Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news.
Speaker 2: Let's go live now to LA where Lucas is speaking
Speaker 2: with Paramount Skuidance chairman and CEO David Ellison.
Speaker 1: We got to start with Paramount. You chase this company
Speaker 1: for a couple of years, if not longer. If you
Speaker 1: look at what they own, they have a bunch of
Speaker 1: cable networks that have been in decline for almost as
Speaker 1: long as I've been doing my job. They have a
Speaker 1: movie studio that is by most metrics, the last place
Speaker 1: movie studios the last few years at a streaming service
Speaker 1: that in terms of at least engagement is sort of
Speaker 1: in the third tier. So why were you so interested
Speaker 1: in what do you see in the company that investors
Speaker 1: and a lot of other potential bidders did not.
Speaker 3: Yeah, no, absolutely, it's a great question.
Speaker 4: First, I just want to say we couldn't be more
Speaker 4: excited about the place that we're starting with the asset
Speaker 4: that we purchased. Right, we have eighty million stream subscribers.
Speaker 4: We have one of the best basically content libraries in
Speaker 4: existence with Paramount and CBS. And I also think you
Speaker 4: need to distinguish when you talk about the linear business. Right,
Speaker 4: there's the cable, which yes, has been declined, but if
Speaker 4: you look at CBS, it actually is a remarkable asset
Speaker 4: that's been number one in prime time for seventeenth straight seasons,
Speaker 4: incredible sports rights which we're growing, and it's still highly
Speaker 4: highly profitable and cash flow perspective, and I agree with you,
Speaker 4: has not been run in the best manner for the
Speaker 4: last fifteen years. And for me, that's all opportunity, an
Speaker 4: opportunity to really reignite the creative content engines, to navigate
Speaker 4: the transition that's required to really turn Paramount Plus into
Speaker 4: a leader in streaming, and we believe we have the
Speaker 4: ability to both win in content and also become the
Speaker 4: most technologically capable media company to effectively navigate this transition.
Speaker 4: We always looked at you know, you can look at
Speaker 4: the music business ten years ago.
Speaker 3: We believe we can navigate that.
Speaker 4: We also really looked at where traditional tech companies were,
Speaker 4: you know, call it ten fifteen years ago, and there
Speaker 4: is a period of time where you know, the Microsoft's
Speaker 4: the world, the Oracles of the world were being disrupted
Speaker 4: and those companies that actually disrupted themselves and transitions are
Speaker 4: now all.
Speaker 3: Traded at all time highs. We believe we have the
Speaker 3: opportunity to do the same thing.
Speaker 1: So you talked about streaming. You mentioned that the eighty
Speaker 1: million subscribers earlier. You know, you look at it those
Speaker 1: those monthly Nielsen reports that people pay a lot of
Speaker 1: attention to. Right are youtubes that thirteen percent of TV
Speaker 1: viewing Netflix? Is that between eight and nine most months.
Speaker 1: Paramount When you combine Paramount plus and Pluto, it sort
Speaker 1: of sits around two percent. You can correct me if
Speaker 1: I'm off there. I think it's about right. So how
Speaker 1: do you get that up forget about thirteen or eight
Speaker 1: like Disney's in the four or five range. How do
Speaker 1: you get that up there? And you've talked about content
Speaker 1: and tech? Can you get specific on those fronts like
Speaker 1: what you're going to do?
Speaker 3: Absolutely?
Speaker 4: So, Look, one of the things we really believed in,
Speaker 4: like what I'll say, we're nine weeks in and I'm
Speaker 4: really proud of the momentum the team has been able
Speaker 4: to build over the last nine weeks. One of the
Speaker 4: things we really believe being the first owned and operated
Speaker 4: studio to my knowledge, since actually Walt Disney built his
Speaker 4: own shop, was that we would have the opportunity to
Speaker 4: really think long term that means long term partners with
Speaker 4: talent where you can basically say, don't just think about
Speaker 4: your next movie or your next show. We want to
Speaker 4: build a relationship with you over a decade and actually
Speaker 4: say we're going to make your next four or five movies,
Speaker 4: your next four or five series, and really think long
Speaker 4: term and invest for long term growth. The great news
Speaker 4: and when you look at we had to win in content,
Speaker 4: I think we're well on our way to being.
Speaker 3: Able to do that.
Speaker 4: If you look at specifics right, we're able to get
Speaker 4: the Obviously, the UFC deal is one of the first
Speaker 4: things we announced we came over. We're incredibly proud that
Speaker 4: Activision chose to partner with us on Call of Duty,
Speaker 4: which is the most successful video game franchise of all
Speaker 4: time with five hundred million units sold. We're able to
Speaker 4: have James Mangold come over and obviously call his one
Speaker 4: of the greatest filmmakers working to call Paramount home Boulder Light,
Speaker 4: who obviously had incredible hits like Weapons earlier this year.
Speaker 4: In addition to that, you know, we've been able to
Speaker 4: secure high profile packages for streaming with basically Paramount Plus.
Speaker 4: And then we're also really reinvigorating what we're doing in
Speaker 4: news with CBS News with the acquisition of the Free Press.
Speaker 4: And then I think when you look at CBS's broadcast lineup,
Speaker 4: I think we have the strongest lineup, maybe arguably in
Speaker 4: the company's history. And so I think we've really successfully
Speaker 4: reinvigorated the creative content engines of the company in a
Speaker 4: really short period of time.
Speaker 3: And I think we're going to be able to do
Speaker 3: that at scale.
Speaker 4: So that's one two. You know, I think when you
Speaker 4: look at kind of ten thousand feet, Silicon Valley has
Speaker 4: done an excellent job of really coming into Hollywood. I
Speaker 4: mean the platform that Netflix has built, the platform that
Speaker 4: basically Amazon is built, and these are incredible companies.
Speaker 1: I'd say the platform that Amazon has built is not
Speaker 1: very good, but they do have the benefit of Amazon behind.
Speaker 1: Even people who work at Amazon but acknowledge the product
Speaker 1: could be better.
Speaker 4: I think when you look at the number of subscribers,
Speaker 4: I think they're doing okay. And you know, from from
Speaker 4: that standpoint, but what we really want to become. We
Speaker 4: talk about becoming the most technologically capable media company. Believe
Speaker 4: we have the capability to do that. We're bringing in
Speaker 4: the appropriate leadership. You know, we just obviously hired our
Speaker 4: CPO Dan Glasgow, who was formerly obviously running product at
Speaker 4: metaphor Facebook, who is obviously a phenomenal leader, to come
Speaker 4: into the business. And we have really deep tech partnerships
Speaker 4: that are really going to enable, we think Paramount for
Speaker 4: the first time to actually build platforms that are competitive
Speaker 4: with Netflix, that are competitive with Amazon, and actually successfully
Speaker 4: grow in scale. And I think you've said this, You've
Speaker 4: talked about this a lot, given this moment in time
Speaker 4: that we exist in, great art and great technology need
Speaker 4: to work hand in hand together to effectuate the transition
Speaker 4: the overall businesses in.
Speaker 1: Is there some things like concrete about the Paramount plus
Speaker 1: platform right now that you think is clearly substandard, And
Speaker 1: how like I've heard you talk about the recommendation algorithm
Speaker 1: right and how you think that could be better. Does
Speaker 1: having us a better recommendation algorithm really going to bring
Speaker 1: in ten million new customers or make people spend an
Speaker 1: extra two hours a day with your service?
Speaker 3: So you have to do two things.
Speaker 4: One like, let's just talk about the asset that we
Speaker 4: acquire we inherited. Right, Paramount as it exists today operates
Speaker 4: three streaming platforms, three separate texts on two different clouds,
Speaker 4: which is both inefficient and wildly expensive. So if you
Speaker 4: actually said I'm gonna if I had unlimited resources, this
Speaker 4: is not how you do.
Speaker 1: For those who don't follow, the three services are Paramount Plus,
Speaker 1: Pluto TV, and bpt plus correct.
Speaker 4: So we're in the process right now of basically consolidating
Speaker 4: all of those onto a single into a single stack,
Speaker 4: which will both significantly improve the operational capabilities of the product,
Speaker 4: and we're doing a lot to basically overhaul every single
Speaker 4: aspect of the stack. But also the more data that
Speaker 4: you obviously get in there, which is the more users,
Speaker 4: the better you're going to be.
Speaker 3: Able to recommend content.
Speaker 4: So we are we're definitely overhauling basically the product right now.
Speaker 3: But in addition to that, to me.
Speaker 4: Technology is really in service of the content, not the
Speaker 4: other way around, and we're going to make significantly more
Speaker 4: shows at Paramount Plus.
Speaker 3: We are investing in sports rights. You know, when you
Speaker 3: look at the acquisition of the UFC, that.
Speaker 4: Is the largest sport that is basically not shared between
Speaker 4: multiple platforms, and to basically and they have one hundred
Speaker 4: million fans, They've grown twenty five percent from twenty nineteen
Speaker 4: to date. They grew at that level sitting behind a
Speaker 4: double paywall. So we think when you eliminate that double paywall,
Speaker 4: it's going to open it up and make it much
Speaker 4: more accessible. Literally, one paper you fight is what a
Speaker 4: Paramount Plus subscription is. And then basically those one hundred
Speaker 4: million fans are going to be able to get access
Speaker 4: to everything they love. And in addition to that, when
Speaker 4: you look at the overall sports strategy, which cannot be
Speaker 4: more important to us, Paramount had a really strong fall
Speaker 4: and spring sports calendar, but really light in the summer.
Speaker 1: The football in the fall, you have March Madness. In
Speaker 1: the spring, you have.
Speaker 4: The Masters, which which we're incredibly proud to be partners with,
Speaker 4: and now with UFC, we have a year long sports
Speaker 4: strategy and that in addition to all of the new
Speaker 4: originals that we're going to be making for p plus,
Speaker 4: there's going to be more content, there's gonna be a
Speaker 4: better tech product that's going.
Speaker 3: To yield additional engagement and scale.
Speaker 1: So I won't I have a follow up on that,
Speaker 1: but I'm curious because you mentioned Pluto. You've talked a
Speaker 1: lot about combining the back end. How is it that
Speaker 1: you just combine all those services into one consumer facing
Speaker 1: app where if you want to watch Pluto, you're just
Speaker 1: going to Paramount Plus.
Speaker 4: So right now we're basically combining the back the back end.
Speaker 4: It's certainly something we've discussed and.
Speaker 3: Explore, but not something we're planning to do right now.
Speaker 1: Got it? And you're in the like the fun spending money,
Speaker 1: showing people you're here to reinvigorate the company phase. When
Speaker 1: does the less fun part?
Speaker 4: So, look, one of the things that I think is
Speaker 4: actually important is this business can be operated a lot
Speaker 4: more efficiently than was operated in the past. And you know,
Speaker 4: we've obviously announced you know, two billion dollars and obviously
Speaker 4: run rate synergies. We've said we're going to meaningfully obviously
Speaker 4: exceed those targets, and from our perspective, we intend to
Speaker 4: do that as quickly as possible so that we can
Speaker 4: basically get that behind us and then have the entire
Speaker 4: team just building for the future.
Speaker 1: So does that do cuts start before the end of
Speaker 1: the year.
Speaker 3: You know, I can't answer that question.
Speaker 1: Let's go to a couple other questions you probably can't answer.
Speaker 3: Have you We're going there already.
Speaker 1: All right, have you made an offer yet for Warner
Speaker 1: Brothers Discovery.
Speaker 3: All right, we'll talk about tennis.
Speaker 1: We'll get to tennis at the end. I already I
Speaker 1: don't know if you saw it. I asked Greg Peters,
Speaker 1: who is better at tennis? Him or Bill Gate? You
Speaker 1: can probably answer that question. He dodged, But.
Speaker 4: The atention I actually can't as attention, I've never seen
Speaker 4: either of them play tennis, so I don't feel equipped
Speaker 4: to be able to do.
Speaker 1: Let's go back to the offer for Warner Brothers Discovery.
Speaker 4: So so, look, we're a publicly traded company, and I
Speaker 4: think you know, we're not in a position to be
Speaker 4: able comment on rumors speculation of any kind, because there's
Speaker 4: a couple of rumors and speculations obviously out there in
Speaker 4: terms of what we.
Speaker 3: May or may not be doing. But look, what I
Speaker 3: can't comment on is.
Speaker 4: People to kind of understand our mindset, right, And I
Speaker 4: actually think, you know, ironically, it was David Zaslov last
Speaker 4: year that said, you know, consolidation the medium business is important,
Speaker 4: and the way we approach everything is first and foremost,
Speaker 4: what's good for the talent community, what's good for our shareholders,
Speaker 4: and value creation and what's good for basically storytelling at large.
Speaker 4: And so from our standpoint, whether we were approach any acquisition,
Speaker 4: and I actually do think there's a lot of options
Speaker 4: out there in terms of what actually might be actionable
Speaker 4: in the near future, we would approach that through the
Speaker 4: lens of wanting to make more, not less, you know, because.
Speaker 1: The natural conclusion if you were to merge with one
Speaker 1: of those Discovery is you take two companies that combines
Speaker 1: I don't remember the content's been between the two of them,
Speaker 1: but spend billions of dollars. And much as you're combining
Speaker 1: Guidance and Paramount, you take money out. You would take
Speaker 1: money out there. Companies that merge don't tend to spend
Speaker 1: more money on the other side of it.
Speaker 4: So what I would say, and again I'm not going
Speaker 4: to comment on Warner Brothers Discovery, but you know you
Speaker 4: said it when you talked about Paramount. You actually need
Speaker 4: more content to yield more engagement. And so we would
Speaker 4: actually want to be in the business throughout whatever lens
Speaker 4: we were looking at of actually producing more, you know,
Speaker 4: more movies, more television series, more to get to scale
Speaker 4: because you need that content, you need that great storytelling
Speaker 4: to yield engagement. And from that standpoint, we're also in
Speaker 4: the business first and foremost of creating long term value creation.
Speaker 3: And you know, in one of the things I think.
Speaker 4: I hope we've we've proven obviously with our family is
Speaker 4: we are in the business of building long term value
Speaker 4: for shareholders, and I think we've done that successfully.
Speaker 1: You mentioned there are a lot of other things out
Speaker 1: there that could be actionable. What else is on the list?
Speaker 4: Same thing, I can't comment on it.
Speaker 1: I'll do one more so. We were told that you
Speaker 1: actually made an offer for Warner Brothers Discovery that was rejected.
Speaker 3: Same answer.
Speaker 1: It seems like most people think this is I promise
Speaker 1: it's not the same question. It's the bridge to something else.
Speaker 1: Most people think that you guys are the only ones
Speaker 1: who can get that deal done. And one of the
Speaker 1: reasons is because of the relationship between your father and
Speaker 1: the current instration. How would you characterize the relationship between
Speaker 1: your family and the president at the moment?
Speaker 3: Great question.
Speaker 4: I think we have a we have a good relationship
Speaker 4: with the with the administration, and look, I think if
Speaker 4: you look to that, I do believe other things that
Speaker 4: have been rumored about, right are very large scale players
Speaker 4: that would affect that could potentially create monopolies obviously in
Speaker 4: the ecosystem. And again, I think when you look at
Speaker 4: the lens of consolidation for us, I'll keep going back
Speaker 4: to it, it's always how do you create long term
Speaker 4: value creation, how do you put yourself in a position
Speaker 4: to produce more content, not less, and how do you
Speaker 4: ultimately build something that is better for the consumer, not
Speaker 4: opportunities that will create things like you know, too much
Speaker 4: pricing power. And I think if you look at our business,
Speaker 4: I hear it all the time. The notion of going
Speaker 4: to seven different apps is not the greatest experience from
Speaker 4: the consumer's point of view.
Speaker 3: And I think what we look for is.
Speaker 4: Really how do we serve the consumer, how do we
Speaker 4: serve the talent community, who we are so grateful for
Speaker 4: the fact that they have really embraced us since this acquisition,
Speaker 4: and how to create long term value for shareholders. Those
Speaker 4: are going to be the lens of which we always
Speaker 4: approach everything. And what I'm and I think we have
Speaker 4: the capital and resources to be opportunistic when those opportunities arrive,
Speaker 4: and we do have a.
Speaker 1: Good relationship, so one opportunity you took and you mentioned
Speaker 1: earlier with buying the Free Press, the track record of
Speaker 1: big media companies like Paramount buying digital media companies like
Speaker 1: the Free Press is abysmal, at least over the last
Speaker 1: several years. So why are you buying this company and
Speaker 1: what was the thought behind it?
Speaker 3: Absolutely so one.
Speaker 4: What our goal is in news is we want to
Speaker 4: become the most trusted destination in news media.
Speaker 3: That is our goal.
Speaker 4: And I don't think it's a controversial thing to say
Speaker 4: right now that the civil discourse that currently exists is
Speaker 4: not in a great place. And we basically believe in
Speaker 4: all the things that the Free Press believed in, which
Speaker 4: is the you know, we want to speak to these
Speaker 4: set twenty percent of the audience that identifies themselves as
Speaker 4: center left to center right. We believe in the open
Speaker 4: exchange of ideas and then you know, fundamentally presenting both
Speaker 4: sides and allowing the audience to ultimately make their determination
Speaker 4: about how they feel about it. But they're presented with
Speaker 4: the facts, and we think that, you know, the Free
Speaker 4: Press recognized some of the issues that have been occurring
Speaker 4: and built a company as part of the solution to.
Speaker 1: What issues are you referring to there.
Speaker 4: The notion of really just saying we want to get
Speaker 4: back into the trust business, we want to get back
Speaker 4: into the truth business. And then in addition to that,
Speaker 4: when you look at news right we have I cannot
Speaker 4: properly express how much respect and admiration I have for
Speaker 4: the legacy of CBS News in sixty minutes.
Speaker 3: It's remarkable.
Speaker 4: But also the company does not have a digital strategy,
Speaker 4: and one of you know, which is why the Free
Speaker 4: Press was a critical part of that acquisition, because you
Speaker 4: need to be able to meet people where they are.
Speaker 1: I'm just curious is remaining independent ish.
Speaker 4: So basically the Free Press will obviously stay in the
Speaker 4: digital landscape in which they're going towards.
Speaker 3: But I also think when you talk about meeting people
Speaker 3: where they.
Speaker 4: Are, that's in broadcast news, that's obviously you know on
Speaker 4: the Free Press's website, that's in podcasts, but that's also
Speaker 4: eventually going to be in direct to consumer And we
Speaker 4: do want to actually build a home in the d
Speaker 4: TWOC platform, which to my knowledge, our competitors are not
Speaker 4: doing where you can actually go get all of that
Speaker 4: in a digital environment you're consumer, and the Free Press
Speaker 4: is an accelerate to be able to complish.
Speaker 1: That cold doesn't the CBS already have a digital news network.
Speaker 4: They do, but we think that this basically accelerates and
Speaker 4: supercharges it.
Speaker 1: Basically said, you have a lot of respect to CBS News,
Speaker 1: but in bringing in someone to completely overhaul it would
Speaker 1: suggest that you thought that things weren't operating as well
Speaker 1: as they could have been. And how would you assess it,
Speaker 1: not just from a business standpoint, but from a content standpoint.
Speaker 1: Do you feel like the news that they were putting
Speaker 1: out there was where you want it to be? Do
Speaker 1: you think there are things they could be doing better
Speaker 1: or worse?
Speaker 4: So, as I've kind of said this before, I'm not
Speaker 4: going to be in the position of ever making political
Speaker 4: statements like we're we're an entertainment company first, and we
Speaker 4: have the viewpoint of if you're breathing your audience and
Speaker 4: we basically so, and so from that standpoint, we want
Speaker 4: to entertain our audiences first. What I will say, and
Speaker 4: I've said this and I said this in a letter
Speaker 4: I sent up to the team earlier this week, is
Speaker 4: that I do believe that this is an opportunity when
Speaker 4: you look at where things sit, that we want to
Speaker 4: be able to get back to a place where everyone
Speaker 4: can have dialogue.
Speaker 3: We believe in civil discourse.
Speaker 4: We believe in the open exchange and debate of ideas
Speaker 4: is how you get to the right answer. And we
Speaker 4: think that there is a responsibility with news to make
Speaker 4: sure that you were promoting that. But at the end
Speaker 4: of the day, it's always up to the viewer in
Speaker 4: the audience to decide. And we're in the business of
Speaker 4: first and foremost earning their trust and that is done
Speaker 4: over time, and we hope that we you know, we're
Speaker 4: going to work really hard to earn our audience trusts
Speaker 4: every day.
Speaker 1: You can understand though, why when you're talking about restoring
Speaker 1: trust and speaking to every one, you know, you put
Speaker 1: someone in Barry's background as primarily as an opinion columnist, right,
Speaker 1: She's not a kind of died in the wool news reporter.
Speaker 1: And there are going to be people at CBS News,
Speaker 1: and there have been a lot of people outside of
Speaker 1: the journalists outside of CBS News already who are seem
Speaker 1: very concerned because opinion and news are typically kept separate.
Speaker 1: And now you have of the editorial leader of this
Speaker 1: news group whose background is an opinion Yeah, well, I.
Speaker 4: Mean Look, I'll continue to say the same thing, like,
Speaker 4: I'm not going to make a political statement.
Speaker 3: I'm really not going to do it.
Speaker 1: I'm not asking a political statement. But you can understand
Speaker 1: maybe why some of the staff is nervous or I'm
Speaker 1: sure your art you've got, you and your team are
Speaker 1: already ready for there to be a bunch of leaks
Speaker 1: over the next few weeks of people who don't like
Speaker 1: whatever direction it's going in.
Speaker 4: Yeah, looks, what I think I said is like again,
Speaker 4: I'll keep going back to it. I think if you
Speaker 4: look at the value system that basically the Free Press
Speaker 4: has been operated under really does align with the value
Speaker 4: system that we believe in, which I also believe is
Speaker 4: in line with the legacy of CBS News. And if
Speaker 4: you actually go to that, I do believe there are
Speaker 4: areas where we collectively can and will do better. But
Speaker 4: I also have the utmost respect for the team that
Speaker 4: exists there. And again, I wouldn't judge us based on
Speaker 4: what I sit here and say today, judges basically over time,
Speaker 4: as we basically proved that I mean, you know, I
Speaker 4: mean again, like this is going to be one where
Speaker 4: we're going to need to demonstrate every single day that
Speaker 4: we're obviously earning people's trust.
Speaker 3: I obviously deeply believe in the free press.
Speaker 4: I believe in the team at CBS News, and I
Speaker 4: believe we're going to accomplish the goal of building that
Speaker 4: trusted destination news and media.
Speaker 1: Are you and Barry. I don't know if this counts
Speaker 1: as politics for you, but you have a lot of
Speaker 1: common ground on a big issue, which is Israel, and
Speaker 1: you have spoken publicly about it. Your company issued a
Speaker 1: statement expressing concern about how some artists were speaking about it.
Speaker 1: Why did you feel the need to speak out on
Speaker 1: that issue and how has the blowback been?
Speaker 4: Yeah, So look, just to go back to the statement
Speaker 4: that we made, right was very simply, we made a
Speaker 4: statement that was effectively discriminating based on where somebody is
Speaker 4: from Israel, and I and I and I stand by
Speaker 4: that statement. In addition to that, when you look at
Speaker 4: what's going on in the world, you know the fact
Speaker 4: that we are effectively at a historic piece deal with
Speaker 4: hostages being returned home as early as this week in
Speaker 4: our Monday I think that is a historical, historic accomplishment
Speaker 4: and one that we should all be happy so that
Speaker 4: those hostages can get home with their families.
Speaker 1: I believe that there was a piece about sort of
Speaker 1: some employees of yours who were upset about the statement
Speaker 1: that you put out, And I'm just curious have you
Speaker 1: heard from it? And I know just from day to
Speaker 1: day life that there are a lot of people in
Speaker 1: the talent community who feel a little bit differently about
Speaker 1: this subject than you do. Have you heard from from
Speaker 1: any of them?
Speaker 4: And there you know, so so obviously I saw that
Speaker 4: piece and look, the you know, we believe in the
Speaker 4: First Amendment, they are one hundred percent entitled to their opinion.
Speaker 4: We're we're we're entitled to ours and they know we
Speaker 4: haven't heard from anybody.
Speaker 3: Else directly, got it.
Speaker 1: We haven't talked about your dad at all. Who is
Speaker 1: the biggest shareholder in your company, I believe or what
Speaker 1: one of Yeah, the deal that you don't want to
Speaker 1: talk about that you might do would also be thanks
Speaker 1: in part to his oar jess what advice has he
Speaker 1: given you about running a big company? And what is
Speaker 1: the relationship between the two of you?
Speaker 4: Like, so, look, we we my father and I couldn't
Speaker 4: have a better relationship. We talked just about every day
Speaker 4: or every other day, you know, Look, he's a pretty
Speaker 4: phenomenal mentor. And and I think, you know, I think,
Speaker 4: especially when you look at it from a shareholder capacity,
Speaker 4: I think he has about as good of a track
Speaker 4: record as you can get for actually creating value. You
Speaker 4: look at the growth of Oracle this year across everything
Speaker 4: he's done in our businesses and as well as you know,
Speaker 4: our stock has obviously also performed since we closed. Yeah,
Speaker 4: and and so you know, from that standpoint, you know,
Speaker 4: he is focused on how do we maximize value for shareholders?
Speaker 3: I think is one of the best in the world
Speaker 3: of doing that.
Speaker 4: And I think that's a voice that everyone should be
Speaker 4: really happy about the fact that that's obviously, you know,
Speaker 4: helping to guide and steer the company. So from that standpoint,
Speaker 4: and look, the other thing I would say is, you know,
Speaker 4: I've had phenomenal mentors that I'm grateful to, you know,
Speaker 4: including Steve Jobs and David Geffen, And honestly, I'm grateful
Speaker 4: for everything I've been able to learn from them.
Speaker 3: And we couldn't have a better relationship.
Speaker 1: And when you say guidance deer, so are you like,
Speaker 1: how often is you talk to your dad every day?
Speaker 1: You're talking about the company every day, like is he
Speaker 1: I think a lot of people who work there want
Speaker 1: to know, right, like is ultimately you know, how involved
Speaker 1: is Larry Elson going to be in Paramount?
Speaker 4: So look, I run the company day to day, make
Speaker 4: no mistake about that. He is the largest shareholder in
Speaker 4: the business. And I think what's important for everybody to
Speaker 4: know is the way he approaches this is.
Speaker 3: How do we maximize value for our shareholders? And he's
Speaker 3: exceptional with that.
Speaker 1: Given the amount of money that you guys have at
Speaker 1: your disposal, you mentioned shareholders, Like, why not just take
Speaker 1: the company private?
Speaker 4: So great question one Actually think it's very really simple.
Speaker 4: It goes back to that question of value. We think
Speaker 4: there is actually more value and more opportunity in being
Speaker 4: a public.
Speaker 3: Company and being in private company.
Speaker 1: And given so your dad's you've got Paramount. Your dad
Speaker 1: seems to be involved in the new ownership consortium for
Speaker 1: TikTok in the US, we maybe have the Warner Brothers
Speaker 1: Discovery deal. What do you say to people.
Speaker 3: No right to questions?
Speaker 2: I can't actually answer, true, but this is this is
Speaker 2: this I think I can answer this one. What do
Speaker 2: you say to people who seem who are concerned that
Speaker 2: there's just like an an Ellison slash Ellison Trump plot
Speaker 2: to just like corner the media business.
Speaker 1: You've got Elon with Twitter.
Speaker 3: You know they're they're no, I know where you're going.
Speaker 3: Look it's I'm going to headline. I'm doing better.
Speaker 4: I can uh, I can only speak to.
Speaker 3: Look, I think I can speak to my personal state
Speaker 3: of mind? Right? Is that fair to do that?
Speaker 4: So what I can tell you is that conversation has
Speaker 4: never once been discussed or brought up. You know, when
Speaker 4: we basically approach things, it is going back to always
Speaker 4: how do we create basically value for shareholders? And look,
Speaker 4: go back to what I've been doing, like the last
Speaker 4: fifteen years of my life, right, I mean like this
Speaker 4: is it's sorry.
Speaker 3: I kind of look at this.
Speaker 4: And I'm like, can we this is the last twenty
Speaker 4: plus years of my life not equate?
Speaker 3: And what I mean by that is.
Speaker 4: I went to film school at USC Right, I started
Speaker 4: when I literally started in this business when I was
Speaker 4: eighteen years old. I fell in love with movies when
Speaker 4: I was literally a little kid. And you know, my
Speaker 4: mom and I would go to the movies every single weekend.
Speaker 4: That's literally what we did without fail. We went fifty
Speaker 4: two weeks a year and just saw anything that was playing.
Speaker 4: And you know, we had a VHS collection of you
Speaker 4: know at home where like me and my sister's idea
Speaker 4: of like the greatest day on a Sunday was let's
Speaker 4: go watch all the Rocky movies back to back in
Speaker 4: one day, or let's go watch the Star Wars trilogy.
Speaker 4: So I have literally loved this business and love storytelling
Speaker 4: since I was a kid.
Speaker 3: I went to school for it.
Speaker 4: I built sky Dance and launched it in twenty ten
Speaker 4: really with the understanding that the disruption between the bridge
Speaker 4: that has been built between Silicon Valley and Hollywood was
Speaker 4: going to happen.
Speaker 3: We saw that over fifteen years ago.
Speaker 4: We built a company that was, you know, the tip
Speaker 4: of the spear for that disruption on the content creation side,
Speaker 4: with one of our guiding thematics always being where entertainment
Speaker 4: is heading, right.
Speaker 3: You know, the Slate deal we did where we got
Speaker 3: all of the.
Speaker 4: Crown jewels in Paramounts franchises without taking things that are
Speaker 4: normally put into those kind of deals was revolutionary at
Speaker 4: the time. You know, our second series, Grayson Frankee, you know,
Speaker 4: we took to Netflix before House of Cards was released
Speaker 4: because we believed in anything, anywhere, anytime, and any device
Speaker 4: before it had been proven. We've taken early bets into
Speaker 4: interactive and virtual reality, and we took and we took
Speaker 4: ten pole movies direct to consum during a time period
Speaker 4: where we thought that was the right thing to do.
Speaker 4: So from that standpoint, I have always loved and believed
Speaker 4: in this business.
Speaker 3: I love storytelling.
Speaker 4: I believe in the value of basically entertainment and media
Speaker 4: and what these stories mean and it's a privilege to
Speaker 4: get to.
Speaker 3: Tell them in our culture.
Speaker 4: And as it relates to news, which is the other
Speaker 4: part of the question you're asking, we really do want
Speaker 4: to be in.
Speaker 3: The trust business first and foremost.
Speaker 4: We really do want to talk to that seventy percent
Speaker 4: of the audience and we want to get back to
Speaker 4: having that level of civil discourse. So none of those
Speaker 4: things that have been talked about have ever been discussed
Speaker 4: inside of my relationship with my dad.
Speaker 1: I'm the tech front because you talk about that kind
Speaker 1: of seeing the friction between Hollywood and Philicon Valley early.
Speaker 1: The other sort of big boogeyman in the news right
Speaker 1: now is AI. What is your perception of aura? Are
Speaker 1: you guys opting out of your product being in there,
Speaker 1: How are you thinking about using AI?
Speaker 4: Yeah, so look at say two things to that, right, Like,
Speaker 4: fundamentally we are in the business of building, creating, and
Speaker 4: protecting value of intellectual property. So sore we have been
Speaker 4: in that business, we always continue to be in that business.
Speaker 3: Look, there's a really healthy debate.
Speaker 4: Around inputs that I don't really want to get into
Speaker 4: because we don't have enough time. But I think when
Speaker 4: you look at the outputs, those need to be protected.
Speaker 4: Copyright basically needs to be protected on the outputs of
Speaker 4: those businesses. But what I would also say is as
Speaker 4: an industry, we do need to embrace technology. And I
Speaker 4: think if you look at artificial intelligence, there are several
Speaker 4: areas to where you know, AI is going to impact
Speaker 4: our business and and I actually think it's important to
Speaker 4: do it in a way that is responsible, that is
Speaker 4: fundamentally a tool for artists. So I'll go back to
Speaker 4: a Pixar story and forgive the SEMAI long answer to this,
Speaker 4: but I just I'll go to this as one that
Speaker 4: I happened to be able to live through. You know,
Speaker 4: I remember basically in the you know, when Steve and
Speaker 4: John Laster basically built Pixar.
Speaker 3: The attack on them at the time.
Speaker 4: Was that they didn't like animators and they didn't like
Speaker 4: the medium of animation, which when you talk to either
Speaker 4: John or Steve, you know John who was a classically
Speaker 4: trained Walt Disney animator, they loved storytelling, they loved animation.
Speaker 4: What they said was, we're just giving the artists a
Speaker 4: new pencil to actually enable them to draw and create
Speaker 4: something they've never been able to create before. And I
Speaker 4: think the reality is is much like when James Cameron,
Speaker 4: you know, in nineteen ninety two, basically started doing digital
Speaker 4: comps as opposed to optical comps, and that was a
Speaker 4: controversial thing at the time as well. I do think
Speaker 4: you were in one of these inflection point moments where
Speaker 4: the software CPU pipelines are going to start to be
Speaker 4: augmented or replaced by model drive in GPU pipelines, and
Speaker 4: there's a responsible way to do that, and there's an
Speaker 4: irresponsible way to do that. We're going to air on
Speaker 4: the side of basically partnering with that technology to do
Speaker 4: it in a way that we think is good for artists.
Speaker 1: My last best was a short one so that the
Speaker 1: folks in the back, don't kill me. Who's a better pilot?
Speaker 1: You were, Tom Cruise, I'm not that one.
Speaker 3: I'll play the fifth on it. It's no Look. What
Speaker 3: I'll say is Tom is an exceptional pilot. Like I'll
Speaker 3: actually say he I was.
Speaker 4: I started flying when I was thirteen years old, and
Speaker 4: by the time I was twenty, I was one of
Speaker 4: the top ten aerbatic pilots in the country, so literally
Speaker 4: like flying air shows like three miles an hour, fifteen
Speaker 4: feet off the ground.
Speaker 3: So that was a wonderful chapter in my life.
Speaker 4: But I think the training that he did to be
Speaker 4: able to do the sequences in mission impossible. The fact
Speaker 4: that he captured all of that filming in camera on
Speaker 4: top gunn Maverick. For me, he's just the gold standard
Speaker 4: and I have nothing but the most admiration respect for him.