Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news.
Speaker 2: From the Heart where Innovation, money and power.
Speaker 3: Collie in Silicon Valley, NBN.
Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg Technology with Caroline Hyde and Ed Love Love.
Speaker 4: I'm Caroline, head of Bloomberg's world headquarters in New York,
Speaker 4: and I'm Ed Lovelow in San Francisco.
Speaker 5: This is Bloomberg Technology coming up.
Speaker 4: We pushure ahead to the advertising event of the year
Speaker 4: and sit down with the head of the company streaming
Speaker 4: super Bowl fifty eight. You guessed at Paramount CEO Bob
Speaker 4: Backish joins us to break it all down Plust.
Speaker 2: We stick with advertising and streaming and sit down with
Speaker 2: the head of partnerships at x as the social platform
Speaker 2: also announces a deal with the WWE, and we.
Speaker 4: Take a look at this state of sport spelling amid
Speaker 4: this sprning event of the year.
Speaker 6: Is it down the fang?
Speaker 4: You'll see you, Amy Howe, just apart from the Super
Speaker 4: Bowl as the patient.
Speaker 2: Well, it's the end of what's been a pretty busy
Speaker 2: earnings week. Two names behind me, Pinterests and Affirm both
Speaker 2: moving to the downside. Pinterest is interesting, so sales missed,
Speaker 2: but it had top line growth of twelve percent. It's
Speaker 2: monthly active users still continue to grow, but I think
Speaker 2: there's just a lot of read through concern with what
Speaker 2: we're seeing with Snap. They've kind of pegged their strategy
Speaker 2: on direct response ads, where if you've go on Pinterest,
Speaker 2: maybe you're decorating your home, you're getting married, whatever it is,
Speaker 2: they want to amplify the opportunity to click through and
Speaker 2: actually buy something. They were down significantly after hours, like
Speaker 2: twenty percent, but they announced the deal with Google, which
Speaker 2: again made the street feel a little bit better because
Speaker 2: you're saying, Okay, Google's global, and there's a chance that
Speaker 2: you take the images on Pinterest and Google's technology takes
Speaker 2: you through to a buying opportunity.
Speaker 5: A firm is also lower.
Speaker 2: Basically, they said that transaction volume this year isn't going
Speaker 2: to be what the street expects. That has got some
Speaker 2: nerves going in the street. We're going to speak to
Speaker 2: a firm CEO, Max Levskin later in the show. Another
Speaker 2: deal we're tracking, but this time interesting. TKO, the WWE parent,
Speaker 2: doing a deal with X the platform.
Speaker 5: And company formerly known as Twitter. It's a weekly series of.
Speaker 2: Short form WWE matches. WWE produces the content ex does
Speaker 2: the distribution, and we'll hear from my interview with X's
Speaker 2: headed partnership Brett White's later in the program about why
Speaker 2: they did that, as well as the super Bowl, which
Speaker 2: I think is the dominant theme of the show today.
Speaker 6: I mean it is a theme.
Speaker 4: But so two are these markets, So two are these
Speaker 4: deals on content and ed You so brilliantly summarize the micro.
Speaker 4: Let's go to the macro a little bit with Meghan Honoman.
Speaker 4: She's with our CEO of Vernet's Capital Advisors, and Meghan,
Speaker 4: we're talking about content at the moment, we're also more
Speaker 4: broadly talking about where the investor's mind is at when
Speaker 4: it comes to content.
Speaker 6: Producers and technology.
Speaker 4: More broadly, can we still anticipate a reason to be
Speaker 4: buying into heady valuation when it comes to tech and
Speaker 4: we're broadly in an S.
Speaker 7: And P A five thousand, Well, we wouldn't at this point.
Speaker 7: You're looking at valuations that are really top heavy. Here
Speaker 7: you mentioned it. I think from the technology standpoint, what
Speaker 7: you're seeing is this drive forward in these names is
Speaker 7: specifically just that fear of missing out. Investors are worried
Speaker 7: about missing out on that next new evolution that we
Speaker 7: see here from technology and while this is a long
Speaker 7: term theme, we just think there's a price that you
Speaker 7: that you should be willing to pay for, and at
Speaker 7: this point, I think it's just a little bit expensive.
Speaker 7: I think there can be some consolidation as we go forward.
Speaker 2: Megan, economic data has been really important for this show
Speaker 2: Bloomberg Technology this week. You know, historically we may not
Speaker 2: have focused as much on CPI revision or not, but
Speaker 2: we are because of the point you make valuations and
Speaker 2: what will or won't happen with the FED and rates.
Speaker 2: Is that how you approach the technology sector. It's sensitivity
Speaker 2: to rates in twenty twenty four in particular.
Speaker 7: Yeah, I think there's you know, it's sensitivity to rates,
Speaker 7: but also the valuations. We're seeing rates move higher and
Speaker 7: these names are still moving higher the technology side. So
Speaker 7: that's why I believe it's just part of this fear
Speaker 7: of missing out that investors have they're going to miss
Speaker 7: out on this tech rally. I just think from an
Speaker 7: interest rate perspective that there's risk there and what's going
Speaker 7: to take some steam out of this rally will be
Speaker 7: when there's I guess a bit more realistic view on
Speaker 7: what the FED can do. Where we have rate cuts
Speaker 7: priced in now as early as May. I think that's
Speaker 7: still is a little aggressive. Inflation is coming down, but
Speaker 7: it's still is above the Fed's target. And what we're
Speaker 7: concerned about here from the macro level is the dubbish
Speaker 7: tilt that the FED took back in December has now
Speaker 7: reignited the economy and it is really putting a risk
Speaker 7: of reigniting inflation. And we're seeing that in some of
Speaker 7: the economic data that we've gotten in just the past
Speaker 7: couple of weeks.
Speaker 5: I want to linger on something that Dara Kross Rashah.
Speaker 2: He told us that uber CEO and the show in
Speaker 2: the last couple of days, which is basically all around
Speaker 2: the world, they see the consumer being really strong that
Speaker 2: maybe we didn't cover as deeply as well as they're
Speaker 2: also seeing increased corporate spending on their platform, and I
Speaker 2: thought that was just a really interesting proxy for the
Speaker 2: global economy.
Speaker 5: How do you.
Speaker 2: Feel right now about where we are globally? Consumer strength,
Speaker 2: corporate spending, all the things that we've had such anxiety
Speaker 2: about for the last couple of years.
Speaker 7: So for the consumer standpoint, you have to remember they
Speaker 7: are spending, but they're spending because the labor market's been strong.
Speaker 7: Labor market is always a lagging indicator, and we've seen
Speaker 7: in this earning season.
Speaker 5: A lot of layoffs.
Speaker 7: We're waiting to see how that filters into the employment
Speaker 7: market and how that filters into the data. That's a
Speaker 7: bigger concern that we have. The other thing from the
Speaker 7: consumer standpoint is they're spending on credit. Credit card debt
Speaker 7: is rising. Along with that, you're seeing not only autodelinquencies
Speaker 7: but also credit card delinquencies starting to rise. I think
Speaker 7: the consumer is just still stuck in this mentality that
Speaker 7: the Fed will come in and save the day at
Speaker 7: any sign of weakness. This is what we've been dealing
Speaker 7: with for the past couple decades. This is not the
Speaker 7: case anymore. We are in an inflationary environment where the
Speaker 7: Fed has to be very careful on what they articulate
Speaker 7: to the markets as well as what the economy can
Speaker 7: handle from the inflation standpoint.
Speaker 4: Very briefly, Megan, we very easily default to talking about equities.
Speaker 4: The bomb markets are bigger and indean. We've had a
Speaker 4: lot of treasuries taking down this week. What about corporate
Speaker 4: debt in this particular instance, particularly among some of the
Speaker 4: tech names and tech space more broadly.
Speaker 7: So, I have to be honest, corporate debt has surprised
Speaker 7: me as far as how well it's performed last year
Speaker 7: and even starting out this year, because you have been
Speaker 7: seeing defaults rising and defaults are expected to continue to rise.
Speaker 7: But yet spreads in the corporate market, in investment grade
Speaker 7: as well as the high yield market are extraordinarily tight.
Speaker 7: This is just again I think people chasing for yield,
Speaker 7: and I don't think it going forward that that's something
Speaker 7: you want to do, especially when you're looking at spreads
Speaker 7: that are.
Speaker 5: Just so tight.
Speaker 2: Megan Horman, cio Verden's Capital Advisor is great to have
Speaker 2: time with you.
Speaker 5: Thank you.
Speaker 4: Super Bowl fifty eight almost upon us big day for
Speaker 4: sports fans and for ad lovers too. How are you
Speaker 4: going to watch well across Paramount properties, CBS, Paramount plus
Speaker 4: Nickelodeon for the kids, even now joining us to discuss
Speaker 4: the Sunday Super Bowl and much much more. Paramount Global
Speaker 4: CEO Bob Backish live from Las Vegas, an anticipation of Sunday,
Speaker 4: and I'm interested in NFL on CBS.
Speaker 6: Of course, you've had a record regular season.
Speaker 4: We're anticipating record eyeballs for Sunday.
Speaker 6: What about those ads?
Speaker 4: Bloomberg Intelligence think you might be raking in as much
Speaker 4: as seven hundred million dollars?
Speaker 6: Is that the right sort of a Mountbob?
Speaker 8: So, Caroline, it's been an incredible season for the NFL
Speaker 8: on CBS. We set the high watermark for ratings since
Speaker 8: the property returned in nineteen ninety eight. We set the
Speaker 8: all time record for a divisional playoff game. And to
Speaker 8: your point, we set the high watermark for ad sales
Speaker 8: for Super Bowl and it's looking like on SAD on
Speaker 8: Sunday will set an all time viewing number with any luck.
Speaker 8: So it's an incredible year to be the NFL on CBS.
Speaker 6: We're a technology show.
Speaker 4: From a technology perspective, Just how much of a feat
Speaker 4: is it to be able to put this across audio properties,
Speaker 4: to be able to have SpongeBob doing his thing, whether
Speaker 4: it's on Nickelodeon, but also to be consuming it via
Speaker 4: cable or streaming.
Speaker 8: Yeah. So the infrastructure around the Super Bowl to ensure
Speaker 8: that the world's audiences can see it is truly extraordinary.
Speaker 8: I mean the number of cameras, remote cameras, etc. I
Speaker 8: think it's like one hundred and forty or something like that.
Speaker 8: And to your point, where we obviously have the main
Speaker 8: feed on CBS here in the United States, we have
Speaker 8: the first ever alternate telecasts of a Super Bowl on Nickelodeon,
Speaker 8: which is going to be super fun. And to your
Speaker 8: point on tech, we're actually going to do all the
Speaker 8: graphics and enhance since real time. When we did the
Speaker 8: last Nickelodeon game last year, we did that very quickly,
Speaker 8: but it wasn't real time. The tech has now allows
Speaker 8: us to do it real time, so that's super cool.
Speaker 8: And then of course we have it on Paramount Plus
Speaker 8: streaming simultaneously. So yeah, a lot of infrastructure, a lot
Speaker 8: of people behind the scenes, but we're feeling great about it.
Speaker 8: And we've been doing Super Bowls longer than anyone else,
Speaker 8: so we'll get it done.
Speaker 6: Let's talk about anyone else.
Speaker 4: Let's talk about how well sports content is so hot
Speaker 4: right now and everyone wants to think about how we
Speaker 4: can offer it through a streaming product. I look at Disney,
Speaker 4: Fox and Warner Brothers, the announcement this week you've shown,
Speaker 4: and I think about how Super Bowl actually twenty twenty
Speaker 4: one was, how you announce Paramount Plus and the breadth
Speaker 4: of content, But how do you tackle the focus on
Speaker 4: sports coming from rivals.
Speaker 8: So we love sports here at Paramount Obviously it's a
Speaker 8: key component of CBS. I think about it as a
Speaker 8: slice of the wheel. It's part of our programming offering.
Speaker 8: Same with Paramount Plus. You know, we talk about Paramount
Speaker 8: Plus as news, sports and amountain of entertainment. Obviously the
Speaker 8: NFL is a key part of that. But I want
Speaker 8: to emphasize that we like.
Speaker 5: A broad product.
Speaker 8: We've looked at sports only plays in digital, both a
Speaker 8: standalone basis and with partners, and we continue to believe
Speaker 8: that broad is better. We see that in people coming
Speaker 8: in for sports properties, subscribing for things like the NFL.
Speaker 8: But if you look at the sports viewer on Paramount Plus,
Speaker 8: believe it or not, ninety percent of their engagement i e.
Speaker 8: Time spent is with non sports programming. So again, bring
Speaker 8: them in with sports, but key to the model is
Speaker 8: elongated and entertain them quite frankly with other stuff as well.
Speaker 8: We firmly believe that leads to accessing a bigger TAM,
Speaker 8: bigger market and it is better for the business model,
Speaker 8: and so we like broad.
Speaker 2: Probably in the ten division audience around the world. Were
Speaker 2: speaking to Paramount Global CEO Bob Becket. It is Super
Speaker 2: Bowl weekend, and Bob, just what you were saying about
Speaker 2: the profile.
Speaker 5: Of the consumer on the platform.
Speaker 2: You know, I use the platform for Champions League football,
Speaker 2: and you have such a long season. With the Champions League,
Speaker 2: you have your in studio talent component, but you're also
Speaker 2: the ability to show multiple games in the same evening.
Speaker 2: You have choice, and at the end of the season
Speaker 2: you have a big finale and the NFL kind of
Speaker 2: works the same way. Right, you had a great regular season,
Speaker 2: as Caroline points out, but proportionately for your business, what's
Speaker 2: more important the big standalone single event this Sunday or
Speaker 2: the traction you get over the duration of a season.
Speaker 8: So a couple things. As we said, you know, the
Speaker 8: NFL this season set a record for CBS in terms
Speaker 8: of viewership since nineteen ninety eight, which is pretty extraordinary.
Speaker 8: And clearly the divisional playoff game, which also said an
Speaker 8: all time record, was important. But I think it's the
Speaker 8: arc of the whole thing. And frankly, there's nothing like
Speaker 8: the Super Bowl in the world, and obviously that's a
Speaker 8: big event for us, but you mentioned UEFA two. We
Speaker 8: love YUEFA. As you know, the UEFA season is going
Speaker 8: to start right after the American football season, and that
Speaker 8: is also a great product for fans of Paramount Plus.
Speaker 8: And we just extended that deal and the new format
Speaker 8: for UEFA includes a more exciting so I call it
Speaker 8: playoff format. So again, great product, and we do see
Speaker 8: people consuming that product alongside entertainment product. So we love sports,
Speaker 8: we love the NFL, we love YUEFA, and we love
Speaker 8: it as a part of Paramount Plus.
Speaker 2: Sound it interesting what you said about the consumption of
Speaker 2: non sports content. Halo season two prime example of that.
Speaker 2: You talk, it's about UEFA following the Super Bowl. How
Speaker 2: much will you be putting into advertizing this weekend? So
Speaker 2: why you've got to all those eyeballs you can say, hey,
Speaker 2: this is what else Paramount Plus is offering in the
Speaker 2: coming weeks and months.
Speaker 5: Great point.
Speaker 8: We are using the Super Bowl as a showcase for
Speaker 8: Paramount Global. I'm sitting here at our CBS set on
Speaker 8: the strip in front of the Bellagio. We had CBS
Speaker 8: Mornings going from here today and yesterday, and we have
Speaker 8: other properties operating here in Vegas. We are also using
Speaker 8: the Super Bowl as a promotional platform. So you see
Speaker 8: a new Pluto look and feel brand campaign rolling out,
Speaker 8: You see Paramount Plus spots. You see the Bob Marley
Speaker 8: movie which is opening on for Valentine's Day weekend. So yeah,
Speaker 8: we're showcasing Paramount Global to the biggest audience in the
Speaker 8: world on the biggest weekend in the world. And frankly,
Speaker 8: it's great to be in Vegas.
Speaker 5: It's a lecture, Bob.
Speaker 4: People see value, a lot of value in your content,
Speaker 4: and people therefore see value.
Speaker 6: In your company.
Speaker 4: And we know there's been plenty reports of a fording
Speaker 4: billion dollar offer for the business.
Speaker 6: Are you for sale?
Speaker 8: So look, as a management team and our board of directors,
Speaker 8: we are focused on shareholder value creations. The most predictable
Speaker 8: route to that is execution. So we are a laser
Speaker 8: focused on execution, driving Paramount Plus elongating earnings in the
Speaker 8: traditional media sector, opening movies, et cetera. But simultaneously or
Speaker 8: in parallel, we continue to look at other options as
Speaker 8: we have been, including transactional ones. So again a lot
Speaker 8: of activity. But I think what's important about it is
Speaker 8: it really shines a light on the incredible value of
Speaker 8: Paramount Global. We have an unmatched content engine in terms
Speaker 8: of our studios, new production, whether that's episodic series or films,
Speaker 8: as well as irreplaceable libraries across demographics, whether it's kids
Speaker 8: with Nickelodeon, adults, et cetera. So it's an extraordinary asset.
Speaker 8: We're focused on maximizing the value of that asset again
Speaker 8: day to day through execution, but also continue to.
Speaker 5: Look at other roots.
Speaker 4: And this is a sensitive one, Bob, but we've had
Speaker 4: analysts come on the show and say, you know, there
Speaker 4: are just too many players in the space, and you've
Speaker 4: got to be huge.
Speaker 6: You can't even just be medium sized.
Speaker 4: From your perspective with Paramount Plus and streaming, are you
Speaker 4: getting to profitability? I know you've got your earnings around
Speaker 4: the corner, but how soon can you sort of deliver
Speaker 4: that because I know you spoke to that in the
Speaker 4: third quarter for example.
Speaker 8: Yeah, So i'd tell you a couple of things. One is,
Speaker 8: you're right that narrative is out there. There are people
Speaker 8: with that point of view. But i'd point to our
Speaker 8: third quarter call where we continue to show paramount plus
Speaker 8: is a growing service, continues to have the most net
Speaker 8: ads of any streaming service since we launched point one
Speaker 8: point two is On our third quarter call, we talked
Speaker 8: about the fact that we expect and I have to
Speaker 8: be careful with my word choice here because, as you
Speaker 8: point out, our fourth quarter calls in two weeks, but
Speaker 8: we expect twenty twenty two was in fact our peak
Speaker 8: streaming investment, not twenty twenty three, which we guided to.
Speaker 8: That says we're head of plan on the path to
Speaker 8: profitability for streaming, and we're very excited about twenty twenty four.
Speaker 8: But I'll have to leave it at that until our
Speaker 8: earnings call in a couple of weeks, where we'll have
Speaker 8: more to say.
Speaker 2: Bob, a Global CEO, has to pass a lot of
Speaker 2: data quantify the impact of Taylor Swift for me on
Speaker 2: this Sunday Super Bowl.
Speaker 8: Look, Taylor's obviously a phenomenon. She's a force in music.
Speaker 8: For all of us that have seen her tour, it's
Speaker 8: incredible and she has, without a doubt been incremental to
Speaker 8: audience on the NFL. There's different points of view on
Speaker 8: how incremental, but she's a great addition, widening the net
Speaker 8: of the NFL viewer even further. We're looking forward to
Speaker 8: having her here in Vegas this weekend at the game,
Speaker 8: and I think it'll be just an incremental thing. But
Speaker 8: the main point is the NFL on CBS and Paramount
Speaker 8: Plus is just an extraordinary property. As I said, we
Speaker 8: set the high watermark already for a Super Bowl in
Speaker 8: terms of ad revenue. It's looking like we will set
Speaker 8: the high watermark on viewing. And is Taylor part of that. Yeah,
Speaker 8: she probably is an incremental part of that. But it's
Speaker 8: just great.
Speaker 4: I'm tuning in for usher to gott to be said
Speaker 4: Paramount Global CEO Bob Backish, it is so good to
Speaker 4: speak with you.
Speaker 6: Thank you very much, indeed, thank you.
Speaker 5: All right.
Speaker 2: Coming up, X is teaming up with the WWE for
Speaker 2: an exclusive weekly series. We hear from Bette White's ex
Speaker 2: Headed Partnerships and Talent on that deal. Next to disclam
Speaker 2: their technology, a WWE series is coming weekly to X.
Speaker 2: Brett White's X headed part Since Talent outlined it all
Speaker 2: for us earlier have listened.
Speaker 9: We couldn't be more excited obviously about the new initiative
Speaker 9: that we're doing with WWE. We announced the partnership yesterday.
Speaker 9: We are in market here in the next you know,
Speaker 9: call it five days with assets to start selling the show.
Speaker 9: We've got a lot of interest we you know, XES
Speaker 9: what I would say, the home for wrestling fans.
Speaker 3: We are We're going to go very big when it
Speaker 3: comes to this.
Speaker 9: What this offering is the idea of catering to an audience.
Speaker 9: Last year alone, we had fifty nine billion impressions when
Speaker 9: it came to wrestling alone.
Speaker 3: So the idea that we can.
Speaker 9: Actually super serve this this incredible content to you know,
Speaker 9: an audience that is there is that is vibrant and
Speaker 9: waiting for it couldn't be more exciting for us.
Speaker 3: So we are ready to go and in market.
Speaker 5: When does this turn profitable?
Speaker 8: How many of these types of partnerships do you need
Speaker 8: to really make money off of this?
Speaker 3: That's a great question. I mean it really is, you know.
Speaker 9: When you when we've worked with Nick con and his
Speaker 9: team trying to figure out exactly what the mechanics are financially,
Speaker 9: we are we're going to be playing this these episodes
Speaker 9: once or twice a week on X. They're going to
Speaker 9: be on platform, you know, for in perpetuity honestly, and
Speaker 9: we'll start making money.
Speaker 3: You know, over the course of the year.
Speaker 9: We'll see how the financials actually work out, but the
Speaker 9: investment that we're making the content really is you know,
Speaker 9: at some point will become profitable, probably in the next
Speaker 9: couple of.
Speaker 5: Years, I think.
Speaker 2: You know, there's been a lot of news this morning
Speaker 2: coming out of X you also have the Super Bowl
Speaker 2: and bet related stuff. But just lay out the partnership strategy.
Speaker 2: Your your job title is head of Partnerships and Talent Verticals.
Speaker 2: Do you expect to move into your backgrounds in wrestling
Speaker 2: over at turn and other things? But there is a
Speaker 2: difference here between pure sports, live entertainment and then you're
Speaker 2: doing a lot of news as well.
Speaker 3: We are And so I got here, thank you.
Speaker 9: When I got here four months ago, I really kind
Speaker 9: of went on a listening to and trying to figure
Speaker 9: out exactly kind of what the audience was looking for,
Speaker 9: what consumers wanted, and it is news, it's entertainment, it's fashion,
Speaker 9: it is sports, and it is wrestling. And so when
Speaker 9: we look at the when we look at the portfolio,
Speaker 9: we have an incredible relationship with all of our sports
Speaker 9: partnerships with at the NFL, MLB, NBA, A multi we
Speaker 9: have one thousand publishers. Through our amplified business, we have
Speaker 9: eighty thousand content creators. We're going to continue to build
Speaker 9: out a great content partnership business, but also start to
Speaker 9: serve original contents to an audience that we believe is
Speaker 9: worthy of in wanting it. So when we went after
Speaker 9: Don Lemon and Tulsea Gabbard and Jim Rome, we really
Speaker 9: knew that as we build out this kind of bespoke content,
Speaker 9: this is exactly what the audience and the consumers on
Speaker 9: X are looking for.
Speaker 5: That was Brett White, So the X Caroline, what you.
Speaker 4: Got and don't quell you? Edward nearly enough and we
Speaker 4: thank you.
Speaker 5: Let's check in on the market.
Speaker 2: Friday session is also a little bit about social media.
Speaker 2: We had Pinterest reporting earnings and as we reflected on
Speaker 2: top line work growth of twelve percent missed estimates. Monthly
Speaker 2: active users did well, but as always is the case,
Speaker 2: you look at snap down half a percent. This theory
Speaker 2: is building out the very big social media companies are
Speaker 2: doing well, or advertising based companies and the very small ones.
Speaker 2: There's a lot of concern. Meta platforms highed by ten percent.
Speaker 2: They had a blowout quarter where the AI story was
Speaker 2: going through to the advertising or their legacy business story.
Speaker 2: Also got Google parent Alphabet on their up one point
Speaker 2: eight percent of feel good around their AI story of late,
Speaker 2: those scenes are still in place, the big do Well,
Speaker 2: the small We're a little bit worried about Carol.
Speaker 4: And let's talk about one of those key players. That
Speaker 4: Well is ultimately still finding its footing Ondred new leadership
Speaker 4: and is airing all different types of content. For example,
Speaker 4: X has just had the Russian President, Vladimir Putin saying
Speaker 4: his country hasn't achieved its objectives in UKRAINI yet. In
Speaker 4: a video from Tucker Carlson Network, Putin told the form
Speaker 4: of Fox News host that he could consider negotiations if
Speaker 4: the US stopped supplying weapons to Kiev. This is the
Speaker 4: first time, actually that the Russian leader has given an
Speaker 4: interview to Western media figures since the invasion of Ukraine.
Speaker 4: The full interview was also published on as I Say
Speaker 4: social platform X. Let's talk about all of this with
Speaker 4: Jennifer Greigel, social media expert, Sociate Professor of Communications at
Speaker 4: Syracuse University. And Jennifer, what do you make of, ultimately
Speaker 4: the amount of people viewing this in an unedited form?
Speaker 4: How is the media landscape changing?
Speaker 10: Yeah, and again I think you put it well it's
Speaker 10: like airing different types of content. And I just saw
Speaker 10: your last clip to the you know, the head of
Speaker 10: partnerships that X has been going on and listening to her. Well,
Speaker 10: I guess I was going on and listening to her
Speaker 10: last night too.
Speaker 3: Like, for one, I had kind of a hard time.
Speaker 10: Finding the interview on X Twitter. You know, I'm not
Speaker 10: sure it was really a story about that platform, though,
Speaker 10: I do, you know, think that there is value in
Speaker 10: you know, kind of discussing that Musk made a commitment
Speaker 10: to at least platforming this video. But I also found
Speaker 10: it on YouTube as well, so I don't know. I
Speaker 10: think I think there's some other forces going on here too,
Speaker 10: because it definitely was like unusual content, right, Like this
Speaker 10: is not something you normatively see here in American discourse.
Speaker 10: So I think there's a.
Speaker 5: Lot of factors.
Speaker 10: I think it's it speaks to the nature of the Internet.
Speaker 10: It's it's a complicated space though it has these norms, right,
Speaker 10: but something different kind of kind of peers through over here.
Speaker 10: And it may also involve like, you know, older technology too,
Speaker 10: like the dot COM's, the websites, Tucker Carlson's websites seem
Speaker 10: to play an important role in that so and we
Speaker 10: don't we don't really have any insight into really how
Speaker 10: many people viewed this because there aren't analytics on things
Speaker 10: like older platforms like that, you know, a website.
Speaker 4: That end and you know, I think you are referencing
Speaker 4: in the break that you can see how many people
Speaker 4: are viewed a pinned post. But ultimately, how do we
Speaker 4: know how many minutes of that has ultimately been consumed?
Speaker 4: And we therefore are left to perhaps well ingesting means
Speaker 4: and smaller parts of it. How does that make us
Speaker 4: yet more siloed rather than looking at broadly.
Speaker 10: Yeah, well, you know, I would say the norms, at
Speaker 10: least in the West and the discourse coming from the
Speaker 10: East is we're getting it through memes, We're getting it
Speaker 10: through news stories in our press. The difference here was
Speaker 10: that it was, as you were saying, it was kind
Speaker 10: of interrupted. It was unfrittered information coming through in a
Speaker 10: two hour block. So for me, you know, again, that
Speaker 10: was what felt like something that was different and maybe discussing.
Speaker 3: A bit the discourse had changed, So.
Speaker 10: We'll see what the market thinks of this.
Speaker 2: For me, it's worth discussing both the science and the
Speaker 2: art behind video content on social media platforms. Right, So
Speaker 2: that was a pretty long interview. And you know, we
Speaker 2: on this show, Caroline and I, we post clips of
Speaker 2: interesting conversations on X on reels and on YouTube. Sometimes
Speaker 2: we might do a longer form on YouTube, but as
Speaker 2: I understand it, the basic science is that the attention
Speaker 2: span of the viewer is limited to that much shorter
Speaker 2: bite or they seek out something very long. What did
Speaker 2: you learn about duration video on the X platform from
Speaker 2: what happened last night?
Speaker 10: Well, I think some people were bored and to doubt,
Speaker 10: you know, kind of with his history in the beginning.
Speaker 10: Two hours is a long clip, but just the fact
Speaker 10: that a two hour clip was available and that there
Speaker 10: may have been an attention audience behind it, given you
Speaker 10: know what Carlson brings to this. So for me, it
Speaker 10: was really understanding.
Speaker 5: How this was.
Speaker 11: Trying to make sense of it, honestly.
Speaker 10: But like it's almost like a new media formula that's
Speaker 10: that's rooted in, like the Internet. So it was like
Speaker 10: must provided a platform which acts a little bit like
Speaker 10: the broadcast, gets it, you know, out to people, and
Speaker 10: then Carlson had the access but also his own audience.
Speaker 10: He delivered attention to this topic and also access to
Speaker 10: a source. Putin was the source, right, so but really
Speaker 10: for me, what was interesting was that, at least in
Speaker 10: the United States, you don't really have access the freedom
Speaker 10: of information to stuff like that two hours of Putin.
Speaker 10: So again, call it what you want, propaganda. It's obviously
Speaker 10: meant to influence, but we don't usually have that type
Speaker 10: of access into information coming directly to Americans. But I
Speaker 10: think it also went out to other people in the
Speaker 10: world too. I don't think it was just us as
Speaker 10: an audience, but I do think that again, you're seeing
Speaker 10: discourse on Twitter acts today, people who feel kind of
Speaker 10: safe in giving the inaction to that interview. But I
Speaker 10: think a lot of people aren't having a conversation maybe
Speaker 10: about what was said, even having discourse, you know, with
Speaker 10: others publicly especially. You won't see that kind of stuff
Speaker 10: on social media, maybe in a coffee shop or a
Speaker 10: didget table. But it feels like there's a silent audience.
Speaker 10: And I don't really you know how big it is,
Speaker 10: but I do think people listened last night.
Speaker 4: Silent audience want to dig into out of the election.
Speaker 4: Of course, Jennifer Greigel always great to communicate with you
Speaker 4: Associate Professor of Communications at Syracuse University.
Speaker 6: Thank you, Ed, What have you got?
Speaker 5: Yeah? Another story. We've been tracking.
Speaker 2: Astronauts from Turkey, Italy, and Sweden return to Earth on Friday,
Speaker 2: ending a private three week mission to the International Space Station.
Speaker 2: Their SpaceX splash down in the Atlantic Ocean.
Speaker 5: Off the Florida coast this morning.
Speaker 2: The country has paid about fifty five million dollars apiece
Speaker 2: to Elon Musk's company in Axiom to finance that mission.
Speaker 2: All right, coming up, Fanjual CEO Amy Howe joins us
Speaker 2: next as football fans get ready to place their bets
Speaker 2: on the big game that's coming up next. This is
Speaker 2: Bloomberg Technology. It is Super Bowl weekend, and the big
Speaker 2: game between the San Francisco forty nine ers and the
Speaker 2: Kansas City Chiefs is going viral on Google trends. Searches
Speaker 2: for both teams have skyrocketed, with questions like where to
Speaker 2: buy a new jersey? To which Super Bowl is this?
Speaker 2: One spoiler, it's Super Bowl fifty eight halftime shows start
Speaker 2: ushers getting a big boost as fans google.
Speaker 5: His song hit single Yeah.
Speaker 2: Is the most searched for across America since his slot
Speaker 2: was announced. The romance between Taylor Swift and Casey's Travis
Speaker 2: Kelsey is also in focus. Will she be at Super
Speaker 2: Bowl fifty eight. Finally, there's a battle for TV eyeballs
Speaker 2: by tech advertisers. Snapchat's debut Super Bowl ad hopes to
Speaker 2: convince users its platform is safer and more authentic than others.
Speaker 2: And Uber is reuniting Ross and Rachel from Friends in
Speaker 2: a commercial for Uber Eats, And as we discussed earlier,
Speaker 2: for the first time, the game will be streaming on
Speaker 2: Paramount Plus caroc.
Speaker 4: Meanwhile, we've got to talk bets and they are rolling in,
Speaker 4: big game approaching, and Johnny us to talk all about Wow,
Speaker 4: how people are doing a bit of a flutter?
Speaker 6: Is super Bowl weekend ahead of it?
Speaker 4: Fanjial CEO Amy Howe, Amy, it's great to have some
Speaker 4: time with you and just I think of last year
Speaker 4: and I think of the almost what was it ten
Speaker 4: million bets placed in the United States? How many are
Speaker 4: you anticipating for this particular game.
Speaker 11: Well, what I can tell you is every year we
Speaker 11: set new records and this year definitely will not disappoint.
Speaker 11: I mean, this is going to be one of the
Speaker 11: biggest years. It's a phenomenal matchup between the Chiefs and
Speaker 11: the forty nine ers. But if you go to FANDLE
Speaker 11: you have an opportunity to bet on six hundred different
Speaker 11: pre line markets. Was a huge live offering, and as
Speaker 11: you can imagine, there's a ton of popularity around the
Speaker 11: player props, particularly Travis Kelcey, but also Mahomes and Christian McCaffrey.
Speaker 11: And don't forget you still have an opportunity to go
Speaker 11: onto the app and decide if Rob Gronkowski is going
Speaker 11: to make his redemption kick, and if you pick correctly,
Speaker 11: you'll get a share of ten million dollars in bonus bets.
Speaker 11: So there's really something for everyone this year.
Speaker 2: Amy, I am, in truth a fair Weather forty nine
Speaker 2: Ers fan.
Speaker 5: Of course I'll watch the game.
Speaker 2: But it raises an interesting point in the context of betting, right,
Speaker 2: how many people do you see come in and place
Speaker 2: a bet just for this game that might have otherwise
Speaker 2: just sat out the rest of the season. What kind
Speaker 2: of short term spike in New York users do you
Speaker 2: see visiting your platforms?
Speaker 11: Yeah, I mean Super Bowl is the single biggest acquisition moment, right,
Speaker 11: and one of the things that's wonderful about it is.
Speaker 11: You get a ton of recreational users who are first
Speaker 11: time to sports betting, and what they're getting exposed to
Speaker 11: is just the excitement of it right the game within
Speaker 11: the game, and it really elevates the experience. So there
Speaker 11: really is something for everyone. And one of the things
Speaker 11: that's been great about this year is with so much
Speaker 11: discussion around Taylor Swift, it's actually drawn a lot of
Speaker 11: women to the platform as well. About thirty three percent
Speaker 11: of our new activations are women, which is really exciting
Speaker 11: and just demonstrates the breadth and the power of what
Speaker 11: we're doing every day.
Speaker 6: That's fascinating.
Speaker 4: Talk to us a little bit more about demographics because
Speaker 4: many would say, and I don't know whether it's a
Speaker 4: cynical view or not, that the legalization process in the
Speaker 4: United States has in many way been understood to be
Speaker 4: because of viewership. Ultimately, younger people are placing bets on
Speaker 4: sports and now that coming to view it far more
Speaker 4: across cable and also now across streaming. How much you're
Speaker 4: seeing an older generation mosus a younger generation on your platform?
Speaker 11: Well, I mean the honest answer is, over time we're
Speaker 11: seeing both. I mean, what happens is when you know,
Speaker 11: when state started to open up back in twenty eighteen,
Speaker 11: it tended to skeew a bit more towards a younger
Speaker 11: mal audience. But as we're now, you know, five to
Speaker 11: six years in since the Supreme Court decided they would
Speaker 11: let the states legalize, you're getting a much broader, much
Speaker 11: more recreational user. And I think a big part of
Speaker 11: that is the role that the leagues. Right, we have
Speaker 11: a phenomenal partnership with the NFL and the NBA, and
Speaker 11: we're making it accessible, exciting, and you know, most of
Speaker 11: our betters are betting less than twenty dollars on the platform,
Speaker 11: but it makes the actual experience that much more exciting.
Speaker 5: Amy, let me show you something real quick.
Speaker 2: This is this is a chart summing up the swift
Speaker 2: effect or the Swifty effect total Instagram followers monthly for
Speaker 2: Ravis Kelce after that September twenty four to attendance.
Speaker 5: Okay, so you get the data.
Speaker 2: Are people literally betting on whether or not she'll turn
Speaker 2: up or are we going more specific on that, like
Speaker 2: what is she going to wear to the game? What's more,
Speaker 2: you know, likely Super Bowl ring, engagement ring. These are
Speaker 2: real things that people talk about by.
Speaker 5: The way just for it.
Speaker 11: There are real things that actually in Canada, in our
Speaker 11: Ontario province, you can go on and predict whether Travis
Speaker 11: is going to propose to tell her swift at the
Speaker 11: end of the game. In the States, unfortunately you can't.
Speaker 11: There are no prop that's on Teller Swift. But what
Speaker 11: I can tell you is, ever since Tellerswift was on
Speaker 11: the scene, the number of player prop that's for Travis
Speaker 11: Kelcey has more than doubled. So she has certainly brought
Speaker 11: a lot of new engagement and betting activity on on
Speaker 11: Travis Kelcey, in particular.
Speaker 6: Engagement of a different form.
Speaker 4: We thank you fan, you'll see anyhow brilliant to spend
Speaker 4: some time with you.
Speaker 2: Okay, A firm shares are down around thirteen percent, but
Speaker 2: in them on track for their biggest drop since October
Speaker 2: after the buy now, Pay Later Companies twenty twenty four
Speaker 2: forecast the annual transaction volume slightly missed estimates. Please to
Speaker 2: say a firm CEO Max Leftrin joins us now and
Speaker 2: that seems to be the pretty micro focus max the
Speaker 2: forecast for transaction volume. Should the street be concerned about that?
Speaker 1: Now?
Speaker 3: I'm great.
Speaker 1: I can't I can't give the street that credit whatsoever.
Speaker 1: We've had it absolutely blowout or every number on top
Speaker 1: of bottom increase our estimates or figuring forward and are
Speaker 1: showing your signed up slowing down or weakness or ANYBM. Sorry,
Speaker 1: I'd rarely argue with the market, but I think the
Speaker 1: team work too hard to accomplish too much, too well. Word, Okay, we're.
Speaker 2: Just showing the the highlights in the court had gone.
Speaker 2: And you know, top line you beat considerably, matching what
Speaker 2: the street expected from a loss per share. What was
Speaker 2: the biggest factor on that top line growth of all
Speaker 2: of the different products you're now offering.
Speaker 1: I think across the board we did extremely well. We
Speaker 1: posted just really strong policy season. Our partners chopped by
Speaker 1: or a large contributor to our growth of pacing the
Speaker 1: average hard and Detailing Week bragged about one thousand active
Speaker 1: cart bolders our November of Usterer event, only to show
Speaker 1: that we have some one hundred thousand actives growing rapidly.
Speaker 1: Now there's a there's quite a lot of things that
Speaker 1: contributed to the growth of ORL company that across the
Speaker 1: board we do well.
Speaker 4: Can I dig in a bit more on the gross
Speaker 4: merchandise volume and value, and I mean ultimately you call
Speaker 4: it out in your earnings and you said, we've post
Speaker 4: the fastest year over year GMV growth rate in over
Speaker 4: a year, and you're basically saying, look, we can show
Speaker 4: how we operate our business with excellence.
Speaker 6: Then give you this moment.
Speaker 4: To speak to an investor in an analyst community that
Speaker 4: is saying they're slightly worried about what they think is
Speaker 4: a GMV deceleration for the second half fiscal second half
Speaker 4: of twenty twenty four.
Speaker 6: You say, it's the guidance is the flaw.
Speaker 4: What more can you say to an investor base that
Speaker 4: for some reason is determining this is a slowdown and
Speaker 4: they're worried.
Speaker 1: Now, I think the best I can speak to investors
Speaker 1: is about posting more results.
Speaker 3: A form of trust me I'm not at.
Speaker 1: Kirk is always met with great skepticism. So we'll just
Speaker 1: continue post results. The results will last for more than
Speaker 1: speaks to themselves to flow out of growth to show
Speaker 1: and it's the exact number that we were getting borer
Speaker 1: and looks gunning for a better and better operative that
Speaker 1: it is the law and we don't want to teach
Speaker 1: our guidance strategy at all like me far we're going
Speaker 1: to intexty for ourselves.
Speaker 4: Well, a lot of anists can see that true securities
Speaker 4: Andrew Jeffrey saying that we'll be a surprise by the
Speaker 4: magnitude of the slow down. Blueberg Intelligence also saying they
Speaker 4: don't see They see momentum and they don't see this
Speaker 4: sort of slow down. So tell us about momentum and
Speaker 4: ultimately about a US consumer that feels rubbish about the economy,
Speaker 4: but the economy still continues to go incredibly Well, what
Speaker 4: are you seeing from a determination to spend and to
Speaker 4: spend with you?
Speaker 1: So the pure wallet across our many they partners is
Speaker 1: generally in preaching and very happy about that.
Speaker 3: US consumer, I think.
Speaker 1: Full to speak on behalf of your consumer are feeling
Speaker 1: a little bit differently than they are acting and I
Speaker 1: have no idea like to that. But there are folks
Speaker 1: that are having our time paying their build and see
Speaker 1: that in the credit art industry, building up their delinquencies
Speaker 1: and parting to increase in filling out reserves. None of
Speaker 1: that is true for us. We posted another were of
Speaker 1: flat for any year, any year, deliquencies, prey based higher,
Speaker 1: et cetera. Those are all measures of our excellent credit
Speaker 1: mad a firm consumer, the ones that we actually led
Speaker 1: to arguing find or page of build, taking amount of
Speaker 1: time without I might add eighty eternal late faser gimmicks tricks.
Speaker 1: The industry is starting to show signs of tracking where
Speaker 1: folks are aye able bit overextended. I think that's probably
Speaker 1: what's playing foras mind that said, the holiday season.
Speaker 3: Was quite strong for us.
Speaker 1: We saw really great engagement from occasional buyers that when
Speaker 1: to our online partners and bought the gifts all the
Speaker 1: way to our articholders that use the card for everything
Speaker 1: from dayspend to to get bud and so you are
Speaker 1: very good about our ability to help folks back and borrow.
Speaker 3: And most important thing, I just want all.
Speaker 1: We add because we don't charge leading, because we don't
Speaker 1: propound the interest. Our incentives are profoundly aligned with those
Speaker 1: that we want money to. They can pay us back
Speaker 1: on client on schedule. We will need much money. Our
Speaker 1: growth is actually driven not just by the fact that
Speaker 1: there's a lot of demand for buying for pferring, the
Speaker 1: demand for our firm specific product and our ability.
Speaker 2: So I understand that you and I have talked a
Speaker 2: lot about buying now, pay later, but also the other
Speaker 2: products that you offer. Right this week, I think what
Speaker 2: Caroline and I heard from CEO's markets guests the consumers strong.
Speaker 2: But as you've just pointed out, credit card is becoming
Speaker 2: a notable data point to track.
Speaker 5: How does that impact you in.
Speaker 3: Obviously we watch all the industry data like everybody else.
Speaker 1: Again, our borrower has done very well for us with
Speaker 1: us and when we lend money, we take into consideration
Speaker 1: their performance across other borrowing advices they have purchas, et cetera.
Speaker 1: So we know that from consumer is quite strong and
Speaker 1: repeat and they're equos cans back and that's shown in
Speaker 1: our numbers and the numbers that for you you can
Speaker 1: see them more frequently than our quoily numbers in our
Speaker 1: DA's reports. And so we look quite good about the
Speaker 1: segment of economy that we serve. I think there are
Speaker 1: folks that are starting to lead to perhaps it's really
Speaker 1: the running out of the pandemic stating that are taking
Speaker 1: place elsewhere. We are equal to step borrowers successful.
Speaker 6: Thanks lob ch it's great to have some time with you.
Speaker 4: Thank you very much for joining the show with firm
Speaker 4: CEO on the back of their numbers.
Speaker 6: Meanwhile, So that does it.
Speaker 4: This addition of Blue Metology and the week, and we've
Speaker 4: got a big weekend to be watching some.
Speaker 5: Sports in Yes, super Bowl.
Speaker 2: Recap all the conversations super Bowl on our podcast.
Speaker 5: Where you're getting.
Speaker 2: Your podcast, we post them basically everywhere. There's the examples,
Speaker 2: Happy super Bowl weekend. This is bloom Bag