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Speaker 1: Big announcement in the world of rugby. The Inded our

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Speaker 1: boss Mark Robinson is stepping down a CEO. Wants to

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Speaker 1: move back to Australia with the wife and kids in

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Speaker 1: twenty twenty six. So what does this mean for the

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Speaker 1: future of New Zealand rugby. Reaction this morning from Simon Porter,

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Speaker 1: managing director and rugby player agent for Halo Sports. Simon

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Speaker 1: good morning, Good morning.

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Speaker 2: How are you?

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Speaker 1: Yeah? Good, thank you. Good to have you on the show.

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Speaker 1: Mark says he said he's left Inded in a better

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Speaker 1: place than when he found it. Do you agree with that?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean I think so. I mean, it's been

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Speaker 2: a pretty tough six years with COVID. I think they've

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Speaker 2: made some substantial change around the splitting of the commercial

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Speaker 2: co with the rest of the rugby operations I suppose,

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Speaker 2: and there's two different entities now and I guess I

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Speaker 2: mean hopefully it is set up to be a bit

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Speaker 2: more nimble, little bit more agile as it moves forward.

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Speaker 2: I think we're still the proofs to be in the

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Speaker 2: po a little bit around whether that separation is going

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Speaker 2: to have the benefits that we all sort of hope

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Speaker 2: that would when it came in.

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Speaker 1: That's the big issue for you was the separation, and

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Speaker 1: I mean, do you think they should recouple? Ah?

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Speaker 2: Well, I think it's pretty clear when Craig Finton left

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Speaker 2: last year what that was in October or November, and

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Speaker 2: he still hasn't been replaced. I think it's fairly clear

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Speaker 2: in my mind that they'll try to set up a

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Speaker 2: different structure now where for one of a better term

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Speaker 2: of group cl come in and will sit across both entities.

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Speaker 2: I think splitting the entities actually makes a lot of

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Speaker 2: sense just from around their ability to work to different

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Speaker 2: strategic objectives. Because if you're the commercial operation, then you

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Speaker 2: are simply wanting to go out and get as much

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Speaker 2: money as you can. You know, you're looking at your fans,

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Speaker 2: you're running it as a professional organization like a Manchester

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Speaker 2: United or any other large professional sporting body. But when

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Speaker 2: you're also the newsular and you've got to look after

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Speaker 2: the participant in the community, you know, your touch points

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Speaker 2: and strategic projectives are quite different. So being a bit

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Speaker 2: more honest about that and splitting that into two companies

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Speaker 2: actually makes quite a lot of sense from you know,

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Speaker 2: the ability to work to different purposes.

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Speaker 1: Okay, let's assume that you're right and that this is

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Speaker 1: a board, that this is the direction the board wants

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Speaker 1: to move. And do you think that they I mean,

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Speaker 1: whose decision was it for Mark to go it?

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Speaker 2: Do you think I think it was probably Mark's decision

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Speaker 2: to go. I definitely feel that that was the case.

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Speaker 2: I mean, I was dealing with them last week on

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Speaker 2: an issue and I think it was definitely his decision

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Speaker 2: to leave. Now, I think the hard bit is that,

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Speaker 2: you know, we've got two boards effectively, and how they're

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Speaker 2: going to work that if they sort of have that

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Speaker 2: group CEO because when the silver Lake investment was made,

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Speaker 2: the commercial board was set up and that's where silver

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Speaker 2: Lake have their representatives on the So how they can

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Speaker 2: resolve you know, the commitments of made the silver Acre

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Speaker 2: around board representation and strategic direction with appointing a group

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Speaker 2: CEO that's going to set across two entities and how

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Speaker 2: do those boards work together, et cetera. Like there's some big,

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Speaker 2: pretty media issues that I think they need to work

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Speaker 2: through before they are ready to appoint the CEO and

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Speaker 2: and you know, announce any sort of new new structure

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Speaker 2: or way of working.

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Speaker 1: Okay, interesting, Simon appreciate your thoughts this morning. Simon Porter,

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Speaker 1: managing director and rugby player agent from Halo Sport. Twenty

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Speaker 1: three minutes after five Bryant Bridge speaking of companies splitting up, well,

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Speaker 1: coming together and then splitting off again. This has happened

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Speaker 1: to my old employer, Warner Brothers Discovery. Their share price

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Speaker 1: up seven point three three percent this morning, which is

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Speaker 1: great because they gave me shares when I worked there

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Speaker 1: and so they'll now be worth more. But they are

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Speaker 1: splitting the company. So they came together and Warner Brothers Discovery,

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Speaker 1: now they're going to be basically split back into two

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Speaker 1: separate businesses to standalone publicly traded entertainment companies, separating HBO Max,

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Speaker 1: which is their streaming service, your movie studios and your

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Speaker 1: TV productions that goes on one side, and then your

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Speaker 1: cable networks basically your legacy media on the other, and

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Speaker 1: that would presumably include TV three New Zealand. They own

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Speaker 1: the likes of CNN. Ratings for cable networks in the

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Speaker 1: US have been tanking, particularly on the left. CNN has

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Speaker 1: been hit hard cannibalized a little bit by MSNBC. So

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Speaker 1: there's problems over there, and now they're splitting up the

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Speaker 1: companies so that they can, which is hugely ironic because

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Speaker 1: it was not that long ago that they all came

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Speaker 1: together and everything went on hold, and hot businesses just

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Speaker 1: basically go sideways when they do mergers because no one

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Speaker 1: makes any decisions for a year prior a year after.

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Speaker 1: And now they're going to uncouple themselves because the share

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Speaker 1: prices tanked something like sixty percent over the past year.

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Speaker 2: From Early edition with Ryan Bridge. Listen live to News

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Speaker 2: Talks at B from five am weekdays, or follow the

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