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 joyful occasions, but they also seem to evoke something more lasting and profound - for them. A sense of belonging and pride in a country, town or community; a sense of sharing a common heritage enriched by the cultural, ethnic and religious diversity of our 21st century society."
At Christmas. On this day of Christmas, the Queen gave her annual speech to people across the UK through television screens.
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.
For this reason, there are rumors that he is preparing to "abdicate".
Her speech can be regarded as a response to this.
...
Before Christmas, DigitalUK acquired the British set-top box manufacturer PUMAPLC for 10 million pounds.
PumaPLC is not large in scale and only owns a small factory in Birmingham, but their technical level is quite good.
After acquiring PumaPLC, DigitalUK changed its name to Puma Electronics (Puma Electronics), and with subsequent orders and 20 million pounds of capital, it took a stake in DigitalUK’s three foundry factories in China. occupies 60% of its shares.
As a result, these three factories in Shenzhen will be merged into Puma Electronics (China), using the funds invested by DigitalUK to upgrade equipment and open a larger new factory to fully produce Freeview platform products. Set top box.
This decision was made because within this month, the first two batches of set-top boxes produced by the Huaxia factory have arrived in England and been distributed to users of the Freeview platform. Their quality has been recognized by DigitalUK - although the quality is compared to The failure rate of locally produced set-top boxes is slightly higher, but the significantly reduced costs and faster production efficiency have made DigitalUK 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 be used by users for two or three years. The lifespan has fully met the needs.
Therefore, DigitalUK also spent a certain amount of funds. After acquiring PumaPLC, another local set-top box manufacturer it had previously chosen, it established Puma Electronics Company and invested in the Chinese factory on a larger scale.
In the future, 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 the local PumaPLC company should be acquired first is to obtain the technical personnel of this company. In addition, it is also easier to use the British brand Puma, whether in overseas markets or the local Chinese market. Give users a "high-end" impression. According to DigitalUK's estimates, the number of Freeview platform users will soon 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 exceeded 2 million households!
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 concerned about projects like Puma Electronics (Huaxia) that accepted foreign investment and whose main products were "export earnings". Welcome.
It is also because of this that when Puma Electronics acquired these three factories and expanded its operations, the local government was also extremely cooperative and provided Puma Electronics (Huaxia) with a low price in the development zone. land to build new factories.
When the DSTV TV channel was about to launch and the series "Downton Abbey" was broadcast, there were also different voices in Summit Media.
Especially Bonnie, who is responsible for the production of "Downton Abbey", she 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 "Thetraitors". In this case , the broadcast of "Downton Abbey" is only for the 200,000 viewers on the Freeview platform. It is really disappointing for such an elaborate production of "Downton Abbey".
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.
But in Barron's previous life, even in 2010 when the audience for TV programs was dwindling, "Downton Abbey" was a phenomenal TV series, causing great excitement not only in Britain but also around the world. Great response, 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, Maybe the audience for this TV series will be very small.
But you must know that the Freeview platform where the SDTV channel is located is a digital TV platform. Up to now, DigitalUK has been innovating the technology and will soon withdraw from the on-demand service.
At that time, the way TV programs will be broadcast will no longer require viewers to wait for program schedules to watch their favorite TV programs or TV series. Instead, they can watch their favorite TV programs or TV series through on-demand, directly through Freeview at any time. Those who watch some programs that have been played on the platform can even download them to their set-top boxes - the set-top boxes themselves provide a certain amount of storage space. Of course, the downloaded content is encrypted and cannot be transferred to other broadcast 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 What matters is not the one-time delivery quantity, but the 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.
(End of this chapter)