Bill Gates had a plan. Bill Gates had a scheme. History will say that while he wrote QDOS at IBM, people scoffed at the idea of merchandising an OS, but he knew better. He had a vision.
It's better than that. Bill Gates was in a singular position to comment on the marketability of operating systems, and I'm willing to bet he prevaricated his analysis, deliberately making it look as though operating systems would never be sold for much money. I'm willing to bet that when he left, as he said "oh, and by the way, while I'm on my way out can you sell me those things that I said were worthless? The rights for OS distribution?" And because IBM is a huge corporate beast the person reviewing the request didn't know he was the one that had done the analysis, and said "sure, let's get something for nothing," and sold him the rights. I'm willing to bet that's the history they never tell of Bill Gates. He had a plan. He had a scheme. And he was in a singular position to pull it off.
Simon Fuller (creater of American Idol) has a plan. He has a scheme. But I'm wiling to bet he doesn't have all his cards in place yet for his big move. Here's how I see it:
Casinos hire a specific third party (a secret subsidiary of a coalition of casinos) to count the individual votes in American Idol and other call-to-vote shows. They can't offer gambling odds if there's any chance the show was rigged, and so they take the ability to cheat out of the hands of the show's producer, Simon Fuller, knowing full well he would place bets and rig the show in order to profit. However, for allowing them to monitor the voting and verify its authenticity, they give 19 Entertainment (Fuller's company) a cut of all the Idol-type shows' gambling profits.
Fuller rigs the show anyway. Even though the votes cast are authentic, he colludes with the guys at AT&T to increase the number of busy signals on the voting lines, therefore skewing the polls in favor of a specific candidate. In addition, the RIAA and other content management agencies Fuller works with contract with the casinos to bring their acts to Vegas stages in exchange for RIAA acing as a watchdog against AT&T and Fuller. The RIAA, however, was distracted with suing 12-year old girls using Napster, and failed to see the corruption that was right under their noses. Or more likely, they didn't care since the Casinos didn't have to know that their attention wasn't focused on the Fuller shows. So it's a weak alliance of the RIAA and the Casinos and a stronger alliance (though still breakable) between Fuller and AT&T.
Those shows (America's got Talent) that don't have a watchdog group, the Casino monitors directly and (as you'll notice) 100% of the talent goes directly to Vegas shows. So Fuller has to rig them by psychologically manipulating the competitors. Waking them up all hours, making auditions last far into the night, waiting in lines, forcing them to compete in front of different groups of people, the constant stress and tension, it allows them to be easily manipulated into collaborating with Fuller to throw shows in order that Fuller can take the casinos for as much cash as possible.
Fuller tolerates this painful alliance while he is building up cash; He's already a billionaire, but he's waiting until his wealth increases and their stock lowers to the point where the following headline can become reality:
IDOL'S FULLER BUYS CLEAR CHANNEL
Then, he will have a perfect vertically-integrated monopoly. Who harvests the talent from nothing? Fuller (on Idol and other shows) Who promotes and managest the artists? Fuller. Who owns the radio stations that pimp their music? Fuller. Who owns the shopping malls where the music is sold? Who owns the airports where they play the music, sell the music, and portray musicians as glamorous jetsetters? Who owns the movie theaters that play the movie crossovers starring the talents? Fuller, Fuller, Fuller.
That's his plan. That's his scheme. And nobody should trust him; hes a busy man with his fingers in a lot of pies right now, just waiting for the day he can pull them all out at once and gobble up the mincemeat that sticks so pleasantly to his fingers.
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P.S. In my paranoid fantasy above, Simon Fuller's arch-nemesis is Robert Sillerman.
ReplyDeleteThe way I imagine it: the CEOs is like a giant on a tightrope. He keeps blundering on, swaying one way or the other while trying to maintain balance, only barely able to see the everyday workers that he knows distantly support everything that goes on. He reads that he has cost 13 people their jobs, but they're so far away from him he doesn't know how to react. And constantly there comes screaming from his investors, raise prices! Cut costs! Lower wages! We want a bigger piece of the pie! So now this giant has even more trouble maintaining his balance, because bees are circling round his head and stabbing and stinging his eyes, ears, nose, and lips. Huge mammalian mosquitoes extend furry probosces to drink the blood out of his growing eye-welts; among them, he knows, is his successor. After all, he needs to retire after five years, this running a business thing is a bunch of horse-shit. So which one will he let suckle from the breast of his favor? Which will he groom to become the tightrope-walking giant?
Even more distant than the feet, tightrope, and all, are the trees far below. The giant knows one day he will be allowed to enjoy far-off places, maybe even before he's burned out. He tries to surround himself with others that are just waiting to retire, in the hope that their lack of enthusiasm for the job will keep him from going insane after he leaves. Or maybe one day he'll just float away, surrounded in diamonds.