00:00Can you tell, I mean, President Trump has kind of, in some ways, weighed in a bit.
00:04I mean, we take a look at this Paramount bid. It's backed by the Ellison family.
00:07They are allies of the president.
00:10I think some of the equity backers are part and include Jared Kushner, his son-in-law's PE firm.
00:17What sort of influence do you think the president is going to have on this deal?
00:21Well, the president, you know, it does come from, to some degree, a media background.
00:24I think he's very interested in this deal. I think he also likes having a voice in this.
00:29This deal does not involve the FCC because there's not a broadcast network involved.
00:35So I think any influence is going to be more around a monopoly, and both studios would have to make a case.
00:40What you are going to see is the end of a Hollywood studio to some degree, whether it goes to Netflix, whether it goes to Comcast, whether it goes to Paramount.
00:49And I think that's a shift, but it is how you are measuring, like we said earlier, how you're measuring what monopolistic power is.
00:56And I think the case that Netflix is, you know, there is some, Ted Taranzas apparently did meet with the president earlier this week.
01:03So I think, like we mentioned, the breakup fee, you don't make a $5.8 billion breakup fee unless you think you can make, push this through.
01:11They are going to have to make concessions, probably the theater owners, probably to the creative community of the gills.
01:16And also probably it may involve some degree of Netflix and also how they window movies for theatrical release.
01:25So, Paul, who needs this more?
01:26Does Netflix need this more or does Paramount need this more for their future, existential future?
01:31Existential, I would say just based on the very large offer and the aggressive offer that Paramount has made, I would think that Paramount probably needs this more in the near term.
01:41Paramount Plus does not have the penetration that Netflix does.
01:44Netflix could take that money and invest it in content and probably continue, you know, move on in a very pleasant way.
01:53So this is mainly a play to get some iconic content for Netflix in the near term.
02:00So I think Netflix could survive much easier.
02:03I think for Paramount and for Comcast, it's a little more existential.
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