The All-Star Weekend is over, and among the fans, the topic of All-Star Weekend has just begun.
The Skills Challenge, the Shooting Competition and the Slam Dunk Competition are all competition events that appear once. In history, these three events appeared separately, the earliest one was the Slam Dunk Competition, then the Three-Point Competition, and finally the Skills Challenge. Now Chen Qiang throws out these three events in one go, which is indeed very impactful and instantly hyped up the topic of the All-Star Weekend.
When I was at work on Monday, many fans who had watched the All-Star Game were discussing the grand occasion of the game, especially the dunk contest, which became a topic of conversation for everyone after dinner.
In this era, dunks are really rare. Nowadays, there are special games that allow fans to see all kinds of exciting dunk actions, so fans are naturally excited.
Those fans who watch games on TV have one more thing to talk about, that is, the new rules of the game.
Basketball games under the new rules have faster offensive rhythm and more exciting game processes, which will inevitably attract more TV viewers to become fans of the new league.
Through two days of TV broadcasting, many viewers in front of the TV have been attracted by basketball broadcasting. Even after the All-Star Game, they will stay by the TV every evening to see if there are any TV broadcasts of basketball games.
...
NBC's department responsible for television broadcasting.
The errand runner in the office came to the director's office with a whole box of letters.
"Master, these are letters from the audience." The errand runner said.
"What do the audience send letters to me? Which program should be from, and the relevant editors." The director said impatiently, then pointed to his cup and said, "Go and make me a cup of coffee, a piece of candy is enough."
"Okay, I'll make coffee right away." The running errand said, putting down the box, and then said: "But I can't distinguish these letters. They were not written to our existing program team."
"Are you saying that these letters were written to me?" The Master asked incredible.
"These letters from the audience are all about that All-Star weekend," the errand runner explained.
"All-Star Weekend? Is that basketball game?" The director was slightly stunned, and then said, "If you don't say it, I forgot that we broadcast a basketball game!"
"Then what should we do with these letters?" asked the errand running guy.
"That sports competition is just a temporary program, and there is indeed no special editor. Let's put these letters here first." The director said.
...
For NBC, broadcasting the All-Star Weekend is just an accident. After the All-Star Weekend, they returned to normal TV broadcast content. Play some old movies, report a few news, play music, etc. The director who was responsible for broadcasting the All-Star Game even threw the matter behind the scenes of the All-Star Weekend.
Anyway, NBC has no requirements for TV ratings. They play TV programs not for profit, but for David Shanov to sell TV sets. It can be said that NBC broadcasts TV programs as if they are doing charity projects, and they do not seek money or rewards.
Therefore, whether the All-Star Weekend broadcast is popular with TV viewers is not within the scope of NBC's attention.
However, what NBC did not expect was that the audience's letters were sent to the company like snowflakes.
All the letters praised the All-Star Weekend program for being very good, and there were even many viewers who hoped that NBC could turn TV broadcasts basketball games into a normal thing.
NBC did not pay attention to ratings, and of course it was difficult to count ratings in the 1940s. After all, in that era, televisions received wireless signals, and wireless signal transmission was unidirectional and could not track ratings.
The same is true for radio. There are thousands of radio stations across the United States, and almost every American home has a radio, but the listening rate of radio is also difficult to count. When radio waves are transmitted, how many people go back to listen is not the number that radio stations can count.
Of course, it is not impossible to count the listening rate of radio programs. Calling is a good method, and this method can be implemented in the 1940s, but most American families do not have telephone calls. After all, telephone calls began to be popularized in ordinary families after World War II.
You can also use the diary card method to perform statistics, which means that you issue a card to each household, allowing users to record the frequency and time period of listening to the radio every day, and then collect it back and then conduct statistics.
In the future, there will be special instruments to count the listening rate of radio programs. This instrument is a portable tester. The respondent carries this portable tester. Once he starts listening to the radio, the tester starts to record the broadcast signal, so that the listening rate of the program can be counted.
In the 40s, there was no tester, so when we judged whether a radio program was popular with the audience, the more important point was the situation of the listener's letter.
"Letter from listeners" or "Letter from audiences" is a very unfamiliar word for many young people. The post-00s generation live in the Internet age, and for them, writing letters is a very unfamiliar way of communication. However, in the two thousand years after the appearance of text, writing letters is the most common way to spread information.
In that era when information exchange was not smooth, listeners liked to write letters to radio stations, audiences liked to write letters to TV stations, and readers liked to write letters to magazines. The content of the letters was also varied, including those who gave suggestions, some made suggestions, some complaints, some greetings, and some confessions.
The more popular the radio program is, the more letters it will receive from the audience. Radio stations also attach great importance to the listeners' letters. Some hosts will reply to the listeners' letters on the program, and some hosts will reply directly with pens.
In that era, letters were probably the only way for listeners to interact with radio programs. The audience's enthusiasm for writing letters was similar to posting barrage when watching live broadcasts. If the host reads a letter from a certain listener in the program, it would be equivalent to the anchor reading the barrage sent by a certain audience. The audience who was read the barrage will have an additional sense of satisfaction.
NBC has hundreds of radio stations under its umbrella, and each radio station broadcasts a lot of programs every day, so NBC also receives a lot of letters from listeners every day. Compared with this, the TV broadcasting department is much weaker. Although the TV broadcasting department will also receive letters from viewers, the number is definitely much smaller.
However, since the All-Star Weekend was broadcast, the number of letters received by the TV broadcasting department has increased exponentially.
...
A few days later, the director looked at the boxes in front of him that had been piled up into pyramids, with letters from viewers about the All-Star Weekend.
The Director must have read so many letters, but from the number of letters, the Director can tell that the broadcast of All-Star Weekend must be very popular, otherwise there would be no such many viewers who would have sent letters.
"It seems that the TV audience likes this basketball game very much." The director frowned and began to think.
Among NBC, the TV broadcasting department is not important, and this department cannot bring economic benefits to the company. Their purpose is to help Chairman David Shanov sell TVs. In this regard, this is a department that uses power for personal gain.
The reason why this department can exist openly is not only the strong support of Chairman David Shanov, but also under the guise of developing new broadcasting technologies. After all, television broadcasting was a new technology at that time. Within the National Broadcasting Corporation, the television broadcasting department was also regarded as a department in technology research and development.
The TV broadcasting department has no real power and cannot bring huge profits. The director is very considerate. Seeing the radio stations eating delicious food and drinking spicy food every day, the director feels very uncomfortable. He is engaged in radio work and has also become the director's position. He must have ideals and ambitions. No one wants to be a salted fish willingly.
Nowadays, so many readers have written letters to this master, but he has realized that there is a chance for a salted fish to turn over!
Even if you can't turn over, at least you can make your salty fish saltier, which will make you so terrible!
...
The Master prepared a plan and came to David Shanov's office.
"Are you planning to broadcast a basketball game?" David Shanov asked frowned at the planner.
"Chairman, we have broadcast the All-Star Weekend before, and the audience responded very well. I received more than a dozen boxes of letters from the audience, all praising our All-Star Weekend. They also hope that we can continue broadcasting the basketball game." The director said.
David Shanov thought for a while and said, "It costs a lot of money to broadcast a basketball game. Have you considered this?"
"Chairman, we can cooperate with the Basketball League to see if the Basketball League can give us some sponsorships." The director replied.
David Shanov shook his head: "This may be difficult. If you let others pay, at least you have to let the other party see the reward. For now, we can't get any reward when broadcasting TV shows. Our TV broadcasts have been losing money. Do you think the basketball league is willing to pay?"
"We can find ways to reduce some costs. If we can form a fixed program broadcast, our costs will drop a lot." The director said.
David Shanov did not speak, but thought seriously.
At this time, the director said, "Chairman, I think broadcasting basketball games will also help increase the sales of TVs."
The sale of TVs is David Shanov's own business. Hearing that it can increase TV sales, David Shanov immediately became interested.
"You mean those fans would buy a TV to watch basketball games?" David Shanov said, but shook his head on his own: "It's impossible. The price of TVs is so high, how could anyone buy a TV to watch basketball games!"
"Chairman, at the price of a TV, I do not buy a TV to watch basketball games, but it is not certain. Many of the readers I received this time are watching games in bars or restaurants. For ordinary people, they may not be able to afford a TV, but they can definitely afford a few bottles of beer or a meal, so that they can watch the complete basketball game in bars or restaurants." The director replied.
"You mean, sell the TV to bars or restaurants to attract more customers?" David Shanov narrowed his eyes slightly, as if he was thinking about the feasibility of this plan.
"Chairman, basketball is a sport that is very suitable for gathering and watching, and a game lasts for two hours, which can bring high returns to bars or restaurants. For these businesses, it is easy for them to make money from a TV. And we just broadcast the All-Star Weekend, and it is perfect to promote it while the popularity of basketball is still there!" The director continued to persuade.
David Shanov was finally moved. He nodded and continued: "I can let you give it a try, but this matter requires the cooperation of the basketball league."
David Shanov said as he took out a business card from the drawer: "This is Chen Qiang's business card. You can talk to him about broadcasting basketball games. Don't forget to ask for some sponsorship fees from him. That Chinese is a millionaire!"
...
Chen Qiang was so happy to learn that NBC was willing to broadcast basketball games!
Although the TV broadcast of the All-Star Weekend was just one attempt, the results were very good. Chen Qiang also knew that TV broadcasting was not too urgent, and it would take several years of hard work to truly move the basketball game to the TV.
What Chen Qiang never expected was that NBC came to him and put forward a cooperation request, hoping to broadcast the basketball game of the new league, which was a big gift.
Faced with such a request, Chen Qiang must have agreed without hesitation. Even if the other party asked for some sponsorship fees, Chen Qiang did not refuse, but said that as long as it could be broadcast on TV, everything would be easy to negotiate.
TV broadcast sports competitions, this big cake is really tempting. Whoever can get ahead into this field will be the "boss" of American sports in the future!
In the 1940s, although it would lose money when broadcasting sports competitions, it would be a tiny amount of money compared to future returns. Who could have thought that the copyright of sports competitions would sell billions of astronomical figures in the future!
———
Chapter completed!