Speaker 1: Welcome to the Bloomberg Surveillance Podcast. I'm Tom Keane Jay Ley.
Speaker 1: We bring you insight from the best in economics, finance, investment,
Speaker 1: and international relations. Find Bloomberg Surveillance on Apple Podcasts, SoundCloud,
Speaker 1: Bloomberg dot Com, and of course on the Bloomberg. We're
Speaker 1: gonna jump right into it. Richard Greenfield one of the
Speaker 1: most courageous securities analysts out there because pilloried years ago
Speaker 1: on a thing called advantage guy named Walter Pisk who
Speaker 1: told me to buy Apple years ago. I didn't. I'm
Speaker 1: not allowed to buy anything. But anyways, the two of
Speaker 1: them together are very powerful. Paul, let's dump jump into
Speaker 1: the conversation. We gotta go really with the topic of
Speaker 1: the moment, which is his five G thing in Whahwei. Yeah,
Speaker 1: there's just a tremendous amount going on here as we
Speaker 1: think about on the telecom space globally, Walter, let's start
Speaker 1: with that. You know, we think about the Huahwei news.
Speaker 1: It's in them, it's right in the top topic right
Speaker 1: here in the news this week. But it really ties
Speaker 1: into the biggest deal in your space, or one of
Speaker 1: the biggest deals in your space, Sprint t Mobile. What's
Speaker 1: the latest there, and how's it all tight in it?
Speaker 1: Really does? I mean, there's there's a tremendous focus on
Speaker 1: this race to five G and and beating China and
Speaker 1: being the first to have our country our companies excel there,
Speaker 1: and you know, pushing back on Huawei is part of that.
Speaker 1: It's also part of the trade war. But I think
Speaker 1: it's you know, I think was as has been mentioned
Speaker 1: over the past twenty four hours, but you know, Sprint
Speaker 1: TEA Mobile, is it transaction that is getting pitched in
Speaker 1: part on you know, even if it raises prices, does
Speaker 1: T Mobile get enough spectrum to accelerate five G? And Again,
Speaker 1: if this is a political agenda um for the administration,
Speaker 1: that could be something that that supersedes how the d
Speaker 1: o J typically looks at transactions, which should be really
Speaker 1: on whether it raises prices for customers or not. So,
Speaker 1: I mean, when we think about the five this race
Speaker 1: to five G on a global basis, in your perspective,
Speaker 1: is it really the US versus China? I mean, I
Speaker 1: think it's that's the primary focus. Right. You've got a
Speaker 1: number of vendors there, their ability to move fast on
Speaker 1: deploying UM technologies in their country. UM, So that that's
Speaker 1: definitely been the focus on the administration. UM. You know,
Speaker 1: being first is clearly important UM and starts to develop,
Speaker 1: you know, who can have leading market shairs. But look,
Speaker 1: at the end of the day, we're effectively shutting down Huawei.
Speaker 1: That's going to provide an opportunity for other companies to
Speaker 1: to excel on the at least on the infrastructure side.
Speaker 1: I mean, rich, I was the last one to get
Speaker 1: an iPhone. I was the last one to get the
Speaker 1: iPod thing before it as well. Is your content world
Speaker 1: going to catch up with Walter's five G world? I
Speaker 1: mean is it? Are we going to consume in five
Speaker 1: years with five G like we consume now? Well, look,
Speaker 1: I think the one of the big questions we have
Speaker 1: right is you know what you're seeing is TV is
Speaker 1: shifting to the Internet. You know, it used to be.
Speaker 1: I think we were often looked at as a heretic
Speaker 1: talking about our good Luck bundle hashtag four five years ago.
Speaker 1: No one's calling us a heretic anymore. I mean now
Speaker 1: it's just a question of how fast is the traditional
Speaker 1: linear TV world melting down? Cord cuttings at record levels.
Speaker 1: You're seeing essentially every major media company kind of if
Speaker 1: you look at the legacy media companies, they just went
Speaker 1: through their big TV advertising upfront where they show up
Speaker 1: all their new shows for the coming year, and they
Speaker 1: actually spent more time only the beginning of every single presentation,
Speaker 1: Tom was talking about their streaming plans, Warner Media starting one,
Speaker 1: NBC starting one, Disney's talking about owning a percent of Hulu.
Speaker 1: Now at the beginning of their presentation, I mean, it
Speaker 1: was all about the Internet, and so once you shift
Speaker 1: TV to the Internet, five G flows perfectly. And in fact,
Speaker 1: I think one of the most interesting things that no
Speaker 1: one's talking about right now is what Verizon is planning
Speaker 1: on doing. What So Verizon signed a deal when they
Speaker 1: reported earnings, they came out with the press release that
Speaker 1: they are expanding their partnership with YouTube TV. So you
Speaker 1: take a best in class over the top cable service
Speaker 1: and you combine it with Verizon. Now they're not just
Speaker 1: packaging with five G. They're planning on selling it. Instead
Speaker 1: of selling FiOS TV, they want to sell YouTube TV
Speaker 1: and they haven't started the marketing for that. But you know,
Speaker 1: you asked the question of how they're going to take
Speaker 1: advantage of what five G can do. And I think
Speaker 1: that's a great example of you know, the actual quality
Speaker 1: of the experience of combining what YouTube and Google have
Speaker 1: done with YouTube TV with these better networks is really
Speaker 1: interesting to us. So one of the things as I
Speaker 1: think about having YouTube guys in the studio together, I
Speaker 1: think about the A. T and T Time Warner deal.
Speaker 1: But you know, Tom, these are the big A T. T.
Speaker 1: One of the biggest names in Walter Space and Time Warner.
Speaker 1: You know, the Legacy Media, a company that Richard and
Speaker 1: I've covered for a long time. Putting those two companies together, Walter,
Speaker 1: from your perspective, was that a good deal for A
Speaker 1: T and T. Part of it for A T and
Speaker 1: T is that could becoming this massive conglomerate and its diversification,
Speaker 1: and they're figuring out ways to to continue to fund
Speaker 1: dividend grow, which is what their investors care about the most.
Speaker 1: So if they can create a five G studio like
Speaker 1: I guess for eisen has and and figure out ways
Speaker 1: to mix the technology with the content, I guess they're synergy.
Speaker 1: Come on, T and T has done eight point one
Speaker 1: percent per year for the last ten years. Rich Greenfield,
Speaker 1: that's a failure right, I mean, is a T and
Speaker 1: D ready for a moonshot? I don't think so. Look,
Speaker 1: I call it the many ways. I look at the
Speaker 1: whole space and call this the March of the Penguins.
Speaker 1: You probably remember the beginning of the movie Tom where
Speaker 1: all of the penguins are huddling the Emperor Penguins. It's
Speaker 1: freezing cold, winter's coming and they huddled together for survival.
Speaker 1: None of the media companies are doing anything interesting. I
Speaker 1: mean A T and T buying Time, Warner, Discovery merging
Speaker 1: with Scripts, Disney buying Fox Via commerging with CBS. These
Speaker 1: are the most unexciting transformative transactions. We got a minute
Speaker 1: here and then we're gonna come back. And as I
Speaker 1: get things to talk about Walter Pi, if the creative
Speaker 1: people walk out the door, these companies change, don't they do.
Speaker 1: There's this existing amount of library, and there's these Look,
Speaker 1: the direct TV customers are fleeing every quarter, but there
Speaker 1: is some residual free cash flow that helps them to
Speaker 1: fund the dividend. But yeah, I mean, look, it's important.
Speaker 1: Rich would know far more about that than I do.
Speaker 1: Um Game of Thrones is over. You know what happens
Speaker 1: with HBO what happens with HBO. Look, but look, you know, Tom,
Speaker 1: I would say that you know, at the end of
Speaker 1: the day, UM content is about spending money, right, I mean,
Speaker 1: you've got to spend a lot of money. You've got
Speaker 1: to really invest in it. I think it's way too
Speaker 1: early to tell how much A T and T is
Speaker 1: going to invest in businesses like HBO. We haven't even
Speaker 1: seen their new kind of Warner Media whether they're gondn't
Speaker 1: call it HBO Max. But we haven't even seen this yet,
Speaker 1: so it's still pretty early than Yes, there's been a
Speaker 1: lot of change. People are definitely nervous, both internally and externally,
Speaker 1: but we'll see what they actually put up on the screen.
Speaker 1: This is a joy. Rich Greenfield Walter with us will
Speaker 1: continue this discussion Falsephenian time can thrilled on media jab
Speaker 1: where us Walter pri secon Yes, we'll get to Apple
Speaker 1: had a couple of emails. We will get to Apple
Speaker 1: with Mr Pick as we can. He dragged along our
Speaker 1: green Field where this is Rich give us a story
Speaker 1: quickly of the vantage I p o. I want to
Speaker 1: go back, Tom, that's too far ago. I can't even
Speaker 1: you know, I'm too old. My memory doesn't go back
Speaker 1: really important about the courage of securities analysts and that
Speaker 1: you have an opinion and the company gets angry, what
Speaker 1: do you do? Look, I mean, you know, take a
Speaker 1: great example of Disney. I mean, they didn't like our
Speaker 1: celerating for three years. Um, you know, the stock ons
Speaker 1: are performed. I mean the only real movement in the
Speaker 1: stock has been in the last sort of eight weeks
Speaker 1: where it had a big bump, but it was basically
Speaker 1: flat for three years straight, flat to down. Where are
Speaker 1: you buy old Cell and Disney right now? Now Now we're
Speaker 1: at neutral and we're just waiting. I think, you know,
Speaker 1: the good news for dis Me is they've set really
Speaker 1: ambitious goals. The bad news is, uh, the cable ecosystem
Speaker 1: is coming unhinged, chord creditings accelerating. But look, the the
Speaker 1: issue answer your question, very bluntly, is they don't let
Speaker 1: us into analyst meetings, they don't let us call them,
Speaker 1: they don't respond to emails. It's disappointing behavior from a
Speaker 1: big public company. But the reality is we don't need
Speaker 1: them to do our job, and we're gonna unfortunately, Tom,
Speaker 1: I mean, it's it happens more than you would think.
Speaker 1: But what you and I should have done aboutour or
Speaker 1: five years ago. Tom has just listened to this guy
Speaker 1: Rich and just gone basically, I'm gonna paraphrase here, long
Speaker 1: Netflix and just short the rest of media. And that's
Speaker 1: kind of where Rich has been, and it's kind of
Speaker 1: where the stocks have traded. But so Rich specifically on
Speaker 1: Disney here, you know the way I kind of look
Speaker 1: at it. If anybody can compete against the Netflix or
Speaker 1: the Amazons or maybe even the Apples and the facebooks,
Speaker 1: it's gotta be Disney. I'm not sure if they can
Speaker 1: do it, But do you think they have what it
Speaker 1: takes to make this pivot to where the world is going? Look,
Speaker 1: they absolutely have the content to do it and the
Speaker 1: creative resources to do it. The question is is do
Speaker 1: they really want to quote unquote win and And by
Speaker 1: meaning by that, I mean they have to spend aggressively.
Speaker 1: You know, you can't just go in and and dabble
Speaker 1: in streaming. You have to literally put all of your
Speaker 1: focus on making this work. And the challenges is you know,
Speaker 1: Avengers is amazing, right, I Mean, Walt loved Endgame. He
Speaker 1: sat through the whole three hours with his family. He's
Speaker 1: a super Marvel fan. I mean, there's no doubt about it.
Speaker 1: So did you know they sold two billion dollars worth
Speaker 1: of tickets worldwide? So figure let's just say ten dollars
Speaker 1: a ticket. Two hundred million people bought tickets, and Disney
Speaker 1: knows the names of literally none of them. They don't
Speaker 1: know that Walt and his family love Marvel and Avengers.
Speaker 1: So part of the problem is Disney still sticking with
Speaker 1: movie theaters, home video DVD iTunes. They're not shifting to
Speaker 1: a model where if you want to watch Avengers, the
Speaker 1: only place to watch it is on Disney. Plus, that's
Speaker 1: just too disruptive for them, And so I think the
Speaker 1: question is how aggressive is Disney in shifting their business
Speaker 1: model to make the streaming service a winner? Because they
Speaker 1: can win. It's a matter of how disruptive, you know,
Speaker 1: disrupting yourself. You go back to Apple and Steve Jobs,
Speaker 1: and disrupting yourself is really hard culturally to do, and
Speaker 1: media companies generally management teams are not incentivized to blow
Speaker 1: up their legacy business models to build for the future.
Speaker 1: And I think that that is a real inhibitor of
Speaker 1: winning in streaming. So so Walter, let's let's pivot to
Speaker 1: Apple here, because, as Richards is saying, it's hard to
Speaker 1: change your core business model. For Apple, it's been that,
Speaker 1: let's the unit sales of iPhones has kind of been
Speaker 1: the story for to the last decade or so. You
Speaker 1: can throw on iPads if you want, you can throw
Speaker 1: in some other things, some wearables, but it's really been
Speaker 1: the phone. Uh can that company? Can Apple make the
Speaker 1: pivot to what is the next thing? And I'm not
Speaker 1: even sure I know what the next thing is? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean the next thing for them is the focused
Speaker 1: on services and it's and services is not something that's
Speaker 1: necessarily disrupting what they're doing. I mean, look, they've had
Speaker 1: a speed bump in the past year, given the volatility
Speaker 1: that exists in China and sales in China and the
Speaker 1: fact that people are just holding onto their phones for
Speaker 1: a long period of time. There's a lot of people
Speaker 1: out there, Tom, I don't know what what do you got?
Speaker 1: An iPhone six success? And there's a lot of people
Speaker 1: that have very old iPhones that they haven't upgraded for
Speaker 1: all he's checking right now, He's not even sure, yes, exactly.
Speaker 1: So the upgrade cycle is at some point can stop lengthening,
Speaker 1: and so your your iPhone business is still generating tens
Speaker 1: of billions of dollars of free cash flow, and they're
Speaker 1: sitting on a ton of cash. And this is stuff
Speaker 1: that they can use to build a content business, not
Speaker 1: necessarily go out and buy a library and legacy product.
Speaker 1: I mean, Riches talked at length about what Netflix has
Speaker 1: done over the past ten years and the amount of
Speaker 1: money they can spend. Apple's got nine million active users
Speaker 1: of its iPhones. If it can start bringing them content
Speaker 1: and sign them up to a subscription based service, that's
Speaker 1: where they're going, and that's not something that's disrupting their
Speaker 1: existing business. What level of cheap is Apple right now?
Speaker 1: It's how to pull back the Apple gloom cruise out
Speaker 1: in full force China. We're all gonna die on the
Speaker 1: Walter pisk range. How cheap is cheap now? For it's
Speaker 1: kind of cheap. It's not super cheap like it was
Speaker 1: five months ago when it was discount to the market.
Speaker 1: I think we're like to turn discount to the market
Speaker 1: has come back largely on these trade warfares, so you're
Speaker 1: not getting a massive bargain on it right now. And
Speaker 1: there's frankly risk what they are a huge target in
Speaker 1: this trade war, what we've done as a country to Huawei,
Speaker 1: and now what you're seeing in China as far as
Speaker 1: the negative sentiment towards the US have an impact on
Speaker 1: other numbers. Just because the time, Richard, What's what's your
Speaker 1: one idea right now? Give us a stock idea today
Speaker 1: where Sweeney can go large this summer. The single best
Speaker 1: idea for your listeners right now that I would go
Speaker 1: all in on it is Snapchat. You know, we think
Speaker 1: Snapchat is making the turn. It is a hated company
Speaker 1: by Wall Street, very much like Twitter was two years ago.
Speaker 1: Nobody wants to talk about it in investor meetings. It's
Speaker 1: been left for dead. The stocks bounced off the bottom.
Speaker 1: It's still well below it's sixteen dollar I p O
Speaker 1: two plus years ago, but it is getting better. They
Speaker 1: are shifting into more of a platform versus a walled garden.
Speaker 1: People are not focused on that transition and the fact
Speaker 1: that the product is getting better, and so I look
Speaker 1: at a stock that can move meaningfully over the course
Speaker 1: of the next six to nine months. Snapchat is the
Speaker 1: single best idea I have on alongside. Before we let
Speaker 1: you go, guys, just real quick, Viacom, CBS soon soon soon.
Speaker 1: But on the other hand, it's a broken record. We've
Speaker 1: been saying soon for three years, but a lot of
Speaker 1: people had to get fired first. And Tom, that's the
Speaker 1: next drome. If you're looking for what's going to replace
Speaker 1: Game of Thrones, it's gonna be what happens with Sherry
Speaker 1: Redstone And yes, some there we're still alive. And the
Speaker 1: two companies of CBS and Viacom, And then the time
Speaker 1: to both of you and both the answer within your
Speaker 1: capabilities what happens to sports on media? I mean, does
Speaker 1: Amazon start bidding against the networks were all familiar with.
Speaker 1: I mean Amazon's already starting, right, I mean Thursday Night
Speaker 1: football you can simulcast on Amazon. They've done things like
Speaker 1: US Open Tennis overseas. But in five years, are they're
Speaker 1: going to be dominant? Or you know? It's funny. Jimmy Pittaro,
Speaker 1: who runs ESPN, was interviewed the other day by your
Speaker 1: competitor over at the Wall Street Journal, and he was
Speaker 1: asked a similar question of like, could you imagine in
Speaker 1: five years you wake up and Amazon, Google and Facebook
Speaker 1: all owned major sports rights, And he basically said, I
Speaker 1: can't envision that, Like, I just don't think it's gonna happen.
Speaker 1: And look, it may not be all three, but I
Speaker 1: would be shocked, Tom, literally shocked if one of the
Speaker 1: major tech platforms didn't buy some major sports rights over
Speaker 1: the next couple of years and Sunday tickets up right now.
Speaker 1: Amazon could buy Sunday ticket right this year. This has
Speaker 1: been wonderful. Thank you so much, both of you coming in.
Speaker 1: Walter Price second, Rich Greenfield's great, and particularly great because
Speaker 1: their entourage is so large that we got him into
Speaker 1: the Claim Daytrium here at our world headquarters. They are
Speaker 1: with bt I G. Again, don't ask us for their literature.
Speaker 1: We protect the copyright of all of our guests literature.
Speaker 1: You can get it and bt I G. Rich Greenfield,
Speaker 1: Walter Pissek Paul to get things started with Craig Moffatt,
Speaker 1: who's won the Institutional Investor Awards so many times. I
Speaker 1: think they named it after Yeah, exactly, the cable telecom
Speaker 1: to Craig with us, and I love Craig your single
Speaker 1: phrase on a T and T searching for a unifying theory,
Speaker 1: whether we own a T and T or not we
Speaker 1: care about Ma Belle, is this does this mob bell
Speaker 1: have a future? Well, how are you, Tom? You know,
Speaker 1: I I don't know if it has a unifying theory.
Speaker 1: That's the problem. Um. The some of the businesses are
Speaker 1: healthier than others. Um, the wireless business is getting a
Speaker 1: bit healthier. The media businesses that they've bought UM based
Speaker 1: I think an uphill challenge to compete with Disney Plus
Speaker 1: and some of the online streaming solutions. Um. But it
Speaker 1: direct TV, as we all know, it has a world
Speaker 1: of problems. But but the bigger problem with a T
Speaker 1: and T as a whole is is what is the whole?
Speaker 1: What is the unifying theory that makes this more than
Speaker 1: just a collection of disparate businesses, most of which are struggling. So, Craig,
Speaker 1: if I think back all the way to when that
Speaker 1: deal was announced, it was, you know, just kind of
Speaker 1: sum it up. It was, Hey, we've got this big
Speaker 1: wireless network, and let's put some content out to those
Speaker 1: on this wireless network, to our customers. How concerned are
Speaker 1: you and you know investors that it seems like a
Speaker 1: lot of the talent from Time Warner walked out the door,
Speaker 1: whether it's HBO or Turner And do I really want
Speaker 1: some telephone guys running my media business. Look that that's
Speaker 1: a big enough problem in and of itself, right, I mean,
Speaker 1: I think it was. There was a good logic for saying,
Speaker 1: at the silos that used to be Time Warner, that is,
Speaker 1: the studio running separately from the Turner networks running separately
Speaker 1: from HBO, that those were two siloed and that there
Speaker 1: was a strategic comparative to unify them somewhat so that
Speaker 1: you could make decisions across the the entire business of
Speaker 1: Warner Media. Um, that that would would make some sense strategically.
Speaker 1: I get that. And in fact, you could also say
Speaker 1: that there's some cost savings in doing that too, and
Speaker 1: that's fine as well. I get all that. That's fine.
Speaker 1: The problem is the hippocratic oath of business, right is, first,
Speaker 1: do no harm to the patient. Um. If the talent
Speaker 1: of an organization like HBO or Turner leaves or Warners
Speaker 1: Warner Brothers studio leaves, you're in real trouble. And and
Speaker 1: so that the challenge facing a T and T is
Speaker 1: how do you make some necessary strategic adjustments without jeopardizing
Speaker 1: the cultural integrity of the business. And the jury's out,
Speaker 1: but you have to be at least a little nervous,
Speaker 1: or more than a little nervous. That's some top talent
Speaker 1: has already left, and that a lot of resumes are
Speaker 1: out there, Craig, just because it's time, I want to
Speaker 1: go to the vision for all our listeners of how
Speaker 1: many players there will be. It's a four apoly now
Speaker 1: in wireless. I guess we're ever in a national debate
Speaker 1: about a triopoli in wireless? Do we care? Or is
Speaker 1: it just Tea Mobile and everybody else? What is it
Speaker 1: right now? Well, look, you're right, it's it's at the
Speaker 1: network layer of wireless. It's for if the Sprint Tea
Speaker 1: Mobile deal gets approved with or without the spinoff of
Speaker 1: the Boost Wireless brand, which is what the companies have
Speaker 1: proposed to the federal to the FCC, and the FCC
Speaker 1: has agreed that that's sufficient. The d o J hasn't
Speaker 1: decided yet. Um, it would still be going from four
Speaker 1: to three networks. And that's the real question that the
Speaker 1: Department of Justice is struggling with. Is three underlying net works,
Speaker 1: irrespective of the number of players retailing on top of it,
Speaker 1: is three underlying networks sufficient? I don't know the answer
Speaker 1: to that. I'm not sure you can make the argument
Speaker 1: that it's good for five G investment and and five
Speaker 1: G technology to to let the third player be stronger. UM.
Speaker 1: But the counter argument that ultimately you're likely to see
Speaker 1: higher prices for consumers not an implausible one. And again
Speaker 1: that's what the d o J is struggling with. So Craig,
Speaker 1: you talk about perhaps you know an uncertain underlying you know,
Speaker 1: strategy for a T and T. Now that's ball time, Warner,
Speaker 1: let's switch gears to Comcast. Um. You know obviously the
Speaker 1: you know, the fantastic cable company over the years, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, they bought NBCUniversal, really getting into the content business.
Speaker 1: They made a big run at Century Fox lost to Disney.
Speaker 1: I guess the you know, the they did the Consolation
Speaker 1: Prize with Sky. Are they a collection of assets or
Speaker 1: do you see an kind of an overriding theme there?
Speaker 1: I see them as two collections of assets. It's it's
Speaker 1: not quite as much of a hodgepodge as a T
Speaker 1: and T is. But the it's not entirely clear to me,
Speaker 1: nor has it ever been, by the way, how NBC
Speaker 1: fits with the cable business. And it's not entirely clear
Speaker 1: to me how Sky, their newest asset, fits with the
Speaker 1: cable business. It sort of fits with NBC. But so
Speaker 1: you know, the challenge for Comcast is now somewhat similar
Speaker 1: to a T and T and that you've got a
Speaker 1: cable business which a lot of people have for years
Speaker 1: said looked like a dinosaur UM that is just moving
Speaker 1: from strength to strength, and the infrastructure underlying UM there's
Speaker 1: the physical distribution of ones and zeros, whether it's it's
Speaker 1: Netflix or Hulu or somebody else's O T T video.
Speaker 1: That side of the business does really well in this
Speaker 1: kind of new media future. But it's really unclear what
Speaker 1: happens to NBC and what happens to Sky in that
Speaker 1: new media future. And that's what investors grappling with with Comcast,
Speaker 1: which is Comcast is you think of it as a
Speaker 1: cable company, but of its revenues are now non cable
Speaker 1: and so it's kind of split down the middle in
Speaker 1: a way that at least to my mind, half of
Speaker 1: it right now looks very good, the cable side, and
Speaker 1: the other half has a lot of question marks. Do
Speaker 1: you have a single best buy right now? I mean,
Speaker 1: given the goofiness of the market China trade all the
Speaker 1: other stuff we talk about every day. Is there a
Speaker 1: Moffatt Nathanson, O MG, this is cheap call? Well, I'll
Speaker 1: tell you on my side of the coverage. So Michael
Speaker 1: Nathanson covers media, I cover telecom and cable. On my
Speaker 1: side of the coverage, I really like where the cable
Speaker 1: industry is positioned right now, and UM, to me, that
Speaker 1: means Comcast is is half of that business is really attractive,
Speaker 1: But a better way to play it is Charter. I'd
Speaker 1: rather own Charter and I'd rather own Altis USA. Altis
Speaker 1: is still a very cheap stock, even after having a
Speaker 1: nice run. UM, I'd rather own Altie and and Charter
Speaker 1: than anything else in my coverage right now. So so
Speaker 1: Craig just focusing on Charter. That's the you know, another
Speaker 1: big cap name as the second biggest cable operator out there.
Speaker 1: I'm not sure everybody it's not as high profile as Comcast,
Speaker 1: but you know, John Malone has a big piece of Charter.
Speaker 1: What do you think Charter does in this consolidating media landscape.
Speaker 1: Do they feel the need to jump in in any way?
Speaker 1: Do you think, um, I think they'd like to buy
Speaker 1: more cable if they could but realistically, I'm not sure
Speaker 1: there's much there to buy. Some have suggested that they
Speaker 1: could even try to acquire all t C USA, although
Speaker 1: I find that pretty unlikely. UM. I don't know that
Speaker 1: you need a merger consolidation story, certainly not a vertical story.
Speaker 1: I don't think they have any interest in buying into
Speaker 1: media or anything like that. I don't think you need
Speaker 1: a consolidation story for those stocks to work, or to
Speaker 1: really like the position that the cable infrastructure providers are in.
Speaker 1: After all, those are quintessentially local infrastructure. UM. You can
Speaker 1: string together a lot of localities and make it a
Speaker 1: bigger collection, but it doesn't fundamentally change the economic premise
Speaker 1: of the business just to make it a whole lot bigger.
Speaker 1: Craig Bmfatt, thank you so much, with Moffatt Nathan sending
Speaker 1: here on a number of the things that we pay
Speaker 1: monthly bills to as well. This is real joy to
Speaker 1: have a media focus. Thanks for listening to the Bloomberg
Speaker 1: Surveillance podcast. Subscribe and listen to interviews on Apple Podcasts, SoundCloud,
Speaker 1: or whichever podcast platform you prefer. I'm on Twitter at
Speaker 1: Tom Keane. Before the podcast, you can always catch US, worldwide,
Speaker 1: I'm Bloomberg Radio