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April 17, 2002
Media giant Vivendi Universal staged its own live French Television daytime drama on Tuesday. Take a look at this story detailing the absurd sequence of events which were anything, but professional. All the drama started when Vivendi Universal chief Jean-Marie Messier axed Canal Plus executive Pierre Lescure. Judging by the response he received, apparently, Mr. Lescure is popular figure with French media. According to the story, "On Tuesday, Canal Plus colleagues interrupted regular programming to give Lescure his say live in the channel's studio. Before scores of applauding co-workers, he vowed to fight Messier's decision, said no justification for the ouster was given to him and complained that Messier ''was operating behind my back.'' It has also been reported that Lescure also stated that Messier provided Canal Plus with 24 months to turn things around financially and fired them one month later. Lescure responed on live tv by stating "How can we trust a guy who can't even count to 24?". Shortly after this comment, the Lescure feed was switched to a weather forecast. Although we are unaware of Mr. Messier's counting abilities, we are well aware he or whoever is running Universal Music Group, knows nothing about the music industry, and even less about the music consumer. Customer service has taken a back seat to the quick buck. |
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Recently, Vivendi has come under fire in France by attempting to replace traditional French media programming with American style programming. If Vivendi's poor track record in the music industry is any indication, if permitted, they will have no problem destroying French film and television culture. After Vivendi purchased Seagrams and Universal Music in 2000, company stock has been on a free fall. On March 5, Vivendi reported an 11.8 billion dollar net loss for the year 2001. To put this mammoth loss into perspective, this was one of the largest losses in French corporate history. |
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Although Canal Plus was the biggest loser, Universal Music Group's failure to capitalize on the online music market also contributed to the enormous loss. Repeatedly, Universal has continued to dump money into online ventures which, due to lack of customer appeal, will never be profitable. UMG's poor online business decsions, such as purchasing MP3.com and developing Pressplay, two non-factors in the online music landscape. Let's face it, people who know their music, do not go there. In addition, Vivendi has also burned their money on the much maligned copy protection CD technology. What has been the result of these copy protected CDs? Click here to read a story about how angry consumers are contemplating a class action lawsuit against some major labels. Even though many analysts warned the major labels that copy protecting CDs would backfire, they continued to dump money into what has now become a public relations nightmare. Dare we say, told you so? Whatever the reasons for Vivendi's financial problems, one thing is clear, they have yet to come up with a solution to their online music problem. Although they are quick to blame their music misfortunes on online piracy, a more significant factor is the lack of quality music being released by the Universal camp or any other major label for that matter. How about the music consumers who are not downloading and burning? Why are they not purchasing music? The answer is simple - because the music sucks. Although Universal had seven of the top ten albums on the chart recently, this is comparable to running and winning a race against crippled participants. UMG Chairmen Doug Morris recently stated the Universal is planning some mind blowing signings of artists. Like we can't wait for the announcement of the new washed-up talent being added to the roster. One question? Where is a company who lost almost $12 billion last year going to find the money to promote these newly signed artists? From the looks of it, they can no longer successfully promote their current stock. It is uncertain if Vivendi's enormous financial troubles will eventually have artists complaining about inadequate promotion. One thing is certain though, a $12 billion loss, a live television fiasco and shoddy music management would have even the most optimistic investor running for the hills. Sphinx |
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