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Speaker 1: Welcome to Daily Variety, your daily dose of news and

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Speaker 1: analysis for entertainment industry insiders. It's Thursday, August seventh, twenty

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Speaker 1: twenty five. I'm your host, Cynthia Littleton. I am co

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Speaker 1: editor in chief of Variety alongside Ramin Setuda. Today we're

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Speaker 1: taking a departure from the usual format for Daily Variety.

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Speaker 1: This episode is devoted to the house that Adolph Zukor built,

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Speaker 1: Paramount Pictures. It's one of the foundational brands of Hollywood,

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Speaker 1: and today it is formally changing hands. Skydance Media has

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Speaker 1: closed its eight billion dollar acquisition of Paramount Global. So

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Speaker 1: here we take a long look back at the history

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Speaker 1: and legacy of the Melrose Avenue studio, and we also

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Speaker 1: look to the future, to the challenges and opportunities that

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Speaker 1: lay ahead for the new regime led by CEO David

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Speaker 1: Ellison and President Jeff Schell. To help put it all

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Speaker 1: in perspective, we'll speak first with respected Hollywood has history

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Speaker 1: in Jeanine Bassinger. She talks about what made Paramount unique

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Speaker 1: at its founding in nineteen twelve and what has allowed

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Speaker 1: it to endure for more than a century. Then we'll

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Speaker 1: talk to Peter de Bruges and Owen Gleiberman, Variety's chief

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Speaker 1: film critics. They give us a qualitative take on the

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Speaker 1: riches stored in Paramount's vaults, and we finish out with

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Speaker 1: a discussion with media analyst Robert Fishman, senior researcher for

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Speaker 1: Moffatt Nathanson. He offers thoughts on the business speed bumps

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Speaker 1: ahead and what Wall Street wants to see from the

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Speaker 1: new owners. As Janine Bassinger explains, Paramount Pictures from the

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Speaker 1: very start was built to produce and distribute movies at scale.

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Speaker 1: Variety had been in business for about seven years when

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Speaker 1: Adolf Zuker's Famous Players Film Banner joined forces with producers

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Speaker 1: Jesse Laski, Cecil B. De Mille, and others to create

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Speaker 1: a film factory. The first significant story in Variety about

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Speaker 1: Paramount was public on June twenty sixth, nineteen fourteen. It

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Speaker 1: has great detail of Zuker's vision for how his fledgling

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Speaker 1: studio would operate. He referred to it as the Paramount

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Speaker 1: in those days. It's amazing how much of what he

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Speaker 1: had to say back then is still relevant today. Here's

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Speaker 1: a bite from that report.

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Speaker 2: The underlying principle no doubt of the Paramount formation is

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Speaker 2: the feature film business in its present unsettled state must

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Speaker 2: be guarded against, and the Paramount is aimed to become

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Speaker 2: a permanent agency that, when its advantages are made apparent

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Speaker 2: to the picture trade, will be recognized as the proper

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Speaker 2: way to handle output, in contrast to the fly by

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Speaker 2: night filmmaker who puts a little money into a picture

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Speaker 2: and wants a great deal back, or those feature manufacturers

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Speaker 2: who must have money quickly and will distribute their film

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Speaker 2: regardless to obtain it.

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Speaker 1: Now we'll hear from Hollywood historian Janine Bassinger. She is

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Speaker 1: the Corwin Fuller Professor of Film Studies Amerita at Wesleyan University.

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Speaker 1: She sets the scene for us of Paramount's early years

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Speaker 1: and on up through the momentous nineteen forty eight antitrust

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Speaker 1: decision that forced Paramount and other studios to divest from

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Speaker 1: their theater chains. She also explains how May West saved

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Speaker 1: the studio from bankruptcy in the depths of the depression.

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Speaker 1: Janine Bassinger, thank you for joining me today. I appreciate

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Speaker 1: you helping me put the storied history of Paramount Pictures

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Speaker 1: into perspective.

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Speaker 3: Absolutely my pleasure and you couldn't have a better example

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Speaker 3: to use than Paramount Pictures to depict the history of Hollywood.

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Speaker 3: The great thing about Paramount was which is now the

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Speaker 3: second oldest studio in the United States after Universal Pictures,

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Speaker 3: is that it founded and grounded itself from the beginning

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Speaker 3: and the understanding you're going to have to look after production,

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Speaker 3: you're going to have to look after distribution, and you're

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Speaker 3: going to have to have somebody looking ahead to get

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Speaker 3: a plan for the changes that were going to come.

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Speaker 3: And Adolf Zukor, the guy that founded the real Paramount

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Speaker 3: Pictures with somebody doing those three things very carefully, and

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Speaker 3: he was the look ahead idea guy. And the sense

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Speaker 3: of buying their own movie theaters and that kind of

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Speaker 3: thing was just very smart.

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Speaker 1: So, okay, Adolf Zukor nineteen twelve, what was the catalyst

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Speaker 1: for him and his key partners Jesse Laski and Cecil B.

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Speaker 4: De Mill.

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Speaker 1: What was the spark to put the stick in the

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Speaker 1: ground and say we're launching a studio.

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Speaker 3: It all started with a merger, which is really Hollywood.

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Speaker 3: They understood that the elements that they were going to

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Speaker 3: need really to make it work. You couldn't just be

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Speaker 3: making great movies. You had to have a way to

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Speaker 3: get them out that was great to your public in

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Speaker 3: small towns and everywhere, and you had to have somebody

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Speaker 3: looking out for what you were going to need as

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Speaker 3: a business. For Zukor, he thought it was about stars.

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Speaker 3: Zukor understood that selling the stars their names and making

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Speaker 3: them what the audience wanted would be a secret of success.

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Speaker 3: That logo that they have, the original wonderful logo, had

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Speaker 3: twenty four stars around the mountain, one for each of

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Speaker 3: the stars that Zukor had cleverly signed up and had

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Speaker 3: under contract. Paramount meant to you movie stars like Being

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Speaker 3: Crosby and Bob Hope and Paula Goddard and Veronica Lake

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Speaker 3: and Marlena Dietrich. And in the thirties it had meant sophistication,

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Speaker 3: foreign kind of attitude. Everybody said, if you went to Paramount,

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Speaker 3: you went into the common It was like you've gone

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Speaker 3: to a foreign country, where are so many different languages

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Speaker 3: being spoken.

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Speaker 1: So many great European actors, for obvious reasons, headed across

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Speaker 1: the Atlantic and found a good trade here in the

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Speaker 1: United States.

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Speaker 3: They gathered there and they made a slightly more sophisticated

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Speaker 3: form of storytelling, often set in Paris instead of Peoria,

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Speaker 3: and women wearing furs and good cloth coats and that

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Speaker 3: kind of thing. And when they had financial trouble, they

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Speaker 3: found May West. She saved them from bankruptcy.

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Speaker 1: She'd been doing her very risk shows on stage, and

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Speaker 1: they poureded that over to movies.

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Speaker 3: They went into receivership, and they declared bankruptcy in nineteen

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Speaker 3: thirty three. But then they came bouncing back from that

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Speaker 3: really largely through having May West. Zouk Or understood you

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Speaker 3: have to be looking at what do you not have.

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Speaker 3: You don't have May West, you need block booking. If

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Speaker 3: you have block booking, if you have a star that

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Speaker 3: they want, then they got to buy the other stars

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Speaker 3: material too. So these business practices that were so smart

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Speaker 3: and that define the studio system and then ultimately kill

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Speaker 3: the studios.

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Speaker 1: It's the central concept of leverage. You have something they want,

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Speaker 1: they'll have to take these eight others and therefore scale.

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Speaker 1: There's so much we could talk about, but certainly foundational

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Speaker 1: to the Paramount story is the nineteen forty eight antitrust decision.

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Speaker 1: The federal government came in and basically broke up the

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Speaker 1: vertical integration of the day, which was the studios that

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Speaker 1: owned theaters in major cities, and the federal government said

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Speaker 1: to Hollywood, that's just too much power. So Paramount, Warner Brothers, MGM,

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Speaker 1: they all had to divest themselves of their theaters from

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Speaker 1: your research and your studies. What was that moment like

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Speaker 1: for Paramount and for Hollywood.

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Speaker 3: First of all, the threat from the government about monopoly

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Speaker 3: was around quite a bit before nineteen forty eight. I mean,

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Speaker 3: in the thirties, everybody was looking at In nineteen forty

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Speaker 3: on the brink of war, this issue was laid out

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Speaker 3: pretty clearly to Paramount, because Paramount owned the most theaters

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Speaker 3: of any studio. But the war came and put everything aside.

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Speaker 3: So in nineteen forty eight when the consent to Cree

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Speaker 3: came down, and Paramount was the studio that had to

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Speaker 3: undergo the case because of their theater ownership was so large.

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Speaker 3: I mean, obviously nobody liked it. But the war had

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Speaker 3: brought such boom to the film business. During World War Two,

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Speaker 3: the business boomed. It made money hand over fists. Everybody

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Speaker 3: went to the movies and went all the time, and

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Speaker 3: so when it happened the business was slow to realize

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Speaker 3: what a difference it was going to be. So at

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Speaker 3: first it was not so terrible, but then suddenly they

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Speaker 3: saw the box office going down, down down. The business

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Speaker 3: died that day in nineteen forty eight when the Supreme

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Speaker 3: Court made that decision. That is to say, as it existed,

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Speaker 3: the old studio system died, but nobody knew it was dead.

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Speaker 1: And of course television at the same time is taking

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Speaker 1: steam as a medium.

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Speaker 3: And an influx of new foreign films that everybody was trying,

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Speaker 3: which created new appetites for different kinds of movies. It's

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Speaker 3: all about adjustment and looking ahead that whole zook or thing.

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Speaker 3: Keep the production in the distribution going, but look ahead

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Speaker 3: to what kind of production and what kind of distribution.

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Speaker 3: And that's really the game. That's the game that Paramount

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Speaker 3: has played so successfully for so long, and which they're

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Speaker 3: trying to do again with this new merger. We as

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Speaker 3: people need storytellers, bland stories. We talk about streaming, we

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Speaker 3: talk about money, we talk about many many things, but

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Speaker 3: what it really is about, we need stories.

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Speaker 1: Janine, thank you so much. I can't think of a

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Speaker 1: better note to end on.

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Speaker 3: Thank you for having me.

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Speaker 1: Now we'll get a critics I view on Paramount and

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Speaker 1: its influence on the art, science, and commerce of filmmaking.

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Speaker 1: Variety is fortunate to have not one but two terrific

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Speaker 1: chief film critics, Peter Debrush and Owen Gliberman, our illustrious

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Speaker 1: chief film critics. Thank you so much for joining me.

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Speaker 1: Sure thanks to tinger Well. The subject of the morning

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Speaker 1: here is Paramount Pictures, one of Hollywood's foundational brands, started

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Speaker 1: in nineteen twelve, which means it's only a little bit

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Speaker 1: younger than Variety, which, of course we started in nineteen

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Speaker 1: oh five. As the folks at Skuydance Media take over

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Speaker 1: the August part Pictures and the associated assets, I thought

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Speaker 1: it would be good to talk about Paramount Pictures, the history,

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Speaker 1: the library that Skydance is now inheriting. Let me ask you, both,

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Speaker 1: in the different eras that the studio has been around,

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Speaker 1: what if anything, has defined a Paramount Picture.

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Speaker 4: When you think of a Hollywood studio, you probably picture

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Speaker 4: the arches on Melrose Boulevard in front of their.

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Speaker 1: Studio, those ornate iron gates.

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Speaker 4: When Owen and I spearheaded Variety's Greatest Films of All

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Speaker 4: Time list a couple of years ago, we came up

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Speaker 4: with a ton of Paramount movies. And it turns out

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Speaker 4: that our number one film, Psycho, was produced by the studio,

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Speaker 4: you know, when they were working with Hitchcock. We had Psycho,

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Speaker 4: we had Godfather one and two in the top ten.

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Speaker 4: You've got a number of Paramount films. You've got Apocalypse now.

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Speaker 4: Paramount is consistently delivering quality movies as well as sometimes

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Speaker 4: just understanding what audiences want and giving things that are

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Speaker 4: populist hits and Peter.

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Speaker 1: They famously won the first Oscar for Best Picture back

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Speaker 1: in nineteen twenty seven.

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Speaker 4: That's true for Wings, and they've been consistently featuring into

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Speaker 4: the Academy Awards ever since, famously winning the most Oscars

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Speaker 4: for Titanic seventy years after that.

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Speaker 1: Ellen, As, we're talking about Paramount. When you think of Paramount,

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Speaker 1: what are some of the first titles that come to

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Speaker 1: your mind?

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Speaker 5: Well, there are so many. I think Wings points to

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Speaker 5: the idea that Paramount has always been a studio on

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Speaker 5: the cutting edge of where Hollywood is going. It was

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Speaker 5: the studio that invented block booking. It was on the

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Speaker 5: cutting edge of animation right along with Walt Disney. It

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Speaker 5: was one of the first studios to have a music

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Speaker 5: division and television stations. It made the racy movies that

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Speaker 5: spearheaded the creation of the production code. And then when

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Speaker 5: Paramount was sold to Gulf and Western in nineteen sixty six,

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Speaker 5: that was the real launch of the corporate age of Hollywood.

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Speaker 5: But then, in one of the grandest iron needs in

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Speaker 5: movie history, Gulf and Western hired Robert Evans to be

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Speaker 5: head of production, and the new corporate Paramount ended up

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Speaker 5: ushering in a legendary chapter of the New Hollywood. And

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Speaker 5: I would say that the time when Paramount most had

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Speaker 5: a kind of house style, just movies that totally defined

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Speaker 5: it as a studio, was in the New Hollywood era.

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Speaker 5: And I would say what that was is if you

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Speaker 5: think of those great movies that were made under Robert Evans,

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Speaker 5: Rosemary's Baby in Chinatown, the Two Godfathers, they were kind

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Speaker 5: of the new Hollywood studio that combined the new sensibility

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Speaker 5: with this Hollywood classicism.

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Speaker 1: Think about Love Story, a classic Hanky Weeper if there

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Speaker 1: ever was one. My old boss Peter Bart used to

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Speaker 1: just talk about that thing went out and made money

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Speaker 1: for years. They captured that magic.

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Speaker 5: You felt that Paramount had retained some of that DNA

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Speaker 5: of the studio system and at the same time and

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Speaker 5: it probably wouldn't have happened without Robert Evans moved into

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Speaker 5: this new era that's as close to glory days as

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Speaker 5: it never had.

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Speaker 1: I'm going to throw it. Also one of my all

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Speaker 1: time favorite movies, Medium Cool, from the late great cinematographer

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Speaker 1: and director Haskell Wexler. There's just like a document of

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Speaker 1: the world at that moment when you go back.

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Speaker 5: To the old days. When I think of Warner Brothers,

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Speaker 5: I think of gangster movies. When I think of Universal,

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Speaker 5: I think of horror. When I think of MGM, I

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Speaker 5: think of musicals. I don't think the name Paramount quite

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Speaker 5: conjures the idea of a house style in that way,

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Speaker 5: but I think it's closest that Paramount came to having

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Speaker 5: a house style came much later, even after the Robert

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Speaker 5: Evans period, in the late seventies, when the studios were

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Speaker 5: less distinctive than they had been. The Paramount became the

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Speaker 5: laboratory where they invented the high concept film with movies

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Speaker 5: like Saturday Night Fever, Meatball, The Friday the Thirteenth Series,

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Speaker 5: the Simp and Bruckheimer films and the Indiana Jones films.

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Speaker 5: Paramount became associated with very glossy, high powered commercial content.

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Speaker 5: I personally think the most influential movie of the last

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Speaker 5: sixty years is Raiders of the Lost Arc That feels

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Speaker 5: to me like a quintessential escapist Paramount creation. This was

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Speaker 5: the era of Barry Diller, Michael Eisner, Jeffrey Cassenberg, and

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Speaker 5: of course Eisner and Katzenberg then took what they learned

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Speaker 5: at Paramount over to Disney. But Paramount came to represent,

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Speaker 5: in my book, this kind of product, and in some

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Speaker 5: ways that quality was inseparable from also some of the

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Speaker 5: great and defining movies they made in this period, like

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Speaker 5: An Officer and a Gentleman and Ghost and Forrest Gump.

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Speaker 1: As you say, those movies, they just work on so

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Speaker 1: many levels and so interesting. Owen As all of this

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Speaker 1: is happening on the film side, the TV side of

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Speaker 1: the lot is really stepping up, and you have Gary

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Speaker 1: Marshall inventing television franchises with things like Happy Days. And

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Speaker 1: then came Laverne and Shirley and Mork and Mindy and

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Speaker 1: Joni loves Chacci I'm dating myself, and you had two

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Speaker 1: of my all time television series, Taxi and Cheers.

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Speaker 5: That's right, And where I think that's important is that

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Speaker 5: when we talk about hyper commercial aspect of the Paramount style,

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Speaker 5: I think the television was part of it. I think

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Speaker 5: part of what started to happen in certain comedies is

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Speaker 5: that the DNA of television began to merge with movies

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Speaker 5: a little bit, and I think Paramount led that Star

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Speaker 5: Trek is a great example.

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Speaker 1: Well, as we said before, it's not every day that

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Speaker 1: a studio changes hands, and as Paramount goes into the

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Speaker 1: hands of Skydance Media, David Ellison, Jerry Cardinali at Redbird Capital,

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Speaker 1: I hope they're listening to this and understand the qualitative

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Speaker 1: history of this great studio, and certainly they didn't buy

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Speaker 1: it not to make great movies.

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Speaker 5: It's worth remembering that back in the eighties, the age

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Speaker 5: of Mike Govitz and high concept, which Paramount more or

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Speaker 5: less paved the way for, and back then griped about

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Speaker 5: the new studio mentality, which seemed at the time like

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Speaker 5: a travesty. All these executives caught up in the blockbuster mentality.

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Speaker 5: They seem to care about nothing but the opening weekend grosses.

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Speaker 5: The creative mentality of the nineteen seventies seemed to have

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Speaker 5: gone out the window.

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Speaker 1: Right agents driving everything with packages.

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Speaker 5: But in hindsight, those eighties executives and the studio like

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Speaker 5: Paramount now seemed like the high renaissance. They were making

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Speaker 5: very commercial movies, but in their way, I think Paramount

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Speaker 5: back then really cared about movies, and you see it

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Speaker 5: in the movies they made that people are still talking about,

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Speaker 5: like The Naked Gun or The Firm, or Wayne's World,

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Speaker 5: or Clueless or the Mission Impossible series. They were making

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Speaker 5: a lot of terrific movies. So maybe in that sense

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Speaker 5: we can be optimistic about this merger, that these new executives,

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Speaker 5: under whatever skydence, Paramount becomes, Oh, they're just gonna care

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Speaker 5: about content and reduce movies to content. But I'm an optimist,

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Speaker 5: so I say maybe not. Maybe the new Paramount movies

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Speaker 5: can be more than just productions by algorithm.

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Speaker 4: And if I ran the Zoo. You've seen the Paramount

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Speaker 4: lately kind of exploiting their catalog and the strength of

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Speaker 4: so many big brands Indiana Jones, Top Gun, Star Trek.

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Speaker 4: But let's remember that Paramount created all of those brands,

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Speaker 4: when they were taking the risks betting on filmmakers like

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Speaker 4: Francis Ford Coppola. That was the lesson of the Robert

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Speaker 4: Evans Ero. I'd love to see a return to that

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Speaker 4: kind of ethos at Paramount in the future.

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Speaker 1: Well, I hope David Ellison and Jeff Shell and company

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Speaker 1: are listening. I suspect they will. Thank you Owen, thank

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Speaker 1: you Peterson, and now we look to the future of

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Speaker 1: the business. In a conversation with Robert Fishman, he's a

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Speaker 1: sharp analyst who covers Paramount Global for the respected independent

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Speaker 1: research firm Moffat Nathanson. Robert Fishman, senior researcher for Moffatt Nathanson.

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Speaker 1: Thank you so much for joining me.

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Speaker 6: Thanks for having me, Sotha.

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Speaker 1: It's not every day that a major Hollywood studio, a

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Speaker 1: founding Hollywood studio, changes hands, so I appreciate you looking

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Speaker 1: a little bit ahead. What do you think the first

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Speaker 1: things that Ellison and his new management team are going

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Speaker 1: to have to address at the company they just bought.

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Speaker 6: I think there's lots of open questions here that remained

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Speaker 6: to be answered, and really what we're looking for. I

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Speaker 6: think what Wall Street is looking for is really to

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Speaker 6: understand or have a better understanding as to the direction

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Speaker 6: of the company and what do I really mean by that?

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Speaker 6: It's what is the future of Paramount Plus that that's

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Speaker 6: probably at the top of the list, but how much

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Speaker 6: is new management and really going to invest in Paramount

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Speaker 6: Plus and Streaming going forward? Clearly the old regime, if

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Speaker 6: you will, has taken this back to break even, so

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Speaker 6: the losses are gone, But the real question that we

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Speaker 6: all have is as we look forward, what's the sustainability

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Speaker 6: of that if they've pulled back on some of the contentvestment.

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Speaker 6: So I think that's big question number one and the

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Speaker 6: related question around overall content spending for the company is

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Speaker 6: two of these critical questions that investors really need to

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Speaker 6: have a better understanding where the company is going on that.

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Speaker 1: From an investor perspective, are you looking for David Ellison

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Speaker 1: to come out and say we're going to put many

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Speaker 1: more billions into production or would that give you pause

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Speaker 1: because that just makes the climbing out that much deeper.

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Speaker 6: I think investing many more billions without understanding what the

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Speaker 6: true payoff is and where the investment is going to go.

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Speaker 6: So if that's all going to be in streaming, and

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Speaker 6: taking away from all the linear investment. That's a pivot

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Speaker 6: that obviously a lot of these media companies have already

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Speaker 6: started to make, including para Amount. But what I would

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Speaker 6: say is which categories of spending is really going to

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Speaker 6: be targeted? So sports is obviously a critical piece to

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Speaker 6: this overall portfolio. Is the company willing to lean in

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Speaker 6: to additional sports rights that they think is going to

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Speaker 6: drive new subscribers to Paramount Plus. That's another very clear

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Speaker 6: related question, what is going to be the future of

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Speaker 6: investing in kids content? So you start to go down

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Speaker 6: the list of where that investment is going and what

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Speaker 6: the returns are in today's traditional media ecosystem becomes very

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Speaker 6: different answers than where the company has invested in the past.

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Speaker 1: Now it sounds like you're saying that basically all roads

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Speaker 1: for Paramount Global lead through Paramount Plus, like they really

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Speaker 1: need to make Paramount Plus a bigger player, or at

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Speaker 1: the very least shore up the audience that they have.

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Speaker 6: I think a big piece of the future of Paramount's

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Speaker 6: news story will be focused around Paramount Plus. But the

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Speaker 6: thing that we can't ignore here is still how important

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Speaker 6: the cash flows are from the traditional cable networks portfolios.

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Speaker 6: So what the future of that portfolio is going to

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Speaker 6: be is another critical question that investors need to understand,

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Speaker 6: especially given what some of the competitors are doing about

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Speaker 6: spinning out and you know, you've been potentially merging some

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Speaker 6: of these portfolios. So which direction guideance Paramount tries to

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Speaker 6: take with its linear networks portfolio is going to be

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Speaker 6: another critical piece to this puzzle as far as how

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Speaker 6: investors are going to value this company going forward.

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Speaker 1: I've read a lot of analysis from you and others

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Speaker 1: about that they don't have as much flexibility as NBC

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Speaker 1: Universal or Warner Brothers Discovery to do that kind of

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Speaker 1: separation because they are so dependent on the cash flows

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Speaker 1: from this. Let me ask you also about something that

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Speaker 1: doesn't get as much attention, but through CBS, Paramount Global

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Speaker 1: owns twenty eight television stations. What do you think is

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Speaker 1: the future for those stations.

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Speaker 6: It's a really interesting question. I'd say that the future

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Speaker 6: of their owned and operated TV station portfolio kind of

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Speaker 6: goes hand in hand with the future of Paramount Plus

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Speaker 6: and whether or not they want to continue to drive

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Speaker 6: those linear affiliate few dollars through retrans right that that's

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Speaker 6: obviously been a key reason for owning that TV station

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Speaker 6: portfolio looking backwards, and again how sports plays into that,

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Speaker 6: whether or not they want to use their sports rights

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Speaker 6: to drive those retrans dollars going forward, And really it

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Speaker 6: comes also down to the bigger picture on TV stations

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Speaker 6: and how the new company wants to deal with their

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Speaker 6: affiliate relationships outside of their owned and operated portfolio. So

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Speaker 6: I think it is a key question that the new

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Speaker 6: management team has to give us a better understanding how

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Speaker 6: they're going to use their linear portfolio and balance that pivot.

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Speaker 1: In the lead up to this merger, we've heard a

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Speaker 1: lot of discussion from David Ellison and Jeff Schell about

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Speaker 1: the technology capabilities that s Guidance Media that that operation

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Speaker 1: can bring to Paramount, and they've been pretty candid that

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Speaker 1: Paramount is behind it larger rivals in this area at

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Speaker 1: a time when no sizeable media company can afford to

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Speaker 1: be that much farther behind it's competitors. Is there anything

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Speaker 1: that you're going to be specifically looking for in these

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Speaker 1: first few months.

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Speaker 6: I think in terms of the investment in this technology capabilities,

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Speaker 6: that's really the critical question here. I think we would

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Speaker 6: all agree that traditional media companies need to invest more

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Speaker 6: and to close that gap versus some of the other

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Speaker 6: streaming leaders, you know, with Netflix at the top of

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Speaker 6: the list, So there's clear room for improvement on the

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Speaker 6: technology capabilities and recommendation engines and streaming back end. But

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Speaker 6: at the same time, what will that take in terms

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Speaker 6: of the investment and how can they do that efficiently? Well,

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Speaker 6: still again investing in content and investing in the overall business.

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Speaker 6: So it's going to be that continued balancing act of

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Speaker 6: investing in streaming. But where the dollars come coming from.

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Speaker 6: If they're coming from linear, that does obviously make sense

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Speaker 6: given the pressures of that ecosystem. If they're incremental spend

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Speaker 6: over and above what our current expectations are, then it's

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Speaker 6: just something that we need to get a better handle

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Speaker 6: on to understand what the trajectory of the cash flow

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Speaker 6: is going to be for the future of this company.

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Speaker 1: Robert, my last question for you, Skuidance Media, Redbird Capital.

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Speaker 1: Do you get the sense that they are going to

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Speaker 1: be in the market for more assets, looking for things

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Speaker 1: that they can bolt on in the rehabilitation of paramount.

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Speaker 6: Really, that's the ultimate question that you're leaving us with.

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Speaker 6: To me, the answer is clearly they have to digest

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Speaker 6: what they just finally acquired first. But I think the

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Speaker 6: best answer I can give you sitting here today is

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Speaker 6: I have a hard time believing that this is it,

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Speaker 6: And I think there's other meaningful combinations out there from

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Speaker 6: some of the peer companies that are also looking to

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Speaker 6: do transformational m and A and figuring out what is

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Speaker 6: the right assets to keep and what's the right assets

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Speaker 6: to sell off. So I think, you know, cable networks,

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Speaker 6: potential streaming combinations, joint ventures, or even full scale m

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Speaker 6: and A is going to be a lot of how

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Speaker 6: this sector plays out over the coming years.

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Speaker 1: There will certainly be no shortage of things to watch. Robert,

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Speaker 1: thank you so much for helping us sort through what

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Speaker 1: we need to be focusing on here and in your term.

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Speaker 1: Appreciate it.

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Speaker 2: Thank you.

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Speaker 1: Listeners, Thank you for going with me on this journey

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Speaker 1: through past, present and a glimpse of Paramount's future. The

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Speaker 1: industry we love has been through hard times of late,

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Speaker 1: but the Paramount story reminds us that hard times don't

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Speaker 1: last forever and change is the only constant. As we

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Speaker 1: close out today's episode, I'm thinking about my late colleague

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Speaker 1: High Hollinger. I had the pleasure of working with High

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Speaker 1: in the early two thousands. He was a sharp editor

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Speaker 1: who knew every everything there was to know about the

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Speaker 1: international film business, and in his earliest days in Hollywood,

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Speaker 1: High worked as an assistant AKA and office boy for

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Speaker 1: Adolph Zukor. I loved hearing High's stories of how the

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Speaker 1: diminutive Zukor was a demanding boss to say the least,

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Speaker 1: and all these years later, I still love the fact

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Speaker 1: that I worked with someone who worked with one of

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Speaker 1: the undisputed og founders of Hollywood. Thanks for listening. The

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Speaker 1: soundtrack for this episode includes music from the nineteen thirty

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Speaker 1: three May West smash I'm No Angel, as well as

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Speaker 1: the special theme music written for Paramounts one hundredth anniversary

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Speaker 1: and the theme from the studio's hit TV series Yellowstone.

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Speaker 1: This episode was written and reported by me Cynthia Littleton,

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Speaker 1: with contributions from Janine Baisinger, Peter de Bruges, Owen Gleiberman,

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Speaker 1: Robert Fishman, and Clayton Davis. That was Clayton you heard

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Speaker 1: reading the vin to Variety report. Stick snickt hick picks.

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Speaker 1: Please leave us a review at the podcast platform of

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Speaker 1: your choice, and please tune in Monday for another episode

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Speaker 1: of Daily Variety.