The Tyrant Billionaire

The camera alternates between the host introducing the scene and the rush to the purchasing hotline. Twenty minutes quickly pass.

"Time's up, the purchase rush is over, and no new calls will be taken," the host announces loudly.

"Director, do we have the numbers?" the female host asks.

Soon, the director hands over a piece of paper.

The female host excitedly exclaims, "Viewers, I will now report the results of the rush. We received a total of 516 orders, with some customers ordering two or more bottles at once, totaling 688 bottles."

"It seems people are very enthusiastic."

"Next, we will move on to the next product, Estee Lauder lipstick, gold tube No. 305 red pear color. This lipstick is a retro dark red. After application, it will show the luxurious charm of gemstones, rich color, and a touch of it will easily amaze you."

The senior executives of both NBC and CBS TV stations were shocked by this way of selling.

The morning programs didn't put them under any pressure.

But this afternoon's TV shopping session completely overturned their understanding; they realized TV could be used in such a way.

Direct TV sales.

This is absolutely a genius idea.

Each bottle of skincare cream costs $5.8, selling 688 bottles in 20 minutes amounts to $4000 in sales.

And this is just the first product of this exclusive sale. There are more than four hours left, and if all products have similar results, earning $40,000 in an afternoon wouldn't be a problem.

Calculating it is startling.

If there were TV shopping sessions every day, the sales would reach a staggering $14 million.

My god. Annual sales of $14 million surpass even the revenue of large chain stores. What does this mean? Even with just a 20% profit margin, ABC could earn $3 million from this one show.

This amount exceeds the advertising revenue of NBC and CBS combined.

Not only were the top executives of NBC and CBS shocked,.

Other competitors were equally astonished.

For example, MGM's Mayer, Paramount's boss, RCA's president, and Warner Brothers, all old business foxes, could easily see the power of TV shopping.

No need for space, no need for workers, no expenses; just get two hosts to hype it up on TV, and millions are easily earned.

As for whether there are enough products, there are countless items in America suitable for TV shopping, far more than could be sold even if a new one was featured each day.

Additionally, there's another benefit: TV shopping acts as an advertisement for these products, a continuous 3 hours advertisement.

Such an advertising effect cannot be matched by a mere commercial segment. Besides selling products, TV stations could easily charge the merchants an advertising fee.

MGM boss Mayer watched the TV where the hosts were introducing a foundation priced at $12.6, but under their persuasive promotion, it dropped to $7.9.

With such discounts, even Mayer was tempted, let alone the housewives watching TV.

According to statistics, post WW II, America had a population of 150 million with 30 million households, of which 55% were middle class. Among these middle class households, 70% of the women are full time housewives, forming a group of 11 million.

ABC's TV shopping program is clearly targeting this group of 11 million housewives.

This group has ample time to watch TV, especially in the afternoon when they can't go out shopping; TV shopping becomes their best pastime.

If they can capture this group, they have a massive market.

With good promotion, even the most ordinary product could sell well.

Mayer thought of what Hardy said that day and had to admit that the guy was a business genius to come up with such a brilliant idea.

He suddenly felt a bit regretful.

Now it seems that ABC surpassing the other two TV stations is not a problem at all. A while back, Hardy offered to sell him 20% of the shares, but he didn't agree. He wondered if it was still possible to buy it now. Hmm, let's see.

Let's see how the evening program goes.

If it maintains this level, ABC will definitely succeed, and he would have to find a way to buy some of ABC's shares, even if they're expensive, to catch this train.

NBC meeting room.

A senior executive said, "President, we can also do this show, just find some hosts and merchants to promote products."

"It won't be that simple. ABC has launched this business model, do you really think they wouldn't have registered the copyright?"

The president squinted his eyes and said, "Check it."

Someone immediately left to investigate.

CBS executives also thought of this. Faced with such a good business opportunity, who wouldn't be envious? They wanted to do it too but considered the copyright issue.

Checking the copyright was easy, a call to the copyright office could confirm it. The results were disappointing for both top executives.

ABC had already registered the copyright for the TV shopping show from multiple angles and layers, with no loopholes. If anyone wanted to do a TV shopping show, they couldn't avoid ABC's registered copyright.

"That's too cunning!" The NBC president angrily slammed the table.

Now, they could only watch others make money while they stood by helplessly.

TV shopping continued until six in the evening.

By this time, men who had been out working and children who had been at school were home, and women started cooking.

Finally, statistics showed that this afternoon, a total of over $80,000 was transacted, much higher than their previous estimates, as the program climaxed with the direct sale of cosmetics sets, priced at several tens of dollars each, naturally boosting sales.

If they had this sales volume every day, my god, $30 million a year—what an insane number.

The top executives of the other two TV stations were extremely envious.

At six in the evening.

The children's program "Sesame Street."

The kids coming home were all captivated by the cute puppet performances, and this time slot was also when NBC and CBS started their broadcasts.