Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg BusinessWeek inside from the reporters and editors
Speaker 1: who bring you America's most trusted business magazine, plus global business,
Speaker 1: finance and tech news as it happens. Bloomberg Business Week
Speaker 1: with Carol Messer and Tim Stenebek on Bloomberg Radio.
Speaker 2: Welcome to the weekend edition of Bloomberg Business Week. I'm
Speaker 2: Matt Miller, filling in for Carol and Tim. They spent
Speaker 2: the week in la at Bloomberg screen Time. The event
Speaker 2: brought together celebrities, entrepreneurs, and media executives in the heart
Speaker 2: of Hollywood to discuss the future of entertainment, and today
Speaker 2: we're going to bring you some of the most influential
Speaker 2: conversations from the gathering. Coming up this hour, how Netflix
Speaker 2: stays ahead of the competition with its slate of new programming.
Speaker 2: We'll hear from the company's chief content officer. Plus how
Speaker 2: artificial intelligence plays into twenty first century entertainment. We'll speak
Speaker 2: to the co creator of South Park about using big
Speaker 2: tech on the small screen. But first, let's talk about
Speaker 2: the future of TV from one of the biggest names
Speaker 2: in the industry. NBC was founded in nineteen twenty six,
Speaker 2: making it one of the oldest entertainment broadcasters in the world.
Speaker 2: As competition increased in the media landscape, Comcast acquired NBC
Speaker 2: Universal more than a decade ago, and now the network
Speaker 2: is fresh off a successful Summer Olympics and a new
Speaker 2: deal with the NBA. So what better time to hear
Speaker 2: from Brian Roberts. He's chairman and CEO of Comcast NBC
Speaker 2: Universal and sat down with Lucas Shaw from the Bloomberg
Speaker 2: screen Time event in Los Angeles.
Speaker 3: You seem to be investing more in media entertainment at
Speaker 3: a time where there's a lot of anxiety and uncertainty
Speaker 3: about it. Why does it make sense for comcasts to
Speaker 3: be in the entertainment business and what do you see
Speaker 3: that's sort of bright about the future that maybe others
Speaker 3: don't agree with.
Speaker 4: Well, I think a broad statement like that. You know,
Speaker 4: Larry Ellison just chose to get in. You're sponsored by AWS.
Speaker 4: There's you know, a complete change of who's enthusiastic and
Speaker 4: what do they bring to the party, And maybe some
Speaker 4: of those folks thought it was time to exit.
Speaker 5: We're pretty excited about the company we've got.
Speaker 4: We have in the media part of the business, you know,
Speaker 4: studios growing great. You know, we have in Peacock a strategy.
Speaker 4: I'm sure we'll get into it a little more. That
Speaker 4: is a growth business for us. And we've also selling
Speaker 4: our Hulu steak, so we actually will have you know,
Speaker 4: very little money net in streaming in terms of losses
Speaker 4: versus profits, so you know.
Speaker 5: Each company is different.
Speaker 4: Then we also have a broadband the majority of the
Speaker 4: company my dad started Comcast Cable now really a broadband connectivity.
Speaker 5: Business Wi Fi. You know, if you were to go
Speaker 5: back ten years and you say, let's design with.
Speaker 4: Your perfect knowledge of what the world looks like today,
Speaker 4: what would be a cool company would say, I'd like
Speaker 4: to connect everybody to what we're doing, whether it's in
Speaker 4: streaming or whether it's in AI, or whether it's going
Speaker 4: to be in you whatever comes next.
Speaker 5: Zoom calls working from.
Speaker 4: Home, and we have the nation's most connected broadband customers.
Speaker 5: We have a converge service with wireless.
Speaker 4: And broadband in more homes than AT and T, Verizon
Speaker 4: T Mobile combined, and a lot of that content. One
Speaker 4: hundred million people every quarter coming to watch today's show.
Speaker 5: Tonight's show SNL.
Speaker 4: Which is fabulous as always this year, And don't know
Speaker 4: how one.
Speaker 5: Michael can do it every time.
Speaker 4: But this being such an important year, what a great
Speaker 4: first two shows, and then film and television and the
Speaker 4: stories we have, and then of course sports, and I'm sure.
Speaker 5: We'll talk a little about that as well.
Speaker 4: So I think we have a pretty great company. And
Speaker 4: I'm more excited. This will be our sixtieth year.
Speaker 5: My dad founded it.
Speaker 4: This will be and last year was the most profitable
Speaker 4: year and the best year in company's history. And you
Speaker 4: know we're about to do earnings. Think we're going to
Speaker 4: have a great year this year by all the analyst
Speaker 4: accounts and maybe even the best year in the company's
Speaker 4: history are right there.
Speaker 5: And so why would you not be excited?
Speaker 6: You brought up Peacock.
Speaker 3: I'm curious how long until Peacock is really a profitable
Speaker 3: and sustainable business on its own.
Speaker 4: Well, first of all, we don't look at as on
Speaker 4: its own, so I'm not doing a duct your question completely,
Speaker 4: But that's not how we're running the business. We're running
Speaker 4: it as part of the media business. So take the Olympics.
Speaker 4: Eighty seven percent of the viewing was on NBC or
Speaker 4: one of our cable channels.
Speaker 5: Thirteen percent was on.
Speaker 4: Peacock but together we presented to the consumer all those choices,
Speaker 4: every event, every athlete, every country, Mike Turico doing two
Speaker 4: prime time shows in a heroic fashion.
Speaker 6: You know, hard to get. We have the stats here.
Speaker 3: Universal had the most viewership of any company KEP viewership
Speaker 3: at any company in August because of the lie.
Speaker 4: Did it for seventeen straight days. It's so hard to
Speaker 4: keep America's viewer's attention for more than two hours, let
Speaker 4: alone seventeen days.
Speaker 5: So that was a whole company effort.
Speaker 4: And so to pick one part of the company and say, well,
Speaker 4: how's that part doing well? If your goal is to
Speaker 4: just be Netflix, that's a really important question. If your
Speaker 4: goal is to have a media company that, particularly in
Speaker 4: the United States, which is where most of our emphasis is,
Speaker 4: is to deliver sports to I think of Bloomberg didn't
Speaker 4: have a print business.
Speaker 5: But I was chatting with some friends from the Wall Street.
Speaker 4: Journal and they had to go from a quote dying
Speaker 4: print business to a growing digital business.
Speaker 5: And New York Times had to do the same.
Speaker 4: There's some people that didn't make it USA today may
Speaker 4: not quite get there. If you inquire regional papers, tough business.
Speaker 5: We think NBC we.
Speaker 4: Are going to get there, and Peacock is going to
Speaker 4: be part of how that happens. As more and more
Speaker 4: people cut the cord, more and more people will take Peacock.
Speaker 3: That's why people ask about the sustainability to Peacock. I
Speaker 3: get that it's part of this broader group, right, But
Speaker 3: your cable networks are the ones that are going in
Speaker 3: the wrong direction, right, so you need something to offset that.
Speaker 5: Peacock. We think this year will be the most.
Speaker 4: Losses we've had, even including the NBA investment that we're making.
Speaker 4: We're already improved, that's what last.
Speaker 6: They won't hurt profitability going for.
Speaker 4: Well, it might have theoretically in the short run, but
Speaker 4: in the long run, we're super excited and think that
Speaker 4: it's factored into what we need to spend and what
Speaker 4: will monetize if you go back.
Speaker 5: We had all our content on Hulu. We bought the company.
Speaker 4: That was what NBC had committed to before we own
Speaker 4: the company. Then Fox happened and Disney got control of Hulu.
Speaker 4: We worked out a amicable way to extricate, which was
Speaker 4: taking five years. We didn't want to sell our Hulu
Speaker 4: steak until the end of those five years.
Speaker 6: More than years at this point a little bit.
Speaker 4: We're gonna We're going to figure out eventually the end
Speaker 4: and we will have taken We've already taken, you know,
Speaker 4: a lot of billions of dollars out off of several
Speaker 4: hundred million dollar investment and maybe more to come, we hope.
Speaker 4: And so when that's all said, none, we got all
Speaker 4: the content onto Peacock, but we had to start at
Speaker 4: a very late date compared to other streaming codes. So
Speaker 4: our strategy was to take all the sports we had
Speaker 4: and now make them available to people who didn't buy
Speaker 4: the bundle. We're the first ones in a way to
Speaker 4: actually do that, and then later on all the episodes
Speaker 4: and all the seasons and all the all the great
Speaker 4: content that Donna's making and film created a new set
Speaker 4: of windows. Team did a super job where some of
Speaker 4: our content is for four months, all of it's on Peacock.
Speaker 4: The next ten months it goes to either Amazon or Netflix, and.
Speaker 5: Then back to Peacock.
Speaker 4: Nobody had ever done that before, So we've been kind
Speaker 4: of innovating, i think, in the changing industry and the
Speaker 4: changing landscape to work for our set assets to give
Speaker 4: us a very sustainable path to be able to say
Speaker 4: to you that our media business will be profitable, is profitable,
Speaker 4: will continue to be profitable, and I believe will grow
Speaker 4: despite the downward pressure because of the growth of Peacock.
Speaker 3: Right, I'm wondering if you are confident in Peacock on
Speaker 3: its own, not on its own, you know, within your company,
Speaker 3: but as a viable streaming service going forward, why it's
Speaker 3: been publicly reported by Bloomberg and others. You've had conversations
Speaker 3: with other companies about merging streaming services, joint ventures, that
Speaker 3: sort of thing.
Speaker 6: You know, Paramount's certainly been out there. Why have those
Speaker 6: talks if you're a big believer in Peacock.
Speaker 4: Well, there's always just because you reported a Bloomberg I
Speaker 4: mucho say it's accurate, But of course if it's Bloomberg,
Speaker 4: it must be accurate.
Speaker 3: So therefore, well you reference the Journal they also reported.
Speaker 3: I feel like, if both Bloomberg and the Journal are
Speaker 3: reporting something odds, are it's accurate?
Speaker 5: Absolutely so, and throw NBC News in there too.
Speaker 4: So in all seriousness, obviously people are going to say,
Speaker 4: here's a changing landscape, what can I do that would
Speaker 4: advance myself? So conversations are always going to happen they
Speaker 4: happen all businesses all the time. I think it's a
Speaker 4: tough thing to actually get executed because I'm a believer
Speaker 4: coming from where I started my career in cable. My
Speaker 4: first job was selling HBO door to door, one of
Speaker 4: the first jobs, and we had a lot of channels.
Speaker 5: When John Malone said we're going to go to five
Speaker 5: hundred channels, it kind of got laughed about.
Speaker 4: And then the Internet, of course went to Infinity Infinity,
Speaker 4: So the notion that we'd have ten streaming service doesn't
Speaker 4: intimidate me whatsoever. The technology for the consumer is the
Speaker 4: question can I bounce from show to show?
Speaker 3: I'm not sure hard to get from Netflix to Peacock
Speaker 3: to Apple there.
Speaker 4: If you believe that's how it's going to be, then
Speaker 4: that's an issue. I'm coming from a world that we
Speaker 4: went from three channels when my dad started to five
Speaker 4: hundred channels and we had no problem doing that and
Speaker 4: the consumer got used to it. So the question will
Speaker 4: be can we solve that? Well, we have a technology
Speaker 4: which we've licensed to Charter, We've launched the Rogers, we
Speaker 4: doew it with Sky, we do it in Australia, we
Speaker 4: do it in South Africa, where you just talk to
Speaker 4: it and say House of Cards, Sunday night football, Dodgers game, congratulations,
Speaker 4: affilies didn't.
Speaker 5: Do so well yesterday. You just go. It's just like
Speaker 5: changing channels.
Speaker 4: Now somebody will come along and say, well, can I
Speaker 4: buy one subscription and get all these services?
Speaker 5: So I'm not out of luck.
Speaker 4: Well that sounds like cable TV was, so I have
Speaker 4: a bias that I could see it all kind of
Speaker 4: being some form of consumer wants to go where the
Speaker 4: great content is. And if AMC makes a show Breaking Bad,
Speaker 4: and nobody had ever watched AMC before that, perhaps and
Speaker 4: all of a sudden they had AMC and they had
Speaker 4: Breaking Bad, that's the great community here.
Speaker 5: Makes the breakthrough.
Speaker 4: Must have programming, whether that one day is an Olympics
Speaker 4: or one day is a show that I.
Speaker 5: Never knew I wanted, and the word of mouth, and.
Speaker 4: I'm confident that Peacock can play an important role in that.
Speaker 5: And whether we do that.
Speaker 4: With others or by ourselves or in some sort of partnership,
Speaker 4: you know, those are things that right today we're pretty
Speaker 4: happy where we're at.
Speaker 5: But we'll see. We didn't bid on paramount.
Speaker 4: You know, all the press wants to have us do
Speaker 4: something I don't know that we are going to do right.
Speaker 2: That was Comcast NBC Universal Chairman and CEO Brian Roberts
Speaker 2: speaking with Bloomberg's Lucas Shaw from our screen Time event
Speaker 2: in Los Angeles this week. The Summer Olympics helped get
Speaker 2: NBC a boost this year, but it's been a challenging
Speaker 2: year for media stocks. Comcast shares are down roughly six
Speaker 2: percent on the year. Coming up next, how artificial intelligence
Speaker 2: plays into twenty first century entertainment. We'll speak with the
Speaker 2: co creator of South Park about using big tech on
Speaker 2: the small screen as straight Ahead in this special weekend
Speaker 2: edition of Bloomberg Business Week, bringing you some of the
Speaker 2: best conversations from this week's screen Time event in Los Angeles.
Speaker 2: I'm Matt Miller filling in for Carol and Tim, and
Speaker 2: this is Bluebook.
Speaker 1: Everything you love about Bloomberg Radio is now inside your car.
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Speaker 1: and then right outo free in the MLAP store or
Speaker 1: on Google Play. This is Bloomberg Business Week with Carol
Speaker 1: Messer and Tim Stenebeck on Bloomberg Radio.
Speaker 2: You're listening to the weekend edition of Bloomberg Business Week.
Speaker 2: I'm Matt Miller, filling in for Carolyn tim who spent
Speaker 2: the week in Los Angeles at Bloomberg screen Time. The
Speaker 2: event focused on the future of entertainment and the impact
Speaker 2: of AI on creative industries, and today we're bringing you
Speaker 2: some of our conversations from the gathering. Up next, we
Speaker 2: speak to the co creator of one of the longest
Speaker 2: running shows on television. Matt Stone helped create South Park
Speaker 2: nearly thirty years ago, and today he continues to offer
Speaker 2: his audience the same fresh, unapologetic humor he did in
Speaker 2: nineteen ninety seven. Now he focuses on keeping the show
Speaker 2: relevant while experimenting with artificial intelligence in his program. For
Speaker 2: more on the future of tech in entertainment, Matt Stone
Speaker 2: sat down with Lucas Shaw this week at Bloomberg screen
Speaker 2: Time in La Let's hear some of that conversation.
Speaker 3: Now, is there an end in sight for the show?
Speaker 3: Or have you guys just reached a point where you're like,
Speaker 3: we're just going to keep doing it. At a certain point,
Speaker 3: maybe we'll get tired of it, but for now we're.
Speaker 7: I think we're gonna No, we don't have an end insight.
Speaker 7: And actually, and I'll say honestly, it's because it's still
Speaker 7: such an awesome sandbox. Yeah. You know, we're working on
Speaker 7: a movie right now, a live action movie. When we
Speaker 7: get back to south Park, it's going to be like, oh, right,
Speaker 7: here we go, like I can't wait to see find
Speaker 7: you know, hang out with those characters again. To be
Speaker 7: cheesy about it, like we love, we love, we love
Speaker 7: doing south Park. And then I think we'll just we
Speaker 7: will last long enough to reach the singularity and pass
Speaker 7: it off to our AI.
Speaker 3: Do you ever because I believe you have a relatively
Speaker 3: friendly relationship with the Simpsons people, right.
Speaker 7: I mean we don't know anybody really personally. I mean,
Speaker 7: you know, but I.
Speaker 3: Think they had you beat by about eight nine years
Speaker 3: something like that. Like do you ever yeah, yeah, these
Speaker 3: two shows that have been on forever. Do you ever
Speaker 3: think like, Okay, we gotta go on longer than Nadi.
Speaker 7: Oh that will be in the AI singularity future, whatever
Speaker 7: the hell that is. No, The Simpsons was an incredibly
Speaker 7: formative show for us. You know, we were in college watching,
Speaker 7: going to bars, watching it along with people along with
Speaker 7: them beave some buttead those were like, oh you can
Speaker 7: do this, you know before before that there was no
Speaker 7: idea that you could do an adult animation.
Speaker 6: Is there a new adult animated show that you really love? Like?
Speaker 3: Have you seen anything new in the last five years
Speaker 3: I'm watching. I don't watch any television really, not like none.
Speaker 6: Why not?
Speaker 7: I got kids, and I got work, and I don't know.
Speaker 7: I don't do anything more valid. I don't do anything. Well, Okay,
Speaker 7: you know, hang out with my friends. You're a gonna
Speaker 7: video game.
Speaker 6: Let's say you go home this weekend, right, you have
Speaker 6: what do you do to relax? I don't know.
Speaker 7: I just don't watch TV.
Speaker 6: I know that's fine, but so what do you do? Okay,
Speaker 6: what is this?
Speaker 7: Go on a hike, hang out with my kids. They're
Speaker 7: coming in town this weekend. I haven't seen them in
Speaker 7: a few weeks. I see my friends, right, I might
Speaker 7: have a drink that's allowed. Yes, I have a smoke. Also,
Speaker 7: might hang out with people. I don't know. I just
Speaker 7: am not a TV person. I really never have been personally,
Speaker 7: and now to get to like if there's anything now,
Speaker 7: I just find the whole thing bewildering. When I turn
Speaker 7: on there's no way I'm when I find I feel
Speaker 7: burned the last couple of TV shows I've gotten into,
Speaker 7: and I do feel like this has been a bual
Speaker 7: of casualty or the problem with the streaming revolution is
Speaker 7: like someone to say, you gotta watch this show. You
Speaker 7: gotta watch Mandalorian, it's so awesome. You gotta watch Battle
Speaker 7: starkal Act, you gotta watch this one show, and I'll
Speaker 7: never watch TV. And I will, and I'll go on,
Speaker 7: I'll start watching it and it's great, and I'm like,
Speaker 7: I am missing something, and then you get into that
Speaker 7: second season and there's that episode that's and I feel
Speaker 7: so betrayed. No, it's no, I don't have a rational
Speaker 7: I'm like, oh, well, you know what the economics they
Speaker 7: really tried. I don't do that. You're wasting my time.
Speaker 7: And that's when I feel like they're them. Know the
Speaker 7: business of the business that this is, the streaming revolution
Speaker 7: is created, is destorying the art of what should be
Speaker 7: being made. Even though I'm irrational about it.
Speaker 3: I'm a cures start because you're talking about season two, right,
Speaker 3: and one of them two.
Speaker 7: As soon as I feel like you're wasting my time,
Speaker 7: I feel completely betrayed because I fell in love with
Speaker 7: something and now I know you're and I just I
Speaker 7: have like a short views and that's that, well one
Speaker 7: about the computer, and then I don't watch TV for
Speaker 7: three more years. That's if anybody knows that is seriously true.
Speaker 3: You know, it's funny because I feel like one of
Speaker 3: the criticisms of streaming services is they cancel shows too quickly.
Speaker 6: Shows never like there's no streaming.
Speaker 3: Show that is in I don't think in like season
Speaker 3: ten or twelve or anything like that. But so what
Speaker 3: part of the process do you feel like streaming has distorted?
Speaker 7: I don't know if it's streaming or like I just
Speaker 7: the and listen, I gotta show this on twenty seven years.
Speaker 7: So you know what am I talking about? I don't know,
Speaker 7: you know, but like it's just when I feel like
Speaker 7: someone's wasting my time and I just I feel like
Speaker 7: that that is part of the butter and bread equation
Speaker 7: that's gotten screwed up in the twenty tens from streaming
Speaker 7: of like, well let's make the bread. This my god, this,
Speaker 7: there's this much butter in the world, or that we're
Speaker 7: gonna do this much bread, and so it doesn't work, right.
Speaker 7: There's just not that much good stuff out there, right,
Speaker 7: because the technologies made it so with editing and photography
Speaker 7: and everything, everything looks glossy and it looks good, and
Speaker 7: you go, Okay, this feels good, and then they fool you,
Speaker 7: and then episode seven you realize you're wasting my time,
Speaker 7: and then again bang, and then I get really mad.
Speaker 6: Do you think that I'm curious?
Speaker 3: Do you worry that AI makes that worse because it
Speaker 3: make it even easier to make stuff?
Speaker 7: I don't know. Yeah, I mean maybe because on the
Speaker 7: other hand, there's a lot of people who are the
Speaker 7: technologies made it so that there's a lot there's a
Speaker 7: lot of cool stuff happening. There's I don't need to
Speaker 7: be a complete grouch. I'm a pretty big grouch when
Speaker 7: someone wastes my time. But if you know, there has
Speaker 7: been a lot of like great stuff, like with YouTube
Speaker 7: and people online. What am I saying, I've seen the tools,
Speaker 7: the tools to make films are so much different than
Speaker 7: when Trey and I started. That's cool. It's cool that
Speaker 7: people can make stuff.
Speaker 3: Like how much does the well, this is maybe going
Speaker 3: in the other direction what you're just saying, like how
Speaker 3: much does the average episode of South Park cost now
Speaker 3: versus when you started?
Speaker 7: Oh, the gazillion times more because Trey and I make
Speaker 7: so much.
Speaker 6: Yeah, you know, I mean you know what I mean.
Speaker 7: Like we were living on couches and you know we're
Speaker 7: literally crashing on our friend's couch when we first started
Speaker 7: making the show, right, you know, now it's quite a
Speaker 7: bit more. Yes, good tray out of bed.
Speaker 3: Is you know, it's not going to get out of
Speaker 3: bed for like you know, Well, the savviest deal you
Speaker 3: ever did was you got fifty per cent of your
Speaker 3: digital rights.
Speaker 7: That yeah, yeah, no, that was a good That was
Speaker 7: a good idea and uh so that turned out to
Speaker 7: be a good idea.
Speaker 3: The company where you've been home for the I mean
Speaker 3: since the sound of the part of South Parke's Paramount
Speaker 3: obviously had a rather bumpy year. What were you guys
Speaker 3: thinking during the sale process? Are you like reading the
Speaker 3: stories that my colleagues and up peers and I are
Speaker 3: writing that are you talking to people like what now?
Speaker 6: Of course?
Speaker 7: I mean yeah, I mean we uh you know what
Speaker 7: happened between those digital rights and between when we went
Speaker 7: and did Book a Mormon with our friend Bobby Lopez
Speaker 7: and just the way Broadway works, is we between that
Speaker 7: and then having enough money and you know, having a
Speaker 7: little bit of savvy, we've we've just we've we've moved
Speaker 7: into we're owners now. We're not for higher you know
Speaker 7: what I mean. We went over that. We we we
Speaker 7: got above that, look above those clouds, you know what
Speaker 7: I mean. So we really, in a way were fortified
Speaker 7: to be okay with whoever is going to buy a parent.
Speaker 7: If someone's gonna buy Paramount and slice it up way
Speaker 7: someone's a buy Paramount, we'll buy south Park back from him.
Speaker 7: Like we're ready to do whatever that said, I'm pretty
Speaker 7: I'm pretty excited about the David Elison.
Speaker 6: And why is that?
Speaker 7: You know, I mean just we've we've met a couple
Speaker 7: of times. I mean, this is again, this is just
Speaker 7: comes from like I think.
Speaker 6: Did you meet before this or as a result.
Speaker 7: Of we met once or twice before and then we've
Speaker 7: met once or twice since the whole thing, and uh,
Speaker 7: you know the grouch and like, you know, he seems
Speaker 7: like someone who.
Speaker 3: The kid of a tech billionaire does feel like someone
Speaker 3: you would make fun of on the show.
Speaker 7: I have to say, not not this one, yeah.
Speaker 6: But.
Speaker 7: No, but he seemed listen, he seems like a guy
Speaker 7: who genuinely is. He's not in He's not and we're
Speaker 7: we've lived at a Paramount and I actually like the
Speaker 7: the current people who work at Paramount we work with,
Speaker 7: I really like. But it's been a bumpy ride through
Speaker 7: the pant Well, you've had the Philip them on, a
Speaker 7: Phil Dowlmon. We got the Phil Dowmon era era where
Speaker 7: this quarter to quarter and just milk thing for what
Speaker 7: it is every quarter. I don't think that's what David
Speaker 7: wants to do. He seems like a guy who's the
Speaker 7: person who's dedicated and the team's dedicated to a long
Speaker 7: term vision and that's what you have to do. These
Speaker 7: like these projects just take a long time. And the
Speaker 7: quantity or quality sorry quality over quantity that I think
Speaker 7: he really believes in will is lines up with what
Speaker 7: Trey and Iron to right. Don't do a lot. We
Speaker 7: hope that what we do is not a waste of
Speaker 7: anybody's time and if it is, okay, we tried, do
Speaker 7: you know what I mean? But we didn't deliberately go
Speaker 7: out to go, hey, like we could make a little
Speaker 7: more bread here and spread that butter out. It's really
Speaker 7: butter bread. That's all I wanted that's my that's my
Speaker 7: really clever analogy today.
Speaker 3: Sorry, so you're not gonna You're not gonna make fun
Speaker 3: of David I did have you ever done Larry Ellison
Speaker 3: on the show.
Speaker 7: No, won't be making fun of him either. He's safer now.
Speaker 3: Other than owners of Paramount, you guys are pretty much
Speaker 3: willing to make fun of anyone or anything. Is there
Speaker 3: anyone or anything you're not interested in touching?
Speaker 5: I don't know.
Speaker 7: We didn't asked so many times, we know, and then
Speaker 7: I know we'll come up. We come up with something. Yeah,
Speaker 7: that's not that's really not where we start from.
Speaker 6: You know, you start from what would be just.
Speaker 7: Like I don't know, it's just what's it's the same,
Speaker 7: what are you right about? It's stuff that's interesting. It's
Speaker 7: like the way that we luckily like that's what I'm saying.
Speaker 7: We have a sandbox and it's so fun to whether
Speaker 7: it's the news or something happens in our life, we
Speaker 7: get to go plan our sandbox. That's how it starts,
Speaker 7: you know, right like making like doing a show about ozempic.
Speaker 7: Like we didn't really make fun of ozempic. We didn't
Speaker 7: make fun you know what I mean? We just found
Speaker 7: all these different angles to come at it and talk
Speaker 7: about it. You know, that's a big that's a big thing,
Speaker 7: that the big change to our world.
Speaker 3: Right, bread and butter ozempic. We have all the Hollywood
Speaker 3: bass pretty.
Speaker 7: Good, right, Yeah, maybe maybe let's Hollywood needs a little
Speaker 7: ozempic to go.
Speaker 3: Did you I'm curious, at any point during the sale process,
Speaker 3: did you guys think about trying to buy south Park back.
Speaker 3: I know I feel like there were, because you know,
Speaker 3: Viacom or Paramount they looked into selling Bet looked into
Speaker 3: selling show Time. I assume that we thought about it,
Speaker 3: like you could have just said we'll buy Comedy Central
Speaker 3: from you.
Speaker 7: We thought about it, you know, I'm not saying we
Speaker 7: thought about buying it like I'm gonna write a check.
Speaker 7: We thought about just doing a press release, like you know,
Speaker 7: some sort of like hey, we're going to make an offer,
Speaker 7: just to be kind of dicks about the whole thing.
Speaker 3: But like you and a few of the other people
Speaker 3: who bid on the company but didn't really bid on the.
Speaker 7: Yeah, I know, we would just been on just on
Speaker 7: South Park and we're we were We went through that scenario,
Speaker 7: but ultimately, like that's not I don't know. As I said,
Speaker 7: I'm excited about Paramount Room retaining remaining intact. I have
Speaker 7: a little you know, teeny, I have a little romanticism
Speaker 7: about Hollywood still because I'm from the before time, from
Speaker 7: when we came to Hollywood, it was still Hollywood, you know.
Speaker 7: Now it's like texall come down here and everything's disorienting,
Speaker 7: and I don't know what a studio is anymore, and
Speaker 7: what distribution is anymore. But the idea that there's a
Speaker 7: lot and the people go to work on the lot,
Speaker 7: and you know, it looks like a backlot and there's
Speaker 7: a guy in the corner he you know, smoking a cigar,
Speaker 7: and he's rich, and.
Speaker 6: That's what you want. I like that.
Speaker 7: Yeah, it's good compared to the tech you know, compared
Speaker 7: to Northern California and tech guys. Yeah, that's I like that,
Speaker 7: you know what I mean. Like I've been lucky enough
Speaker 7: in my life to get to know kind of like
Speaker 7: tech people, and I live in New York now and
Speaker 7: a Wall Street people, you know, and Hollywood, and I'm
Speaker 7: just totally proud to be part of the Hollywood community.
Speaker 3: God, I want to replay that to twenty five year
Speaker 3: old Matt see what he Yes.
Speaker 7: I know it's no after That's what I'm saying. After
Speaker 7: living through all this stuff, like you know, like I'm
Speaker 7: not like the pro is like the most stand up
Speaker 7: place of all these industries.
Speaker 6: Man.
Speaker 3: You know what I mean is that because you are
Speaker 3: an artist and so you feel sort of a kinship
Speaker 3: with other people in that community or do you actually.
Speaker 7: Yeah, it's just at this point now it's like, what
Speaker 7: am I going to do? You know, It's like not
Speaker 7: being a Lakers fan after living here for so long,
Speaker 7: like a bit of it's that a bit off. It's
Speaker 7: just like the way that you know, watching I do
Speaker 7: feel like it's it, and I do feel like not
Speaker 7: to be quite as strident. It's a two way street.
Speaker 7: Like with Northern California and Southern California, you have this
Speaker 7: mutual disrespect of what each other does.
Speaker 2: That was south Park co creator Matt Stones speaking with
Speaker 2: Bloomberg's Lucas Shaw from our screen Time event in Los
Speaker 2: Angeles this week. So far, South Park has run for
Speaker 2: twenty six seasons and compiled a list of more than
Speaker 2: three hundred episodes coming up next. How Netflix stays ahead
Speaker 2: of the competition with its slate of new programming. We'll
Speaker 2: hear from the company's chief content officer. That's straight ahead
Speaker 2: on this special edition of Bloomberg Business Week, bringing you
Speaker 2: conversations from this week's screen Time event in Los Angeles.
Speaker 2: I'm Matt Miller filling in for Carolyn Tim and this
Speaker 2: is Bloomberg.
Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Messer and Tim
Speaker 1: Stenebeck on Bloomberg Radio.
Speaker 2: This is the weekend edition of Bloomberg Business Week. I'm
Speaker 2: Matt Miller filling in for Carol and Tim. They spent
Speaker 2: the week in Los Angeles at Bloomberg screen Time. The
Speaker 2: event brought together celebrities, entrepreneurs, and media executives in the
Speaker 2: heart of Hollywood to discuss the future of entertainment, and
Speaker 2: today we're bringing you some of our conversations from the gathering.
Speaker 2: Up next, we speak with the person in charge of
Speaker 2: programming for the biggest streaming platform in the world, Bella Bajaria,
Speaker 2: is Chief Content Officer at Netflix. The platform is the
Speaker 2: most dominant global force in streaming. Other companies have tried
Speaker 2: to claim the mantle and so far failed. So how
Speaker 2: does Netflix stay ahead of the competition. To try and
Speaker 2: answer that question, Lucas Shaw sat down with Bellabajari at
Speaker 2: Bloomberg's screen Time event in LA this week. Let's hear
Speaker 2: what she had to say.
Speaker 3: You hosted a bunch of agents at Netflix. And I'm
Speaker 3: not going to ask what you think I'm going to ask,
Speaker 3: but you hosted a bunch of agents at Netflix a
Speaker 3: couple weeks ago to show them what you had coming
Speaker 3: and give them, I think, as you described, sort of
Speaker 3: like a.
Speaker 6: Lesson in Netflix. Yeah.
Speaker 3: And I was struck by this because Netflix has been
Speaker 3: around for a decade in terms of original programming. More
Speaker 3: than that, as a company, obviously it's the biggest buyer
Speaker 3: in What is it that your partners don't understand about
Speaker 3: Netflix at this point?
Speaker 8: It's a good question, but I was really hoping you
Speaker 8: were gonna ask me the other question. I'd like to
Speaker 8: set the record straight that a little bit. Look part
Speaker 8: of inviting everybody in to say, like, let's you know,
Speaker 8: talk about the product, let's have marrying Lely, our CMO,
Speaker 8: you know, talk about marketing and our social channels, and
Speaker 8: me sort of just doing the here's Netflix, here's what
Speaker 8: we do.
Speaker 9: The reason is really twofold one.
Speaker 8: Those are our partners, right, and we know if they
Speaker 8: understand our business or what we're trying to do. They
Speaker 8: also can help guide their talent and understand what Netflix is.
Speaker 9: And the reason that I wanted.
Speaker 8: To do it was I think there's still a lot
Speaker 8: of people in our business who still can sort of
Speaker 8: understand like linear network or legacy media companies, and then
Speaker 8: they try to squint and go, oh, but you do
Speaker 8: it this way, but why can't and they can only
Speaker 8: relate to sort of this old fashioned way of the business, right,
Speaker 8: that kind of model. And it was really to say,
Speaker 8: we're a pure play streamer. We're a subscription business. We
Speaker 8: only make film, TV and games. This is the business
Speaker 8: we're in. We care about consumer choice and control. We
Speaker 8: launch things all at once. Here's our huge audience. It's
Speaker 8: almost you know, it's like, let's say, you know, it's
Speaker 8: six hundred million people and we're not this or that,
Speaker 8: because I think people really want to sort of just
Speaker 8: go do make this kind of movie or this kind
Speaker 8: of show. That's a very narrow way of looking at it.
Speaker 8: We are programming for six hundred million people around the world,
Speaker 8: with lots of different tastes, lots of different cultures, lots
Speaker 8: of different languages, and it's never been done before, and
Speaker 8: so it was a little bit of a can we
Speaker 8: do Netflix one on one to just understand, this is
Speaker 8: our business. We're just in a different business and our
Speaker 8: model is different. And so it was more that here's
Speaker 8: a peek behind the curtain. We're partners with you, and
Speaker 8: we want to make sure that we share this information
Speaker 8: and kind of set the table of what we're trying
Speaker 8: to do and our aspiration to make amazing filming and
Speaker 8: TV all around the world, and why we do it
Speaker 8: this way.
Speaker 6: Okay, you can talk about the thing you wanted to
Speaker 6: talk about a few I don't want.
Speaker 8: To talk about it, but you all want to talk
Speaker 8: about it, so I'm going to talk about it.
Speaker 3: What Bella's referencing is there's been this belief or you
Speaker 3: have started to adjust the way that you pay talent
Speaker 3: on certain movies, and there is a movement across Hollywood
Speaker 3: right now, I would say, among the streaming services to
Speaker 3: reevaluate how they pay talent, because it used to be
Speaker 3: you'd buy all the rights up front and there wouldn't
Speaker 3: really be back end.
Speaker 6: Maybe you get a bonus if you know, you get.
Speaker 3: Nominated for an award something fancy like that, but not
Speaker 3: traditional ownership back end. A lot of people think that
Speaker 3: you're going there in television and you don't want to
Speaker 3: go there?
Speaker 6: Is that? Am I?
Speaker 8: Yeah, so okay, let's do okay, we're going to back
Speaker 8: up for a second. So I get that the press
Speaker 8: really wants to write about the story, right and everybody
Speaker 8: wants there to be a story there. I understand that
Speaker 8: is clearly evidenced by what's been written, including total fabrications
Speaker 8: about meetings that were about it, which is.
Speaker 9: Just not true.
Speaker 8: And we like our model, and we like our model
Speaker 8: in film and TV and on the film site, even
Speaker 8: which a lot has been written about.
Speaker 9: We are not changing our model.
Speaker 8: Our model works great for talent, or it works great
Speaker 8: for filmmakers, it's work well for us.
Speaker 9: We like the model, it's worked for.
Speaker 8: A long time, so we are not changing our compensation model.
Speaker 8: There have been a few bespoke deals on a couple
Speaker 8: of movies the talent that some talent was interested in
Speaker 8: the opportunity of, like we'll take some risks, we're going
Speaker 8: to share a more upside, and they were interested in that.
Speaker 9: But just inside the record trait, I can count those.
Speaker 8: I can't even say handful because I can count them
Speaker 8: on a hand.
Speaker 9: But I can actually count them on two fingers.
Speaker 8: So it's very tiny thing that has blown up to
Speaker 8: this story of we're changing our business.
Speaker 9: Well, we're not in TV. We have not done one
Speaker 9: of those deals, So that's just not true.
Speaker 3: Don't you think that some of that has to do
Speaker 3: with the fact that Netflix says we're not going to
Speaker 3: do X and then they eventually do it. Right, there's
Speaker 3: like a something you know you aren't going to do advertising,
Speaker 3: then you do all these that you are going to
Speaker 3: do password, you are allowed passior of sharing, then you don't,
Speaker 3: and so people assume that this is a sign and
Speaker 3: that's another one of those where you're saying no.
Speaker 8: But so I think what's interesting about that is, oh,
Speaker 8: you said you went into advertisy, you know you're doing
Speaker 8: what I was benfascinating about that. Isn't that amazing that
Speaker 8: we actually would say something. We learn, the business evolves,
Speaker 8: the business grow, we understand the business, and we change.
Speaker 8: We don't say rigid and the we said this publicly,
Speaker 8: so we're not going to go back on something I
Speaker 8: love by the way that I mean read was here
Speaker 8: doing that time. But as a company, we'd say oh,
Speaker 8: we thought we weren't going to do this, and now
Speaker 8: the businesses evolved, we understand more. Later's all of this change,
Speaker 8: and then we're willing to change. We're willing to pivot
Speaker 8: and grow and evolve and innovate instead of saying this
Speaker 8: has always always been done and we can never change it,
Speaker 8: or we've said it publicly, so won't do it. So
Speaker 8: what I love actually about the company is that we
Speaker 8: will sort of change and we will innovate, and we
Speaker 8: will say those things and we will sort of just go, Okay,
Speaker 8: maybe we're wrong then or the business that was the
Speaker 8: right decision then, and now this is the right decision now.
Speaker 8: I think that's like an amazing thing. That's what makes
Speaker 8: a very dynamic company, you know, to do Let's make
Speaker 8: local language filming TV all around the world has never
Speaker 8: been done before.
Speaker 9: We sort of did it.
Speaker 8: So I actually love that part that we will publicly
Speaker 8: go Okay, we've learned more of.
Speaker 9: The business change, so we're gonna change.
Speaker 8: Maybe that's the reason everybody wants to write press stories
Speaker 8: that are not accurate. Maybe I mean, I mean, you
Speaker 8: tell me, maybe that's why everybody.
Speaker 9: Wants to talk about it.
Speaker 8: But I'm just saying, just so everybody is clear, there's
Speaker 8: been one title. Really maybe to to is not even official.
Speaker 8: Actually we've ever done. And if you look at all
Speaker 8: the movies of Dan, Linda's Greenlit, which is quite a
Speaker 8: bit has been happened.
Speaker 9: So I just think there's there's no story there.
Speaker 8: And I know it's such a bummer for some of
Speaker 8: your friends and colleagues because they want to write about it.
Speaker 6: I'm curious, Okay, I'm sorry what you brought.
Speaker 3: Up, Dan and movies, which I feel like has gotten
Speaker 3: a lot of attention this year. You come from the
Speaker 3: world of TV. For eighty million dollars, you can make
Speaker 3: eight episodes of a TV show, you can make a movie.
Speaker 3: I feel like for Netflix, a TV show is generally
Speaker 3: more economical than the movie. Why are you guys still
Speaker 3: in the movie business? Like what it's the value that
Speaker 3: Netflix gets from original movies.
Speaker 8: Oh, I think that's too narrow a way to look
Speaker 8: at it, because it's not. Also, it's not about like economical.
Speaker 8: It's members all around the world love movies and love
Speaker 8: TV shows, and love nonfiction and love docs right, and
Speaker 8: and love some of you know these lot of events
Speaker 8: we do, so we are pleasing and making all of
Speaker 8: those things with.
Speaker 9: A great variety of what we do.
Speaker 8: And people love movies. We love movies, and people love movies,
Speaker 8: and so I don't think I think looking at like
Speaker 8: cost in that.
Speaker 9: Way is sort of the wrong way to look at
Speaker 9: the business.
Speaker 8: I really look at it as we know people love movies,
Speaker 8: and so we should make lots of movies. And Dan's
Speaker 8: which I am excited about, sort of Dan, you know,
Speaker 8: coming in, he's really thoughtful about the quality.
Speaker 9: He's really been thoughtful about.
Speaker 8: There's lots of different kinds of genres, right, of movies
Speaker 8: that we know audiences love, and really trying to be
Speaker 8: able to like program.
Speaker 9: For all of those.
Speaker 8: And then if you take that, and then we have
Speaker 8: you know, pay one deals and then the acquisitions where
Speaker 8: we just acquired you know, Amelie Perez and Maracalis and
Speaker 8: movies and that we're also excited about if you look
Speaker 8: at the entire slate.
Speaker 9: So I just think it's really important that.
Speaker 8: Giving audiences lots of different kinds of things that we
Speaker 8: know they love, so it wouldn't be it's not I
Speaker 8: think looking at it through cost.
Speaker 3: I only bring up cost because look, you guys have
Speaker 3: your seventeen billion dollars.
Speaker 6: You've talked about like this is a budget.
Speaker 9: He just says seventeen billion, Like it's nothing. Seventeen billions.
Speaker 3: No, but if you put one in that if something
Speaker 3: is relatively static, if you spend money on one thing,
Speaker 3: you can't spend money on another thing, right, Brian. Their
Speaker 3: budget may change, But Brian Roberts just commits two and
Speaker 3: a half billion dollars a year the NBA.
Speaker 6: Guess what.
Speaker 3: Some of that money's coming out of entertainment programming because
Speaker 3: he's not just adding two and a half billion dollars
Speaker 3: to the budget. You guys, you brought up live, you're
Speaker 3: investing in some live rights will get there. That's got
Speaker 3: to come out of somewhere, right, Yeah.
Speaker 9: And that was rid of the train of to make.
Speaker 8: But I'd say we make film and TV, right, I
Speaker 8: mean that is sort of Film is a very important
Speaker 8: part of entertainment.
Speaker 9: And so it's not like that like, oh, let's make
Speaker 9: one less one.
Speaker 8: We just know that we want great films, and we
Speaker 8: want an amazing slate of films of all different kinds,
Speaker 8: and we know there's lots of different genres and so
Speaker 8: it's just an an it's an essential part of like
Speaker 8: great programming is to have amazing films.
Speaker 6: You have a Knives Out sequel next year, right?
Speaker 3: We do you have a what the Greta Gerwig movie?
Speaker 6: Yeah?
Speaker 9: Yeah, I mean we have started shooting at button.
Speaker 8: Knives Out is already shooting, and we have you know,
Speaker 8: we have so I mean we have Franken Seimagueramo del.
Speaker 9: Tour next year.
Speaker 3: I'm was curious on Knives Out because that one became
Speaker 3: sort of full crim of this, Like people love to
Speaker 3: ask about Netflix and movie Peters, and I feel like
Speaker 3: Ted has sort of established this is our policy. But
Speaker 3: you speak of exceptions, you give like Knives Out a
Speaker 3: big theatrical push like you did the last one.
Speaker 9: We are really committed.
Speaker 8: And again I think when we're talking about our model,
Speaker 8: which is we talked about.
Speaker 9: At the beginning of it, is that.
Speaker 8: We're a subscription business and our members love movies, and
Speaker 8: our members want to watch great movies at home in
Speaker 8: their living rooms, and so we're very committed to movies.
Speaker 8: But for us, what really we know people audiences love movies,
Speaker 8: and we know they like to watch them at home,
Speaker 8: and we do care about consumer choice and control. They
Speaker 8: want to watch what they want, when they want, how
Speaker 8: they want, and we want to give great theatrical quality
Speaker 8: movies direct to the living rooms of our members.
Speaker 9: Right, that is sort of what we're doing. That's the model.
Speaker 9: And that was a little bit about the here's here's
Speaker 9: what we do.
Speaker 8: And I know people want to just go but these
Speaker 8: other people do it this way.
Speaker 9: Why can't you do it this way? We're just in
Speaker 9: a different business.
Speaker 6: Okay.
Speaker 3: Something that you are now doing that a lot of
Speaker 3: other people do is live. You're going to start showing
Speaker 3: wrestling every week next year. This is a big deal
Speaker 3: for you. Why is a company that's so synonymous with
Speaker 3: on demand doing more live programming? And why did you
Speaker 3: want wrestling in particular?
Speaker 8: So, look what I love about just live? It was
Speaker 8: just kind of it's just kind of an expansion of programming. Right,
Speaker 8: There's certain types of things that just feel like they
Speaker 8: can be they're kind of more exciting live or you know,
Speaker 8: I'd say, look, they're Tom Brady roast.
Speaker 9: We would have done a Rigorlo's live or not live.
Speaker 8: I think making it live had a fun, unpredictable energy
Speaker 8: conversation around what that was.
Speaker 9: I'd say sort of early days of even unscripted.
Speaker 8: There's some unscripted shows that really have like this great
Speaker 8: kind of live component to it, or there's more sort
Speaker 8: of fan engagement with certain kinds of things, And so
Speaker 8: to me, live was just a different you know, it's
Speaker 8: just kind of another tool that we have of like,
Speaker 8: is this thing creatively about our live Is this a
Speaker 8: different kind of programming right we can do, which then
Speaker 8: obviously did lead to WWE.
Speaker 2: That was Netflix Chief Content Officer Bella Bajaria speaking with
Speaker 2: Bloomberg's Lucas Shaw from our screen Time event in Los
Speaker 2: Angeles this week. You're listening to a special edition of
Speaker 2: Bloomberg Business Week bringing you some of the best conversations
Speaker 2: from this week's screen Time event in Los Angeles, where
Speaker 2: we gathered celebrities and media executives to discuss the future
Speaker 2: of entertainment. Coming up next on the show, how Amazon
Speaker 2: Prime Video is targeting a growing share of the streaming pie,
Speaker 2: Plus the changing landscape of sports media and what it
Speaker 2: takes to make it in today's music industry. That's all
Speaker 2: straight ahead on this special weekend edition of Bloomberg Business Week,
Speaker 2: bringing you conversations from Bloomberg's screen Time event in Los Angeles.
Speaker 2: I'm Matt Miller filling in.
Speaker 10: For Carol and Tim.
Speaker 2: Stay with us. Today's top stories and global business headlines
Speaker 2: are coming up right now.
Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg Business Week inside from the reporters and
Speaker 1: editors who bring you America's most trusted business magazine, plus
Speaker 1: global business, finance and tech news. As it happened this
Speaker 1: Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Messer and Tim Stenebeck on
Speaker 1: Bloomberg Radio.
Speaker 2: This is the weekend edition of Bloomberg Business Week. I'm
Speaker 2: Matt Miller filling in for Carol and Tim. They spent
Speaker 2: the week in La at Bloomberg screen Time. The event
Speaker 2: brought together celebrities, entrepreneurs, and media executives in the heart
Speaker 2: of Hollywood to discuss the future of entertainment. And today
Speaker 2: we're going to bring you some of the most influential
Speaker 2: conversations from the gathering. Coming up this hour, we'll tell
Speaker 2: you about the changing landscape of sports media, plus what
Speaker 2: it takes to make it in today's music industry. But
Speaker 2: first a look at how Amazon Prime Video is targeting
Speaker 2: a growing share of the streaming pie. Mike Hopkins heads
Speaker 2: up Amazon Prime Video and Amazon MGM Studios. After a
Speaker 2: hefty dose of investment. Amazon now holds a top spot
Speaker 2: among global market streamers. Now its focuses on grabbing more
Speaker 2: hit shows, live sports content, and expanding in emerging markets.
Speaker 2: Hopkins joined Bloomberg's Carolyn Hyde at the Bloomberg screen Time
Speaker 2: event in LA to share his vision for Amazon's future
Speaker 2: streaming plans. Let's listen to that conversation.
Speaker 11: Now, you have been so busy, Mike, and I just
Speaker 11: want to go over like what twenty twenty four is
Speaker 11: meant to you.
Speaker 12: There's not much on the internet about.
Speaker 11: Someone who has the one of the biggest jobs in entertainment.
Speaker 12: You we call it humble, we called it smart.
Speaker 11: But I've been rifling through your back history and I
Speaker 11: know that you first started selling door to door ads basically,
Speaker 11: and now we're back doing ads. But before we get
Speaker 11: into ads, I want to hear about what a mega
Speaker 11: year it's been.
Speaker 13: Yeah, thank you, well, thanks for having me. It's nice
Speaker 13: to meet you in person too.
Speaker 6: Yeah.
Speaker 13: Same, Yeah, it's been a big year for us. We
Speaker 13: you know, a lot of it obviously was the groundwork
Speaker 13: was laid over the last three or four years. But
Speaker 13: you know, we started the year on the programming front
Speaker 13: with a little movie called Saltburn anyway, and that just
Speaker 13: kind of blew up the Internet and became a big
Speaker 13: hit force in January, wits we do that?
Speaker 6: Yeah, it was big.
Speaker 13: But then right after that we had a couple of
Speaker 13: additional movies at launch at Roadhouse was a big hit
Speaker 13: for us at the beginning of the year, and same
Speaker 13: with Idea of You, and then we had Fallout became
Speaker 13: a big global franchise for US.
Speaker 5: Boys.
Speaker 13: Season four was was amazing, And obviously we just had
Speaker 13: Lord of the Rings, Rings of Power finale last week.
Speaker 12: So it's been watching all of this yourself, oh.
Speaker 13: Every minute times. But so on the programming front, Jen
Speaker 13: Salki and her team have really started to hit a
Speaker 13: cadence of hits that we're really proud of and excited about.
Speaker 13: And what's coming in the future. I'm even more excited about.
Speaker 11: Let's dig in a little bit on the advertising side
Speaker 11: of things, and indeed sort of obviously people are coming
Speaker 11: to you for the content.
Speaker 12: What have you learned in.
Speaker 11: Those nine months it's January the twenty ninth when you
Speaker 11: first turned it on. How many of us are paying
Speaker 11: to not get at.
Speaker 13: Yeah, well we all disclose those numbers publicly. But mostly
Speaker 13: not as many as you would think. The advertising load
Speaker 13: is very light because of the way we offer this
Speaker 13: offered advertising on Prime, and so far it's been We've
Speaker 13: been happy both on the customer side because we've not
Speaker 13: seen the levels of churn or cancelations that some might
Speaker 13: have thought. On the advertiser side. You know, it's been
Speaker 13: really exciting to see the response from advertisers. We just
Speaker 13: finished our first upfront a couple months ago and we
Speaker 13: exceeded our expectations there and we're just excited to see
Speaker 13: what happens in the future here.
Speaker 12: Can you increase prices the ads?
Speaker 13: Well, we like the CPMs we got. I think we
Speaker 13: held price pretty well. I think when you put this
Speaker 13: amount of inventory into the ad market, it's going to
Speaker 13: put it. It's going to put some pressure on pricing.
Speaker 13: But we're happy with where we ended up.
Speaker 12: Okay.
Speaker 11: And what therefore about third party platforms as well.
Speaker 12: I mean we're starting to see that.
Speaker 11: When Netflix offering it to Google some of the inventory,
Speaker 11: would you go there?
Speaker 13: Well, we have our own DSP, the Amazon DSP, and
Speaker 13: our ads team is building that network out pretty aggressively.
Speaker 13: Right now, we have third party supply that Paulkotis, who
Speaker 13: runs ad sales for US. He's got obviously our stores
Speaker 13: inventory as we call it on Amazon dot Com, and
Speaker 13: a variety of media and entertainment properties as well.
Speaker 11: I know you don't disclose numbers, but Bluebug Intelligence, just
Speaker 11: to give them a little nod, they thought that two
Speaker 11: billion dollars could be your run rate for ads to
Speaker 11: twenty twenty four, could run up to five billion for
Speaker 11: twenty twenty five.
Speaker 9: Are they sort of ballpop?
Speaker 11: We'll see, Okay, okay, But then let's talk a little
Speaker 11: bit about what you offer, because I'm trying to get
Speaker 11: our head round. You offer advertising because the content is
Speaker 11: so great. But the content isn't just your own originals.
Speaker 11: It's not just movies that we've talked about, but it's
Speaker 11: also well the sports will dig into and partnerships partner channels. Yeah,
Speaker 11: why bring in other partner channels? What's in it for them?
Speaker 5: Yeah?
Speaker 13: Well, So what we've tried to become over the last
Speaker 13: four or five years is, you know, a first stop
Speaker 13: entertainment hub for consumers around the world. What I mean
Speaker 13: by that is, not only do we have the prime
Speaker 13: content that we talked about at the top, including Thursday
Speaker 13: night football, the NBA coming next year, NASCAR, but around
Speaker 13: the world we also have Champions League throughout Europe and
Speaker 13: a variety of sports as well. So we've got our
Speaker 13: prime programming, but we also offer the world's largest t
Speaker 13: vod store written by movies and TV shows in the world.
Speaker 13: And then on top of that, we have over one
Speaker 13: hundred partner streaming services that you can subscribe to right
Speaker 13: inside of our application. And what we found is consumers.
Speaker 13: You know, if you think about the number of apps
Speaker 13: and subscriptions you have, it's kind of hard to keep
Speaker 13: track of it all. You're not sure exactly where that
Speaker 13: show or a movie might be. And so what we've
Speaker 13: noticed is people realize they can subscribe to Max or
Speaker 13: Paramount Plus or Lead Pass or Crunchy Role, et cetera
Speaker 13: inside of Prime Video. We see a lot more engagement.
Speaker 13: We are able to get subscribers for those those businesses
Speaker 13: at a real attractive rate, and it's an exciting part
Speaker 13: of our business. In fact, we were we're gonn announce
Speaker 13: that we are adding Apple TV Plus to our Prime
Speaker 13: video channels propositions and then make sure.
Speaker 12: And why why Apple TV Plus?
Speaker 13: Well, they have great programming and you know we've had
Speaker 13: a good partnership with Apple on a number of fronts,
Speaker 13: but you know, our companies do a lot of business together.
Speaker 13: And I want to thank Adiq, who I know isn't
Speaker 13: here tonight, but he and his team have done a
Speaker 13: great job with this deal and we're excited to get
Speaker 13: it going.
Speaker 12: What'sn't it for Apple?
Speaker 13: What we offer channel partners is hundreds of millions of
Speaker 13: subscribers around the world that have access to their.
Speaker 12: Hundreds of millions, two hundred million.
Speaker 13: Well there's another number we don't talk a lot about.
Speaker 13: But if I easily find information about me than our
Speaker 13: number of.
Speaker 5: Subscribers on you want enough.
Speaker 13: Having this engagement around the world with Prime members accessing
Speaker 13: Prime Video is a real great platform for other partners
Speaker 13: to be able to reach them. Easy access to the
Speaker 13: subscriber base, one stop shop, easy navigation, one click subscription
Speaker 13: right in one app. And I think that's what that's
Speaker 13: what's attracting partners.
Speaker 12: How does that negotiation start? Who picked up the phone
Speaker 12: to who first?
Speaker 13: Oh gosh, we've been talking for a while. It took
Speaker 13: a while, but we're happy we're here.
Speaker 12: We wooed them? Were they easy to coax?
Speaker 13: Well? What We've really spent a lot of time doing
Speaker 13: is figuring out how do we make it easy to
Speaker 13: be a partner. You know, we we we have leadership
Speaker 13: principles at Amazon. One of them is customer obsessed.
Speaker 12: How many of them are now, Oh there's.
Speaker 13: Slob or fourteen? Yeah, and so as we look at
Speaker 13: our partners as customers, so what we're spending a lot
Speaker 13: of time on is how do we make it easy
Speaker 13: for them to onboard? How do we make it easy
Speaker 13: for them to look at our service just as it
Speaker 13: were a device? Yeah, and so we want to give
Speaker 13: them the same benefits as you would get if you
Speaker 13: were on Apple TV or a fire TV or Roku
Speaker 13: being part of our ecosystem. And I think that it's
Speaker 13: worked out pretty well.
Speaker 12: Does that help from your own background?
Speaker 11: You're someone who's done all parts of media, like old
Speaker 11: school TV. I'm still fighting the good fight, but they
Speaker 11: then go into movies and content. You've been a customer
Speaker 11: of Amazon before you've come to lead it.
Speaker 12: Does that help from your perspective?
Speaker 6: Yeah?
Speaker 13: You know, I've in my career, I've been able to
Speaker 13: be a customer, a competitor, a supplier. It's sony and
Speaker 13: so I think you know, I've gotten another company pretty
Speaker 13: well all those crossing of paths.
Speaker 11: So let's talk a little bit more about the content
Speaker 11: you're offering and sports. I want to dwell in there
Speaker 11: a little bit.
Speaker 12: You were at Fox.
Speaker 11: You know what it takes to build must watch sports channels.
Speaker 11: So how do you feel about the price point for
Speaker 11: example like NBA WNBA.
Speaker 13: Yeah, well, I mean we're happy with the deal we got.
Speaker 13: We you know, we obviously have analytics that there tell
Speaker 13: us is going to be a creative and very good
Speaker 13: for our customers. But what we really like about sports
Speaker 13: is that, you know, this television viewership is migrating from
Speaker 13: you know, linear television via cable, satellite, et cetera, into
Speaker 13: a streaming environment. People's tastes didn't change. They still want
Speaker 13: to watch football games and basketball games, and they want
Speaker 13: to watch movies and TV shows, and so what we're
Speaker 13: trying to build is, you know, sort of the next
Speaker 13: generation of an entertainment service and not just be solely
Speaker 13: focused on movies, television, VOD and so in addition to
Speaker 13: live sports we've got we were talking backstage about fast
Speaker 13: channels have become a big part of our service as well.
Speaker 13: We have Bloomberg on there as well. I've been watching
Speaker 13: it this week, and so you know, we're trying to
Speaker 13: be a hub of all things content for customers in
Speaker 13: one app.
Speaker 11: What about talent for things like NBA You're going to get.
Speaker 13: But we have a little time. You know, I want
Speaker 13: to be Shack's great. I love Shack. I'm a longtime
Speaker 13: Laker fan.
Speaker 11: But well, you're also not just perhaps a ball guy
Speaker 11: when it comes to NBA.
Speaker 12: I know you like MLB as well.
Speaker 11: I think you actually wanted to be a baseball.
Speaker 13: Oh yeah, a long long time ago. Sure, who didn't.
Speaker 12: Well, let's talk a little bit about that.
Speaker 11: For local sports, is that something that you and I
Speaker 11: wanting to be getting more into.
Speaker 13: We've looked at local sports. You know, we have an
Speaker 13: equity position in the S network in New York. We
Speaker 13: actually offer twenty Yankees games a season on prime video
Speaker 13: to prime customers. And what's been interesting that's basically the
Speaker 13: old broadcast package that used to exist in market. What
Speaker 13: we've seen every single year ratings and viewership of our
Speaker 13: Yankee games is up fifteen or twenty percent every single year.
Speaker 13: And so I think what's happening is people's muscle memory
Speaker 13: is changing. The awareness that there is life sport on
Speaker 13: streaming is changing over time and people are finding it.
Speaker 13: Thursday Night Football, for example, was up twenty five percent
Speaker 13: in its second season through three games. It's up twenty
Speaker 13: percent this season, and I think that's just going to
Speaker 13: continue and when and over time, I think live sport
Speaker 13: is going to be viewed just as often and as
Speaker 13: frequently on streaming as it is on linear TV.
Speaker 11: Looking of football NFL, will they exercise and ani opt out?
Speaker 12: Do you think how expensive is that kind of get early?
Speaker 13: Oh? In terms of the deals, we'll see, you know,
Speaker 13: we still have a few years to see what happens.
Speaker 13: I think the marketplace, the media and landscape is changing
Speaker 13: so dramatically. It's a lot's going to happen between now.
Speaker 12: And how is it changing dramatically?
Speaker 13: Well, I think, you know, I've seen a lot of
Speaker 13: people in the room. I've written a lot about this.
Speaker 13: But obviously, the cable and satellite industry has a cable
Speaker 13: channel business has eroded over the last actually almost since
Speaker 13: the second I left. I had great timing to leave
Speaker 13: that part of the business. But what you've seen is
Speaker 13: this multi channel big bundle, you know, decline every year
Speaker 13: for the last decade or so, and I think that's
Speaker 13: put a lot of pressure on the on the legacy
Speaker 13: media companies, and so that's the catalyst. I think of
Speaker 13: all of this change that we're seeing as.
Speaker 12: You there's Disney, there's Netflix. What happens to the rest?
Speaker 11: Do they all end up partner channels on you?
Speaker 13: I think everyone's got different strategies there. I mean, they're
Speaker 13: you know, most of the companies have incredible IP. You know,
Speaker 13: you look around the media landscape and there's tremendous IP.
Speaker 13: Everyone's got movie studios and television studios. I think folks
Speaker 13: who are just gonna have to pick their strategy and
Speaker 13: go aggressively after it understanding that the legacy cable business
Speaker 13: is on a decline and it's probably not going back
Speaker 13: the other way. So how do you deal with that?
Speaker 13: I think is a question for each of those companies.
Speaker 2: That was Mike Hopkins, head of Amazon Prime Video and
Speaker 2: Amazon MGM Studios. When it comes to Amazon, stock shares
Speaker 2: have seen solid gains, with a year to date increase
Speaker 2: of roughly twenty three percent, slightly outpacing the twenty one
Speaker 2: percent gain for the S and P five hundred Coming
Speaker 2: up Next, we hear about what it takes to make
Speaker 2: it in today's music industry from the man with ties
Speaker 2: to the success of Taylor Swift and Justin Bieber. That's
Speaker 2: straight out I had on this special weekend edition of
Speaker 2: Bloomberg Business Week, bringing you some of the best conversations
Speaker 2: from this week's screen Time event in Los Angeles. I'm
Speaker 2: Matt Miller filling in for Carolyn Tim and this is Bloomberg.
Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Messer and Tim
Speaker 1: Stenebeck on Bloomberg Radio.
Speaker 2: You're listening to the weekend edition of Bloomberg Business Week.
Speaker 2: I'm Matt Miller, filling in for Carol and Tim, who
Speaker 2: spent the week in Los Angeles at Bloomberg screen Time.
Speaker 2: The event focused on the future of entertainment and the
Speaker 2: impact of AI on creative industries, and today we're bringing
Speaker 2: you some of our conversations from the gathering up. Next,
Speaker 2: we hear about the future of the music industry from
Speaker 2: a person with close ties to Taylor Swift and Justin Bieber.
Speaker 2: Scooter Braun is known for managing high profile artists and
Speaker 2: launching successful music. Now he's thinking about the next wave
Speaker 2: of music in his role as CEO of the American
Speaker 2: division of Hibe Corporation. Scooter Braun sat down with Lucas
Speaker 2: Shaw this week at Bloomberg screen Time in La. Let's
Speaker 2: hear some of that conversation.
Speaker 3: Now, A lot have happened with you in the last
Speaker 3: couple of years, and that's sort of where I want
Speaker 3: to start.
Speaker 6: Really, Yeah, just a little bit.
Speaker 3: Because there's been a lot of coverage of Okay, all
Speaker 3: your clients are firing you. Yeah, we won't touch your
Speaker 3: personal life, but I know a bunch just happened there.
Speaker 3: You sold your company. Yeah, you haven't said a ton
Speaker 3: about it, and I'm curious, what is your take? Did
Speaker 3: a bunch of your clients fire you in the span
Speaker 3: of a couple of months, or what happened with.
Speaker 10: Mariorty three fired me in the exact same day? Yeah?
Speaker 14: No, what happened with Arianna with Justin with Listen? I
Speaker 14: actually a year after it happened. I for contractual reasons,
Speaker 14: I wasn't allowed to say certain things, but I wrote
Speaker 14: something called twenty three Years I posted on social media.
Speaker 14: It was my own words, and I kind of explained
Speaker 14: why I made a decision to not manage musicians after
Speaker 14: twenty three years, and that had actually happened about.
Speaker 10: A year earlier.
Speaker 14: But you know, we're running a big company and there's
Speaker 14: things that we needed to handle, so I didn't feel
Speaker 14: like it was the right time.
Speaker 6: And simply.
Speaker 14: Twenty three years of my life, from nineteen years old
Speaker 14: to into my forties, I only knew being a music manager.
Speaker 14: Twenty four to seven, seven days a week, every vacation,
Speaker 14: every holiday, I was on call, and I wasn't on
Speaker 14: call to one big artist. I was on call to
Speaker 14: a lot of big artists. And for a large part
Speaker 14: of my life, I really loved it. But then I
Speaker 14: had three kids and I went through a divorce, and
Speaker 14: anyone who's been through a divorce with children knows.
Speaker 10: That is not an easy situation.
Speaker 14: And I really looked back at my life and realized that,
Speaker 14: you know, you can point fingers in a divorce and say, oh,
Speaker 14: this happened, this happened, but you play a role in it.
Speaker 14: That's why me and my ex wife are partners with
Speaker 14: these three children, and we put them first. And my
Speaker 14: role was I wasn't present. I was a manager twenty
Speaker 14: four to seven, and even though I was home, I
Speaker 14: wasn't being there The way I should, and it led
Speaker 14: to a divorce, and I realized I might have lost
Speaker 14: the marriage. I wasn't going to lose my kids, and
Speaker 14: I decided that I wanted to step away from it
Speaker 14: and focus on other things. And now I have three
Speaker 14: of the best clients in the world and that's my focus.
Speaker 14: But then, yeah, there was a lot of noise because
Speaker 14: no one actually thought you would want to step away
Speaker 14: from that.
Speaker 3: But how did you communicate that to the clients that
Speaker 3: you were working with.
Speaker 10: Well, one of them I wrote about this.
Speaker 14: One of them approached me and said, hey, I think
Speaker 14: I want to try something new, And at first I
Speaker 14: was kind of hurt because we've been through so much together.
Speaker 14: But then I realized I was already heading in this
Speaker 14: direction for the last couple of years anyway, and I
Speaker 14: think you make plans and then the universe kind of
Speaker 14: shows you what you need. And I realized it was
Speaker 14: actually a gift and it wasn't about one client, it
Speaker 14: was about all. So I started picking of the phone
Speaker 14: and having the conversations and some went well, some took
Speaker 14: a couple more conversations. But I'm grateful for all those years.
Speaker 14: I lived a very unique life doing that. I was
Speaker 14: a part of the journeys of the most successful and
Speaker 14: incredibly talented people in the world, and now I get
Speaker 14: to root from them in a different capacity.
Speaker 3: How does how does the relationship like, take someone like Beeber,
Speaker 3: you take him from nothing.
Speaker 6: You guys are do the whole ride up together? Like,
Speaker 6: how does that relationship work?
Speaker 10: Now root for each other?
Speaker 14: I mean it's you get to a point where you
Speaker 14: just say, we built this legacy alongside each other. And
Speaker 14: now he's a father, he has an opportunity to continue
Speaker 14: doing you know, the things he loves to do, and
Speaker 14: I'm going to be rooting for him for the rest
Speaker 14: of his career.
Speaker 6: So, Hi bought your company about three years ago.
Speaker 3: We had the we we had Bang here last year.
Speaker 3: A lot of people, I think thought you.
Speaker 6: Would have left by now, So did our chairman?
Speaker 3: Why have you stuck around? And I guess what are
Speaker 3: you doing now if you are not managing artists?
Speaker 10: Well, a couple of things.
Speaker 14: One when chairman Bang and I met, he's the chairman
Speaker 14: of Hive and he's a very unique individual. This is
Speaker 14: someone who was one of the biggest music producers in
Speaker 14: all of Asia and at the height of his career
Speaker 14: in Asia. He came to the United States to have
Speaker 14: meetings with A and RS and presidents of labels here
Speaker 14: to discuss his ideas, and one of these meetings they
Speaker 14: had him wait in the lobby for three hours and
Speaker 14: then told him, I'm sorry, we have another meeting and
Speaker 14: canceled on him. And instead of having an ego or
Speaker 14: getting upset, he goes, you know what, I'm going to
Speaker 14: go back home and I'm going to build this industry
Speaker 14: myself so that when I come back here, I don't
Speaker 14: need to ask for these meetings. And if you look
Speaker 14: at the groups, including BTS that he was able to
Speaker 14: create and produce and develop and continually do so, he's
Speaker 14: actually brilliant.
Speaker 10: And I had admired his work for some time.
Speaker 14: He knew about the stuff I had done, and he
Speaker 14: reached out to me and said, can we have conversations,
Speaker 14: And the first four conversations that's when the last one
Speaker 14: happened about the purchase. He said that in the East,
Speaker 14: we have conversations about what we're going to do. He goes,
Speaker 14: too many times when I talk to people in the West,
Speaker 14: they talk about just the transaction, just the deal, not
Speaker 14: what we're going to do. He goes, all four conversations
Speaker 14: we've had. We've talked about culture, We've talked about philosophy,
Speaker 14: we've talked about meditation, we've talked about music, we've talked
Speaker 14: about family. He goes, I want to do this with you,
Speaker 14: and no matter what we find, we'll go through it together.
Speaker 14: We signed up and we did a five year deal.
Speaker 14: And the reason I'm still here because you're right, and
Speaker 14: those deals usually vest out at a certain point, and
Speaker 14: my deal was pretty much upfront. I gave my word,
Speaker 14: and I really enjoy him. I think he's a visionary
Speaker 14: and I think your words should mean more than just
Speaker 14: the deal that you do on paper. And I told
Speaker 14: him I'd be there for five years. I'm going to
Speaker 14: do that. And the exciting part is we've developed such
Speaker 14: a relationship that now we're talking about extending that and
Speaker 14: being there longer, and I'm looking.
Speaker 10: Forward to it.
Speaker 6: And is that being focused?
Speaker 3: Like are you because you're the CEO of Hype America right,
Speaker 3: how much of your time are you spending on taking
Speaker 3: big Korean acts and bringing them here or bringing them
Speaker 3: around the world, And how much of it are you
Speaker 3: spending on developing acts here that have nothing to do
Speaker 3: with Korea, it's.
Speaker 10: About fifty to fifty.
Speaker 14: And also, you know, if you look at our strategy,
Speaker 14: we purchased QC, which is, you know, the biggest independent
Speaker 14: hip hop label in the country.
Speaker 10: We had big machine from Ithaca when we brought it over.
Speaker 10: So we're gonna, you know.
Speaker 14: Go out and find other companies that make sense for
Speaker 14: us and other assets that make sense. We also launched
Speaker 14: High two point zero, which allows us to create a
Speaker 14: distribution system for independent labels because of our distribution deal
Speaker 14: with Universal, a ten year deal that puts us a
Speaker 14: unique position. And then you know, you look at Weavers,
Speaker 14: which is our large platform for fan engagement for super fans,
Speaker 14: which is the biggest in the world and the biggest
Speaker 14: in Asia. A lot of people don't realize this, but
Speaker 14: thirty percent of our revenue is actually from North America.
Speaker 14: So you know, now we've introduced Ariana Grande to that platform.
Speaker 10: We introduced kid Le Roy this week.
Speaker 14: You know, you're starting to see a lot of you know,
Speaker 14: acts from the West joining and it makes sense because
Speaker 14: you see acts from the East coming here and they're
Speaker 14: selling out arenas day one and if everyone's asking why,
Speaker 14: and it's because of that opportunity to talk directly to
Speaker 14: the fans on weavers, right.
Speaker 3: If you were starting a new company today management whatever,
Speaker 3: I know you don't want to manage anymore. Is there
Speaker 3: who is an artist out there? Like if you could
Speaker 3: just pick one and I'm going to build around you,
Speaker 3: who would you pick?
Speaker 5: Ah?
Speaker 14: I don't know because I haven't really been in that
Speaker 14: space of like, you know, finding the next one.
Speaker 3: Well, it doesn't have to be the next one. It
Speaker 3: can be a huge star now, Like who is someone now?
Speaker 3: Or you look at them and they're already a star
Speaker 3: and you feel like their earnings are over the next
Speaker 3: twenty thirty years or their potential of where they could
Speaker 3: go at their career is something that you want to
Speaker 3: be involved with.
Speaker 14: I'm gonna give you the sound by you're looking for
Speaker 14: because I just can't help myself.
Speaker 10: And the PR team is going to be like what
Speaker 10: I think.
Speaker 14: The artist that's you know, one that you should always
Speaker 14: bet on and is already a huge star and you
Speaker 14: can always bet on because they want it all the
Speaker 14: time and they do what it takes to be you know,
Speaker 14: present and relative all the time is Taylor Swift.
Speaker 3: I was actually not thinking you were going to say that,
Speaker 3: but it's it's an obvious answer.
Speaker 14: But you know, I also love that what we're doing
Speaker 14: with our group Cats Eye, I love Teddy Swims, I
Speaker 14: love great voices like that. I love like Benson Moon.
Speaker 14: I saw him perform the other day and that was
Speaker 14: really impressive. Zach Brian is doing incredible stuff. So there's
Speaker 14: you know, the fun part about it is everyone you know,
Speaker 14: there's a huge opportunity coming with AI, and it's going
Speaker 14: to change the music industry the same way pro tools.
Speaker 10: Did you know pro tools came along, people said.
Speaker 14: What is this, we need live instruments, and you realize
Speaker 14: it's a tool to create more music.
Speaker 10: And I think AI is going to do the same
Speaker 10: same thing.
Speaker 6: But there's always.
Speaker 14: Going to be a need for both human emotion and
Speaker 14: human error. You know, if we want to watch the
Speaker 14: greatest chess you know players in the world. We'd watched
Speaker 14: two supercomputers play chess, but we want to watch humans
Speaker 14: play chess because we want to find that one mistake
Speaker 14: or that one thing that goes wrong. Same thing that
Speaker 14: we have with sports. You know, we remember the great moments,
Speaker 14: but we also remember the fumbles.
Speaker 10: I'm a Jets fan.
Speaker 14: I remember lots of them, but.
Speaker 6: You're probably happy that the coach is fired.
Speaker 14: No, I'm not happy until we win, and I'm gonna
Speaker 14: I've been waiting a long time.
Speaker 3: I can't let you get off the tailor hook that easy.
Speaker 3: I have to ask one question about it. There was
Speaker 3: a documentary that came out about you and her this summer.
Speaker 3: I was unfortunately interviewed for it. Did you watch it?
Speaker 14: I watched it recently, actually like put up that I
Speaker 14: watched it, and I wasn't going to watch it because
Speaker 14: I just thought it was going to be like another
Speaker 14: hit piece, and I pretty much stay quiet about this
Speaker 14: kind of stuff.
Speaker 10: And my dad.
Speaker 14: Called me and my mom and they were like, we
Speaker 14: just watched it. We think you should watch it. So
Speaker 14: I did.
Speaker 6: What did you think of it?
Speaker 10: I thought you were incredibly handsome?
Speaker 6: Is there?
Speaker 14: I think it's Look, it's five years later. I think
Speaker 14: everyone it's time to move on. And there was a
Speaker 14: lot of things that were misrepresented. I think that it's
Speaker 14: important in any kind of conflict that people actually communicate
Speaker 14: directly with each other. I think doing it out on
Speaker 14: social media and in front of the whole world is
Speaker 14: not the place. And I think when people actually take
Speaker 14: the time to stand in front of each other, have
Speaker 14: a conversation, usually find out the monster is not real
Speaker 14: and that hasn't happened, and that has not happened. But
Speaker 14: I also think that that's very relative.
Speaker 10: To the entire world right now.
Speaker 14: And I think if people take the time to have
Speaker 14: conversations with each other and speak to each other and
Speaker 14: ask each other where they really stand and understand each other's.
Speaker 10: Cultures, we'd be in a lot better place.
Speaker 14: And I just need to say this personally, because I'm
Speaker 14: wearing this right now. I think with everything we're seeing
Speaker 14: all around the world, we have a responsibility here in
Speaker 14: America to have conversations with each other. If we want
Speaker 14: peace in other places, it starts with us here because
Speaker 14: we have the actually ability to do so.
Speaker 2: That was Scooter Braun, CEO of the American division of
Speaker 2: Hibe Corporation, best known for his work with Taylor Swift
Speaker 2: and Justin Bieber. Braun spoke with Bloomberg's Lucas Shaw from
Speaker 2: our screen Time event in Los Angeles this week. Coming
Speaker 2: up next, what's ahead for the changing landscape of sports media,
Speaker 2: We'll speak with one of the biggest names in sports talk,
Speaker 2: analysis and opinions and straight ahead on this special edition
Speaker 2: of Bloomberg BusinessWeek, bringing you conversations from this week's screen
Speaker 2: Time event in Los Angeles. I'm Matt Miller killing in
Speaker 2: for Carol and Tim, and this is Bloomberg.
Speaker 1: Market.
Speaker 7: You can't predict them.
Speaker 1: Let's look at yesterday's sell off on Wall Street.
Speaker 12: Pigs drivations in terms of bond markets, so when you're.
Speaker 1: Listening to us, you'll come pretty.
Speaker 6: Let's take a look at small capstocks.
Speaker 1: Bloomberg Radio the Bloomberg Business app in Bloomberg Radio dot Com.
Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg BusinessWeek with Carol Messer and Tim Stenebeck
Speaker 1: on Bloomberg Radio.
Speaker 2: This is the weekend edition of Bloomberg BusinessWeek. I'm Matt
Speaker 2: Miller filling in for Carol and Tim. They spent the
Speaker 2: week in Los Angeles at Bloomberg screen Time. The event
Speaker 2: brought together celebrities, entrepreneurs, and media executives in the heart
Speaker 2: of Hollywood to discuss the future of entertainment, and today
Speaker 2: we're bringing you conversations from the gathering. Up Next, we
Speaker 2: speak with Stephen A. Smith, one of the most influential
Speaker 2: figures in sports media, with sharp opinions and a big
Speaker 2: personality both on screen and behind the mic.
Speaker 6: Stephen A.
Speaker 2: Smith is best known as the host of The Steven A.
Speaker 2: Smith Show and First Take. He got together with Lucas
Speaker 2: Shaw at Bloomberg screen Time event at LA this week
Speaker 2: to discuss the sports media l landscape. Let's hear what
Speaker 2: he had to say.
Speaker 3: When you started your career being a columnist at a
Speaker 3: national newspaper was probably the most influential job you could
Speaker 3: have in sports media. You've had talk radio, YESPN, blew up.
Speaker 3: You're now the most recognizable sports media personality.
Speaker 6: I alreay say, how do you see your.
Speaker 3: Business changing with streaming and social media and what you
Speaker 3: have to do to sort of stay on top.
Speaker 15: Well, you've got to diversify.
Speaker 16: You've got to make sure that you're paying attention to
Speaker 16: what the audience wants. You have to understand that who
Speaker 16: your audience is and.
Speaker 15: Where they are.
Speaker 16: The audience that listens to you on radio might be
Speaker 16: different than the audience is watching you and listen to
Speaker 16: you on your podcast and your YouTube show might be
Speaker 16: different than the audience is watching you at ten o'clock
Speaker 16: in the morning.
Speaker 15: On First Take.
Speaker 16: For me, personally, it's not that challenging from the standpoint
Speaker 16: that working at ESPN, there's always been.
Speaker 15: A polporia shows show. What you saw from me.
Speaker 16: On first tape might be a little bit different than
Speaker 16: what you saw for me on NBA Countdown.
Speaker 15: It might be a little bit different than when you
Speaker 15: saw for mean, when.
Speaker 16: We had Outside the Lines, might be a little bit
Speaker 16: different than when you see me on a sports center.
Speaker 16: A lot of times, also, the personality that you're working
Speaker 16: with comes into play. Somebody that's hosting the six o'clock
Speaker 16: Sports Center might be different than somebody that's hosting the
Speaker 16: eleven o'clock might be different than somebody that's hosting the
Speaker 16: overnight coming on before games, so you have a certain attitude,
Speaker 16: and then another another's show.
Speaker 15: You're coming on postgame.
Speaker 16: So it's a different attitude because you saw a different
Speaker 16: you know, you have some highlights, you saw a different
Speaker 16: level of excitement that you want to ingratiate yourself with
Speaker 16: and gravitate to. And so I've always been about the
Speaker 16: business of making sure that I was multi faster than
Speaker 16: in my presentation and my delivery, and just to make
Speaker 16: sure that I'm appealing to the audience and be a
Speaker 16: mindful and cognizant of who.
Speaker 15: Actually is out there watching at.
Speaker 16: A particular moment and time in the day or whatever.
Speaker 16: You and what you need to do and what you
Speaker 16: need to deliver because everybody's looking for something different.
Speaker 6: Yeah, where do you think that most people watch you? Now?
Speaker 6: Is it on ESPN? Is it YouTube? Is it some
Speaker 6: other social network?
Speaker 16: I would tell you I would once upon a time,
Speaker 16: I would have easily said to TESPN, And you can
Speaker 16: easily say that now because of the success of First Take.
Speaker 16: I mean, when you think about the audience, you know,
Speaker 16: at ten o'clock in the morning, when people are at
Speaker 16: work or in school or whatever, we averaging nearly a
Speaker 16: half a million viewers live over video. I personally average
Speaker 16: over two billion views a year. So I know that,
Speaker 16: And then that's just what First take. That doesn't take
Speaker 16: into account Sports Center and NBA Countdown. And then now
Speaker 16: that I've got my YouTube show, I've had it for
Speaker 16: about eighteen months now. I've got about eight hundred and
Speaker 16: seventy seven thousand subscribers this month. This month alone, I
Speaker 16: did over eighteen million views. I've had over two point
Speaker 16: two million watched hours and stuff like that. And so
Speaker 16: you're looking at those numbers and you're saying, well, that's
Speaker 16: just three days a week, and that's me talking about
Speaker 16: pop culture and entertainment with the B Diddy scandal or whatever.
Speaker 16: And you know, it's not me getting in the sports
Speaker 16: its heavily. It's not even getting in the politics as
Speaker 16: the election draws there, especially because there were times that
Speaker 16: I was talking about Trump. I was talking abou Kamala Harris.
Speaker 16: I was on the air eight nine months ago saying
Speaker 16: Joe Biden needed to step down. It just ain't there anymore,
Speaker 16: you know, I was saying that. I didn't say it
Speaker 16: enjoying lee. I said, you certainly don't want to be
Speaker 16: denigrating to president of the United States or anything like that.
Speaker 7: But I saw what I saw.
Speaker 16: And so for me talking to that audience knowing that
Speaker 16: they're not familiar. At one time they weren't familiar with that,
Speaker 16: but then those algorithms kicking you talk about it enough,
Speaker 16: all of a sudden your name comes up, you make headlines,
Speaker 16: and then they attach you to those subject matters, and
Speaker 16: then before you know it, you have an even bigger
Speaker 16: audience that you never anticipated. And so I think the
Speaker 16: exciting part for me is the answer to that question
Speaker 16: is ESPN.
Speaker 15: But it was definitively and very quickly.
Speaker 16: ESPN, you know, a year ago, and now I'm saying
Speaker 16: it's changing, right, it's changing. They still watching me on ESPN,
Speaker 16: but the audiences growing on YouTube.
Speaker 6: Does ESPN get upset if you talked about politics?
Speaker 15: No?
Speaker 16: No, I mean they did want upon a time, and
Speaker 16: I think that Jimmy Pittaro, the president of ESPN, he
Speaker 16: came on in twenty and eighteen and what he took
Speaker 16: over for John Skipper who had exited. He was on
Speaker 16: the record saying that we need to veer away from politics.
Speaker 16: And there was a whole bunch of my colleagues that
Speaker 16: were very upset with me for co.
Speaker 15: Signing that mandate.
Speaker 16: But I co signed it, and even all these years later,
Speaker 16: I'm here to defend the president of ESPN at that time,
Speaker 16: because we had gotten so political that we went away
Speaker 16: from giving the audience what it came to expect.
Speaker 15: You're coming to.
Speaker 16: Expect sports, and then we felt it was perfectly okay
Speaker 16: to just get in the stuff that expanded beyond sports.
Speaker 16: You had the the Colin Kaepernick protesting and kneeling. We
Speaker 16: saw the President Trump at the time hijacked the narrative
Speaker 16: and turned it into some issue involving patriotism and all
Speaker 16: of this other stuff, when it.
Speaker 15: Really wasn't about that.
Speaker 16: It was about him getting back at owners wouldn't let
Speaker 16: him be coming owner in twenty fourteen for the Buffalo Bills,
Speaker 16: and you saw all of this other stuff going on,
Speaker 16: and you know, we got away from giving the audience
Speaker 16: what the audience came to say. And I'm a businessman,
Speaker 16: and my attitude is what do the patrons want? What
Speaker 16: are their expectations? What did they come to see? And
Speaker 16: if you know what that is, and you sign your
Speaker 16: name on the dotted line committing to giving the audience that,
Speaker 16: and you owe it to them to give them that.
Speaker 16: And when Jimmy Pittaro was making the declaration that we
Speaker 16: weren't doing that to the degree that we once did,
Speaker 16: he was absolutely right. But once we got back to
Speaker 16: doing what we do, sports politics and all of that
Speaker 16: stuff in between social comment, terman and stuff and intertwined
Speaker 16: with the world of sports is inescapable. And now we
Speaker 16: get that, But six years ago or so they didn't
Speaker 16: get it like they do now.
Speaker 3: But I suppose there's a reason you're doing that on
Speaker 3: your own as opposed to on the airwaves.
Speaker 16: Well again, because I'm a businessman and I'm thinking about
Speaker 16: the business of Stephen A.
Speaker 15: Smith.
Speaker 16: I'm not thinking about Steven A. Smith the employee. I'm
Speaker 16: thinking about straight shoot of productions, straight shoot media and
Speaker 16: the kind of aspirations that I have. That doesn't mean
Speaker 16: that I want to go away, that I want to
Speaker 16: stop doing sports, that I want to stop working for
Speaker 16: the people that I work for, but they are keenly
Speaker 16: aware of the fact that I have a strong desire
Speaker 16: to expand I've done. You will see me on News
Speaker 16: Nation a week before the election night doing a town hall.
Speaker 16: You see me on CNN, you see me on Fox News.
Speaker 16: You've seen me being interviewed by political commentators and what
Speaker 16: have you I like doing that. You've seen me talking
Speaker 16: about p Diddy one minute, Will Smith, Chris Rock the next,
Speaker 16: and so on and so forth. I like, I'm one
Speaker 16: of those guys that wherever the pulse of the people
Speaker 16: are at, what is on their mind and what they're
Speaker 16: most interested in, I like to be a part of
Speaker 16: that dialogue and a part of that conversation. And so
Speaker 16: when you come to me being from come and graduating
Speaker 16: from an HBCU with sim State, struggling the way that
Speaker 16: I did to get to where I am, climbing up
Speaker 16: the charts from the New York Daily News as a
Speaker 16: high school reporter, to the Philadelphia Inquirer, working on TVC
Speaker 16: and sside of Fox Sports to ESPN.
Speaker 15: I bust my to get to where I am.
Speaker 16: And I don't want anyone telling me we're pigeonholing you
Speaker 16: in this box and we have you in this corner,
Speaker 16: and that's where you belong and that's where you'll stay.
Speaker 16: I'm not rolling like that. That's not who I am,
Speaker 16: and that's not who I'm going to be.
Speaker 3: Okay, that's a good cue for I want to read
Speaker 3: you a quote your profile by GQ in twenty nineteen.
Speaker 16: Okay in twenty nineteen, I don't remember, but I'll take
Speaker 16: your word for you.
Speaker 3: Your your former colleague Max Caliban had a quote about you. Okay,
Speaker 3: Stephen A is never going to be happy. That's why
Speaker 3: he's successful. When you're on the top. When you're when
Speaker 3: you're on top, the reason you're there is because you're
Speaker 3: a chronically dissatisfied person.
Speaker 15: I think that's a bit excessive. I think that.
Speaker 16: If you know me, if you know my inner circle,
Speaker 16: my family, my friends, my loved ones.
Speaker 15: I am a very happy man. I'm living a pretty
Speaker 15: good life.
Speaker 6: Things like. You know, I'm working real hard.
Speaker 15: I work real hard because I love to work.
Speaker 16: I get that from my mama, God rest her soul.
Speaker 16: And I'm not I'm very proud of that. I'm you know,
Speaker 16: to me. You know I'm off when the job is done.
Speaker 16: You know, I believe in excellence. I believe in doing
Speaker 16: the best that I possibly can do and exhausting every
Speaker 16: means necessary to be the best that I can be.
Speaker 16: But in the same breath, don't get a twist that
Speaker 16: I know how to have a good time, and I
Speaker 16: have a good time quite often. It's just that, you know,
Speaker 16: when people work with you, there's a level of intensity
Speaker 16: that I bring to the table.
Speaker 10: You know.
Speaker 16: Nick Saban has one of my favorite quotes, Mediocre people
Speaker 16: don't like winners, and winners don't like mediocre people. And
Speaker 16: I listen to that, and I nodded my head in affirmation,
Speaker 16: because you can work with people and I'm certainly not
Speaker 16: talking about Max Kellerman here, but you can work with
Speaker 16: people as I have in my career, and you run
Speaker 16: across people that they're fine with getting by. They're fine
Speaker 16: with punching that proverbial clock, turning it in.
Speaker 15: Making sure they did their job, and that's all they
Speaker 15: gotta do.
Speaker 16: No, there's a result at the end. You know, we're
Speaker 16: in the ratings and revenue business. Are we winning? I
Speaker 16: don't care who I'm working for. This is one of
Speaker 16: the reasons that I believe that I'm one of the
Speaker 16: greatest people to work with, because I think about my
Speaker 16: partners just as much as I think about myself. Are
Speaker 16: we winning? If I'm winning but you're losing, We're losing
Speaker 16: because we have not achieved success for the both of us.
Speaker 16: We know what the mandate is. And when you run
Speaker 16: across people that don't care about whether or not somebody
Speaker 16: else is winning, and all they're concerned about is the
Speaker 16: fact that they got theirs, they're very easy to spot,
Speaker 16: they're not difficult to locate. And when you have to
Speaker 16: work with them every day and you're committed to success,
Speaker 16: that's a very difficult proposition to partake.
Speaker 15: Of on each passing day.
Speaker 16: And I'm one of those people that I may not
Speaker 16: say much, but I want you to be uncomfortable with me.
Speaker 15: I want you to be uncomfortable around me.
Speaker 16: I want you to be around me, and you know
Speaker 16: you want to get away from me as fast as
Speaker 16: you can.
Speaker 15: If you mediocre, you satisfied with being mediocre, and you.
Speaker 16: Don't give a damn, and you don't care about the results,
Speaker 16: you don't care about winning.
Speaker 15: I want you uncomfortable.
Speaker 16: I really really do you know people like the late
Speaker 16: great Kobe Bryant, God rest his soul, you knew his mentality.
Speaker 16: Michael Jordan has been a friend of mine for years.
Speaker 16: You knew his mentality. I mean, these are people that
Speaker 16: are winners, and I believe in being a winner.
Speaker 15: I'm exhausting yourself to do it.
Speaker 6: I'm curious.
Speaker 3: You may have the comment about people who are out
Speaker 3: for themselves, and I'm going to prophecy by saying that's
Speaker 3: not what I'm implicating for you here. But you're in
Speaker 3: the middle of negotiating a really big new contract right
Speaker 3: at the same time that ESPN is firing a bunch
Speaker 3: of right you see how that might rub some people
Speaker 3: the wrong way.
Speaker 15: I could see that. I don't give it. Let me
Speaker 15: tell you. Let me answer that question.
Speaker 7: Why.
Speaker 15: That is one question. I'm not offended by the question.
Speaker 15: So I want to make sure you understand that.
Speaker 16: But that is a question and I'm not going to
Speaker 16: take from anybody.
Speaker 2: That was Stephen A. Smith speaking with Bloomberg's Lucas Shaw
Speaker 2: from our screen Time event in Los Angeles this week.
Speaker 2: If you missed any part of that or our other
Speaker 2: conversations from screen Time, you can find them all on
Speaker 2: the Bloomberg Podcast YouTube page, along with our live stream
Speaker 2: every weekday starting at seven am. That does it for
Speaker 2: this special weekend edition of Bloomberg Business Week. I'm Matt
Speaker 2: Miller filling in with Carol and Tim. They'll be back
Speaker 2: with you Monday live at two pm Eastern on Bloomberg
Speaker 2: Radio and Television. Stay with us. Today's top stories and
Speaker 2: global business headlines are coming up right now.