1
00:00:03,120 --> 00:00:08,720
Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news.

2
00:00:10,440 --> 00:00:16,360
Speaker 2: Louis a family fand it is a dad, and Chili

3
00:00:16,600 --> 00:00:22,640
Speaker 2: is the mom, and Bingo's the younger sister, Louie's oldest sister.

4
00:00:23,160 --> 00:00:27,840
Speaker 3: It's a little blue dog healer dog h ee ei okay,

5
00:00:28,000 --> 00:00:31,720
Speaker 3: And they have like adventures around their house and there's

6
00:00:31,800 --> 00:00:34,600
Speaker 3: like a problem and then they like solve it. Oh yeah,

7
00:00:34,760 --> 00:00:36,080
Speaker 3: so they like snash philia.

8
00:00:36,680 --> 00:00:39,960
Speaker 1: The kids are talking about Blue. That is the hit

9
00:00:40,080 --> 00:00:43,440
Speaker 1: Australian animated TV show that premiered in twenty eighteen. It

10
00:00:43,440 --> 00:00:47,760
Speaker 1: has millions of fans worldwide, and those fans are children, yes,

11
00:00:48,479 --> 00:00:51,400
Speaker 1: but also grown ups. There are Reddit threads about if

12
00:00:51,440 --> 00:00:54,680
Speaker 1: it's okay for childless adults to watch it. The answer,

13
00:00:54,680 --> 00:00:57,440
Speaker 1: by the way, is a resounding yes. There are too

14
00:00:57,440 --> 00:01:00,200
Speaker 1: many fan blocks to count, and articles and pages of

15
00:01:00,320 --> 00:01:05,080
Speaker 1: vocal adult fans on TikTok. Blue is a big business.

16
00:01:05,600 --> 00:01:08,039
Speaker 4: It's a behemoth. It was the number two most stream

17
00:01:08,080 --> 00:01:10,679
Speaker 4: show in the US behind Suits Full Stop.

18
00:01:11,200 --> 00:01:14,600
Speaker 1: That's Rayhan Hermancy. She's a senior editor at Bloomberg Business Week.

19
00:01:14,680 --> 00:01:16,720
Speaker 4: I have two kids, four and six, and like over

20
00:01:16,760 --> 00:01:18,880
Speaker 4: the past year, I couldn't help but notice they were

21
00:01:18,880 --> 00:01:23,200
Speaker 4: coming home from school with Bluey mimeographed coloring pages. Every

22
00:01:23,240 --> 00:01:26,559
Speaker 4: birthday party has some element of blue We have blue

23
00:01:26,760 --> 00:01:28,679
Speaker 4: Cops in our house that I swear to God we

24
00:01:28,720 --> 00:01:32,759
Speaker 4: didn't buy. So like it has permeated like young kids'

25
00:01:32,840 --> 00:01:36,679
Speaker 4: lives in a really big way. So it felt like

26
00:01:37,880 --> 00:01:42,160
Speaker 4: the financial and the scale of viewership was really extreme.

27
00:01:42,480 --> 00:01:45,440
Speaker 5: I contacted Brand Finance, was just a company that does

28
00:01:45,480 --> 00:01:46,840
Speaker 5: evaluations for brands.

29
00:01:47,040 --> 00:01:50,200
Speaker 1: Devin Leonard is a senior writer on the global business team, and.

30
00:01:50,160 --> 00:01:53,320
Speaker 5: They said it's worth as much as two billion dollars,

31
00:01:53,480 --> 00:01:56,160
Speaker 5: but they also said that potentially it keeps on going,

32
00:01:56,600 --> 00:01:58,760
Speaker 5: it could be worth as much as pepper Pig, which

33
00:01:59,400 --> 00:02:01,480
Speaker 5: was sold to has Bro. I think it was twenty

34
00:02:01,600 --> 00:02:03,040
Speaker 5: nineteen for a four billion dollars.

35
00:02:03,080 --> 00:02:06,120
Speaker 1: In twenty twenty three, Americans watched seven hundred and thirty

36
00:02:06,160 --> 00:02:09,799
Speaker 1: one million hours of blue That is more than Ncis

37
00:02:09,919 --> 00:02:13,720
Speaker 1: Cray's Anatomy, Gilmore, Girls or Friends, and each episode of

38
00:02:13,720 --> 00:02:17,040
Speaker 1: the show is only seven minutes long. Now, you could

39
00:02:17,080 --> 00:02:19,680
Speaker 1: chalk up the success of Bluey to its popular appeal

40
00:02:19,760 --> 00:02:22,720
Speaker 1: to lucrative distribution deals, but it is also because of

41
00:02:22,760 --> 00:02:25,720
Speaker 1: its creator. It's Joe Brumm. He is the soul of

42
00:02:25,760 --> 00:02:26,160
Speaker 1: the show.

43
00:02:26,520 --> 00:02:28,840
Speaker 5: He's his verice of earnest, kind of since a very

44
00:02:28,880 --> 00:02:31,880
Speaker 5: funny guy. He just sort of imbused the show with

45
00:02:31,960 --> 00:02:34,400
Speaker 5: all of that, and he wants everything to be perfect,

46
00:02:34,480 --> 00:02:36,320
Speaker 5: you know, because he's kind of a perfectionist. It's his

47
00:02:36,440 --> 00:02:38,560
Speaker 5: aesthetic and you know, reflection of his life.

48
00:02:39,960 --> 00:02:43,320
Speaker 3: This episode of The Big Take is called Bluey's Big Business.

49
00:02:44,280 --> 00:02:46,600
Speaker 1: How a kids show about a family of dogs became

50
00:02:46,639 --> 00:02:50,280
Speaker 1: an international sensation And what's at stake for blue fans

51
00:02:50,400 --> 00:02:53,720
Speaker 1: and its financial stakeholders as Joe Brum decides whether it's

52
00:02:53,760 --> 00:03:01,840
Speaker 1: time to call it quits. What is it about the

53
00:03:01,880 --> 00:03:05,440
Speaker 1: show that your kids like so much and that you

54
00:03:05,600 --> 00:03:06,679
Speaker 1: like as well well?

55
00:03:06,720 --> 00:03:10,920
Speaker 4: So it really isn't about them. They are at best

56
00:03:10,960 --> 00:03:14,239
Speaker 4: indifferent to Bluey. But I during the Pandemic, we start

57
00:03:14,280 --> 00:03:17,560
Speaker 4: watching Blue and you know from the jump it is

58
00:03:17,639 --> 00:03:22,760
Speaker 4: like visually delightful and has a kind of it's like

59
00:03:22,919 --> 00:03:25,720
Speaker 4: operating on a bunch of levels at once. I think

60
00:03:25,800 --> 00:03:27,880
Speaker 4: that one of the things that makes it so appealing

61
00:03:28,160 --> 00:03:30,720
Speaker 4: is that Bandit and Chili's daughter is Blue and Bingo.

62
00:03:31,120 --> 00:03:33,680
Speaker 4: They're not gendered in the way that like a lot

63
00:03:33,720 --> 00:03:37,040
Speaker 4: of children's entertainment is gender to like kind of pink

64
00:03:37,160 --> 00:03:43,200
Speaker 4: unicorns and like Marvel Action figures, they play across a

65
00:03:43,200 --> 00:03:45,480
Speaker 4: lot of different sphirits and they're very physical, and I

66
00:03:45,480 --> 00:03:47,640
Speaker 4: think that it makes it really easy to watch and

67
00:03:47,680 --> 00:03:52,160
Speaker 4: not really think about, like if you're a boy watching Blue,

68
00:03:52,160 --> 00:03:54,480
Speaker 4: Like I'm watching a girls show, which I think can

69
00:03:54,520 --> 00:03:58,200
Speaker 4: be a big deal for kids, and you know, it's

70
00:03:58,240 --> 00:04:02,080
Speaker 4: like sweet and related in the kind of kids plot.

71
00:04:02,240 --> 00:04:06,000
Speaker 4: And then the parents in it are pretty remarkable. They're

72
00:04:06,040 --> 00:04:09,160
Speaker 4: just built for this age of parenting. I think they

73
00:04:09,360 --> 00:04:13,080
Speaker 4: immediately start doing imagine or play with the kids, especially bandit.

74
00:04:13,160 --> 00:04:16,120
Speaker 4: The dad and I bought this statue today from a

75
00:04:16,240 --> 00:04:20,600
Speaker 4: shop and it turned out to be magic. Yeah. And

76
00:04:21,240 --> 00:04:28,360
Speaker 4: it's both aspirational and also very real. The parents get frustrated,

77
00:04:29,400 --> 00:04:33,880
Speaker 4: the kids get frustrated, and I think that that representation

78
00:04:34,680 --> 00:04:37,600
Speaker 4: is very interesting and also feels of its time.

79
00:04:38,400 --> 00:04:40,320
Speaker 1: There are a lot of episodes we could pull from here.

80
00:04:40,360 --> 00:04:41,839
Speaker 1: I wonder what your favorite one is.

81
00:04:41,960 --> 00:04:44,359
Speaker 5: Well, I have like a sentimental favorite, because you know,

82
00:04:44,360 --> 00:04:46,240
Speaker 5: there's a whole lot that I really like. But there's

83
00:04:46,240 --> 00:04:49,800
Speaker 5: an episode called the Beach in season one. The Healers

84
00:04:49,880 --> 00:04:53,360
Speaker 5: go to the beach and then Chili, you know Blue's mom,

85
00:04:53,400 --> 00:04:55,520
Speaker 5: She wants to go to take a walk by herself,

86
00:04:55,760 --> 00:04:58,320
Speaker 5: and I don't know it just it might be my

87
00:04:58,400 --> 00:05:01,240
Speaker 5: wife just wanting to get feet away from the rest

88
00:05:01,279 --> 00:05:03,960
Speaker 5: of us. But to me, it's sort of said the show,

89
00:05:04,080 --> 00:05:05,599
Speaker 5: you know, it was about a little more than's just

90
00:05:05,680 --> 00:05:06,119
Speaker 5: the kids.

91
00:05:06,279 --> 00:05:10,080
Speaker 1: It struck me watching the beach, how much compressed wonder.

92
00:05:10,480 --> 00:05:12,640
Speaker 1: There isn't a lot of these episodes. I mean, yes,

93
00:05:12,680 --> 00:05:15,839
Speaker 1: they're seven minutes long. They never drag, and it seems

94
00:05:15,839 --> 00:05:16,680
Speaker 1: like there's a lot in there.

95
00:05:17,040 --> 00:05:20,680
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, I mean there's a lot of moments where

96
00:05:20,680 --> 00:05:25,479
Speaker 4: they very true to life, pivot quickly from like boredom

97
00:05:25,520 --> 00:05:29,480
Speaker 4: and anger to wonder. It really captures, I think, the

98
00:05:29,520 --> 00:05:32,000
Speaker 4: feeling of a parent, just like trying to grapple with

99
00:05:32,080 --> 00:05:34,960
Speaker 4: all of these big feelings and also the banality of

100
00:05:35,040 --> 00:05:35,400
Speaker 4: it all.

101
00:05:35,800 --> 00:05:36,599
Speaker 1: Do you have a favorite?

102
00:05:36,920 --> 00:05:39,000
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean, well, sleepy Time. I feel like I'm

103
00:05:39,000 --> 00:05:40,640
Speaker 4: going to get emotional talking about sleepy Dinner.

104
00:05:41,360 --> 00:05:43,440
Speaker 2: I want to do a big ghost late to night.

105
00:05:43,880 --> 00:05:45,360
Speaker 3: I'll wake up in my own bank.

106
00:05:45,800 --> 00:05:48,520
Speaker 4: Sleepy Time is the episode where Bingo, the younger sister,

107
00:05:48,600 --> 00:05:50,160
Speaker 4: starts having trouble falling asleep.

108
00:05:50,640 --> 00:05:54,720
Speaker 1: You do your best, Toney, but remember I'm always here.

109
00:05:54,839 --> 00:05:55,560
Speaker 1: If you need me.

110
00:05:56,320 --> 00:05:58,839
Speaker 2: Okay, weet drains you. Now.

111
00:05:58,920 --> 00:06:01,360
Speaker 4: From Chili's perspective, it's just kind of like, oh God,

112
00:06:01,440 --> 00:06:03,440
Speaker 4: Like the kid keeps getting up and getting into my bed,

113
00:06:04,080 --> 00:06:06,680
Speaker 4: and so you're there with them in this, and then

114
00:06:06,720 --> 00:06:11,880
Speaker 4: it changes and becomes about the dreaming. In your dream,

115
00:06:12,520 --> 00:06:15,599
Speaker 4: she sees her mother as the sun and she's orbiting

116
00:06:15,600 --> 00:06:17,719
Speaker 4: around and she's like holding like a little stuffy and

117
00:06:17,760 --> 00:06:20,840
Speaker 4: it's just like, I just think it captures how as

118
00:06:20,839 --> 00:06:22,760
Speaker 4: a parent you don't even know what's going on in

119
00:06:22,760 --> 00:06:25,960
Speaker 4: your kid's head, and so it's like both so big

120
00:06:26,080 --> 00:06:29,960
Speaker 4: and so small. And what's amazing is that there's almost

121
00:06:30,000 --> 00:06:32,560
Speaker 4: no steaks in this whole episode, and a lot of

122
00:06:32,600 --> 00:06:35,719
Speaker 4: Bluey the steaks could not be lower. A lot of

123
00:06:35,760 --> 00:06:39,719
Speaker 4: other animated shows use animation to just go to crazy

124
00:06:39,760 --> 00:06:44,200
Speaker 4: places and like show extreme situations, and Bluey is very restrained.

125
00:06:44,240 --> 00:06:44,960
Speaker 4: And how it.

126
00:06:44,920 --> 00:06:48,120
Speaker 1: Approaches that, like that wonderful interplay between that the kind

127
00:06:48,120 --> 00:06:50,720
Speaker 1: of cosmic dream and then what's happening in the bed,

128
00:06:50,760 --> 00:06:56,280
Speaker 1: which is like punching and kicking, and you see how

129
00:06:56,680 --> 00:06:58,560
Speaker 1: she's processing it. But also the parents are kind of

130
00:06:58,600 --> 00:07:00,080
Speaker 1: living through this as well.

131
00:07:00,000 --> 00:07:02,760
Speaker 4: So yeah, yeah, I mean I think that's why Sleepy

132
00:07:02,839 --> 00:07:08,080
Speaker 4: Time has really stood out because it really just encapsates

133
00:07:08,440 --> 00:07:09,880
Speaker 4: the whole experience.

134
00:07:09,480 --> 00:07:12,640
Speaker 5: And also to the music of Gustav Holtz the Planet.

135
00:07:12,320 --> 00:07:18,720
Speaker 1: Yes Yes, years before Joe Brum and his team weave

136
00:07:18,800 --> 00:07:22,080
Speaker 1: the Planets by Gustav Holst into this ambitious and critically

137
00:07:22,080 --> 00:07:25,680
Speaker 1: acclaimed episode Sleepy Time. Brum started Bluey with a clip

138
00:07:25,800 --> 00:07:28,000
Speaker 1: capturing a simpler parenting scene.

139
00:07:29,600 --> 00:07:33,320
Speaker 5: He and another animator they do this little clip Bandit

140
00:07:33,320 --> 00:07:36,800
Speaker 5: takes Bluey to the playground, you know. Bandit's playing Fruit

141
00:07:36,800 --> 00:07:39,000
Speaker 5: and Ninch on his phone while he's pushing Bluie on

142
00:07:39,040 --> 00:07:40,960
Speaker 5: the swing and then blue goes around the swing set

143
00:07:41,000 --> 00:07:43,360
Speaker 5: and comes down and clung them on the head. And

144
00:07:43,400 --> 00:07:46,920
Speaker 5: he shows it to these guys, the founders of Luda Studio,

145
00:07:46,960 --> 00:07:49,160
Speaker 5: which is a sort of small sort of TV production

146
00:07:49,320 --> 00:07:51,720
Speaker 5: operation in Brisbane, and they like it, but they but

147
00:07:51,720 --> 00:07:53,720
Speaker 5: they shop it around and they're able to raise some

148
00:07:53,800 --> 00:07:57,480
Speaker 5: money from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation to do a five

149
00:07:57,480 --> 00:07:58,200
Speaker 5: minute pilot.

150
00:07:59,160 --> 00:08:01,400
Speaker 1: Brum took that I let to a big gathering of

151
00:08:01,480 --> 00:08:04,560
Speaker 1: TV executives and it was a hit. Soon the production

152
00:08:04,640 --> 00:08:07,680
Speaker 1: company had a deal with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and

153
00:08:07,760 --> 00:08:12,680
Speaker 1: BBC Studios and some Australian government agencies. BBC Studios now

154
00:08:12,720 --> 00:08:15,760
Speaker 1: manages Bluey's licensing rights outside of Australia.

155
00:08:15,920 --> 00:08:19,760
Speaker 5: Last year, the BBC's revenues topped two billion pounds for

156
00:08:19,800 --> 00:08:22,480
Speaker 5: the first time, and they're saying a lot of that

157
00:08:22,560 --> 00:08:25,240
Speaker 5: had to do with the sale of Bluey consumer products.

158
00:08:25,320 --> 00:08:27,360
Speaker 4: It seems pretty clear that, you know, when the BBC

159
00:08:27,440 --> 00:08:30,000
Speaker 4: says they want to double revenue by twenty twenty eight,

160
00:08:30,240 --> 00:08:32,400
Speaker 4: a big chunk of that has to be in part

161
00:08:32,640 --> 00:08:33,280
Speaker 4: due to Bluey.

162
00:08:33,640 --> 00:08:36,440
Speaker 1: And it goes beyond Bluey the show. There are Bluey

163
00:08:36,440 --> 00:08:40,200
Speaker 1: themed books, live shows, toys, pajamas and in twenty nineteen,

164
00:08:40,320 --> 00:08:43,080
Speaker 1: Disney won a bid to stream Bluey on Disney Plus.

165
00:08:43,360 --> 00:08:46,800
Speaker 5: Disney tested the show in American kids. They love the accents.

166
00:08:47,000 --> 00:08:49,720
Speaker 5: And then along with that, as Joe put a Disney

167
00:08:49,800 --> 00:08:52,600
Speaker 5: you know, put into gazumping offer that blew away all

168
00:08:52,679 --> 00:08:54,160
Speaker 5: the other of the other contenders.

169
00:08:54,320 --> 00:08:57,720
Speaker 1: If we look at this as a pie, BBC's obviously

170
00:08:57,760 --> 00:08:59,320
Speaker 1: gotten a lot out of this. I watched it on

171
00:08:59,760 --> 00:09:04,840
Speaker 1: this Plus. How does that giant entertainment company fit into

172
00:09:04,840 --> 00:09:06,480
Speaker 1: all of this? And how much of that pie are

173
00:09:06,559 --> 00:09:07,480
Speaker 1: they are they getting?

174
00:09:07,760 --> 00:09:12,240
Speaker 4: I mean, We've been joking that Bluie ends up being kids'

175
00:09:12,280 --> 00:09:17,559
Speaker 4: first lests and intellectual property because for American audiences it's

176
00:09:17,600 --> 00:09:20,000
Speaker 4: a Disney show. Like when they go to Disney theme

177
00:09:20,040 --> 00:09:22,520
Speaker 4: parks and they can't see Bluey like, they get upset.

178
00:09:22,679 --> 00:09:26,160
Speaker 4: But Disney has benefited greatly from this show, and.

179
00:09:26,160 --> 00:09:29,040
Speaker 1: They're just licensing this. They're just licensing it.

180
00:09:29,080 --> 00:09:31,400
Speaker 4: They do take a piece of the merchandising, so they're

181
00:09:31,440 --> 00:09:34,880
Speaker 4: not wholly cut out. But I do think it creates

182
00:09:34,920 --> 00:09:37,600
Speaker 4: a little bit of friction when you have so many

183
00:09:37,640 --> 00:09:42,679
Speaker 4: people who identify Blueye as like this generation's like iconic

184
00:09:42,800 --> 00:09:47,199
Speaker 4: children's television, piece of intellectual property, and Disney can only

185
00:09:47,280 --> 00:09:50,160
Speaker 4: license it. Disney cannot control the rights. They can't exploit

186
00:09:50,160 --> 00:09:52,160
Speaker 4: them in the way that you would imagine that they

187
00:09:52,200 --> 00:09:52,720
Speaker 4: would like to.

188
00:09:53,160 --> 00:09:55,920
Speaker 5: On top of that, the company is considered buying you know,

189
00:09:56,000 --> 00:09:59,120
Speaker 5: blue out right several times. It's unclear why a deal

190
00:09:59,160 --> 00:10:01,959
Speaker 5: has the Mae Lubis Studio controls Bluie. They say it's

191
00:10:01,960 --> 00:10:04,160
Speaker 5: thought for sale a little though, you know, for the

192
00:10:04,200 --> 00:10:06,600
Speaker 5: right price, you know, who knows. But I think the

193
00:10:06,679 --> 00:10:09,239
Speaker 5: problem is what is it worth without Joe Brumm.

194
00:10:09,440 --> 00:10:13,000
Speaker 1: A question that's now front and Center. A surprise episode

195
00:10:13,040 --> 00:10:15,880
Speaker 1: last weekend confirmed a fan theory that the Healer family

196
00:10:16,000 --> 00:10:19,640
Speaker 1: is moving out of their house and maybe fans speculate

197
00:10:20,120 --> 00:10:22,960
Speaker 1: off of TV. The creator has been coy on whether

198
00:10:23,000 --> 00:10:25,400
Speaker 1: he'll stick with the show, and while it could technically

199
00:10:25,440 --> 00:10:29,120
Speaker 1: continue without Joe Brum, would Blue be as valuable if

200
00:10:29,160 --> 00:10:40,000
Speaker 1: he steps away? That's after the break Demn, could you

201
00:10:40,080 --> 00:10:43,520
Speaker 1: tell us about Joe Brum, the mind behind Bluie? How

202
00:10:43,559 --> 00:10:45,600
Speaker 1: did he come up with the idea for the show itself?

203
00:10:45,840 --> 00:10:49,440
Speaker 5: Well, it's sort of funny because he was an animator.

204
00:10:49,440 --> 00:10:52,960
Speaker 5: He wasn't somebody who wrote TV. But he would listen

205
00:10:52,960 --> 00:10:55,600
Speaker 5: to people talking on the writers' room doing kids shows,

206
00:10:55,840 --> 00:10:58,560
Speaker 5: and the writers role older and they were trying to

207
00:10:58,640 --> 00:11:02,440
Speaker 5: draw on experience, is trying to remember things that they've

208
00:11:02,440 --> 00:11:05,080
Speaker 5: done with their kids. But in his case, it was

209
00:11:05,120 --> 00:11:07,320
Speaker 5: all right there. You know, he's working for home, he's

210
00:11:07,320 --> 00:11:10,280
Speaker 5: just two little girls, and everything's really really fresh. He's

211
00:11:10,320 --> 00:11:12,920
Speaker 5: just having those experiences, so he basically draws on that

212
00:11:12,960 --> 00:11:15,640
Speaker 5: for his scripts. It's all drawn, you know, right from

213
00:11:15,679 --> 00:11:16,400
Speaker 5: his own life.

214
00:11:17,520 --> 00:11:20,160
Speaker 1: How much has the wild success of this changed both

215
00:11:20,200 --> 00:11:22,880
Speaker 1: his life and the production company that latched onto this

216
00:11:22,920 --> 00:11:23,440
Speaker 1: Early on.

217
00:11:23,800 --> 00:11:26,520
Speaker 5: We'll do the production company first. They went from like

218
00:11:26,520 --> 00:11:29,040
Speaker 5: a five person operation to like a fifty or sixty

219
00:11:29,080 --> 00:11:33,000
Speaker 5: person in operation. Blue has become the sort of global,

220
00:11:33,160 --> 00:11:37,199
Speaker 5: multi platform enterprise for them. But I think for Joe

221
00:11:37,600 --> 00:11:41,480
Speaker 5: it's a bit more complicated because he has said Bluie

222
00:11:41,679 --> 00:11:44,679
Speaker 5: is going to end at some point. I have other projects.

223
00:11:44,760 --> 00:11:47,600
Speaker 5: I want to do projects for, you know, older kids,

224
00:11:48,080 --> 00:11:50,800
Speaker 5: and then his own daughters are older. But I also

225
00:11:50,880 --> 00:11:52,959
Speaker 5: just get the sense that like he just keeps wanting

226
00:11:53,000 --> 00:11:55,439
Speaker 5: to do shows that are better and better and better

227
00:11:55,600 --> 00:11:57,720
Speaker 5: and aggregate, you know, to use his term. He doesn't

228
00:11:57,760 --> 00:12:00,280
Speaker 5: want to repeat himself. He just seems like somebody who

229
00:12:00,520 --> 00:12:02,320
Speaker 5: is it's a true creative person.

230
00:12:02,480 --> 00:12:05,800
Speaker 4: I mean, I feel strangely moved by the difficulty of

231
00:12:05,880 --> 00:12:10,680
Speaker 4: managing success. He is really a guy living in Brisbane,

232
00:12:10,960 --> 00:12:15,160
Speaker 4: Australia who happened to make something that ties together like

233
00:12:15,360 --> 00:12:19,240
Speaker 4: ten major cultural threads at once golden age of television.

234
00:12:19,280 --> 00:12:22,480
Speaker 4: It's in age where like tours, the tours are really

235
00:12:22,520 --> 00:12:24,760
Speaker 4: the showrunners, the people who are writing and creating their

236
00:12:24,760 --> 00:12:27,320
Speaker 4: own work. I think of a Jesse Armstrong like succession.

237
00:12:27,840 --> 00:12:30,000
Speaker 4: You know, they don't want to be locked into their

238
00:12:30,040 --> 00:12:33,160
Speaker 4: own success. And right now you have Joe Bram where

239
00:12:33,200 --> 00:12:36,400
Speaker 4: he technically doesn't control the rights of Blue you have

240
00:12:36,520 --> 00:12:40,160
Speaker 4: the fates of like BBC and to some degree, Disney.

241
00:12:40,800 --> 00:12:42,880
Speaker 4: As Devin points out in the story, Disney's streaming has

242
00:12:42,880 --> 00:12:45,520
Speaker 4: been a major money loser for the company. Bluie is

243
00:12:45,520 --> 00:12:49,200
Speaker 4: a real bright spot. We can make some informed speculation that, like,

244
00:12:49,200 --> 00:12:51,440
Speaker 4: if Joe Brom was like, I'm good for ten seasons,

245
00:12:51,520 --> 00:12:55,360
Speaker 4: Disney would be like, bam, like we we want to

246
00:12:55,440 --> 00:12:59,720
Speaker 4: be in the blue business, you know. But I think

247
00:12:59,760 --> 00:13:04,760
Speaker 4: everyone seemingly understands the singularity of this guy's vision, Like

248
00:13:04,960 --> 00:13:08,400
Speaker 4: what sells it is how personal it feels, and so

249
00:13:09,520 --> 00:13:14,040
Speaker 4: just strategically, how are you going to scale such a

250
00:13:14,080 --> 00:13:15,840
Speaker 4: personal thing?

251
00:13:17,520 --> 00:13:20,720
Speaker 1: Last weekend a surprise episode called Ghost Basket Drop. This

252
00:13:20,800 --> 00:13:23,000
Speaker 1: is the one about the Healer family, moving ahead of

253
00:13:23,040 --> 00:13:25,680
Speaker 1: a much longer episode everyone is waiting to see, called

254
00:13:25,720 --> 00:13:28,439
Speaker 1: The Sign. It is four times as long as a

255
00:13:28,559 --> 00:13:32,280
Speaker 1: usual episode, and it's sets premiere this Sunday, April fourteenth.

256
00:13:32,880 --> 00:13:35,360
Speaker 1: So far, there's been no announcement about a fourth season,

257
00:13:35,559 --> 00:13:38,320
Speaker 1: and unsurprisingly that has stirred up a lot of speculation

258
00:13:38,480 --> 00:13:39,559
Speaker 1: about the show's future.

259
00:13:40,120 --> 00:13:45,080
Speaker 4: The Sign is interesting because it's coming out simultaneously in

260
00:13:45,120 --> 00:13:47,240
Speaker 4: the US and other places, which is usually not the case.

261
00:13:48,120 --> 00:13:52,800
Speaker 4: And I think that there's a lot of anticipation about

262
00:13:52,840 --> 00:13:55,200
Speaker 4: what it is, obviously with the fans, but I think

263
00:13:55,320 --> 00:13:58,240
Speaker 4: also for Joe Browm in his camp, it is the

264
00:13:58,280 --> 00:14:02,280
Speaker 4: closest thing to a Bluey movie, which has also been

265
00:14:02,400 --> 00:14:04,280
Speaker 4: long rumored to exist.

266
00:14:05,000 --> 00:14:08,080
Speaker 1: That latest episode seem to confirm a theory among blue

267
00:14:08,200 --> 00:14:10,719
Speaker 1: fans that the Healers are selling their house, But does

268
00:14:10,760 --> 00:14:13,280
Speaker 1: it signal an even bigger move that Bluey could be

269
00:14:13,320 --> 00:14:14,040
Speaker 1: coming to an end.

270
00:14:14,200 --> 00:14:16,280
Speaker 5: The Little Guy said that specifically, you know, a lot

271
00:14:16,280 --> 00:14:18,680
Speaker 5: of it depends on like what the response is, what

272
00:14:18,720 --> 00:14:21,760
Speaker 5: happens after the sign So I kind of speculate towards

273
00:14:21,760 --> 00:14:23,400
Speaker 5: towards the end that if he's going to go forward,

274
00:14:23,440 --> 00:14:25,120
Speaker 5: he wants to know he can top that or you

275
00:14:25,440 --> 00:14:27,640
Speaker 5: do something better, he says, you know, it's just a

276
00:14:27,720 --> 00:14:30,920
Speaker 5: magical episode. It's an episode that sums up what we've

277
00:14:30,960 --> 00:14:33,600
Speaker 5: been trying to do for three seas is now so

278
00:14:33,600 --> 00:14:34,880
Speaker 5: so I think I just think he sets to the

279
00:14:34,960 --> 00:14:36,760
Speaker 5: bar really, really high for himself, and that's why the

280
00:14:36,760 --> 00:14:37,840
Speaker 5: show's so good.

281
00:14:40,360 --> 00:14:43,040
Speaker 1: We've talked about through the anxiety of fans how much

282
00:14:43,040 --> 00:14:45,480
Speaker 1: nervousness is there on the commercial side of this in

283
00:14:45,520 --> 00:14:49,120
Speaker 1: this vacuum period between season three and whatever might come

284
00:14:49,160 --> 00:14:52,120
Speaker 1: next for the BBC Disney what's at stake here?

285
00:14:52,400 --> 00:14:54,400
Speaker 4: I mean, David, I don't know about if you know

286
00:14:54,440 --> 00:14:57,800
Speaker 4: about the media industry, but we're not exactly in a

287
00:14:57,840 --> 00:15:01,920
Speaker 4: good state right now in general. So I would imagine

288
00:15:02,040 --> 00:15:04,720
Speaker 4: that if I were the BBC and I was attached

289
00:15:04,760 --> 00:15:07,760
Speaker 4: to the biggest children's show in the world with one

290
00:15:07,760 --> 00:15:12,000
Speaker 4: of the biggest merchandising horizons possible, I would be very

291
00:15:12,040 --> 00:15:16,040
Speaker 4: anxious about that. Ending from Disney side. You know, Disney's

292
00:15:16,080 --> 00:15:18,880
Speaker 4: a ginormous company as many and many things going on,

293
00:15:18,960 --> 00:15:21,200
Speaker 4: but it's streaming service has been the source of a

294
00:15:21,200 --> 00:15:21,880
Speaker 4: lot of issues.

295
00:15:22,080 --> 00:15:25,720
Speaker 5: You know, Disney Plus actually lost some subscribers in the

296
00:15:25,800 --> 00:15:28,120
Speaker 5: last last quarter. But you can just imagine how many

297
00:15:28,160 --> 00:15:31,400
Speaker 5: of those subscribers are subscribing primarily for Bluie. If if

298
00:15:31,400 --> 00:15:34,840
Speaker 5: Blue's accounting for almost a third of the TV views

299
00:15:35,080 --> 00:15:37,840
Speaker 5: on Disney Plus, that's a really important show for them.

300
00:15:37,880 --> 00:15:40,440
Speaker 5: They can't afford to lose it. Unfortunately. You know, it

301
00:15:40,480 --> 00:15:42,600
Speaker 5: may not be you know, it may be when their

302
00:15:42,680 --> 00:15:44,240
Speaker 5: power to keep it going.

303
00:15:44,560 --> 00:15:47,400
Speaker 4: At this point, I feel anxiety about it continuing, and

304
00:15:47,440 --> 00:15:50,040
Speaker 4: I feel anxiety about it ending. Yeah, I think it's

305
00:15:50,080 --> 00:15:53,240
Speaker 4: really again, like there's something about making something that is

306
00:15:53,280 --> 00:15:56,960
Speaker 4: so good and like operates so well on so many

307
00:15:57,000 --> 00:16:01,080
Speaker 4: different levels, commercial, creative, et cetera. That like the feeling

308
00:16:01,120 --> 00:16:03,800
Speaker 4: of like can you keep going? Can you top it?

309
00:16:04,000 --> 00:16:07,600
Speaker 4: And like at what point do we call it? You know,

310
00:16:07,880 --> 00:16:11,200
Speaker 4: because you can't make the same thing forever and keep

311
00:16:11,200 --> 00:16:14,160
Speaker 4: it as good. I think that's like the creative challenge

312
00:16:14,200 --> 00:16:14,920
Speaker 4: of television.

313
00:16:18,600 --> 00:16:21,800
Speaker 3: This episode was produced by Thomas Low and Jessica Beck.

314
00:16:22,200 --> 00:16:25,000
Speaker 2: It was edited by the club Beat Store.

315
00:16:25,160 --> 00:16:29,000
Speaker 3: It was also our executive producer. It was mixed by

316
00:16:29,080 --> 00:16:35,240
Speaker 3: Veronic Coo Retriguez. Our senior producer is Naomi Sham. Elizabeth

317
00:16:35,320 --> 00:16:38,760
Speaker 3: Ponso is our senior editor. Sage Bauman is our head

318
00:16:38,800 --> 00:16:39,760
Speaker 3: of Podcasts.

319
00:16:41,080 --> 00:16:43,400
Speaker 1: This is the Big Take from Bloomberg News. I'm David

320
00:16:43,440 --> 00:16:46,800
Speaker 1: Gerra Special thanks to Reinica, Gregory Abel, and Mave.

321
00:16:48,120 --> 00:16:51,200
Speaker 3: Please follow and review the Big Take. Whenever you listen

322
00:16:51,320 --> 00:16:56,240
Speaker 3: to podcasts, how's the listeners find this stuff? Thanks for listening.