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Speaker 1: Huntsville, Alabama, in a city that was as American as

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Speaker 1: Apple Strudal From Any Time Studios comes paper Clip, a

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Speaker 1: podcast sponsored by Amazon Studios and inspired by its EMI

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Speaker 1: eligible dramatic series Hunters, starring Al Pacino and Logan Lerman

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Speaker 1: joint host Michael ian Black as he teams up with

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Speaker 1: a Cold War scholar to explore Operation paper Clip, a

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Speaker 1: real life top secret program that brought Nazi scientists to

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Speaker 1: the American heartland to work on government aerospace and medical

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Speaker 1: research projects. Available now on Apple Podcasts and all other platforms.

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Speaker 1: Welcome to another episode of Strictly Business, the podcast in

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Speaker 1: which we talked with some of the brightest minds working

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Speaker 1: in media today. I'm Andrew Wallenstein with Variety Intelligence platform.

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Speaker 1: New Firepower has come to the streaming wars with the

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Speaker 1: launch of HBO Max last week. It joins a crowded field,

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Speaker 1: including another holdover from the world of premium cable television. Stars.

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Speaker 1: This lions Gate owned brand has graduated to the streaming

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Speaker 1: game as well. With me today to talk about the

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Speaker 1: road ahead for Stars is It's CEO Jeff Hirsch. Welcome Jeff,

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Speaker 1: thanks for having me on. Before we get started, we

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Speaker 1: must acknowledge. Jeff is making strictly business podcast history today

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Speaker 1: on this the one thirteen episode, You, sir, have the

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Speaker 1: distinction of being the first rish Turn guest we've ever

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Speaker 1: brought back for a second episode. Well, I guess that

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Speaker 1: means maybe I did something right the first time. Who

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Speaker 1: know something I put on the top of the resume.

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Speaker 1: It's it's will be under my skills, hobbies and instrance

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Speaker 1: for sure. So before we get to talking about the

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Speaker 1: state of Stars, I do want to point to a

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Speaker 1: statement your company, like many different companies across America, released

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Speaker 1: over this tragic weekend in the United States. It reads,

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Speaker 1: we cannot stand silent while our Black communities are under

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Speaker 1: the way to violence, discrimination, and injustice. You go on

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Speaker 1: to support organizations like Color of Change in the inn

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Speaker 1: double a cp uh. Look, Jeff, I commend you and

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Speaker 1: your company for taking the stand. I also want to

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Speaker 1: understand what kind of questions a company has to ask

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Speaker 1: itself at a time like this about what its responsibilities are.

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Speaker 1: That's a great question, you know. I think for Stars,

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Speaker 1: there really wasn't that many questions about what our responsibilities

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Speaker 1: are in terms of our our communities. We have served,

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Speaker 1: underserved audiences. You know, as part of our programming mandate

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Speaker 1: for years, UM we have put underserved voices and unheard

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Speaker 1: voices and fresh faces on the air, not only on

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Speaker 1: the air, but behind the screen and and in the

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Speaker 1: writer's rooms and directors, you know, for the last ten

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Speaker 1: years and so this has been core to what Stars

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Speaker 1: does as a company. And so you know, when this

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Speaker 1: unfortunate incident had broke across America, it was very clear

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Speaker 1: to us that we needed to act and we needed

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Speaker 1: to speak out. Well, if that wasn't disruptive enough, you know,

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Speaker 1: we're also smack in the middle of a pandemic here,

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Speaker 1: which you know, I have to ask what has the

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Speaker 1: impact been for your business? The pandemic has been. You know,

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Speaker 1: it's been very trying, I think of all businesses, including ours, UM,

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Speaker 1: but it's been you know, with people staying at home

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Speaker 1: and sheltered in place, people are looking for a fresh

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Speaker 1: content and as a non ad supported you know, premium

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Speaker 1: content layer that has fresh content coming on almost every week,

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Speaker 1: it's been a place where people have found content and

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Speaker 1: continue to see and watch the service. We've seen viewership

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Speaker 1: domestically on linear up thirty on our app and our

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Speaker 1: digital sides up, and we've seen those same kind of

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Speaker 1: viewership numbers increase in the fifty countries we are in

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Speaker 1: outside of the US as well, so there's been some

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Speaker 1: benefit there, but my guess is there's probably been some

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Speaker 1: production disruption. So the We've been fortunate that we really

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Speaker 1: produce a year in advance, and so everything that's coming

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Speaker 1: onto our Fisical twenty one or twenty slate has been

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Speaker 1: pretty much in post production when the pandemic hit, and

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Speaker 1: so we've been able to be very creative using virtual

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Speaker 1: editing rooms and sound rooms and kind of finished most

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Speaker 1: of the content that we have coming on the Earth

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Speaker 1: through at least March, and so we're in really good

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Speaker 1: shape with fresh content. We were when it hit. We

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Speaker 1: were in the middle of Outlander season five, which was

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Speaker 1: I think the best season to date and the viewership

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Speaker 1: reflects that, and so we had fresh content there. We

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Speaker 1: launched the third and final season of Vita in the

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Speaker 1: middle of the pandemic and ended just last night and

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Speaker 1: do a great, great uh ending of the story. And

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Speaker 1: then we launched a new show called high Town Uh

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Speaker 1: three weeks ago, which is with Buckheimer Television, which I

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Speaker 1: think is gonna be one of the best new shows

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Speaker 1: on television year. A couple that with all the Sony

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Speaker 1: Pay one movies that we've been getting Once a Time,

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Speaker 1: Find a Hollywood, Zombie Land, and the four thousand library

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Speaker 1: titles that we have, it's a it's a pretty compelling

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Speaker 1: service when you're stick at homeworking for something to watch.

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Speaker 1: So um, and then you go overseas to the fifty

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Speaker 1: countries we have outside the US. Not only do we

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Speaker 1: have the Star shows, but we have shows like The

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Speaker 1: Great and The Act of Castle Rock and Killing Even so,

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Speaker 1: we've got the best of Little Spot outside the US.

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Speaker 1: And so it's been Um, we've been okay in terms

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Speaker 1: of production. You know, we are in a good position

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Speaker 1: where I think if we're back in production by the

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Speaker 1: mid to late summer, that will be in good shape

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Speaker 1: for the following year as well. Okay, we'll see what

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Speaker 1: happens there. I mean, it's got to be hard to

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Speaker 1: sort of it's the moving target of this pandemic. We

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Speaker 1: don't know when society comes back to normal, how long

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Speaker 1: it stays back to normal. Um. Has that been a

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Speaker 1: challenge in terms of long term planning? I think all

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Speaker 1: you know, the moving and moving that listen moving the football.

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Speaker 1: You know, it's kind of hard to kind of pick

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Speaker 1: a spot, as you said, but I think it's an organization.

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Speaker 1: You have to pick a date and go for it.

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Speaker 1: And so we picked a very early date on return

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Speaker 1: to production and return to the office, and so that

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Speaker 1: our protocols are ready to go. We're prepared. We have

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Speaker 1: a great plan and then as soon as the governments

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Speaker 1: allow us to start going back to work, hopefully we'll

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Speaker 1: be one of the first out of the gate back

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Speaker 1: to production. So you mentioned, I mean, you know, the

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Speaker 1: pandemic has created some circumstances that have helped drive subscriber

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Speaker 1: growth here and abroad. I have to ask, though, is

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Speaker 1: any of that done by It seems like there's a

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Speaker 1: lot of players out there in the streaming space that

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Speaker 1: are doing a lot of free and and you know Quimby,

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Speaker 1: Grow coup all these different brands. Does that sort of

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Speaker 1: juice the numbers of it? It made for them, But

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Speaker 1: we we took a much different strategy one when we

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Speaker 1: sat down. You know, we've we've built a direct the

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Speaker 1: consumer product of scale. We've got over two million subscribers

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Speaker 1: on our own app where we built the data engine

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Speaker 1: behind it and so we've been looking at the data

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Speaker 1: for years in terms of offers, free offers, seven day free,

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Speaker 1: thirty day free, what the conversion is to paid with

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Speaker 1: the lifetime value is of those customers. And we've never

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Speaker 1: been big friends of thirty days free. It's just isn't

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Speaker 1: It doesn't use both for the business long term, and

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Speaker 1: when the pandemic hit it we actually took a much

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Speaker 1: longer view of what was going to go on. We

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Speaker 1: thought this would last much longer than thirty days, and

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Speaker 1: so we actually put longer term offers in the marketplace

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Speaker 1: that reduced rates so the consumer economically challenged consumers could

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Speaker 1: actually get the service and afford the service, but would

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Speaker 1: have it for a longer period of time. So we

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Speaker 1: were in the market with a five dollars for three

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Speaker 1: months offer and twenty five dollars up front for six

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Speaker 1: months offer um that we ran through the pandemic, and

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Speaker 1: we've seen great, you know, retention on the back end

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Speaker 1: of those from our using it historically, and so we

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Speaker 1: feel really good that not only did we seeing a

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Speaker 1: spike in consumers because they're home looking for content, but

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Speaker 1: we'll be able to keep them long term. On the

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Speaker 1: other side, well, You're also coming off a quarter though,

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Speaker 1: where you've had some issues, most specifically with the losing

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Speaker 1: linear placement for Stars on Comcast, which I think was

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Speaker 1: a loss of about over six million linear subscribers. So

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Speaker 1: this also, I think hurt your revenues, your profit for

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Speaker 1: the quarter. It raises a lot of questions about Stars.

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Speaker 1: I mean, was comcast decision is surprise to you? Do

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Speaker 1: we need to be worried about the rest of your

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Speaker 1: linear subscribers elsewhere? It's a great question. Uh, you know,

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Speaker 1: Comcast was a very unique situation for us for the

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Speaker 1: most part, and the rest of all of our operators

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Speaker 1: were all the cart so we were already in a

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Speaker 1: red share deal where we make a lot of money

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Speaker 1: together and the incentives are aligned together. So in direct TV,

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Speaker 1: you know, the better we do, the better they do.

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Speaker 1: So those incentives are aligned. On Amazon the same thing.

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Speaker 1: Comcast that had had a bunch of different strategy packaging,

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Speaker 1: strategy and the others long term and so we were,

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Speaker 1: you know, always part of this big kind of health

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Speaker 1: health heavy healthy bundle that um, you know that they like.

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Speaker 1: But as the business has changed and pivoted away and

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Speaker 1: consumers have more options now, um, those you know, and

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Speaker 1: you see what's happening with the traditional business drinking three

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Speaker 1: to four percent year, those bundles are starting to shrink

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Speaker 1: pretty significantly. And so when we looked at the business

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Speaker 1: during the renewal, you know, we said, Okay, long term,

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Speaker 1: it's healthier for us to pivot from these bundle deals

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Speaker 1: that are a quick race to the bottom to an

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Speaker 1: all the cart business that we can both make money

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Speaker 1: of our together. And so we've gone now from being

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Speaker 1: a cost center from Comcast to being a revenue center,

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Speaker 1: and I think long term that makes us just a

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Speaker 1: healthier business with two of us. So, you know, we

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Speaker 1: worked out a couple of year transition plan that would

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Speaker 1: allow us to transition from bundles to all the cart um.

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Speaker 1: We started it on February eleven with the premiere of Outlander.

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Speaker 1: In the first six weeks, we've grown to over a

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Speaker 1: million subscribers on the footprint. And as you think about

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Speaker 1: that and we start to come into The Power Universe,

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Speaker 1: which is our largest show and our biggest acquisition show,

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Speaker 1: we we fully believe that we'll be able to get

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Speaker 1: north of two to three million subs on that platform

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Speaker 1: pretty quickly. But doesn't that still leave about three million

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Speaker 1: left behind because you had six point two on linear Comcast. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: but the average revenue per customer on Comcast on the

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Speaker 1: six point two was so low because of the bundling.

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Speaker 1: That was a deal that was done in two thousand

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Speaker 1: and five, and so we only need a third of

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Speaker 1: the customers on Comcast to actually replace the revenue that

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Speaker 1: we had in an old money deal. So, so will

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Speaker 1: you be able to grow your O T T subscribers

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Speaker 1: at a rate fast enough to make up for any

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Speaker 1: further linear losses? So the million over million subs that

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Speaker 1: I talked about was actually linear. Those are ala carte

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Speaker 1: subs on Comcast platform the first six weeks, so we

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Speaker 1: were able pretty quickly to replace you know, almost half

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Speaker 1: of what we need to break even um from where

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Speaker 1: we were before. And so we feel very good about

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Speaker 1: that platform. UH. Their flex product, I think is a

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Speaker 1: is a great competitor Roku, and we're really excited about

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Speaker 1: working with them on that uh. And we think that

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Speaker 1: we can quickly make up, you know, and break even

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Speaker 1: and make more money long term between the two of us.

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Speaker 1: Based on the program that we put in place. We

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Speaker 1: continue to see great growth in the quarter on a

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Speaker 1: cut um. We we grew almost a million one subs

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Speaker 1: in the quarter. Uh, A lot of that was coming

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Speaker 1: in pre COVID, but then post COVID we saw that accelerate.

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Speaker 1: It continues to accelerate into this quarter as well, and

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Speaker 1: so we're you know, we're seeing great, great growth in

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Speaker 1: terms of transitioning from a traditional linear world to this

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Speaker 1: new digital or I like to call it revenue share world,

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Speaker 1: because we can't forget that the linear side. There's a

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Speaker 1: lot of opportunity for premium. Uh. You know, we at

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Speaker 1: most HBO and the heyday of HBO is thirty three

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Speaker 1: or penetrated on the traditional business. And so it's not

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Speaker 1: like we were an a m C or a Discovery

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Speaker 1: where there's no room to go and it's just shrinking.

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Speaker 1: We'll be right back after this short break. Huntsville, Alabama,

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Speaker 1: in a city that was as American as Apple Strudal

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Speaker 1: from any Time Studios comes paper Clip, a podcast sponsored

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Speaker 1: by Amazon Studios and inspired by it's Amy eligible dramatic

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Speaker 1: series Hunters, starring Al Pacino and Logan Lerman joint host

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Speaker 1: Michael ian Black as he teams up with a Cold

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Speaker 1: War scholar to explore Operation paper Clip. A real life,

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Speaker 1: top secret program that brought Nazi scientists to the American

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Speaker 1: heartland to work on government aerospace and medical research projects.

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Speaker 1: Available now on Apple Podcasts and all other platforms. Welcome

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Speaker 1: back to strictly Business. Here's more of my conversation with

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Speaker 1: Stars CEO jeff ersh. But I'm wondering how you feel

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Speaker 1: about these, uh, the new distribution partners that you're dealing with.

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Speaker 1: Looking at what happened to HBO Max, which recently launched

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Speaker 1: and you saw had some pretty significant, uh problems in

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Speaker 1: terms of getting some pretty key distribution in place at launch?

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Speaker 1: Should that be giving programmers a pause in terms of

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Speaker 1: the the power dynamic between these distributors and say what

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Speaker 1: it was like with the distributors of old. You know,

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Speaker 1: I think the HBO Max conversation is so unique because

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Speaker 1: they're actually kind of putting more content around an existing

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Speaker 1: product at the same price. And so it's a really

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Speaker 1: unique conversation with the traditional distributors and some of the

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Speaker 1: new ones they already have existing deals. Um and as

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Speaker 1: you know, you know from your years in the business

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Speaker 1: in my fifteen years and that side, you know, anything

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Speaker 1: that you can do to open up a deal and

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Speaker 1: try to save money and you're going to use it

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Speaker 1: to your advantage. And so you know, and a few

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Speaker 1: of our renewals that we've done, there was language that

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Speaker 1: was put in to just trying to make sure that

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Speaker 1: that the operator, the distributor was protected against us doing

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Speaker 1: that similar thing. And so I think it's a very

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Speaker 1: unique kind of point of view. Um, you know, the

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Speaker 1: new operators, the Amazons, the Hulus, the you know, Um,

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Speaker 1: Disney Plus is all this because I think ultimately there's

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Speaker 1: the world change is. The more changes, the more it's

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Speaker 1: gonna look at the same game. Um, I think you're

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Speaker 1: gonna see people start to bundle up together to compete

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Speaker 1: that you haven't seen before. As you can see now,

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Speaker 1: Disney Plus is selling stars on Disney plus dot Com

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Speaker 1: after you sign up, because it's I think a really good,

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Speaker 1: uh kind of kind of quasi bundle where the mother

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Speaker 1: and the home find stars for Outlander and they get

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Speaker 1: Disney Plus for kids, so they can start to see

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Speaker 1: a bunch of strange bedfellows. To a certain extent, as

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Speaker 1: the world becomes more competitive, and we feel we're really

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Speaker 1: well positioned to be that complementary partner to everybody. Um,

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Speaker 1: but all these deals, you know, unlike I think traditional

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Speaker 1: Hollywood deals. One side wants to save money and when

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Speaker 1: once side wants to make money, and so that, oh,

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Speaker 1: you always start off on that foot, um, and you

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Speaker 1: just have to be creative together to figure out how

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Speaker 1: you can make money together. But explain that complementary part,

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Speaker 1: because I think a lot of people might assume this

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Speaker 1: is sort of a zero sum game. You're against Disney Plus,

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Speaker 1: which is against Netflix. But I think there's something and

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Speaker 1: how you've structured stars the price point where you see

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Speaker 1: this as sort of tucking in behind, uh, some of

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Speaker 1: the other bigger players in the streaming space. Yeah, I

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Speaker 1: think the world's gonna fold into three tiers of spot services,

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Speaker 1: you know, and I'll look a lot like the traditional

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Speaker 1: business did years ago, where you have these very large,

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Speaker 1: very broad programming based services like the Netflix is, like

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Speaker 1: the Amazon's, like the Hulus, like the HBO Max is

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Speaker 1: all trying to kind of be that kind of first

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Speaker 1: one in the home we you know, kids, content, ad

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Speaker 1: supported content, news, sports, the docuseries, documents, you know, just

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Speaker 1: a very broad, uh you know view of content, much

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Speaker 1: like Charter was is today and Direct TV and Comcast

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Speaker 1: is and trying to you know, replace those guys in

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Speaker 1: the home is the first one in the home. UM

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Speaker 1: Stars has never played that role. We've always been this premium,

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Speaker 1: bespoke tier of adult content, very authentic, no ads, UM

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Speaker 1: you know, very deep storylines. When the storyline gets to

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Speaker 1: go very R rated, it goes very rrated, and we

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Speaker 1: don't have any and we're proud of that. And so

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Speaker 1: we've always been that kind of second tier in the home.

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Speaker 1: When you've got by Charter or direct TV, you can

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Speaker 1: always add Stars on top of UM and so that's

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Speaker 1: the role will continue to play. And so as people

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Speaker 1: start to pick Hulu for their first you know, you know,

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Speaker 1: broad based service in the home, you can buy Stars

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Speaker 1: on top. Same thing with Amazon, where one of Amazon's

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Speaker 1: best partners globally right now. Because of that, I think

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Speaker 1: you'll see a day where Netflix will a Netflix Stars

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Speaker 1: bundle will show up as well at some point, UM,

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Speaker 1: because I think as everybody starts to figure out how

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Speaker 1: to compete, these complementary services sitting on top of them

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Speaker 1: are things that you're gonna need to add not only

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Speaker 1: revenue to your company, but more content. And so we

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Speaker 1: see ourselves as that complementary tier behind all these big

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Speaker 1: broad services. And as I like to say, if we're

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Speaker 1: the number three spot in the home and in the

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Speaker 1: fifty countries outside the US and the US, that's a

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Speaker 1: great place for stars to live. Well. But then I

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Speaker 1: wonder if the world is heading to you know, a

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Speaker 1: recession type uh economics that you nation people's disposable income,

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Speaker 1: they're gonna be a little STINGI or maybe the number

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Speaker 1: three isn't a great place to be. Well, look, you

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Speaker 1: know I've spent I've been through two recessions on the

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Speaker 1: cable side, and you know, when things get tough in

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Speaker 1: people's homes, they tend to stay home, you know. They unfortunately,

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Speaker 1: they don't tend to go to the movies and buy

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Speaker 1: a bunch of popcorn and hot thoughts for the family.

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Speaker 1: They will kind of revert back to home for their content.

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Speaker 1: And that's a great place for us as well, just

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Speaker 1: like you're seeing in the current pandemic. But again, with

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Speaker 1: our price point at eight nine, I think we're very

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Speaker 1: nicely priced based on the fact that we've got almost

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Speaker 1: ninety hours of fresh original content, we've got four thousand

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Speaker 1: library titles, and we've got the Sony Pay one. I

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Speaker 1: think it's a really good value proposition, Uh, to sit

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Speaker 1: behind one of these other services. Don't forget we have

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Speaker 1: a very very unique programming strategy. We are focused, hyper

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Speaker 1: focused on prodding you know, premium content for women and

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Speaker 1: underserved audiences, and nobody else is really doing that today.

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Speaker 1: And so you know, we we've got this core demo

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Speaker 1: of women and African American women that nobody really has

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Speaker 1: to the extent that we do, will continue to program

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Speaker 1: for them in a big way. And so again, if

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Speaker 1: if you're in that demos, it Stars is you know,

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Speaker 1: is the service that you want. So again, we think

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Speaker 1: we play a nice role in the home for that

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Speaker 1: as well. And so when you look at the larger

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Speaker 1: streaming war, you know, since we last talked last July,

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Speaker 1: Disney Plus is here, HBO Max is here, Peacock is coming, CBS,

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Speaker 1: Viacom is gonna come. You know how you know you're

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Speaker 1: you're talking about strange bed fellows. You're talking about talking

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Speaker 1: in behind some of these other choices. But to this

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Speaker 1: broader marketplace, can this number of players coexist? It's gonna

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Speaker 1: be hard. I think you're gonna see four to six

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Speaker 1: kind of the four to six broad based services that

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Speaker 1: are going to be you know, that will survive a

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Speaker 1: long term, and then you'll see two or three or

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Speaker 1: four of these premium talkins behind and then I think

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Speaker 1: you'll five or six or which is the tier three

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Speaker 1: that we never got to, which is like the acorns

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Speaker 1: and the chillers, and then and there really you know,

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Speaker 1: I f c s and sun Dances that are really

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Speaker 1: niche audiences that have a love for it but that

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Speaker 1: and are very loyal um. But I think you'll see

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Speaker 1: for the six kind of big broad based players laft Um.

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Speaker 1: From what I can see from HBO Max today, it

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Speaker 1: looks like it's more of a Disney Plus competitor than

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Speaker 1: it is a Netflix competitor. Um. But again, you know,

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Speaker 1: with the new leadership, they're coming in two days or

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Speaker 1: whatever before the launch. I'm sure there's gonna be some

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Speaker 1: changes coming to the service as well. But again, the

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Speaker 1: better they all do in getting consumers too to adopt Spot,

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Speaker 1: the better it is for US tucking in behind them.

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Speaker 1: And we're seeing that outside the US right as you know,

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Speaker 1: we're the third biggest US spot outside the US. And

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Speaker 1: as Netflix and the Amazons and US kind of get

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Speaker 1: into markets to start to educate people. We're starting to

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Speaker 1: see that behavior follow like us. Okay, um, you know

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Speaker 1: we should also talk about your parent company in lions Gate.

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Speaker 1: You know, you both uh separately together have been subject

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Speaker 1: to reports of potential deals M and A you know,

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Speaker 1: maybe not in the pandemic climate, but in the longer

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Speaker 1: term could start to pick up again. So it stars

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Speaker 1: truly plug in play. Where should it end up within

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Speaker 1: a different company or lions Gate ends up within a

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Speaker 1: different company? You're well situated, do you think that far ahead?

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Speaker 1: You know, we don't speculate on M and A A activity,

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Speaker 1: Uh Lake grun But used to say to me that

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Speaker 1: if M and A was your strategy, you have no strategies.

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Speaker 1: So you know, I think we are really you know,

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Speaker 1: three great businesses. Uh. You know, the home entertainment business

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Speaker 1: in the library right now is probably doing as well

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Speaker 1: as any other part of the business in this pandemic

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Speaker 1: because people are looking for content for their services, and

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Speaker 1: so like I think John and Michael built a really

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Speaker 1: great you know company with Motion Picture you know, and

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Speaker 1: you know some of the franchises and tv UM in

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Speaker 1: a seventeen thousand title library, which has given us the

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Speaker 1: ability to go global very quickly with broad based content

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Speaker 1: and content available which not a lot of other people have.

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Speaker 1: And so you know, you look at Stars coupled with that,

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Speaker 1: which is our fastest growing domestic app, which I think

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Speaker 1: is still one of the best rated apps in the US.

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Speaker 1: We're now in fifty countries outside the US with a

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Speaker 1: branded channel with a lot of great content, and we

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Speaker 1: have our app and eight countries as well. Um I

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Speaker 1: think it's a very valuable asset for somebody that is

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Speaker 1: looking if you're looking to go international, you know, we've

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Speaker 1: done i think almost for fifty eight deals and launches

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Speaker 1: in thirty countries in eighteen months. That's very hard to replicate.

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Speaker 1: And so if you're looking to expand your brand or

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Speaker 1: build something, it's it's quicker to buy to build. So UM,

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Speaker 1: I feel really good about the components of the company

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Speaker 1: and how we're working together, feel great about the growth

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Speaker 1: on Stars globally, and uh, you know, we'll just continue

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Speaker 1: to head down and drive the business as planned. But

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Speaker 1: do you need the lions Gate Library at your side

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Speaker 1: in your pocket to to be what Stars is and

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Speaker 1: what happened if you are split apart from lions Gates,

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Speaker 1: you know, as in any you know in our company,

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Speaker 1: you know, because that sits on the other side of

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Speaker 1: the business. There's there's in our company deals that we

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Speaker 1: have in place, uh that you know, we're paying lions

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Speaker 1: Gate you know, TV for the library and so if

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Speaker 1: if in fact speculator, we're just put out, those deals

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Speaker 1: are in place because we have participants in third parties

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Speaker 1: that we all have to be able to account for

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Speaker 1: stuff back and forth. And so those are already in

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Speaker 1: place when we launched international and we are domestic programming

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Speaker 1: as well. So, uh, those are in place. I'm not

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00:22:33,320 --> 00:22:35,560
Speaker 1: that's I'm not concerned about that. But you know, remember

434
00:22:35,600 --> 00:22:38,879
Speaker 1: that library, you know, of seventeen thousand titles plus the

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00:22:38,880 --> 00:22:42,040
Speaker 1: Stars originals plus the third party we're buying. It gave

436
00:22:42,119 --> 00:22:44,679
Speaker 1: us the ability to go into you know, thirty markets,

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00:22:44,680 --> 00:22:47,840
Speaker 1: thirty one markets plus the Stars play maybe nineteen you know,

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00:22:48,040 --> 00:22:51,720
Speaker 1: in under two years, um. And so there's not a

439
00:22:51,720 --> 00:22:54,160
Speaker 1: lot of content that that you can get that available

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00:22:54,240 --> 00:22:56,280
Speaker 1: that why that quickly, and so it was a real

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00:22:56,280 --> 00:22:59,280
Speaker 1: asset for us to kind of get into that strategy.

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00:22:59,480 --> 00:23:03,840
Speaker 1: Well speaking, library, Stars recently filed suit against MGM for

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00:23:04,600 --> 00:23:08,920
Speaker 1: alleging alleging that they've been licensing content that you under

444
00:23:08,960 --> 00:23:14,439
Speaker 1: the understanding was stars exclusively. How how damaging was that

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00:23:14,480 --> 00:23:18,320
Speaker 1: to your business? Look, you know, I'm not gonna talk

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00:23:18,359 --> 00:23:21,800
Speaker 1: about pending you know, litigation, you know, as we're in

447
00:23:21,800 --> 00:23:23,439
Speaker 1: this right now, but I will say, you know, we

448
00:23:23,520 --> 00:23:26,800
Speaker 1: did you know we we haven't always had exclusive content

449
00:23:26,840 --> 00:23:29,920
Speaker 1: on the service. I think it's been a hallmark of premium. Um.

450
00:23:30,000 --> 00:23:32,240
Speaker 1: And you know we generally go out and buy only

451
00:23:32,280 --> 00:23:35,879
Speaker 1: exclusively because of that. And so we'll see, you know,

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00:23:35,920 --> 00:23:37,720
Speaker 1: when we get into it what this looks like. But

453
00:23:38,119 --> 00:23:44,000
Speaker 1: exclusivity is a very important thing to us, I would imagine. Um. Finally,

454
00:23:44,480 --> 00:23:49,960
Speaker 1: you know, as you look ahead to one, even though

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00:23:50,000 --> 00:23:54,040
Speaker 1: we're barely through, you know, what do you see as

456
00:23:54,080 --> 00:23:57,560
Speaker 1: some of the challenges or opportunities facing your business that

457
00:23:57,640 --> 00:24:01,240
Speaker 1: people may not even necessarily be talking about right now? Well,

458
00:24:01,280 --> 00:24:03,960
Speaker 1: the production obviously is the one that everybody's talking about

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00:24:04,040 --> 00:24:06,760
Speaker 1: right now. Um, you know, I look, I think it

460
00:24:06,880 --> 00:24:09,880
Speaker 1: just depends on you know, the production and we get back.

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00:24:09,920 --> 00:24:11,760
Speaker 1: That's a big one. The recession is a big one.

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00:24:11,760 --> 00:24:15,119
Speaker 1: Whether you know, we've got forty million people unemployed right now,

463
00:24:15,160 --> 00:24:19,360
Speaker 1: and what does that mean for our business is long term? Um,

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00:24:19,400 --> 00:24:21,960
Speaker 1: you know, when the movie theaters open. If they open,

465
00:24:22,040 --> 00:24:24,560
Speaker 1: what does that mean for slates that are coming up?

466
00:24:24,600 --> 00:24:27,199
Speaker 1: And and so there's a lot of moving parts in

467
00:24:27,320 --> 00:24:29,960
Speaker 1: terms of content and consumer, which I think is really

468
00:24:30,520 --> 00:24:32,960
Speaker 1: you know, the you know, the piece that actually keeps

469
00:24:33,040 --> 00:24:36,000
Speaker 1: us up at night. Um. But ultimately, you know, we're

470
00:24:36,119 --> 00:24:38,560
Speaker 1: very focused on these two key demos and our content

471
00:24:38,600 --> 00:24:41,919
Speaker 1: strategies really kind of in our development strateg just really

472
00:24:42,000 --> 00:24:44,359
Speaker 1: leaning into that this will be the first year that

473
00:24:44,400 --> 00:24:46,600
Speaker 1: we'll have something on the air almost every week for

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00:24:46,640 --> 00:24:49,520
Speaker 1: both of those two core demos, which should ultimately mean

475
00:24:49,600 --> 00:24:52,480
Speaker 1: long term revenue growth accelerates, turn comes down to a

476
00:24:52,600 --> 00:24:57,720
Speaker 1: much lower number, and the business is actually healthier long term. UM.

477
00:24:57,760 --> 00:25:00,240
Speaker 1: And I know, I don't think we've continued to see

478
00:25:00,280 --> 00:25:02,679
Speaker 1: struggling and getting content because we are so unique in

479
00:25:02,680 --> 00:25:04,840
Speaker 1: that sense, you know. I think the story that you

480
00:25:04,880 --> 00:25:07,240
Speaker 1: know that we have, we're putting people on the screen

481
00:25:07,240 --> 00:25:10,240
Speaker 1: and behind the screen, I mean our showrunners, writers and

482
00:25:10,240 --> 00:25:13,919
Speaker 1: directors or women of them for women of color, and

483
00:25:13,960 --> 00:25:16,040
Speaker 1: so we reflect what we do on the screen behind

484
00:25:16,080 --> 00:25:17,840
Speaker 1: the screen. And I think when you tell that story

485
00:25:17,880 --> 00:25:19,879
Speaker 1: to talent, they want to be a part of it.

486
00:25:19,920 --> 00:25:22,480
Speaker 1: And so we haven't seen escalations and costs that I

487
00:25:22,480 --> 00:25:25,720
Speaker 1: think others have talked about um, but it's ultimately getting

488
00:25:25,720 --> 00:25:28,080
Speaker 1: that on air and and really seeing how we can

489
00:25:28,160 --> 00:25:31,000
Speaker 1: drive the business globally in a good way. Well, we'll

490
00:25:31,040 --> 00:25:34,199
Speaker 1: shill luck with that during these tough times. Thanks for

491
00:25:34,359 --> 00:25:37,399
Speaker 1: taking some time out, Jeff, Thanks for having me appreciate it.

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00:25:40,119 --> 00:25:43,359
Speaker 1: This has been another episode of Strictly Business. Tune in

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00:25:43,440 --> 00:25:46,960
Speaker 1: next week for another helping of scintillating conversation with media

494
00:25:47,040 --> 00:25:49,960
Speaker 1: movers and shakers, and please make sure you subscribe to

495
00:25:50,000 --> 00:25:54,080
Speaker 1: the podcast to hear future episodes. Also leave a review

496
00:25:54,080 --> 00:26:02,240
Speaker 1: in Apple podcast let us know how we're doing Huntsville, Alabama,

497
00:26:02,280 --> 00:26:07,200
Speaker 1: in a city that was as American as Apple Strudel.

498
00:26:07,960 --> 00:26:11,960
Speaker 1: From any Time Studios comes paper Clip, a podcast sponsored

499
00:26:11,960 --> 00:26:15,760
Speaker 1: by Amazon Studios and inspired by its EMI eligible dramatic

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Speaker 1: series Hunters, starring Al Pacino and Logan Lerman joint host

501
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Speaker 1: Michael Ian Black as he teams up with a Cold

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Speaker 1: War scholar to explore Operation paper Clip, a real life,

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Speaker 1: top secret program that brought Nazi scientists to the American

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Speaker 1: heartland to work on government aerospace and medical research projects.

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Speaker 1: Available now on Apple Podcasts and all other platforms.