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Speaker 1: H M. Welcome to Strictly Business, Variety's podcast featuring conversations

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Speaker 1: with industry leaders about the business of entertainment. I'm Cynthia Littleton,

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Speaker 1: Managing editor of Television for Variety Today. My guest in

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Speaker 1: New York is Discovery Inc. President CEO David Zaslov. Zaslov

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Speaker 1: has long been known as one of the cable industry's

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Speaker 1: biggest booster. He sits atop a large portfolio of lifestyle

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Speaker 1: channels that grew this year with the acquisition of Script's networks, Interactive,

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Speaker 1: the home of Food Network, h G t V, and

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Speaker 1: other blue chip TV brands. What's interesting about this interview

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Speaker 1: is the degree to which Zaslov admits that the linear

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Speaker 1: channel's business is in slow decline. Discovery is now going

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Speaker 1: along in the I P business. Zaslov wants to amass

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Speaker 1: content and brands with global appeal that can be sliced

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Speaker 1: and diced in many ways for consumers linear and screaming.

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Speaker 1: Zaslov offers details about the Script steal and recent investments

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Speaker 1: in professional golf and Olympics outside the US. He gives

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Speaker 1: a candid look at how his mindset shifted about five

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Speaker 1: years ago after he was challenged by none other than

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Speaker 1: John Malone, a major Discovery shareholder, to answer the question

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Speaker 1: how well would we do if people could watch whatever

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Speaker 1: they wanted? David Zaslov, CEO of Discovery, Inc. Thank you

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Speaker 1: so much for joining us today. Thank you, Cynthia was

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Speaker 1: looking forward to it so as we as two thousand

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Speaker 1: eighteen winds down, I look at Discovery, I look at

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Speaker 1: your stock has had an incredible run this year, and

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Speaker 1: I look at a company that is very different as

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Speaker 1: we close out than when you began. Of course, you

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Speaker 1: had a big acquisition. You completed the acquisition of Scripts

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Speaker 1: Network Interactive, which brought you a lot of great brands

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Speaker 1: and talent and channels to put under your big roof.

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Speaker 1: You've done a lot of deals, a lot of activity

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Speaker 1: overseas in the sport and O T T space, and

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Speaker 1: I know you have a lot of you know, you

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Speaker 1: have a lot of plans to come for the domestic market.

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Speaker 1: Right now, in media, there seems to be a there's

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Speaker 1: a there's a pressure on traditional media giants to transform,

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Speaker 1: to diversify and transform. Do you feel the pressure to

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Speaker 1: transform the business that has been so successful for Discovery

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Speaker 1: for the past years, No question, Um, you know, media

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Speaker 1: right now is a it's a street fight, and I'm

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Speaker 1: a fighter. I love it. I love the business. Well,

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Speaker 1: you've got to look for every opportunity to train, You've

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Speaker 1: got to look for every opportunity to create some winds

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Speaker 1: and momentum. Um. It's been a great, great year for us.

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Speaker 1: But when you talk about traditional media, we really, uh,

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Speaker 1: we were having quite a run as a traditional media company.

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Speaker 1: When I say we were more cable and free to

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Speaker 1: air around the world. Um. I've been here for twelve years,

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Speaker 1: and for the first seven years we had a you know,

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Speaker 1: an extraordinary run both in the market and grow growth

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Speaker 1: around the world and here in the US. Um. But

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Speaker 1: I remember a conversation I had with John Malone five

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Speaker 1: years ago. Our channels were growing double digit around the

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Speaker 1: world in terms of viewership and uh, and our performance

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Speaker 1: was strong. Our company had grown, stock had grown from

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Speaker 1: about twelve dollars to eighty or eighty five dollars, So

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Speaker 1: we really felt like we were in stride. And John

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Speaker 1: and I talked about the future and uh. He turned

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Speaker 1: to me and he said, Okay, we've grown all of

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Speaker 1: our share. Um, how well would we do if people

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Speaker 1: could watch anything? And I thought for a moment, and

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Speaker 1: I said, Uh, we made a lot of progress in

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Speaker 1: the last seven years. We went from five percent of

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Speaker 1: viewership in the US to thirteen and I said, I

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Speaker 1: think we'd probably be back to five because a lot

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Speaker 1: of our content, it's great quality content, but it's second

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Speaker 1: choice a lot of it, and our brands aren't strong enough.

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Speaker 1: And so it was that day five years ago that

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Speaker 1: we began the fight to change ourselves from a traditional

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Speaker 1: media company to end a global I P company, and

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Speaker 1: we started to change the kind of content that we

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Speaker 1: bought produced, and we changed the way we looked at

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Speaker 1: our brands. And Uh. That journey got us into sports

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Speaker 1: in Europe, where we bought Eurosport two to three sports channels.

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Speaker 1: It was one of the reasons we bought the Olympics.

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Speaker 1: In each case, the question was not how would this

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Speaker 1: do at eight o'clock at night, but as this content

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Speaker 1: that people would watch if they could watch anything. And

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Speaker 1: in the last year or two it's gotten really a

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Speaker 1: more a tougher question, which is will people pay for

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Speaker 1: this content before they'll pay for dinner. That's why we

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Speaker 1: bought the rights to the PGA Tour. Everywhere in the

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Speaker 1: world outside the us. Uh. That's why we bought most

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Speaker 1: of the cycling in Europe and most and all the

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Speaker 1: majors in Tennis, and that's why we're doubling down and

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Speaker 1: continuing to invest aggressively with Oprah and candidly that's why

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Speaker 1: we bought Scripts and this has been a great growth here.

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Speaker 1: But we were a misunderstood company because when we bought Scripts,

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Speaker 1: people thought we bought Scripts to get more linear channels

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Speaker 1: and to get synergy. We saw Scripts as an I

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Speaker 1: P company that hadn't been really uh, that hadn't been

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Speaker 1: taken advantage of globally. So we saw it as food, home, cooking,

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Speaker 1: travel and and uh and do it yourself. They owned

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Speaker 1: all that content and hadn't been used globally. But but

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Speaker 1: not just as a linear play but in the new world,

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Speaker 1: when you look at food, when you look at home,

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Speaker 1: aren't people going to want to consume content around on

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Speaker 1: those genres everywhere in the world on all devices and

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Speaker 1: so um, it's been five years and we got a

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Speaker 1: long way to go and a lot to learn, but

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Speaker 1: we are in We we made a real I think uh,

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Speaker 1: we've had some some real acceleration in in changing the

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Speaker 1: way our company is seen and saying and the way

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Speaker 1: our content is consumed here in the US and around

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Speaker 1: the world. And that's why I think Ostagas has has

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Speaker 1: really improved. What would you say, what do you think

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Speaker 1: was the impetus five years ago? Was it the rise

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Speaker 1: of Netflix, the rise of these on demand streaming services. No,

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Speaker 1: at the time, it really was the screen on the phone,

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Speaker 1: and it was the idea that we were really fighting

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Speaker 1: over for the real estate of the TV set. And

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Speaker 1: that's why we had such a hell of a business

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Speaker 1: we had. You know, we had gone from having four

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Speaker 1: to five channels in a hundred and fifty countries to

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Speaker 1: ten to twelve channels in over two hundred countries. And

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Speaker 1: that was like beach front real estate. So if you

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Speaker 1: put the TV set on in Italy and there's fifty channels,

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Speaker 1: we have twelve. And you know, that was that concept.

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Speaker 1: It existed, you know, everywhere in the world, and we

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Speaker 1: were probably the most international media company um and we

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Speaker 1: had boots on the ground and so we had a

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Speaker 1: great gig. And because we were in a uh, this

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Speaker 1: kind of walled garden. If you wanted to consume content,

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Speaker 1: there's only fifty channels. It really it encouraged this idea

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Speaker 1: of well, we got twelve of the channels, so we

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Speaker 1: don't have to make each of them great. We could

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Speaker 1: make them pretty good and people will be clicking around,

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Speaker 1: they'll run into it. And it was the screen that

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Speaker 1: got got John and I on our board saying people

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Speaker 1: are starting to consume video content. It's not that far away,

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Speaker 1: and in the end, people are gonna be able to

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Speaker 1: choose to watch anything they want on this screen. Plus,

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Speaker 1: you know, more and more people were moving towards the

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Speaker 1: DVR on television, and then you had to be geinnings

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Speaker 1: of Netflix, and so there were more choices and there

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Speaker 1: was more of ability to choose and to say what

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Speaker 1: do I really want to watch right now versus what's

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Speaker 1: the best of what's on And so that was kind

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Speaker 1: of the beginning of this. Really it was a philosophical change,

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Speaker 1: but it changed everything in terms of the way that

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Speaker 1: we look at i P and then the way that

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Speaker 1: we acquire i P and the kind of assets that

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Speaker 1: we would acquire within Discovery. And you clearly have bet

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Speaker 1: big in many markets on sports. Eurosport in Europe, I

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Speaker 1: know is a huge priority for you. The p G

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Speaker 1: A deal. Can you talk a little bit more about

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Speaker 1: how the PGA deal came about. Did you approach them,

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Speaker 1: did they approach you? You have broad rights to all

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Speaker 1: the PGA golf events in markets, if I'm not mistaken,

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Speaker 1: everywhere but North America. Everywhere but the US, So we

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Speaker 1: have Canada, we have South America. UM Sports came about

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Speaker 1: because we just looked at the way people consume content

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Speaker 1: and if toward De frances On and you love cycling,

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Speaker 1: you have to see it. So it was this question

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Speaker 1: and if you couldn't, would you pay for it before

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Speaker 1: you pay for dinner? And are we were just guessing,

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Speaker 1: but our sense was yes, in the same way they

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Speaker 1: are super fans for Oprah and for for Discovery and

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Speaker 1: for a crime, that that the super fans around sport

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Speaker 1: was going to be a really good bet for us.

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Speaker 1: And so that's one of the reasons why we pushed

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Speaker 1: aggressively into eurosport. And then we we built a player

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Speaker 1: with BAM. We built a direct consumer product over the

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Speaker 1: last four years and on there you can get the

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Speaker 1: cycling and the tennis and some of the football, with soccer, handball,

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Speaker 1: Olympic sports UM and we started we learned a lot.

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Speaker 1: In fact, we sat in this conference room made a

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Speaker 1: list of the ten things we thought we knew for

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Speaker 1: sure about the director consumer business, and eight of them

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Speaker 1: were wrong because the way people consume content on a

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Speaker 1: phone or on a device is a lot different than

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Speaker 1: the way they consume content on a TV. And that's

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Speaker 1: what led us to the p g A. The The

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Speaker 1: euro Sport Player has been quite successful for us and

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Speaker 1: we think we could take it to the next level.

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Speaker 1: But it's like a buffet. We we have a group

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Speaker 1: of sports and for ten dollars a month you can

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Speaker 1: you can get all that stuff. So you're watching the

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Speaker 1: French Open, and then the next month you're watching Toward

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Speaker 1: de France, and then you're watching the Diving Championships and

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Speaker 1: people like it. But the churn was high and we

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Speaker 1: started to talk to people about it and they said

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Speaker 1: they like the Eurosport Player, but often one of the

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Speaker 1: reasons that they churn or leave is that they came

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Speaker 1: for the tennis and there was in tennis for another

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Speaker 1: three months, where they came for the cycling and the

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Speaker 1: cycling season is six months and now they can you know,

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Speaker 1: they like the other sports, but they'll they'll subscribe again

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Speaker 1: when the cycling starts, and so we found that one

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Speaker 1: you need if you if you can have all of

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Speaker 1: a sport, it's pretty compelling because it's almost like a

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Speaker 1: magazine for people that loved golf or love tennis. They

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Speaker 1: want to sume it all the time. They're real super fans,

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Speaker 1: and you have to have a lot of it. We

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Speaker 1: also saw what Adam Silver did with basketball in baseball

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Speaker 1: very successful because you have a hundred hundreds of games,

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Speaker 1: and so we looked at golf Um and we said,

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Speaker 1: it's every week, there's multiple tours, there's live content all

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Speaker 1: the time. It's a very good demo and more than

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Speaker 1: half the people on the PGA Tour are from outside

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Speaker 1: the US and it's the premier tour everywhere in the world.

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Speaker 1: So I approached j um Monahan, who's the commissioner of

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Speaker 1: the p g a UM, but he had already been

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Speaker 1: studying us because he was looking at how the fact

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Speaker 1: that Discovery is the most global company in the world,

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Speaker 1: and we have because we have ten channels in every

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Speaker 1: country and with the leader in sports in Europe, we

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Speaker 1: have an ability to promote to our two consumers products

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Speaker 1: that we have and we can create content in fifty

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Speaker 1: two languages, and so when I went to see j Um,

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Speaker 1: we talked about our ambition to take golf globally and

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Speaker 1: Jay talked about why his ambition was. It needs to

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Speaker 1: be in every language, It needs to be promoted, and

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Speaker 1: the characters need to be promoted on traditional platforms as well.

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Speaker 1: You need to let people know about it, You need

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Speaker 1: channels to tell people you should sign up for this,

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Speaker 1: And so we were really like a perfect match. It

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Speaker 1: sounds like the PJ felt like their rights were under

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Speaker 1: exploited outside the US, that they really needed to raise

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Speaker 1: that profile and they needed to go with a company

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Speaker 1: that already had experience going direct to consumer um and

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Speaker 1: believed in it um. And for us, you know, we

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Speaker 1: were already all in with this idea that you know,

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Speaker 1: the p g a globally and we're gonna make some

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Speaker 1: announcements in the next couple of weeks. We will add

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Speaker 1: to that. We think creating a whole ecosystem around a sport,

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Speaker 1: or creating a whole ecosystem about around food or around

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Speaker 1: home or around cooking, that's the way to go. And golf,

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Speaker 1: I think just gives us a great opportunity to do that.

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Speaker 1: And we're also you know, one of the things that

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Speaker 1: differentiates us from everyone else is that we own almost

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Speaker 1: all of our content everywhere in the world on every platform.

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Speaker 1: So most media companies own the US right, so they

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Speaker 1: own the linear rights. So if Arizon offers the NFL

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Speaker 1: on mobile, they get it from Roger Goodell. They don't

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Speaker 1: buy it from from one of the uh the networks

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Speaker 1: that own rights that it's not a sub licensing kind

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Speaker 1: of thing. And so our philosophy is we're a global

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Speaker 1: IP company, and the more great i P that we

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Speaker 1: could aggregate globally, it gives us a chance to do

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Speaker 1: what Facebook and Apple and Google and Amazon and Netflix

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Speaker 1: have done, which has created so much leverage and wealth creation,

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Speaker 1: is that they go above the globe. They're able to

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Speaker 1: take i P and essentially go everywhere in the world

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Speaker 1: and say, if you love this content, it's it's like

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Speaker 1: it's up there in a cloud. Anywhere you are in

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Speaker 1: the world, you can you can hit your button on

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Speaker 1: your phone and you can watch this. It's completely different

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Speaker 1: from the way our business started with local franchises, and

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Speaker 1: so with the p g A, with the exception of

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Speaker 1: the US, were above the globe and with all of

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Speaker 1: almost all of our other content, food, home, science, crime.

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Speaker 1: Where above the globe philosophically and the above the globe

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Speaker 1: allows you to amortize these incredibly expensive rights, whether it's

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Speaker 1: for content or sports or is that I mean, that's

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Speaker 1: the calculation because the Netflix example is great, but we

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Speaker 1: all know Netflix isn't making money. How are you going

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Speaker 1: to make these really turn these into businesses. One of

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Speaker 1: the things is that we're really in a different business

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Speaker 1: than most companies and media because most media is in

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Speaker 1: scripted series and scripted movies. So if if our business

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Speaker 1: was a soccer field, and it was and I was

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Speaker 1: going to my my my son's game when he was young,

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Speaker 1: you know, scripted series and scripted movies would be the

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Speaker 1: ball and almost everybody would be surrounding that ball and

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Speaker 1: fighting over the ball. Where the rest of the field,

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Speaker 1: And so, you know, our cost of content is a

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Speaker 1: tenth to our average cost of content is four thousand

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Speaker 1: an hour. The average cost of content for scripted is

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Speaker 1: you know, five, five or ten million. And and they're

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Speaker 1: all competing for scripted content, in scripted movies and series

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Speaker 1: to build you know, an HBO, a competitive HBO, Showtime, Netflix,

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Speaker 1: all of these stars, all these very compelling director. Consumer

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Speaker 1: offerings are starting to look very similar their scripted series

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Speaker 1: and their scripted movies. But if you're a consumer and

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Speaker 1: you want to consume content, if it's scripted series and

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Speaker 1: scripted movies, you have ten choices for between ten and

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Speaker 1: fifteen dollars. But if you want to consume something else

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Speaker 1: that's quality that you love, what's the rest of the stuff.

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Speaker 1: And that's what we see. That's our field. So if

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Speaker 1: you love science and natural history, you can get that

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Speaker 1: from us. If you love Oprah, you can get that

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Speaker 1: from us. This is in the long term. If you

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Speaker 1: love food or home, if you love golf, if you

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Speaker 1: love cycling, and so we see ourselves almost as like

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Speaker 1: a magazine rack, whereas you know, the most of the

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Speaker 1: rest of the industry, they're kind of Entertainment weekly or

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Speaker 1: their Time magazine or the kind of broad platforms that

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Speaker 1: give you a little a fair amount of entertainment in

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Speaker 1: the scripted area. And and and so we're about quality

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Speaker 1: brands that have super fans that we hope we're gonna

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Speaker 1: pull us your bonappetite and town and country and like

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Speaker 1: Golf Digest, you know, World Open Magazine, and that you know,

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Speaker 1: those magazine. Most magazines are gonna go away, and people

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Speaker 1: are gonna be having they're going to be consuming content

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Speaker 1: and they'll get up in the morning. And you know,

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Speaker 1: we think with Golf TV, they'll get up in the

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Speaker 1: morning and they'll hit the off TV app, they'll read

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Speaker 1: about golf, maybe they'll book a teatime somewhere. They'll they'll

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Speaker 1: in the afternoon, they'll pull it down and there'll be

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Speaker 1: more articles about what's coming up this weekend, or about

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Speaker 1: about which players are hot. Uh, they'll be instructional video

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Speaker 1: if you want to work on your putting, and then

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Speaker 1: on the weekend you'll be able to choose what tour

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Speaker 1: you want to watch and you can watch it on

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Speaker 1: your phone or you can watch it on any device.

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Speaker 1: And um, So we think the possibilities by owning this

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Speaker 1: i P is the compelling possibility is that we can

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Speaker 1: now go direct to consumer with this. But we also

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Speaker 1: have the optionality that if Apple wanted to go, they're

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Speaker 1: already above the globe. They're already in business with five

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Speaker 1: million people that they have credit cards and they're selling

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Speaker 1: them products. If they want to sell i P two

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Speaker 1: people everywhere globally, you know what company could sell them

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Speaker 1: content with characters they know, brands they trust, uh and

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Speaker 1: and stories that they that they would want to watch,

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Speaker 1: you know, in in all these day for an areas

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Speaker 1: and you could choose. And so whether it's Apple or

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Speaker 1: Facebook or Google um there, you know, or us doing

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Speaker 1: regional deals. You know, I was with um with with

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Speaker 1: the Hans the other day from Verizon. They have a

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Speaker 1: hundred and ten million phones randall. You know, these are

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Speaker 1: two great executives between the two. Between the two of them,

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Speaker 1: they have two uh million homes I mean devices uh screens,

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Speaker 1: And so how do we get our stuff on those screens?

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Speaker 1: And so we can do it ourselves or we can

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Speaker 1: sell to all the regional players or the global fan companies,

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Speaker 1: you know, depending over the next couple of years what

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Speaker 1: they feel that they need. But we're starting to see

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Speaker 1: now for the first time that a lot of the

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Speaker 1: big cable, satellite, and mobile companies, as well as the

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Speaker 1: fan companies, are more and more feeling like they maybe

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Speaker 1: need some I to either help their platform or decommoditize

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Speaker 1: their platform. Are you having those conversations with the Apples

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Speaker 1: and the Amazons that do seem such a fit for

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Speaker 1: various reasons, with your lifestyle centric channels. We're I mean,

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Speaker 1: we're talking to everybody. You know. We'd like to be

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Speaker 1: on every Horizon phone in America, T Mobile phone, a

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Speaker 1: T and T phone. We'd like to be all across

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Speaker 1: Europe on Deutsche Telecom and Voda Phone. We're a little early,

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Speaker 1: you know, I think, um philosophically, you know, we've made

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Speaker 1: the decision to go I P long, So we do

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Speaker 1: we sell very little of our content, uh to other distributors.

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Speaker 1: Were holding all of it because we think someday, you know,

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Speaker 1: the ability to go sit down with Amazon and do

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Speaker 1: a deal around food and cooking in the kitchen with

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Speaker 1: Alexa globally. And if we did that and they said

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Speaker 1: to us, okay, well, how much of your stuff, your

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Speaker 1: recipes and your short form and your long form content,

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Speaker 1: can can we get day one, we would say all

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Speaker 1: of it. And it's already in you know, X number

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Speaker 1: of languages, and so we haven't been selling it. There

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Speaker 1: are other media companies and these are this is also

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Speaker 1: a good model, which is create the content, hold it

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Speaker 1: for your linear platform, and then sell it off everywhere

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Speaker 1: in the world. But so we're I P long and

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Speaker 1: we think in the long term you know, being an

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Speaker 1: I P company will will UH will create a lot

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Speaker 1: of shareholder value and also make us a sustainable growth company.

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Speaker 1: Because if we're right, then the mobile companies, satellite companies,

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Speaker 1: and the fan companies over the next couple of years,

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Speaker 1: A're gonna say I need some more good stuff, really

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Speaker 1: good content of great stories that people love. And they'll

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Speaker 1: look around. They'll say, let's talk to Discovery. They have

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Speaker 1: all this great women's content or great lifestyle content or

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Speaker 1: great sport content. And and at that point it'll, you know,

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Speaker 1: our whole company will look different because our content will

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Speaker 1: be we won't be just we won't we won't have

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Speaker 1: just a growth company. By putting our content on free

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Speaker 1: to air channels and cable companies, our content will be

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Speaker 1: on the billions of screens and they'll be they'll be

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Speaker 1: pushed by the regional players or the big fan companies

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Speaker 1: because they'll want that content in order to UH to

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Speaker 1: delight their customers. It sounds like the scenario sketching out

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Speaker 1: sounds like the fang companies become a next generation Comcast

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Speaker 1: or cable vision that they become Netflix. UM is that

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Speaker 1: kind of that is your sense of their ambition in

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Speaker 1: the video space is to kind of become those aggregators.

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Speaker 1: It's it's it's clear that the platform companies, those that

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Speaker 1: are built broadband and phone and cable, um, when they compete,

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Speaker 1: they look very much alike, and so more and more

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Speaker 1: they're looking to have I P to decommoditize their platform.

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Speaker 1: In Europe, a lot of the mobile companies bought the football,

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Speaker 1: bought the soccer in order to to differentiate. So if

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Speaker 1: you bought BTEE, then you've got all this great football. Um,

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Speaker 1: you have T Mobile giving away uh Netflix to customers.

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Speaker 1: You have Randall doing a T and T now a

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Speaker 1: bunch of free stuff to the best users. So if

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Speaker 1: that trend continues, I think we see it on both tracks.

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Speaker 1: We see the big platform companies in Europe, Latin America, Asia,

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Speaker 1: the US that have invested in building broadband, phone and cable,

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Speaker 1: they're gonna need some special stuff for the broadband users

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Speaker 1: or the phone or their mobile users and will have

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Speaker 1: a full menu to say, you know, in language, what

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Speaker 1: do you think would help you? We're open for business.

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Speaker 1: And the fan companies are more and more trying to

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Speaker 1: get people to spend more time on their platforms or

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Speaker 1: to love them and you know, wanted to give me

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Speaker 1: hard at times it's hard, you know, right, and and

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Speaker 1: and and maybe because of what's going on now, having

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Speaker 1: more great characters, great stories, or if you're a super

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00:22:59,520 --> 00:23:03,720
Speaker 1: fan of science and you can go uh to to

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Speaker 1: one of those fan companies and get all kinds of

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Speaker 1: great stuff or get all kinds of great stuff on

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Speaker 1: food or home that could you know, that could be

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Speaker 1: quite appealing. And so we're betting that between the fan

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Speaker 1: companies and the regional platform companies that there's going to

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Speaker 1: be a market, but we're not. That's not where we're

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Speaker 1: putting all of our chips. It's one of the reasons

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Speaker 1: we're going ourselves direct to consumer with a lot of

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Speaker 1: our businesses. We we have a business called motor Trend

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Speaker 1: on Demand where we aggregate all kinds of car content.

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Speaker 1: We're with the largest provider of of car content long

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Speaker 1: form plus short form, and then we have loads of

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Speaker 1: car auctions, and then we own the Motor Trend brand

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Speaker 1: and trucker and automobile and we put it all together

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Speaker 1: in a direct consumer product. But we're doing it with

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Speaker 1: sports in Europe, We're doing it with cars, We're doing

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Speaker 1: it with golf, we're doing it. We're gonna do it

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00:23:55,520 --> 00:23:58,120
Speaker 1: with cycling, We're gonna do it with tennis, and so

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Speaker 1: these are all We're not gonna eat for someone to

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Speaker 1: put us on their super highway. We're going to start ourselves.

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Speaker 1: And in creating those ecosystems that you say around genres

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Speaker 1: and around fan bases, it sounds from what you're saying

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Speaker 1: that this is really that this is really a streaming world.

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Speaker 1: That the linear that the linear TV channels which are

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Speaker 1: still so strong and generates so much revenue now that

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Speaker 1: those are increasingly not the rear view mirror, but they

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Speaker 1: are in your future plans are much more about a

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Speaker 1: streaming on demand world than servicing a linear channels. Is

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Speaker 1: that fair? Well, we're able to do both now. So

432
00:24:37,920 --> 00:24:40,879
Speaker 1: right now we have our our company is growing with

433
00:24:40,960 --> 00:24:45,439
Speaker 1: our our cable and free to air channels around the world. Um,

434
00:24:45,640 --> 00:24:48,600
Speaker 1: we're making over a billion dollars outside the US, our

435
00:24:48,680 --> 00:24:51,320
Speaker 1: channels are quite profitable. And when you look outside the

436
00:24:51,400 --> 00:24:54,080
Speaker 1: U S subscribers you know, with all the noise, are

437
00:24:54,119 --> 00:24:58,640
Speaker 1: still growing two to three globally, and so people are

438
00:24:58,680 --> 00:25:02,600
Speaker 1: spending less time consuming content on television. You know it,

439
00:25:03,320 --> 00:25:06,639
Speaker 1: There is a secular decline, there's no question about it.

440
00:25:06,720 --> 00:25:09,960
Speaker 1: Subs here in the US have declined, although that seems

441
00:25:10,000 --> 00:25:12,800
Speaker 1: to be ameliorating. And we think with skinny bundles, you know,

442
00:25:12,960 --> 00:25:15,240
Speaker 1: it may it may true up to look more like

443
00:25:15,720 --> 00:25:18,200
Speaker 1: what things look like globally than instead of down three,

444
00:25:18,280 --> 00:25:20,720
Speaker 1: maybe it's down one or even or up one. But

445
00:25:21,160 --> 00:25:24,080
Speaker 1: it's fair to say that we think we have a

446
00:25:24,160 --> 00:25:29,760
Speaker 1: nice sustainable growth business with our traditional channels around the world,

447
00:25:30,280 --> 00:25:33,680
Speaker 1: but we think it's very important to get a relationship

448
00:25:33,880 --> 00:25:38,520
Speaker 1: with the customer either for free advertiser driven or get

449
00:25:38,520 --> 00:25:41,399
Speaker 1: their credit cards for those that love a particular area,

450
00:25:41,480 --> 00:25:45,320
Speaker 1: and we can super serve them, and that that combination

451
00:25:45,440 --> 00:25:48,040
Speaker 1: could be really combustible in a in a way of

452
00:25:48,280 --> 00:25:52,280
Speaker 1: creating huge value. Where we have a traditional business that

453
00:25:52,359 --> 00:25:55,920
Speaker 1: maybe in decline, but our our company itself right now

454
00:25:56,000 --> 00:25:59,919
Speaker 1: has never generated more free cash flow. You know. We

455
00:25:59,080 --> 00:26:02,399
Speaker 1: we have a target of generating three billion dollars in

456
00:26:02,480 --> 00:26:05,240
Speaker 1: free cash flow a year, and so that's off of

457
00:26:05,280 --> 00:26:08,720
Speaker 1: our traditional business, and it's with investing in all this

458
00:26:08,920 --> 00:26:12,520
Speaker 1: i P and it's with investing in in in this

459
00:26:12,720 --> 00:26:15,399
Speaker 1: content so that we own it globally on all platforms,

460
00:26:15,440 --> 00:26:18,320
Speaker 1: and so we think we can do both generate a

461
00:26:18,320 --> 00:26:20,840
Speaker 1: lot of free cash flow off of an existing business,

462
00:26:20,840 --> 00:26:22,640
Speaker 1: even if it declines a little bit over the next

463
00:26:22,640 --> 00:26:27,080
Speaker 1: several years, and then use the i p that we

464
00:26:27,160 --> 00:26:31,240
Speaker 1: have to create a direct relationship with customers in a

465
00:26:31,280 --> 00:26:33,280
Speaker 1: way that no one else can because we're not We

466
00:26:33,320 --> 00:26:35,800
Speaker 1: don't have the same story. We're not saying, hey, here

467
00:26:35,800 --> 00:26:38,320
Speaker 1: we are. We've got great movies and a great scripted series.

468
00:26:38,760 --> 00:26:41,320
Speaker 1: We have a whole different entry point with customers, which is,

469
00:26:41,520 --> 00:26:44,880
Speaker 1: you love golf, we have all of it. You love Oprah,

470
00:26:45,200 --> 00:26:47,840
Speaker 1: you want to spend time with us? Uh. If you

471
00:26:47,920 --> 00:26:50,439
Speaker 1: love science, we have the best science library in the world.

472
00:26:50,640 --> 00:26:52,920
Speaker 1: We're doing it in long form and short form. Tell

473
00:26:53,000 --> 00:26:54,359
Speaker 1: us what you love, will give you more of it.

474
00:26:54,520 --> 00:26:56,800
Speaker 1: So we think we have a different entry point. Does

475
00:26:56,840 --> 00:27:00,439
Speaker 1: it make you nervous that the neat GEO Worldwide Group

476
00:27:00,600 --> 00:27:03,920
Speaker 1: is now joining Disney, the largest media company, the company

477
00:27:03,920 --> 00:27:07,280
Speaker 1: in the world. Disney is a There's no better company

478
00:27:07,320 --> 00:27:11,640
Speaker 1: in the world in terms of building brands. Um Bob

479
00:27:11,640 --> 00:27:14,000
Speaker 1: has done an amazing job and they do have a

480
00:27:14,040 --> 00:27:18,480
Speaker 1: real global sensibility on every you know, uh, in every sense.

481
00:27:18,880 --> 00:27:24,320
Speaker 1: Having said that, in most markets, Animal Planet beats nat

482
00:27:24,440 --> 00:27:27,240
Speaker 1: Gio and Discovery is four or five times the size.

483
00:27:27,760 --> 00:27:30,719
Speaker 1: One of the advantage that Natzio was getting was on

484
00:27:30,760 --> 00:27:36,760
Speaker 1: the Sky platform. Uh, they were getting a big advantage

485
00:27:36,960 --> 00:27:41,200
Speaker 1: in the UK, Germany and Italy because of that connection,

486
00:27:41,280 --> 00:27:45,080
Speaker 1: toy Fox because of the connection, and so they were

487
00:27:45,119 --> 00:27:51,359
Speaker 1: being uh meaningfully supercharged. So you know, that may continue

488
00:27:51,480 --> 00:27:54,320
Speaker 1: or that may that may that may be an opportunity

489
00:27:54,359 --> 00:27:58,199
Speaker 1: for us now that Comcast is about to take over Sky.

490
00:27:58,400 --> 00:28:01,680
Speaker 1: Right having said that, I think Disney is a great competitor,

491
00:28:01,800 --> 00:28:04,399
Speaker 1: and um, we'll have to get a little better. The

492
00:28:04,400 --> 00:28:09,639
Speaker 1: good news is between Animal Planet, Science and Discovery, um,

493
00:28:09,760 --> 00:28:13,040
Speaker 1: when much broader distributed in many markets, we have two

494
00:28:13,040 --> 00:28:15,920
Speaker 1: to three channels, natural history channels on analog and they're

495
00:28:15,920 --> 00:28:18,600
Speaker 1: on digital. So when you really look at nat at

496
00:28:18,960 --> 00:28:24,000
Speaker 1: Nazio versus the Discovery natural History channels and Discovery itself,

497
00:28:24,520 --> 00:28:29,520
Speaker 1: Nazio is at least today much smaller. Let's talk about

498
00:28:29,600 --> 00:28:33,120
Speaker 1: let's talk in more detail about the Scripts deal. I'd

499
00:28:33,200 --> 00:28:35,680
Speaker 1: love to unpack a little bit. I know that that

500
00:28:35,800 --> 00:28:38,200
Speaker 1: you and Scripts had kind of flirted on and off

501
00:28:38,240 --> 00:28:40,400
Speaker 1: for a couple of years. What was it that made

502
00:28:40,880 --> 00:28:43,480
Speaker 1: what was it that made the transaction happened? This time

503
00:28:43,520 --> 00:28:46,600
Speaker 1: around what what was the who who made the first

504
00:28:46,600 --> 00:28:49,320
Speaker 1: phone call? What was the spark that really led to

505
00:28:49,400 --> 00:28:54,400
Speaker 1: that led to your deal? Um, we were we we

506
00:28:54,400 --> 00:28:59,560
Speaker 1: We had made three other attempts at scripts UM and

507
00:29:00,240 --> 00:29:02,880
Speaker 1: the family wasn't ready to sell, so that those times

508
00:29:02,880 --> 00:29:07,760
Speaker 1: they said, sometimes sometimes it was after a significant, a

509
00:29:07,760 --> 00:29:11,080
Speaker 1: meaningful period of time of discussion, and sometimes it was

510
00:29:11,520 --> 00:29:14,560
Speaker 1: pretty abrupt. You know, we're just not ready. I think

511
00:29:14,680 --> 00:29:18,920
Speaker 1: the decline in the marketplace probably had an impact on

512
00:29:18,960 --> 00:29:23,840
Speaker 1: the family, the fact that they hadn't UM broadened out internationally.

513
00:29:24,440 --> 00:29:27,600
Speaker 1: You know, we saw, for instance, in Latin America. UH

514
00:29:27,880 --> 00:29:30,520
Speaker 1: we have twelve channels in each country, and we have

515
00:29:30,520 --> 00:29:32,920
Speaker 1: a channel called Home and Health. It's the number one

516
00:29:33,000 --> 00:29:37,160
Speaker 1: channel for women in UH in Latin America on cable,

517
00:29:37,760 --> 00:29:41,600
Speaker 1: and we launched that about nine years ago. It's it's

518
00:29:41,600 --> 00:29:48,360
Speaker 1: effectively like h G TV, Food and Health put together. UM.

519
00:29:48,400 --> 00:29:52,120
Speaker 1: They hadn't gone down their scripts and so about a

520
00:29:52,160 --> 00:29:55,120
Speaker 1: year ago, a year before we did our transaction, they

521
00:29:55,160 --> 00:29:57,240
Speaker 1: decided they wanted to try and launch some channels in

522
00:29:57,320 --> 00:30:01,680
Speaker 1: Latin America, but well, it was left was digital tears

523
00:30:02,360 --> 00:30:05,240
Speaker 1: that you had to buy through, and so I think

524
00:30:05,280 --> 00:30:08,800
Speaker 1: they recognized that they had built a fantastic business in

525
00:30:08,840 --> 00:30:11,800
Speaker 1: the US with great brands and a great leadership team.

526
00:30:12,080 --> 00:30:15,040
Speaker 1: Ken did an extraordinary job with that company and really

527
00:30:15,120 --> 00:30:18,840
Speaker 1: understood storytelling and brand and had to nourish an audience.

528
00:30:19,080 --> 00:30:22,360
Speaker 1: But they hadn't invested outside the U S, outside of

529
00:30:22,360 --> 00:30:25,040
Speaker 1: Poland where they bought a business, and so I think

530
00:30:25,040 --> 00:30:28,520
Speaker 1: when when Ken looked at the business, he said, a

531
00:30:28,560 --> 00:30:30,000
Speaker 1: lot of the growth is going to be outside the

532
00:30:30,080 --> 00:30:33,080
Speaker 1: U S. We're way late now, um, and I'm not

533
00:30:33,120 --> 00:30:39,920
Speaker 1: sure we're big enough. And so between Ken and the family, uh,

534
00:30:39,960 --> 00:30:42,200
Speaker 1: they pretty quickly came to the conclusion that they were

535
00:30:42,240 --> 00:30:46,000
Speaker 1: really serious this time, and it became it became about,

536
00:30:46,720 --> 00:30:49,440
Speaker 1: you know, a real uh. We thought we were in

537
00:30:49,480 --> 00:30:53,800
Speaker 1: there ourselves over price or it was a very competitive auction.

538
00:30:54,160 --> 00:30:56,760
Speaker 1: We thought originally we were in there ourselves, and then

539
00:30:56,760 --> 00:30:59,280
Speaker 1: we got the feeling maybe somebody else's is in there

540
00:30:59,320 --> 00:31:02,480
Speaker 1: with us. And then it turns out that Viacom thought

541
00:31:02,520 --> 00:31:05,479
Speaker 1: they were in by themselves, and then they found out that,

542
00:31:05,520 --> 00:31:08,080
Speaker 1: you know what, maybe there's somebody maybe there's somebody in

543
00:31:08,120 --> 00:31:10,560
Speaker 1: the house with us. And it took us a while

544
00:31:10,680 --> 00:31:13,440
Speaker 1: until we saw each other, but we were both there

545
00:31:13,720 --> 00:31:20,520
Speaker 1: in the spill Tennessee Airport figuratively UM and it it

546
00:31:20,520 --> 00:31:24,600
Speaker 1: it ended up being you know, a competitive a competitive bid. UM.

547
00:31:24,680 --> 00:31:26,720
Speaker 1: We did feel at the end that this was quite

548
00:31:26,720 --> 00:31:29,840
Speaker 1: an important transaction for us because we felt that we

549
00:31:29,840 --> 00:31:33,240
Speaker 1: could really supercharge all their i P around the globe,

550
00:31:33,400 --> 00:31:36,280
Speaker 1: launch new channels, put their content on our platforms around

551
00:31:36,320 --> 00:31:39,120
Speaker 1: the world with almost no cost because we already have

552
00:31:39,320 --> 00:31:42,080
Speaker 1: all these channels, so we could actually save money from

553
00:31:42,080 --> 00:31:45,840
Speaker 1: buying content and put their content on UM. We looked

554
00:31:45,840 --> 00:31:47,960
Speaker 1: at their i P and we thought this was really

555
00:31:48,840 --> 00:31:51,880
Speaker 1: right along our strategy because they owned all the content

556
00:31:51,920 --> 00:31:55,600
Speaker 1: and they hadn't hadn't really deployed it or or encumbered it.

557
00:31:55,880 --> 00:31:59,000
Speaker 1: So we looked at food and we thought, between food

558
00:31:59,000 --> 00:32:03,280
Speaker 1: and cooking that we could really make something, you know,

559
00:32:03,320 --> 00:32:06,200
Speaker 1: in the long term outside of channel of the channel business,

560
00:32:06,240 --> 00:32:09,080
Speaker 1: we can do something that people you know, would would

561
00:32:09,080 --> 00:32:11,840
Speaker 1: really care about and spend time with. I mean, when

562
00:32:11,840 --> 00:32:16,040
Speaker 1: we looked at food, we actually thought to ourselves, UM,

563
00:32:16,040 --> 00:32:19,080
Speaker 1: that food is the one area where every person in

564
00:32:19,160 --> 00:32:22,120
Speaker 1: every language, everywhere in the world asked the same question

565
00:32:22,160 --> 00:32:27,080
Speaker 1: every day, what's fit dinner? And not everybody asks what's

566
00:32:27,320 --> 00:32:29,560
Speaker 1: what time is the p G A on today? Not

567
00:32:29,680 --> 00:32:34,560
Speaker 1: everybody asks, you know, for for seeing science content or

568
00:32:34,600 --> 00:32:37,640
Speaker 1: space content. Not everybody wants to see crime content when

569
00:32:37,640 --> 00:32:40,440
Speaker 1: they get up every day, but everybody asks about food.

570
00:32:40,440 --> 00:32:44,480
Speaker 1: And so we saw their I P the food, the

571
00:32:45,640 --> 00:32:48,960
Speaker 1: cooking category, the home category, all those is fitting so

572
00:32:49,080 --> 00:32:54,120
Speaker 1: great with ours. It made us bigger, uh, And there

573
00:32:54,160 --> 00:32:56,000
Speaker 1: was We thought that'd be a lot of synergy there

574
00:32:56,040 --> 00:32:59,040
Speaker 1: because we do the same things. I. I started out

575
00:32:59,080 --> 00:33:03,080
Speaker 1: being a business development guy at at NBC and we

576
00:33:03,120 --> 00:33:05,520
Speaker 1: did a lot of transactions and in the end we

577
00:33:05,560 --> 00:33:07,480
Speaker 1: did a lot of big transactions. But like when we

578
00:33:07,480 --> 00:33:10,440
Speaker 1: did the Universal deal, we weren't in the movie business.

579
00:33:10,920 --> 00:33:12,480
Speaker 1: That was a whole different business. We weren't in the

580
00:33:12,480 --> 00:33:15,680
Speaker 1: theme park business, but they had cable channels and NBC

581
00:33:15,800 --> 00:33:18,240
Speaker 1: was in the cable channel business. And so there wasn't

582
00:33:18,360 --> 00:33:21,360
Speaker 1: a lot of synergy because there was in in the

583
00:33:21,360 --> 00:33:25,240
Speaker 1: theme park or or or movie business because we weren't

584
00:33:25,280 --> 00:33:28,240
Speaker 1: in it. Whereas here we looked at scripts and we said,

585
00:33:28,400 --> 00:33:32,240
Speaker 1: this is exactly what we do, and we think we

586
00:33:32,280 --> 00:33:35,600
Speaker 1: have a lot of the quality brands in cable. They

587
00:33:35,640 --> 00:33:37,560
Speaker 1: have a lot of the quality brands in cable and

588
00:33:37,560 --> 00:33:40,880
Speaker 1: today and together we have almost all of the quality

589
00:33:41,840 --> 00:33:48,160
Speaker 1: lifestyle brands and cable um and between h G Food,

590
00:33:48,160 --> 00:33:51,920
Speaker 1: I D, t LC and Own, we had five of

591
00:33:52,000 --> 00:33:55,720
Speaker 1: the top six channels or seven channels for women. And

592
00:33:55,760 --> 00:33:58,000
Speaker 1: when we when we put it on the back of

593
00:33:58,000 --> 00:34:01,920
Speaker 1: an envelope, we said, wow, you know we we could

594
00:34:01,960 --> 00:34:04,320
Speaker 1: be the number one or two player in America on

595
00:34:04,400 --> 00:34:08,560
Speaker 1: television and reaching women. And so we were convinced that

596
00:34:08,719 --> 00:34:12,920
Speaker 1: this was a transaction that could have really long term

597
00:34:13,160 --> 00:34:17,040
Speaker 1: value for us. But the street and the narrative around

598
00:34:17,040 --> 00:34:22,279
Speaker 1: the transaction uh as when we closed it, which surprised us,

599
00:34:22,400 --> 00:34:26,799
Speaker 1: was two linear TV companies coming together. It was there

600
00:34:26,800 --> 00:34:29,239
Speaker 1: was a little underwhelming response that was there was a

601
00:34:29,280 --> 00:34:31,480
Speaker 1: positive narrative, but it was there was a there was

602
00:34:31,520 --> 00:34:35,399
Speaker 1: a more there was a more overwhelming negative narrative, which

603
00:34:35,440 --> 00:34:38,160
Speaker 1: is two companies that aren't big enough that are going

604
00:34:38,200 --> 00:34:43,719
Speaker 1: to come together and they'll uh and they'll they're both

605
00:34:43,760 --> 00:34:46,640
Speaker 1: linear TV companies and together they won't be there'll be

606
00:34:46,680 --> 00:34:49,520
Speaker 1: a little stronger, but they won't be strong enough. Are

607
00:34:49,640 --> 00:34:52,120
Speaker 1: The way we saw it was where an I P company,

608
00:34:52,239 --> 00:34:55,280
Speaker 1: We're buying this great i P that's not deployed globally,

609
00:34:55,560 --> 00:34:58,560
Speaker 1: and we could put it to build our near term

610
00:34:58,880 --> 00:35:01,040
Speaker 1: linear business, but we could also have it build our

611
00:35:01,080 --> 00:35:04,480
Speaker 1: I P future. And a lot of this year was

612
00:35:04,520 --> 00:35:09,839
Speaker 1: about really changing that narrative, showing that we're more than

613
00:35:09,920 --> 00:35:15,000
Speaker 1: just UH our twelve cable channels coming together with their

614
00:35:15,040 --> 00:35:19,839
Speaker 1: six that together where we reach more people, that we

615
00:35:19,960 --> 00:35:22,280
Speaker 1: that we have an ability to promote between our channels,

616
00:35:22,320 --> 00:35:24,239
Speaker 1: which can give us real which is unique and give

617
00:35:24,320 --> 00:35:27,480
Speaker 1: us real growth, and that we could take their content

618
00:35:28,040 --> 00:35:33,120
Speaker 1: around the world and that ultimately they add to UH

619
00:35:33,320 --> 00:35:37,520
Speaker 1: to our menu of global I P and what we

620
00:35:37,560 --> 00:35:42,880
Speaker 1: can offer directly or through regional or or FANG type

621
00:35:42,920 --> 00:35:46,040
Speaker 1: companies when people want to consume content on a device.

622
00:35:46,560 --> 00:35:48,440
Speaker 1: I know you this year, as you said, has been

623
00:35:48,440 --> 00:35:51,640
Speaker 1: a lot about integration and getting the right management. What

624
00:35:52,239 --> 00:35:56,040
Speaker 1: of what you've seen so far programming initiatives, branding initiative,

625
00:35:56,080 --> 00:35:59,960
Speaker 1: advertising initiatives, what has what would you say is like

626
00:36:00,040 --> 00:36:04,759
Speaker 1: the most exciting UM development that that you can see

627
00:36:04,760 --> 00:36:08,320
Speaker 1: of the two brands coming together on the traditional side,

628
00:36:08,360 --> 00:36:13,319
Speaker 1: I would say that on on any given night, UM,

629
00:36:13,360 --> 00:36:15,520
Speaker 1: when when you when you tell we have we have

630
00:36:15,640 --> 00:36:18,279
Speaker 1: three or four the top five channels for women, and

631
00:36:18,320 --> 00:36:20,759
Speaker 1: when you put together the rating of our top five

632
00:36:20,880 --> 00:36:25,640
Speaker 1: channels for women, we aggregate somewhere between a four and

633
00:36:25,719 --> 00:36:29,000
Speaker 1: a seven and over a seven rating for women, and

634
00:36:29,840 --> 00:36:32,839
Speaker 1: where advertisers used to have to gobble together a lot

635
00:36:32,920 --> 00:36:35,759
Speaker 1: of different purchases with a load of different cable companies,

636
00:36:36,320 --> 00:36:39,880
Speaker 1: we can offer on any given night, Yet broadcasters in

637
00:36:39,960 --> 00:36:42,439
Speaker 1: most cases getting a one rating or a one five

638
00:36:42,520 --> 00:36:44,880
Speaker 1: or maybe a two rating in the women's demo, and

639
00:36:44,920 --> 00:36:48,160
Speaker 1: on any given night we're we're getting a three, four

640
00:36:48,239 --> 00:36:51,320
Speaker 1: or five or six rating. And so one big reveal

641
00:36:51,600 --> 00:36:55,240
Speaker 1: was that that we have a very big female audience

642
00:36:55,280 --> 00:36:58,879
Speaker 1: that's really engaged and that watches us alive, and that

643
00:36:58,880 --> 00:37:03,240
Speaker 1: that's very powerful for advertisers. The second is that, um,

644
00:37:03,280 --> 00:37:05,239
Speaker 1: we used to spend a lot of money telling people

645
00:37:05,239 --> 00:37:07,719
Speaker 1: about our shows, but we couldn't tell them. We could

646
00:37:07,719 --> 00:37:09,640
Speaker 1: tell them what channel it's on, but we couldn't tell

647
00:37:09,680 --> 00:37:13,239
Speaker 1: them the day and the date. But now that we

648
00:37:13,320 --> 00:37:16,399
Speaker 1: own all these channels, if we have something great coming

649
00:37:16,480 --> 00:37:20,000
Speaker 1: up on TLC on Sunday night at eight o'clock Fiance,

650
00:37:20,760 --> 00:37:24,480
Speaker 1: we could at at seven forty five and at seven

651
00:37:24,560 --> 00:37:29,520
Speaker 1: fifty nine run a promotion that t LC at eight

652
00:37:29,520 --> 00:37:34,800
Speaker 1: o'clock tonight on h G Food, I d Own Travel,

653
00:37:34,960 --> 00:37:39,880
Speaker 1: Animal Planet, We and and we built a very strong,

654
00:37:40,800 --> 00:37:47,399
Speaker 1: UH aggregating marketing vehicle that is distinguished because we can

655
00:37:47,440 --> 00:37:49,719
Speaker 1: do day and date, and we could also do it

656
00:37:49,760 --> 00:37:52,680
Speaker 1: in a way where we made the decision early that

657
00:37:53,280 --> 00:37:56,360
Speaker 1: we think if someone's watching I D in there and

658
00:37:56,360 --> 00:37:58,520
Speaker 1: and it's it's a minute to eight, if they don't

659
00:37:58,520 --> 00:38:00,880
Speaker 1: like what they're watching, they're gonna click and find something else.

660
00:38:01,160 --> 00:38:03,480
Speaker 1: So we have no problem telling people on I D

661
00:38:03,640 --> 00:38:05,719
Speaker 1: there's something great coming up on h G t V

662
00:38:06,400 --> 00:38:08,360
Speaker 1: and it's or there's something great coming up on the

663
00:38:08,360 --> 00:38:11,239
Speaker 1: Food Network, a new episode of Diners and Dives, you know,

664
00:38:11,280 --> 00:38:13,440
Speaker 1: with Guy Fieri, And it's one of the things that

665
00:38:13,680 --> 00:38:17,360
Speaker 1: last quarter, our we actually grew at percent when the

666
00:38:17,440 --> 00:38:20,040
Speaker 1: rest of the industry was down nine or ten. And

667
00:38:20,080 --> 00:38:23,600
Speaker 1: we think part of that is that we were able

668
00:38:23,640 --> 00:38:27,080
Speaker 1: to promote much more efficiently. Our reach grew by with

669
00:38:27,120 --> 00:38:30,680
Speaker 1: this transaction. And you know, also we think we got

670
00:38:30,719 --> 00:38:34,799
Speaker 1: lucky because we don't own any broad entertainment channels, and

671
00:38:34,960 --> 00:38:39,200
Speaker 1: broad entertainment channels today are much harder because if you

672
00:38:39,200 --> 00:38:41,200
Speaker 1: want to see a great scripted series, you're gonna go

673
00:38:41,239 --> 00:38:43,880
Speaker 1: to f X or t N T or TBS or USA,

674
00:38:44,200 --> 00:38:46,480
Speaker 1: maybe because they're really good channels, but you could also

675
00:38:46,560 --> 00:38:50,320
Speaker 1: got so many places to watch a great scripted series,

676
00:38:50,360 --> 00:38:52,839
Speaker 1: and we have We don't have any of that kind

677
00:38:52,840 --> 00:38:55,520
Speaker 1: of stuff, you know, except for we own which Is

678
00:38:55,600 --> 00:38:57,560
Speaker 1: which is, you know, a great service for African and

679
00:38:57,719 --> 00:39:01,400
Speaker 1: mostly African American women. But our channels are about affinity

680
00:39:01,440 --> 00:39:03,879
Speaker 1: groups that love food, I love crime, I love home,

681
00:39:04,000 --> 00:39:07,439
Speaker 1: will love uh natural history. And so I think part

682
00:39:07,480 --> 00:39:13,600
Speaker 1: of the industry moved in odd direction. Um, we're doing.

683
00:39:13,680 --> 00:39:16,479
Speaker 1: We're doing pretty well. My last question for you, David,

684
00:39:16,480 --> 00:39:19,839
Speaker 1: thank you so much for for your time today. Um,

685
00:39:19,880 --> 00:39:23,759
Speaker 1: everybody in media is talking about the M and a marketplace.

686
00:39:24,400 --> 00:39:27,120
Speaker 1: Do you see is Discovery? A buyer is Discovery? A

687
00:39:27,200 --> 00:39:31,120
Speaker 1: seller is Discovery? A status quo for now company? Well,

688
00:39:31,160 --> 00:39:35,719
Speaker 1: I love, I love Discovery. UM. I came here to

689
00:39:36,239 --> 00:39:38,680
Speaker 1: have an impact, and I uh, you know, on a

690
00:39:38,719 --> 00:39:41,759
Speaker 1: personal level, you know, I'd love to be here for

691
00:39:41,800 --> 00:39:43,880
Speaker 1: the long term. And we're building the company so that,

692
00:39:44,440 --> 00:39:47,200
Speaker 1: you know, we have an opportunity to have real sustainable growth.

693
00:39:47,640 --> 00:39:51,240
Speaker 1: And since we're doing we're in the nonfiction and sports area,

694
00:39:51,600 --> 00:39:55,520
Speaker 1: we think from a scale perspective, we have a real chance. Um,

695
00:39:55,560 --> 00:39:58,120
Speaker 1: but we're a public company and there is a lot

696
00:39:58,160 --> 00:40:01,040
Speaker 1: of trans actions there are a lot of people. You

697
00:40:01,080 --> 00:40:04,759
Speaker 1: see seventeen times Comcast was willing to pay for Sky.

698
00:40:04,880 --> 00:40:08,040
Speaker 1: We have a much bigger, bigger content business across Europe.

699
00:40:08,680 --> 00:40:12,640
Speaker 1: UH Disney was very clear about wanting to get bigger

700
00:40:12,680 --> 00:40:16,600
Speaker 1: internationally between the sports and our international business. We know

701
00:40:16,680 --> 00:40:19,040
Speaker 1: we have a lot of attractive assets. What we have

702
00:40:19,160 --> 00:40:22,560
Speaker 1: going for us in terms of sustainable growth is our

703
00:40:22,600 --> 00:40:25,440
Speaker 1: company is really turning into a free cash flow machine,

704
00:40:25,480 --> 00:40:27,759
Speaker 1: a lot of it having to do with Scripts and

705
00:40:27,920 --> 00:40:31,040
Speaker 1: US coming together. We have a target of three billion

706
00:40:31,040 --> 00:40:33,000
Speaker 1: a year of free cash flow, and if we reach

707
00:40:33,080 --> 00:40:35,880
Speaker 1: that then over the next four years we'll be generating

708
00:40:35,880 --> 00:40:38,239
Speaker 1: about four billion dollars in cash and that will give

709
00:40:38,360 --> 00:40:42,840
Speaker 1: us the optionality of either investing in the growth businesses

710
00:40:42,880 --> 00:40:46,360
Speaker 1: that we have, whether it's direct consumer or more traditional,

711
00:40:46,960 --> 00:40:50,759
Speaker 1: of buying back our stock, of doing our own transaction

712
00:40:51,040 --> 00:40:54,399
Speaker 1: buying some assets so that that where that scale will

713
00:40:54,440 --> 00:40:59,000
Speaker 1: help us ashore sustainable long term growth um or be

714
00:40:59,080 --> 00:41:03,439
Speaker 1: in a position where we're we're attractive if we need

715
00:41:03,480 --> 00:41:06,040
Speaker 1: to be given our set of assets over the next

716
00:41:06,080 --> 00:41:08,760
Speaker 1: couple of years to UH to be part of somebody

717
00:41:08,800 --> 00:41:12,160
Speaker 1: else's big company. Free cash flow just might be catinet

718
00:41:12,239 --> 00:41:15,120
Speaker 1: for some companies in the hunt for earnings so well,

719
00:41:15,200 --> 00:41:17,520
Speaker 1: we will stay tuned. David, as always great to talk

720
00:41:17,600 --> 00:41:19,680
Speaker 1: with you. Thank you so much for your time, Thank you,

721
00:41:22,040 --> 00:41:24,759
Speaker 1: thanks for listening. Be sure to join us next week

722
00:41:24,880 --> 00:41:29,359
Speaker 1: for another episode of Strictly Business. Yeah,