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Speaker 1: Massive news out of Hollywood in just the last few days.

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Speaker 1: Netflix has agreed to acquire Warner Brothers Studios that includes

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Speaker 1: HBO Max in a deal that's worth aout one hundred

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Speaker 1: and twenty five billion New Zealand dollars. If it goes through,

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Speaker 1: it's subject to regulatory approval, and if it goes through,

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Speaker 1: it's going to make Netflix the biggest screen powerhouse on

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Speaker 1: the planet. Joe Flint is the media and entertainment reporter

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Speaker 1: for The Wall Street Journal and with us Morning.

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Speaker 2: Joe, I'm here right, thank you.

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Speaker 1: Is this if this goes through, is this that the

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Speaker 1: streaming walls are over? Netflix is the king?

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Speaker 2: Well, it's funny because generally Wall Street and Hollywood already

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Speaker 2: felt Netflix was the king. So yes, if this goes through,

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Speaker 2: not only are they the king, but they've probably extended

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Speaker 2: their reign by one hundred years or so. Yeah, it's

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Speaker 2: a huge deal, huge implications in Hollywood, Wall Street for consumers. Obviously,

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Speaker 2: as you mentioned, there will be a pretty tough regulatory

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Speaker 2: battle for them, but they feel very confident that they

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Speaker 2: will ultimately get this deal through Washington.

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Speaker 1: Do you think the response from Netflix is now that

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Speaker 1: they've got all the really good stuff on their like

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Speaker 1: Succession and White Lotus and whatever that they push their

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Speaker 1: price up.

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Speaker 2: Well, of course, they will argue that ultimately this will

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Speaker 2: be good for consumers because they've indicated that they want

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Speaker 2: to keep HBO going as a separate brand and they

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Speaker 2: will bundle it with Netflix and that will lower the

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Speaker 2: cost for consumers. But of course that's the kind of

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Speaker 2: thing you say when you're trying to curry favor to

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Speaker 2: get a deal through. But ultimately, I've yet to see

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Speaker 2: the merger that really ultimately is all that beneficial to consumers,

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Speaker 2: So you know, wait and see. But they're saying all

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Speaker 2: the right things.

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Speaker 1: Now, Yeah, and does it impact the way that they

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Speaker 1: play out the Warner stuff in the theaters, because that's

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Speaker 1: not really a Netflix's wheelhouse, is it.

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Speaker 2: No. Netflix has been adamantly against the theatrical business. Now

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Speaker 2: they will tell you it's not that they're anti movie theaters.

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Speaker 2: It's at their anti long gaps of time between when

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Speaker 2: a movie is in a theater before it hits the

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Speaker 2: streaming marketplace, and that they're perfectly fine with putting movies

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Speaker 2: in theaters, but they want them on their service, you know,

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Speaker 2: pretty close to the same time. But they have said

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Speaker 2: that they will honor Warner Brothers existing theatrical agreements, and

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Speaker 2: again what that means going forward when it's up to

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Speaker 2: them to greenlight movies and make movies. We'll see what

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Speaker 2: happens there.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, Joe, thanks so much, mate, Joe Flint. Wall Street Journal,

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Speaker 1: Media and Entertainment Report is going to have implications obviously

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Speaker 1: back home here because the guys who have the HBO content,

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Speaker 1: the Warner content is Neon Sky TV so all, and

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Speaker 1: they've got all the good stuff, the Game of Thrones,

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Speaker 1: the White Lotus, the Sopranos, the Succession, the Last of Us,

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Speaker 1: all of that stuff all's going to come off there

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Speaker 1: presumably and go on to Netflix. And I don't know,

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Speaker 1: do you keep your Neon account if that stuff's off

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Speaker 1: and it's over at Netflix. For more from the Mic

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Speaker 1: Asking Breakfast, listen live to news talks.

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Speaker 2: It'd be from six am weekdays, or follow the podcast

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Speaker 2: on iHeartRadio