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Speaker 1: Welcome to Strictly Business Varieties, podcast featuring conversations with industry

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Speaker 1: leaders about the business of entertainment. Less than twenty four

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Speaker 1: hours before this episode was scheduled to publish, Variety learned

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Speaker 1: that Conde Nast Entertainment President Don Ostroff has taken a

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Speaker 1: new job as chief Content officer for Spotify. This wasn't

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Speaker 1: something Ostrof divulged at the time of her interview with

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Speaker 1: Variety co editor in chief Andrew Wallenstein earlier this month,

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Speaker 1: so this conversation does not touch on that next chapter.

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Speaker 1: But we've decided to publish this interview with Ostrof nonetheless

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Speaker 1: because it serves as a good retrospective of her tenure

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Speaker 1: at a company facing some fascinating challenges. Thanks for coming in, Dawn,

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Speaker 1: Thank you for having me. And we should warn the

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Speaker 1: viewers you've got to touch you laryngitis, but we've pumped

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Speaker 1: you full of drugs and you're gonna make it through. Well.

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Speaker 1: I hope I do. Yeah, my daughter says, my voice

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Speaker 1: sounds sexy, so we'll go with that's our interpretation. That

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Speaker 1: helps in the podcast. What is it like at Conde

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Speaker 1: Nast in terms of trying to get viewers that you

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Speaker 1: used to try to get on the TV side. Well,

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Speaker 1: I think the way we approached the Conde Nast is saying,

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Speaker 1: how can we be good storytellers on all platforms, which,

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Speaker 1: of course are you know, magazines, print our first business, um,

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Speaker 1: feature films, television, and of course then the digital business.

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Speaker 1: And that is really what we set out to do,

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Speaker 1: is create a studio that makes content across all these

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Speaker 1: different platforms. When you look at digital in its own right,

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Speaker 1: you can see that there are many different versions of

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Speaker 1: digital depending on what the platform is. And so it's

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Speaker 1: become a priority for us to be able to make

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Speaker 1: the content that is worthy of the viewers eyeballs um,

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Speaker 1: that people will talk about and it will be must

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Speaker 1: see viral videos um. And it's across all of our brands,

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Speaker 1: but it's also on every digital video platform that is

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Speaker 1: out there. The good news is is that the trends

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Speaker 1: bode well for where for you where you stand. You

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Speaker 1: were still in the TV business at a time where

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Speaker 1: you were starting to see a very real drift of

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Speaker 1: particularly younger viewers to the digital program sorry digital platforms.

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Speaker 1: Where you now program? Are you finding that with these

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Speaker 1: brands that people really know more from the magazine world

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Speaker 1: that you're able to bring these fleeing younger viewers. Yes,

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Speaker 1: we actually if you if you were to look at

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Speaker 1: our demographics now, the audience we have in digital video

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Speaker 1: is young twelve to BALI forty, The digital text business

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Speaker 1: of our website is a little bit older, and then

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Speaker 1: of course print is even a little bit older than that.

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Speaker 1: So what we're able to do is really expand what

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Speaker 1: the brands mean two different generations, but also make the

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Speaker 1: brands relevant to the gen Z and the millennials, which

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Speaker 1: is very hard to do these days. And being able

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Speaker 1: to take license with what the brand verticals are has

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Speaker 1: been a key to our success. And then reinventing formats

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Speaker 1: that have worked on linear television but looking at them

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Speaker 1: through a different lens for these digital platforms have been

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Speaker 1: incredibly helpful. Give an example of it. So an example

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Speaker 1: of that would be UM. For example. If you look

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Speaker 1: at Entertainment UM and you look at UM interview shows, right,

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Speaker 1: and you look at a late night show like let's

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Speaker 1: say Jimmy Kimmel or UM or fallon UM, and you're

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Speaker 1: typically seeing an interview show as a television viewer, as

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Speaker 1: a voire of two people having a conversation and you're

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Speaker 1: watching that conversation. But in the digital space, we always

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Speaker 1: make it much more personal. It's much more um, it's

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Speaker 1: you're you're much more included in behind the curtain. And

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Speaker 1: so like seventy three questions would be a great example.

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Speaker 1: Not only do we have the celebrity who's being interviewed

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Speaker 1: speaking directly to the camera and our director is asking

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Speaker 1: the questions as more of a friend, and the questions

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Speaker 1: are very sort of you know, um, it could be

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Speaker 1: very fun and not on topic at all for anything

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Speaker 1: that they're particularly promoting. But it also takes place in

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Speaker 1: the celebrities home. So while the celebrity is walking through

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Speaker 1: their home as if they were just going through you know, uh,

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Speaker 1: you know, meaning a friend and sort of taking them

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Speaker 1: through the house, we the viewer on that ride with

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Speaker 1: them and hearing all of the different, you know, kinds

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Speaker 1: of questions that you may or may not hear on

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Speaker 1: a late night talk show. But the point is is

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Speaker 1: that the celebrities are used to having um, a different

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Speaker 1: kind of relationship with the with the viewer and the

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Speaker 1: consumer in the digital space, right if it's Twitter or

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Speaker 1: if it's YouTube, I mean, they speak to or Instagram

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Speaker 1: they speak directly to them, and that's the expectation in video,

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Speaker 1: and so the viewer has, you know, that one on one,

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Speaker 1: they feel like they're on the inside, and that makes

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Speaker 1: it it feel like it's a different same same format,

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Speaker 1: same concept, but really in execution, totally different. And in

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Speaker 1: terms of using magazine brands, I gotta say, it's interesting

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Speaker 1: to me that you know, you're talking about brands that

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Speaker 1: are literally a century old, incredible magazine brands. Do they

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Speaker 1: have the ability though, to be sort of the call

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Speaker 1: of entry for younger viewers who may not have grown

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Speaker 1: up reading g Q and Vogue. It's it's it's to me,

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Speaker 1: it feels like there's a real risk there and trying

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Speaker 1: to make these older brands newly relevant. But you know,

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Speaker 1: it's funny and because even at Lifetime we face this.

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Speaker 1: You know, you you you create a brand, and the

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Speaker 1: c W also you create a brand, and you have

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Speaker 1: to make sure that the brand moves with the generations

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Speaker 1: that come up as as as as they start to

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Speaker 1: to move forward, because if you don't, you don't stay relevant.

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Speaker 1: And relevancy is so critical to the success and the

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Speaker 1: future of these brands, and so let's take Lamor for example.

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Speaker 1: You know, Glamor has existed for many many years as

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Speaker 1: you know, a woman's magazine and has stood from many

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Speaker 1: different things. But in the video space, you can take

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Speaker 1: so much more risk and you can take so much

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Speaker 1: more leeway with what that means. And we have a

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Speaker 1: series that's one of our franchises called you Know You

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Speaker 1: Sang My Song, and it literally takes all of these

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Speaker 1: different artists Pink, Demilovado, Katy Perry, and what we do

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Speaker 1: is we play them cover songs from YouTube videos. Um

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Speaker 1: so it's average people who are singing their songs and

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Speaker 1: we played for them and get them to critique the

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Speaker 1: people who are just you know, the us or the means,

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Speaker 1: you know, trying to emulate them, and then we play

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Speaker 1: it back for that average person watching Pink watch them

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Speaker 1: and it's driven millions of views, I mean ten million

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Speaker 1: views per episode. And you would say, okay, well is

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Speaker 1: that a Glamour series? Well, it is a Glamour series

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Speaker 1: because it's really about inspiration and aspiration and that's so

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Speaker 1: much of what Glamours alwaystood for. Is it this exact

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Speaker 1: version of what they've always done in the magazine in

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Speaker 1: terms of inspiring people, maybe not, but it really works

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Speaker 1: and it's a new way to look at glamor can be.

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Speaker 1: So what I'm curious about is you're sort of working

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Speaker 1: the video arm of what was known for most of

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Speaker 1: its time as a publishing business, which has its challenges,

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Speaker 1: and so what is the pressure on you in terms

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Speaker 1: of making the economics work in a way that helps

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Speaker 1: the whole company? Uh, Because I would imagine, and maybe

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Speaker 1: I'm wrong, that it's still the traditional revenue streams for

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Speaker 1: these companies that are sort of carrying them right now, Well,

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Speaker 1: you'd be surprised at how quickly that's shifted. Really. I mean,

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Speaker 1: this is going to be one of the first years

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Speaker 1: that we really see a significant shift. And if you

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Speaker 1: look at digital and video together and that will be

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Speaker 1: the majority of the revenue for our company on the

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Speaker 1: at side. Um and if you look at our five

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Speaker 1: year plan, you'll see the video becomes a more prominent player.

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Speaker 1: And the opportunities that we have in video are quite

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Speaker 1: are quite grand. I mean, we have brands that never

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Speaker 1: became cable networks and if you look back, they probably

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Speaker 1: should have been and they probably would have been very

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Speaker 1: successful given the verticals that all these brands play in

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Speaker 1: UM and I think we have an opportunity to almost

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Speaker 1: leapfrog over what was missed, which was cable, and create

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Speaker 1: those kinds of verticals and channels in the digital space

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Speaker 1: where the next generation, who really will be familiar with

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Speaker 1: our brands through digital video, will really know what a

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Speaker 1: D is, will know what bone app is, will know

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Speaker 1: g Q and Vogue and any of our big brands

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Speaker 1: and what they really stand for because they will have

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Speaker 1: grown up on that programming. And you know, I'll give

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Speaker 1: you a great example. We do a show with a

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Speaker 1: d architectural digest called open House, and open House is

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Speaker 1: you know, celebrities taking you on a tour of their home,

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Speaker 1: and the episodes do very well. But we decided to

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Speaker 1: do an episode with z Now. Z is a DJ

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Speaker 1: that is incredibly popular world over and z bought an

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Speaker 1: amazing house in the Hollywood Hills. So we did this

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Speaker 1: video and it did fourteen million views in a matter

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Speaker 1: of three days. Okay, and so just within our own company,

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Speaker 1: we were curious, like, who's watching this video? We all

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Speaker 1: went home asked our kids have you seen this video?

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Speaker 1: Every one of the kids, who were teenagers, twenties had

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Speaker 1: seen the video and the follow up question was who

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Speaker 1: made the video? Do you know whose video it was?

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Speaker 1: And they all knew it was a D because a

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Speaker 1: D was on you know, the watermark was on the

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Speaker 1: screen the whole time, and they all said, a D.

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Speaker 1: So now a D has relevancy to this next generation.

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Speaker 1: They wound up watching the next episode, which was an

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Speaker 1: older episode which was Robert Downey Jr. And they all

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Speaker 1: loved that episode. And then Claudia Schiffer came on, which

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Speaker 1: was an episode we had done before that many of

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Speaker 1: them didn't know who she was, but you know, the

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Speaker 1: Z episode is what brought them all in. And now

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Speaker 1: all of these people know what a D is because

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Speaker 1: we made it relevant to them. And that's a good

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Speaker 1: example of how you can take something that you know

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Speaker 1: would never necessarily be known to any of this, you know,

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Speaker 1: to to these younger viewers and make it relevant and

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Speaker 1: important to them. What is it like though, strictly with

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Speaker 1: regards to content for digital platforms monetizing it at a

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Speaker 1: time where the prevailing narrative is the big platforms like

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Speaker 1: Facebook and Google are vacuuming most of the dollars out

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Speaker 1: of this, and it's you guys and maybe other publishing

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Speaker 1: companies or the vices or buzzfees of the world fighting

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Speaker 1: over the scraps right well, it depends, you know, on

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Speaker 1: the in the digital text world, there is much less

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Speaker 1: of the advertising dollars um available when you look at

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Speaker 1: the digital video side of the business right now, of

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Speaker 1: the advertising revenue spent on digital video will be left

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Speaker 1: over for others um. And that's a projection over the

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Speaker 1: next five years, and so that's a significant amount of

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Speaker 1: money when you start to consider how much advertising dollars

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Speaker 1: are really moving into the digital the digital video space um.

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Speaker 1: And then when you also take into account that we

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Speaker 1: are a premium producer really with brands that are well

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Speaker 1: known and trusted, which is incredibly important right now. That

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Speaker 1: also scales significantly with the thirty five series that we

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Speaker 1: have in the digital space that are considered to be hits.

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Speaker 1: Each episode does somewhere between two and ten million views,

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Speaker 1: which by any television network would be considered to be

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Speaker 1: a hit, um, you know, within a week um. And

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Speaker 1: so you can see how a considerable amount of the

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Speaker 1: fifty of that amount of money will will start to

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Speaker 1: really trickle down to the players who are you know,

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Speaker 1: trusted uh premium producers, and I think that we will

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Speaker 1: be right there in that sweet spot and for Conde

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Speaker 1: Nast Entertainment. I mean, you've been at this now for

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Speaker 1: seven years, and I'm curious has its played out as

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Speaker 1: you thought of what are you guys at the place?

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Speaker 1: Growth wise you thought you'd be. Yeah, it's a little

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Speaker 1: bit less than seven years because I joined the company

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Speaker 1: in like November eleven, so we really get started untill

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Speaker 1: we just brought on a few people because we were

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Speaker 1: a true startup. We had nothing when we started, UM

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Speaker 1: and we didn't launch the digital video business until March

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Speaker 1: of so that's you know, it's been it's been just

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Speaker 1: you know, probably four years. UM. But I do UM.

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Speaker 1: I think we are shocked at how far we are. UM.

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Speaker 1: I don't think anybody could have predicted that the business

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Speaker 1: would have grown as rapidly, that the business will have

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Speaker 1: would have changed so quickly, that the revolution would have

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Speaker 1: really happened in such a way that you know, we

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Speaker 1: wake up and we see fifty of the eighteen to

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Speaker 1: thirty four year old twelve to thirty four year old

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Speaker 1: demographics disappearing from from television, and the eyeballs are going

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Speaker 1: to digital video and millions of people are watching these

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Speaker 1: videos within a week. It is just I think it's

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Speaker 1: it's it's eye opening, and I think it took us

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Speaker 1: all by surprise. And of course Conde Nast is not

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Speaker 1: just doing digital video. You've got producing for TV and

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Speaker 1: film on your plate as well. And what's interesting about

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Speaker 1: Conde Nasa is you're sitting on this treasure trove of

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Speaker 1: ideas that have come out of the magazine, stories that

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Speaker 1: have been written, and you're able to adapt that into

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Speaker 1: film and TV. Um. I'm actually curious just that versus

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Speaker 1: what you're doing in digital What is there any tail

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Speaker 1: wagging the dog here? Is there any one element of

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Speaker 1: the business that leads the way. Yeah, you know, it's

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Speaker 1: really been again fascinating. I don't know if I could

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Speaker 1: have predicted this. The feature business has been pretty much

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Speaker 1: the articles that are either in the archives or that

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Speaker 1: have come out that have incredible stories about really relevant topics. Um.

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Speaker 1: And so we've been fortunate enough to make five movies now. UM,

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Speaker 1: and I would say that you know, all of those movies,

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Speaker 1: for the most part, I had some connection to an

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Speaker 1: article or to a brand itself. Um. When you look

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Speaker 1: at what we've been able to do on the television side,

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Speaker 1: particularly with unscripted. It's been a combination of some things

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Speaker 1: that have come from articles directly, some original ideas that

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Speaker 1: did not come from anything that had to do with

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Speaker 1: Condie Nast at all, but it was original ideas, and

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Speaker 1: some ideas are starting to come from the digital space

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Speaker 1: that have been huge successes UM as digital series that

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Speaker 1: have migrated over now to linear television, most expensive As

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Speaker 1: being an example. It started as a g Q short

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Speaker 1: form series two Chains basically is the Robin Leech of

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Speaker 1: today and it's lifestyles of the rich and famous for

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Speaker 1: lack of a better way to describe it, um but

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Speaker 1: the series and the digital space did over two fifteen

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Speaker 1: million views. Viceland bought it as a long form series.

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Speaker 1: We make it differently obviously for long form, but the

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Speaker 1: same concept UM and we're seeing that happen more and

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Speaker 1: more with some of our other franchises that they're starting

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Speaker 1: to migrate over to linear UM. So I do think

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Speaker 1: that we wouldn't have necessarily predicted that there would be

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Speaker 1: so much overlap, but there is a considerable amount of overlap,

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Speaker 1: and then they're always just original ideas. The digital ideas

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Speaker 1: do not necessarily come from the magazines. Those are usually

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Speaker 1: ideas that come from people who are experts on any

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Speaker 1: given platform, experts on YouTube, experts on Snapchat, experts on Facebook,

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Speaker 1: experts and syndication um, and so those ideas really do

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Speaker 1: come from the creators themselves. Different generation of creators, I

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Speaker 1: want to add, not yet, not the type of creators

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Speaker 1: that we would have seen in the linear side of

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Speaker 1: the business beat, either through film and television. This is

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Speaker 1: a new generation of creators who really look at things

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Speaker 1: very differently, and they've been able to make anything they

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Speaker 1: want and put it out for the world to see

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Speaker 1: and iterate their creative vision in a very different way

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Speaker 1: than the way we've been able to to immerse and

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Speaker 1: and and and and nurture our creators on the traditional side.

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Speaker 1: What's I've been like for you because your career you

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Speaker 1: spend most of the time shepherding these traditional long form things,

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Speaker 1: and that you're saying, you're programming to a platform where

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Speaker 1: the old rules just don't apply, So how are you

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Speaker 1: learning the new rules? It has been an m b

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Speaker 1: A for me. I mean it, and it's so humbling

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Speaker 1: because honestly, I came into this opportunity thinking I can

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Speaker 1: do this because if you have success on traditional and

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Speaker 1: you you know, gossip Girl at one point was the

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Speaker 1: biggest show in the country. Right every young person talked

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Speaker 1: about it, you know, read everything that they could get

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Speaker 1: their hands on about about our cast. Um. But it

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Speaker 1: really was eye opening to understand that the way in

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Speaker 1: which we make the content for the digital space has

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Speaker 1: nothing to do with the way we would create television ideas. Um.

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Speaker 1: You know, it's it. There's there's a understanding of what

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Speaker 1: the viewer expectation is when they're watching content on any

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Speaker 1: one of those platforms, and you have to really adhere

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Speaker 1: to be either a format that is the expectation, or

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Speaker 1: a storytelling style or a way in which you shoot

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Speaker 1: something that really does help determ and if something is

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Speaker 1: going to be a success or not and qualities quality,

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Speaker 1: So it has to be good and has to be

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Speaker 1: worthy of people's time. But it really is very very

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Speaker 1: specific about how the storyteller and how the director really

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Speaker 1: does bring that story to life on those platforms. But

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Speaker 1: I also want to get back to this question of

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Speaker 1: what's what's what's driving the train here at Condonas Entertainment.

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Speaker 1: Is it selling long form or is it new form?

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Speaker 1: And I'm curious from a revenue perspective and just from

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Speaker 1: an energy and what you're spending your time on day

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Speaker 1: to day. Well, I can tell you my time has

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Speaker 1: spent you know, across the board. The digital business for

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Speaker 1: us is a real business. It is profitable, it's been

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Speaker 1: profitable for a few years, and it is really a

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Speaker 1: big part of the future of the company. There was

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Speaker 1: no doubt for our company. The digital video business is

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Speaker 1: really a sound business model that has huge amount of

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Speaker 1: upside for us. We did twelve billion views last year.

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Speaker 1: Our business model has always been about monetization, so we

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Speaker 1: have really made the content where we know we can monetize,

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Speaker 1: and so we've been very very clear. You know, a

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Speaker 1: lot of our competitors or colleagues started their businesses with

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Speaker 1: investors who really felt that it was all about scale

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Speaker 1: and the monetization will come. We did not have the

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Speaker 1: luxury of that. We were funded by our parent company

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Speaker 1: and our mandate was to be able to scale and

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Speaker 1: be profitable at the same time, and so we really

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Speaker 1: had to look at our business model very differently, and

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Speaker 1: as a result, we've been able to probably get to

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Speaker 1: a place where you know, the business as as a

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Speaker 1: standalone business or as a as a significant part of

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Speaker 1: our existing business is a real proposition for our company,

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Speaker 1: and that was our goal when we started. How do

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Speaker 1: we make this a real business for the future, and

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Speaker 1: how do we keep the brands relevant for the next

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Speaker 1: generations to come? And I feel like we've been able

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Speaker 1: to achieve both of those things. So when you ask

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Speaker 1: if we would have thought that we would be here

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Speaker 1: six years in, you know, the truth is, I don't

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Speaker 1: know if we ever could have predicted that what we

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Speaker 1: thought would happen would actually happen, and it actually happened

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Speaker 1: faster than we ever could have imagined. But our goals

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Speaker 1: of being able to really be profitable and be a

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Speaker 1: significant part of the business and help keep these brands

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Speaker 1: alive definitely did come to pass in the past, you know,

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Speaker 1: in over the six years. Well, on the other end

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Speaker 1: of the spectrum, you know, the movie business. You've got

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Speaker 1: this Robert Redford movie coming out this fall, Old Man

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Speaker 1: and the Gun. I gotta say, I'm curious, and I

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Speaker 1: know it's not your first movie at Conde Nast. Why

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Speaker 1: even be in the theatrical business when it feels like

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Speaker 1: if you're not making like a two hundred million dollar

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Speaker 1: movie you get lost. Yes, and again that's something that

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Speaker 1: just happened over the past few years. Right. So when

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Speaker 1: we started this business, Argo UM had won the Academy

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Speaker 1: Award like the year before. Argo came from one of

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Speaker 1: our magazines, from Wired, And so that's the example of

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Speaker 1: why we started the business. Because although the article was

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Speaker 1: in our magazine and the company you know, obviously paid

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Speaker 1: for the research, the legal you know, all the different

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Speaker 1: elements that go into these magazines and spent months on

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Speaker 1: the investigation, you know, they had no participation creatively or

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Speaker 1: financially in the movie. So that's why we started the

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Speaker 1: business UM and the business in the industry has changed significantly.

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Speaker 1: That being said, there's always going to be an audience

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Speaker 1: for adult movies that are great about great stories, great characters,

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Speaker 1: that are really important topics. And I think that there's

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Speaker 1: nobody who does those types of stories better than our company.

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Speaker 1: And so those are the types of movies that we

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Speaker 1: have been making. That being said, you know, it's it's

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Speaker 1: surprising because we do have you know, movies at Netflix,

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Speaker 1: we hopefully will sell movies to Amazon UM and the

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Speaker 1: movies that we are also making for theatricals are a

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Speaker 1: broader range than what you would just think of UM

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Speaker 1: as counting as properties. We have some comedies with some

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Speaker 1: horror films, so UM a genre film sci fi. So

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Speaker 1: we really do have movies that are across a wider

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Speaker 1: spectrum and I do believe that that is going to

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Speaker 1: be a significant part of our business. The industry has

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Speaker 1: opened up because you now have these different platforms that

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Speaker 1: you can sell other types of movies too, So hopefully

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Speaker 1: it will make our business even more robust because there

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Speaker 1: are more choices. On the television side, it's just insatiable.

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Speaker 1: I mean, be it either on the scripted side or

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Speaker 1: the unscripted side, there's so much opportunity. We've gone into

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Speaker 1: a first look with Anonymous and paramount UM, and I

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Speaker 1: think that our articles and our type of storytelling on

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Speaker 1: the scripted side is incredibly well suited for what they've

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Speaker 1: been able to do in the industry and they feel

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Speaker 1: the same of us UM. And then the non scripted side,

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Speaker 1: we've had amazing success. We have eight series that are

399
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Speaker 1: either on the air in production. UM Last Chance You

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00:21:54,240 --> 00:21:57,679
Speaker 1: has been nominated for numerous awards. Fastest Cars, which is

401
00:21:57,720 --> 00:22:01,040
Speaker 1: on Netflix now um is a big it for them,

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00:22:01,119 --> 00:22:05,280
Speaker 1: and we have a series that we're shooting around the world. Um.

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Speaker 1: So it's a business that sixty seven billion dollars is

404
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Speaker 1: going to be spent this year alone on long form production.

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Speaker 1: So you can't look at the business and say there's

406
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Speaker 1: not a big piece of the pie um for everybody,

407
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Speaker 1: because sixty seven billion dollars is a lot of money,

408
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Speaker 1: um in production dollars. So we hope to be in

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Speaker 1: there getting um, you know, a significant chunk. I think

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Speaker 1: the i P that we have really is an entree

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Speaker 1: to a lot of opportunity for us. So it sounds like,

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Speaker 1: whether it's film or TV, you're gonna be doing a

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Speaker 1: lot of selling uh to a lot of the streaming services,

414
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Speaker 1: which is obviously that opportunity is only going to grow,

415
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Speaker 1: I'm but it also sounds like you're not necessarily giving

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Speaker 1: up on theatrical that even if you're not making two

417
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Speaker 1: million dollar movies, you've got some things up your sleeve

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Speaker 1: that you think could still work. Yes, And I think

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Speaker 1: we you know, we make different things for different reasons,

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Speaker 1: right Um. Obviously having a big box office hit is

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Speaker 1: certainly on our roadmap, you know, and does that look

422
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Speaker 1: like a big ten pole movie could be, could be.

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Speaker 1: You know, we have The Street and Smith Library, which

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Speaker 1: is Doc Savage in the Shadow, So we do have

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Speaker 1: some I P that is in the superhero world. But

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Speaker 1: the reality is that you know, comedies, you know, um

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00:23:23,520 --> 00:23:27,280
Speaker 1: genre films are also you know, breaking out and can

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Speaker 1: be very profitable. And so really our goal is to

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Speaker 1: make sure that we are at least diverse enough in

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Speaker 1: the types of movies that we make to be able

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Speaker 1: to be everywhere that the audience wants to be. And

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Speaker 1: if the storytelling is good enough and if the film

433
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Speaker 1: is good enough, you know, it's it's what it's always been,

434
00:23:44,840 --> 00:23:48,440
Speaker 1: you know, people will go seek great entertainment. Moving back

435
00:23:48,440 --> 00:23:51,520
Speaker 1: to the digital side, Uh, you just announced that your

436
00:23:51,560 --> 00:23:55,040
Speaker 1: new fronts that you're gonna You're already out there on

437
00:23:55,080 --> 00:23:58,960
Speaker 1: the platforms like YouTube and Facebook and whatnot with brands

438
00:23:59,040 --> 00:24:01,280
Speaker 1: like Vogue and g Cube, but now you're gonna take

439
00:24:01,320 --> 00:24:04,199
Speaker 1: some of those Conde Nast brands and put them on

440
00:24:04,400 --> 00:24:08,080
Speaker 1: O T T platforms where in connected TV will be

441
00:24:08,200 --> 00:24:11,680
Speaker 1: able to watch all sorts of say content from Wired.

442
00:24:11,880 --> 00:24:15,239
Speaker 1: Maybe charge for that. Talk about that, because to me

443
00:24:15,320 --> 00:24:17,720
Speaker 1: that feels like a real stretch from how we've come

444
00:24:17,760 --> 00:24:20,760
Speaker 1: to understand these brands. So what we've built is an

445
00:24:20,800 --> 00:24:24,560
Speaker 1: incredible library for most of our brands, and the library

446
00:24:24,560 --> 00:24:27,240
Speaker 1: of content you know, has driven millions and millions of

447
00:24:27,320 --> 00:24:30,480
Speaker 1: views on the platforms as you as you said, um,

448
00:24:30,520 --> 00:24:33,040
Speaker 1: but it is the perfect base for these O T

449
00:24:33,200 --> 00:24:36,560
Speaker 1: T channels. And then on top of the library that

450
00:24:36,600 --> 00:24:39,080
Speaker 1: we already have, will start to make original content for

451
00:24:39,119 --> 00:24:41,960
Speaker 1: the O T T channels as we start to understand

452
00:24:42,040 --> 00:24:46,280
Speaker 1: what the viewers expectations are watching the content, probably from

453
00:24:46,320 --> 00:24:49,240
Speaker 1: their living room on an O T T channel. Um.

454
00:24:49,359 --> 00:24:52,120
Speaker 1: And then from there the programming will get more sophisticated

455
00:24:52,200 --> 00:24:55,760
Speaker 1: and get more expensive. I'm sure, but the idea is

456
00:24:55,800 --> 00:25:00,199
Speaker 1: that we now have verticals that are relevant to a

457
00:25:00,240 --> 00:25:05,720
Speaker 1: younger demographic. They probably will be UM on on on

458
00:25:05,800 --> 00:25:08,840
Speaker 1: a tile with a lot of other tiles, and you know,

459
00:25:08,920 --> 00:25:11,320
Speaker 1: how do you select what you're going to watch? They

460
00:25:11,320 --> 00:25:13,600
Speaker 1: will at least know what Wired programming is about. They

461
00:25:13,600 --> 00:25:15,720
Speaker 1: will know what Bone app content is about or g

462
00:25:15,880 --> 00:25:18,760
Speaker 1: Q because they will have watched those channels. We have

463
00:25:18,840 --> 00:25:21,520
Speaker 1: millions and millions of subscribers on our YouTube channel, so

464
00:25:21,560 --> 00:25:23,760
Speaker 1: we know we already have a built an audience. So

465
00:25:23,800 --> 00:25:27,000
Speaker 1: it's just taking that audience and now starting to expand

466
00:25:27,040 --> 00:25:30,159
Speaker 1: and filter what we're what we're programming for an O

467
00:25:30,359 --> 00:25:32,679
Speaker 1: T T platform. But we've done a lot of the

468
00:25:32,720 --> 00:25:36,640
Speaker 1: groundwork in terms of building the content library, building the subscribers,

469
00:25:36,680 --> 00:25:39,320
Speaker 1: building the viewer base, and now how do we just

470
00:25:39,400 --> 00:25:42,680
Speaker 1: elevate it and bring it onto another platform. But man,

471
00:25:42,760 --> 00:25:45,840
Speaker 1: that discovery challenge that scares me a little bit because

472
00:25:46,040 --> 00:25:48,680
Speaker 1: you know, use the word tiles. Viewers have a lot

473
00:25:48,760 --> 00:25:52,160
Speaker 1: of tiles to sort through, and with brands that they

474
00:25:52,160 --> 00:25:55,160
Speaker 1: may be more used to seeing and connected TV than

475
00:25:55,200 --> 00:25:58,160
Speaker 1: they do brands. But we do have a huge leg

476
00:25:58,240 --> 00:26:00,639
Speaker 1: up and I'll tell you the two reasons. One is

477
00:26:00,680 --> 00:26:03,840
Speaker 1: because at least their brands, their brands that are well known. UM,

478
00:26:03,920 --> 00:26:06,280
Speaker 1: We've got a lot of people who are competing on

479
00:26:06,520 --> 00:26:08,760
Speaker 1: UM for the shelf space on O T T that

480
00:26:08,800 --> 00:26:10,639
Speaker 1: for the brands are not well known. These are at

481
00:26:10,680 --> 00:26:13,240
Speaker 1: least brand names that people will recognize, so there's going

482
00:26:13,320 --> 00:26:15,120
Speaker 1: to be at least the likelihood that they will check

483
00:26:15,160 --> 00:26:18,320
Speaker 1: it out. And then we have built these audiences twelve

484
00:26:18,400 --> 00:26:22,080
Speaker 1: billion views last year, a loan of people who know

485
00:26:22,320 --> 00:26:25,480
Speaker 1: what these brands are about in digital video, and so

486
00:26:25,560 --> 00:26:28,200
Speaker 1: I have to believe that with the base of all

487
00:26:28,240 --> 00:26:31,040
Speaker 1: of those viewers and then all the subscribers that we

488
00:26:31,080 --> 00:26:34,080
Speaker 1: have on these different platforms, we'll be able to migrate

489
00:26:34,119 --> 00:26:35,920
Speaker 1: some of them. Now, well, we have to build those

490
00:26:36,040 --> 00:26:39,240
Speaker 1: up and and start from scratch again. Of course we will,

491
00:26:39,760 --> 00:26:43,880
Speaker 1: but at least we have some foundation there that's not

492
00:26:43,960 --> 00:26:46,240
Speaker 1: really making a start from ground zero. We may be

493
00:26:46,320 --> 00:26:49,080
Speaker 1: starting from like the second level, um, and then we

494
00:26:49,200 --> 00:26:52,000
Speaker 1: just have to be able to delight and inspire and

495
00:26:52,160 --> 00:26:55,119
Speaker 1: entertain the viewer to come back over and over again.

496
00:26:55,160 --> 00:26:57,879
Speaker 1: And that's really the challenge. Well, it's gonna be an

497
00:26:57,920 --> 00:27:00,720
Speaker 1: interesting challenge to see you pursue in the coming year.

498
00:27:01,119 --> 00:27:03,000
Speaker 1: It sounds like you've got a lot on your plate

499
00:27:03,080 --> 00:27:05,359
Speaker 1: and wish you luck with that. Thank you so much,

500
00:27:05,440 --> 00:27:10,760
Speaker 1: and he's great to be here. Thanks thanks for listening.

501
00:27:11,040 --> 00:27:13,560
Speaker 1: Be sure to tune in next week for another episode

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00:27:13,560 --> 00:27:18,399
Speaker 1: of Strictly Business. M