Dunn's bold stance sent a chill through the car.
Chris Albrecht frowned, puzzled. "So, what's our move?"
Dunn snorted. "Back when I handed Tarzan's operations to Comcast, the deal was for three years."
"Three years?" Chris's brow furrowed deeper as he caught the drift. "But if we don't renew, who's gonna handle Tarzan TV's operations?"
Dunn replied coolly, "Why does it have to be someone else? You just said it yourself—a beefed-up Tarzan could become a liability if it's not in our hands. Keeping it under our control is the safer bet!"
Chris's jaw dropped.
Running a cable TV operation meant reaching into every household. That required a small army of installers, sales reps, and customer service folks, plus offline cash management, signal tuning, transmission—the works. It was a logistical nightmare.
This was a low-barrier, high-investment, high-return game!
You couldn't just toss a few billion—or even tens of billions—at it and call it a day.
Take Comcast's acquisition of AT&T's cable assets this year: $47.5 billion!
If Dunn wanted to run Tarzan TV solo, starting from scratch wasn't an option—it'd grind Tarzan to a halt.
He'd have to buy out a company with enough muscle and a coast-to-coast network.
But would that come cheap?
And here's the kicker: TV was a dying industry!
In 30, maybe 40 years, the whole sector could collapse.
Was it smart for Dunn to drop tens of billions on a cable operator right now?
Or…
Could Dunn somehow breathe new life into the TV market?
Once streaming hit, that'd be a tall order!
Maybe , TV could still dominate—backed by state policies, monopolized channels, and rampant piracy keeping streaming companies in the red.
But the U.S.? Different beast. Streaming's rise was a full-on disaster for TV!
Beyond airtight IP protection, it boiled down to one thing: TV costs here were insane!
Take 2001, for example—
Basic package: CBS, NBC, ABC, and Fox (the free public channels) plus a handful of cheap cable stations like TV Land or Disney Channel—$20 a month.
Premium package: those four free networks plus hundreds of cable channels, including fan-favorites like ESPN, CNN, and USA—$70 a month.
Then, premium cable like HBO, Tarzan, or Showtime? Extra subscription fees.
Oh, and individual events—like PPV sports? Separate charges.
Average it out, and households were coughing up $80 a month!
Way too steep!
If they had a choice, families would stick to the free quartet—CBS, NBC, ABC, Fox—plus a few heavy-hitters like ESPN, CNN, National Geographic, and Discovery.
The other hundreds of cable channels? Total dead weight!
Bundled packages were straight-up fleecing consumers.
Streaming was a game-changer. Netflix at $10 a month covered most entertainment needs—plenty for the basics.
Americans had money, sure, but they weren't dumb enough to flush it down the drain.
Sky-high TV fees had fueled a wild boom for the industry—media empires rose on the backs of TV giants.
But those same fees made it a sitting duck when streaming rolled in, hammering the U.S. TV biz like never before.
Plenty of media titans never recovered.
Dunn knew the future, and this dilemma had him second-guessing.
Still, in front of his team, he had to keep up the tough, decisive front. With a sharp wave, he growled, "Disney's a big enemy. Viacom and Time Warner have crossed me too. One more—Comcast? No big deal! I don't like mutually assured destruction, but if Comcast pulls some dirty trick, we'll just burn it all down!"
Chris's lips twitched, words catching in his throat before he swallowed them. "Let's hope it's just a hunch. Little Roberts wouldn't be that reckless, right?"
Pure lip service.
As a pro, Chris knew how brutal running a cable operation could be.
If Dunn Films and Comcast really fell out, the best-case scenario was smaller cable operators merging fast over the next few years, forming a new player.
It wouldn't match Comcast or Time Warner, but it'd at least need nationwide reach.
Then Tarzan TV would have options—room to maneuver.
…
On the ride back, Dunn sat in silence, eyes closed, lost in thought.
Penelope Cruz, perched beside him, blinked her big, pretty eyes and asked cautiously, "Dunn… can I ask you something?"
"Huh?" He opened his eyes, smiling as he pinched her cheek. "Sure, why so shy? Did I spook you?"
"No way," she giggled, then lowered her voice. "Didn't you say the internet's the new medium—that it'll eventually replace TV?"
"Huh? Oh, yeah, I did!"
"So, are you still gonna dive deeper into TV?"
Dunn gave her a long look.
It was a real question. Even John Malone, the godfather of U.S. cable, had bailed on the industry. Dunn doubling down now felt like charging straight into a tiger's den.
"When AT&T sold off its cable business, it was to fund mobile operations—wireless stuff for phones. Truth is, TV and internet operations aren't that different. Same crew could handle both. TV's fading, sure, but the internet's only growing. One shrinks, the other rises. Grab both, and you won't crash."
Dunn tossed out a half-true, half-fluff answer, then smirked at her. "What's this? You wanna learn management, start a company?"
"No chance!" Penelope shook her head. "I've got some savings—about $700,000. Feels like a waste sitting in the bank. I was thinking of buying internet stocks."
Dunn waved it off. "Hold up. That kind of money… stocks won't make you much. Wait till my company's IPO. You can grab some original shares during the insider round—that'll do you."
"Really?"
Her eyes sparkled, practically glowing.
Dunn pulled her into his lap, laughing. "Gotta bulk up the shareholder team before going public. Perks go to our people first, right?"
Penelope tilted her head. "Not just employees?"
Dunn hadn't expected her to know this much. "Employees get some, and you'll get some too!"
"Sweet!" She grinned. "So… when's Dunn Films going public?"
"Uh… if things go smooth, before 2006!"
Dunn mulled it over and threw out a timeline.
Late 2006 was when housing prices tanked, the subprime crisis kicked off, and the next two years were an economic mess.
Listing then would slash the IPO price—not worth it.
Penelope beamed. "Your company's gotta be a goldmine for investors!"
"You've got that much faith in me?"
"Totally! HBO's a beast, and you took it down like it was nothing. Dunn Films is gonna kill it."
"It all hinges on Band of Brothers' ratings."
"Come on, it's a no-brainer! It's gonna be huge—super huge!"
Penelope was buzzing, her cheeks flushed with excitement. She looked… more confident than Dunn himself.