- 2 days ago
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TechTranscript
00:00I do want to talk about your business. You've acquired a lot over the years and now you're
00:04acquiring a majority stake in BuzzFeed. Yes. Why? BuzzFeed is a phenomenal brand. It's
00:10magnificent. Still? Oh yeah, it's been around for 20 years. Jonah Peretti has done a great job.
00:16Everybody knows BuzzFeed and HuffPost. HuffPost is part of that. Oh yeah, and Tasty. These are
00:23great brands. But they were brands somewhat in decline in terms of readership. Yeah, I mean,
00:28what happens is that you lose, the algorithms change. Don't let anybody come in between you
00:35and the customer. Those are my three business rules. Number one, don't let anybody come in
00:39between you and the customer. Number two, don't run out of money. And number three, don't break
00:44rules one and two. And I think the whole algorithm changing over Facebook, that gave it a little bit
00:51of a dip, but that's going to be corrected. Now we have more direct to the consumer interfacing.
00:56So BuzzFeed is phenomenal. HuffPost is phenomenal. And so is Tasty. I mean, listen, you know me,
01:03a lot of guys like to buy businesses in the penthouse and take them down to the lobby. I like
01:08to buy them in the lobby and take them to the penthouse. Well, you're kind of paying penthouse
01:11prices. I mean, this stock was trading for less than a dollar. And when the headline crossed the
01:14Bloomberg terminal a few days ago, you're paying three bucks for this. Why? Yeah, I bought about 40
01:19million shares at three bucks. And I took, you know, 52% of the company and I have, I got
01:26a,
01:26you know, 20 million cash today and a five year note, a hundred million dollar promissory note,
01:325% interest doing payable in five years. I, you know, let's just remember five years ago,
01:37the stock was $40 a share. Let's remember that this company at one point had a $1.7 billion market
01:43cap. What I'm going to do with Buzzfeed, with Jonah and Jonah is. So are you running this or
01:49Jonah? We're running it together. Okay. I'm chairman and CEO and he's going to stay on board. He's
01:54going to be president of AI. President of AI. Buzzfeed AI. Buzzfeed AI. Is that just a buzzword
02:01or is there a substance behind it? There is serious. Come on now. Well, explain it to me.
02:05Okay. Look at everybody's throwing AI on everything he says. You know that. Okay. Romaine AI. I'm not even
02:09talking to a human being right now. I'm talking to Romaine AI. My value just skyrocketed. He just
02:14went up a lot. I mean, come on. I mean, you're talking about a guy who's really, in my opinion,
02:19he's a creative genius. Look at what he did. He's one of the first people. So just stop right there.
02:23You put a period on him. I wanted to work for him back in the day. He wouldn't hire me.
02:26He wouldn't
02:26hire you. I know why. Cause you were doubting him. You can't doubt the man if you want to work
02:31for the
02:31man, but you got a great job. You did okay with Bloomberg. I did. So here's what I would tell
02:35you.
02:35It's real simple. He has built a foundation that we're going to simply build on. We're not going
02:42to change all of this and that. I just spoke to everybody who works at anything. I'm not taking
02:47away tabs. We're building on what you already have. Now, what they don't have is they're not
02:52in the streaming business, free streaming business in a big way. Now, when you say streaming,
02:58like live streaming, video streaming, video streaming, right? I mean, we're going after YouTube.
03:03Okay. You know, get your mind around that. I'm going to say it again. We're going after
03:06YouTube. So when you address the employees today, the, the, the, the general sort of pitch
03:12was that a bigger push into streaming. Yes. Bigger embrace of YouTube. Free streaming. Okay.
03:17Yeah. We're going to make money off that ads. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. I mean, the biggest streamer
03:21on the planet is YouTube. Okay. And there's only YouTube. This is America. We have Coke and Pepsi.
03:28Why is it that we only have one free streamer? We're going to have, we're going to have YouTube
03:32and we're going to have Buzzfeed. We're going to have both. By the way, if you really think
03:36about it, Romain, most of the content, 99.9% of the content sitting at YouTube is non-exclusive.
03:43Right. So what I would say to the content creators, put it at YouTube, which you're going to do anyway,
03:48and also put it at Buzzfeed. Do you want one check or do you want two checks? Two checks,
03:54better than one. Do you have the infrastructure all ready to do that?
03:57Yes. And we're building it out. And also that's what he's going to do. That's the AI. The AI allows
04:03you to build that infrastructure out much faster, much more efficiently. So that's the substance
04:08behind the AI. Without AI, I would not be sitting next to you saying we're going after YouTube. And
04:14also let me explain. Go ahead. I invested a little over $150 million to build out a streaming app called
04:23Local Now. Yeah, I remember that. Yeah. Local Now. So Local Now uses artificial intelligence and
04:28proprietary software to curate, aggregate, and stream super hyper local news, weather, sports,
04:32and traffic. Geofence to your zip code. Yeah, it is magnificent. Here's the problem. No one knows
04:39about it. Now here's the other thing. We've won best streamer twice. Let's pause. Yeah. Let's
04:45appreciate that moment. We've won best streamer twice. Okay. We beat Netflix. We beat Amazon.
04:53We beat Hulu. We beat Paramount Plus. We beat them all twice. No one knows about it. Now I'm going
05:00to take that technology. I'm going to marry it. I'm going to marry it with BuzzFeed and HuffPost.
05:05Now they're in the streaming business. 30,000 movies, TV shows, and documentaries. Over 600 fast
05:11channels. 400 ABC, NBC, CBS affiliates providing their local news. Overnight, they're a major streamer.
05:21And this is the perfect intersection of free streaming. Okay. Premium content using AI for
05:29free. See, I had dinner one night with Reed Hastings, the founder of Netflix. Right. And I said,
05:33hey, Reed, what keeps you up at night? He said, YouTube. I said, YouTube. He said, yeah, Byron,
05:38if they start presenting and, you know, start delivering premium content for free, how do I get people to pay
05:44me? XYZ per month? I said, got it. I'm going to curate and aggregate really terrific premium
05:52content and give the world what they want. How do you? Free, free, free content. What's the cost of
05:59that content? It's all. That's the great news. It's a rev share. I've already aggregate. Go to local. Now,
06:05if you go to local. Now you can authenticate from your zip code. And I'm telling you the weather and
06:11I'm
06:11giving you sports and traffic and your zip code. And I've aggregated billions and billions and
06:17billions of dollars of content on a rev share basis. Is the content going to be primarily
06:24entertainment? Is it going to be news? Everything. Everything. So you want to be everything to
06:28everybody? I didn't say that. Okay. But I'm going to be. So you said that, but I'm going to be.
06:34And so what you, I remember what, like you said, does it have news? Remember I said, I've already
06:40have at local. You do. Yeah. 400 ABC, NBC, CBS, and Fox affiliates delivering the local news,
06:48right? Yeah. So go there. We already have 30,000 movies, TV shows, and documentaries. Go to local. Now,
06:54check it out. But it's not the greatest name in the world. Local. Now, blah, blah, blah. Who cares?
06:59Now, I'm going to, now I have one of the greatest names on the internet. I have BuzzFeed. I have
07:04HuffPost. HuffPost is great. Well, HuffPost is amazing. Well, I'm going to ask you there. Is there
07:08almost more value in the HuffPost name and their subscriber base than BuzzFeed itself? It's not
07:14either or. We're doing it all. HuffPost is going to have streaming. BuzzFeed's going to have streaming.
07:19Tasty's going to have streaming. It's free. You know the world's favorite word, Romain?
07:24Costly? Free. Okay. Free. You didn't pass the test. I want to talk to the AI Romain.
07:30Is this a big pivot for you, too? I had to ask you, though, too. I mean,
07:33obviously, the Weather Channel is probably your crown jewel. At least it's the thing most people
07:36kind of know you for these days here. This sounds like a little bit of a pivot away from
07:41the cable and traditional TV model. No, no, no. No, there's no pivot? No, no, no. Because
07:46the Weather Channel is a technology platform. Okay. It's a technology platform. All right. You know
07:52why I was able to get the Weather Channel at a 1.85 multiple? No idea. Everybody on Wall Street
07:58looked at it as a cable network. And I'm like, no, it's not a cable network. But I think, thank
08:04God
08:04you got it wrong. Yeah. Because I own it. It's a technology platform. It uses proprietary software
08:10to deliver at all the cable head ends to deliver the weather in your zip code. Okay. It's hardwired
08:18into the Pentagon as a matter of national security. Okay. It is a technology platform. That's what the
08:24Weather Channel is. So I'm in, when I bought the Weather Channel, say, well, you bought a cable
08:29network. Yeah, you can call it that. But I'm really, I have a technology platform that allows
08:33me to do something no other cable platform can do. Are you interested in buying or need to buy
08:39anything else to sort of build out this vision? Well, I'm building the world's biggest media company.
08:43So I'm going to constantly be doing acquisitions. And BuzzFeed, I love the fact that it's publicly
08:48traded. Right. I love that. So is there something out there you're looking at now that you want to
08:52share with us? Yeah, I'm looking to buy everything. I'm trying to buy your shoes. I'm looking to buy
08:56everything. I can. You're going to pay more than $3 a share for that. Yeah, well, I don't know if
08:59it's
09:00worth more than $3 a share. But at the end of the day, we are highly acquisitive. And we're looking
09:04to
09:04buy assets that can work together in symphony. I mean, look at this. Okay. So I've taken over CBS late
09:10night. Yeah. Okay. When does that start this week? It starts Friday, May 22. It starts Friday,
09:15May 22. That was the night that my hero, Johnny Carson, my hero, my mentor, he stepped down
09:21Friday, May 22, 1992. I'm stepping up Friday, May 22, 2006, 34 years later. So I'm taking that time
09:31period of 1135 Monday through Friday. This is the time period that Colbert occupies as we speak. Yeah.
09:38And I'll be in that time period Monday through Friday with Comics Unleashed with Byron Allen.
09:42Right. My favorite comedian. That's two half hours back to back. Yeah. Right. And then right after
09:47that, a comedy game show that I created, Funny You Should Ask. For every question, there's a funny
09:53answer. Now, I am paying CBS for that time period. Yeah. And when I said to CBS, because I've invested
09:59over a billion dollars buying ABC, NBC, CBS, and Fox affiliates. Right. And when I said to CBS,
10:06CBS, you're spending between those two hours over $150 million to produce those shows.
10:12So the production cost for your show is significantly less.
10:14Well, they don't care because they don't have to spend that $150 million. I said, stop spending
10:19that. But you have to make the economy. I make the shows, but I'm already making the shows
10:22for syndication in my cable networks because I own a 24-hour cable network called Comedy.TV.
10:29And I said, you're putting all these resources into this late night time period and you're throwing
10:34the audience into me, throwing them to me with my local affiliates. And I'm running 1-800 spray on hair
10:40and 1-800 abs in 15 minutes. Stop wasting your money. Save your $150 a year. I'll pay you millions
10:48for
10:48the time period. I will put my shows on and they're working very well. Comics and Leash is already on
10:54at 1230 following Colbert. It's working very well, very well. And I said, guys, I'll save you
11:00easily $150, $170 million, $180 million. They said, let's do it. So we started putting the show on
11:07at 1235 after Colbert back in September. We're doing great. According to Nielsen, I'm winning
11:13in 43 of the 56-metered markets. That's not bad for a show that just started in September. And
11:19they're making money day one. So I sell the commercial time. So I control 14,000 30-second
11:26spots over the course of the year. You want to buy one for 100 grand? But here's what I'm doing.
11:30I'm going to promote BuzzFeed and HuffPost in that time period.
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