Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg Business Week Inside from the reporters and
Speaker 1: editors who bring you America's most trusted business magazine, plus
Speaker 1: global business, finance and tech news as it happened. Bloomberg
Speaker 1: Business Week with Carol Messer and Bloomberg Quick Takes Tim
Speaker 1: Stinovic on Bloomberg Radio. Hi, everyone, welcome to the weekend
Speaker 1: edition of Bloomberg Business Week. A special holiday weekend program ahead,
Speaker 1: as we look back on our recent visit to Beverly
Speaker 1: Hills that was for the Bloomberg Power Players Summit, a
Speaker 1: fantastic event, Carroll. The event did take place ahead of
Speaker 1: Super Bowl fifty six in l A, bringing together power
Speaker 1: broker's senior execs, world class athletes, all of them to
Speaker 1: talk about game changing shifts of the six hundred billion
Speaker 1: dollar global sports business. Ahead on the program, you're gonna
Speaker 1: hear from the likes of ESPN Chairman Jimmy Pitaro, American
Speaker 1: soccer legend Carly Lloyd, w w E Chief brand Officer
Speaker 1: Steph McMahon, and Pro Football Hall of Famer Eric Dickerson.
Speaker 1: He actually ended up having a pretty good weekend, he did. Indeed,
Speaker 1: it was definitely an all star line up. First of
Speaker 1: all though he did speak with us and then his
Speaker 1: former team, as you know, the L A. Rams held
Speaker 1: off the Cincinnati Bengals to win the World Championship. All
Speaker 1: of that and more to come, but let's kick it
Speaker 1: off with a man who knows a little something about
Speaker 1: Super Bowl success. Two time champion linebacker totally Banta Caine,
Speaker 1: and a lot has changed since he left the gridiron
Speaker 1: more than a decade ago. When I played, there was
Speaker 1: no social media. There was no Twitter, no Instagram, any
Speaker 1: of that stuff. I mean it was at the tail
Speaker 1: end of my career. So for players now just to
Speaker 1: have the that platform or so many platforms to get
Speaker 1: to engage with their fans and and to really tell
Speaker 1: their stories, I mean, that's an awesome time for sports
Speaker 1: in general. Hey, I want to talk a little bit
Speaker 1: about going from player to coach and in changing sort
Speaker 1: of the idea of what you're doing out there on
Speaker 1: the field. How do you do that, How do you
Speaker 1: make that transition and how do you take what you
Speaker 1: learned as a player and help younger people and people
Speaker 1: earlier in their careers. Uh, well, you just have to
Speaker 1: reflect on the time that when you were a kid
Speaker 1: or when you were young and realize that these kids
Speaker 1: are just they're trying to get where you're at, and
Speaker 1: so you have you have to draw from that knowledge
Speaker 1: and experience from going from player to coach. I think
Speaker 1: it's a lot of when you listen and watch other
Speaker 1: styles of coaches, then you can kind of see what
Speaker 1: works for you or what worked for you and what
Speaker 1: didn't work for you, and try to make it your own.
Speaker 1: All right, you know what we all want to ask you?
Speaker 1: So talked to us about playing with the Patriots and
Speaker 1: Tom Brady. Uh dream come true? I mean, uh, I
Speaker 1: still it's been over ten years now. It's just when
Speaker 1: I look back, it's hard to really believe that that
Speaker 1: happened to me. But when I was drafted to New England, Um,
Speaker 1: did you want to be there? You know? I didn't
Speaker 1: even know where it was to be honest, I didn't
Speaker 1: had no idea where New England was, what it was about.
Speaker 1: I knew they had won a Super Bowl two years prior,
Speaker 1: so getting there and being able to win a Super
Speaker 1: Bowl my rookie year was like really because I never
Speaker 1: went to a bowl game in college, went to Berkeley,
Speaker 1: you know, the powerhouse, and uh, then to win it
Speaker 1: back to back was just like, oh man, I'm on
Speaker 1: the Super Bowl every year. And then obviously playing with
Speaker 1: great guys like Tom Brady and that whole team, you know,
Speaker 1: from the Mike Vrabels to the Teddy Bruce Ki's Troy Browns.
Speaker 1: I mean, everyone that was on that team was just
Speaker 1: a special type of player, because you do realize not
Speaker 1: everybody has the same experience, like the same you know
Speaker 1: what I mean, there are other players with teams where
Speaker 1: it doesn't necessarily go so well, like you know, something's magical. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean I was just talking to Eric Dickerson, who
Speaker 1: was like, you know, did you play? I was like, yeah,
Speaker 1: I played. He's like you, who'd you play with? New England? Always?
Speaker 1: So you want some rings and I want some rings
Speaker 1: to do win some rings. No, I didn't win any rings,
Speaker 1: you know, so it's like, wow, this is Eric Dickerson,
Speaker 1: you know, kind of you know, and all of the
Speaker 1: fact that I want winnings, and it's like, you know,
Speaker 1: there are a lot of stories where I have you know,
Speaker 1: I don't take for granted the fact that I want
Speaker 1: two of them. Surprised by Brady's retirement at all, I mean,
Speaker 1: I'm not surprised because I didn't want I wanted him
Speaker 1: to go out where the game didn't take him out.
Speaker 1: You don't want to see him leaving the game on
Speaker 1: a stretcher, right, So the fact that he was able
Speaker 1: to do it on his own terms, Uh, it's great.
Speaker 1: But I don't count him out making a comeback, really,
Speaker 1: I don't. I don't know when the type of person
Speaker 1: he is, if he stays in shape, uh, and he
Speaker 1: sees an opportunity to win another one, he's gonna take it.
Speaker 1: Knowing who he is. Well, it's interesting too as a player.
Speaker 1: The conversations we often have at these events is players
Speaker 1: who play really well and then they're done, and then
Speaker 1: they're in a tough wayire financially or thinking about what
Speaker 1: comes next. How do you think about that? Um? I mean,
Speaker 1: I think it's a serious issue among a lot of
Speaker 1: players because you know, you've gotta think you're coming into
Speaker 1: a professional game at years old. You don't really have
Speaker 1: that much business acumen of business sense. So when you
Speaker 1: get into the real world, the NFL can prepare you
Speaker 1: in certain ways with you know, teamwork and working with people,
Speaker 1: but there are other things that you kind of miss
Speaker 1: by not being in that realm. So I think a
Speaker 1: lot of players they try to get into it and
Speaker 1: it's it's can be overwhelming. Hey, we've been speaking a
Speaker 1: lot of today about the Brian Floors lawsuit and the
Speaker 1: lack of diversity in the NFL, especially at the coaching level,
Speaker 1: not to mention the ownership of team levels. Would be
Speaker 1: curious to get your thoughts on this and where you
Speaker 1: see things it out. Well, I mean the game is changing, uh,
Speaker 1: and the league itself is changing where you know, they're
Speaker 1: they're trying to make room for for guy minority players
Speaker 1: and coach players obviously, but the coaching realm is uh
Speaker 1: is wide open, and I think there's so many worthy
Speaker 1: candidates to get in and um, where isn't it happening? Well, uh,
Speaker 1: you know it's a it's you got to look at
Speaker 1: the top. I mean the ownership is I would say,
Speaker 1: what Caucasian or what's the right word, uh, European descent. So, um,
Speaker 1: you know, I think when there's a time where players
Speaker 1: may come together and you know, uh crowdsource some money
Speaker 1: and and uh maybe on on the on their own league,
Speaker 1: well you know it's thinking about your background your African
Speaker 1: American right also Irish said, it's great, but but but
Speaker 1: that's so American, like we're all got you know, the
Speaker 1: melting pot. But it's so true, right, that's our common ground.
Speaker 1: But I'm just curious, you know, why we don't understand
Speaker 1: that that that's the threat of America, right, And why
Speaker 1: isn't there more of that common ground in sports, in
Speaker 1: the NFL and just more generally. Well, I do think
Speaker 1: it's involved. I think it's gotten better if you look
Speaker 1: back just in the history of time. But I think
Speaker 1: with everything happening now with social media, the Internet, we're
Speaker 1: seeing a change. And I think the game and what
Speaker 1: I'm actually about to start doing myself, I'm founding a
Speaker 1: new type of league or a new type of exhibition
Speaker 1: game for NFL players. That's kind of what's happening with boxing,
Speaker 1: where you see Jake Paul and Magweather getting these big events,
Speaker 1: but we don't even know who's the the up and
Speaker 1: coming title runner, right. So I think the same thing
Speaker 1: can happen with the NFL, where you can get an
Speaker 1: exhibition type game put together where guys can play one
Speaker 1: time in a pay per view event and and and
Speaker 1: people eat it up. That was two times Super Bowl
Speaker 1: winning linebacker with the New England Patriots, totally Banta Kane
Speaker 1: coming up more for the Bloomberg Power Players Summit, and
Speaker 1: a conversation with a different sort of champion footballer. We're
Speaker 1: talking about US women's sucker legend, Carly Lloyd. You're listening
Speaker 1: to Bloomberg Business Week. This is Bloomberg. This is Bloomberg
Speaker 1: Business Week with Carol Messer and Bloomberg Quick Takes. Tim
Speaker 1: Stinovik from Bloomberg Radio. Our next guest took part in
Speaker 1: a panel discussion on the modern athlete at last week's
Speaker 1: Bloomberg Power Players Summit in Beverly Hills Now. The panel
Speaker 1: focused on the growing role athletes are playing in our
Speaker 1: world and the influence that they have on our culture.
Speaker 1: Carli Lloyd is no stranger to the global spotlight, having
Speaker 1: built a resume that includes two Olympic gold medals, to
Speaker 1: FIFA Women's World Cup Championships, and two FIFA Player of
Speaker 1: the Year awards. You gotta say she was just super
Speaker 1: nice the soccer Icon, announcing her retirement from the sport
Speaker 1: after seventeen year run in the professional ranks. Now, she's
Speaker 1: poised to make an impact far beyond the field, as
Speaker 1: she seeks to transfer her athletic skills to new business ventures.
Speaker 1: You know, I don't think any moment can prepare you
Speaker 1: for this moment. But I think what I did during
Speaker 1: my career and throughout the course of my career, I
Speaker 1: set myself up nicely to retire, and I'm at peace
Speaker 1: with that decision. And now it's about building, continuing to
Speaker 1: build my brand and uh continuing to just you know,
Speaker 1: break barriers within the woman's game. And I think we're
Speaker 1: in a really great space to to just keep empowering
Speaker 1: so many other women. And uh, the sport, the sports
Speaker 1: growing tremendously. I want to talk to you about that.
Speaker 1: But when did you first start playing? I first started
Speaker 1: playing at the age of five. Wow, did you like it?
Speaker 1: Right away? I loved it. My parents signed me up
Speaker 1: for you know, multiple different sports. Um, I swam, played softball, basketball,
Speaker 1: I actually, uh did skiing as well. They put they
Speaker 1: my parents put us in ski school and then they
Speaker 1: went off and skied on their own and enjoyed that.
Speaker 1: So I did so many different sports and I really
Speaker 1: believe that that has helped shaped who I am as
Speaker 1: a person and player to this day. But you know,
Speaker 1: when my mom signed me up for dance and piano.
Speaker 1: Um I screamed and cried going to practice, and I
Speaker 1: didn't with soccer. So I think that was a very
Speaker 1: good indication that I was interested in that when it
Speaker 1: came to sports growing up, though, at what point did
Speaker 1: you realize that you were special when it came to soccer.
Speaker 1: I think a lot of other people saw the talent
Speaker 1: uh in me and and just noticed that I was
Speaker 1: different from a lot of other players. Um I loved it,
Speaker 1: you know, that was that was my biggest thing. Is
Speaker 1: I just loved playing. And you know they really say
Speaker 1: for love of the game. It was it was for
Speaker 1: love of the game, and I think you know, for me,
Speaker 1: the turning point was watching Women's World Cup team play
Speaker 1: in the US. Got to go to a game, and
Speaker 1: for me that was that was a real big moment
Speaker 1: that changed my life because I looked out onto that
Speaker 1: field watching from the stands, and I knew that that
Speaker 1: was what I wanted to do. So those women helped
Speaker 1: inspire me, and now I'm helping to inspire so many
Speaker 1: other generations coming up. The pipeline talked to us about
Speaker 1: that because it's not easy or women in lots of
Speaker 1: different industries and certainly not in sports, and you know
Speaker 1: the inequities that are out there. I'd like to think
Speaker 1: it's getting better, but you tell me, because you've seen
Speaker 1: it front and center. I'd like to say that we're
Speaker 1: at a stage where we can just kind of rest
Speaker 1: in our laurels, but that's not the case. I feel
Speaker 1: like it's just this constant evolution of continuing to push
Speaker 1: and break these barriers. The women before me, uh did
Speaker 1: it as well. When I first came onto the team
Speaker 1: in two thousand and five, they were fighting for guaranteed
Speaker 1: contracts so they didn't didn't have to work anywhere. They
Speaker 1: were fighting for health insurance for pregnancy leave, um. And
Speaker 1: I just get, you know, two checks from playing in
Speaker 1: two games and coming out of college, and I'm thinking
Speaker 1: this is amazing, um. But I didn't realize the magnitude
Speaker 1: of what they were fighting for. And that laid the
Speaker 1: foundation for myself for you know, all all my teammates
Speaker 1: that I played for, and now we're doing the same
Speaker 1: for this next generation coming in. Does name, image, likeness
Speaker 1: and the ability for now college athletes like, does that
Speaker 1: help in terms of giving women maybe some more power?
Speaker 1: I think it does help. Um. You know, I was
Speaker 1: recently talking with a you know, a field hockey player
Speaker 1: who's going to college who lives in our area, and um,
Speaker 1: she's nationally ranked, like number one field hockey player in
Speaker 1: the country, and she just wants to play right. But
Speaker 1: they have the opportunity to to build a brand. And
Speaker 1: and what I told her was just be authentic. You know.
Speaker 1: I built my brand off of just being authentic, true
Speaker 1: to myself. It all happened organically. UM. But that's the
Speaker 1: best way to go because I think now you're gonna see,
Speaker 1: you know, all of these young players get any dated
Speaker 1: with so many opportunities, and it's like you can't just
Speaker 1: pick everything that comes your way. Um. And I think
Speaker 1: that that is really going to be the key, is
Speaker 1: just being smart with the decisions that they're making, um,
Speaker 1: and really dive deep and figure out what type of
Speaker 1: brand they want to be and represent. How do you
Speaker 1: think the role of an athlete changed in society during
Speaker 1: your career? And I asked that not just as we've
Speaker 1: seen athletes increasingly become investors, but also increasingly takes stands
Speaker 1: off the field for political causes. It's been huge. I've
Speaker 1: had sort of the best of both worlds and different worlds.
Speaker 1: Two thousand five to about two thousand ten, there was
Speaker 1: really no social media presence at all. You know. I
Speaker 1: just played soccer focused on that and that was it.
Speaker 1: Once two thousand ten, two thousand eleven World Cup hit, Uh,
Speaker 1: that's when I joined Twitter and social media became very prevalent.
Speaker 1: And now you have all these opportunities to build your
Speaker 1: brand and have opportunities to you know, make posts for
Speaker 1: for you know, money, and sign on with different endorsements.
Speaker 1: So I think it's just really uh, you know, a
Speaker 1: unique space to be in. Um. You know, it's not
Speaker 1: something that I would you know, recommend people just you
Speaker 1: know doing right away. I mean, I think it just
Speaker 1: you have to be really smart. You have to be
Speaker 1: diligent about it. You have to figure out what you're
Speaker 1: really passionate about and the way you want your brand
Speaker 1: to go. I think that's the most important thing. Um.
Speaker 1: You know, you don't want to just a quick hit
Speaker 1: of something just because you think you're going to earn
Speaker 1: a few bucks. Um. And I've just kind of built
Speaker 1: this brand over time. But it's been you know, it's
Speaker 1: been incredible to have the platform to be able to
Speaker 1: voice concerns about different things going on in the world
Speaker 1: on and off the field. And do you feel like
Speaker 1: you have freedom to do to say what you want
Speaker 1: without any kind of repercussions or is there always a
Speaker 1: little bit of management and balance in that. For me
Speaker 1: as a player, when I was playing, my social media
Speaker 1: portrayed motivational quotes, Uh, me playing, me training, working hard,
Speaker 1: and that's what I wanted to be about. You know,
Speaker 1: I I kind of kept my private life separate. People
Speaker 1: didn't really see a whole glimpse of, you know, what
Speaker 1: what life is like. But that was intentional. Right, Yeah,
Speaker 1: you're absolutely, absolutely, And now you know, I'm I'm sharing
Speaker 1: a little bit more. I've got some nieces I kind
Speaker 1: of post them and um, but yeah, it's if you
Speaker 1: know what I'm thinking, and we're thinking polity tix and
Speaker 1: we're thinking with the Olympics, like this has been a tricky,
Speaker 1: very tricky game, I think for athletes, and I just think,
Speaker 1: you know, you guys are our role models. Um. And
Speaker 1: I think increasingly the public fans look to all of you,
Speaker 1: and some don't want politics and sports. I think they
Speaker 1: think it's a break, but others expected. So I just
Speaker 1: wonder how you manage that. Yeah, I try to stay positive.
Speaker 1: I think that's that's the most important thing for me,
Speaker 1: is just living a very authentic, positive life, shedding light
Speaker 1: on different failures success, how hard it is to be
Speaker 1: the best at something in the world, and that's what
Speaker 1: I want my message to be. That was two time
Speaker 1: FIFA Women's World Cup Champion and two time FIFA Player
Speaker 1: of the Year Carli Lloyd. We spoke with her from
Speaker 1: the Bloomberg Power Players Summit. Still ahead on Bloomberg Business
Speaker 1: Week watching the Super Bowl in the metaverse. You ready
Speaker 1: to him, I'm ready. It's in the works, folks, It's
Speaker 1: for real. We'll find out how close we really though
Speaker 1: are to the next big breakthrough in the immerse of
Speaker 1: sports experience. We're going to talk to Peter Moore of
Speaker 1: Unity Technologies formerly Liverpool Football Club CEO. On the other side.
Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg broadcasting from the financial capital of the World,
Speaker 1: Bloomberg eleven Frio in New York to Washington, d C.
Speaker 1: Bloomberg to Boston, Bloomberg one oh six one to San Francisco,
Speaker 1: Bloomberg nine sixty to the country. Sirius XM Chado one
Speaker 1: nine team and around the globe of Bloomberg Business app
Speaker 1: and Bloomberg Radio dot com. This is Bloomberg Business Week. Well,
Speaker 1: you know, sports are increasingly crossing over into other areas.
Speaker 1: You see it gaming, betting, long form content creation and
Speaker 1: a lot more. Peter Moore first made his mark on
Speaker 1: the video game industry at Electronic Arts, Microsoft Xbox. He
Speaker 1: was at SEGA of America before a Stinness CEO of
Speaker 1: European football giant Liverpool FC. Now he's the Senior VP
Speaker 1: and General Manager of Sports and Live Entertainment at the
Speaker 1: big game engine make Unity Technologies. We caught up with
Speaker 1: Peter at last week's Bloomberg Power Players sum just before
Speaker 1: Super Bowl fifty six. Peter told us Unity is reaching
Speaker 1: beyond the gaming world and using its tools to help
Speaker 1: drye processes such as film production and even sports broadcasts.
Speaker 1: It's more than gaming. Unity who I've known for years
Speaker 1: being in the gaming business before I went off to
Speaker 1: Liverpool to do a little bit of traditional sports. UM
Speaker 1: started off life as a mobile gaming engine and it's
Speaker 1: really grown under the direction of leadership of my former
Speaker 1: bossity A John Ricktello. About six thousand people now, forty
Speaker 1: five officers, and we focus on real time three D
Speaker 1: bringing things to life. And obviously, and I'm going to
Speaker 1: use the metaverse where it is like you gotta go
Speaker 1: there is he gonna bob Cha Peck of Disney was
Speaker 1: all in on it on his earnings call this week. Well,
Speaker 1: we believe you know that the metaverse, everything's going to
Speaker 1: be in three dimensions. We're going to interact three dimensionally,
Speaker 1: either as avatars or go into environments, shopping, sporting events
Speaker 1: in three dimensionals. And so when how long does it
Speaker 1: take though to get there? We're still were still a
Speaker 1: ways away from a real time element of it, but
Speaker 1: we've been working a unity with the UFC, who have
Speaker 1: been incredible collaborators, and we've captured volumetrically to UFC Fight
Speaker 1: is here in Los Angeles a few months ago. And
Speaker 1: what this means is that not only can you watch
Speaker 1: your UFC fight, but then on your smartphone or your tablet,
Speaker 1: we will deliver to you three D imagery that you
Speaker 1: can manipulate and interact with. And you know, as a
Speaker 1: guy that remembers watching football, soccer and black and white,
Speaker 1: this feels like when color arrived and it just opened
Speaker 1: up my world. It was a completely different experience. So
Speaker 1: I understand it from a perspective of content consumption and
Speaker 1: perhaps gaming, but from a hardware perspective, what does it
Speaker 1: look like? And and who owns that space? Who wins there? Well,
Speaker 1: the hardware, it could be via obviously virtual reality. Augmented
Speaker 1: reality we think plays a role here. When we say
Speaker 1: augmented reality, you mean that is Google class back in
Speaker 1: the yea on this table. We're here right now, actually
Speaker 1: three dimensionally, the super Bowl could be played out three
Speaker 1: dimensionally in in what probably looks holographic but instead of
Speaker 1: flat imagery what augmented reality. We all played Pokemon Go.
Speaker 1: But you have this idea of things that come to
Speaker 1: life in interesting ways, typically using a smartphone or a
Speaker 1: tablet to look at them and view with them, and
Speaker 1: the unity. We're doing this not not only in gaming,
Speaker 1: but automotive design, construction, architecture, bringing the world to life,
Speaker 1: creating digital twins and and getting away from carving clay
Speaker 1: models for cars and things of that nature, which feels
Speaker 1: so archaic now and and bring that to life in
Speaker 1: sports is a big deal for us. So sports games,
Speaker 1: the super Bowl, the metaverse, that's not something unusual maybe
Speaker 1: in the future, not at all. I think at first
Speaker 1: you're going to see, for example, the food fighters have
Speaker 1: got their concert after In VR, you do need the
Speaker 1: headset um. A lot of people find VRE difficult. There's
Speaker 1: only so much you can tolerate. But ultimately, I think
Speaker 1: that's the first step in my life. I've been in
Speaker 1: video games off and on for twenty five years, and
Speaker 1: the more you need hardware, they are a little more challenge.
Speaker 1: You get is you talked about Google Glass and that
Speaker 1: that when by the wayside, is I'm getting to a
Speaker 1: plain and so you want you want to be able
Speaker 1: to interact in devices like these laptops we have in
Speaker 1: front of us without having a bespoke piece of hardware,
Speaker 1: and that's what we're working on. I think we'll watch
Speaker 1: spoarding events in in on television and we currently do.
Speaker 1: Like I'm watching Liverpool a goal is scored, I watched
Speaker 1: them yesterday, and I go to my tablet and then
Speaker 1: manipulate that imagery and what we call six degrees of freedom.
Speaker 1: I want to be in the penalty area when the
Speaker 1: shot is made. I want to be behind the goalkeeper
Speaker 1: as he makes the save. And you can do that
Speaker 1: with volumetric capture. Hey Peter for our investor audience, who
Speaker 1: are the winners here other than Unity? Of course? I mean, look,
Speaker 1: it takes it takes hardware, it takes chips. Yeah, you know,
Speaker 1: it takes manufacturing in order to bring this to life.
Speaker 1: But yeah, I mean, and look at the context of
Speaker 1: course of this question, is Facebook or Meta Platforms Inc.
Speaker 1: Investors don't think they're the winner right now? I think,
Speaker 1: you know, I go back to the dial up days
Speaker 1: of when I was at Sega. We were burning video
Speaker 1: games somehow with thirty frames per second NFL, NBA, NHL
Speaker 1: via dial up modium and that modem was running a
Speaker 1: fifty six K and and it sounds ridiculous. Somehow we
Speaker 1: got those games until your mom picked up the phone
Speaker 1: in the other room and then the disaster. You're welcome
Speaker 1: to my life because that is what happened. But the
Speaker 1: dreamcast led the way to Sega Dreamcast. What what the
Speaker 1: point I'm making is it takes a while, it takes
Speaker 1: a village. In the cases were saying real time three D.
Speaker 1: It's not just Unity, but but camera companies like Cannon
Speaker 1: and Sony need to build those volumetric capture cameras. Computing
Speaker 1: companies that delivered networks like Cisco, for example, and then
Speaker 1: the five g s, particularly in North America, desperate for
Speaker 1: this content. That was Peter Moore, Senior VP and General
Speaker 1: Manager of Sports and Live Entertainment at the publicly held
Speaker 1: Unity Technologies. You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week. Coming up next,
Speaker 1: one of our featured panel discussions from the Bloomberg Power
Speaker 1: Players Summit. What the biggest content makes are doing to
Speaker 1: attract the next generation of sports and entertainment consumers. My
Speaker 1: conversation with w w E Chief Brand Officer Steph McMahon
Speaker 1: and Marie Donohue, the VP of Global Sports Video over
Speaker 1: at Amazon. A great duo. This is Bloomberg. You're listening
Speaker 1: to Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Messer and Bloomberg Quick
Speaker 1: Takes Tim Stinovik from Bloomberg Radio. No, I'm a geriatric millennial.
Speaker 1: I'm an old millennial. I can't believe that's actually even
Speaker 1: my youngest brothers, not even a gen z here. Does
Speaker 1: it feel weird? Um? It does? Yeah, it does feel
Speaker 1: a little weird, right, because millennials with young people for
Speaker 1: all for so long. There are many of my colleagues.
Speaker 1: All right, well, we're gonna talk not really about millennials.
Speaker 1: We're gonna do buy gen zuh. They're interacting with the
Speaker 1: world much differently than millennials or geriatric millennials like tim
Speaker 1: from aren't phones to VR and streaming apps. Children ages
Speaker 1: ten to seventeen roughly likely to consume content virtually anywhere
Speaker 1: other the traditional broadcast TV. The trend has leagues and
Speaker 1: teams worried over how to win the attention of more
Speaker 1: diverse audiences and younger sports fans. Carol You hosted a
Speaker 1: panel at last week's Bloomberg Power Players Summit with two
Speaker 1: women who have some keen insight into the issue. They do.
Speaker 1: Indeed's definent man is chief brand officer over w w E,
Speaker 1: and Mari Dona Hue is the VP of Global Sports
Speaker 1: Video at Amazon. I began by asking Steph how the
Speaker 1: company her father, Vince McMahon built into a global powerhouse
Speaker 1: plans to grab future fans off the sidelines. W w
Speaker 1: E was always generational viewing. You know, you had kids
Speaker 1: that were brought into it by their parents. Everybody's sitting
Speaker 1: around the same screen, and even though we're still the
Speaker 1: most watched sport outside of the NFL. Um By for
Speaker 1: family viewing. It's diminishing so quickly. So when you're losing
Speaker 1: that when everyone has these screens and they have their
Speaker 1: own different methods of of watching, you know, whatever it
Speaker 1: is they want to dodge or whatever it is they
Speaker 1: want to play, all of the different distractions, how are
Speaker 1: you going to reach these kids? It's it's a big problem.
Speaker 1: It's I would call it a challenge. Actually the better
Speaker 1: word is opportunity. Okay, we're gonna talk about you're finding,
Speaker 1: um those opportunities where we come on in on this
Speaker 1: Amazon right aggressively moving into sports. How do you guys
Speaker 1: speak about the younger fan? So I'm going to follow
Speaker 1: up on Stephanie. It's an opportunity and we think, you know,
Speaker 1: we we it's all white space for us. So we're
Speaker 1: really excited about the opportunity. And it's you can't do
Speaker 1: it the way it's always been done. You know, kids
Speaker 1: want to watch their content when, where and how they want,
Speaker 1: So we see it as a great opportunity. We are
Speaker 1: on every single screen, every single piece of glass, and
Speaker 1: over forty countries, so we we we go at them
Speaker 1: where they are, We reach them where they are, and
Speaker 1: then we're really excited about optionality. You don't have to
Speaker 1: have the same experience Stephanie. Stephanie and I probably want
Speaker 1: to watch She's probably a better and I'm more a
Speaker 1: character driven fan, you know, I like the story or
Speaker 1: vice versus. So we believe in a lot of optionality
Speaker 1: because that's what they expect, and we also think you
Speaker 1: have to have been much more interactive. So we Amazon
Speaker 1: owns Twitch, which we've learned so much from our in
Speaker 1: our interaction with Twitch. We've been showing Thursday night football
Speaker 1: on Twitch for several years and it's a totally different experience.
Speaker 1: We literally have an interactive experience on Twitch, and folks
Speaker 1: are watching it with their favorite creator. They it's we
Speaker 1: We literally they don't necessarily go to watch just an event.
Speaker 1: They go to watch with the community that they're with
Speaker 1: all week. So it's we think it's a great opportunity
Speaker 1: and I think I think the league see it that
Speaker 1: way too. We've been talking we just did a live
Speaker 1: broadcast here at Bloomberg Radio and a lot about community
Speaker 1: and how you create these communities between fans and players.
Speaker 1: Stephanie w w E. The origins go back several decades,
Speaker 1: so how do you continue to dice and slice content
Speaker 1: and provide optionality and so that you make sure you're
Speaker 1: meeting younger fans, but also a more diverse audience. Absolutely,
Speaker 1: so our audience is actually female, and we over index
Speaker 1: for both has been especially with the women's evolution, which
Speaker 1: I can get into in a little bit UM, but
Speaker 1: we over index for African American and Hispanic viewers as well.
Speaker 1: And our talent roster is, you know, ethnically diverse. So
Speaker 1: it's a true representation, you know, and people see themselves
Speaker 1: in our product and I think that's always been the way.
Speaker 1: It's reflective of culture. That's how you stay relevant UM.
Speaker 1: And to Marie's point, you have to go where people are,
Speaker 1: where the viewers are when they're watching, how they're watching,
Speaker 1: what they want to watch. You have to create customized
Speaker 1: content for all different platforms. So for w W where
Speaker 1: platform agnostic, you know. For our television shows regularly scheduled,
Speaker 1: we have partnerships with Fox and USA Network. We produced
Speaker 1: seven hours of live content at a minimum every single week,
Speaker 1: fifty two weeks a year UM. But then we also
Speaker 1: have an a VOD strategy UM, which is our our
Speaker 1: digital and social strategy across all platforms. Were the number
Speaker 1: one sports property on YouTube. Um actually more so than
Speaker 1: any of the other sports leagues combined. UM number one
Speaker 1: sports property and TikTok um just ahead of the NBA.
Speaker 1: Because we want to be where our fans are and
Speaker 1: especially where these younger generational viewers are and on streaming.
Speaker 1: So are formerly known as pay per views are premium
Speaker 1: live events stream domestically on Peacock and ww network around
Speaker 1: the world. Is it basically Marie and steph like, if
Speaker 1: somebody calls you, it's a platform, You're like, yes, let
Speaker 1: me talk to you. Like Marie, like, do you say
Speaker 1: no to nobody or how do you kind of pick
Speaker 1: through and say here's where we need to focus our Yeah?
Speaker 1: We so we absolutely. Before we answer that question, I
Speaker 1: want to give Stephanie credit because one of my favorite
Speaker 1: events ever was one that you invited me to, which
Speaker 1: was the first all women's pay per view, which was
Speaker 1: so powerful. Is out in NASA Coliseum and literally to
Speaker 1: see these daughters with their sea whole families, but especially
Speaker 1: to see these daughters and literally see the legends in
Speaker 1: Ronda and everybody. So anyway, so she walks the walk
Speaker 1: and talks the talk. UM. So yeah, something to that
Speaker 1: because we're in an environment where a lot of people
Speaker 1: make statements, say things, but they don't actually follow through.
Speaker 1: So kudo yes, um, yeah, So no, we want to
Speaker 1: be on every piece of glass. I mean, you obviously
Speaker 1: have to prioritize your time and and figure out. We
Speaker 1: don't do a hundred alternate telecasts. We do you know,
Speaker 1: two or three right now, and we'll do more in
Speaker 1: the future. So you don't. You can't. It can't be
Speaker 1: unlimited optionality. But for every platform, we need to that's
Speaker 1: our marching orders, and we are on every platform if
Speaker 1: there's a piece I've said, you know, it's not easy
Speaker 1: to deliver millions of concurrent streams without latency issues, and
Speaker 1: we do that. We do with the Premier League, the
Speaker 1: Champions League, and I'll be in the war room and
Speaker 1: there'll be a slight issue with There'll be an issue
Speaker 1: with one platform, and you know that we're trying to
Speaker 1: work through with the engineers. And in any other company,
Speaker 1: a lot of other companies would say, well, how big
Speaker 1: is that audience? Do we need to be on that platform.
Speaker 1: That's not how Amazon thinks. We have to be on
Speaker 1: every piece of glass. So we spend our time figuring
Speaker 1: out how do we fix that glitch, how do we
Speaker 1: make sure people on that device also get great service?
Speaker 1: And it's hard because you all, you know yourselves, all
Speaker 1: these TVs out there, smart TVs. People don't replace their
Speaker 1: TVs that often, so it's hard when you're trying to
Speaker 1: serve live on all those platforms. Let's talk deals, because
Speaker 1: you guys did a big one for Peacock, right, Um,
Speaker 1: I think a billion dollars or so it's been said.
Speaker 1: It's so it's been said, Um, what did that do
Speaker 1: for you guys? Well, so WW launched the WW network
Speaker 1: are direct to consumer platform roughly eight years ago, so
Speaker 1: we were one of the first UM and we were
Speaker 1: also one of the first to realize we don't want
Speaker 1: to deal with all the technology problems, you know that
Speaker 1: that are right opportunities exactly exactly. We don't want to
Speaker 1: be competing, you know, with the Disneys of the world
Speaker 1: in terms of technology and apples and amazons, et cetera. Content, Right,
Speaker 1: we're content producers. That's what we want to focus on. UM.
Speaker 1: So in the US we did domestic our license our
Speaker 1: content domestically to Peacock, and we're we announced another partnership
Speaker 1: with Disney in Asia. UM, that we're very excited about
Speaker 1: and look for a few more deals to to to
Speaker 1: roll out, you know internationally soon. It's all good. It's
Speaker 1: all good, it's all good. Gravy. Well, speaking of content,
Speaker 1: it is about content, content, content, and UM read Amazon
Speaker 1: big deal with the NFL. I mean when that I
Speaker 1: heard about it, Dori Cross, we were all like, Wow,
Speaker 1: Amazon and the NFL. Yeah, no, it was Look, it's
Speaker 1: it's a game changer for us. It's it's it's a
Speaker 1: game changer for the industry, I think, and you know,
Speaker 1: it didn't happen overnight. We've been in business with the
Speaker 1: NFL for about five years. I think we had five
Speaker 1: years of Tricast where we shared the Thursday night game
Speaker 1: with with NFL network and a broadcast network. So we
Speaker 1: worked a lot with them, gained a lot of trust.
Speaker 1: UM Our Premier League was the first time we actually
Speaker 1: had exclusive rights for something that drove millions of concurrent viewers.
Speaker 1: And that was really important to the NFL because they
Speaker 1: saw we could do it and they weren't putting the
Speaker 1: the fan experience at risk. So UM, it was it
Speaker 1: was we we we consider ourselves, UM a key part
Speaker 1: strategic partner for them and to help them reach different audiences.
Speaker 1: We've been working with them on Twitch for years. AWS.
Speaker 1: Amazon Web Services has a huge partnership with the NFL
Speaker 1: helping behind the scenes on player health and safety and
Speaker 1: and um all sorts of behind the scenes next gen stats.
Speaker 1: So it's a big, huge Amazon partnership. But I think
Speaker 1: it's a really strategic partnership for both of us because
Speaker 1: we want to you you see where fans are going.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's not it's not your parents media anymore.
Speaker 1: So we have to innovate and engage fans differently, and
Speaker 1: so it's we're working really really closely with an a
Speaker 1: lot more in terms like I gotta ask because I'm
Speaker 1: going to talk to Jimmy Pitaro es Piano of it
Speaker 1: later on Sunday ticket which which the Sunday Tickets Sunday
Speaker 1: ticket package. Um. So we're really excited about our Thursday
Speaker 1: Night football hoping for a headline. But all of these
Speaker 1: things that you guys are talking about different platform ms content,
Speaker 1: you know, does it get to that younger fan. We
Speaker 1: have found success yes. So for example, in TikTok Um,
Speaker 1: we did an announcer contest for Summer Slam, so and
Speaker 1: we had actually tried a few different things because I
Speaker 1: think it's really important to test and learn right and
Speaker 1: and you know, the NFL wanted to make sure their
Speaker 1: fan experience was going to be just right, which is
Speaker 1: which is absolutely the right way to go. But you
Speaker 1: have to be willing to take chances, and the today's
Speaker 1: audience is willing to let you do that. That was
Speaker 1: depnic Man, the Chief Brand Officer at w w E,
Speaker 1: along with Marie Dona Hue, VP of Global Sports Video
Speaker 1: at Amazon. And that wraps up the first hour of
Speaker 1: the weekend edition of Bloomberg Business Week from Bloomberg Radio.
Speaker 1: I'm Carol mass there and I'm Jim Stanivik. Coming up
Speaker 1: in our next hour. More from the Bloomberg Power Players
Speaker 1: Summit in Beverly Hills, including a deep dive into the
Speaker 1: age of mobile sports betting with the chairman of ESPN
Speaker 1: and Sports Content at the Walt Disney Company, Jimmy Pitaro,
Speaker 1: also Brewin Sports Capital CEO George Pine. The two of
Speaker 1: them are buddies, so it's really fun to have them
Speaker 1: up on stage together. Plus Pro Football Hall of Fame
Speaker 1: or Eric Dickerson on the financial challenges facing many players
Speaker 1: once their careers are over. Tim, I gotta say whenever
Speaker 1: we're speaking with an athlete, a professional athlete in particular,
Speaker 1: especially those like in the NFL, man, you know a
Speaker 1: lot of them have a tough time financially once the
Speaker 1: game is over. It's pretty amazing to see the different
Speaker 1: directions that former pro athletes have taken after they finished
Speaker 1: their professional sports careers. Coming up next, the excitement of space.
Speaker 1: It's not just for billionaires anymore, Carol. How one company
Speaker 1: is enabling customers to float through the year without actually
Speaker 1: going into orbit or spending hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Speaker 1: You ready for this one? Yeah, I'll do it in
Speaker 1: a second. Alright, cool. Maybe it's another field. I don't
Speaker 1: know if it's a sport, though. It's not inexpensive either,
Speaker 1: It's not alright. This is Bloomberg. This is Bloomberg Business Week,
Speaker 1: inside from the reporters and editors who bring you America's
Speaker 1: most trusted business magazine, plus global business finance and tech
Speaker 1: news as it happened. Sloomberg Business Week with Carol Messer
Speaker 1: and Bloomberg Quick Takes. Tim Stinovic on Bloomberg Radio. Hi'm
Speaker 1: Carol Masser and plenty ahead in our second hour of
Speaker 1: the special weekend edition Holiday edition of Bloomberg Business Week.
Speaker 1: It's all from the Bloomberg Power Players Summit, including what
Speaker 1: the convergence of mobile, sports, betting and social media mean
Speaker 1: for the six hundred billion dollar global sports business. You
Speaker 1: talked all about that, Carol, with ESPN chairman Jimmy Pittaro
Speaker 1: and Bruins Sports Capital CEO George Pine. Plus, we spoke
Speaker 1: to NFL greadt Eric Dickerson about his new memoir, Also
Speaker 1: former Super Bowl winner Nagi Good on the mobile technology
Speaker 1: platform that he co founded. Can I already say that
Speaker 1: these are probably some of my favorite conversations for the year?
Speaker 1: All Right, I want to I'm already ready to get
Speaker 1: these guys back. You're thinking about playing football now, I
Speaker 1: don't know playing, but you know, certainly watching more of it.
Speaker 1: All right, First up this hour, we're going to talk
Speaker 1: about technology, specifically the growing market for space travel and
Speaker 1: tourism and maybe it being a sport. Right. It turns
Speaker 1: out it's not just for a professional astronauts or even
Speaker 1: Captain Kirk, it could be for all of us. We
Speaker 1: spoke with Matt Good, CEO of privately held space entertainment
Speaker 1: and tourism company Zero Gravity Corporation. He says, you don't
Speaker 1: have to spend big with the likes of Virgin Galactic
Speaker 1: or Blue Origin to find out what it's really like
Speaker 1: to be an astronaut. So none of these, with exception
Speaker 1: of flying up with Elon, is going into space. I mean,
Speaker 1: so you don't buy that. You don't think the Virgin
Speaker 1: Galactic goes into space. Well, technically neither of them are
Speaker 1: or say orbital, and there's the Carmen line, which is
Speaker 1: this you know number that they say is space. But
Speaker 1: from basis goes higher than that. He goes basically to
Speaker 1: the Carmen line. Richard goes and slightly below it. But
Speaker 1: when you wouldn't really talk about space, you're talking either suborbital,
Speaker 1: which is them and really us and some others that
Speaker 1: are developing, but they have to blast off the well
Speaker 1: you're going up on a rockets and um. But you
Speaker 1: know you've got to get out of the Earth's gravity
Speaker 1: to basically say yeah, I'm truly in space. That could
Speaker 1: really go wrong. You know, Sorry, they're still go wrong
Speaker 1: with my car trying to get here today. All right,
Speaker 1: So tell us about what you guys are doing. So
Speaker 1: what we're doing, we've been around for a while as
Speaker 1: we create the experience of being in space in zero
Speaker 1: gravity where you're floating, doing somersaults, hanging in mid air,
Speaker 1: very similar to being out in orbit or on the
Speaker 1: International Space Station. And we do it via are very
Speaker 1: highly customized Boeing seven twenty seven one same size. I
Speaker 1: went online. It's pretty cool. It's very cool. It's very unique.
Speaker 1: And we basically pitch up at about UM fifty degrees.
Speaker 1: You're feeling a little under two gs. So what that
Speaker 1: means is like your body weight is sort of pulling
Speaker 1: you down. Hasn't hurt, it's just weird. And then when
Speaker 1: you get up to the top, you're literally start floating
Speaker 1: off the off the mats and now you are in
Speaker 1: zero gravity and you have the exact and when we
Speaker 1: train astronauts, we have astronats on it. It's the same
Speaker 1: feeling as being on the I S S. What's the
Speaker 1: altitude you go to, It's not a function of altitude.
Speaker 1: It's a function of how quickly you climb and fall exactly.
Speaker 1: And again people also think it's the fall. You actually
Speaker 1: start witlessness at the top of the parabola. So by
Speaker 1: the time the planes kind of tipped over, you already
Speaker 1: back on the mats, and then we're getting ready to
Speaker 1: do it again totally acceleration and velocity. What's the demand
Speaker 1: bin for your business? Have they gone crazier too? With
Speaker 1: everybody else shooting up into space? So it was going
Speaker 1: well for us? Is there Captain Kirk effect? I think exactly, Um,
Speaker 1: you know, space has become so topical, you know, and
Speaker 1: again thinks I think to really elon, you know, with
Speaker 1: the reusable rocket, and then with with Richard Branson with
Speaker 1: Virgin and then with Jeff with what he's doing with
Speaker 1: Blue Origin. Is people are seeing space as something that's
Speaker 1: in their consciousness, and we give you more time and
Speaker 1: zero gravity than they do. You just don't get the view.
Speaker 1: You're not, you know, with them, you should be you know,
Speaker 1: planted at the window looking at the blue Earth. With us,
Speaker 1: you're basically doing somersaults and flying like Superman and and
Speaker 1: doing these things which are the uber coolest thing a
Speaker 1: person can do. I would also imagine a little cheaper
Speaker 1: than going on a trip one origin how much, so
Speaker 1: it's about two to come up with us um for
Speaker 1: about seven eight minutes of zero out at the time
Speaker 1: with Richard, it's about four fifty. And though they don't
Speaker 1: they don't have a price yet with Bezos, but I'm
Speaker 1: gonna guess it's about a million five And we've seen
Speaker 1: people pay upwards of tens of millions of dollars. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think, you know, I think the most expensive was
Speaker 1: the first one, which is the guy I think spent
Speaker 1: twenty But it's profitable. Um, we are, I'd like to
Speaker 1: say we're pro former profitable. We invest a lot in
Speaker 1: the business, but now we're you know, generating cash and growing.
Speaker 1: We're gonna take on two new planes, two more planes
Speaker 1: to build out the demands there, and the demands not
Speaker 1: just there from cool experiences but for science. So how
Speaker 1: for a business of science like what specifically, so a
Speaker 1: lot of a lot of science that's done on the
Speaker 1: plane is how do things act in microgravity or in
Speaker 1: the space so fluid transfers, how things come together? All
Speaker 1: these things and with the space stations being built now,
Speaker 1: the need for even more of that is there. And
Speaker 1: we train astronauts. The last four that went up on
Speaker 1: inspiration for training with us, the next four they are
Speaker 1: going up at the end of March with Axiom to
Speaker 1: the Space station training with US. So part of that
Speaker 1: initial feeling before you get up there is coming through
Speaker 1: us those government contracts that you're getting. Yes, so for
Speaker 1: some of the projects we are working with NASA and
Speaker 1: some of the other things we do, we definitely get
Speaker 1: government contracts. We've actually just got a fairly big one
Speaker 1: in a competitive environment to basically do a lot of
Speaker 1: super things. And and there's one thing I can't quite
Speaker 1: yet announce now that I think is the coolest um.
Speaker 1: But the other thing we're looking to do is we wait, wait, wait,
Speaker 1: wait you could I can't. Yeah, you could, but you
Speaker 1: want to go to jail UM. So the really cool
Speaker 1: thing we've actually been thinking about, and here we are
Speaker 1: at this really as a sports summit, is introducing a
Speaker 1: high gravity training program. So basically, when you're climbing like this,
Speaker 1: you're pulling two gs and the atmosphere in the plane
Speaker 1: is similar to be like like Lake Tahoe. Heard about them,
Speaker 1: you know, so the same environment as being in Lake
Speaker 1: Tahoe as far as you know pressure, and now you've
Speaker 1: got two g's. So think of doing push ups twice
Speaker 1: your body weight at Lake Tahoe. Just as an example.
Speaker 1: So instead of doing the pair um parable, isn't giving
Speaker 1: all that, We're just gonna go up, down, up, down
Speaker 1: and give you twenty five minutes of literally the highest intensity,
Speaker 1: coolest workout known to man. That's Matt god the CEO
Speaker 1: of Zero Gravity Corporation. Would you do that over doing
Speaker 1: the other stuff if money wasn't if you weren't thinking
Speaker 1: about the financial cost of going up into space like
Speaker 1: this one over Blue Origin? Yeah? No, I mean if
Speaker 1: if if I didn't have to pay for any of it,
Speaker 1: I would do Blue Origin. Okay, yeah, really go off
Speaker 1: to space, right, yeah, and looking back at Earth it's
Speaker 1: pretty cool. Yeah. I don't think i'd do a SpaceX
Speaker 1: one yet. That's like, that's that's too much, Okay, too far?
Speaker 1: Good to know. Al Right, Well, you're listening to Bloomberg
Speaker 1: Business Week. Coming up. Pro Football Hall of Famer Eric
Speaker 1: Dickerson on his hard Road to Canton, his memoir, and
Speaker 1: how players should plan for life beyond the gridiron. This
Speaker 1: is Bloomberg. This is Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Messer
Speaker 1: and Bloomberg Quick Takes. Tim Stinovik from Bloomberg Radio. Eric
Speaker 1: Dickerson played eleven NFL seasons for the l A Rams,
Speaker 1: Indianapolis Colts, l A Raiders, in Atlanta Falcons. He still
Speaker 1: holds the NFL single season rushing record that was set
Speaker 1: back in eighty four, and he was inducted into the
Speaker 1: Pro Football Hall of Fame. That was in It's all
Speaker 1: in his new book, Watch My Smoke. He joined us
Speaker 1: last weekend in Beverly Hills at the Bloomberg Power Players
Speaker 1: Summit that was ahead of the Rams Super Bowl win
Speaker 1: over the Cincinnati Bengals. Still hurt, Still hurts, all right. Well.
Speaker 1: His memoir took nearly fifteen years to complete, and it
Speaker 1: comes at a point where financial inequality continues to divide
Speaker 1: many Americans along racial line, something he came to know
Speaker 1: all too well early in life. It just came at
Speaker 1: the right time. I mean that didn't plan only coming
Speaker 1: out with all the stuff that's going on, right he
Speaker 1: just came out at the right time, and it really did.
Speaker 1: It wasn't like a plan like I won't drop it,
Speaker 1: you know at this time with everything going on, But
Speaker 1: it just kind of worked out like that. You know,
Speaker 1: I think about and I am going to go to
Speaker 1: racism and diversity and inclusion because I think about Black
Speaker 1: Wall Street. I am Florida, and I think a lot
Speaker 1: of individuals are in this country that that has not
Speaker 1: been a part of our history. And you realize you're
Speaker 1: not telling American history unless you tell it all and
Speaker 1: you tell it all accurately. And it's control, like there's
Speaker 1: been a lot of control of the narrative of so
Speaker 1: much and incorrectly. So wow, you know you say that,
Speaker 1: give me cold chill saying it because I know it's true.
Speaker 1: I mean, and because Mamma Tabe I was born, my
Speaker 1: mother was born who adopted me, was born in nineteen
Speaker 1: o four, and she telled me, Eric, you say, she's
Speaker 1: something you don't You don't know the things that I've seen.
Speaker 1: She said, I've seen things that you wouldn't even believe,
Speaker 1: you know, because she was born in that in that
Speaker 1: in that time. And she said, you know, I know
Speaker 1: the evil things that the white man does, you know.
Speaker 1: And I'm like, I was, I've never seen that. So
Speaker 1: it's like she would tell me something like I said,
Speaker 1: that can happen, but it but it really does. And
Speaker 1: and so you know, it's it's it's sad that they
Speaker 1: hide stuff. I'm like, hey, if you're gonna tell it.
Speaker 1: Tell the whole story, you know, to that point, tell
Speaker 1: the story of what you saw in the NFL and
Speaker 1: what you experienced in the NFL, or maybe even go
Speaker 1: back earlier in college. You know, I'll go back with me.
Speaker 1: And the media never kind of saw out of eye.
Speaker 1: And I just started college because you know, as a
Speaker 1: young kid coming out of Seeley, Texas two thousand people,
Speaker 1: black kid, I was a number one recruiting the whole nation.
Speaker 1: It was me, John Elway and Marino top three, and
Speaker 1: so um I went, you know, got I got. I
Speaker 1: was recruited by everyone, went to s m U and
Speaker 1: make us a long story show up. My first year,
Speaker 1: I struggled. I mean I was a kid, you know,
Speaker 1: and I from a small town, and I don't get
Speaker 1: the writer's road that they should take my scholarship because
Speaker 1: I'm a bust. You know. I was a bust. And
Speaker 1: I had my friend Craig James, the white kid. He
Speaker 1: played the biggest school, and he was doing better than
Speaker 1: I was. But I mean that's just how it was.
Speaker 1: I wouldn't I wouldn't really ready for college. And so
Speaker 1: as time went on, I just saw kind of things
Speaker 1: that they would say about me that wasn't fair, you know,
Speaker 1: And when especially when when I got to the RAMS,
Speaker 1: and and and then I got drafted, and you know,
Speaker 1: I had to some of the holdouts. And it wasn't
Speaker 1: about people think it's always about the money. The money.
Speaker 1: It wasn't about that. I just wanted to be treated fairly.
Speaker 1: That's what it really was. Good example, Elway was the
Speaker 1: first pick. I was the second pick. Always making a
Speaker 1: million dollars. I'm making a hundred fifty thousand. That's kind
Speaker 1: of that that that's wrong, and and and people that's why,
Speaker 1: that's why I'm glad I did this book because I
Speaker 1: wanted people to get to know me. Because my mother
Speaker 1: it really hurt her because I didn't like reading articles.
Speaker 1: My coach, my high school, my college coach told me, son,
Speaker 1: don't jump y'all read articles because one minute they hate you,
Speaker 1: the next minute they love you. So I never read
Speaker 1: artists articles because of that. And my mother would read it.
Speaker 1: She said, Eric, she said, this isn't your son, this
Speaker 1: isn't this is the man that the kid I raised.
Speaker 1: I know you better than this. And so that's the
Speaker 1: thing that I think that really was frustrating when you
Speaker 1: when you had no no way out. Like now the
Speaker 1: players have Instagram, Facebook, you know, they can tell their story.
Speaker 1: We had no story. I mean, the writers write it
Speaker 1: and people said, oh, it's gotta be true. It's gotta
Speaker 1: be true. A matter of fact. Just the other day,
Speaker 1: I was with a guy and he heard him talking
Speaker 1: about the player. I wanta say the player's name, And
Speaker 1: he said, oh, man, I heard he said, as he's
Speaker 1: asking my friend bombs and asks, so my lady friend,
Speaker 1: I said, I said, so, have you ever met the guy?
Speaker 1: I said? He said no. I said, so, do you
Speaker 1: know your friends? Bout your friends? He said no, I
Speaker 1: don't know. And I said, you're taking his word. He said, yeah,
Speaker 1: that's wrong. I said that, that's right. I said that.
Speaker 1: And it's a lot of that. I mean, it's a
Speaker 1: lot of that in the NFL. Look, the NFL is
Speaker 1: with the NFL is. I'll say, I'm glad I played
Speaker 1: in the national film. What does that mean? What does
Speaker 1: that mean? It's it's a big entity that you really
Speaker 1: can't you can't control it. I mean, it's it's gonna
Speaker 1: do what it does, and it does a lot of
Speaker 1: it's done a lot of good. I mean, like this.
Speaker 1: It's done a lot of good. It's done a lot
Speaker 1: of bad too, And I think the bad is it
Speaker 1: hide stuff and it doesn't come out until it's caught.
Speaker 1: It's like they have this phrase that we are we
Speaker 1: are family. We are family, and the players like, we're
Speaker 1: not no family. You know. We treat us like dogs,
Speaker 1: you know, but the players are family because we know
Speaker 1: what it's like to be out there on the field.
Speaker 1: Are are you optimistic that the NFL can get to
Speaker 1: a point where you don't feel that way about the organization.
Speaker 1: I don't think it happened in my lifetime. Just being honest,
Speaker 1: I don't. I mean, I'm to being honest about that.
Speaker 1: I had dinner with my friend Clyde Drexler, you know,
Speaker 1: NBA basketball player, And I said, claud I said, like,
Speaker 1: I said, y'all, you're in the basketball y'all. I said,
Speaker 1: I put my hand y'all even right here. He said,
Speaker 1: oh no, the basketball players up here and the owners
Speaker 1: are down there. You know. We said we control the
Speaker 1: narrative because you know different different you say, you know,
Speaker 1: our contracts are guarantee, we have a voice. We vote,
Speaker 1: weren't to hold out, we hold out and the NFL players,
Speaker 1: they they can't stick together. How much the eric is
Speaker 1: the owners also because they right, I mean, you've the NFL,
Speaker 1: but they can't necessarily they can tell the owners with
Speaker 1: you just so much, right, yeah, they they own the
Speaker 1: league on the league, I mean, And that's what a
Speaker 1: lot of players are afraid of. You'd be surprised how
Speaker 1: many guys that don't want to speak up against the
Speaker 1: NFL because they're afraid of it's a man and billionaires. Man.
Speaker 1: But you know, but you know, you know, the thing is,
Speaker 1: I gotta I gotta give the ladies credit, the women.
Speaker 1: The women are the ones who take care of our
Speaker 1: broken bodies. After all over when we have no health care,
Speaker 1: we have no we have no insurance, and the women
Speaker 1: are like stuck, like I'm stuck with this guy that
Speaker 1: he's not the same guy that I'm married. I mean,
Speaker 1: he's he's he's broken and I need some help. And
Speaker 1: I feel bad for because a lot of times, like
Speaker 1: you talked to the wives and I was like, I'm
Speaker 1: I'm with it, I want to do it, and well,
Speaker 1: I'm not sure. You know, I'm a little afraid. It's
Speaker 1: a tough game. And you think about there are a
Speaker 1: few players who go on to either be you know,
Speaker 1: comment leaders on networks or great investors and companies. But
Speaker 1: there's the bulk of the team, the players. They really
Speaker 1: have a top. They have a tough time because you know,
Speaker 1: to say that, I guess the one of the main
Speaker 1: thing is the pension is really bad and that it
Speaker 1: might be better for the current players. I'll give you
Speaker 1: a quick story. A matter of fact, this was about
Speaker 1: twelve years ago, twelve thirteen years ago, my friend Deacon
Speaker 1: Jones I went to the hospital of Business way way
Speaker 1: before he passed away, and I said that all day
Speaker 1: we talked lad and he said, Eric is which what
Speaker 1: did you what did you take your pension? I said, no,
Speaker 1: I don't take my pension yet, it's how do I think?
Speaker 1: I was forty nine in town, said thinking, I've always Eric,
Speaker 1: you any old? Yet he's I'm old. So he says,
Speaker 1: he said, I said, Deacon, so you tell you? Said yeah,
Speaker 1: he said, you know my pension is there. My pension
Speaker 1: is two hundred and fifty dollars a month. What am
Speaker 1: I gonna do with That's exactly what he said. He said,
Speaker 1: I take it because I don't want them to have it. So,
Speaker 1: I mean that is that's the struggle, you know, with
Speaker 1: with with the National Football League or the owners or whatever.
Speaker 1: It's just not it's not an evil even playing ground.
Speaker 1: That's Pro Football Hall of Fame running back Eric Dickerson.
Speaker 1: His new book. It's called Watch My Smell, The Eric
Speaker 1: Dickerson's Story and it's out now. Really true. Um, I
Speaker 1: felt like heartfelt conversation. And you know, Carol, throughout our
Speaker 1: three hour broadcast, people were lined up the entire time
Speaker 1: with copies of his book to get it signed by
Speaker 1: him and talk to him. Yeah. I mean, it was
Speaker 1: like going on for a long time. It's really cool
Speaker 1: to see. All right, still to come on Bloomberg Business Week,
Speaker 1: A former Super Bowl champion looks to cash in on
Speaker 1: the convergence of sports data and fan engagement. VB a
Speaker 1: co founder. Now g good he's with us next and later, Carol,
Speaker 1: we're gonna hear from your conversation with ESPN chairman Jimmy
Speaker 1: Pitaro and bruin Sports Capital George Pine. This is Bloomberg
Speaker 1: Broadcasting from the financial capital of the world, Bloomberg eleven
Speaker 1: Frio in New York to Washington, d C. Bloomberg to Boston,
Speaker 1: Bloomberg one oh six one to San Francisco, Bloomberg nine
Speaker 1: sixty to the country Sirius XM Chado one nine team,
Speaker 1: and around the globe the Bloomberg Business app and Bloomberg
Speaker 1: Radio dot Com. This is Bloomberg Business Week data playing
Speaker 1: an increasingly bigger role in how sports content is being
Speaker 1: delivered today, giving fans a much more customized experience. To
Speaker 1: learn more about the business opportunities for athletes in this space,
Speaker 1: we turned to Nagy Good. He's a former NFL linebacker
Speaker 1: for the Buccaneers, the Eagles, Cults, and Jaguars. He won
Speaker 1: a Super Bowl ring playing for Philly, which he actually
Speaker 1: let me hold. I never saw you so excited. Nagi
Speaker 1: is also co founder and chief of Fan Engagement at VPO.
Speaker 1: It's a social monetization platform for brands and advertisers to
Speaker 1: connect with. He brought us up to speed on the
Speaker 1: venture at last week's Power Players Summit. Right now, we
Speaker 1: have initiative to establish ownership of data and empowerment of
Speaker 1: data through campaigns, through sponsorships, through traditional forms of media
Speaker 1: and advertisement. With our new technology capability, I feel like
Speaker 1: ownership of data that is like the big Cahuna. I
Speaker 1: feel like in the world, right, because there's so much
Speaker 1: out there, how do you do that? Because there's the
Speaker 1: I mean, you're going to have to pull from other sources, right, Yeah,
Speaker 1: well not necessarily are are to. Which is nice is
Speaker 1: that we are additive. It's why the Eagles joined them
Speaker 1: with this Jeffrey ar equity owner and we partner with
Speaker 1: a few teams because what we do is all additive.
Speaker 1: We take with the fans and the users like to
Speaker 1: see and we show them more and in the ownership
Speaker 1: of data and the sponsors participating with marketing marketing, influencers
Speaker 1: and influencer marketing. But the players, we give them them
Speaker 1: the ability to see that data. So you have our tool,
Speaker 1: you able to see that data, You able to see
Speaker 1: those interactions, and it empowers the player to put out
Speaker 1: better content with the team and then strategically aligns every organization.
Speaker 1: What's the problem that the VPO saw that needed to
Speaker 1: be solved. What was the white space there that hadn't
Speaker 1: been filled yet? Yeah, So Jonathan America and nine Grant,
Speaker 1: our partners, we saw a space in sports to where
Speaker 1: athletes were put on this platform to speak out and
Speaker 1: to engage with people, but they didn't understand what they
Speaker 1: were doing. They didn't understand the reach of that. Which platform,
Speaker 1: social media, any platform. We're talking Instagram, we're talking Twitter, yes,
Speaker 1: book and talking to any platform no playbook. I mean
Speaker 1: we even talked about that, Like we do a lot
Speaker 1: of stuff, but it's like you're always trying to find out,
Speaker 1: like what's the most productive way to do it exactly.
Speaker 1: And the one thing that we see on platform the
Speaker 1: platform with especially like what HBC used the resources of
Speaker 1: things they need um in the sports in general, where
Speaker 1: we saw VP of solving a big problem was we
Speaker 1: connect every user to every entity and monetize all the
Speaker 1: possible futures that what they do in digital sports and media.
Speaker 1: So would it help an athlete understand Okay, well if
Speaker 1: they post this on TikTok, it has a reach like
Speaker 1: this and monetization possibility like this versus Instagram versus you know, Twitter.
Speaker 1: So the best thing about our technology is that you
Speaker 1: can see it on every platform. So we integrated right
Speaker 1: now with team Overlaps and we're integrated with sports leagues
Speaker 1: where everyone are the mobile apps playing ball with you.
Speaker 1: They're trying to because you know, because you know their
Speaker 1: data is their data, and that's so valuable to them,
Speaker 1: So they want to choose what they actually hold on
Speaker 1: to and what they actually show yes, and this is why,
Speaker 1: this is why VPO has been at it, because not
Speaker 1: only do they see that, but they also see additional
Speaker 1: data of when a user, a fan interacts specifically with
Speaker 1: an influencer. So very important, you know right now, especially
Speaker 1: with the women's sports and the actual accountability of what
Speaker 1: what athletes are doing in social media. Um. The cool
Speaker 1: thing about what we can do is that we can
Speaker 1: actually monetize and we can pull in those fans that
Speaker 1: they engage with, you know, whether it's the one person
Speaker 1: from your hometown or if it's a million fans around
Speaker 1: the world. What's been the growth of the platform? Oh,
Speaker 1: the growth of the platform has been huge. Um, We've
Speaker 1: grown the fan base and audience and the engagement of
Speaker 1: the audience and the the Jaguars are actually number one
Speaker 1: most time spent on site with our technology capabilities because
Speaker 1: we were able to link every fan, every draft pick.
Speaker 1: We were able to link the new era hats that
Speaker 1: they had and the story of the player. How many
Speaker 1: guys have you come into the league. You don't know
Speaker 1: the stories of the players. We're able to link their
Speaker 1: personal stories via Twitter, via Instagram to that direct photo
Speaker 1: or video. So why are you looking at that player?
Speaker 1: Get to find out more information about what he's about,
Speaker 1: what he stands for. My cleats my Cause is a
Speaker 1: big initiative that we want to get into this year
Speaker 1: with having the ability to directly link from team content
Speaker 1: to auction off cleeks for causes charities Loopus, breast cancer awareness,
Speaker 1: stuff like that. And then for the initiative for HBC
Speaker 1: use um, we see the gap that you know has
Speaker 1: been you know forwarded to the opportunities that haven't been
Speaker 1: forwarded to him, and the resources that can be there.
Speaker 1: And by giving the HBC user really leg up in
Speaker 1: the African American community, we can give them the opportunity
Speaker 1: to ownership data. Talk to us about that. I do
Speaker 1: feel like with with Brian flores Is lawsuit and stuff,
Speaker 1: we're just talking about a lot of people coming out
Speaker 1: and talking about the lack of diversity within the NFL,
Speaker 1: specifically UM racism. What's been your experience and what are
Speaker 1: your thoughts on this? So my personal experience, I am legacy,
Speaker 1: So I've had the privilege of understanding the game. From
Speaker 1: my father's standpoint of view. Um, he was an Eagle
Speaker 1: as well, so it was pretty cool to be in
Speaker 1: that same environment. And UM, I think the game does
Speaker 1: need to be more diverse. I'm from the standpoint of
Speaker 1: you know, we're all of family. The locker room is
Speaker 1: one of the most diverse things that We've always had
Speaker 1: exceptional conversations no matter where they are. I mean, there's
Speaker 1: guys on my team I play with, you know, America's Altamas.
Speaker 1: I played with White plat Um, you know. And the
Speaker 1: fact that that diversity needs to be seen more. It
Speaker 1: can be seen more at a coaching at a front
Speaker 1: office level. That's former Super Bowl winning linebacker with the
Speaker 1: Philadelphia Eagles, Nagy Good. He's also the co founder in
Speaker 1: chief of fan Engagement at VPO. You're listening to Bloomberg
Speaker 1: Business Week. Up next, ESPN Boss Jimmy Pitaro and Bruined
Speaker 1: Sports Capitals George Pine on social media and sports betting
Speaker 1: for bringing in a new audience. This is Bloomberg. You're
Speaker 1: listening to Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Messer and Bloomberg
Speaker 1: Quick Takes Tim Stinovik from Bloomberg Radio Meeting the fans
Speaker 1: where they are well. That was the theme of a
Speaker 1: palel I hosted it last weekend's Bloomberg Power Players Summit,
Speaker 1: held them Beverly, was just ahead of Super Bowl fifty
Speaker 1: six and Carol. Increasingly, where those fans are is while
Speaker 1: it's on social media. It's the key conduit for many
Speaker 1: major media outlets to draw younger viewers and then of
Speaker 1: course keep them engaged. Another factor though, that's helping with
Speaker 1: that mobile sports betting, so many platforms, fans engaging with
Speaker 1: sports in so many different ways. And that's essentially what
Speaker 1: we heard from Jimmy Pitaro, chairman of ESPN and Sports
Speaker 1: content at the Walt Disney Company, and George Pine, founder
Speaker 1: and CEO Brewing Capital, when asked how social media and
Speaker 1: gambling are impacting traditional sports viewership. This is just one
Speaker 1: little anecdote. I was speaking at a conference UH sales
Speaker 1: conference and we're having this exact discussion, and afterwards, an
Speaker 1: executive came up to me and said, I just want
Speaker 1: you to know I have I have two teenagers and
Speaker 1: they were both introduced to ESPN on Snap and now
Speaker 1: they're watching first Take and get up on traditional television.
Speaker 1: So for me, that's the strategy. You know, we of
Speaker 1: course want to be there and will continue to be
Speaker 1: there on those platforms, but it's a way to grow awareness,
Speaker 1: it's a way to grow affinity and and and get
Speaker 1: this younger generation just generally excited about ESPN. And you
Speaker 1: know the other thing that's interesting now is gambling. Well,
Speaker 1: that's sports, right. I mean, we have a company called
Speaker 1: odds Checker that it's kind of a kayak for betting
Speaker 1: in the UK. We're bringing it to America. And in
Speaker 1: the first three days of New York being live, we
Speaker 1: did of the budget revenue for the year, so obviously
Speaker 1: we budgeted it too low. But the gambling is sticky
Speaker 1: as well. So when you think about gambling, social media,
Speaker 1: digital media, understanding what people want, you know, the world's
Speaker 1: world's changing around us. Has gambling turn into somebody who
Speaker 1: ultimately goes to ESPN? Does it work? I mean, well, look,
Speaker 1: so here's wrong. We're in it. We are in the space.
Speaker 1: We've been in the space for for several years. Disney
Speaker 1: actually said this week he's bullish on sports, including betting.
Speaker 1: He is bullish on both. Um. I will tell you
Speaker 1: we've been in the space. We have content, we have
Speaker 1: dedicated segments on Sports Center. Scott Van Pelt has has
Speaker 1: his Sports Center where does a segment called Bad Beats.
Speaker 1: We have dedicated podcast, we have a dedicated area on
Speaker 1: ESPN dot com. We have an ESPN branded studio in
Speaker 1: Vegas on this strip um that generates betting specific programming
Speaker 1: on on a regular basis. We've done the research, and
Speaker 1: of course we were treading carefully here over the past
Speaker 1: few years, still investing, but but really looking closely at
Speaker 1: the data. And what we saw is that Number One,
Speaker 1: our fans are no longer just okay with it. They're
Speaker 1: demanding it. They expect ESPN to be offering this betting
Speaker 1: experience within our environment. Number Two, and this is really interesting,
Speaker 1: we didn't see any negative impact on the Disney brand.
Speaker 1: I mean, for those of you that don't know, the
Speaker 1: Walt Disney Company owns ESPN, So we've wanted to be
Speaker 1: careful in that regard to and what we're seeing was
Speaker 1: it was neutral or positive even on the Disney brand.
Speaker 1: So because I think people thought family brand, how could
Speaker 1: you get into betting? Well, you see, you see all
Speaker 1: the leagues now, in all the major leagues. In fact,
Speaker 1: you're in nineteen times more likely to watch a sporting
Speaker 1: event if you make a bet. So if I'm a
Speaker 1: broadcaster sports, how can I not do it? Like if
Speaker 1: they don't do it, everybody else will. They'll be at
Speaker 1: a disadvantage. ESPN really doesn't. I can say no, no,
Speaker 1: you don't have a choice. They have to They have,
Speaker 1: like he said, he has to be where the fans are,
Speaker 1: and he has to give the fans what they want. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we're in a battle. We're in a battle for people's time.
Speaker 1: Were and we're not just competing against the traditional sports
Speaker 1: media companies. We all know this. We're competing against Instagram
Speaker 1: and Snap and Fortnite and Netflix, and so we have
Speaker 1: to be aggressive here. Now that being said, my job
Speaker 1: is to protect the brand at all costs. And if
Speaker 1: I saw any data that that that indicated to me
Speaker 1: that that this was a dangerous position to be taking,
Speaker 1: we wouldn't do it. Even if there was financial upside,
Speaker 1: we wouldn't. We wouldn't do it. I have to protect
Speaker 1: the brand, but we're not. We're just not seeing that
Speaker 1: any worries about the integrity of sports in general, especially
Speaker 1: as we know it's teams getting in right, the league's
Speaker 1: getting in I mean, everybody is really kind of all
Speaker 1: in when it comes to betting and gambling. Well, you know,
Speaker 1: around the world they've been doing it for a long
Speaker 1: time without really any issue. I mean, there's always an
Speaker 1: initiative integrity, but I would argue you had that whether
Speaker 1: it was legal or illegal. I mean, one of the
Speaker 1: things we're finding is that legal bettings way up you'd
Speaker 1: make sense. I'd rather make a legal bet than an
Speaker 1: illegal bet, right, So if I don't have the choice
Speaker 1: to make a legal bet, it's probably better. But no,
Speaker 1: we I don't. I don't think there's any evidence that
Speaker 1: it's been a real issue. I mean in Europe they've
Speaker 1: been betting for quite a long time. Yeah, And look,
Speaker 1: one of the somewhat connected to that. One of the
Speaker 1: things that we bring to the table, I think is
Speaker 1: is our brand, which represents trust, a certain level of credibility.
Speaker 1: So anyway we see opportunity here, but of course we're
Speaker 1: going to do it responsibly, right and just try carefully
Speaker 1: and slowly. One of the things you see the leaves,
Speaker 1: which I think is really smart to that point, is
Speaker 1: talking about doing advertising the NFL about responsible gaming. I
Speaker 1: think that's one of the learnings that wasn't done well
Speaker 1: around the world, and you see some of the countries
Speaker 1: of increasing regulation, and I think the leagues here in
Speaker 1: the US they're trying to get ahead of it by
Speaker 1: initially bring up do this responsibly right, because there is
Speaker 1: the concern of that. Well, Odds Checker your company, I mean,
Speaker 1: how much have you seen in terms of the growth
Speaker 1: of your brand. Well, it's certainly we just thought it.
Speaker 1: But what we are seeing in the US is amazing.
Speaker 1: I mean, I expect this weekend to be incredible. Um,
Speaker 1: and like I said, the opening of new markets that
Speaker 1: you know, you can only bet right now in thirty states,
Speaker 1: so this twenty states left to go, and it's it's movement.
Speaker 1: It's more than we thought it would be. I think
Speaker 1: the net is gambling is bigger than everybody thought, and
Speaker 1: it's moving faster. I think it's just moving a lot
Speaker 1: faster than I thought. When when when wet into it
Speaker 1: and look, just to use a sports cliche, it's it's
Speaker 1: the first in a right. So today, um, you're you're
Speaker 1: going to a dedicated sports app not not too distant future,
Speaker 1: you're going to be consuming media in a digital environment
Speaker 1: and you're going to be able to place a bet
Speaker 1: right there around the game. Now, obviously you have to
Speaker 1: do that in partnership with the LEAs you know, what's
Speaker 1: probably most important ESPN is our live rights portfolio and
Speaker 1: our relationship with the league. So whatever we do would
Speaker 1: be would be in lockstep with them. But there's so
Speaker 1: much opportunity from a product perspective to it, to uh
Speaker 1: advance this whole ecosystem. Well, you know, and negasm one
Speaker 1: is part of the content. How much though, is that
Speaker 1: you talked about the NFL relationship. I had Marie Donahue
Speaker 1: up here, you know, Amazon, you know, aggressively moving into
Speaker 1: the NFL. UM. I feel like it's the holy grail
Speaker 1: in many ways, UM content content you guys do long
Speaker 1: form like talk about the Last Dance during the pandemic. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I know, you guys rushed it to some extent right
Speaker 1: to get it. We accelerated it. But but yes, it
Speaker 1: was not it was not meant to be launched in
Speaker 1: April of UM. We were several months away, but we
Speaker 1: felt like the world was craving new content and we
Speaker 1: were getting there. So yes, the director moved heaven and Earth,
Speaker 1: uh and and and got it out for us. And
Speaker 1: it's we couldn't be. We're proud of that. It is
Speaker 1: that that series is consistent with our strategy in terms
Speaker 1: of ESPN films and thirty for thirty, which is bigger, bolder,
Speaker 1: more impactful projects. So we have something coming out with
Speaker 1: their Jeter called The Captain. We have something coming out
Speaker 1: with Colin Kaepernick, are right, Yeah, Spike Lee. We just
Speaker 1: brought on Spike lead to Directed. These are these are
Speaker 1: needo moving projects and it does in terms of your
Speaker 1: fan base. Oh yeah, people, and and and and by
Speaker 1: the way, uh Man in the Arena and The Captain,
Speaker 1: the Jeter documentary are are exclusively on the ESPN Plus platform.
Speaker 1: So you know, when you look at our priorities, not
Speaker 1: just at the Walt Disney Company, but at ESPN, we
Speaker 1: usually lead with director consumer and that means we need
Speaker 1: a fresh, impactful content for that platform. So, George, when
Speaker 1: you think about investments and stuff, as you said, you know,
Speaker 1: you're looking at the media space, but it's technology. You're
Speaker 1: pulling in a lot of different things. You know, what
Speaker 1: are the interesting trends and innovation that you think are
Speaker 1: going on. You know, we're talking about about metaverse and
Speaker 1: we're trying to figure it out. But what is it
Speaker 1: that we're we're scarely focused on is the data, like
Speaker 1: understanding the consumer? Uh like we we do. We run
Speaker 1: O T T s around the world. We operate in
Speaker 1: twenty countries and I know on the O T T
Speaker 1: we know at what price somebody will buy something. We
Speaker 1: know what ads move them. And so you know, take
Speaker 1: sports content today, a lot of leagues sell sports content
Speaker 1: as a package that I was talking without gym last say,
Speaker 1: It's gonna be different down the road. You're gonna be
Speaker 1: selling all different services. You're gonna merchandise, all kinds of experiences.
Speaker 1: The idea that right now I only sell a subscription
Speaker 1: for content and I'm not building that relationship with the consumer.
Speaker 1: That's the future. And when you look at sports leagues,
Speaker 1: they don't really think enough about the lifetime value of
Speaker 1: a customer. So as as the distributions channels change, and
Speaker 1: you know, look, the cable model for leagues is quite profitable,
Speaker 1: right so that the sports depends on that. That that
Speaker 1: probably is going to erode a little bit more as
Speaker 1: time goes on. But what will open up is the
Speaker 1: relationship with the consumer and looking at things as the
Speaker 1: lifetime value of the consumer, not just selling somebody's season
Speaker 1: tickets and nothing else, or selling them live game content
Speaker 1: and nothing else. It's going to be those people that
Speaker 1: can develop a whole holistic relationship with a consumer. And
Speaker 1: I see it like because the companies we owned were
Speaker 1: on the forefront of it, and so I knows, Jimmy,
Speaker 1: you gotta have great technology, but at the end of
Speaker 1: the day, it's marketing. It's that's going to be the
Speaker 1: differentiator I think between people that do well and people
Speaker 1: that don't do as well. How do you think about
Speaker 1: it in terms of the technology space and pulling it
Speaker 1: in and and just innovation in general. UM, you've got
Speaker 1: to be thinking about down the road of how the
Speaker 1: fan wants to interact with you. We've been successful in fantasy.
Speaker 1: Actually before I was at Disney, I worked at Yahoo.
Speaker 1: We were very invested in in fantasy. So there there
Speaker 1: are some examples of that lean forward experience, UM that
Speaker 1: have been around for some time, but for the most
Speaker 1: part today when you look at the ESPN fan base,
Speaker 1: it is a lean back experience. That was Jimmy Pittaro,
Speaker 1: chairman of ESPN and Sports Content at Walt Disney, and
Speaker 1: George Pine, founder and CEO of Bruined Capital. They joined you,
Speaker 1: Carol at the Bloomberg Power Player's Summit, and that wraps
Speaker 1: up the weekend edition of Bloomberg Business Week from Bloomberg Radio.
Speaker 1: Essentially game over. Thanks so much for joining us. We're
Speaker 1: not in Beverly Hills anymore, right, See what I did there? Yeah?
Speaker 1: I know, We're definitely not, and I'm Tim Stenevik. Be
Speaker 1: sure to tune into Bloomberg Business Week Monday through Friday.
Speaker 1: It starts at two at Wall Street time on Bloomberg Radio.
Speaker 1: You can also watch our daily broadcast on YouTube. Join
Speaker 1: us just search Bloomberg Global News. Also check out our
Speaker 1: Bloomberg Business Week podcast. You can find it at Bloomberg
Speaker 1: dot com, Apple, or wherever you get your podcast. Bloomberg
Speaker 1: Business Week is available on newsstands now, at Bloomberg dot
Speaker 1: com and on the Bloomberg Terminal. You can also see
Speaker 1: me on Bloomberg quick Take. It's available on Bloomberg dot com,
Speaker 1: slash qt, and streaming platforms like Roku, Apple TV, Samsung TV,
Speaker 1: and more. Have a great weekend. Favorite moment that's super
Speaker 1: Bowl ring. Yeah that was probably it, just meeting all
Speaker 1: these folks. I mean, this was so cool. It was incredible.
Speaker 1: It was like it was like pre pandemic exactly. And
Speaker 1: if you missed it, the conversations find them in their entirety.
Speaker 1: As we mentioned online, this is Bloomberg. Mmmmmm