MTV

"I. Family Matters 1. Fall in love and get married ☑ 2. Have a healthy son ☑ 3. Have a healthy daughter ☑ 4. Take care of mother/ father ☑ 5. Take care of in-laws ☑ 6. Take care of extended family ☑ 7. Have grandchildren ❒ 8. Have great-grandchildren ❒ 9. Leave trusts for family members ☑ 10. Leave all financial matters in great shape for family members upon passing on ❒ 11. Have children become individuals and self-actualized staying loving within the family ☑ II. Financial Matters 12. Pay off college debts ☑ 13. Net worth of ten million dollars, after taxes ☑ 14. Net worth of one hundred million dollars, after taxes ☑ 15. Net worth of one billion dollars, after taxes ❒ 16. Zero personal debt for family ☑ 17. Make ten million dollars on an outside investment ☑ 18. Become a partner in a venture capital fund ☑ 19. Create one billion dollars in value with an outside investment ❒ 20. Start a company and sell it ☑ 21. Conduct an IPO on a company I founded ☑ 22. Create world’s largest media company ☑ III. Possessions 23. Own a beach home that stays in family ☑ 24. Own a jet ☑ 25. Own a yacht ☑ 26. Own a convertible Porsche or Mercedes Benz ☑ 27. Own a mountain home that stays in the family ❒ 28. Own a great piece of art ☑ 29. Own a great personal collection of watches ☑ 30. Own a Ferrari ☑ 31. Restore an antique auto ☑ 32. Own a restaurant or club ☑ 33. Support someone who makes a great breakthrough in science or art ❒ IV. Charities 34. Change someone’s life via a charity ☑ 35. Give one million dollars to Georgetown University/ sit on Board ☑ 36. Major impact on a children’s charity ☑ 37. Start a family charity foundation ☑ 38. Give away one hundred million dollars in lifetime ❒ 39. Have a building/ perpetual memorial named after the family ☑ V. Sports 40. Own a sports franchise (basketball, hockey or football) ☑ 41. Win a world championship ❒ 42. Attend a Superbowl with Dolphins or Redskins ☑ 43. Attend a Final Four with Georgetown ☑ 44. Attend a World Series with Yankees ☑ 45. Meet Mickey Mantle ☑ 46. Catch a foul ☑ 46. Catch a foul ball ☑ 47. Go to an NBAAII-Star ☑ 47. Go to an NBA All-Star Game ☑ 48. Go to an NBA Draft ☑ 49. Go to an NHL All-Star ☑ 49. Go to an NHL All-Star Game ☑ 50. Go to a Capitals Stanley Cup game ☑ 51. Go to Olympics ☑ 52. Play Augusta ☑ 53. Play Pebble ☑ 53. Play Pebble Beach ☑ 54. Play Cypress Point ☑ 55. Play St. Andrews ❒ 56. Go to Ryder ☑ 56. Go to Ryder Cup ☑ 57. Go to US Open Golf ☑ 57. Go to US Open Golf Tourney ☑ 58. Go to World Cup ❒ 59. Get a hole-in-one ❒ 60. Play in a celebrity golf tournament ☑ 61. Go to a US Open Tennis ☑ 61. Go to a US Open Tennis Final ☑ 62. Go to baseball All-Star Game ☑ 63. Go to a Fantasy Camp ☑ 64. Shoot baskets at Madison Square Garden or Boston Garden ☑ 65. Go one-on-one with Michael Jordan ☑ VI. Travel 66. Go to Greece ☑ 67. Go to Italy ☑ 68. Go to Israel/ Jerusalem ☑ 69. Go to ☑ 69. Go to Hawaii ☑ 70. Go on safari to Africa ❒ 71. Go to London ☑ 72. Go to ☑ 72. Go to Paris ☑ 73. Go to Australia ☑ 74. Sail thru Caribbean ☑ 75. Sail thru Mediterranean ☑ 76. Go to ☑ 76. Go to China ☑ 77. Go to Brazil ☑ 78. Go to Alaska ☑ 79. Go to Egypt ☑ 80. Go to Bali ❒ 81. Go to Tahiti ❒ VII. Stuff 82. Be on cover of a magazine ☑ 83. Produce a TV show ☑ 83. Produce a TV show ☑ 84. Go into outerspace ❒ 85. Write a book ☑ 86. Invent a boardgame ☑ 87. Make a movie ☑ 88. Win a Grammy/ Oscar/ Tony/ Emmy Award ☑ 89. Swim with dolphins ☑ 90. Swim with Great White sharks ❒ 91. Get an honorary degree ☑ 92. Hold elective ☑ 92. Hold elective office ☑ 93. Go to White House/ Meet President ☑ 94. Advise a foreign government ☑ 95. Live overseas for one year ❒ 96. Go to Oscar ceremonies ☑ 97. Go to MTV Awards ☑ 97. Go to MTV Awards Show ❒ 98. See the Rolling Stones ❒ 99. See the Who ☑ 100. Take a year sabbatical ❒ 101. Sail around the world with family ❒ Appendix B The Happiness Questionnaire 1. Describe when or where you are most happy. 2. Would the people that know you best—family, friends, coworkers—describe you as a happy person? 3. Do you consider yourself happy . . . a. All of the time b. Most of the time c. Some of the time d. Never? 4. Have you ever compiled a list of your life’s goals? 5. If you haven’t, do you have in mind a rough list of your life’s goals? 6. If you have a list in mind, please share some of your most important life’s goals—those you may have already achieved or those you’re still striving toward. You can list as few as 2 or as many as 10. 7. Are you on track to accomplish your goals? 8. On a scale of 1-10, with 1 being “not important,” and 10 being “extremely important,” how important is it that you achieve most of your life’s goals? 9. Has there ever been a moment in your life—a health scare, the death of a loved one, a sudden crisis, an unexpected opportunity—when your assessment of your life’s goals changed in an instant? 10. If yes, describe the event in fewer than 20 words. 11. Many people operate within multiple communities simultaneously. We have face-to-face contact with family, friends we see often, the co-workers we see every day. We are active participants in organizations, forums, churches and synagogues, teams, community associations, alumni groups, political entities. We participate within virtual communities and networks such as Facebook. Starting with family, friends, and co-workers, list some of the communities in which you are an active participant. You can list as many as 10. 12. Do you believe you participate in more communities of interest than the average person, fewer than the average person, or about the same as the average person? 13. On a 1-10 scale, with 1 being “not important,” and 10 being “extremely important,” how important is it to your sense of happiness that you participate in such communities? 14. Personal expression can take many forms, from writing a diary to publishing a blog; from being an artist to having unique ways of expressing your individuality. List some of your outlets for personal expression. You can list as few as 2 or as many as 10. 15. On a 1-10 scale, with 1 being “not important,” and 10 being “extremely important,” how important is it to your sense of happiness that you have one or more outlets for your personal expression? 16. Daily life is busy, and sometimes it is hard to reflect on things that bring us happiness—whether it is the company of our family or friends, or something as simple as a nice day, a beautiful sunset. Do you consider yourself able to reflect on things that bring you happiness . . . a. All of the time b. Most of the time c. Some of the time d. Never? 17. On a 1-10 scale, with 1 being “not important,” and 10 being “extremely important,” how important is it to be able to step back and reflect on, or show gratitude for, things that make you happy? 18. On a 1-10 scale, with 1 being “not very much,” and 10 being “a great deal,” how much do you “give back to society,” either through charitable contributions or through volunteering your time? 19. On a 1-10 scale, with 1 being “not important,” and 10 being “extremely important,” how important is it to your sense of happiness that you “give back to society”? 20. Some people believe that they have a higher calling, or that there is a higher purpose to their lives, whether it’s the job they do, or the activities they participate in within their community, or in their responsibilities to others. Do you have a sense that there is a higher purpose to your life? 21. If yes, describe your higher calling, or your higher purpose in life, in fewer than 20 words. 22. On a 1-10 scale, with 1 being “not important,” and 10 being “extremely important,” how important is it to your sense of happiness that you feel you have some kind of higher purpose in life? 23. What makes you happy? You can list as few as 2 conditions, ingredients, or factors, or as many as 10. 24. Are you male or female? 25. What is your age? 26. Optional: Is your annual income: a. Under $ 50,000 b. Between $ 50,000 and $ 100,000 c. More than $ 100,000 Index A Access Hollywood Across the River and into the Trees advertising revenues Advertising.com AIDs AIM Fight airplane flight Alcoholics Anonymous Alcorn, Allan"

"In a cable television system, the largest category of cost (40 percent of total operating expenses) is the fees paid to programmers (HBO, MTV, ESPN, etc.). Larger cable operators are able to negotiate lower programming costs per subscriber, and the more subscribers a cable company has, the lower its programming cost (and the higher its cash flow) per subscriber. These discounts continue to grow with size, providing powerful scale advantages for the largest players. Thus, the largest player with the lowest programming costs would have a sustainable advantage in making new acquisitions versus smaller players—they would be able to pay more for a cable company and still earn the same or better returns, thereby creating a virtuous cycle of scale that went something like this: if you buy more systems, you lower your programming costs and increase your cash flow, which allows more financial leverage, which can then be used to buy more systems, which further improves your programming costs, and so on ad infinitum. The logic and power of this feedback loop now seems obvious, but no one else at the time pursued scale remotely as aggressively as Malone and TCI."

"Customers responded positively, encouraging Netflix to fuel the fire. The company negotiated in turn with each hardware vendor to achieve device ubiquity; they upped their commitment on content, eventually reaching deals with CBS, Disney, Starz and MTV in 2008–2009, and they constantly refined the backend technology needed to make streaming a seamless customer experience."

"HBO was a premium service, around $10 a month, but most others were free to consumers, and ad-supported, like TBS and USA. I had always expected nominal fees from networks, but, until hearing about MTV’s plans, I never had imagined that cable networks would have the market power to create a dual revenue stream: fees from the distributors carrying their network, on top of the money that advertisers paid to air commercials on it. All this time, I had valued the *distribution* part of the company, and now more of the future value might well lie in *content*."

"JC and I had an early meeting at the convention center, and we walked the show floor before. What we saw opened our sleepy eyes—workers setting up booth after booth for new channels, including HBO, Showtime, ESPN, Nickelodeon, and MTV—more than we had ever seen before and nothing like we had expected. No longer would cable TV be a community antenna service merely bringing in the Big Three broadcast networks (ABC, CBS, and NBC). These companies were coalescing into a completely different business, an unprecedented platform for networks of all kinds: movies, music, news, history, education, food, and so much more. Millions of TV homes in America would want more choice in the channels they watched."

"I could see what was coming: once Warner got everyone hooked on free content with MTV, it was going to increase the price down the road. So I needed to throw a monkey wrench into their IPO plans for MTV. So I wrote a letter to Warner that stipulated that, absent a mutually acceptable agreement, we were dropping MTV from all of our systems. I knew this would interrupt the MTV prospectus (the offering document for the IPO), because it would be considered a material change if the largest distributor planned to discontinue carriage. Drew, whom I liked, was on the plane and sitting in my office the next day, and Warner and TCI struck a long-term deal that protected us against the increase in rates. Quality content would become much more valuable. Already cable was outgrowing its amateur-hour status compared with the broadcast networks. CNN was now in 26 million homes, with a George Peabody Award in journalism. HBO would win its first Emmy in 1988 with a documentary."

"I never responded to it. We were discussing the price of MTV, not the end of the planet. Bob Magness said it best: you cannot win a pissing contest with a skunk, so there’s no point in defending yourself or saying anything."

"The reason for the conflict was the way the original agreement had been written, with one critically important paragraph. It stated that all future cable channels owned by either Universal or Paramount were to be equally shared, so when Viacom bought Paramount, Universal took the position that it was entitled to own half of Viacom’s cable networks, which included MTV and Nickelodeon. Sumner Redstone, who controlled Viacom, went bonkers when he heard this extreme claim and countersued Universal, saying *he* ought to own the USA Network. As lawsuits tend to, this one dragged on for some time, and the final settlement gave Universal sole ownership of USA."