Speaker 1: Welcome to Strictly Business, Varieties weekly podcast featuring conversations with
Speaker 1: industry leaders about the business of media and entertainment. I'm
Speaker 1: Cynthia Littleton, co editor in chief of Variety. Today. My
Speaker 1: guest is Sam Wick, head of U t A Ventures.
Speaker 1: One of Wick's jobs at the talent agency is to
Speaker 1: help build businesses and business opportunities for ut as many clients.
Speaker 1: The era of a star holding up a coke can
Speaker 1: and smiling for a check is pretty much over. Nowadays,
Speaker 1: brands are looking to align with bold faced names that
Speaker 1: give them what Wick calls brand permission to reach their
Speaker 1: target consumers. Wick has seen the evolution of digital media
Speaker 1: from the front row, having come up as an executive
Speaker 1: at MP three, dot Com, MySpace and Maker Studios before
Speaker 1: he joined U T A in ten. Putting on his
Speaker 1: venture capitalist hat, Wick also offers some insights on fast
Speaker 1: growing sectors that are destined to enter sect with entertainment.
Speaker 1: That's all coming up on today's episode of Strictly Business.
Speaker 1: Welcome back to Strictly Business, Sam Wick, head of MUTA Ventures,
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for joining us today. All right,
Speaker 1: thanks for having me tell me Sam, You you know,
Speaker 1: as the head of a ventures group for one of
Speaker 1: the Hollywood's largest talent agencies. You have quite a perch
Speaker 1: into the industry, and it's an industry that has has
Speaker 1: really been in the last you know, two years, has
Speaker 1: been in quite a run of attracting a ton of
Speaker 1: attention from private equity. Seemingly every everybody that ever held
Speaker 1: an executive position is about to launch us back to
Speaker 1: go buy things. There's a lot of activity in the
Speaker 1: marketplace right now from your perch, what do you see
Speaker 1: that is, you know, particularly of interest to private equity investors.
Speaker 1: Sectors of entertainment, media and telecom are they most interested
Speaker 1: in right now? Right? So, if we even kind of
Speaker 1: step back and just talk a little bit about how
Speaker 1: we think about kind of talent and how they act
Speaker 1: as accelerants, you know, for a business. So, you know,
Speaker 1: one UM agencies, Traditionally we're focused solely on media, but
Speaker 1: as they've evolved and added additional division sports, speakers, fine arts, right,
Speaker 1: you know, digital, the the breath of what we actually
Speaker 1: touch is much much broader than just media. So the
Speaker 1: way that I fundamentally think about it is where do
Speaker 1: our clients have brand permission? Where does their audience feel
Speaker 1: a sense of attachment to the remissions or their goals.
Speaker 1: And that is so that includes media. Media is definitely
Speaker 1: a large focus area there, but it also includes consumer products.
Speaker 1: That also includes um experiential businesses like hospitality or restaurants,
Speaker 1: and it includes a pro social right. You know, one
Speaker 1: of the things that town are great are simplifying complex
Speaker 1: situations or borrowing. You know, brands can borrow their brand
Speaker 1: equity to help them kind of understanding. So you see
Speaker 1: that a lot in like climate change or even a
Speaker 1: category like finance. But go back to social just you know,
Speaker 1: any any number of social justice issues absolutely get magnified. Yes,
Speaker 1: but to go back to your question in terms of
Speaker 1: where are people looking right? What are they thinking about right?
Speaker 1: And so I'll hone down on a couple of themes
Speaker 1: that I've been thinking about specifically related to media, and
Speaker 1: then maybe a little bit later we can talk about
Speaker 1: the thesis that actually gets us to these categories. But
Speaker 1: on one end, you've got UM this movement towards media
Speaker 1: companies focusing on direct consumer businesses. And if you think
Speaker 1: about companies like Disney and Discovery, historically they were more
Speaker 1: B two B two C companies. They created great content right,
Speaker 1: and they went to someone like Comcast. You did all
Speaker 1: the marketing, the customer acquisition, the the LTV, TOKAC analysis,
Speaker 1: the churn analysis, all of us. They're getting good at this, right,
Speaker 1: and Disney is getting really good at this, right. So
Speaker 1: then they start thinking about where the growth is for
Speaker 1: these kinds of businesses, right, And Disney now has three
Speaker 1: direct to consumer services, and ESPN and Hulu and Disney
Speaker 1: plus it's pretty logical that you could think about, well,
Speaker 1: they now understand that funnel, they understand how to market,
Speaker 1: what are the other things that could fit with their
Speaker 1: brand identity. So, for example, we're an investor in a
Speaker 1: company called masterclass Um, which is an incredible you know business, right,
Speaker 1: you could see a company like that really fitting in
Speaker 1: quite nicely with Disney or frankly Discovery right um. But
Speaker 1: you could also see those same types of companies not
Speaker 1: just focusing on video assets, but any asset that has
Speaker 1: a subscription method, right, So think about a music service
Speaker 1: or a wellness service. Could a company like Calm or
Speaker 1: headspace to be bundled together with some of the offerings
Speaker 1: that some of these media companies have, So so anything
Speaker 1: kind of in this larger subscription um area. I think
Speaker 1: it's really quite quite interesting for us if the world
Speaker 1: of the new bundle people are bundling and yeah, in
Speaker 1: the old days it was MTV and CNN and Nickelodeon
Speaker 1: and Lifetime, and now it could be, like you said,
Speaker 1: any number of channels plus a wellness app or a
Speaker 1: or a zen meditation. You're right that unbundling and re
Speaker 1: bundling is why I think why everything feels so kind
Speaker 1: of kind of frenzied right now in the business, because
Speaker 1: there's all this opportunity, but there's also like, what's going
Speaker 1: what's going on? So yeah, as you say, okay, so
Speaker 1: I want to give you another theme, which is um
Speaker 1: and this is like this has been going on for
Speaker 1: up right, which is if you find places where people
Speaker 1: are spending more time then where dollars are spent, there's
Speaker 1: going to be growth. Right. So if you think about this,
Speaker 1: you know where I initially built my career, which was
Speaker 1: in digital media perfect example. Right, for many, many years,
Speaker 1: there's more time spent than dollars spending. Everyone kept saying, well,
Speaker 1: advertising dollars are eventually going to shift. Where's that happening today? Audio? Right,
Speaker 1: So often as we say podcasting, but it's not just podcasting.
Speaker 1: Clearly there's incredible growth and podcasting. We see a lot
Speaker 1: of the same dynamics happening with creators, the creator economy
Speaker 1: and podcasts like we have a client my favorite murder
Speaker 1: has an incredible kind of connection to reach same way
Speaker 1: the digital talent you know do you know do today,
Speaker 1: But it's broader than just podcasting, right, and such as content,
Speaker 1: it's the entire infrastructure layer. We have an investment in
Speaker 1: a platform company called Art nineteen that does distribution and monetization,
Speaker 1: but it's also connected devices. So if you think about
Speaker 1: what's happening with Alexa or Google, right, that's a separate ecosystem,
Speaker 1: more time spent than dollars spent, right, Um. And then
Speaker 1: you could also look at you know, areas like converting
Speaker 1: print to audio and there's been a lot of investment
Speaker 1: they're making that content, making content kind of easier to consume,
Speaker 1: you know, on the go. Right, So that is also
Speaker 1: a general theme for us. Right, I'm thinking like even
Speaker 1: within those industries, there's so much tech innovation that needs
Speaker 1: to to make up We've been so spoiled, were so
Speaker 1: spoiled by these great interfaces but every click is somebody
Speaker 1: pouring over to make it that easy. And a lot
Speaker 1: of investors have told me, like, you know, it's not
Speaker 1: as sexy, but ad tech and connectivity tech is there
Speaker 1: is just amazing, like you know, moving ahead at at
Speaker 1: warp speed innovations going on there. I'm sure you're seeing.
Speaker 1: It is a truism that it is oftentimes not just
Speaker 1: the vision but the execution, the detail. So it is
Speaker 1: the little things right that um maybe we don't think about.
Speaker 1: They're not as flashy, right if well, you know, but
Speaker 1: that really make a difference. And so when you look
Speaker 1: at and we have a lot of businesses and consumer products,
Speaker 1: we spend a lot of time thinking about what is
Speaker 1: the acquisition funnel, what is the drip marketing strategy across
Speaker 1: you know, email and text and you know, and what
Speaker 1: is the proper churn rate and and inventory allocations and
Speaker 1: three PM Like these are things that are not particularly
Speaker 1: like you know, high flying and sexy, but they are
Speaker 1: typically a hallmark for um, you know, what moves a
Speaker 1: business from being just good, you know it too great.
Speaker 1: And so you know, going back to the audio theme,
Speaker 1: you know why you know why is why does why
Speaker 1: is clubhouse winning in the audio category, right, because it's
Speaker 1: gonna be ton of competitors. Why are they winning, right?
Speaker 1: And and it's oftentimes that attention to detail the network
Speaker 1: effects that really, at the end of the day, make
Speaker 1: a huge difference easy of us. So with the direct
Speaker 1: subscription boom at the biggest of the big companies, how
Speaker 1: are you seeing that filter out to opportunities to investors
Speaker 1: in other areas. We both invest and we build businesses
Speaker 1: with our clients and UM when we build, what we've
Speaker 1: found is that over time the market is evolving and
Speaker 1: it's it's in a sense upstreaming. So it used to
Speaker 1: be that the talent would just start something from scratch,
Speaker 1: raised capital, build the brand. Increasingly we're seeing this interest
Speaker 1: in and this is when we work with with private
Speaker 1: equity quite a bit, or with corporations spinning out new divisions.
Speaker 1: UM you know, potentially buying a company and using UH
Speaker 1: and working with talent to inject their their brand story
Speaker 1: and authenticity and accelerate the brand, or even taking a
Speaker 1: brand like a lot of the large public companies have
Speaker 1: brands that are just kind of operating at at a steady,
Speaker 1: steady state level, right, and you know, the gross margins
Speaker 1: the same, the profitabilities the same, the marketing expenses the same.
Speaker 1: They're not gonna double down on marketing, but they feel
Speaker 1: like if they could, if talent could come in and
Speaker 1: really fit with that brand and help them move the
Speaker 1: needle via earned media, right, you're willing to compensate the
Speaker 1: talent in exchange for that. And so you do see
Speaker 1: that up in a lot you know, you know, on
Speaker 1: the talent you know side again, I think more frequently
Speaker 1: in both um consumer media, but also uh quite often
Speaker 1: in consumer products you know as well. And are you
Speaker 1: seeing I would imagine that you're seeing, you know, we're
Speaker 1: talent getting some form of equity, whether it's you know,
Speaker 1: equity equity or a small slice of equity. But I
Speaker 1: mean that seems to be a growing area. I would imagine,
Speaker 1: you know, a growing area focus for the you know,
Speaker 1: for the many you know, top tier folks that you
Speaker 1: guys represent. Yeah, there is, there is, There's there's a
Speaker 1: couple of themes, right because you know, there's always been
Speaker 1: a very robust endorsement business for a lot of talent.
Speaker 1: But what we're increasingly saying is that the talent are
Speaker 1: interested both because of the potential financial returns. But also
Speaker 1: I think the legacy aspect of it in building you know,
Speaker 1: big and meaningful you know businesses, and there are macro
Speaker 1: factor is driving this. You know one if you look
Speaker 1: at and you look at studies around younger consumers, they
Speaker 1: are increasingly looking for brands that they that have a
Speaker 1: founder led story and they understand the mission around and
Speaker 1: talent are highly effective at this. You also hear the
Speaker 1: same thing from retailers, so um Target has done especially
Speaker 1: well at this over the past few years and bringing
Speaker 1: in founder, founder led brands. I think the other fact,
Speaker 1: and this really touches in with media, is that it's
Speaker 1: harder and harder to tell your brand story through traditional media.
Speaker 1: Right there's less advertising space. And so if you look
Speaker 1: at the platforms that are growing, let's so let's let's
Speaker 1: look at the social networks. Think any of the right, Facebook, Instagram, Snap.
Speaker 1: The actual content that people are consuming is generally the
Speaker 1: social content that you and I or a celebrity or
Speaker 1: an influencer is creating. And so they're actually controlling that
Speaker 1: marketing message in a way that's much more powerful. And
Speaker 1: I think the brands are increasing recognizing that that they
Speaker 1: are an effective manner kind of breaking through, you know,
Speaker 1: breaking through the noise. You must have seen um you know,
Speaker 1: I mean you must be watching with interest. The growth
Speaker 1: of TikTok and and TikTok as a as a marketing platform,
Speaker 1: is you know, the fact that that feels almost baked
Speaker 1: into its d n A. It seems like, you know,
Speaker 1: there's so much opportunity there, Uh certainly. I think one
Speaker 1: thing that's interesting is before TikTok, you may have to
Speaker 1: go back, uh ten years to find the last breakthrough
Speaker 1: social media product, which is probably Instagram, right, So it's
Speaker 1: been a while, so it's hard to get those network effects.
Speaker 1: And each of these platforms has a different kind of
Speaker 1: influence or a creator and typically a different kind of
Speaker 1: um product are kind of product opportunity comes out of it.
Speaker 1: So what's interesting about and about TikTok specifically is for
Speaker 1: me is one the growth of food. Like food has
Speaker 1: always been a category that we've always felt that talent
Speaker 1: could push on. It's always been historically been a category
Speaker 1: that's not been as attractive because the margins have been
Speaker 1: somewhat thin. At the retail level. You've got to sell
Speaker 1: a lot of boxed macaroni and cheese to make it
Speaker 1: worth your Yeah, when you're seeing a lot of creators
Speaker 1: do very interesting things. So, for example, we represent Half Baked,
Speaker 1: harrist Right, who is one with the YouTube an TikTok,
Speaker 1: Joshua Wiseman who is a fast growing kind of young
Speaker 1: hip you know, celebrity chef. And so each of these
Speaker 1: platforms does create their own set of stars and influencers
Speaker 1: which then leads to a series of businesses that they
Speaker 1: can build. When you go out in the in the
Speaker 1: business building part of your job, when you go out
Speaker 1: to look to raise money for people, do you find
Speaker 1: that you find do you have the usual suspects? Do
Speaker 1: you have the usual ten firms that come in to
Speaker 1: my mind, I keeps every time I turn around, there's
Speaker 1: a new something, something capital new, you know, venture is
Speaker 1: inc It feels it feels like there's just like a
Speaker 1: lot of new faces coming into the you know, a
Speaker 1: new interest in the industry. Are you seeing them right? Um? Well,
Speaker 1: first I should start by saying it's not just me.
Speaker 1: I have an amazing team. Um. And I will also
Speaker 1: say that I think, you know, pound for pound it
Speaker 1: it's the best you know, uh team possible. And it
Speaker 1: is largely a team composed of female executives and that
Speaker 1: I have a sense as that's why we're overperforming. Well,
Speaker 1: you want to get something done right UM. But you
Speaker 1: know what's what's interesting is I think, as we've discussed,
Speaker 1: I come from a background of having raised venture capital
Speaker 1: for my own companies, building them and selling them, and
Speaker 1: that was the model that I truly understood UM coming
Speaker 1: into it to U t A. What I've learned is
Speaker 1: that you know, being in client services, we're not a
Speaker 1: one We can't really have one size fits all. That
Speaker 1: not every business, not every talent is meant to go
Speaker 1: through the venture process. And so in developing our group,
Speaker 1: we developed in essence of financial coverage model and we
Speaker 1: work with family offices, all stages of venture private equity
Speaker 1: and also UM corporations. And the models have a wide
Speaker 1: variety in terms of how they're capitalized. So there are
Speaker 1: businesses UM that we've gone out and we've raised venture
Speaker 1: capital for so UM. So for example, we have a
Speaker 1: business with Ray called Ciena Naturals, which is a natural
Speaker 1: haircare company is run by a woman named on a joke,
Speaker 1: who's fantastic. That company UM is venture backed, large venture backed.
Speaker 1: But there are other businesses where we've structured them as
Speaker 1: joint ventures with corporations or brand incubators. An example of
Speaker 1: that would be we have a business called Anomally with
Speaker 1: Prianka Chopra, Jonas Uh and Mesa. Mace is backed by
Speaker 1: mass A beauty brand, the incubator, and they're backed by Being,
Speaker 1: which is a private equity company UM, and they have
Speaker 1: different I'm not saying one's better than the other, right,
Speaker 1: It's really about what are the ultimate goals and objectives
Speaker 1: you know, of our of our clients UM. But there
Speaker 1: are a wide variety of bottles, so it's not I
Speaker 1: wouldn't say it's there's no usual substance you know, useful
Speaker 1: suspects model, although there are certain marketplaces. So if you're
Speaker 1: going to build a beauty brand, you know that there
Speaker 1: are a certain number of very strong brand incubators that
Speaker 1: you're gonna work with, and if you're going to do
Speaker 1: it on your on, there are a certain number of
Speaker 1: venture funds who are top to your funds who really
Speaker 1: excel right at and investing if you want to go
Speaker 1: down down that path. But what's really interesting to me,
Speaker 1: and particularly kind of given out the sizing, is that
Speaker 1: the range of models that that we've been able to
Speaker 1: kind of work through. And I will tell it's it's
Speaker 1: say it's it's really um, it's changing in real time.
Speaker 1: What are you finding in terms of particularly younger talents
Speaker 1: that comes to you. Are you finding is there a
Speaker 1: real sense of like digital entrepreneurship out there? Are people?
Speaker 1: Do people come in Talented people come in come in
Speaker 1: your doors with the idea of yeah, I can build
Speaker 1: a company. You know. It feels to me like there
Speaker 1: is a breed of you know, twentysomething that has a
Speaker 1: podcasting company in their head and working, you know, working
Speaker 1: on other audio projects on the side. I'm amazed at
Speaker 1: how many plates people can juggle, right, So we call
Speaker 1: them the multi hyphen it's right because they can do
Speaker 1: so many different things. And so there is UM. Well,
Speaker 1: I'm just starting with a question on on digital platforms.
Speaker 1: I think many of the creators who um are building
Speaker 1: businesses on digital platforms. Um, they're breaking down that that
Speaker 1: that that wall, that barrier. Right. I used to always
Speaker 1: say this, and men was in the managin of Maker
Speaker 1: Studios and YouTube Network, and what I saw there was
Speaker 1: when you were speaking directly to your audience, they really
Speaker 1: understood who you were, and you had a greater ability
Speaker 1: to influence influence purchase behavior. Um. And so I think
Speaker 1: a lot of the digital creators are really savvy and
Speaker 1: really understand us. UM. And so if you look at someone,
Speaker 1: for example, like Emma Chamberlain is one of the biggest
Speaker 1: digital stars period full stop. UM. We worked with her
Speaker 1: and we've we've built a coffee company with her called
Speaker 1: Chamberlain Coffee, which is doing incredibly well. UM. But it's
Speaker 1: because I think the audience understands from day one, right,
Speaker 1: her love of of coffee in that category. Um. And
Speaker 1: that's happening across the board. You could look at our clients,
Speaker 1: the Demilio's um who are on on TikTok, you could
Speaker 1: you could look at a number of the beauty influencers, right,
Speaker 1: they've almost baked in commerce as part of their DNA.
Speaker 1: The content itself, right is you know, instructional is educational
Speaker 1: right in a way that it wasn't you know for
Speaker 1: a previous generation who was on film and TV. It's
Speaker 1: a very different, very different tool. Kid. We'll be back
Speaker 1: with more from Sam Wick after a quick break, and
Speaker 1: we're back with U t A. Sam Wick. Sam tell
Speaker 1: us about your own journey through digital startups and entrepreneurship.
Speaker 1: How did you How did you get on the path
Speaker 1: that led you to U T a UM. One of
Speaker 1: my colleagues like to say, it's the wind, the long
Speaker 1: and winding road, how I got to you T a UM.
Speaker 1: I've always been interested in media and tech. I actually
Speaker 1: started my career doing A and R for American recordings.
Speaker 1: I worked for a guy named Rick Rubin who anywhere
Speaker 1: to him anyone loves hip hop Los O very well.
Speaker 1: I actually signed a group called System of a Down
Speaker 1: UM and that was my whole first career and I
Speaker 1: and I loved music then and I love music now.
Speaker 1: And one of the things that I often say is,
Speaker 1: no matter what job I choose, it always seems that
Speaker 1: that company chooses to be in music. UM. From there,
Speaker 1: I moved into media and tech and I did a
Speaker 1: series of companies. I ran content for MBA three dot com,
Speaker 1: which we took public in the early aughts. UM. I
Speaker 1: then did a SAS company with Mike Jones, who runs
Speaker 1: a very well thought of incubator here in Los Angeles
Speaker 1: called science called user Plane, that we sold to a
Speaker 1: o LL. I ran marketing and content from for my
Speaker 1: Space if you remember that. Uh And then UH I
Speaker 1: was on the management team of Maker Studios and it
Speaker 1: was you know, which we sold to Disney. That in
Speaker 1: and of itself must have been quite a journey. I
Speaker 1: had to tell you. Disney is a really amazing company.
Speaker 1: It is like, you know, the way they tell stories
Speaker 1: UM and and not just you know, on a screen
Speaker 1: or on a box, but thinking about the brand, the
Speaker 1: entire brand life cycle of storytelling is incredibly powerful. UM
Speaker 1: And being from UH I grew up in southern California,
Speaker 1: I used to go to Disneyland every year for my
Speaker 1: birthday and and and so there were days that I
Speaker 1: would pinch myself as I was sitting there on the
Speaker 1: corner of Dope Drive and Mickey Ev or maybe it's
Speaker 1: Mickey Mickey Drive and dopev I can't remember. But you know,
Speaker 1: it was truly a great place, you know, to be in.
Speaker 1: You're actually seeing a number of those Disney executive as
Speaker 1: disruption occurs, doing things that are very innovative. Right. So
Speaker 1: you know Ben Sherwood who ran Disney Media Networks as
Speaker 1: a new UM coaching and sports startup called Mojo, which
Speaker 1: were an investor in UM and you know, Kevin Mayer
Speaker 1: is obviously doing some things that are quite you know,
Speaker 1: intriguing as well. Um, so it actually did quite quite
Speaker 1: enjoy my time there. But um what I what I
Speaker 1: learned both from from Maker and from Disney, was that
Speaker 1: I felt that this trend of creators being able to
Speaker 1: build businesses and all the things that we've just talked
Speaker 1: about earlier day was only going to accelerate. And that's
Speaker 1: what really attracted me to U t A. I started
Speaker 1: thinking about, well, if there's a platform for digital creators,
Speaker 1: there's probably a bigger platform for all creators, all talent,
Speaker 1: all thought leaders, all speakers. Uh and what could be
Speaker 1: the most exciting place to do that? Uh? Well, U
Speaker 1: t A. You know what surprises me is just kind
Speaker 1: of the amount of ambition, which, of course, you know,
Speaker 1: people that that make it in Hollywood are never short
Speaker 1: of ambition. But the I think just the sense of
Speaker 1: like business literacy, the idea that oh I can I
Speaker 1: can create a company. I can create a company that
Speaker 1: will then you know, kick off returns that can help
Speaker 1: my effort to provide clean water in you know, in
Speaker 1: another country. I mean that the the connectivity that that
Speaker 1: and and as you talk about the power that talent
Speaker 1: can wield to accelerate things, to bring you to bring
Speaker 1: things to market. Now, UM, do you ever I would
Speaker 1: imagine that that there must be times when you have
Speaker 1: and again not not not as super specifics, but there
Speaker 1: must be times when people want to bring you ideas
Speaker 1: that you think, you just this isn't going this isn't
Speaker 1: going to fly, or we this this, we just there's
Speaker 1: not going to be the market support for that. Do
Speaker 1: you ever? Do you ever ever have to have tough
Speaker 1: conversations with people sometimes about you know, what realistically is
Speaker 1: a business and maybe what is more like a hobby.
Speaker 1: It's normally the first conversation that I have, UM, and
Speaker 1: what I found is that, UM, my colleagues and you know,
Speaker 1: our our clients really respect that, right. What I what
Speaker 1: I tell them is that what is you know, my
Speaker 1: goal here is to build spell equity value. The mission
Speaker 1: statement of my group is to build equity value for
Speaker 1: the agency in our clients. And um, we do all
Speaker 1: of this market coverage with all this information. We we
Speaker 1: you know, all of the things that are having with trends,
Speaker 1: and we will tell you what we think is. You know,
Speaker 1: when you're rowing downstream and when you're rowing up stream,
Speaker 1: and then after we have that conversation, what I will
Speaker 1: say is that I will help you however I can.
Speaker 1: I will support you iever right I can. I just
Speaker 1: want to be I want you to be informed on
Speaker 1: what's happening within the market so that you can make
Speaker 1: informed choices. Sam, I so appreciate you taking the time
Speaker 1: to talk us through and kind of give us your
Speaker 1: thoughts about this marketplace. If things are changing so fast,
Speaker 1: the companies are reorganizing, the you know, business models are changing,
Speaker 1: streaming services are launching every month. What why don't you
Speaker 1: wrap it up with a couple of like sort of
Speaker 1: top line trends that you think that are on the
Speaker 1: horizon for the rest of this year. Okay, So, UM,
Speaker 1: I was thinking both about COVID trends and post COVID
Speaker 1: trends UM and so during COVID, there there's been a
Speaker 1: number of areas that have accelerated. UM. We talked about
Speaker 1: a few earlier on But I'm gonna add fitness as
Speaker 1: a big category, and I think that media companies should
Speaker 1: really be thinking about it as a content category. Right, So,
Speaker 1: if you think about a business, we're an investor in
Speaker 1: a company called Echelon, which is a a mass market
Speaker 1: connected fitness company. We have bikes and rowing machines, and
Speaker 1: we think about the amount of time that those consumers
Speaker 1: spend in front of a screen. Those mirrors are you know,
Speaker 1: are another distribution channel that's correct, right, um, And also
Speaker 1: think about the network effects around fitness, so particularly about
Speaker 1: coming like Strava right with with literally over a million subscribers.
Speaker 1: What wellness and mental health is a category that continues
Speaker 1: to accelerate when I think a number of people are
Speaker 1: having whatever referred to as PRETSD where they they you know,
Speaker 1: they thought twenty nineteen was was great and sucked and
Speaker 1: now that they're they're thinking about being out five nights
Speaker 1: a week. But I often I have this thing, you know,
Speaker 1: I can't wait to go to parties. So I remind
Speaker 1: myself how much I hate going to parties, and and
Speaker 1: so I think, you know, there's there, but they're being
Speaker 1: a little cheeky about it. But I think there's good.
Speaker 1: There's gonna be real kind of stress you know around that,
Speaker 1: and that's going to be a big category. UM. Food
Speaker 1: delivery and the shifting of how we consume food has
Speaker 1: been a big, big growth you know category for us, right. Um.
Speaker 1: And then I think as as an investor, what we
Speaker 1: have to think about is within all of these categories
Speaker 1: that we talked about, what is the pull forward versus
Speaker 1: the systemic change. So a lot of content companies in
Speaker 1: in Q two and into Q three saw big bumps
Speaker 1: because people are at home and they were looking for
Speaker 1: content to consume. Right, is that a systemic change or
Speaker 1: did it pull forward and then it came back? Right? Um?
Speaker 1: Also think we really I think there will be a
Speaker 1: great desire for people to connect. And I'm I'm very
Speaker 1: confident that I think live and many facets will come
Speaker 1: back quite quickly. But I think it will be generational. Right.
Speaker 1: So if I was a live you know, if I
Speaker 1: was betting on the live music category right or investing there,
Speaker 1: I'd be thinking about probably leaning younger. Like then when
Speaker 1: I talked to my friends who run sponsorship for the Philharmonic,
Speaker 1: that might be a little bit slower, right in terms
Speaker 1: of you know, you know, you know coming back. Um.
Speaker 1: So those are those are some of the areas, and
Speaker 1: then we could talk about you know, cryptos, sports, betting,
Speaker 1: creator tools, fan engagement, all of those are also kind
Speaker 1: of big growth areas, but areas that we were focused
Speaker 1: on before COVID and continue to focus on today. M H.
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