Speaker 1: Welcome to another episode of the Variety podcast Strictly Business,
Speaker 1: where we chat with some of the smartest folks working
Speaker 1: in the media industry today. I'm Variety co editor in
Speaker 1: chief Andrew Wollensky. Last week at the c E S
Speaker 1: Show in Las Vegas, I had the opportunity to sit
Speaker 1: down with Viacom CEO Bob Backish, with speculation rampant of
Speaker 1: that a potential merger with CBS Corp. He addressed what
Speaker 1: his strategic approach to leading Viacom is at a time
Speaker 1: when his competitors are all scaling up fast. But as
Speaker 1: Backish explained to me, he's got a plan for building
Speaker 1: on the assets he has without making a so called
Speaker 1: transformational deal. Have a listen, So, I guess what I
Speaker 1: want to get a sense of is two years or
Speaker 1: so into the top job, you certainly inherited your share
Speaker 1: of challenges. Where do you see things now or or
Speaker 1: at it? Maybe it's not quite mission accomplished? But are
Speaker 1: you happy with the progress made or is it more
Speaker 1: about the improvements still to come? Yeah? Sure, well, um,
Speaker 1: I wouldn't. I wouldn't ever say anything's mission accomplished, and
Speaker 1: certainly not in the in the changing world we're living in.
Speaker 1: But if if you looked at Viacom circa the end
Speaker 1: of sixteen, which is when I was given the opportunity
Speaker 1: to lead the company, UM, it was clear that there
Speaker 1: were issues UM that and that the company was in
Speaker 1: need of a turnaround. And and really our journey since
Speaker 1: then has been about a turnaround and an evolution because,
Speaker 1: as I said, as we all know, you know, the
Speaker 1: world is changing, and just merely getting back to where
Speaker 1: we were wouldn't be sufficient. So in the context of
Speaker 1: the company at the end of sixteen, you know, we
Speaker 1: had a Paramount Pictures unit that just came off a
Speaker 1: year where it lost half a billion dollars and consumed
Speaker 1: a billion two in cash, which is pretty good trick
Speaker 1: for a company that's a library that throws off three
Speaker 1: hundred million UM. So that was clearly a problem. UM.
Speaker 1: You know, we had our our domestic networks, UM, iconic brands, etcetera.
Speaker 1: But we had some real friction in the distribution space
Speaker 1: and there was a bunch of noise around that, and candidly,
Speaker 1: the audience performance of some of those networks UM wasn't
Speaker 1: what we'd like to be. And it was really a
Speaker 1: trend line that had been moving in the wrong direction. UM.
Speaker 1: And so we got to work addressing those issues. And
Speaker 1: if you look at Paramount as an example today, UH
Speaker 1: circuit the end of eighteen calendar eighteen, you know, that's
Speaker 1: a business that now we have. We just finished a quarter.
Speaker 1: We haven't reported that quarter yet, so let's skip the
Speaker 1: most recent quarter. But prior to that, you know, we
Speaker 1: had seven straight quarters of earnings improvement UM in eighteen.
Speaker 1: You know, we clearly showed that we could make films
Speaker 1: that matter and make money on them. And I'd offer
Speaker 1: A Quiet Place as an example. I'd offer Mission Impossible
Speaker 1: fall Out as an example, which was the sixth installment
Speaker 1: of that franchise. It was also the most successful on
Speaker 1: a box office basis, not only globally but in the US,
Speaker 1: and that doesn't usually happen in the sixth iteration. UM.
Speaker 1: And we had a television business that came from literally
Speaker 1: nowhere a couple of years ago to deliver four hundred
Speaker 1: million dollars in revenue as we delivered UH nine series.
Speaker 1: So Paramount is in a fundamentally better place. That's the
Speaker 1: result of a really a complete overhaul of the team
Speaker 1: there now led by Jim Jianopolis, who's awesome. UM, as
Speaker 1: well as really rethink on the strategy and the slate
Speaker 1: construction and all those other things. So feeling very good
Speaker 1: about that. UH. The most recent proofpoint on that is
Speaker 1: Bumblebee UM. And you know, while we wouldn't I wouldn't
Speaker 1: get into all of it. If you look at the
Speaker 1: review of that movie versus the last Transformers movie, UM,
Speaker 1: everybody agrees is fundamentally a better movie. The last one
Speaker 1: we lost over a hundred million dollars on UM. This
Speaker 1: one's nicely profitable. UM done about three hundred million in
Speaker 1: box office to date and it will continue to play. UM.
Speaker 1: So paramounts of good place. The distribution landscape in US,
Speaker 1: we all know that's um uh complicated. UM. Back in
Speaker 1: early seventeen, there was a lot of conversation going around
Speaker 1: that we were gonna get dropped by Charter. UH. That
Speaker 1: obviously would have been a problem. UM. And you know,
Speaker 1: through really focusing on UH partnership, evolving our strategy to
Speaker 1: not only provide the right set of access to rights,
Speaker 1: so really trueing up our on demand grant grants and
Speaker 1: TV everywhere and the like, which we hadn't really fully
Speaker 1: UM provided, but also broadening the aperture, entering into advanced
Speaker 1: advertising partnerships UM, as well as in the case of Charter,
Speaker 1: a co production partnership. We got that deal done, very
Speaker 1: happy with that deal, and we went on to a
Speaker 1: new or extend well over half our sub base. So
Speaker 1: that's in a materially different place, uh than it was
Speaker 1: at the time. So there's a lot of great things
Speaker 1: going on, and we'll dig into some of these things.
Speaker 1: But you've been on record recently saying that you know,
Speaker 1: Viacom doesn't require a transformational deal in this environment that
Speaker 1: where companies even bigger than yours are consolidating. How is
Speaker 1: that position tenable? Well, look, UM, we and I continue
Speaker 1: to believe there's a lot of value in the assets
Speaker 1: we already own. You look at that. I mean, in
Speaker 1: the six Team, people thought MTV was dead and buried.
Speaker 1: Today it's the fastest growing network in television. UM. It's
Speaker 1: audiences up again in the current quarter double digits UM
Speaker 1: and we're only beginning to benefit from that resurgence from
Speaker 1: monetization standpoint, So I think there's a lot of value
Speaker 1: in the assets we were we already own. We, unlike
Speaker 1: most media companies, are truly global operating media company. We
Speaker 1: don't just have say sales forces outside the US. You know,
Speaker 1: we own the number one broadcast network in Argentina. We
Speaker 1: have a major broadcast networking Chinnel five. We're making content
Speaker 1: all over the world. Were on half of a leading
Speaker 1: Indian media company called Viacot my team which owns the
Speaker 1: Colors brand. There's a lot of value there. And you know,
Speaker 1: if you think about the transition we're in from an
Speaker 1: industry standpoint, back in February of seventeen, we started talking
Speaker 1: about something called the Flagship brand, and and flagship brand
Speaker 1: was partially about prioritization, but it was also about unlocking
Speaker 1: opportunity through true multi platform expression. And so if you
Speaker 1: look at MTV, it's not only a linear cable network
Speaker 1: with a substantial original programming slate, but it's also has
Speaker 1: a piece of the paramount film slate. We started a
Speaker 1: digital native division called Viacom Digital STUDIOSUM, which produces original
Speaker 1: content for in short form for distribution both in front
Speaker 1: of the wall, social and in other places. UM. That
Speaker 1: consumption has ramped up dramatically, taken us from number twenty
Speaker 1: two in the Space two into the top ten. UM
Speaker 1: we've gotten in the experience. With my point being, there's
Speaker 1: a lot of opportunity. And when you got to our
Speaker 1: fourth fiscal quarter of a team, you saw we returned
Speaker 1: our company to earnings growth, something that hadn't been the
Speaker 1: case since fourteen. So we think there's a lot of
Speaker 1: road ahead. And in fact, I think relative to some
Speaker 1: of our peers, we're further along in making this transition
Speaker 1: UM than others that are. You look at our ad business,
Speaker 1: it's not all thirty second spots. We got an advanced
Speaker 1: ad business where significant branded content assets, significant data driven assets,
Speaker 1: we can insert dynamically and v O D homes in
Speaker 1: the US, something nobody else can do. UM. So there's
Speaker 1: a lot of value there. So we don't need a
Speaker 1: transformational deal. UM. We have been doing M and A.
Speaker 1: We've been doing what what I call accelerant deals. So
Speaker 1: we bought a company called who say, branded content company,
Speaker 1: materially increased our capabilities and kind of the lower end
Speaker 1: of the ended content space from a price perspective, which
Speaker 1: is important. We bought a company called vid Con, which
Speaker 1: is ground zero for social influencers. Really UM strengthened our
Speaker 1: kind of legacy with young adult audiences and talent and
Speaker 1: associated talent. UH, and it's also an extension of our
Speaker 1: experiential business. We most recently bought a company called Awesomeness,
Speaker 1: which people think of as a web company, and it's
Speaker 1: true that they're expert in marketing of content on the web,
Speaker 1: but it's also true that it's a studio in its
Speaker 1: own right, and increasing our participation in the creation of content,
Speaker 1: including for third parties, as a big push we're making
Speaker 1: as a company, and that that Awesomeness asset proved among
Speaker 1: other things this year, or the eighteen um to All
Speaker 1: the Boys I've Loved Before, which is one of the
Speaker 1: most consumed films on Netflix. But these are there all deals?
Speaker 1: Are you gonna need to make bigger deals or are
Speaker 1: you just gonna be looking for more of the same
Speaker 1: smaller deals? You know, scale is very much in vogue.
Speaker 1: Vertical integration is very much in vogue. Um. If you
Speaker 1: look at the history of industry and certainly media, vertical
Speaker 1: integration doesn't tend to work. Um, Bigger is not always better,
Speaker 1: you know, So I don't think that is um the
Speaker 1: necessary path. What is really important is that your plan,
Speaker 1: you know where you're going, and you're executing against it
Speaker 1: and you're achieving growth, and that's exactly what we're doing.
Speaker 1: Of course, we look at lots of different things, UM,
Speaker 1: but again, I feel very good about the path we're on.
Speaker 1: We've got a couple other things UH in the pipeline
Speaker 1: that are of a commercial nature, and you know, some
Speaker 1: other smaller things we're looking at UH And I think
Speaker 1: just as a team, we tracked through and it had
Speaker 1: its twists and turns, but we emerged as a stronger
Speaker 1: company than we were at the beginning of eighteen. I
Speaker 1: believe nineteen will be the same. But let's address the
Speaker 1: elephant in the room. There's plenty of speculation that Viacom
Speaker 1: and CBS could be combined as as soon as this year.
Speaker 1: How do you manage for an uncertain future? Are you
Speaker 1: do you have this distinct vision of the one you're
Speaker 1: trying to build it Viacom through these smaller acquisitions, or
Speaker 1: are you trying to like build for a bunch of
Speaker 1: different possible futures at once. Well, I'm a huge believer
Speaker 1: in having a plan. UM. I think that is one
Speaker 1: of the big reasons I got the job, because when
Speaker 1: when all our management met with the board, you know
Speaker 1: in sixteen uh, we were I ran international and running
Speaker 1: for a decade. UH. And we came in and we said, yeah,
Speaker 1: here's where we are. By the way, here's where we
Speaker 1: came from, and here's where we're going. Because it's hard
Speaker 1: to get where you want to go if you don't
Speaker 1: know where that is. So it's very important to have
Speaker 1: a plan. UM. Our plan is fundamentally based on the
Speaker 1: assets we have, because that's the only thing I can
Speaker 1: bet on for sure. UM. But of course you have
Speaker 1: plan A, Plan B, plan c UM, and you know
Speaker 1: we track out accordingly. UM. And regarding the current narrative, look,
Speaker 1: the more things change, and we all know our our
Speaker 1: our world is changing, the more things data saying this
Speaker 1: is now the third time this whole narrative has come
Speaker 1: up in a relatively brief time. And I'll tell you
Speaker 1: what I totally before and what more importantly I tell
Speaker 1: my management team every day, which is we gotta focus, UM,
Speaker 1: we gotta play through, we gotta execute, we gotta grow
Speaker 1: because there's only one thing I know for sure. At
Speaker 1: the end of the year, you're either gonna be talking
Speaker 1: to me or you're gonna be talking to somebody else.
Speaker 1: And what you don't want to have to say is, well, yeah,
Speaker 1: we had this opportunity, but we kind of got distracted
Speaker 1: and we didn't get it done. And so our mission
Speaker 1: continues to be focused on the assets we have, focus
Speaker 1: on execution, you know, look broadly to capture value, uh,
Speaker 1: and then opportunistically see what else happens. And that's what
Speaker 1: we do day in and day out, and that's what
Speaker 1: we're gonna keep doing. So let's talk about some of
Speaker 1: those core assets. Those flagship brands, MTV, Comedy Central, great
Speaker 1: brands to have of However, in this climate where the
Speaker 1: pay TV businesses challenged, Uh, you guys are dealing with
Speaker 1: your tensions with some of the major distributors. Distributors that
Speaker 1: could end up dropping key channels. MTV and a lot
Speaker 1: of these channels were big for so many years because
Speaker 1: they spun off all these additional channels. How do you
Speaker 1: manage a future when there seems to be a secular
Speaker 1: decline playing out for the business model that got you
Speaker 1: so big in the first place. Sure, so, UM, I
Speaker 1: think the essence of it is you have to make
Speaker 1: sure you're adding value. Point one and point two is
Speaker 1: you have to recognize how the world is changing. And
Speaker 1: so to the first point, UM, you know, if we
Speaker 1: talked about what we're doing in distribution, we broadened our
Speaker 1: ability to add value for our mutual benefit both our
Speaker 1: partners benefit an m v P d UH and Viacom's benefit,
Speaker 1: and and certainly our whole extension into advanced advertising what
Speaker 1: we call a MS UH you know, is fundamental to that.
Speaker 1: The second thing I say, in terms of how the
Speaker 1: world is changing, the fundamental thing that's going on UM
Speaker 1: is fragmentation in terms of how people access content. The
Speaker 1: world we used to live in was relatively simple. That
Speaker 1: this is in the television space. Obviously we operate in
Speaker 1: other spaces, but in the television space, you know everyone okay,
Speaker 1: eighty five percent of people got the same product and
Speaker 1: that was big basic UM and that was very nice structure. UM.
Speaker 1: Today that's no longer true, and it continues to fragment.
Speaker 1: So you have people still the vast majority of people
Speaker 1: in the highest priced UM segment, but you've got people
Speaker 1: at forty oh actually no forty five dollars because that
Speaker 1: price is starting to creep up as people try to
Speaker 1: make economic businesses there. You've got people in the teams,
Speaker 1: you got uh you know, people are on ten bucks.
Speaker 1: In terms of the s FOD space, you even have
Speaker 1: some single digit numbers, and you have free out a
Speaker 1: VOD and so that world is not gonna change. That's
Speaker 1: the world we're gonna be living in. And what's important
Speaker 1: is that we take these what we can now call
Speaker 1: flagship brands and we make sure we can we participate
Speaker 1: eight in all those levels, um, the big basic levels.
Speaker 1: That's fairly obvious. Uh. You know we are active in
Speaker 1: the V M, v P, D or O T T space.
Speaker 1: We are also active, uh in in the s VOD
Speaker 1: space through our third party production business, where we are
Speaker 1: making product really for everyone, and we're not just making product,
Speaker 1: we're making hits. Did you watch Jack Ryan on Amazon?
Speaker 1: We made that? Um? Did you watch um Maniac on Netflix?
Speaker 1: We made that? Did you watch to All the Boys?
Speaker 1: We were I Love before we made that? Um? And
Speaker 1: you know we in terms of paramount television is are
Speaker 1: We're gonna go from nine series to sixteen series in
Speaker 1: this fiscal year, growing that revenue about fift At the
Speaker 1: same time, we've gotten the domestic brands. If you're gonna
Speaker 1: watch the Real World this year, you're gonna watch it
Speaker 1: on Facebook and you could watch it the US version,
Speaker 1: you could watch a Latin version, you can watch an
Speaker 1: Asian version, all of which will be produced and by
Speaker 1: the way, they'll be interactive. So that's another way we're
Speaker 1: participating in that space. And you could think of that
Speaker 1: as an a VOD space. So UM our brands are evolving. UM.
Speaker 1: The product we're providing is segmenting across price points. Don't
Speaker 1: be surprised if you shortly see our brands participating in
Speaker 1: a differentiated mobile bundle. Today, our brands are carried on
Speaker 1: a T and T watching the US and by the way,
Speaker 1: that whole mobile carriage. And there's been a lot of
Speaker 1: conversation up five G as there should be. You know,
Speaker 1: at at CES this year. UM I probably went to
Speaker 1: Mobile World for the first time five or six years ago.
Speaker 1: UM And in the last eighteen months we've done mobile
Speaker 1: deals outside the US. We have about thirty of them
Speaker 1: now where Telefonica carries our flagship brands across Latin America.
Speaker 1: UM in terms of it's in a real kind of
Speaker 1: substitute abal video product. There's other We have a Paramount
Speaker 1: Plus product in Europe which is rolling out, which combines
Speaker 1: Paramount first window you could think of as HBO window,
Speaker 1: UM films with women, Vico Media Networks, television product all
Speaker 1: in a consolidated app available both on set top and
Speaker 1: UM with leading mobile operators. Are those deals the future?
Speaker 1: Are they big enough? They're absolutely future. I mean the
Speaker 1: thing like we're in this We're in the state of
Speaker 1: transformation of our industry. And you can either view that
Speaker 1: as glass half full or half empty. I view it
Speaker 1: as half full. And mobile distribution really is the catalyst
Speaker 1: that will turn this whole decline of television argument on
Speaker 1: its head because you have multiples UM of today three
Speaker 1: G soon four G, never mind five G because five
Speaker 1: G initially is more about fixed broad them. But whatever UM,
Speaker 1: it will eventually be hand sent UM. Those are if
Speaker 1: you have maybe outside the US five million pay TV
Speaker 1: homes at the high side, UM probably more like three
Speaker 1: hundred million quality ones. If you take out India and China,
Speaker 1: you've got a billion five three G homes and growing.
Speaker 1: And so I think these kind of deals where you're
Speaker 1: bringing product either product that looks like what you get
Speaker 1: exactly on television. So that's Telephonica example, UM an aggregated
Speaker 1: product UM that combines a lot of different things under
Speaker 1: one brand. So that's like a paramount plus. With Telenore
Speaker 1: product UM, you know, we're on We're in Indonesia with
Speaker 1: a with a mobile care that's a hundred and sixty
Speaker 1: million subs. Uh. We're on their data tier with our
Speaker 1: Nick Play and Nick jr Play apps, which provides access
Speaker 1: to you know that product on an on demand basis.
Speaker 1: So and and by the way, some of these are
Speaker 1: D two C, so you're opting in as a consumer
Speaker 1: through an app store. We're taking sevent somebody's taken thirty.
Speaker 1: Some of these are UM through a third party intermediary.
Speaker 1: You could think Amazon Channel store, UM. Some of these
Speaker 1: are what we call B two B two C deal.
Speaker 1: Those with carriers you could think about Telefonica or Telenore
Speaker 1: or UM telcom Cell which is the Indonesian one and that.
Speaker 1: So I think this this kind of hybrid economy of
Speaker 1: distribution where unfortunately everybody doesn't get the same thing. People
Speaker 1: are getting different products, bigger bundles, smaller bundles UM, but
Speaker 1: fundamentally you have more reach. And by the way, all
Speaker 1: those type platforms are addressable advertising. So you look at
Speaker 1: the difference between UM sling and Dish in the US.
Speaker 1: For us, we're carried on both. That's good, UM, but
Speaker 1: actually all the sling ads are dynamic. We can insert
Speaker 1: a specific add to a specific person based on specific data.
Speaker 1: On the Dish platform. We can't do that for obvious reasons.
Speaker 1: It's the DTH going down. I mean, you can do
Speaker 1: it because with some technical work. But that is another
Speaker 1: UM big move forward in terms of our ability to
Speaker 1: create value in the space, and we are in the
Speaker 1: super early days of that UM so anyway, exciting time.
Speaker 1: So you're focused more and more on production though, And
Speaker 1: what's interesting about that is I wonder if there's sort
Speaker 1: of a double edged sword to the success there. You
Speaker 1: empower the Netflix is and the facebooks of the world
Speaker 1: with your content. That makes it harder, doesn't it for
Speaker 1: the comedy centrals and mtvs to get as many eyeballs
Speaker 1: on their content because there these people are watching on Facebook.
Speaker 1: So doesn't it kind of hurt your core business? Now
Speaker 1: it doesn't, but here because for two reasons. One is
Speaker 1: whether we make a show for Facebook or not, it's
Speaker 1: not going to influence whether they have shows on their platform. Right,
Speaker 1: So I'd rather have a young adult show with the
Speaker 1: MTV brand than not. Point one point two is the
Speaker 1: most important thing for from Rykom from a consumer perspective
Speaker 1: is to continue to have our flagship brands be top
Speaker 1: of mind for consumers as they think about entertainment. And
Speaker 1: that entertainment might be going to see a movie in
Speaker 1: the theater. That entertainment might be flipping on your flat
Speaker 1: screen and watching a pay video bundle, that might be
Speaker 1: accessing product on an app. That might be going to
Speaker 1: a festival like slime Fest outside of Chicago, which we
Speaker 1: do in the summer with Nickelodeon. That's what we want
Speaker 1: and having a extended ecosystem of entertainment experience associated with
Speaker 1: these brands that cross this fragmenting environment is what it's
Speaker 1: all about because it will reinforce itself. It provides great
Speaker 1: solutions for advertisers. I was with a major CMO last night,
Speaker 1: UM talking about this before one of the many parties UM.
Speaker 1: Just last week we were with another UM and with
Speaker 1: another CMO in a different category, and it's all about
Speaker 1: being able to get reach into say men eighteen and
Speaker 1: thirty four, which is not an easy demo to reach
Speaker 1: these days. Harder than ever use UM a cross section
Speaker 1: of platforms, you know, leveraging our linear distribution at NG,
Speaker 1: our app distribution, adding um are over the top distribution,
Speaker 1: adding our vds, Vacom Digital studios, product that's resident, and
Speaker 1: variety of social media platforms. UM doing branded content in
Speaker 1: and UH in a program that's synchronized to reach that.
Speaker 1: In this example, man male eighteen to thirty four, who
Speaker 1: this particular client and a whole set of clients for
Speaker 1: that matter, you know, are interested in influencing to buy
Speaker 1: a product or service. And I think that's very much
Speaker 1: the future. And and unless you believe, unless you realistically
Speaker 1: understand that's what's going on. If you go to crawl
Speaker 1: into the ivory tower of we got to only stay here,
Speaker 1: you'll never go your company and as a as a
Speaker 1: you know, public company, UM and a company that wants
Speaker 1: to create opportunities for its employees. By the way, and
Speaker 1: we've been doing lots of work on culture and made
Speaker 1: a lot of progress there as well. UM that growth
Speaker 1: is very important. People have to see that there's opportunity
Speaker 1: they can grow with. And so you've got to deal
Speaker 1: with this environment. So let's talk about that culture though,
Speaker 1: because via Com has been through a lot prior to
Speaker 1: you coming in there, How do you energize thousands of
Speaker 1: employees who especially it's not even about via conversation when
Speaker 1: you look at it that broader macro media world. There's pessimism,
Speaker 1: there's negativity. So how do you get people going? Well,
Speaker 1: I think it starts with you gotta have a plan,
Speaker 1: and you have to make sure people understand what it
Speaker 1: is so they can understand how they fit in. And
Speaker 1: they can and you both you and they can understand
Speaker 1: if you're making progress and if so, you can put
Speaker 1: more fuel in the tank, or if you're not making
Speaker 1: progress in one area, you can you can decide to
Speaker 1: go some you know, a different direction. That's fundamental. And
Speaker 1: I can tell you you know, circa sixteen when I
Speaker 1: was running international, I didn't know if I was gonna
Speaker 1: stay black because I didn't believe there was a plan
Speaker 1: with the future. If you talked to and I'm somewhat
Speaker 1: biased obviously, but I think you'll find if you talk
Speaker 1: to people in Vitam today, they fundamentally believe we have
Speaker 1: a plan. They see there's no question that we've effectuated
Speaker 1: a turnaround. You know at our at our studio on
Speaker 1: the West coast, that we have. We are in a
Speaker 1: far better place from a distribution relationship standpoint, and I've
Speaker 1: been expanding that business. That we are actively participating in
Speaker 1: places that we hadn't before, including, you know, providing original
Speaker 1: content on a day and day out basis to the
Speaker 1: avid you know, Digital um, I don't know, Stratosphere um.
Speaker 1: That we're active in events and that in total, we
Speaker 1: actually grew the earnings of the company and and we're
Speaker 1: doing in such way and I'm talking about it. We're
Speaker 1: just kind of starting to talk about this. But what
Speaker 1: unites all of that is a culture of content. That
Speaker 1: is what viacom is. Whether you make short form, long form,
Speaker 1: feature length, or an event, whether you're actually on the
Speaker 1: creative side, the monetization side, of the sports side, they're
Speaker 1: all working in this culture of content. And they see
Speaker 1: the progress we're making. I know because I talked to
Speaker 1: them at least quarterly. I talked to the whole employee
Speaker 1: based on Facebook Live and take questions and do all
Speaker 1: those things, and obviously talk to people every day, but
Speaker 1: they see the progress and that's how you get people excited,
Speaker 1: because at the end of the day, people are pretty simple.
Speaker 1: It comes down to what's in it. For them, and
Speaker 1: what's in it for them is a future. And if
Speaker 1: you look at Viacom circa you know, January of versus
Speaker 1: January of, there's a lot broader and deeper understanding that
Speaker 1: the future is looking pretty interesting. And and that's how
Speaker 1: you keep you engaged. We're here in Las Vegas and cees.
Speaker 1: You know you're gonna spend your time on the show floor.
Speaker 1: What are the kind of technologies that are catching your
Speaker 1: eye that are relevant to your business? Is future? Sure?
Speaker 1: So I actually was on the floor yesterday, um and uh,
Speaker 1: because I think this is an opportunity to be a
Speaker 1: bit a bit of a sponge and see what's going on.
Speaker 1: And if you think about the fun the metals of
Speaker 1: our business, the entertainment business, UM, there's kind of two
Speaker 1: things that are important. One is you get consumers to
Speaker 1: want to spend time with your product. That's important, um.
Speaker 1: And two as you get paid for it. If you
Speaker 1: can have those two things, everything else can probably sort
Speaker 1: itself out. And if you look at the arc of consumption.
Speaker 1: I remember, because I've been in this business, you know,
Speaker 1: thirty years when second television sets started really showing up
Speaker 1: at scale in kids bedrooms and other places and that
Speaker 1: drove more minutes. That was a good thing. And then
Speaker 1: you know, more recently computers with infrastructure started showing up
Speaker 1: in places like offices and that you know, that wasn't
Speaker 1: really a heavy video space, but there was more impressions.
Speaker 1: And then, of course much more recently you get into
Speaker 1: over the top and you get into mobile, and that's
Speaker 1: much more time with product. And what I saw yesterday,
Speaker 1: UM was clearly you know, there's two things that are coming,
Speaker 1: and they're coming like a freight train, and they're fundamentally good. UM.
Speaker 1: One is the continuing acceleration of broadband infrastructure, both in
Speaker 1: the name of five G, which is definitely coming, as
Speaker 1: you all know. Maybe it's fixed broadband first, but it'll
Speaker 1: be wireless that's gonna fun. And and all the wireless
Speaker 1: carriers and we talk to them all we do business
Speaker 1: fall and they're all times we need use cases, and
Speaker 1: certainly entertainment is is a use case. UM. And the
Speaker 1: other thing that's gotten less less uh press at CES
Speaker 1: is ten G. And that's the cable industry talking about
Speaker 1: their next line because they're delivering one G right now. Uh.
Speaker 1: They're the only people doing that, by the way. UM.
Speaker 1: And now their next pushes to deliver ten x that
Speaker 1: over the next you know, five years or something. So
Speaker 1: you put those two things together, you have a lot
Speaker 1: of people wanting to drive increased broadband consumption and needing
Speaker 1: stuff to put through it. That's good and so that's
Speaker 1: the one. And the second thing was if you walk
Speaker 1: the floor of the cars, Um, that's another freight train
Speaker 1: that's coming, five G autonomous cars that people don't have
Speaker 1: to drive. Now. I don't know what you're gonna do
Speaker 1: if your brand is the ultimate driving machine. It's a
Speaker 1: serious question because that's gonna be a niche business. But
Speaker 1: people are going to be look at them. They've got people,
Speaker 1: movers and monitors. People are gonna be And so just
Speaker 1: like adding a TV set to a bedroom or adding
Speaker 1: mobile on the go, the last vestige of video free
Speaker 1: consumption is the automobile. And that's coming and that's going
Speaker 1: to be thinking about how it plays in absolutely absolutely
Speaker 1: And so what do you fork is that like relevant
Speaker 1: two years from now? Five years? So now are you
Speaker 1: able to say at this point, um, look, I think
Speaker 1: you know, in terms of at at scale, it's more
Speaker 1: five years than two years for sure, because I think
Speaker 1: there's still some liability issues that got to get worked
Speaker 1: out in that space. Um, like, you own the car,
Speaker 1: but you didn't drive the car and it crashed. Who's
Speaker 1: who's that on? I don't know, But but at those
Speaker 1: are details that will get worked out. The fundamental thing
Speaker 1: is time. And yeah, sure some people will work in cars.
Speaker 1: You know, when I'm when I'm being driven, I typically
Speaker 1: have a loptome I'm working. But a hell of a
Speaker 1: lot more people are going to be entertained in cars
Speaker 1: and that's a good thing. So between what's going on
Speaker 1: in broadband, which is only going to accelerate on a
Speaker 1: global basis, including mobility and this next wild card, which
Speaker 1: is the automobile, there's just gonna be more demand and
Speaker 1: everyone and their brother is trying to get a piece
Speaker 1: of that pie, and most of them don't make content.
Speaker 1: So back to our studio production initiative, there's a lot
Speaker 1: of legs to this game, and what what we're focused
Speaker 1: on is making sure our brands Paramount, MTV, Nickelodeon, etcetera,
Speaker 1: are resident in this growing, albeit complicated ecosystem. Well, it's
Speaker 1: going to be interesting to see where your brand is
Speaker 1: in this very interesting future. Bob, thanks for coming in
Speaker 1: and talking with me about it. It's like pure This
Speaker 1: has been another episode of Strictly Business. Tune in next
Speaker 1: week for another helping a scintillating conversation with media movers
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