Chapter 250 249. Excellent works from all over the world are here

"Fight for your dreams!"

After waking up, many people found that the environment around them had changed. They were attacked and surrounded by countless information, and these information were exactly the advertisements of Lionheart Network.

After several days of preparation, with MGM's lavish spending, the roar of the lion could be heard in every larger city across the United States.

Workers are busy posting posters on billboards at bus stations and subway stations, in the window displays of major supermarkets, and on the walls of every public toilet.

The Empire State Building, Times Square, the Nasdaq screen, the lights on the Golden Gate Bridge. Except for the Statue of Liberty and Capitol Hill, which do not sell advertising space to the public, major landmark buildings across the country are echoing the roar of the golden lion.

As the world's most powerful search engines and portals, Google and Yahoo are no exception.

MGM directly invested $30 million in the former and $15 million in the latter, requiring them to give Lionheart Network the best advertising treatment within half a month.

As soon as netizens log in to these two websites, they will be bombarded with advertisements on the interface and engine.

The religious disputes that had always been the mainstream were temporarily suppressed.

Facebook and YouTube have even officially launched promotional activities. As long as you forward Lionheart Network’s advertisements and get a certain number of likes, you can receive a one-month membership of Lionheart Network at different stages for free.

In addition, there are preferential policies for registered users of Facebook and YouTube. As long as you log in to the two websites for 7 consecutive days and be online for half an hour every day, you can purchase Lionheart Network membership at half price.

The main focus is on linkage, mutual promotion and win-win for everyone.

Unlike Facebook and YouTube, which burned money in the early stages, Lionheart charged fees when it went online, and Eric set several membership levels.

He referred to the charging standards of major cable TV stations and set a continuously tiered charging standard for Lionheart Network.

First of all, the lowest level membership charges only $6.99 per month, which is $2 less than AMC, the lowest-priced basic cable TV station on the market. It is definitely a super conscience price.

Of course, spending less money does come at a price, and the price is that you can only watch on one IP at a time, the highest picture quality is only 720P, and you have to watch ads.

This advertisement is similar to the one in China. There is a startup advertisement when the computer is turned on, an interface advertisement, a pre-view advertisement, and an advertisement for screening due to big data screening. In short, you have to watch it at other times except when watching a movie.

But not as crazy as China, where one advertisement lasts two minutes, which is really destructive. Lionheart.com's advertisements usually do not exceed 15 seconds.

Another point that is better than China is that their 720P picture quality is real 720P, unlike the castrated versions on the other side of the ocean.

Everyone knows how disgusting video sites like Youku, Tudou, and iQiyi are. They say they are 720P, but in reality they are only 480P. They say they are 1080P, but in reality they are worse than 720P.

The lowest level is for the poor, poor students, those who want to try something new but have plenty of time, and then there is the standard membership.

The charge is $9.99, which is $3 higher and $1 more than AMC. But I dare to charge more than you and I have my reasons.

First, I am confident that the quality of my movies and TV shows is better than yours. Second, standard members can enjoy commercial-free service without any advertisements at all, while basic cable channels such as AMC have advertisements.

Standard members can choose the highest resolution 1080P and can watch on up to two IPs at the same time.

Couples only need to open one, and can also share it with friends and family, which is very cost-effective.

Then there is the top-level membership package, which is comparable to premium cable channels such as HBO and costs $12.99 per month, the same as HBO.

Eric originally considered whether $11.99 would be more attractive, but when he talked to his dad, his dad suggested that it was not necessary.

Because those who are willing to buy premium membership packages don’t care about the $1 difference. What they really care about is the service level and the quality of movies and TV series. Price wars are almost ineffective for this group of users.

And if you set the price too low now, what will you do when you want to raise the price in two years? You can’t raise the price too much at once. The unspoken rule in the industry is that the price should not exceed 2 US dollars at a time. This is the user psychology that has been explored over many years.

So Eric decided to price the game at $12.99, going head-on against HBO, his former partner.

Premium membership is still completely ad-free, the maximum picture quality has been increased from 1080P to Blu-ray, and up to 4 IPs are supported for viewing at the same time, which is enough for a family.

Blu-ray technology was only fully launched into the market last year. It is an emerging technology and many people still don’t know about it.

In the current market environment, this is already the highest picture quality that ordinary people can access, and it is also a point that attracts users.

In addition, the premium membership also provides a function that seems very amazing now, that is, support for downloading! As long as it is a work on Lionheart.com, you can download it at will, without any restrictions.

This feature will have a huge impact on DVD sales, but it doesn’t matter. DVD has been on the decline for a long time anyway, and it won’t be able to thrive for a few more years.

Some misers can just buy a premium membership for one month, then download all the movies and TV shows they want to watch, and then cancel the payment next month.

Whenever there is a new drama that interests you, just open it for another month and download it, as long as you don’t mind the hassle.

The last and biggest disruptive innovation of Lionheart Network is to abandon the weekly broadcast format and release all the episodes at once.

For the American TV drama industry, this reform is no different from a major earthquake, a magnitude 12 earthquake at that.

As we all know, American TV series have always been broadcast weekly, and this has been the case for decades.

Weekly broadcasting certainly has its advantages, but these advantages are relative to the TV stations and producers.

Generally, three or four episodes are produced first and then the audience is surveyed about their satisfaction and recognition of the plot and characters.

The crew will change the plot based on the results of the investigation. If a character is popular, they will have more scenes to play, otherwise he will be eliminated.

If the overall response to the show is not as good as expected, it is very likely that the finale will be filmed directly in the first season.

Investors are most comfortable with this form as it can save a lot of costs. At the same time, long-term advertising revenue is also the bulk of the TV station's revenue.

The actors feel a little uncomfortable because they face the prospect of losing their jobs at any time.

Of course, popular actors are comfortable because they can maintain their popularity for a long time, but they also face the disadvantage of not being able to balance other work.

The most disgusting ones are of course the audience, especially since American TV series are fast-paced and often leave suspense for the next episode.

I was so excited watching it that I took off my pants, and you told me that it was gone and it would take a week for it to grow back.

A week is enough for the audience's enthusiasm for watching movies to fade, but they are reluctant to give it up, so they can only go through the cycle of excitement, nausea, cooling off, expectation, excitement, nausea, cooling off again, and expectation again, which is like the Avici Hell mentioned by Buddhists.

What's more, TV stations broadcast at fixed times. If you miss it, you have to wait for the rebroadcast, which will be troublesome if you miss the rebroadcast.

Everyone is so busy at work and can't sit in front of the TV anytime and anywhere.

All series are released at once, so you can watch any episode you want, any time you want, and revisit them whenever you want, without having to buy DVDs or videotapes.

This is one of the important reasons why Netflix has risen so quickly.

Of course, not all programs adopt the one-time release mode. Competitive variety shows such as "The Voice of China" adopt a one-time half-season + weekly broadcast format to keep the suspense of the championship until the end.

While advertising on the website, MGM's self-produced and imported dramas were also edited into trailers and streamed crazily on major websites and YouTube.

For Lionheart.com now, the scale of its self-produced dramas has not yet been developed. Only after it becomes famous can it attract a large number of creators to join it.

The few films directed by Eric alone are obviously not enough for the audience to watch, and the frequency of updating one or two films a week or half a month is not enough.

So during this period of time, apart from lobbying small companies such as New Line and DreamWorks, he was also working on importing films.

MGM is sending people to contact influential drama genres in Canada, Britain, France, Japan, South Korea, China and other countries.

The focus is naturally on British dramas and Japanese anime.

There is no need to say much about the influence of British TV series on American TV series. Many Hollywood practitioners have been influenced by British TV series.

With the help of Michael Dobbs, MGM introduced a large number of high-quality British TV series, including "Poirot", "Warren Buffet", "Sherlock Holmes", "Mr. Bean" and "The French Bistro".

Although the influence of Japanese dramas is average, the influence of anime is huge, even in the United States.

The latest novel is published first on Liu9shuba!

Since the early 1980s, Japanese anime has begun to flourish in the United States. Many universities have begun to establish Japanese anime fan clubs, and fan associations have also appeared in society.

This period is somewhat similar to the early days of China. Many domestic manufacturers did not broadcast the content, so they did the translation themselves, which was referred to as the subtitle group.

Later, a phenomenal Japanese anime triggered a viewing frenzy in the United States. It was "Akira". From then on, the development of Japanese anime in the United States entered its golden age.

Works such as "Pokemon", "Ghost in the Shell", "Sailor Moon", and "Doraemon" have gained a large number of fans, not to mention the solid foundation laid by the super popular work "Dragon Ball".

If it weren't for its high popularity, it wouldn't have been so easy for "Spirited Away" to win last year's Oscar.

One piece of data can reflect the situation. Last year, Japanese comics sales accounted for 42% of the total comics sales in the United States.

According to this growth trend, it is predicted that the market share will reach 50% in 2007, which will greatly seize the market share of local manufacturers such as Marvel, DC, and Dark Horse.

But what can we do? Audiences, especially young people, like to watch it, and capital is the most profit-seeking.

Eric met with several major manufacturers during his last trip to Japan to promote Transformers.

After nearly half a year of negotiations, we finally reached a cooperation agreement and obtained the 5-year exclusive online broadcasting rights for these popular masterpieces, as well as some emerging potential masterpieces, including "Bleach", "Naruto", "One Piece", etc.

However, to Eric's regret, MGM only obtained the film and television adaptation rights and the exclusive online broadcasting rights, while the authorization for comic sales and peripheral production still needs to be negotiated.

At the same time, under the leadership of Shueisha, MGM acquired the live-action film production rights of "Dragon Ball" from the legendary cartoonist Akira Toriyama.

As the first live-action comic adaptation movie, both sides have high hopes for it, and the plot of the movie will end with the defeat of Piccolo in the World Martial Arts Tournament.

Eric gave the screenwriter a strict order to stay true to the original work and not to make any fucking changes. After you finish writing the script, please review it for me. If you make any changes, you will suffer the consequences.

Some screenwriters have a high opinion of themselves and look down on games and animation, always thinking that movies are superior to them.

It would be uncomfortable without adaptation. Often, the film uses the original work's skin but actually tells its own story, and the result is usually very poor.

Take for example the 2009 live-action "Dragon Ball," a rubbish film that made countless audiences sick, and it deserved to be a disaster at the box office and in terms of reputation.

How many fans of Dragon Ball are there? They are all over the world! Do you really need to adapt it?

How much do you weigh? That poor adaptation is even worse than the "New Dragon Ball" shot by Wanwan in 1991.

In Eric's opinion, although Wanwan's "New Dragon Ball" did not obtain the copyright and was in violation of regulations, it was the best of all the live-action adaptations of Dragon Ball.

This time, MGM must give a sincere gift to Akira Toriyama and Dragon Ball fans around the world, and he has already thought of several characters.

For example, Samuel Jackson, who plays Marefakul, is very suitable for Piccolo, and Arnold Vosloo, who plays Immorton in The Mummy, can play Tien Shinhan.

Noriyuki Morita plays the role of Master Roshi, and his effect is definitely much better than that of Chow Yun-fat. God knows why Chow Yun-fat was chosen to play the role of Master Roshi. It is a speechless casting and ruins the original work.

Jay Chou can play the role of Yamcha the Tea God, and his appearance is quite suitable, so Eric promised to give him a role.

At this point, the prototype of Lionheart.com has gradually become complete, bringing together excellent film, television dramas and animations from all over the world.

In addition, there are film libraries from MGM, New Line, DreamWorks, Lionsgate and other companies, as well as works accumulated by Marvel over the years, plus ace self-produced dramas.

If you open Lionheart.net and search for the total number of films, you will find that it has reached an exaggerated 20,000+.

It may not be deep enough, but it is definitely thick enough for movie fans of all tastes to find their favorites.

Eric was ready to fight with the six major companies and TV stations! As Lionheart.com advertised crazily, its social influence and popularity quickly became popular, and discussions about this new website and new model were endless.

Eric also accepted interviews from his own YouTube and Yahoo.

"Yes, I think that with the development of the Internet, people's attention will be increasingly shifted away from televisions and placed on more portable mobile devices."

"Just like mobile phones, the development of mobile phones is very fast. In just a few years, there have been countless versions. I think in the near future, with the development of smart phones, watching movies on mobile phones will become a major trend."

"And that's when people, especially young people, get rid of their TVs. I call them cord-cutters, people who stop paying for cable TV."

"Their interests will shift more to the Internet, and they can watch whatever they want while walking, chatting, or drinking coffee. This is what Lionheart.com wants to do."

Although the issue had been communicated in advance, the host still looked at him in surprise. His words were exactly the same as the statement from a few days ago, which was tantamount to declaring war on all major TV stations.

The host looked serious: "Mr. Cooper, what do you think is the difference between weekly broadcasts of TV series and all-at-once releases?"

Eric laid out the pros and cons of both forms, and added at the end: "Binge-watching, I call this new term binge-watching. What Lionheart Network wants to do is to lead the trend, to lead a trend of binge-watching."

“Let the audience watch whatever they want and watch it for as long as they want.”

"We also welcome screenwriters, directors, and actors. If you have any good projects, please come to us."

“Everything is for the audience, this is our dream.”

(End of this chapter)