Netflix. They can also subscribe to HBO, which resolves the crisis caused by Netflix's exclusive broadcast.

This is a good way to circumvent the terms of the contract.

You really have a good plan, I have a wall ladder.

It's a pity that HBO's technical level is so poor that it made a mess even when developing a very simple online TV. It is also appropriate to replace the chief technology officer.

But why should the CEO be changed?

The previous CEO, Chris Albrecht, was the biggest contributor to HBO’s expansion from the United States to the world!

Ning Lu said with some embarrassment: "For more specific information, you need to ask Joshua or Brett. I only know a rough idea."

Zhou Buqi smiled and said, "One is probably enough!"

Ning Lu said: "It seems that there is a big problem with HBO's content, which is inconsistent with its commercial performance. It seems that HBO has produced too much content that is not well received but not popular."

"Um."

Zhou Buqi nodded, which was pretty much what he guessed.

He also has some contact with HBO.

HBO is able to achieve today's achievements mainly because of two major contributors.

One is HBO's previous CEO, Jeff Bewkes, who confirmed HBO's business model. He transformed HBO from a TV station that broadcasts old movies and sports programs to a TV station that broadcasts homemade dramas.

Determined HBO's position in the American television industry.

With such credit, Jeff Bewkes has risen through the ranks and is now chairman and CEO of Time Warner.

The other one is HBO’s incoming CEO Chris Albrecht, who confirmed HBO’s content model.

Under his leadership, HBO spared no expense and produced many world-class TV series with production standards comparable to Hollywood blockbusters. This not only made HBO famous around the world, but also made the brand of American TV series as famous as Hollywood movies.

However, now that Chris Albrecht has been ousted, it must be Jeff Bueckers who takes action.

Bix is ​​a master of business.

He took action, and he must be dissatisfied with HBO's business aspects. The newly appointed CEO Richard Plepler... used to be the co-president, and was mainly responsible for marketing and financing.

When Zhou Buqi discussed the financing of "Game of Thrones" with HBO, it was Richard Plepler who was in charge.

After such an analysis, we can understand the significance of this major change in HBO's senior personnel.

Time Warner's board of directors is dissatisfied with HBO's excessive investment in content, resulting in increased costs. They believe that HBO’s American dramas invest too much and take too many risks. They still recognize the previous CEO Albrecht's line of producing high-quality content with high investment, but they feel that the risks of high investment should be mitigated.

How to resolve it?

Of course, we need to look for more comprehensive and broader financing channels from the outside.

Just like Hollywood has been in decades past.

Hollywood blockbusters are never invested by Hollywood giants, but are led by Hollywood giants, financing from various channels around the world, and sharing risks.

Hollywood holds the "power of distribution."

Richard Plepler took over as the new CEO of HBO amid controversy, and took advantage of the opportunity of PayPal's listing to find Boss Zhou.

I hope we can collaborate on a project and use PayPal as an online platform to create a financing channel for American dramas!

Zhou Buqi was very interested in this.

The platter investment in Hollywood movies is basically unplayable, because Hollywood’s logic has undergone earth-shaking changes under the impact of technology and the Internet.

The financing logic that has been applied to Hollywood movies in the past has the opportunity to be replicated in American TV series!

Richard is the CEO of HBO, and he is much more reliable than the Rockefeller heiress. And backed by a platform as big as HBO, with a golden brand name like HBO, and HBO's strong resources in the field of American drama content, when doing such a financing project, it can get twice the result with half the effort.

Zhou Buqi immediately ordered: "Call Xu Baihui immediately and ask her to book the earliest flight... Well, let her get on the private plane and come to New York immediately!"

He also has a Gulfstream private jet, which is under the name of Ziweixing, and he mainly flies domestically.

Usually he doesn't use it, so he leaves it to Zhang Yiming and Guo Pengfei.

The matter is urgent, so let Xu Baihui fly over quickly.

"ah?"

Ning Lu was slightly startled.

Zhou Buqi said: "Just ask her to come over and be my part-time secretary!"