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Speaker 1: This is what the Flux.

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Speaker 2: I'm Brett and I'm Justin and it's Friday, third of October.

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Speaker 1: Juzzy Boy.

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Speaker 3: Albo, the Aussie Prime Minister, seems pretty keen to add

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Speaker 3: more competition to the supermarket wars in Australia. In fact,

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Speaker 3: earlier this week he was in the United Arab Emirates

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Speaker 3: and has been encouraging the UAE's largest hypermarket chain, Lulu,

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Speaker 3: to open stores in Australia.

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Speaker 1: That's right, hypermarket.

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Speaker 3: It's a supermarket and department store and electronics retailer.

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Speaker 1: All in one hop.

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Speaker 2: That coals man thirty six thousand dollars. That is the

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Speaker 2: average cost of an Australian wedding. In the Flux app,

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Speaker 2: we break down all the wedding expenses and there are

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Speaker 2: proximate costs, including how you can do it for a

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Speaker 2: whole lot cheap out your plan. If you just got

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Speaker 2: to gauge you're thinking about getting married. Make sure to

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Speaker 2: download the Blacks app and check out our latest.

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Speaker 3: Article three marvelous stories Today Juzzy Boy, let's do it

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Speaker 3: for our first seven. West Media and Southern Cross Media

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Speaker 3: have announced plans to merge into a four hundred and

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Speaker 3: fifteen million dollar content machine.

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Speaker 2: These two companies only worth one hundred and fifteen mil together.

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Speaker 2: How things have changed in the media landscape? Yeah, we

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Speaker 2: wore all right.

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Speaker 3: So seven West Media is one of Australia's largest free

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Speaker 3: to air TV and media companies.

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Speaker 2: We're talking the owner of Channel seven, the West Australian,

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Speaker 2: the Sunday Times.

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Speaker 3: We're also talking the owner of the broadcast rights to

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Speaker 3: the AFL and Cricket.

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Speaker 2: And of course My Kitchen Rules and Home and Away two.

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Speaker 1: Yep, can't forget that.

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Speaker 3: It also has seven two, seven Mates, seven, Bravo streaming platform,

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Speaker 3: seven plus all in its stable and Southern.

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Speaker 2: Cross well, they're the owners of Hit network like foxfam

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Speaker 2: as well as Triple Out.

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Speaker 1: Now, jes it boy, we know that Southern Cross Media

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Speaker 1: has been keen to sell.

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Speaker 2: They even had serious talks between Southern Cross and their

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Speaker 2: arch rival Arn Media.

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Speaker 3: But now seven West Media has swooped in announcing plans

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Speaker 3: to merge with Southern Cross Media.

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Speaker 2: Alf Stewart would be flame and impressed with this.

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Speaker 3: As part of this deal, it would mean that seven

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Speaker 3: shareholders own auty nine point nine percent of the combined company.

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Speaker 2: Well, Southern Cross shareows get fifty point one percent of

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Speaker 2: the company and jasboid.

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Speaker 3: This seems to be a necessary step for both companies

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Speaker 3: who are battle in the new media landscape.

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Speaker 2: So true, So what is the key learning here?

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Speaker 3: Media firms are being forced to consolidate to protect their

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Speaker 3: margins and their relevance.

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Speaker 2: You see, bee Man, the old advertising model is under siege.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, viewers have split across streaming platforms, social media, podcasts,

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Speaker 3: and traditional TV and radio.

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Speaker 2: In fact, the commercial broadcasters have seen ad spend lumber

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Speaker 2: since the early two thousand.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, between Channel seven nine and ten, they've seen their

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Speaker 3: share of Australian ads spend fall from forty three percent

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Speaker 3: to seventeen percent. And that's between two thousand and six

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Speaker 3: and twenty twenty two, and it continues to decline more

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Speaker 3: and more since then. That means ad dollars are spread

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Speaker 3: thinner and harder to lock in.

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Speaker 2: So by merging seven West and Southern Cross can bundle

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Speaker 2: their offerings together, and so it has one juicy advertising

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Speaker 2: package to advertisers.

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Speaker 3: You think ads across sports, on TV, talk radio shows,

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Speaker 3: regional news, digital masked heads all together.

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Speaker 2: And this scale gives advertisers richer insights, Who's watching, who's listening,

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Speaker 2: who's clicking and J.

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Speaker 1: Boy clearly Seven West has needed to act.

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Speaker 3: Its profits are down approximately sixty two percent in twenty

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Speaker 3: twenty five compared to the last.

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Speaker 2: Year, so both companies will be hoping at shareholders also

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Speaker 2: see their value in this deal, so they cannot only

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Speaker 2: so by the loan, but hopefully arrive together.

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Speaker 3: For our second story, Donald Trump has slapped a one

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Speaker 3: hundred percent tariff on foreign made films, throwing Hollywood and

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Speaker 3: Australia's movie industry into chaos.

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Speaker 2: You're telling me thor movies won't be made in Australia

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Speaker 2: any will be, man.

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Speaker 1: Tell me what use boy?

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Speaker 3: We all know Hollywood as the epicenter of celebrity culture

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Speaker 3: and influences, and of course movie studios.

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Speaker 2: You've got Paramount based in Hollywood. Steel Or Warner Brothers

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Speaker 2: and Disney are a bit further out, but very much

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Speaker 2: still in la.

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Speaker 1: In May this year, Donald Trump got pretty down frustrated.

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Speaker 2: It sounds unlike the man who tweets out literally everything

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Speaker 2: and anything.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, he claimed that the US Film Ministry had been

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Speaker 3: quote stolen by overseas production or as he.

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Speaker 2: Said, it's been like stealing candy from a baby.

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Speaker 3: That's because film studios from the US are often lured

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Speaker 3: to film in other countries by foreign tax breaks.

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Speaker 2: Like Mission Impossible and Jurassic World Rebirth, We're both shot

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Speaker 2: outside the US.

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Speaker 3: So now Trump has announced plans to slap a one

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Speaker 3: hundred percent tariff on films made outside of the US.

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Speaker 3: This could be a major blow for the film industry

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Speaker 3: globally and particularly in Australia.

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Speaker 2: So what is the key learning here? Film isn't just.

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Speaker 1: Art or entertainment.

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Speaker 3: It's become a global trade game, and that is to

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Speaker 3: the detriment of the US film industry.

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Speaker 1: This one Jazi Boy.

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Speaker 3: There were twenty nine percent fewer movies and TV series

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Speaker 3: with budgets above forty mili USD that were filmed in

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Speaker 3: the US in twenty twenty four, and that's in comparison

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Speaker 3: to twenty twenty two.

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Speaker 2: And that's largely because the UK, Australia, and Canada have

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Speaker 2: given these production companies major tax incentives. In fact, the

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Speaker 2: Australian government offers a thirty percent rebate on production costs

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Speaker 2: for large budget films from overseas. This effectively becomes a

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Speaker 2: subsidy on every dollar that they spend in our country.

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Speaker 2: In fact, be Man Screen Australia reported one point seven

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Speaker 2: billion dollars spent locally on these productions in twenty twenty

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Speaker 2: three twenty twenty four, which is very large in Australia.

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Speaker 1: So, Jazi boy.

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Speaker 3: While it's unclear how serious Trump is and how the

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Speaker 3: tariff would actually work, it's certainly a scary message for

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Speaker 3: the local film industry.

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Speaker 2: For our third and final story, Amazon has copped a

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Speaker 2: record breaking two and a half billion US dollar fined

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Speaker 2: and refund bill for making Amazon Prime sign ups too

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Speaker 2: easy and cancelation it's too hard.

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Speaker 3: This is when getting too good at the game becomes problematic.

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Speaker 3: Juzzy boy, so tell me what's going on.

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Speaker 2: Amazon Prime is the subscription membership for Amazon that launched

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Speaker 2: in two thousand and five YEP.

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Speaker 3: Its main value is that it gives members free shipping

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Speaker 3: and same day delivery or next day delivery on Amazon products.

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Speaker 2: And the man it's grown into a forty four billion

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Speaker 2: US dollar a year subscription be he met.

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Speaker 1: Wow Get this one, juzy boy.

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Speaker 3: Nearly one hundred and ninety seven million Americans are estimated

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Speaker 3: to have Prime.

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Speaker 2: And that is more than half the US population.

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Speaker 3: Now, Amazon will pay one billion US dollars in penalties

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Speaker 3: to the US's Federal Trade Commission and one and a

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Speaker 3: half billion US dollars in customer refunds.

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Speaker 2: And why is that?

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Speaker 3: Well, the FTC claims that Amazon's Prime subscription violated its rules.

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Speaker 2: They claim Amazon made it very easy to access the

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Speaker 2: subscription and very hard to cancel.

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Speaker 3: And this is the largest civil penalty ever for an

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Speaker 3: FTC rule violation and b.

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Speaker 2: Man, it's five point six percent of amazon Primes annual

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Speaker 2: revenue and joy boy.

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Speaker 1: Amazon has denied wrongdoing, but also agreed to changees.

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Speaker 2: Like clearer disclosures, easier camation buttons.

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Speaker 3: All part of the hope that consumers can avoid the

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Speaker 3: subscription trap.

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Speaker 2: So what is the key learning here?

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Speaker 3: Subscription traps are designed to keep customers paying longer than

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Speaker 3: they intend by making cancelation difficult.

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Speaker 2: In fact, they man Amazon documents revealed internal staff actually

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Speaker 2: referred to parts of the Prime sign up flows as

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Speaker 2: a conversion.

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Speaker 3: Trap, and finding the cancel button for an Amazon Prime

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Speaker 3: subscription is like finding a needle in a haystack while blindfolded.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. In fact, it's believed that more than thirty five

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Speaker 2: million US customers alone were sucked into this Prime subscription trap.

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Speaker 1: And don't get me started on audible gig boy, that's

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Speaker 1: a whole other thing.

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Speaker 3: So now Amazon is paying the price for its trap

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Speaker 3: and hopefully it sets a present for other companies to

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Speaker 3: remove the trap as well.

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Speaker 2: Just got engaged. Well it's a very exciting time, but

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Speaker 2: also a bit of a scary time when it comes

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Speaker 2: to the costs. There's the venue, the wedding planners, the

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Speaker 2: catering and drinks, photography, videography. We break it down all

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Speaker 2: in the Flux app, so make sure to download the

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Speaker 2: app and check it out.

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Speaker 3: Thanks for listening, and we'll see you on a Monday.

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Speaker 2: Music