00:00When you come to an event like this, and I'm sure you go to a lot of conferences and so-and-so,
00:03what is it that you're looking out for?
00:05You know, what's great about Bloomberg Screen Time is you have everybody that's important in media,
00:11both old media and new media, which a lot of conferences miss either one silo or the other,
00:16and they are converging, and therefore their competitive statements are relevant to both sides of the business.
00:21Who's making this convergence the best?
00:24Amazon. I think Amazon and YouTube. I think if you think about Wall Street...
00:27Which is interesting because they're both like new media.
00:29Yeah, they are.
00:29First, right? They're like, they're not incumbents.
00:31Yeah, no, they're not.
00:32Maybe now they could be, but they're not traditional incumbents.
00:33And I think sometimes incumbents ignore them, and I think Wall Street doesn't think that's actually the smartest move.
00:39There was an interesting comment in the Jimmy Kimmel conversation last night about how Jimmy Kimmel looks at YouTube
00:45and if he's changed his show as a result of YouTube, and he said,
00:48I haven't ever changed my show for YouTube, but I do like to wake up and see that a few million people have watched it.
00:53But he did say ABC doesn't make money from YouTube.
00:56YouTube is the one who makes the money.
00:59I don't know.
00:59I know YouTubers who are sailing around the world, and they're making millions of dollars a year.
01:03Sounds like a good life to me.
01:05But there's a disintermediation happening right there.
01:08So even if he's getting more eyeballs, he's not seeing the revenue.
01:11I think the important point here is we have a funnel.
01:13You need to have young people at the top of the funnel to create a TV, let's call it a habit,
01:18and not just video games or not just interactivity or not just short form on TikTok.
01:22So television has to have top of the funnel.
01:25YouTube does that for you.
01:26So this notion of money now versus money later, you must have that top of the funnel for young people to come to longer form, high-quality programming.
01:35Which makes me think about the interest in Warner Brothers Discovery.
01:39On that, Greg Peters of Netflix said, or he was asked about it with Lucas Shaw.
01:45If he was interested in Warner Brothers Discovery, he talked about it last night.
01:48Let's listen to what he had to say.
01:49But there's been some reports around you guys being interested in Warner Brothers Discovery.
01:53Is there any truth to that?
01:55I would say this.
01:56We come from a deep heritage of being builders rather than buyers.
02:00I also think that one should have a reasonable amount of skepticism around big media mergers.
02:08They don't have an amazing track record over the history of time.
02:11So, you know, I would say it's our responsibility to evaluate all our options.
02:18So you'll look, you'll have a conversation, but the odds of an offer are pretty low.
02:23Yeah, our job is to figure out, like, what's the best way to grow our business, right?
02:26And then we have to think, you know, really carefully.
02:28Like, how do we invest, you know, our capital, our time, and our attention?
02:32And if that's the best way to do it, great.
02:33And if it's not, then we should do something else.
02:35All right.
02:38That, of course, Greg Peters over at Netflix talking with Lucas Shaw last night.
02:43Warner Brothers.
02:44And then there's also David Ellison that there's been talk that maybe he'll be interested.
02:48Is that a good, I don't know, is that a good mix of businesses, Warner Brothers?
02:52Is that about going after the younger consumer?
02:55No, it's not.
02:55But I would say this, that Netflix continues to try to create IP from scratch.
03:00And as we know from the sequelization of the box office, creating, having, starting with the embedded fandom from 30 years ago, 50 years ago, and then holding on.
03:09Because it creates value in your old stuff when you create something with that IP in the new, like, currently.
03:14Like a Happy Gilmore 2.
03:15Yeah, like that.
03:16And if so, I ultimately think he gave a non-answer.
03:20He gave a very thoughtful non-answer.
03:22Does that mean that maybe they are interested?
03:24I think ultimately they must buy established IP.
03:27Wow.
03:27Because it's so risky.
03:28Not necessarily Warner Brothers, but they must buy IP that they have library value, that they can then make new, and own it.
03:36I did not get that from his answer.
03:38I love that you're saying this.
03:39My response to hearing that was, okay, he says they're builders, not buyers.
03:43They haven't traditionally made big acquisitions.
03:46And they said they never do live sports.
03:47And they said they never do advertising.
03:49So, like, non-answers aren't even an outright denial.
03:53Maybe he'd be more likely to buy to be outright denied.
03:55So who should they buy?
03:56You know, good question.
03:57They need something with deep IP.
03:59These 50-year-old libraries are far and few between.
04:02They didn't buy Paramount, which would have been also a very big deep library, and it would have been a quarter as expensive.
04:08So we'll have to see.
04:09But in the end, I do believe Netflix must own deep IP and stop just taking the risk that you're creating something from scratch because maybe it's cheaper.
04:17All right.
04:18So let's go to David Ellison of Skydance Paramount, who also was asked about, there's been rumors about, that they are getting ready to make a bid on Warner Brothers.
04:26What do you think about that combination?
04:27Well, I think the thing about David Ellison so far is he has been really quiet with Wall Street about what these individual tactical moves he's making, how they fit together.
04:38So he overpaid for USC, outbidding Netflix, $7 billion a year, I mean, $1 billion a year for seven years.
04:44Waste of money.
04:45I think he wasted $1 billion, mostly of his money, but public shareholder money.
04:49And now he just bought the free press for $150 million.
04:51I think it was worth $20.
04:52So it destroyed $100 million in the scheme of life, not destroying billions, but totally unclear how these fit together, what the vision is.
04:59You know, so the idea of him buying Warner Brothers, like, if he isn't articulating a vision, I don't know why public shareholders are paying part of the bill.
05:06So he's not doing a good job.
05:07Not doing a good job.
05:09Hmm.
05:10Why do you think the free press was not a good buy?
05:13I think he overpaid.
05:14I think Wall Street hates, like, I think it's unclear you can monetize podcasts.
05:18And I think we hate everything that is, like, doesn't have a clear revenue stream associated with it.
05:24He argues that, and he said this during the conversation with Lucas earlier, that he wants to appeal to the 70% of people who identify as right of center and left of center.
05:35That's who he wants to bring in.
05:36And he thinks that Barry Weiss can help do that.
05:39Do you agree?
05:40Well, I mean, looking at her, I mean, we'll see today, because she just showed up in the CBS boardroom.
05:44But she's, I would say, a highly polarized figure.
05:46So we'll see how she does and how long she lasts.
05:50Not, not to.
05:51Do you think the news business is, is, is long for being at CBS?
05:55Do they keep it?
05:56Yeah, yeah.
05:57I think they keep it.
05:58I think, I think they need, you need live programming.
06:00And live programming is sports, which is really expensive, and news, which isn't quite as expensive, and really smart people that have a point of view.
06:06They get paid to have a point of view, and they're deep thinkers.
06:09So we'll see.
06:10I mean, he's trying to make a, he's doing tactical things without communicating an overall vision.
06:16And I don't know what that means.
06:17Like, I understand niche audiences.
06:20I understand if you want to target conservatives or if you want to target liberals.
06:23It's a polarized political environment.
06:25How do you target both?
06:26Like, that doesn't actually feel like a target market.
06:28It feels like a mass market.
06:29But that is what CBS did before.
06:31And it sounds like he thinks he's doing something different.
06:33So I'm confused.
06:34Laura, does what is going on at CBS and Skydance and Paramount, does that impact the owners of, I think, about the traditional networks of NBC and ABC?
06:43Like, how does that, what they, that deal impact the rest of the media space?
06:48Or do you know, you don't, because you don't sound like you respect what he's doing.
06:51Yeah, no, I don't think he's done good work yet.
06:53Or at least he hasn't communicated.
06:55I mean, there is a communication function when you're a public company that he is, I'd give him a B- at doing.
07:01And he says he likes being public.
07:03Yeah, I don't know what that means.
07:04But, okay, good.
07:05Good.
07:05We're paying part of the bill.
07:06The public shareholders are paying part of his bill.
07:08So I guess he should.
07:10I would say, look, we just wrote a piece saying that ABC, which is Disney, should just shut down ABC.
07:15Because then they become unregulated.
07:16And the FCC on the Kimmel thing is getting involved in free speech.
07:20So if Disney just shut it down, we think it's a $10 billion write-off.
07:24One time only.
07:25And now they would be unregulated.
07:27Yay.
07:27Seems like a lot of, you know, Wall Street would add it back.
07:30It's a one-time write-off.
07:31We think they should just shut it down.
07:32Good for Wall Street.
07:32Maybe not so good for the competition.
07:35Voices, competition.
07:36It would be bad for a lot of things in D.C.
07:38But I could say the same thing about CBS.
07:41Like, you know, I think, you know, Larry Ellison has a, I mean, Larry the dad has a privileged position with Donald Trump.
07:46So no need for him.
07:48I mean, Brendan Carr is not going to get in his way because of the friendship with the president.
07:51And the FCC is an executive branch regulatory agency.
07:56So he doesn't need to shut it down.
07:57But I think broadcasters are irrelevant today.
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