影视美联英语 千万别让默多克买下时代华纳

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美联英语提供：影视英语千万别让默多克买下时代华纳

My first reaction to the $73bn bid from 21st Century Fox for Time Warner, which this week settled in for a prolonged fight as Time Warner blocked Fox from mounting a rapid assault on its board of directors, was to ask: what problem is Rupert Murdoch trying to solve?

我对21世纪福克斯(21st Century Fox)出价730亿美元收购时代华纳(Time Warner)之举的第一反应是：鲁珀特•默多克(Rupert Murdoch)想要解决什么问题？在成功抵挡福克斯对其董事会的突袭后，时代华纳已准备好打一场持久战。

It is not a paucity of high-quality television. Indeed, the problem is the opposite these days: it is hard to find enough time to watch all of the fine series that pour out of broadcast and cable networks, both subscription and free to air: True Detective, Game of Thrones, Orange is the New Black. The Good Wife, The Americans, House of Cards. The list goes on.

眼下，高质量的电视节目不是太少，而是太多。的确，现在的问题是好节目太多了，我们没时间全部看完。无论是付费频道还是免费频道，都有许多优秀的电视剧：《真探》(True Detective)、《权力的游戏》(Game of Thrones)、《女子监狱》(Orange is the New Black)，

还有《傲骨贤妻》(The Good Wife)、《美国谍梦》(The Americans)、《纸牌屋》(House of Cards)，等等、等等。

Nor are the networks in financial trouble. Competition among cable and satellite operators to gain viewers –and efforts by services such as Netflix to draw them away –has created a production boom. In the US, non-sports cable networks receive $17bn a year in fees from cable and satellite operators; video-on-demand and similar services gain another $7.5bn, growing by 20 per cent in 2013, according to Barclays.

电视台也不缺钱。有线和无线运营商对观众资源的争夺，再加上Netflix等视频网站的入局，催生了一场电视剧制作热潮。巴克莱(Barclays)数据显示，在美国，非体育类有线台每年从有线和卫星电视运营商那里收到的转播费高达170亿美元，视频点播及类似服务实现75亿美元的收入，在2013年增长20%。

Hollywood studios such as Warner Bros and Fox are feeling the pinch, but this is a golden age of television, in creative and financial terms. That is the healthy outcome of fierce competition in a market where the barriers to entry have been falling, but it could be placed at risk by a wave of megamergers such as Fox/Time Warner and Comcast buying Time Warner Cable.

华纳兄弟(Warner Bros)和福克斯(Fox)等好莱坞制片公司感受到压力，但无论从创意角度还是资金角度而言，眼下都是电视的黄金时代。这是市场进入门槛降低和激烈竞争产生的良性结果。然而，一轮大规模并购可能葬送这个黄金时代，比如福克斯对时代华纳的收购、康卡斯特公司(Comcast)对时代华纳有线(Time Warner Cable)的收购。

Although we are now used to a bevy of dramas and comedies vying for our

attention –both in the US and on international channels and streaming services –it is worth noting how recent the phenomenon is. The first series of The Sopranos, the HBO series that started the race to the top in television production, began 15 years ago.

尽管我们现在习惯了有一大堆电视剧争夺我们的注意力——无论是在美国和海外电视频道，还有流媒体服务，但值得一提的是，这种现象的历史并不悠久。第一部挑起电视剧争霸赛的剧集是《黑道家族》(The Sopranos)，由美国家庭电影频道(HBO)制作，开播于15年前。

It was launched two years before the ill-conceived and disastrous 2001 merger of AOL and Time Warner, which was accompanied by a lot of corporate flannel about how AOL would usher old media into the digital age. The upheaval that The Sopranos caused was more potent and enduring than the financial engineering inflicted on HBO’s parent company.

那部剧开播两年后的2001年，美国在线(AOL)跟时代华纳合并了，当时有许多人鼓吹美国在线会带领老媒体走向数字时代，然而这次并购计划不周，最后惨败收场。《黑道家族》引发的制作高质量电视剧的趋势，则比针对HBO母公司的“金融工程”更有生命力、也更加持久。

AOL Time Warner is no more, but HBO’s value has grown hugely –it is the jewel Fox most wants to seize in Time Warner’s crown. The channel gained its power with cable operators by being innovative, not by being big. Subscription channels including Showtime and free ones such as AMC, which broadcast Mad Men, followed its lead.