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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, July twenty fourth,

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

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Speaker 1: co editor in chief of Variety alongside Ramin Setuda. I'm

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Speaker 1: in LA He's in New York, and Variety has reporters

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Speaker 1: around the world covering the business of entertainment. In today's episode,

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Speaker 1: we'll talk with Variety Business Editor Todd Spangler on Skydance

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Speaker 1: Media's latest alive branches to the FEDS to get the

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Speaker 1: Paramount Global merger completed. And we'll hear from Jim Oswad,

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Speaker 1: Executive editor of Music, on how the music team landed

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Speaker 1: on United Masters founder Steve Stout as Variety's Music Mogul

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Speaker 1: of the Year. Before we get to that, here are

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Speaker 1: a few headlines just in this morning that you need

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Speaker 1: to know. Comcast has set the board of directors for

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Speaker 1: the NBC Universal spinoff Versant. The board includes Versa San

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Speaker 1: CEO Mark Lazarus, former Disney executive Rebecca Campbell, and former

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Speaker 1: Starbucks North America CEO Michael Conway. CBS News has formally

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Speaker 1: named Tanya Simon as the new executive producer of sixty Minutes.

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Speaker 1: If you read Variety and listen to this podcast, you

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Speaker 1: know why that is a very tough gig ITV has

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Speaker 1: released its half year results. The numbers show a thirty

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Speaker 1: one percent drop in profits on what the company notes

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Speaker 1: are tough year over year comparables. The quarterly results were

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Speaker 1: brighter for IMAX. Net income for the large screen exhibitor

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Speaker 1: doubled thanks to Sinners and f one driving fans to

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Speaker 1: premium screenings. The South Park standoff is over. Matt Stone

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Speaker 1: and Trey Parker have reached a deal with Paramount to

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Speaker 1: deliver fifty five zero more episodes of the enduring animated comedy.

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Speaker 1: The deal also makes all twenty six previous seasons available

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Speaker 1: for streaming on Paramount Plus for the first time. Now

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Speaker 1: we turn to conversations with Variety journalists about news and

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Speaker 1: trends in show business. Todd Spangler catches us up on

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Speaker 1: the latest moves by Skydance Media and Paramount Global to

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Speaker 1: complete the merger agreement that was first struck twelve months ago.

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Speaker 1: Todd Spangler, thanks for joining me.

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Speaker 2: Hello, how are you.

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Speaker 1: We are keenly watching all of the news regarding Paramount

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Speaker 1: Global and sky Dance and their long merger process that

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Speaker 1: has been drawn out with more drama than anybody could

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Speaker 1: have imagined this time last year when they first announced

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Speaker 1: that they were going to try to tie the knot.

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Speaker 1: How do you read what Skuiddance is telling the FCC.

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Speaker 2: There are two areas that Skuydance has focused in on,

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Speaker 2: presumably through its conversations with the FCC. One is regarding

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Speaker 2: DEI diversity, equity and inclusion, and the other is concerning

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Speaker 2: viewpoint diversity. And these are both hobby horses of the

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Speaker 2: Trump administration largely and of Brendan Carr, who is the

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Speaker 2: handpicked chair of the EBBA.

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Speaker 1: Say it, We've both covered a lot of m and

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Speaker 1: a process, a lot of FCC reviews. Usually these reviews

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Speaker 1: revolve around hard assets. You have to sell a certain

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Speaker 1: number of stations, you have to divest a certain asset

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Speaker 1: because you have too much concentration of power. This really

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Speaker 1: feels like getting into editorial decisions, as it were, of

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Speaker 1: a company in terms of what kind of policies, what

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Speaker 1: kind of incentives that it wants to have.

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Speaker 2: Skuidance counsel, the general counsel, the top lawyer of Skuiddance

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Speaker 2: reaffirm that Skuidance is committed to unbiased journalism and an

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Speaker 2: embrace of diverse viewpoints. That seems innocuous, but again keep

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Speaker 2: in mind, the backdrop to this is that paramout level

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Speaker 2: had just settled that lawsuit with Donald Trump. He alleged

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Speaker 2: that sixty Minutes had engaged in some kind of deceptive

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Speaker 2: editing of the Kamala Harris interview. Legal experts left and right,

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Speaker 2: maybe it just left, let's put it that way, said

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Speaker 2: that the Trump lawsuit was meritless. Paramount and CBS themselves

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Speaker 2: said that this didn't have any marriage. They were going

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Speaker 2: to fight it on first amended grounds. Well, they settled.

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Speaker 2: They made sixteen million dollars, most of that going to

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Speaker 2: Trump's future presidential library. So that looked like Paramount caving

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Speaker 2: to pressure from the Trump administration to do things in

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Speaker 2: a certain way. So when the Sky Dance Council writes

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Speaker 2: to the FCC, one of the new things that they've

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Speaker 2: committed to is they will have in place an ombud's

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Speaker 2: men who will report to the president of new Paramount

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Speaker 2: that's said to be Jeff Schell, who will receive and

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Speaker 2: evaluate any complaints of bias or other concerns involving CBS.

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Speaker 1: They have committed to reaffirm Paramount Global's decision a couple

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Speaker 1: of months ago under pressure from the Trump administration that

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Speaker 1: we won't bring back any diversity, equity and inclusion pro

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Speaker 1: And that's telling a company how to manage its business.

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Speaker 1: But certainly Paramount Global and now Skydance is not alone

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Speaker 1: in kow telling to this aggressive anti DEI campaign.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, Brendon Carr has said that he would hold up

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Speaker 2: M and A deals if companies didn't make such commitments

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Speaker 2: to eliminating DEI. And in fact, you know, the FCC

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Speaker 2: approved a Verizon deal and a T Mobile deal basically

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Speaker 2: concurrently with those companies making commitments that DEI is dead

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Speaker 2: at their organizations.

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Speaker 1: In the big picture, for Skydance Media and Paramount Global,

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Speaker 1: the latest that we'd been hearing was early September ish

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Speaker 1: was the hoped for target of the closing date. Do

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Speaker 1: you have anything more concrete on.

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Speaker 2: That they wanted this done yesterday. They wanted this sign

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Speaker 2: sealed and approved by the end of the second quarters.

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Speaker 2: That was last month. But yeah, the expectation is that

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Speaker 2: this will be now a matter of weeks.

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Speaker 1: Do you think that this whole process. That fact that

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Speaker 1: it became such a political football is going to put

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Speaker 1: a chill on other m and A. Do you think

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Speaker 1: that there's companies looking out there going I don't know

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Speaker 1: that I want to go through this right now with

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Speaker 1: so much politicization of business and decisions and things like that.

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Speaker 2: No question about it. This is not a headache anybody

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Speaker 2: wants to raise their hand for at this time.

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Speaker 1: So much to watch Todd again. You always rise early

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Speaker 1: and file. Thank you for taking the time to talk

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Speaker 1: us through this seemingly never ending Paramount Global merger.

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Speaker 2: No, we're going to stay on it.

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Speaker 1: Next up, we'll hear from Jem Oswald on why we

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Speaker 1: chose United Masters founder Steve Stout as Variety's Music Mogul

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Speaker 1: of the Year. Jem Oswald, Executive Editor of Music, Thanks

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Speaker 1: for joining me today.

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Speaker 3: Always a pleasure. Boss.

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Speaker 1: This week's issue includes our annual Music Mogul of the

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Speaker 1: Year selection. Jem, I know you and the music team

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Speaker 1: take this very seriously. You look across the landscape all

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Speaker 1: year and keep notes about who's making a real impact.

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Speaker 1: How did you land on Steve Stout, founder of United Masters.

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Speaker 3: Well, Steve is one of those executives who's been around

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Speaker 3: for so long and has been so consistent that you

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Speaker 3: almost forget they're there. He's been ahead of everything that happened.

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Speaker 3: He's always been the sort of person who can get

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Speaker 3: in Jay Zasier or you know, like he's always had

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Speaker 3: a very glamorous and high flying clientele and circle of

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Speaker 3: people that he works with. But he started off managing

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Speaker 3: producers music producers. Then he was managing artists. He managed

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Speaker 3: the rapper Noss, and he managed Mary J. Blige. At

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Speaker 3: the same time, he became a top record executive.

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Speaker 1: What I found fascinating about him in your story was

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Speaker 1: that he really did take a ninety degree turn after

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Speaker 1: all of his success in music and decided I want

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Speaker 1: to learn the advertising business in a big way. Was

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Speaker 1: that something that influenced your decision to choose him this year?

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Speaker 3: A key moment in his career was he oversaw the

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Speaker 3: Men in Black soundtrack, the first Men in Black for

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Speaker 3: Sony Music, And something he always says about that is, yeah,

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Speaker 3: we sold ten million CDs, but they sold fourteen million

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Speaker 3: ray bands, And I feel like that was a real

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Speaker 3: Eureka moment for him. I'm not sure whether he sensed

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Speaker 3: the change in the wind, unlike so many other people

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Speaker 3: in the music business, because the CD boom was about

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Speaker 3: to die, Napster was right around the corner, so Steve

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Speaker 3: pivoted into advertising. He took the Men in Black model

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Speaker 3: and made a business out of it. That business's Translation

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Speaker 3: and agency that unites artists with brands, and Budweiser, Jay

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Speaker 3: Z and Maid in America came out of translation, so

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Speaker 3: did McDonald's I'm Loving It. That's a huge reason why

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Speaker 3: he was ahead of both the trend toward branding in music,

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Speaker 3: because once artists could really make money on CDs anymore,

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Speaker 3: they needed something else in their brand. Sitting right there,

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Speaker 3: he was right at the forefront of that.

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Speaker 1: He was a successful player in the music business and

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Speaker 1: probably had connections, but you don't just land on Madison

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Speaker 1: Avenue and launch a company. Did he apprentice anywhere or

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Speaker 1: he just he went straight to launching a company.

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Speaker 3: Something that was pretty key is the fact that Steve

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Speaker 3: worked for Jimmy Ivin and people always say that Jimmy

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Speaker 3: Ivan can see around corners for what's coming next, so

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Speaker 3: that probably stood him in good stead as well.

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Speaker 1: So most recently he's launched a company called United Masters

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Speaker 1: which also seems very ahead of the curve for musical

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Speaker 1: artists in terms of two keywords ownership and control. Tell

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Speaker 1: me about United Masters.

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Speaker 3: Well, something else that he saw around the corner of

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Speaker 3: is the last ten to fifteen years, more and more

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Speaker 3: artists have been realizing the value of owning their intellectual

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Speaker 3: property back when music had to a physical product. You know,

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Speaker 3: somebody is not likely to go out and buy ACD

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Speaker 3: pressing plant so they can press up their own music.

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Speaker 1: Let me ask you, Steve seems like he lives the

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Speaker 1: high life there in Miami.

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Speaker 3: It certainly sounds that way. You know, the top half

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Speaker 3: lives very well in Miami, and it's easy to see

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Speaker 3: how that would appeal to him, because Steve comes out

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Speaker 3: of nineties hip hop flashy. He's the kind of person

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Speaker 3: who attracts and knows how to speak to very important

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Speaker 3: and very influential people. Obviously, his relationship with Jay Z

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Speaker 3: certainly speaks to that. But he's even moved into the

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Speaker 3: rarefied world of Trump Landia quite honestly, because after Trump's

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Speaker 3: first campaign, Jared Kirsch Kushner and Ivanka moved down to Miami,

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Speaker 3: and as Steve puts it, he says, they were very

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Speaker 3: specific about who they wanted to hang out with, and

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Speaker 3: Steve and his wife were two of those people. So

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Speaker 3: now they're very good friends. And as everything goes in

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Speaker 3: Trump world, that has opened up business opportunity forum as well,

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Speaker 3: because he is now branching into the Middle East, and

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Speaker 3: he said that Jared Kushner was the one to open

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Speaker 3: his eyes to the possibilities there.

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Speaker 1: Jim, thank you for talking us through this, and thanks

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Speaker 1: for finding us a very very worthy person to give

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Speaker 1: this recognition to.

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Speaker 3: And thank you for giving us a place to do it.

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Speaker 1: As we close out today's episode, here are a few

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Speaker 1: things we're watching for. Next week will be a busy

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Speaker 1: frame for media and entertainment earnings. Spotify and Electronic Arts

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Speaker 1: report on Tuesday, Meta and Microsoft go on Wednesday, and

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Speaker 1: Thursday brings Comcast, Universal Music Group, Apple, Amazon, and Roku.

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Speaker 1: Coming up on Monday's episode, we'll have a report on

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Speaker 1: the goings on this weekend at San Diego Comic Con.

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Speaker 1: We'll also look at how The Fantastic Four First Steps

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Speaker 1: performs at its opening weekend. The movie is a big

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Speaker 1: test for Marvel's reset strategy. Before we go, congrats to

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Speaker 1: Elsa Ramo leader of Ramo Law, The firm that started

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Speaker 1: twenty years ago in a shabby trailer on the Universal backlot,

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Speaker 1: has grown to more than fifty employees. Variety's Todd Longwell

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Speaker 1: has a great Ramo Law origin story that you can

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Speaker 1: read on Variety dot com right now. This episode was

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Speaker 1: written and reported by me Cynthia Littleton, with contributions from

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Speaker 1: Todd Spangler and jem Oswad. It was edited by Eron

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Speaker 1: Greenwald Stick's Nick's hick Picks. Thanks for listening, Please leave

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Speaker 1: us a review at the podcast platform of your choice,

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Speaker 1: and please tune in Monday for another episode of Daily

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Speaker 1: Variety