Speaker 1 0:02

Welcome to this week's edition of the Dan Rayburn podcast, the show that curates the streaming media industry news that matters most, unvarnished, unscripted and providing you with the factual data you need to know, without any of the hype, the Pulse of the streaming media industry.

Speaker 2 0:20

Welcome to the Dan Rayburn podcast. I am Dan Rayburn, along with co-host Mark Donegan, back from Vegas.

Speaker 1 0:27

Very happy to be back, yes, very happy I'm back.

Speaker 2 0:30

What about 30 hours now, wheels down about 3 am, like a lot of people, I don't know what it is about flights out of Vegas that get delayed time and time and time again, but very happy, very happy to be home. Uh, you know, mark, let's just go through some nab things real quick. You know. First off, just a huge shout out to anyone who attended, supported the streaming summit, because there's there's no other way to say this other than the nab show just as a show and going. It's just a mess in the sense that you just there's too much going on, there's too much to see, you can't be anywhere. There's multiple halls if you're into that, but even if you just stay in the West hall, I made a list mark beforehand of okay, here's a booth, I need to see a vendor. I got to go see that and hear about that news.

Speaker 2 1:20

I made it to about three booths. That was it. That's all I made it, and that was only on setup day. Yeah, so it is tiring. It's a lot, especially for anyone who has to work booth duty set up. You know they're there six, seven days. I think I was there last year for eight days. Yeah, it's a lot. So credit to anyone who got through it. There were a lot of NEB show newbies there as well. I was asking a lot of people just working booths and whatnot if it was their first time and it was for a lot. But let's just recap real quick. Mark just the Summit and NEB show overall. The NEB did put out numbers here, I see. So they had attendance of 61,000 plus for the entire neb show. They say 54 were at the show for the first time and they said they had nearly 1300 exhibitors from 41 countries on the exhibit floor I don't know how those numbers compare.

Speaker 2 2:20

To be honest, yeah, I think the 61 000 numbers actually down.

Speaker 3 2:25

It is down from last year. From last year, yeah, A little bit, Dan. The 54% you know attending for the first time, that's a little bit surprising to me. Does that surprise you?

Speaker 2 2:39

You know, initially I could see why you might think that, but here's the thing I was thinking and I'll go through my summit numbers in a minute. But it's incredible just how much turnover we've had in this space since COVID, and this is only the what third show since COVID. It's the third show, that's right the first show after a lot of companies didn't have the budget, they didn't go.

Speaker 3 3:02

They didn't send people, that was 22.

Speaker 2 3:05

Yeah, yeah, right. So I'm not really surprised in the sense that there's so many new attendees. Also, the content programming this year across the NAB show was very different from three years ago. Yeah, the way they set up stages, the way they had zones. Also, they cut back on some of the content from previous years to make it more focused.

Speaker 2 3:29

Yeah, um remember years ago too, they used to have like car stuff and drone stuff, and none of that stuff was really there, which I like. I like to focus, so I'm not really surprised I did, uh, do a show of Mark, as you saw in the room from my keynote day one and day two.

Speaker 2 3:47

How many people in the room were new to the summit? For the first time I didn't ask any B show, but it was easily more than 50% of the audience and we had the morning keynote was 300 plus. Second one was a little bit smaller in day two but we had a lot of people in the room.

Speaker 3 4:06

Yeah, I was shocked at how many hands went up when you said you know how many is this your first? I actually did. You actually, yeah, you asked how many is this your first streaming Streaming.

Speaker 2 4:18

Summit Right yeah, and.

Speaker 3 4:21

I mean, I don't know what was it Roughly almost three quarters of the room or something.

Speaker 2 4:26

I'll have to come up with the exact number when I look through Reg, but I would say it was 65%.

Speaker 3 4:32

I mean it was a lot and people that I was standing around because it was standing room only and you know, I didn't really want to take a chair, so I was just standing in the back, but people were really like wow. I heard people say wow, like it was pretty it was. It was great to see uh, just numbers.

Speaker 2 4:50

We had 80 speakers across 39 sessions. Uh, we had 10 different presentations just tied to AI, the fireside chats with MBCU, prime Video, paramount, roku, nfl, media, our happy hour mark. I got scans back. Actually, today our happy hour had more than 700 attendees. Wow, yeah, that was massive, which was awesome. The actual show had over 500 attendees. It was actually 504. People wanted an exact number, plus press, so put another two dozen in there. Plus press, so put a. Put another two dozen in there.

Speaker 2 5:29

Uh, the the first day with the. Uh with the summit. Uh, after my keynote, or part of the keynote, when I then had the keynote with with phil weiser from paramount, we had over 300 in the room and we I feel bad for for people, but we closed the door. We had a lineup of 35 people outside and we were just too concerned from a safety standpoint. Too many people and just you saw everybody was standing around. So next year we'll definitely do a little bit with seating so we can get some more.

Speaker 2 6:00

Seats in the room is limited. You can only fit so many, but being on the first floor, right as you walk in, right as you come around the corner from the loop, it was just. It was an amazing spot and I'm very thankful the nav moved us to that spot from the third floor to the first floor and mark myself and my team and I already sat with a few folks from the nab. I already have a list of 50 things that I want to do for next year. Yeah, just to tighten it up, to make it better, just to make the experience even more enjoyable for attendees. The show next year is going to be April 7th and 8th, so it's a little earlier in the month Monday, tuesday but overall super excited with the content. We didn't have a single speaker cancellation, which is nice. Usually you get one or two for some issue but no cancellations, which was awesome.

Speaker 2 6:54

And really the feedback I got was the strength of the content. And you know my my keynotes, as you heard, just it was. It was interesting in that they they gave out some information not tied to interesting, in that they they gave out some information not tied to numbers or finances, but they gave out some information where, mark, even afterwards, some of the employees in that department were like, hey, I didn't know that. I've never heard them say that before. So we we had some, uh, uh, some really good content that was given out. And let me give an example.

Speaker 2 7:27

So we were talking about with winston from prime video how to scale video, especially for large scale live events. Same with with phil from from paramount, and it was great in that the guys came out and said and we were talking ultra low latency, just listen, this is hard, it's not easy, and this idea that, oh, you should just do ultra low latency because you can. I mean both of them were like look, this is very difficult. Yeah, it has complications. Yeah, it adds a lot to the workflow. Yeah, there's a cost associated with it. A percentage of users will be impacted negatively. So everybody was talking about there's a cost versus quality tradeoff, which I thought was great, because, for all the talk in the industry of just you should do this, you should do that, and these analysts that after the Superbowl complain that a Paramount or whomever lost an opportunity because they didn't do something, we heard directly from the people who are doing this?

Speaker 3 8:34

Who are doing it at scale, by the way, right At scale.

Speaker 2 8:37

Hey, by the way, this is really difficult. So that was great to hear what Phil talked about with AI and where he thought there were possibilities I love the fact that it wasn't around bedding or some of these other things that people were talking to and then to hear how Matt Strauss at NBCU talked about the way they think of Peacock and not being this standalone streaming service but really tied into broadcast, which for you and I is not surprising. But that was kind of shocking to some people in the room. They clearly thought that NBCU thinks of Peacock as this isolated offering which it is not. So that was great. A huge shout out also to Paramount. Really nice of them. That was great. A huge shout out also to Paramount. Really nice of them. They gave out 10 free one year subscriptions to the service, which obviously I had a little difficulty giving out there and picking seats.

Speaker 2 9:41

But the deal behind that was we were going to have those cards before they came and we were going to stick them under 10 seats at random.

Speaker 3 9:44

Yeah, but because we didn't have them early that's why I had to sort of just figure out. It worked out into the crowd, it did, it did.

Speaker 2 9:48

I thought it was it was kind of funny when I'm trying to give them numbers and then I'm like, oh wait wait, there's not that many seats in the row, yeah, and I was like, oh, that number's not gonna work, yeah but, but that was nice.

Speaker 2 10:00

I thought the content everybody gave out, uh, the discussion from a technical standpoint of how the sphere streams internally on the highest resolution screen in the world. That was incredible and that could have been a three-hour conversation. Not that we would have done that format, but there's so much to dig into there. So for those wondering, uh, the video archives will be online at nabstreamingsummitcom. I doubt by the time you hear this podcast, but it takes about a week, In a couple of weeks right. No, it better not be a couple of weeks.

Speaker 3 10:37

Better not be, better be sooner. No, no, no.

Speaker 2 10:39

It's gotta be sooner. I'll get Mark over at Moby on a call. I've already asked if I can, uh, you know, bribe his, uh, his texts over there to get it get them up a little bit faster than usual, but it usually takes about a week.

Speaker 2 10:53

But that's where everybody can see them. We've also set up the player Uh. These are all in in Kaltura's platform Thanks to Kaltura for the free account they give us every year. But we set up their player to also download all the videos. You can watch them offline. So overall, mark, I was I was extremely happy. Uh audience grew by 25% in terms of tickets. I think we grow at that rate or more next year. It was also incredible how many people came around that corner from the loop and was like oh, wow, I didn't, I didn't know there was a streaming summit. So I was real happy with that as well. And then, you know, mark, I took a quick look at just the podcast numbers and all of a sudden today, the last episode we did, the one just before this was up by about 300 downloads and I was like what happened? Wow. And then I realized the promotion of the podcast and just the stickers and everything.

Speaker 3 11:49

Yeah, yeah, um well, yeah, I have to. I have to say that you know, I I heard so many positive comments. Uh, dan, you know a lot of people and I'm sure they came up to you and you know said the same thing. But uh, just saying, you know, hey, love, you know, love the podcast. I get a lot of great information, so it's clearly filling a niche, a need, you know, in the in the market.

Speaker 2 12:17

Yeah, I got some good comments on the podcast. I got a lot of good comments on the show, which I always appreciate, but I'll be honest. You know, as I mentioned on stage, Mark, as you heard, I'd like to hear comments that are negative.

Speaker 3 12:28

Sure how we can do better. You know, yeah, yeah, right, and the team I had with me we did what we call an after action report.

Speaker 2 12:38

We sat down at breakfast the next day once the show was over and we started typing out a list of next year. Let's do this, let's do that, and it's to me, mark, it's all the simple things. Like we this year, we had no control over everything the temperature in the rooms and what we found out later on was we could have had control over that with the right passwords in the system if we actually knew how to get into the system. So, top of the list, next year, we're going to learn how to control the temperature based on the screens in the room. So all of those things to make the experience better for the attendee is what we're concerned about.

Speaker 2 13:15

I thought the content was really on point. Even the AI presentations that I sat in. It wasn't futuristic 10 years from now. Some of the AI demo presentations had 70, 80 people in the room, which maxed the room out. I thought that was great. Yeah, so I'm already thinking about content next year, but I think the format worked very well this year the case studies I really liked Some great technical presentations. So I really don't see changing up the format too much next year, although, mark, I think I'm going to do away with the AI standalone room and put the AI track within the main program. That way the room is larger, more attendance and then some of the some of the audio issues we had unfortunately took place on day one. We corrected on day two, but people don't realize just the lack of control a conference organizer has with some of the convention services that you're paying for. It's unfortunate, but next year and you pointed out.

Speaker 3 14:24

you know too, and you know I'm an audio guy from years back, so I really get it. You pointed out in the main room that the engineer, you know the, the, the, the primary AV tech there, was actually good. The problem is is that it can be a combination of the equipment you know not being set up correctly, or you know, or, or technical issues, but it's also the engineer, so to me it's all the engineer.

Speaker 3 14:51

Yeah, oh, I totally agree, but you know, so that's like. The issue is like one of the other rooms I won't say which one, but it was very clear the person in that room, at least on the day that I was in there, speaking. Well, they weren't.

Speaker 2 15:09

They weren't electrician, they weren't electrician. Oh, ok, yeah. So the way it works is you know, whoever comes up next on the list gets the gig. So even if they're not an audio engineer, they get to run an audio board. They get to run all of a sudden Some of those things you have to just work with. You have no choice. But you know we solved any of the audio issues on day two, which was great.

Speaker 3 15:29

Yeah, that's good.

Speaker 2 15:30

So overall, I'm extremely happy and also I'm extremely thankful for those that went to the show that are listening. As I said during my day one keynote you know it says Streaming Summit by Dan Rayburn but I don't think of this as my show. This is the attendee show, this is the industry show for those that want to attend. I gave out over 60 free tickets for those that were looking for jobs, so it was great to see so many people there.

Speaker 3 15:54

How did your? I you know, unfortunately got sick and so the second day I missed pretty much all the sessions. But how did your ending keynote and presentation go for job seekers? And I know you did a, you know you did a presentation there. Was it supported? Did people? Do you think?

Speaker 2 16:13

it was helpful. I had over a hundred in the room for the last session on the last day and it supported. Did people, do you think it was helpful? I had over a hundred in the room for the last session on the last day and it was interesting. It didn't go the way I thought, because I was thinking a lot of people were going to show up with specific questions around their LinkedIn page, their resume and whatnot, and what I quickly realized was, unlike the zoom, people don't want to ask a lot of those questions in front of others. Yeah, exactly.

Speaker 2 16:35

So, I gave a lot of examples where I wiped out someone's name or information from LinkedIn accounts and showed screenshots of where this doesn't work. The language is bad, but a lot of what I talked about, mark, was how to carry yourself confidently, how to speak with clarity, consistency and candor, to make sure you have an elevator pitch that, in 15 seconds, explains who you are and what you do.

Speaker 3 16:59

That's right.

Speaker 2 16:59

And all these profiles of results-driven, award-winning professional doesn't mean anything, doesn't tell me what value you bring. Day one. I also really highlighted that for some reason, so many people are scared to say that they've left the company and they're looking for a job and yet I pointed out. So you're essentially lying on your LinkedIn page saying you're still at a company because it says present, but you left six months ago. Yeah, yeah, that's. That's not a good approach.

Speaker 2 17:30

So the amount of feedback I got after that session was was pretty incredible. I got a lot of people that reached out and said that was which was uh, interesting, said it was inspiring, which you know I was really trying to instill. If you know your topic and you're confident and you can speak intelligently and intelligibly, you are going to move along in the industry at a faster rate, right. And if you can do that and be genuine about it and not have arrogance and also say, when you don't know something, as I highlighted many times, listen, this is what I don't know, here's what I do know from experience, and if you speak from your own experience, it comes across. So it was interesting the feedback I got. It will be online with all the rest of the archive soon, yeah, and I'm going to put up my slides from that next week on LinkedIn. So I thought it went very well. I was just thinking it was going to be this very interactive presentation, like when I did the Zoom, but it really wasn't.

Speaker 3 18:31

Yeah, it's actually now that you say it. I'm like, yeah, I especially in kind of a big room and you got a hundred of your peers there. I'm not going to stand up and go. Yeah, so my LinkedIn really stinks, right, right.

Speaker 2 18:47

I get it. I get it, but I had probably 20 people after that was over waiting in line to talk about.

Speaker 3 18:54

Of course, of course, Individually. Yeah, wanting more personalized, you know yeah.

Speaker 2 18:59

And some of it too, is not just if you're looking for a job because you're out of one. Some of what I talked to was how do you advance in the career that you're?

Speaker 1 19:06

in.

Speaker 2 19:07

How do you read the right news? Where do you go for it? So some of the people in the room too, understandably didn't want to call out that, hey, I'm looking to move on from where I'm at. Sure, sure, yeah, that makes a lot of sense. So I'd say, mark, that's our takeaway. Now we're not going to cover any news from the show from a vendor standpoint because, frankly, I didn't get to read any. Obviously, there was a ton of news, I just didn't get to see it. I'll catch up on it this weekend I did see highlights or sorry headlines here and there. The majority of what I saw, mark, were vendor deals with other vendors. Hey, we're partnering here partnering there.

Speaker 2 19:46

That's just that's not things we'd really cover on the podcast.

Speaker 3 19:50

Yeah, exactly, let me, I will give. Yeah, exactly, let me, uh, I will give. Not, you didn't ask, but I'm going to give it anyway here's. Here's what I learned. Here's what was making an announcement with, uh, you know, and a lot of times it was coopetition, you know it's like, uh, I, I mean the most unusual one. Uh, you know that you have to understand the full context and I won't explain it.

Speaker 3 20:30

But, bit moving and media kind, put out a not really a press release, but, you know, made an announcement and they're competing for the AMS Azure business. You know, they each have an offer on Azure and they put out kind of a joint thing to say, hey, we're competitors, you know, but we both have solutions and you should talk to one of us. It was super fascinating and there was just you go around to each booth and it was in my mind. I'll tell you what the takeaway is for me is that the industry and this makes sense workflows have gotten so advanced, there are so many pieces that need to be built, that this notion that there's going to be one vendor that brings a entire end-to-end solution well, that's just not realistic.

Speaker 2 21:30

For almost any vendor.

Speaker 3 21:34

For almost any vendor. And I'm not saying you know, some of those very same vendors that are partnering actually have their own end-to-end solutions, but there's holes or there's various places where you know they're not as strong, and so partnering does make a lot of sense. So I'm not saying it doesn't make sense, but, wow, you just go booth after booth after booth and it's like you'd see the same logos Like, um. Wow, you just go booth after booth after booth and it's like you'd see the same logos like wait a second, aren't you guys also partnered with the guys next door and the guys on the other side? And you know?

Speaker 2 22:04

I'm not surprised. I got to walk to show floor very quickly. I did see a lot of companies team up where they were in partner pods, like you're talking about which.

Speaker 1 22:15

I thought was good I did visit a few.

Speaker 2 22:16

So I I thank you to to imax. I did that little thing with them on sunday, the night before that's right, I've got to go in their dark room and hear, yeah, uh, some of the demos, which, which were amazing.

Speaker 2 22:27

So imax was great to work with, as usual. And then I I had a quick convert not quick, but I had a conversation with Harmonic as well Just because they've decided not to sell the video business. I'll keep that off the record. For now they're in a quiet period, but I'll put some more out on that Because, frankly, not selling a video business is not a big deal and the folks that are out there saying like oh my God, this is huge and they're going to have problems Just enough, already Read the numbers. Go, going to have problems. Just enough, already read the numbers, go, do, go, do the proper homework.

Speaker 2 22:59

Yeah, um, I did also visit bitmoving quickly, uh, so I got to see their booth and edgy was inside. Bitmoving had a little drinks thing, so that was good, uh. And then also, for those that don't know, I I started last year something called the dan rayburn stream media goat award, uh, and last year Eric Black was the recipient, and it's for thanking people in the industry who have really contributed the industry by education. So there's a lot of people who've contributed to the industry, but there's very few people who are willing to go out of their way to answer questions, to make themselves available, to educate the market, to write blog posts, even when they're not getting paid to do so. Sure, sure. So last year Eric Black, for all his years at NBC, was a recipient, and this year I gave an award to Will Law.

Speaker 2 23:45

Yeah, so that was nice to surprise him with that and certainly deserving the amount of just years he's been giving out information on Dash yeah and lessons and he was doing some lunch lunch I guess I'll call him lunch and learns uh as well for people that wanted to learn. So we'll all got the uh, got the, got the goat of the year award.

Speaker 3 24:06

yeah, yeah for those that didn't see, it's pretty cool too.

Speaker 2 24:09

Yeah, yeah, look at it on linkedin. It's. It's a basically a gold wrappers chain. It's really heavy. It's not wrappers chain. It's really heavy, it's not heavy, but it's really heavy. Um, and what was funny was, uh, I gave it to Will just before the happy hour and, uh, he tried to take it off on the way to the happy hour and I was like, nope, you have to wear it for a long time but it does allow you to bump to the front of the line for drinks.

Speaker 2 24:34

So, there's a benefit there, but but that was that was great to give that to him. So next year I'll come up with someone as well. So I didn't get to see a lot of the booths, Mark, we were just real busy in the rooms.

Speaker 2 24:49

But one of the things next year is I'm actually going to get out there a day earlier next time so I have time on the Sunday to go around to the booths to talk to more vendors. I did get to see a lot of vendors at the happy hour. I don't go to any of the parties or events once the show floor ends. I know everybody else gets to and that's great, but I got to prep for the next day and then I'm just in bed sleeping.

Speaker 2 25:11

So, it's unfortunate I miss so many people I'd like to see. But uh, from the vendor side, but just running the show is just uh, just too time consuming.

Speaker 3 25:22

Yeah.

Speaker 2 25:23

But overall great. If anyone has any questions, just follow up, send me an email. Uh, I'll be shooting out some things on LinkedIn next week. Um, also thanks to Adam Weiner. He uh took over my LinkedIn account and just quickly pushed out content and photos from, I think, every single session we had, or almost every single session, uh, which was great. I'll do some more in-depth ones once the video archives come out, but that was great to get content out. All of those posts combined just during the summit, mark. So let's see for about the last. Let's call it five days, sunday to Thursday, or today. When we're recording, is it about 700,000 impressions on LinkedIn?

Speaker 2 26:08

So they're circulating, which is great. So, mark, that's the recap there. Let's jump into just a few more news pieces. Obviously, netflix earnings are something we want to cover here. Yeah, so Netflix had earnings. They added 9.33 million subscribers in Q1. Their global sub count is now 269.6 million. They had free cash flow of 2.21 billion and revenue growth of 15% year over year. Billion and revenue growth of 15% year over year. Now, their arm, what they call average revenue per member, rose only 1% year over year. Not surprising, especially because the AVOD plan, speaking of AVOD, over 40% of all new signups in ad markets where Netflix offers AVOD, the new signups came from AVOD. They did not give an update on the number of consumers they're reaching with Avod users or subscribers. Yeah, so that we don't know. Now, in Q2, they expect the numbers to be down in terms of new subs seasonality. Not surprising. They do expect revenue growth of 16%.

Speaker 3 27:13

Okay.

Speaker 2 27:14

Now for the full year. They're still expecting a cash content spend of about 17 billion, so that's good, and they're forecasting approximately $6 billion in free cashflow. Not much was given out on the earnings call. There's not a lot of other things to talk about here other than two pieces. We'll cover One. This was a new number I'd not seen Netflix put out, but Netflix trailers through the Netflix app generate over 6 billion impressions every month. Now, what I loved here is they compared it to to YouTube. Compared it to YouTube, that's 40 times more impressions than what Netflix trailers get on YouTube.

Speaker 2 28:03

Wow, and think about this for the industry. We've always been saying YouTube has all the traffic, it has all the people. It goes 40 times what it gets on YouTube Netflix gets every month. That's pretty amazing. And then a piece here in terms of important, as we're thinking about numbers going forward. I spent a lot of time on Keynote Monday talking about the numbers people in the industry should know and also the numbers that they should ignore. Also the numbers that they should ignore. So, starting next year, with Netflix Q1 2025 earnings, the company is going to stop reporting quarterly membership and arm numbers. So here's the reason I want to read this quote. It's important, netflix says quote.

Speaker 2 28:50

As we've noticed in previous letters, we've focused on revenue and operating margin as our primary financial metrics and engagement, which they define as time spent, as our best proxy for customer satisfaction. In our early days, when we had little revenue or profit, membership growth was a strong indicator of our future potential, but we're now generating very substantial profit and free cash flow. We're also developing new revenue streams like advertising and our extra member feature. So memberships are just one component of our growth. In addition, as we've evolved our pricing and plans from a single to multi-tiers with different price points depending on the country each incremental paid membership has. In 2023 and starting next year with Q1 25 earnings, we will stop reporting quarterly membership numbers in ARM. This, I think, makes sense. Wall Street doesn't like it, yeah.

Speaker 3 29:59

They hammered the stock down. Yeah.

Speaker 2 30:03

So Netflix closed down just over 9% down $55.52.

Speaker 2 30:08

Netflix closed down just over 9% down $55.52. Wall Street doesn't like when you take numbers away from them and transparency, which is what this is Now. Again, I think Wall Street maybe reacted a little too harsh here, because Netflix is not going to implement this for another year. Yeah, exactly, going to implement this for another year. Yeah, exactly. And we saw this and, Mark, you and I talked about this quite some time ago where I said at some point, Netflix is going to follow Apple's approach where they stopped giving out. Here's how many iPhones we've sold. Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 30:43

It was only a matter of time.

Speaker 2 30:44

We saw this coming, or if you didn't. You should have, you should have. So you know, wall Street's funny how they react to things yeah, and as much as they're down just over 9% they also got multiple upgrades, yeah, of course. So even with the upgrades they were down. So, Wall Street's you know it's always funny.

Speaker 3 31:05

The stock market is a fickle beast. It is, it's always funny. The stock market is a fickle beast it is.

Speaker 2 31:08

It is but the number you need to know 290, sorry, almost 270,000 total global subs yeah, million, million, yeah Jeez, I got to get this right.

Speaker 3 31:22

Almost 270 million. 69.6 million.

Speaker 2 31:26

Almost 270 million which is marching towards 300, which wow yeah and they previously said they want to be at half a billion five plus years from now. Yeah, yeah, quite a number to think about that they're targeting.

Speaker 2 31:42

Yeah, so that's all we've got from Netflix, because that's really all they talked about. They didn't give out anything tied to the WWE, the live, the Jake Paul fight coming up. There was no real details there. They did talk about the upfront some, but just they were talking about the content that they were going to be showcasing and highlighting. So that's Netflix. Now, mark, as far as earnings go, netflix is always the earliest to report earnings and kicks it off for everybody. Next week we've got Comcast, microsoft, roku, meta, verizon Week, after that we've got Paramount, harmonic, fubo. So we're almost in earnings seasons again.

Speaker 2 32:24

But let's cover some quick little other points here of news. It's being reported today that the NAB's exclusive media rights negotiation window with current partners, Disney and Warner Bros Discovery, will expire on Monday. No agreement is expected to be announced by the deadline. An NBA spokesperson was quoted as saying we continue to have productive discussions with Disney and Warner Bros Discovery on a renewal of our media deals. Apparently, they're still working on terms with the league both Disney and WBD but the negotiating window expires Monday. As far as being exclusive, what impact does that have? Maybe none, we don't know.

Speaker 2 33:08

And then the last piece of news here we'll just cover real quickly is it's being reported that Sony Pictures Entertainment and Apollo Global are discussing making a joint bid for Paramount Global. Now, they're just discussing it. The companies have yet to approach Paramount because they can't. Paramount's an exclusive deal talks with Skydance Media. You can't Paramount's an exclusive deal talks with Skydance Media. However, we are hearing that some investors have already urged Paramount to explore other options. Sure, and they want competing bids. The difference here is and we can't even begin to get into this Mark because it is so complex and confusing with what could maybe or should happen Keep in mind that you could also have shareholder lawsuits here. Yeah, maybe, or should happen. Keep in mind that you could also have shareholder lawsuits here, Because if they accept a deal here but there was a better deal, they could have gotten over. Here you can have shareholder lawsuits. You also have different class of shares, which is also adds a lot of confusion here.

Speaker 2 34:05

The other thing to note is that Paramount Global's debt rating was cut to junk status, remember less than a month ago. So S&P cut it because the debt to equity ratio will stay above three and a half times what it is going through 2025. So if, all of a sudden, that makes an impact in terms of the deal, in terms of whether this is all stock or it's cash or what the deal is worth, it's extremely confusing. So the one thing I'd say to listeners is just don't really worry about any of the news you see on Paramount Global. There's a lot of moving pieces. A lot of what we're reading is not going to happen because it can't. Some of these deals are talking about taking the company private. So if Sony Pictures Entertainment and Apollo Global did a deal that would actually take Paramount private because it would be for cash. Well, that wouldn't be the case with the Sundance media deal. It would still be a public company. The Skydance Skydance right, yeah.

Speaker 2 35:04

The other thing to note here is Sony Pictures Entertainment is not legally allowed to own any of the broadcast stations, apparently.

Speaker 3 35:11

Yeah that's right. Yeah, it's a Japanese company, that's right. And there's restrictions on foreign ownership of broadcast stations in the US.

Speaker 2 35:17

So then you would have to have Apollo take over the stations. Yeah, cbs, all the network broadcast local TV stations. Sure, sure, sure. But, then you could have Sony take over the movie side.

Speaker 3 35:28

Yeah.

Speaker 2 35:29

Yeah, so, as you can tell, there are so many moving pieces in this.

Speaker 3 35:35

Yeah. So, but it's pretty, but it's pretty clear something is going to happen here with Paramount.

Speaker 2 35:43

Yes, but you know, this could go so many different ways in terms of how the business is readjusted, because it could go to all one buyer. You could have two different sides of the business going to two different buyers. Yeah.

Speaker 3 36:00

But something's going to happen.

Speaker 2 36:01

Yeah, yeah for sure. There's just, there's no way around it. However, let's just add, Mark, as we wrap up here, the final piece, which is depending on what type of deal is cut and when, if this needs regulatory approval, that could take, depending who you ask, anywhere from 18 to 24 months, which means, even if a deal is announced, you're not going to see restructuring of this company or a different go-to-market strategy for potentially up to two years. That's a long time in today's market where things move as we know very quickly, so Paramount seems.

Speaker 2 36:39

We have news coming out every day, but I would say, just don't look into it or get focused on too much, because it's very complex. Mark, I was keeping notes of everything going along with it over the last two or three months and then I was just like all right, this is. This is frankly too much. Yeah, I don't even have to spend this much time on it, because then I'm looking at junk bonds and it's just, it's, it's a lot.

Speaker 2 37:04

But once we know what's going on, there'll be a very clear document that'll have to come out that says exactly how the deal would work, how it's structured, and then all we're going to know is that there's a deal. However, then the deal has to close. Yeah, that's right. It might have to get approved, regulatory. They might have to raise more money, depending on who does this, to actually close the deal. Wow, which is not easy in today's market. Yeah, so there's a lot of moving pieces. Yeah, but that's what we've got this week, mark. I hope everybody can rest up, get some good food and fluids in them. Follow up on all the emails, of course.

Speaker 3 37:45

That's right.

Speaker 2 37:45

And, frankly, you know what? Take a break, go spend time with family, go do whatever it is you like Do exercise, watch sports. I haven't seen a Mets game in like a week.

Speaker 3 37:56

Well, there you go.

Speaker 2 37:57

Of course, the week I don't see them. They're winning every game, but you know, business and the NAB show is not the most important thing in your life. So take a break, get out there. If it's nice outside, get out, get outside. Uh, you know, mark, I was in the convention center myself, from you know, 8am in the morning to 7pm at night every day, like many of us were. Uh, so we, we've got to get back outside, but appreciate all the support.

Speaker 2 38:23

As I said before, you know, this truly is not my show, it's the industry show. That's the way I think of it. That's the way I always think of it. Um, you know, mark, I started off the keynote just by letting people know how thankful I were for them to be there.

Speaker 2 38:35

They have a lot of choices in the market. Where they spend their time and where they spend their money is something that I'm always looking at, always appreciative for every single person who bought a ticket market. The show got a personal email from me, not a form letter, not an automated message. There was, I'd say, two dozen people who called me before the show as a result of that, where I got to help them customize what sessions they should go to based on what they wanted to see. So as long as I'm running the show, I will continue to provide as much of a bespoke, customized experience as I can for attendees. I think that's what all shows should be doing. I think that's the difference between really building loyalty with the audience and bringing them back showing value that they're spending for the $600 or $700 they're spending on a ticket.

Speaker 2 39:24

Also just super appreciative to the NAB. There's a lot of new people now at the NAB who are working running the show on the back end. For them to put us on the first floor right there as you come in, which was amazing, really some great visibility there. So I'm expecting this year's show to be just really much larger in terms of attendees. Larger in terms of attendees I'm excited. I mean, I'm looking forward to a break, but I'm already thinking of everything I'd like to do next year. Right, I'm already excited for what we can bring to the industry. Thank you to you, mark, as well. You did what? Two sessions at the show I did, yeah.

Speaker 3 40:02

I did, which was great.

Speaker 2 40:03

You got two good sessions in. We had some great moderators this year as well, some new moderators, which I loved. Yeah, I was happy, but I'll be honest, I was happy with all but one of the moderators who I thought just did an excellent job overall and I couldn't do the show without them. So appreciate that as well. So you have any questions from the show If there was someone you were on the show floor that you were trying to get a contact name for, you forgot to email, you lost their business card. Reach out to me, by the way. Next year, any single person who goes to the NAB show you should have paper business cards. Yes, I don't know what these people are thinking. I did a show of hands who has a business card here in the room and it was like 10% of people. Nobody's carrying cards anymore.

Speaker 3 40:48

It's ridiculous. Stop with that. Yeah, yeah, nobody's carrying cards.

Speaker 2 40:57

And here's why.

Speaker 3 40:57

Okay, my business card is black on one side and white in the other.

Speaker 2 40:59

The whole reason. It's white on one side and the other is because you can write notes. When I meet you, I want to remember how many people am I meeting. This whole like I'll tap your phone and do things. Here's another reason why, mark okay, we were giving out free stuff at the show yeah, business card and nobody had one.

Speaker 3 41:14

Right we're gonna pick someone right now.

Speaker 2 41:19

Do you want a free subscription to paramount plus for the year? Where's your business card? Oh, I don't have one. What? Keep it simple people. Old school business cards still the best way to go. So appreciate everyone listening. We'll be back next week. We'll do some more earnings next week. If you have any questions, reach out to Mark and I at any time. Get some rest, get some sleep. Hope everyone got back safely and we'll talk to you again next week. Thanks very much.

Speaker 1 41:43

If you enjoyed the show. Send it to a friend, have questions for Dan or Mark, connect with them on LinkedIn at any time, and be sure to check out Dan's blog at streamingmediablogcom.