WEBVTT - John Malone Laid the Groundwork for Cable TV. Then Streaming Arrived

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<v Speaker 1>Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news.

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<v Speaker 2>Billionaire John Malone made a fortune off of a big

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<v Speaker 2>bet that cable was going to revolutionize television, and in

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<v Speaker 2>less than a decade, Malone grew the company he ran,

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<v Speaker 2>called Telecommunications, Inc. Into one of the largest cable operators

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<v Speaker 2>in the United States. That attracted the attention of lawmakers,

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<v Speaker 2>who summoned Malone to Capitol Hill in nineteen eighty nine

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<v Speaker 2>and accused him of overseeing a monopoly. Cespan aired the

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<v Speaker 2>hearing in its entirety.

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<v Speaker 3>May I call on mister Malone, Yes, sir, I guess

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<v Speaker 3>it's warnings like this that I wish I had studied

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<v Speaker 3>public speaking instead of thermodynamics in school.

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<v Speaker 2>Malone studied electrical engineering at Yale, and while he started

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<v Speaker 2>his career at Bell Labs, it didn't take long for

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<v Speaker 2>him to pivot to business. Malone has a gift for

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<v Speaker 2>making deals. Estimates He's done more than one thousand of

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<v Speaker 2>them during his lifetime mergers and acquisitions, and at that

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<v Speaker 2>congressional hearing, he responded to one of his fiercest critics,

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<v Speaker 2>Al Gore, who said Malone was as ruthless as a

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<v Speaker 2>Star Wars villain.

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<v Speaker 1>I know, Senator Gore has referred to me in public

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<v Speaker 1>as Darth Vader, the cause of great humor, I guess

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<v Speaker 1>to a lot of my friends and employees. My wife

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<v Speaker 1>told me the other day that she found me to

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<v Speaker 1>be more like the Wizard of Oz, credited with a

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<v Speaker 1>lot more power.

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<v Speaker 4>And influence than I really wield.

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<v Speaker 2>But back then Malone was well on his way to

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<v Speaker 2>becoming the media mogul he is today, someone whose empire

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<v Speaker 2>grew from cable distribution to content. Malone helped launch channels

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<v Speaker 2>like CNN and BET, and the companies he's run have

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<v Speaker 2>invested in satellite TV and satellite radio, and live events,

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<v Speaker 2>including Formula One. Today, Malone is the chairman of Liberty Media,

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<v Speaker 2>Liberty Global, and Liberty Broadband, and he's chair emeritus of

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<v Speaker 2>Warner Brothers Discovery. Malone has written a new memoir, and

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<v Speaker 2>at eighty four, he's still on the lookout for new opportunities.

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<v Speaker 2>I'm David Gera, and this is the Big Take from

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<v Speaker 2>Bloomberg News Today. On the show, a conversation with John

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<v Speaker 2>Malone about the deals he's done, mistakes he's made. Malone's

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<v Speaker 2>appetite for risk, and how he sees the future of media.

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<v Speaker 5>Well. Thank you very much for doing this.

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<v Speaker 4>I pray you.

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<v Speaker 2>It strikes me as I look at the world today,

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<v Speaker 2>where there is broadband and five G and refrigerators are

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<v Speaker 2>connected to the Internet and I can watch any game

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<v Speaker 2>I want on my phone, that we tend to forget

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<v Speaker 2>what underpins all of that, what gave birth to all

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<v Speaker 2>of that, And that's the work that you and others

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<v Speaker 2>did really just a few decades ago, stringing coaxial cable

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<v Speaker 2>around towns and cities around this country. As you look

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<v Speaker 2>back on that, what do you think of that arc

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<v Speaker 2>of progress?

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<v Speaker 1>I just think evolution of technology is unstoppable and accelerating.

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<v Speaker 1>By the time I got through at Bell Labs, we

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<v Speaker 1>already had integrated circuits. My doctoral dissertation was artificial intelligence.

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<v Speaker 1>So these technologies have deep roots, but the technologies available

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<v Speaker 1>have paced really the industry.

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<v Speaker 2>I don't want to say that TV is in your DNA.

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<v Speaker 2>I think it's more nurture than the nature. But your

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<v Speaker 2>dad worked at General Electric on televisions a very seminal

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<v Speaker 2>moment in their development. What got you into cable made

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<v Speaker 2>you think it was something where there was a lot

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<v Speaker 2>of promise, just.

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<v Speaker 1>Luck, really, I went to work for Bell labs because

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<v Speaker 1>they would send you to graduate school and pay for it,

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<v Speaker 1>which allowed me then to get married and go to

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<v Speaker 1>graduate school. That put me into a certain category at

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<v Speaker 1>at and T went on to McKenzie consulting for technology companies,

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<v Speaker 1>ended up consulting for a company that offered me a job.

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<v Speaker 1>Took the job that put me into cable TV.

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<v Speaker 2>That company was Telecommunications, Inc. And at the time, Denver

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<v Speaker 2>based TCI was one of the largest cable operators in

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<v Speaker 2>the country. It wired towns and cities with coaxial cable

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<v Speaker 2>so customers could watch TV in better quality.

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<v Speaker 1>By the end of the seventies, stationary satellites had provided

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<v Speaker 1>the industry with scale, with the capability of scale and

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<v Speaker 1>to deliver a differentiated content. And that is really when

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<v Speaker 1>the industry took off, because once we had a product

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<v Speaker 1>the public wanted, the funding became available, and then it became.

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<v Speaker 4>A race for scale.

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<v Speaker 1>It was then ca you get big enough, fast enough

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<v Speaker 1>to have scale advantages.

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<v Speaker 2>Back then, the cable industry was what Malone called a

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<v Speaker 2>patchwork of tiny local operations rather than a handful of conglomerates.

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<v Speaker 2>Malone saw the potential of scale. TCI could grow and

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<v Speaker 2>make money by buying up these independent cable systems.

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<v Speaker 1>If you got a franchise, then you were essentially the

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<v Speaker 1>sole provider in that community for probably fifteen years. And

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<v Speaker 1>so the faster you could accumulate that, the more leverage

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<v Speaker 1>that gave you over the content suppliers, because you were

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<v Speaker 1>important became an important customer, and the more important customer,

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<v Speaker 1>the better deal you could cut, the better economics you

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<v Speaker 1>had to go to the next acquisition. And we found

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<v Speaker 1>ourselves doing an acquisition about every two weeks.

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<v Speaker 5>Every two weeks.

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<v Speaker 1>Some were large and I would personally do and many

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<v Speaker 1>of them were virtually pro forma as long as they

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<v Speaker 1>could check the box.

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<v Speaker 4>We delegated the ability to buy the guy next to.

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<v Speaker 1>You, And I think I made the comment it's the

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<v Speaker 1>most fun in life in businesses to have a monoperai,

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<v Speaker 1>which we were sort of. Now, so was every cable operator,

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<v Speaker 1>I have to say, in his territory.

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<v Speaker 2>You mentioned scale a moment ago. Economics at scale that

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<v Speaker 2>was certainly the driving factor at the beginning. As you

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<v Speaker 2>look at sort of how you've built your portfolios over

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<v Speaker 2>the years since, is that still your biggest motivators or

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<v Speaker 2>how do you approach growth?

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<v Speaker 1>I had a great mentor most of Shapiro at General,

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<v Speaker 1>he was the chairman and he was a tough old bird,

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<v Speaker 1>but he would teach me about the Talmud, and he said,

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<v Speaker 1>one of the things that Talmud teaches you is ask

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<v Speaker 1>yourself the question if.

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<v Speaker 5>Not, if not?

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<v Speaker 4>If not?

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<v Speaker 1>So if your model, if your business plan works, great,

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<v Speaker 1>but ask yourself the question, well, what if it doesn't.

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<v Speaker 1>What if your assumptions are wrong? What if this doesn't

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<v Speaker 1>work but that doesn't work? Where are you at that point?

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<v Speaker 1>What's the downside? How much risk are you really taking?

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<v Speaker 1>So you really try and look risk very hard. In

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<v Speaker 1>terms of how you finance something. Do you have partners

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<v Speaker 1>in it? The government's always your partner from a tax perspective,

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<v Speaker 1>So don't forget that you can deduct your failures from

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<v Speaker 1>your successes. Don't ever get to where you can't. You're

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<v Speaker 1>going to have lenders. They're going to help you make

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<v Speaker 1>sure that you're not taking too much risk. So you

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<v Speaker 1>become good partners and assessing risk and if you structure

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<v Speaker 1>it properly, if you do get in trouble thereby and launch,

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<v Speaker 1>you're not right kind of an attitude, you know, don't

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<v Speaker 1>ever count on it anything being for sure, and so

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<v Speaker 1>that has colored the structure of the organizations that I've

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<v Speaker 1>put together over time.

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<v Speaker 2>We could talk about any number of successes, but let

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<v Speaker 2>me ask you about Serious XM, where you made an

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<v Speaker 2>incredible amount of money on that bett and on that investment,

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<v Speaker 2>and in the book you write the way music is

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<v Speaker 2>owned and monetized is undergoing continuous evolution. Begs the question

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<v Speaker 2>where do you see opportunity in that space today?

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<v Speaker 1>Well, a couple of points I want to make there.

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<v Speaker 1>First of all, on Serious ExM, we were an early

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<v Speaker 1>founding investor in EXAM, but when we saw the competitive

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<v Speaker 1>environment emerge, we got out of it. Then we got

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<v Speaker 1>the phone call that said, are you interested in Serious

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<v Speaker 1>They've had their deal with EXAM approved for merger, but

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<v Speaker 1>we're in the middle of the financial collapse, and we said,

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<v Speaker 1>we don't have to have control, but we want options

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<v Speaker 1>for forty percent cheap options, and we'll loan you enough

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<v Speaker 1>money to get you over the hump. And it worked

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<v Speaker 1>out great. So that was a great a great transaction.

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<v Speaker 1>But the home run in music, frankly is live nation,

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<v Speaker 1>live performance in a world of random access, where you

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<v Speaker 1>can bay sickly have anything at any time and generally

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<v Speaker 1>affordable live has become a very important component.

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<v Speaker 2>After the break, I asked Malone about Rupert Murdoch and

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<v Speaker 2>Fox News and what lies ahead in.

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<v Speaker 5>The age of streaming.

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<v Speaker 2>Billionaire John Malone was a fencer in high school and

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<v Speaker 2>in business, He's crossed swords with many other big name

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<v Speaker 2>media mobiles, including Barry Diller and Charlie Ergin. He was

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<v Speaker 2>a key advisor to David Zaslov in Discovery's acquisition of

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<v Speaker 2>AT and t's Warner Media. You categorize Rupert Murdoch as

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<v Speaker 2>someone you have been friends in business with and occasionally

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<v Speaker 2>kind of a corporate adversary of, and I wanted to

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<v Speaker 2>ask you just about why you think the Fox News

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<v Speaker 2>channel has been successful as it has been.

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<v Speaker 4>Well, I can tell you. Rupert called me up.

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<v Speaker 1>I was already heavily in television news at TCI. We

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<v Speaker 1>had McNeil Lair, which we actually owned, We owned I

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<v Speaker 1>think eighty percent of it, and we supported that in

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<v Speaker 1>the public interest. I had helped start CNBC, and not

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<v Speaker 1>only did we carry CNN, but we had bailed Ted

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<v Speaker 1>Turner out when he got a little bit of financial distress,

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<v Speaker 1>and I was on Ted's board then from that point forward,

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<v Speaker 1>so I knew that that side of it. Rupert called

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<v Speaker 1>me up and he said, John, do you think there's

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<v Speaker 1>a place in America.

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<v Speaker 4>For another video news channel?

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<v Speaker 1>And I said, in all honesty, Rupert, I think if

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<v Speaker 1>you came down on the conservative side of the middle,

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<v Speaker 1>I think there is an appetite for a video news

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<v Speaker 1>service because Ted and CNN are tending to go a

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<v Speaker 1>little more liberal culturally and politically. And I said, the

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<v Speaker 1>reason I think that is Rush Limbaugh has got a

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<v Speaker 1>massive radio audience. It's extremely loyal, and he mixes politics

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<v Speaker 1>with humor and he's been very successful. After giving up

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<v Speaker 1>the advisory role, I put my financial hat on, said

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<v Speaker 1>you know, we'd be happy to carry you, but we

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<v Speaker 1>need an economic interest in its success. And so we

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<v Speaker 1>cut a deal that we had warrants to purchase twenty

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<v Speaker 1>percent of Fox News at whatever the net invested capital

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<v Speaker 1>was at the time. We chose to exercise that warrant.

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<v Speaker 4>And that was the deal.

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<v Speaker 1>And he said, well, why don't you go talk to

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<v Speaker 1>Limbaugh and see if we can make him our anchor.

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<v Speaker 4>And I did.

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<v Speaker 1>I had two delightful luncheons with Rush, and I was

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<v Speaker 1>unsuccessful in talking rush into going on television again.

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<v Speaker 4>But he suggested Roger Ayles.

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<v Speaker 1>And so we recruited Roger. But the deal from the

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<v Speaker 1>beginning was there's going to be successful because it's a

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<v Speaker 1>hybrid of entertainment and news.

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<v Speaker 2>We're at this moment where Newsmax is suing Fox News,

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<v Speaker 2>alleging that Fox News has used hardball tactics, and I

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<v Speaker 2>thought of how in the book you detail how Fox

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<v Speaker 2>News at the beginning was paying distributors to carry the channel.

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<v Speaker 2>There's also this kind of delicious inversion of what's happening here,

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<v Speaker 2>which is Rupert Murdoch soon time Warner, if I remember correctly,

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<v Speaker 2>for not carrying the station in.

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<v Speaker 5>Los Angeles and New York?

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<v Speaker 4>Correct?

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<v Speaker 2>What do you make of that suit? Do you see

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<v Speaker 2>any foul play here? Or is this just kind of

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<v Speaker 2>a continuation of the tactics we've seen, kind of the

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<v Speaker 2>Murdock enterprise you use from the beginning.

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<v Speaker 1>I think you know the issue of exclusivity and carriage

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<v Speaker 1>and bundling. To me, okay, I got to take you

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<v Speaker 1>back in Notch. There was a time when John McCain

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<v Speaker 1>he sponsored the concept that programming above a certain cost

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<v Speaker 1>should be alacrte, right, which I wholeheartedly believed in. And

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<v Speaker 1>his idea was his grandmother is paying for a lot

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<v Speaker 1>of sports she doesn't watch, and so if anything over

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<v Speaker 1>fifty cents a month was going to be on, it

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<v Speaker 1>should be on optionally as an ala carte service, which

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<v Speaker 1>I totally believed in.

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<v Speaker 4>We could not convince the bulk of.

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<v Speaker 1>Our industry to get behind McCain and support him, and

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<v Speaker 1>I think that was the beginning of the end, frankly,

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<v Speaker 1>of the cable industry's success as a video distributor.

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<v Speaker 2>It's funny because in the book there's a chapter in

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<v Speaker 2>which you say you were surprised that DJ never went

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<v Speaker 2>after came bundling at a bundling, and yet I think

0:13:50.280 --> 0:13:53.439
<v Speaker 2>of you as the father of the cable bundle in

0:13:53.520 --> 0:13:56.240
<v Speaker 2>somebody who's decried a lot of government regulations. So just

0:13:56.240 --> 0:13:59.240
<v Speaker 2>to explain that to me, your surprise and why it

0:13:59.240 --> 0:14:01.480
<v Speaker 2>sounds like you might be in favor of that happening.

0:14:02.080 --> 0:14:02.840
<v Speaker 4>Oh, I was.

0:14:03.960 --> 0:14:08.400
<v Speaker 1>Yes, we bundled, of course, but the ability to al

0:14:08.559 --> 0:14:12.600
<v Speaker 1>cart in order to control cost, to me was an

0:14:12.679 --> 0:14:16.400
<v Speaker 1>essential ingredient. And what happened to the industry was that

0:14:16.480 --> 0:14:19.640
<v Speaker 1>once these guys, these big guys, could bundle you couldn't

0:14:19.680 --> 0:14:25.280
<v Speaker 1>say no, and so there was never a successful new

0:14:25.600 --> 0:14:28.560
<v Speaker 1>cable channel that wasn't owned by somebody.

0:14:28.320 --> 0:14:29.280
<v Speaker 4>Who had market power.

0:14:30.800 --> 0:14:35.000
<v Speaker 1>And the crime for the cable guys was allowing their

0:14:35.120 --> 0:14:38.160
<v Speaker 1>video bundle cost to get so high. When I was

0:14:38.320 --> 0:14:40.960
<v Speaker 1>sharing DirecTV, I don't know what the numbers are now,

0:14:41.360 --> 0:14:44.080
<v Speaker 1>but we were up to one hundred and eighteen dollars

0:14:45.080 --> 0:14:50.720
<v Speaker 1>was our charge for service based service, and it was

0:14:50.760 --> 0:14:53.520
<v Speaker 1>at a point where a big percentage of Americans couldn't

0:14:53.520 --> 0:14:59.600
<v Speaker 1>afford it. So Netflix succeeded really because the big bundle

0:14:59.680 --> 0:15:03.720
<v Speaker 1>was too expensive. You bought it all or you didn't

0:15:03.720 --> 0:15:07.280
<v Speaker 1>get any of it right, which to me was suicidal

0:15:08.080 --> 0:15:13.800
<v Speaker 1>for the industry, especially as sports bidding became so aggressive.

0:15:14.320 --> 0:15:16.560
<v Speaker 4>So I think we just as an industry.

0:15:16.120 --> 0:15:20.200
<v Speaker 1>Got caught ourselves with a product that was just too

0:15:20.320 --> 0:15:22.400
<v Speaker 1>highly priced with too little margin.

0:15:24.200 --> 0:15:27.680
<v Speaker 2>According to Deloitte's Digital Media Trends Report, the average American

0:15:27.720 --> 0:15:29.840
<v Speaker 2>spends close to seventy dollars.

0:15:29.480 --> 0:15:30.640
<v Speaker 5>A month on streaming.

0:15:31.200 --> 0:15:33.120
<v Speaker 2>That's less than the one hundred and twenty five dollars

0:15:33.200 --> 0:15:36.080
<v Speaker 2>a month that cable or satellite TV subscribers say they

0:15:36.120 --> 0:15:39.480
<v Speaker 2>spend on those services, But almost half of those streaming

0:15:39.480 --> 0:15:42.840
<v Speaker 2>customers say they pay too much. We have seen the

0:15:42.880 --> 0:15:46.359
<v Speaker 2>proliferation of streaming services, now the bundling of streaming services.

0:15:46.760 --> 0:15:48.560
<v Speaker 5>How do you see all of that play out?

0:15:49.400 --> 0:15:49.720
<v Speaker 4>Well?

0:15:49.760 --> 0:15:56.000
<v Speaker 1>I think other than live sports and maybe news, this

0:15:56.120 --> 0:16:00.320
<v Speaker 1>random access capabilities, particularly if it can be curated by

0:16:00.440 --> 0:16:04.080
<v Speaker 1>an intelligent curator, an AI curator, I think is a

0:16:04.160 --> 0:16:10.320
<v Speaker 1>huge public service. It gives enormous flexibility, quality, and potentially

0:16:10.520 --> 0:16:16.479
<v Speaker 1>efficiency to it. With sports, I've got a big hostility

0:16:16.600 --> 0:16:22.520
<v Speaker 1>toward network neutrality as it's applied to live because to

0:16:22.560 --> 0:16:27.920
<v Speaker 1>send out a NFL game is one channel, right, linear

0:16:29.040 --> 0:16:33.920
<v Speaker 1>cold Country one channel, and yet streamed it's forty or

0:16:33.920 --> 0:16:38.920
<v Speaker 1>fifty million channels. Why does that exist other than government intervention?

0:16:39.800 --> 0:16:42.000
<v Speaker 1>And the answer is well, for the big tech guys,

0:16:42.080 --> 0:16:45.400
<v Speaker 1>it gives them a chance to sell advertising at a

0:16:45.480 --> 0:16:48.600
<v Speaker 1>higher because they know more about the customer at a

0:16:48.680 --> 0:16:50.000
<v Speaker 1>higher price.

0:16:51.360 --> 0:16:55.840
<v Speaker 2>Malone is chair emeritus of Warner Brothers Discoveries Board. Now

0:16:55.880 --> 0:16:59.119
<v Speaker 2>that company is planning to split into two separate companies,

0:16:59.360 --> 0:17:02.360
<v Speaker 2>one that'll be studios and streaming, the other that'll be

0:17:02.400 --> 0:17:07.320
<v Speaker 2>its networks. Earlier this month, Warner Brothers Discoveries CFO announced

0:17:07.359 --> 0:17:10.040
<v Speaker 2>it could sell a twenty percent stake in its studios

0:17:10.040 --> 0:17:12.680
<v Speaker 2>and streaming business. Before that split happens.

0:17:13.440 --> 0:17:14.760
<v Speaker 5>Who do you see as a buyer of that?

0:17:14.880 --> 0:17:17.080
<v Speaker 2>Where would the interest be in that kind of equity

0:17:17.080 --> 0:17:18.320
<v Speaker 2>stake in public investors?

0:17:18.359 --> 0:17:19.160
<v Speaker 5>Public investors?

0:17:19.280 --> 0:17:23.720
<v Speaker 1>Yes, I think that the reality is the Warner Studio

0:17:23.880 --> 0:17:28.800
<v Speaker 1>library and rapidly growing streaming business will have a much

0:17:28.880 --> 0:17:33.359
<v Speaker 1>higher valuation than it is attributed in the combined company.

0:17:33.400 --> 0:17:35.000
<v Speaker 4>And the reason is it's overlevered.

0:17:36.240 --> 0:17:40.840
<v Speaker 1>You have a declining a linear video business and you

0:17:41.000 --> 0:17:45.919
<v Speaker 1>have a growing streaming business. I think the public investors'

0:17:45.960 --> 0:17:51.240
<v Speaker 1>institutional investors will value that quite highly, that growth and

0:17:51.280 --> 0:17:54.560
<v Speaker 1>that potential. Once that I laugh about it, But once

0:17:54.640 --> 0:17:58.080
<v Speaker 1>that pickle is out of that jar, there are going

0:17:58.119 --> 0:18:00.920
<v Speaker 1>to be a lot of people interested in doing business

0:18:00.960 --> 0:18:02.320
<v Speaker 1>deals with that pickle.

0:18:03.119 --> 0:18:07.920
<v Speaker 4>People asked me, was I stupid to do the Time

0:18:07.960 --> 0:18:08.960
<v Speaker 4>Winner deal?

0:18:09.080 --> 0:18:13.040
<v Speaker 1>And the answer is, Discovery, while it was doing great,

0:18:13.640 --> 0:18:19.760
<v Speaker 1>was facing exactly the same future that Warner Brothers was.

0:18:20.640 --> 0:18:23.840
<v Speaker 1>We were both confronted with having to make a transition

0:18:24.480 --> 0:18:28.960
<v Speaker 1>to a new technological platform and a completely different form

0:18:29.119 --> 0:18:33.640
<v Speaker 1>of consumer behavior, and Discovery would have found itself way

0:18:33.680 --> 0:18:38.880
<v Speaker 1>too small in that trajectory. If you actually had sat

0:18:38.920 --> 0:18:43.280
<v Speaker 1>there even last year and looked at the economics of

0:18:43.760 --> 0:18:48.199
<v Speaker 1>Netflix in the US and the economics of HBO in

0:18:48.240 --> 0:18:48.800
<v Speaker 1>the US.

0:18:49.119 --> 0:18:50.400
<v Speaker 4>They look almost identical.

0:18:51.200 --> 0:18:54.760
<v Speaker 1>One trade sit two hundred billion, in the other trades

0:18:54.920 --> 0:18:58.399
<v Speaker 1>at twenty billion. You know, I mean, it's about growth,

0:18:58.520 --> 0:19:03.040
<v Speaker 1>right future, because the real secret of Netflix is global,

0:19:03.160 --> 0:19:05.240
<v Speaker 1>is international seventy percent.

0:19:05.359 --> 0:19:08.240
<v Speaker 4>I believe their customers.

0:19:06.680 --> 0:19:11.720
<v Speaker 1>Are outside the US, and that's where the growth has

0:19:11.800 --> 0:19:16.400
<v Speaker 1>to come. And you know, we think Discovery's brand, which

0:19:16.480 --> 0:19:21.520
<v Speaker 1>is well known, combined with Warner Brothers content, which is

0:19:21.560 --> 0:19:25.840
<v Speaker 1>pretty well known, should succeed in growing internationally much faster

0:19:26.800 --> 0:19:28.480
<v Speaker 1>than people generally think.

0:19:29.440 --> 0:19:32.840
<v Speaker 2>Last question in the book, you address legacy and retirement.

0:19:32.880 --> 0:19:36.480
<v Speaker 2>You write retirement is going to be an imperceptibly slow transition.

0:19:37.400 --> 0:19:38.120
<v Speaker 5>Is it happening?

0:19:38.480 --> 0:19:43.159
<v Speaker 2>Are you simplifying the business shying away from.

0:19:42.920 --> 0:19:45.040
<v Speaker 1>She says, You've been planning. You've been telling me you're

0:19:45.040 --> 0:19:48.399
<v Speaker 1>going to retire since you were thirty. No, it is

0:19:48.520 --> 0:19:52.879
<v Speaker 1>slow because I've been involved in so many things to me,

0:19:53.040 --> 0:19:58.119
<v Speaker 1>and retirement is primarily extricating myself from the public corporate

0:19:59.119 --> 0:20:02.760
<v Speaker 1>roles that I play. I have a ton of private businesses,

0:20:03.160 --> 0:20:09.240
<v Speaker 1>everything from ranching, farming, forestry, multifamily, horse racing.

0:20:09.560 --> 0:20:11.720
<v Speaker 4>You know, I got a lot of things that I'm.

0:20:11.520 --> 0:20:16.240
<v Speaker 1>Still saying grace over, and I intend to continue with

0:20:16.320 --> 0:20:21.480
<v Speaker 1>my control positions in the various enterprises from which I

0:20:21.560 --> 0:20:24.280
<v Speaker 1>will be slowly leaving the boards.

0:20:29.080 --> 0:20:30.760
<v Speaker 2>This is the Big Take from Bloomberg News.

0:20:30.800 --> 0:20:31.840
<v Speaker 5>I'm David Gerrat.

0:20:31.880 --> 0:20:34.280
<v Speaker 2>To get more from The Big Take and unlimited access

0:20:34.359 --> 0:20:37.680
<v Speaker 2>to all of Bloomberg dot com, subscribe today at Bloomberg

0:20:37.680 --> 0:20:41.200
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0:20:41.320 --> 0:20:43.359
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0:20:43.359 --> 0:20:45.760
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0:20:46.160 --> 0:20:48.000
<v Speaker 2>Thanks for listening. We'll be back tomorrow.