Speaker 1: Huntsville, Alabama, in a city that was as American as
Speaker 1: Apple Strudal From Any Time Studios comes paper Clip, a
Speaker 1: podcast sponsored by Amazon Studios and inspired by its EMI
Speaker 1: eligible dramatic series Hunters, starring Al Pacino and Logan Lerman
Speaker 1: joint host Michael ian Black as he teams up with
Speaker 1: a Cold War scholar to explore Operation paper Clip, a
Speaker 1: real life top secret program that brought Nazi scientists to
Speaker 1: the American heartland to work on government aerospace and medical
Speaker 1: research projects. Available now on Apple Podcasts and all other platforms.
Speaker 1: Welcome to another episode of Strictly Business, the podcast in
Speaker 1: which we talked with some of the brightest minds working
Speaker 1: in media today. I'm Andrew Wallenstein with Variety Intelligence platform.
Speaker 1: New Firepower has come to the streaming wars with the
Speaker 1: launch of HBO Max last week. It joins a crowded field,
Speaker 1: including another holdover from the world of premium cable television. Stars.
Speaker 1: This lions Gate owned brand has graduated to the streaming
Speaker 1: game as well. With me today to talk about the
Speaker 1: road ahead for Stars is It's CEO Jeff Hirsch. Welcome Jeff,
Speaker 1: thanks for having me on. Before we get started, we
Speaker 1: must acknowledge. Jeff is making strictly business podcast history today
Speaker 1: on this the one thirteen episode, You, sir, have the
Speaker 1: distinction of being the first rish Turn guest we've ever
Speaker 1: brought back for a second episode. Well, I guess that
Speaker 1: means maybe I did something right the first time. Who
Speaker 1: know something I put on the top of the resume.
Speaker 1: It's it's will be under my skills, hobbies and instrance
Speaker 1: for sure. So before we get to talking about the
Speaker 1: state of Stars, I do want to point to a
Speaker 1: statement your company, like many different companies across America, released
Speaker 1: over this tragic weekend in the United States. It reads,
Speaker 1: we cannot stand silent while our Black communities are under
Speaker 1: the way to violence, discrimination, and injustice. You go on
Speaker 1: to support organizations like Color of Change in the inn
Speaker 1: double a cp uh. Look, Jeff, I commend you and
Speaker 1: your company for taking the stand. I also want to
Speaker 1: understand what kind of questions a company has to ask
Speaker 1: itself at a time like this about what its responsibilities are.
Speaker 1: That's a great question, you know. I think for Stars,
Speaker 1: there really wasn't that many questions about what our responsibilities
Speaker 1: are in terms of our our communities. We have served,
Speaker 1: underserved audiences. You know, as part of our programming mandate
Speaker 1: for years, UM we have put underserved voices and unheard
Speaker 1: voices and fresh faces on the air, not only on
Speaker 1: the air, but behind the screen and and in the
Speaker 1: writer's rooms and directors, you know, for the last ten
Speaker 1: years and so this has been core to what Stars
Speaker 1: does as a company. And so you know, when this
Speaker 1: unfortunate incident had broke across America, it was very clear
Speaker 1: to us that we needed to act and we needed
Speaker 1: to speak out. Well, if that wasn't disruptive enough, you know,
Speaker 1: we're also smack in the middle of a pandemic here,
Speaker 1: which you know, I have to ask what has the
Speaker 1: impact been for your business? The pandemic has been. You know,
Speaker 1: it's been very trying, I think of all businesses, including ours, UM,
Speaker 1: but it's been you know, with people staying at home
Speaker 1: and sheltered in place, people are looking for a fresh
Speaker 1: content and as a non ad supported you know, premium
Speaker 1: content layer that has fresh content coming on almost every week,
Speaker 1: it's been a place where people have found content and
Speaker 1: continue to see and watch the service. We've seen viewership
Speaker 1: domestically on linear up thirty on our app and our
Speaker 1: digital sides up, and we've seen those same kind of
Speaker 1: viewership numbers increase in the fifty countries we are in
Speaker 1: outside of the US as well, so there's been some
Speaker 1: benefit there, but my guess is there's probably been some
Speaker 1: production disruption. So the We've been fortunate that we really
Speaker 1: produce a year in advance, and so everything that's coming
Speaker 1: onto our Fisical twenty one or twenty slate has been
Speaker 1: pretty much in post production when the pandemic hit, and
Speaker 1: so we've been able to be very creative using virtual
Speaker 1: editing rooms and sound rooms and kind of finished most
Speaker 1: of the content that we have coming on the Earth
Speaker 1: through at least March, and so we're in really good
Speaker 1: shape with fresh content. We were when it hit. We
Speaker 1: were in the middle of Outlander season five, which was
Speaker 1: I think the best season to date and the viewership
Speaker 1: reflects that, and so we had fresh content there. We
Speaker 1: launched the third and final season of Vita in the
Speaker 1: middle of the pandemic and ended just last night and
Speaker 1: do a great, great uh ending of the story. And
Speaker 1: then we launched a new show called high Town Uh
Speaker 1: three weeks ago, which is with Buckheimer Television, which I
Speaker 1: think is gonna be one of the best new shows
Speaker 1: on television year. A couple that with all the Sony
Speaker 1: Pay one movies that we've been getting Once a Time,
Speaker 1: Find a Hollywood, Zombie Land, and the four thousand library
Speaker 1: titles that we have, it's a it's a pretty compelling
Speaker 1: service when you're stick at homeworking for something to watch.
Speaker 1: So um, and then you go overseas to the fifty
Speaker 1: countries we have outside the US. Not only do we
Speaker 1: have the Star shows, but we have shows like The
Speaker 1: Great and The Act of Castle Rock and Killing Even so,
Speaker 1: we've got the best of Little Spot outside the US.
Speaker 1: And so it's been Um, we've been okay in terms
Speaker 1: of production. You know, we are in a good position
Speaker 1: where I think if we're back in production by the
Speaker 1: mid to late summer, that will be in good shape
Speaker 1: for the following year as well. Okay, we'll see what
Speaker 1: happens there. I mean, it's got to be hard to
Speaker 1: sort of it's the moving target of this pandemic. We
Speaker 1: don't know when society comes back to normal, how long
Speaker 1: it stays back to normal. Um. Has that been a
Speaker 1: challenge in terms of long term planning? I think all
Speaker 1: you know, the moving and moving that listen moving the football.
Speaker 1: You know, it's kind of hard to kind of pick
Speaker 1: a spot, as you said, but I think it's an organization.
Speaker 1: You have to pick a date and go for it.
Speaker 1: And so we picked a very early date on return
Speaker 1: to production and return to the office, and so that
Speaker 1: our protocols are ready to go. We're prepared. We have
Speaker 1: a great plan and then as soon as the governments
Speaker 1: allow us to start going back to work, hopefully we'll
Speaker 1: be one of the first out of the gate back
Speaker 1: to production. So you mentioned, I mean, you know, the
Speaker 1: pandemic has created some circumstances that have helped drive subscriber
Speaker 1: growth here and abroad. I have to ask, though, is
Speaker 1: any of that done by It seems like there's a
Speaker 1: lot of players out there in the streaming space that
Speaker 1: are doing a lot of free and and you know Quimby,
Speaker 1: Grow coup all these different brands. Does that sort of
Speaker 1: juice the numbers of it? It made for them, But
Speaker 1: we we took a much different strategy one when we
Speaker 1: sat down. You know, we've we've built a direct the
Speaker 1: consumer product of scale. We've got over two million subscribers
Speaker 1: on our own app where we built the data engine
Speaker 1: behind it and so we've been looking at the data
Speaker 1: for years in terms of offers, free offers, seven day free,
Speaker 1: thirty day free, what the conversion is to paid with
Speaker 1: the lifetime value is of those customers. And we've never
Speaker 1: been big friends of thirty days free. It's just isn't
Speaker 1: It doesn't use both for the business long term, and
Speaker 1: when the pandemic hit it we actually took a much
Speaker 1: longer view of what was going to go on. We
Speaker 1: thought this would last much longer than thirty days, and
Speaker 1: so we actually put longer term offers in the marketplace
Speaker 1: that reduced rates so the consumer economically challenged consumers could
Speaker 1: actually get the service and afford the service, but would
Speaker 1: have it for a longer period of time. So we
Speaker 1: were in the market with a five dollars for three
Speaker 1: months offer and twenty five dollars up front for six
Speaker 1: months offer um that we ran through the pandemic, and
Speaker 1: we've seen great, you know, retention on the back end
Speaker 1: of those from our using it historically, and so we
Speaker 1: feel really good that not only did we seeing a
Speaker 1: spike in consumers because they're home looking for content, but
Speaker 1: we'll be able to keep them long term. On the
Speaker 1: other side, well, You're also coming off a quarter though,
Speaker 1: where you've had some issues, most specifically with the losing
Speaker 1: linear placement for Stars on Comcast, which I think was
Speaker 1: a loss of about over six million linear subscribers. So
Speaker 1: this also, I think hurt your revenues, your profit for
Speaker 1: the quarter. It raises a lot of questions about Stars.
Speaker 1: I mean, was comcast decision is surprise to you? Do
Speaker 1: we need to be worried about the rest of your
Speaker 1: linear subscribers elsewhere? It's a great question. Uh, you know,
Speaker 1: Comcast was a very unique situation for us for the
Speaker 1: most part, and the rest of all of our operators
Speaker 1: were all the cart so we were already in a
Speaker 1: red share deal where we make a lot of money
Speaker 1: together and the incentives are aligned together. So in direct TV,
Speaker 1: you know, the better we do, the better they do.
Speaker 1: So those incentives are aligned. On Amazon the same thing.
Speaker 1: Comcast that had had a bunch of different strategy packaging,
Speaker 1: strategy and the others long term and so we were,
Speaker 1: you know, always part of this big kind of health
Speaker 1: health heavy healthy bundle that um, you know that they like.
Speaker 1: But as the business has changed and pivoted away and
Speaker 1: consumers have more options now, um, those you know, and
Speaker 1: you see what's happening with the traditional business drinking three
Speaker 1: to four percent year, those bundles are starting to shrink
Speaker 1: pretty significantly. And so when we looked at the business
Speaker 1: during the renewal, you know, we said, Okay, long term,
Speaker 1: it's healthier for us to pivot from these bundle deals
Speaker 1: that are a quick race to the bottom to an
Speaker 1: all the cart business that we can both make money
Speaker 1: of our together. And so we've gone now from being
Speaker 1: a cost center from Comcast to being a revenue center,
Speaker 1: and I think long term that makes us just a
Speaker 1: healthier business with two of us. So, you know, we
Speaker 1: worked out a couple of year transition plan that would
Speaker 1: allow us to transition from bundles to all the cart um.
Speaker 1: We started it on February eleven with the premiere of Outlander.
Speaker 1: In the first six weeks, we've grown to over a
Speaker 1: million subscribers on the footprint. And as you think about
Speaker 1: that and we start to come into The Power Universe,
Speaker 1: which is our largest show and our biggest acquisition show,
Speaker 1: we we fully believe that we'll be able to get
Speaker 1: north of two to three million subs on that platform
Speaker 1: pretty quickly. But doesn't that still leave about three million
Speaker 1: left behind because you had six point two on linear Comcast. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but the average revenue per customer on Comcast on the
Speaker 1: six point two was so low because of the bundling.
Speaker 1: That was a deal that was done in two thousand
Speaker 1: and five, and so we only need a third of
Speaker 1: the customers on Comcast to actually replace the revenue that
Speaker 1: we had in an old money deal. So, so will
Speaker 1: you be able to grow your O T T subscribers
Speaker 1: at a rate fast enough to make up for any
Speaker 1: further linear losses? So the million over million subs that
Speaker 1: I talked about was actually linear. Those are ala carte
Speaker 1: subs on Comcast platform the first six weeks, so we
Speaker 1: were able pretty quickly to replace you know, almost half
Speaker 1: of what we need to break even um from where
Speaker 1: we were before. And so we feel very good about
Speaker 1: that platform. UH. Their flex product, I think is a
Speaker 1: is a great competitor Roku, and we're really excited about
Speaker 1: working with them on that uh. And we think that
Speaker 1: we can quickly make up, you know, and break even
Speaker 1: and make more money long term between the two of us.
Speaker 1: Based on the program that we put in place. We
Speaker 1: continue to see great growth in the quarter on a
Speaker 1: cut um. We we grew almost a million one subs
Speaker 1: in the quarter. Uh, A lot of that was coming
Speaker 1: in pre COVID, but then post COVID we saw that accelerate.
Speaker 1: It continues to accelerate into this quarter as well, and
Speaker 1: so we're you know, we're seeing great, great growth in
Speaker 1: terms of transitioning from a traditional linear world to this
Speaker 1: new digital or I like to call it revenue share world,
Speaker 1: because we can't forget that the linear side. There's a
Speaker 1: lot of opportunity for premium. Uh. You know, we at
Speaker 1: most HBO and the heyday of HBO is thirty three
Speaker 1: or penetrated on the traditional business. And so it's not
Speaker 1: like we were an a m C or a Discovery
Speaker 1: where there's no room to go and it's just shrinking.
Speaker 1: We'll be right back after this short break. Huntsville, Alabama,
Speaker 1: in a city that was as American as Apple Strudal
Speaker 1: from any Time Studios comes paper Clip, a podcast sponsored
Speaker 1: by Amazon Studios and inspired by it's Amy eligible dramatic
Speaker 1: series Hunters, starring Al Pacino and Logan Lerman joint host
Speaker 1: Michael ian Black as he teams up with a Cold
Speaker 1: War scholar to explore Operation paper Clip. A real life,
Speaker 1: top secret program that brought Nazi scientists to the American
Speaker 1: heartland to work on government aerospace and medical research projects.
Speaker 1: Available now on Apple Podcasts and all other platforms. Welcome
Speaker 1: back to strictly Business. Here's more of my conversation with
Speaker 1: Stars CEO jeff ersh. But I'm wondering how you feel
Speaker 1: about these, uh, the new distribution partners that you're dealing with.
Speaker 1: Looking at what happened to HBO Max, which recently launched
Speaker 1: and you saw had some pretty significant, uh problems in
Speaker 1: terms of getting some pretty key distribution in place at launch?
Speaker 1: Should that be giving programmers a pause in terms of
Speaker 1: the the power dynamic between these distributors and say what
Speaker 1: it was like with the distributors of old. You know,
Speaker 1: I think the HBO Max conversation is so unique because
Speaker 1: they're actually kind of putting more content around an existing
Speaker 1: product at the same price. And so it's a really
Speaker 1: unique conversation with the traditional distributors and some of the
Speaker 1: new ones they already have existing deals. Um and as
Speaker 1: you know, you know from your years in the business
Speaker 1: in my fifteen years and that side, you know, anything
Speaker 1: that you can do to open up a deal and
Speaker 1: try to save money and you're going to use it
Speaker 1: to your advantage. And so you know, and a few
Speaker 1: of our renewals that we've done, there was language that
Speaker 1: was put in to just trying to make sure that
Speaker 1: that the operator, the distributor was protected against us doing
Speaker 1: that similar thing. And so I think it's a very
Speaker 1: unique kind of point of view. Um, you know, the
Speaker 1: new operators, the Amazons, the Hulus, the you know, Um,
Speaker 1: Disney Plus is all this because I think ultimately there's
Speaker 1: the world change is. The more changes, the more it's
Speaker 1: gonna look at the same game. Um, I think you're
Speaker 1: gonna see people start to bundle up together to compete
Speaker 1: that you haven't seen before. As you can see now,
Speaker 1: Disney Plus is selling stars on Disney plus dot Com
Speaker 1: after you sign up, because it's I think a really good,
Speaker 1: uh kind of kind of quasi bundle where the mother
Speaker 1: and the home find stars for Outlander and they get
Speaker 1: Disney Plus for kids, so they can start to see
Speaker 1: a bunch of strange bedfellows. To a certain extent, as
Speaker 1: the world becomes more competitive, and we feel we're really
Speaker 1: well positioned to be that complementary partner to everybody. Um,
Speaker 1: but all these deals, you know, unlike I think traditional
Speaker 1: Hollywood deals. One side wants to save money and when
Speaker 1: once side wants to make money, and so that, oh,
Speaker 1: you always start off on that foot, um, and you
Speaker 1: just have to be creative together to figure out how
Speaker 1: you can make money together. But explain that complementary part,
Speaker 1: because I think a lot of people might assume this
Speaker 1: is sort of a zero sum game. You're against Disney Plus,
Speaker 1: which is against Netflix. But I think there's something and
Speaker 1: how you've structured stars the price point where you see
Speaker 1: this as sort of tucking in behind, uh, some of
Speaker 1: the other bigger players in the streaming space. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: think the world's gonna fold into three tiers of spot services,
Speaker 1: you know, and I'll look a lot like the traditional
Speaker 1: business did years ago, where you have these very large,
Speaker 1: very broad programming based services like the Netflix is, like
Speaker 1: the Amazon's, like the Hulus, like the HBO Max is
Speaker 1: all trying to kind of be that kind of first
Speaker 1: one in the home we you know, kids, content, ad
Speaker 1: supported content, news, sports, the docuseries, documents, you know, just
Speaker 1: a very broad, uh you know view of content, much
Speaker 1: like Charter was is today and Direct TV and Comcast
Speaker 1: is and trying to you know, replace those guys in
Speaker 1: the home is the first one in the home. UM
Speaker 1: Stars has never played that role. We've always been this premium,
Speaker 1: bespoke tier of adult content, very authentic, no ads, UM
Speaker 1: you know, very deep storylines. When the storyline gets to
Speaker 1: go very R rated, it goes very rrated, and we
Speaker 1: don't have any and we're proud of that. And so
Speaker 1: we've always been that kind of second tier in the home.
Speaker 1: When you've got by Charter or direct TV, you can
Speaker 1: always add Stars on top of UM and so that's
Speaker 1: the role will continue to play. And so as people
Speaker 1: start to pick Hulu for their first you know, you know,
Speaker 1: broad based service in the home, you can buy Stars
Speaker 1: on top. Same thing with Amazon, where one of Amazon's
Speaker 1: best partners globally right now. Because of that, I think
Speaker 1: you'll see a day where Netflix will a Netflix Stars
Speaker 1: bundle will show up as well at some point, UM,
Speaker 1: because I think as everybody starts to figure out how
Speaker 1: to compete, these complementary services sitting on top of them
Speaker 1: are things that you're gonna need to add not only
Speaker 1: revenue to your company, but more content. And so we
Speaker 1: see ourselves as that complementary tier behind all these big
Speaker 1: broad services. And as I like to say, if we're
Speaker 1: the number three spot in the home and in the
Speaker 1: fifty countries outside the US and the US, that's a
Speaker 1: great place for stars to live. Well. But then I
Speaker 1: wonder if the world is heading to you know, a
Speaker 1: recession type uh economics that you nation people's disposable income,
Speaker 1: they're gonna be a little STINGI or maybe the number
Speaker 1: three isn't a great place to be. Well, look, you
Speaker 1: know I've spent I've been through two recessions on the
Speaker 1: cable side, and you know, when things get tough in
Speaker 1: people's homes, they tend to stay home, you know. They unfortunately,
Speaker 1: they don't tend to go to the movies and buy
Speaker 1: a bunch of popcorn and hot thoughts for the family.
Speaker 1: They will kind of revert back to home for their content.
Speaker 1: And that's a great place for us as well, just
Speaker 1: like you're seeing in the current pandemic. But again, with
Speaker 1: our price point at eight nine, I think we're very
Speaker 1: nicely priced based on the fact that we've got almost
Speaker 1: ninety hours of fresh original content, we've got four thousand
Speaker 1: library titles, and we've got the Sony Pay one. I
Speaker 1: think it's a really good value proposition, Uh, to sit
Speaker 1: behind one of these other services. Don't forget we have
Speaker 1: a very very unique programming strategy. We are focused, hyper
Speaker 1: focused on prodding you know, premium content for women and
Speaker 1: underserved audiences, and nobody else is really doing that today.
Speaker 1: And so you know, we we've got this core demo
Speaker 1: of women and African American women that nobody really has
Speaker 1: to the extent that we do, will continue to program
Speaker 1: for them in a big way. And so again, if
Speaker 1: if you're in that demos, it Stars is you know,
Speaker 1: is the service that you want. So again, we think
Speaker 1: we play a nice role in the home for that
Speaker 1: as well. And so when you look at the larger
Speaker 1: streaming war, you know, since we last talked last July,
Speaker 1: Disney Plus is here, HBO Max is here, Peacock is coming, CBS,
Speaker 1: Viacom is gonna come. You know how you know you're
Speaker 1: you're talking about strange bed fellows. You're talking about talking
Speaker 1: in behind some of these other choices. But to this
Speaker 1: broader marketplace, can this number of players coexist? It's gonna
Speaker 1: be hard. I think you're gonna see four to six
Speaker 1: kind of the four to six broad based services that
Speaker 1: are going to be you know, that will survive a
Speaker 1: long term, and then you'll see two or three or
Speaker 1: four of these premium talkins behind and then I think
Speaker 1: you'll five or six or which is the tier three
Speaker 1: that we never got to, which is like the acorns
Speaker 1: and the chillers, and then and there really you know,
Speaker 1: I f c s and sun Dances that are really
Speaker 1: niche audiences that have a love for it but that
Speaker 1: and are very loyal um. But I think you'll see
Speaker 1: for the six kind of big broad based players laft Um.
Speaker 1: From what I can see from HBO Max today, it
Speaker 1: looks like it's more of a Disney Plus competitor than
Speaker 1: it is a Netflix competitor. Um. But again, you know,
Speaker 1: with the new leadership, they're coming in two days or
Speaker 1: whatever before the launch. I'm sure there's gonna be some
Speaker 1: changes coming to the service as well. But again, the
Speaker 1: better they all do in getting consumers too to adopt Spot,
Speaker 1: the better it is for US tucking in behind them.
Speaker 1: And we're seeing that outside the US right as you know,
Speaker 1: we're the third biggest US spot outside the US. And
Speaker 1: as Netflix and the Amazons and US kind of get
Speaker 1: into markets to start to educate people. We're starting to
Speaker 1: see that behavior follow like us. Okay, um, you know
Speaker 1: we should also talk about your parent company in lions Gate.
Speaker 1: You know, you both uh separately together have been subject
Speaker 1: to reports of potential deals M and A you know,
Speaker 1: maybe not in the pandemic climate, but in the longer
Speaker 1: term could start to pick up again. So it stars
Speaker 1: truly plug in play. Where should it end up within
Speaker 1: a different company or lions Gate ends up within a
Speaker 1: different company? You're well situated, do you think that far ahead?
Speaker 1: You know, we don't speculate on M and A A activity,
Speaker 1: Uh Lake grun But used to say to me that
Speaker 1: if M and A was your strategy, you have no strategies.
Speaker 1: So you know, I think we are really you know,
Speaker 1: three great businesses. Uh. You know, the home entertainment business
Speaker 1: in the library right now is probably doing as well
Speaker 1: as any other part of the business in this pandemic
Speaker 1: because people are looking for content for their services, and
Speaker 1: so like I think John and Michael built a really
Speaker 1: great you know company with Motion Picture you know, and
Speaker 1: you know some of the franchises and tv UM in
Speaker 1: a seventeen thousand title library, which has given us the
Speaker 1: ability to go global very quickly with broad based content
Speaker 1: and content available which not a lot of other people have.
Speaker 1: And so you know, you look at Stars coupled with that,
Speaker 1: which is our fastest growing domestic app, which I think
Speaker 1: is still one of the best rated apps in the US.
Speaker 1: We're now in fifty countries outside the US with a
Speaker 1: branded channel with a lot of great content, and we
Speaker 1: have our app and eight countries as well. Um I
Speaker 1: think it's a very valuable asset for somebody that is
Speaker 1: looking if you're looking to go international, you know, we've
Speaker 1: done i think almost for fifty eight deals and launches
Speaker 1: in thirty countries in eighteen months. That's very hard to replicate.
Speaker 1: And so if you're looking to expand your brand or
Speaker 1: build something, it's it's quicker to buy to build. So UM,
Speaker 1: I feel really good about the components of the company
Speaker 1: and how we're working together, feel great about the growth
Speaker 1: on Stars globally, and uh, you know, we'll just continue
Speaker 1: to head down and drive the business as planned. But
Speaker 1: do you need the lions Gate Library at your side
Speaker 1: in your pocket to to be what Stars is and
Speaker 1: what happened if you are split apart from lions Gates,
Speaker 1: you know, as in any you know in our company,
Speaker 1: you know, because that sits on the other side of
Speaker 1: the business. There's there's in our company deals that we
Speaker 1: have in place, uh that you know, we're paying lions
Speaker 1: Gate you know, TV for the library and so if
Speaker 1: if in fact speculator, we're just put out, those deals
Speaker 1: are in place because we have participants in third parties
Speaker 1: that we all have to be able to account for
Speaker 1: stuff back and forth. And so those are already in
Speaker 1: place when we launched international and we are domestic programming
Speaker 1: as well. So, uh, those are in place. I'm not
Speaker 1: that's I'm not concerned about that. But you know, remember
Speaker 1: that library, you know, of seventeen thousand titles plus the
Speaker 1: Stars originals plus the third party we're buying. It gave
Speaker 1: us the ability to go into you know, thirty markets,
Speaker 1: thirty one markets plus the Stars play maybe nineteen you know,
Speaker 1: in under two years, um. And so there's not a
Speaker 1: lot of content that that you can get that available
Speaker 1: that why that quickly, and so it was a real
Speaker 1: asset for us to kind of get into that strategy.
Speaker 1: Well speaking, library, Stars recently filed suit against MGM for
Speaker 1: alleging alleging that they've been licensing content that you under
Speaker 1: the understanding was stars exclusively. How how damaging was that
Speaker 1: to your business? Look, you know, I'm not gonna talk
Speaker 1: about pending you know, litigation, you know, as we're in
Speaker 1: this right now, but I will say, you know, we
Speaker 1: did you know we we haven't always had exclusive content
Speaker 1: on the service. I think it's been a hallmark of premium. Um.
Speaker 1: And you know we generally go out and buy only
Speaker 1: exclusively because of that. And so we'll see, you know,
Speaker 1: when we get into it what this looks like. But
Speaker 1: exclusivity is a very important thing to us, I would imagine. Um. Finally,
Speaker 1: you know, as you look ahead to one, even though
Speaker 1: we're barely through, you know, what do you see as
Speaker 1: some of the challenges or opportunities facing your business that
Speaker 1: people may not even necessarily be talking about right now? Well,
Speaker 1: the production obviously is the one that everybody's talking about
Speaker 1: right now. Um, you know, I look, I think it
Speaker 1: just depends on you know, the production and we get back.
Speaker 1: That's a big one. The recession is a big one.
Speaker 1: Whether you know, we've got forty million people unemployed right now,
Speaker 1: and what does that mean for our business is long term? Um,
Speaker 1: you know, when the movie theaters open. If they open,
Speaker 1: what does that mean for slates that are coming up?
Speaker 1: And and so there's a lot of moving parts in
Speaker 1: terms of content and consumer, which I think is really
Speaker 1: you know, the you know, the piece that actually keeps
Speaker 1: us up at night. Um. But ultimately, you know, we're
Speaker 1: very focused on these two key demos and our content
Speaker 1: strategies really kind of in our development strateg just really
Speaker 1: leaning into that this will be the first year that
Speaker 1: we'll have something on the air almost every week for
Speaker 1: both of those two core demos, which should ultimately mean
Speaker 1: long term revenue growth accelerates, turn comes down to a
Speaker 1: much lower number, and the business is actually healthier long term. UM.
Speaker 1: And I know, I don't think we've continued to see
Speaker 1: struggling and getting content because we are so unique in
Speaker 1: that sense, you know. I think the story that you
Speaker 1: know that we have, we're putting people on the screen
Speaker 1: and behind the screen, I mean our showrunners, writers and
Speaker 1: directors or women of them for women of color, and
Speaker 1: so we reflect what we do on the screen behind
Speaker 1: the screen. And I think when you tell that story
Speaker 1: to talent, they want to be a part of it.
Speaker 1: And so we haven't seen escalations and costs that I
Speaker 1: think others have talked about um, but it's ultimately getting
Speaker 1: that on air and and really seeing how we can
Speaker 1: drive the business globally in a good way. Well, we'll
Speaker 1: shill luck with that during these tough times. Thanks for
Speaker 1: taking some time out, Jeff, Thanks for having me appreciate it.
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