Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg Business Week from Bloomberg Radio. I'm Jason
Speaker 1: Kelly and I'm Carol Masser. Welcome to the Bloomberg Business
Speaker 1: Week Extra. It's our weekly podcast bringing you an in
Speaker 1: depth interview you will not hear anywhere else. And this
Speaker 1: week we'll bring you an extra extra because we just
Speaker 1: loved this conversation with Keyshore Lula. He's an old friend
Speaker 1: of mine, is the chairman of Aos International. They're the
Speaker 1: Baliwood Netflix in many ways. They just did a deal
Speaker 1: with a Hollywood studio called STX. We talked a lot
Speaker 1: about the media landscape, but we also spent a minute
Speaker 1: talking about the state of the world. And I gotta
Speaker 1: tell you this will change. In Keyshore's words, your vibrations. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's all about raising the vibrational level and really just
Speaker 1: taking in what's going on around the world and how
Speaker 1: do you create those conversations that make a difference. I
Speaker 1: have to say his conversation stayed with me big time.
Speaker 1: Before we get to to the world of entertainment, I
Speaker 1: do want to ask you sort of about your view
Speaker 1: of the world. You spend a lot of time sort
Speaker 1: of moving around, you know, obviously in India, but time
Speaker 1: in London, time in California, and I wonder, you know,
Speaker 1: this moment where we are, uh, you know, June eight.
Speaker 1: I'm not sure anybody anticipated that was going to to
Speaker 1: look like this. What do you make of it? What
Speaker 1: does the world feel like to you right now? See? Um,
Speaker 1: you know, manager, I always think there's a silver lining
Speaker 1: and everything, So there could be some silver lining coming
Speaker 1: out of this COVID nineteen. Everybody's blaming, but you know,
Speaker 1: from my entertainment point of view, I think the way
Speaker 1: I'm looking at it, say, suppose the company we have
Speaker 1: fifty percent traffic comes from the studio model, comes from
Speaker 1: the ot D model because of the COVID of course,
Speaker 1: you know, because of the theaters closing down and people
Speaker 1: are unlod ob theaters, but that is getting compensated from
Speaker 1: our ot D platform. So what we have seen in
Speaker 1: the last three months, the engagement has grown up by
Speaker 1: on our traffic, whether it's iOS or Android or that traffic.
Speaker 1: And also the engagement levels by the consumer, which goes
Speaker 1: around spending about seventy minutes per day, has gone to
Speaker 1: about fourteen minutes. So that's a lot of you know,
Speaker 1: rise in that and that's the silver lining for us.
Speaker 1: So I'm not sure whether this is the last, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, when the theater comes back. So I suppose
Speaker 1: if you go back hundred years, so let's assume when
Speaker 1: there were only theaters, when then the black and white
Speaker 1: television came in, Then the color television came in, and
Speaker 1: then you had VHS, DVD, everything came in, and everybody
Speaker 1: was talking about, oh no, that format will disappear. In fact,
Speaker 1: what we have seen the industry growing worldwide and the
Speaker 1: new formats kept on coming. But the consumer had the
Speaker 1: choice to watch the content in the way they wanted,
Speaker 1: and the pie grew. So I think, you know, whatever
Speaker 1: has happened in the last three to four months, of course,
Speaker 1: I think the governments have decided that when to end
Speaker 1: the lockdown and when the people can go back to
Speaker 1: the theaters. People are resilient, people want to go back
Speaker 1: to the normal life. I think with whether the vaccine
Speaker 1: or some other self distancing rules, you would see the
Speaker 1: normalcy and the life of the theaters people coming back.
Speaker 1: But in the meanwhile, the studios and the content makers
Speaker 1: are a bit worried, saying that until the theaters does open.
Speaker 1: So therefore, you've secene whether in Hollywood or in Bollywood.
Speaker 1: The Hollywood have seen the movie state of we're going
Speaker 1: to streaming platforms, whether it is by Peacock or whether
Speaker 1: it's by Netflix, or whether Prime or whether Apple. You've
Speaker 1: seen a big movie by Apple, you know, the Tom
Speaker 1: Hanks movie directly going to Apple platforms. So in that way,
Speaker 1: the content owners are going to make money. Of course,
Speaker 1: I think the Bible will grow h it's just adapting
Speaker 1: to the new norms uh and the new ways of
Speaker 1: watching content. And also if you look at the next
Speaker 1: three to five years, the way we're going to consume
Speaker 1: content with the world which is coming in the VR,
Speaker 1: MR A R, of course, the consumption of the consumer
Speaker 1: will have a different way of consuming the content, and
Speaker 1: I think the pipe for the content owners will go
Speaker 1: only so key sure, I guess you know, what do
Speaker 1: you think dramatically changes in our world because of what
Speaker 1: we've all been experienced by the virus? You know, you've
Speaker 1: talked a little bit about, you know, streaming versus kind
Speaker 1: of the more traditional forms of distribution. Is there anything
Speaker 1: that really sticks longer term? I see? I think still
Speaker 1: for the big great movies, the theaters will be the
Speaker 1: place to watch. But you will see that for the
Speaker 1: next three to six months will be difficult for theaters.
Speaker 1: Until the people come back and until people feel secure
Speaker 1: and on self distancing, you will see a lot of
Speaker 1: releases coming on OTT definitely striving business. You have seen
Speaker 1: that all the odd businesses outsiding under the circumstances and
Speaker 1: also the consolidation which is happening. You saw a d
Speaker 1: n D acquiring Wanna and then you know measure of
Speaker 1: Disney and Fox, and then you know Netflix, you know
Speaker 1: where it has gone in the subscription level and Apple
Speaker 1: getting into the free And that's what we were thinking
Speaker 1: that how do we see as EROS. We were thinking
Speaker 1: that we have two businesses, as I said, Eros Studio
Speaker 1: and Eros now the ot D business. The OTT business
Speaker 1: is driving in a big way, and Eros Theatrical is
Speaker 1: taking a hit definitely, but that is getting compensated by
Speaker 1: the digital business. So when we did merge with st X,
Speaker 1: the Hollywood Studio, that's was the thinking. You'll see the
Speaker 1: premium content UH is getting more costlier and costlier because
Speaker 1: the consumer wants to watch the content Beat theater, b TV,
Speaker 1: Beat Bay Television or BEAT pay per view or beat
Speaker 1: ot T o t T has just become the easier
Speaker 1: method because of the bench watch and they can you know,
Speaker 1: engage with the shows or the movies whenever they want.
Speaker 1: They don't have to make an appointment with the television
Speaker 1: or they don't have to make the appointment to go
Speaker 1: and watch the movie in the theater. And that's the
Speaker 1: reason we have seen the consumption on the OTIT going out.
Speaker 1: What will drive the future in the business, as I said,
Speaker 1: the new new formats and also now the language language
Speaker 1: because of this new OTIT platforms. You've seen Spanish shows,
Speaker 1: You've seen different languages on Prime Video, on Netflix that
Speaker 1: are getting really a lot of attraction. So hence the
Speaker 1: language will not be a barrier. So if the content
Speaker 1: will have no language, it can come from India, it
Speaker 1: can come You saw Parasite, a movie from Korea getting
Speaker 1: the Oscars this time in the main stream, and that's
Speaker 1: what is getting transformed. The ot T is taking out
Speaker 1: the barriers and for the world to come under one
Speaker 1: unified world to watch content. And that's what is going
Speaker 1: to happen. I think in the future you will see
Speaker 1: a lot of interactive content being made. You will see
Speaker 1: in the next coming one or two years, immersive content
Speaker 1: being made that you will getting immersed into the content,
Speaker 1: and that's possible because of the technology and not saying
Speaker 1: the theaters will go away. The theaters will go exist,
Speaker 1: but the pie will increase. So I think as see,
Speaker 1: you know when we had DVD. When DVD disappeared, people thought, oh,
Speaker 1: you know the studios which are making so much money
Speaker 1: from DVD, where the money will come from. In fact,
Speaker 1: the pipe grow more than DVD revenue, which came because
Speaker 1: of the odd platform or the digital so similar kind
Speaker 1: of you know, the biggest I think if you look
Speaker 1: at in the last fifty years, the biggest thing which
Speaker 1: happened first was the Internet in eighties, then it was
Speaker 1: the smartphone in late two thousand and I think the
Speaker 1: biggest innovation of all, bigger than the Internet and bigger
Speaker 1: than the smartphones, will be the A R V R
Speaker 1: M R going forward, and that's going to give us
Speaker 1: more revenues. But ultimately what will happen it's the premium content.
Speaker 1: Is the content getting reformatted into different formats and the
Speaker 1: consumer chooses. You see, you cannot stop consumer to choose
Speaker 1: what they want to watch and when they want to watch,
Speaker 1: because they want to be in control, and the content
Speaker 1: owners think that they can be in control and they
Speaker 1: can h you know, force consumer to watch it through
Speaker 1: the medium. I think that fund happened so the belt
Speaker 1: picture to get the best conton out and let the
Speaker 1: consumer decide what they want to watch and when they
Speaker 1: want to watch and through which medium. Right, all right,
Speaker 1: So I have to ask you. You and I sat
Speaker 1: together in acron Ohio a few years back, and I
Speaker 1: was really impressed by not just your view of the
Speaker 1: content world, in the entertainment world, but sort of your
Speaker 1: view of life candidly, um and you talked a lot
Speaker 1: about sort of what it takes to be a good person,
Speaker 1: what it takes to sort of put the right vibe
Speaker 1: out in the world. And I've thought about that a
Speaker 1: lot in this sort of world that we're living in
Speaker 1: right now, and you know, all this despair and all
Speaker 1: this anger and protests, and I wonder what what you
Speaker 1: make of it from that perspective right now. See, it's
Speaker 1: very important as a global community to help that all
Speaker 1: over by the sansistors of every color. You know, That's
Speaker 1: what I believe in. And the other thing, you see,
Speaker 1: I believe that you know, you It's all about the
Speaker 1: vibrations and the thoughts. You know, you get about six
Speaker 1: thoughts today and what do what the talks? You think?
Speaker 1: If you think negatively, you see that comes back to
Speaker 1: you then X. So my message is clear that you know,
Speaker 1: be careful on every thought which is being emitted out
Speaker 1: of you because whatever you're thinking, if it is not positive,
Speaker 1: it will come back to you at an X. So
Speaker 1: please accept the responsibility when that comes back to you.
Speaker 1: So therefore, be responsible and think always positive and at
Speaker 1: a higher vibration so that you know you make the
Speaker 1: life good for you, but also for the community living there,
Speaker 1: you know, and I think if everybody can raise the
Speaker 1: thought level and the vibrational level, the whole community will
Speaker 1: be so good place to live and peace. So you know,
Speaker 1: eminate peace, emanate positivity and I bet you that will
Speaker 1: come back to you. So don't emanate anger. You know
Speaker 1: when you emmanate anger, that comes back to you only.
Speaker 1: So just emanate positivity. And that's Keyshorta, chairman founder of
Speaker 1: Aerros International, again the netflix of Bali Wood doing a
Speaker 1: big deal to expand their global empire. But also a
Speaker 1: very thoughtful guy. You know, someone who i've learned a
Speaker 1: lot from over the years just in terms of how
Speaker 1: he views world. And even after this interview, who is
Speaker 1: sending me emails with articles and little quotes here and there.
Speaker 1: It really does sort of change your mindset. So grateful
Speaker 1: to him for spending some time. And I'm just gonna say,
Speaker 1: I'm making t shirts that say raise the vibrational level.
Speaker 1: I'm going to do it all right, you've been listening
Speaker 1: to Bloomberg Business Week Extra, be sure to tune into
Speaker 1: Bloomberg Business Week Radio Live Money through Friday at two
Speaker 1: pm Wall Street Time on Bloomberg Radio. I'm Jason Kelly
Speaker 1: and I'm Carol Masser, and this is Bloomberg