Variety returns in-person for its annual Entertainment & Technology Summit, presented by City National Bank. This one-day event will explore advancing technology’s impact on TV, film, gaming, music, digital media and consumer brands.
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00:00I'm going to just quickly go down the row of the panel, introduce here.
00:03Right on the end here is Frank Bulbin, Chief Revenue Officer of Verizon.
00:08Next to Frank is Elisa Bowen, President of Disney Plus.
00:12Next to Elisa is Annie Lua, Executive Vice President of Global Partnerships and Strategic
00:18Development for Peacock.
00:19Boy, are we going to have some Olympics questions for you in a little bit here.
00:24Next to Annie is Adam Waltuk, Executive Vice President of Global Distribution and Partnerships
00:30for Televisa Univision.
00:31We're going to have some World Cup questions for you in a little bit, excuse me, some soccer
00:36championship questions for you.
00:38And last but definitely not least, Takashi Nakano, Head of Content and Merchandising
00:43at Samsung TV Plus.
00:45We really all appreciate you taking your time at this busy moment and being here in the
00:49afternoon here.
00:52Because we were all kind of just, it's always a sign of a good panel when the conversation
00:57in the hallway is pretty robust about where the business is going.
01:02And you know, we might have called this like the monetization panel.
01:06You are the ones that really need to get it over the hump in terms of both distribution
01:11and into a place where streaming can be successful.
01:14And we've all been through the ups and downs and the roller coasters of that in the industry.
01:20So I want to just throw it out there.
01:23This is a jump ball for whoever wants to grab it.
01:26As we were talking about just now, streaming kind of emerged, it really erupted as a subscription
01:33proposition.
01:34Netflix introduced the notion of having this be a platform where you would watch TV shows
01:39and movies.
01:40And it was really, so much of the energy was directed towards subscription.
01:44The last couple of years, the free side of the house has been certainly making waves.
01:49And I, as you all are in various, you know, various companies dealing, launching streaming
01:55platforms, Frank and Verizon, you are very much adjacent.
01:57You are a high speed data provider and we all know it takes a lot of broadband to get
02:02all of this content.
02:03I would love to just, at this moment, what is, how do you, when you look at the marketplace,
02:09how do you decide what makes sense for free?
02:13What should be subscription?
02:15And kind of what are the calculations that go into both of those, you know, those strategic
02:20decisions?
02:21And I throw it out to anybody who would like to answer.
02:23And what I love about this panel is we have such a mix of folks that are in the trenches
02:28here.
02:29Look, I'm happy to start.
02:31Frank, you raised your hand.
02:33So, for us, it's very simple as a telecom company, we played with the idea of getting
02:40into content a few years ago.
02:44We abandoned that idea, so I have no scoop for you.
02:47And what we realized that our core business is providing connectivity to consumers on
02:54the go or in their home.
02:55But in doing so, we developed the capabilities to manage a subscription business at scale.
03:02And that's really our DNA.
03:04And we thought that we could put that capability to play with other subscription businesses,
03:12starting with video streaming.
03:15And five years ago, we had our first partnership with Disney for the launch of Disney Plus.
03:22And since then, we've been developing that new positioning for us as a direct-to-consumer
03:28distribution platform for subscriptions.
03:31So, for us, it's only subscriptions.
03:34We are not into the free part of the streaming world.
03:39Is Verizon playing at all in the world of fast channels?
03:43Because there is a certain amount of content in your ecosystem.
03:46Is that at all something that you...
03:48We do it on a limited basis.
03:51We've had partnership with ad-funded services, like Pluto, that we preload on certain devices.
03:59But obviously, we cannot leverage our acquisition machine, billing machine, customer service
04:05for free services.
04:06So, it has a limited impact for us.
04:08Yeah, that's good.
04:09Go ahead, Amy.
04:10Yeah, I was just going to build on that.
04:12I think it's an interesting question, especially for Peacock, because we launched four years
04:18ago with three tiers.
04:19It was a free tier, an ad-supported tier, and an ad-free tier.
04:25And fast-forward today, we actually now only have two tiers in the market.
04:29It's the ad-supported and ad-free tier.
04:32We sunset the free tier, which I think is an interesting move, right?
04:37Because at some point, we decided that for Peacock to be successful, to compete in that
04:42top echelon of streaming services, we want to be seen as a premium product.
04:47We want our consumers to pay for valuable content.
04:53Whereas the free tier was very, I would say, very impactful for us to launch in the market,
04:58to achieve massive scale pretty quickly, ultimately, it comes back to monetization, right?
05:04Which is what you were saying at the beginning, that how do you best monetize your content?
05:08And how do you best monetize the engagement, the watch hours on the platform?
05:12And for us, and that is the dual revenue stream, the subscription product and the ad revenue
05:17stream from the ad-supported tier.
05:21I think for us, the way we think about our content is, you know, we still have our free
05:24AVOD, VIX Gratis, and then our subscription model, both with ads and without ads.
05:31And we also throw linear into the mix, broadcast and pay TV.
05:37And we constantly make decisions and iterate on, you know, what is the right windowing,
05:42where content lives and where should it live.
05:45I think that what makes our experience a little bit different to others is, you know, there's
05:51a huge demand and need for differentiated content.
05:55You know, in our case, it's Spanish speaking.
05:57And that goes both from a subscription perspective, a consumption perspective, and an advertising
06:01perspective.
06:02So that allows us to have, you know, enough demand specifically on the ad side, but definitely
06:06the subscription side to justify continuing to have that, you know, completely free tier.
06:12And then on top of that, you know, fast and, you know, premium without and so forth.
06:17And from our perspective, I think the challenge that this started from subscription doesn't
06:23fully reflect the place that Hulu has had in the marketplace for over 10 years.
06:28So Hulu is now 15 years old, and we have had with that business a very mature and very
06:34large scale advertising business alongside subscription, which allows us to give real
06:40choice and value options to consumers, some of whom want to pay more for a premium experience,
06:46some of whom want to pay less for an ad supported experience.
06:50And so that ability to offer different price points for different experiences has been
06:54really key to growth, as the other panelists have also said.
07:00But I think what's most interesting right now is just how rapidly the marketplace has
07:05matured around measurement and accountability on the ad sales side in this addressable market,
07:12which has really turned it into such a scaled opportunity for organizations like ours.
07:19And when you have that kind of level of transparency around measurement and results and a kind
07:27of currency that the ad and marketing community have all bought into now in a way that didn't
07:34exist five or 10 years ago, you can really start to see how the economics are scaling
07:38on that side.
07:40And we're seeing that happen in geographies all around the world, but I think the US market
07:45is perhaps the most advanced when it comes to that side of the equation, which then actually
07:52turns it from being a business model into a real business that we can actually scale
07:57and drive profits out of.
07:59So that, for me, I think is the big thing that's changed over the last couple of years,
08:03as opposed to subscriptions or advertising.
08:06It's just that this advertising side of the marketplace has become so much more transactionally
08:13secure and credible in the minds of marketeers.
08:17It's interesting to hear you say that the presence of advertising added, if not credibility,
08:22a level of just a level of activity that hadn't been on Disney Plus and in a subscription
08:27only environment would be sort of harder to replicate.
08:31And the consumers will vote with their wallet, obviously, as we all know, and we've seen
08:36in markets all across the world, not just here in the US, that half and in some cases
08:42more than half of the signups are coming through on the ad tier.
08:45So there is a real appetite for access at those price points.
08:49But what we also see is that people who are in an ad-free premium experience, many of
08:57those are happy to continue to pay for that and self-select into the experience that they
09:03value most.
09:04Interesting.
09:05Now, Takashi, Samsung TV Plus has been a huge engine of the rise of the fast channel, which
09:11is the F stands for free.
09:13I mean, I can't get over the fact that Hulu's 15 years old.
09:16It's like, it's amazing that they were that fast.
09:21Several people in the room and Annie has been part of that journey as well, but you're really
09:26true pioneers in this space.
09:28And it's phenomenal to think of.
09:30I remember when it came, the buzz about it was that NBC and Fox were developing the YouTube
09:35killer.
09:36It was going to be the YouTube killer.
09:38It sounds like a serial killer.
09:42It's amazing to see how long things take to transition to what they are.
09:47And at Samsung, everyone here is a partner of ours.
09:50Everyone here is on our ecosystem, thrives on our ecosystem, and we're proud to have
09:56them as parts of Samsung as a whole in our device platform.
10:01And the question was around free and SVOD.
10:04We think that it's content dependent.
10:07We think it is, you know, there's a premium experience that people should pay for.
10:12There is a free environment where people should, you know, can explore and sample and find
10:17great content that they otherwise wouldn't see.
10:20And I don't believe it's either or.
10:22I think it's and, and what we're seeing with us and TV Plus, some of you guys may have
10:28seen that we did a partnership with Amazon and the Rings of Power.
10:33It was an incredible opportunity for us to showcase great IP, the most expensive IP ever
10:38created on television, and expose it to users in front of a paywall.
10:44You took season one.
10:45We took season one and exposed it, and not just in the U.S., but around the world.
10:51And we saw such an amazing uptake in viewership.
10:55And what's interesting about Samsung and TV Plus specifically is that we see the user
11:01journey through, right, everything up until what they've done before they get to a free
11:07experience, what they do after a free experience.
11:09And we don't have these gates and we can see, you know, we have our fishbowl and we can
11:13see what all these fish are doing all the time.
11:16And we see their journey through the ecosystem.
11:19And it's really not a one size fits all.
11:22It's a lot of different sizes and it's a lot of partnerships.
11:25It's working with our folks here and working with, you know, free content as well to build
11:31the ecosystem and expose content to users that may not have seen it before.
11:35And how do we get them hooked?
11:37My daughter, I asked her before this, she's 17 years old, I'm like, what are you watching
11:41right now?
11:42She said, Gilmore Girls.
11:44And she just finished Grey's Anatomy for the fourth time.
11:46Right?
11:47So, I mean, it's premium IP that I grew up on, that I saw, and now she's exposed to it.
11:53And so, I think this world of streaming and the world of free and the world of subscription
11:59all work together in concert.
12:00How do we expose great content to the user?
12:03One at a time to each one.
12:05Lemme set the stage, just for those that may not know about Samsung TV Plus, set the stage
12:10of the scale and the scope that you have.
12:12So Samsung TV Plus is our free ad supported streaming service.
12:15It's both linear and VOD.
12:17We've got approximately 400 channels on our platform here in the US.
12:21We're available in 27 countries.
12:24You're on the operating system of the television.
12:27We are on the operating system.
12:28You have a Samsung device.
12:30You hit power on on your remote.
12:32You grew up with television, you know, 25 years ago like I did.
12:36You turn on the TV and you got content that was delivered.
12:39I would occasionally whack it on the side.
12:41You don't have to whack it.
12:42The old TV set.
12:43Yeah, you don't have to whack it.
12:44You don't need rabbit ears anymore.
12:47We deliver 400 channels right to you directly to your TV with, you know, in concert and
12:51partnership with the folks up here.
12:54It is really television the way we've all, we're all used to, where it's television the
13:00way we all grew up watching and it's from a user perspective, it's very much the same
13:04thing.
13:05It is not different.
13:06It is television when you hit power on and that experience, that integrated experience
13:12is really kind of what has been the accelerator of content on our platform.
13:18I mean, it's, there's just so much and people that, that would not have maybe just would
13:23not have made that leap to a subscription are like, oh, this is so easy to watch.
13:28I think we, sometimes in the industry we're so focused on it, but to the, to the lay person,
13:33a lot of this is really confusing.
13:35I would love to talk to, for those that both have, you know, full subscription and like
13:41an, an advertising tier, obviously I know there is Disney pluses on some level subscription,
13:46but I would love to drill down a little bit more about the inputs that you get in terms
13:51of seeing, you know, is viewing much different?
13:53If you have somebody who is a fully subscription person, do you see more engagement?
13:58If somebody has the full, the, the top tier subscription, do you see, do you see different
14:04viewing patterns?
14:05If somebody is in an ad supported, I'm just curious, like what kind of patterns you see
14:08the different types of, of access that you have?
14:12Incredibly similar.
14:13I mean, where we see the differences is in audience cohorts, as you'd expect, but picking
14:17up on what Takashi was saying, we just launched streams on Disney plus, which is a lean back
14:24experience that doesn't require the user to select individual programs and know exactly
14:30what they're looking for.
14:31And it's kind of an interesting example of what you were saying about discovery, which
14:37is the key challenge for all of us.
14:39There is such a plethora of great quality content out there, which is fantastic for
14:44consumers, but content discovery and merchandising is something that we're all trying to innovate
14:50around and help people find what it is that they're looking for.
14:53And there is a place in the market for, I mean, streaming came about because people
14:58wanted what they wanted when they wanted it exactly.
15:02That's the definition of VOD, but there is also a place for people being unsure what
15:07they want to watch and wanting to discover new things.
15:10And that's where the nostalgic experience of just switching on the TV and seeing what's
15:14there comes in.
15:15And so streams is an example of an initiative that we have just launched to give people
15:21that opportunity to just check in and see.
15:25And what the consumers tell us that they really love about that is the ability to find and
15:32rediscover nostalgic content, like the examples you gave, Grey's Anatomy is one of the biggest
15:38shows on Disney Plus, and the ability to just drop into an episode and be reminded
15:44what it was that you love about that franchise and relive those moments is something that
15:50really has a place in people's media consumption.
15:54And I think in the early days of VOD, we probably forgot about some of those truisms that sometimes
16:00you just want to switch it on and relax or be entertained.
16:04So we're finding new ways of bringing together those experiences for the best of both worlds.
16:10I would say for us, the consumption patterns for ad-supported and completely premium are
16:17very similar, as Alisa mentioned.
16:20It is completely different when you look at AVOD, pure AVOD, which we have.
16:24And the reason for that is the content stack for AVOD is completely different to the premium
16:29service, the subscription service.
16:32So for example, our subscription service is very heavy on sports, it's very robust
16:36on sports.
16:37We do have some sports on our free offering, but it's different.
16:41The way that, for example, our live news channels has on AVOD is much heavier than what the
16:47role it plays on the subscription service.
16:50So engagement patterns are completely different in that sense.
16:54And then there's a third category, which is fast.
16:56And the majority of our efforts are on the linear side, on actual fast channels and not
17:02VOD, which again creates a completely different experience that generates different consumption.
17:07So one of the things that we spend a whole lot of time on is how do we normalize, how
17:13do we compare, how do we sit down and understand what's successful and what isn't, when at
17:17the end of the day, it's completely different ways of consuming.
17:20And that's an ongoing challenge.
17:22I don't think there's a secret formula yet.
17:26But it goes back to what you were asking before, which is how do you make decisions on programming?
17:30Where does your content live?
17:32And really finding a way to normalize that into having comparable metrics is the key
17:37for those decisions.
17:38I mean, what's interesting, to Adam's point, is that we've been mining this data and we've
17:45been looking at what happens to our users when they've been exposed to linear or what
17:50happens to users that have been only exposed to VOD.
17:53And what we've seen is that those users that consume VOD content on our platform, on our
17:57fast platform, consume twice as much fast content as a whole, both linear and VOD.
18:04So these users who actually watch VOD in a fast environment consume twice as many hours
18:10per month than those that only watch linear.
18:13So you see this now leaning in effort.
18:16And now we see this kind of transformation from, you know, oh, this is an interesting
18:21service to, oh, there's more here and I'm going to lean into it, where I can also lean
18:26back.
18:27If you were to look at some of the data through some of these other app partners, I bet those
18:30users that consume on a linear or on a VOD basis are far more engaged in what they're
18:36watching as a whole and consume in aggregate more content.
18:39I guess this is Samsung's pitch to, we got to license you more VOD.
18:42I think that sounds like a great idea.
18:45Oh, I'm sorry.
18:47No, I was, I mean, I feel like they were all very eloquent.
18:51But I think as a G2C service, of course, like the richest of data is sort of your superpower,
18:56right?
18:57And it's what you can do with it and what you can, what you can sort of translate that
19:01into merchandising or content discoverability and all of that, right?
19:06So from our perspective, I think the tiering, like whether somebody is on the ad tier or
19:10ad free tier, it doesn't actually have a huge impact on usage as many other factors, right?
19:17The tenure of that subscriber, which platform they came from and which content segment they
19:23are part of, right?
19:24Sports versus entertainment.
19:26All of those play a factor in that viewing behavior, which I think is really something
19:30that we'll analyze day in and day out.
19:33I can imagine.
19:34Frank, now, where are you finding opportunities for Verizon?
19:37You were saying Verizon is really good at managing subscriptions at scale.
19:41I myself am a Verizon.
19:42I pay my, I pay automatically every month.
19:46You're welcome.
19:47You're welcome.
19:48I always think like, oh, I'm doing my part for your quarter.
19:50But how, so where are you finding the logical opportunities to kind of connect with this
19:57and help people manage?
19:58Because it is becoming very clear that people are somewhere along the way, somebody, people
20:04said there will be four or five or six services.
20:06I'm thinking maybe it's going to be a little more, but can you tell me how Verizon plugs
20:10into this?
20:11Yes.
20:12Our approach is truly customer driven and we've been evolving over the last five, six
20:18years.
20:19And our journey has been first to decouple connectivity from other services.
20:26Customers want to pay only for what they want.
20:29And if you look at our latest value proposition, my plan, you choose your network service,
20:35good, better, best to simplify.
20:37And after that, we offer our customers unique perks that they cannot get anywhere else.
20:44And so that's the differentiation for customers.
20:48And for our partners, I've got three partners here.
20:52What we offer is a go to market machine that can deliver subscribers at a very low acquisition
20:59cost.
21:00Because we integrate those content services into a marketing mix.
21:05We have presence in our 7,000 branded Verizon stores.
21:10We have 75 million postpaid customers.
21:1360% of them are on our app every month.
21:16So we can market content services.
21:19So for our partner, it's low acquisition cost.
21:22And also, we are very good at life cycle management.
21:26So upselling those customers, billing them, managing any customer service issue.
21:33And all of that results for our partner in a greater CLV, more loyalty and higher revenue
21:40per user.
21:41So that's the equation.
21:42So we have something differentiated for our consumers where we leave them choice, convenience,
21:48and flexibility.
21:49We don't force them into a bundle or into a contract.
21:54And for the opposite of the old cable model, which is you can have this, this, or this.
21:58Absolutely.
21:59And on the other side, we want to be the best direct to consumer distribution platform
22:05for our content partners.
22:07And your ROI is more engagement.
22:10You go on your networks longer.
22:13That's your goal is more ROI for your subscribers and more loyalty.
22:18So it's improving our customer lifetime value.
22:21So it's also acquiring more customers for connectivity, retaining more customers for
22:27connectivity and selling them added value services, and being more differentiated.
22:34So if I take the example of the summer, we were offering the Sunday ticket for free to
22:41new customers joining Verizon.
22:43So we use content also to acquire customers.
22:47Gotcha.
22:48Obviously, Annie, the Peacock is coming off of what must have been an incredible experience.
22:54I can't even imagine the data and information raining down on you after the Olympics.
22:59But I think it was pretty widely just acclaimed.
23:04It almost felt like Peacock was built for these 2024 Olympics.
23:09Really nicely displayed, beautiful, NBC Sports, as always, did a beautiful job of really getting
23:13folks engaged.
23:15You must have been so happy to see the level of engagement around the Olympics that people
23:19really embraced it.
23:20But are there any top line learnings that you have from how people came in?
23:25I can imagine that the sign ups where you were probably just watching those numbers
23:28take up and up.
23:31For three weeks, I was very popular amongst my friends and family.
23:35I got a lot of text messages.
23:36My kids were very proud of me, because I work at Peacock, they finally understood.
23:41So yes.
23:42So the Olympics were, I think it was the first time, I think, in history, you can go to one
23:47place and watch all of the Olympic content.
23:50Personally, I'm a fan of the Olympic movement.
23:54So I was an avid consumer, as a lot of other people.
23:58I think the learnings are, one, I think live sports and live events like the Olympics are
24:04a huge acquisition driver.
24:07It's a hook that brings a lot of subscribers in, because it's appointment viewing, it has
24:12urgency, it has sort of that live nature, right?
24:15In general, live events, I think, are very important for a platform like ours.
24:19I think what we, sort of the hard work is really retention, right?
24:24So we know that our sports-first viewers, so people who come in for a sports title,
24:30the next nine out of 10 titles they watch are actually entertainment, right?
24:34So we talked about better understanding the consumer segmentation, right?
24:38What content affinity groups they are part of, which platforms they are viewing Peacock
24:42on.
24:43Those are really important signals that we want to learn, right?
24:47So we know what shows we binge them into, right?
24:49Is it Love Island season six, or is it Fight Night?
24:52So we have to be quite forensic, or at least try to be as scientific as we can, right?
24:58About how to best serve those customers at scale, right?
25:03When they all come in at the same time, and better retain them.
25:06And the habituation of that is ongoing work, right?
25:09Because I feel like we've celebrated the Olympics for as long as we could.
25:13It's almost October, we're still talking about it, and I will be talking about it for the
25:16rest of the year.
25:18But I think now, I think the job is how do we keep them?
25:21How do we habituate them, right?
25:24So it's not that you bring in a huge influx of subscribers who will leave by the end of
25:28the year.
25:29So those are just some of the top line learnings.
25:32But the experience, as hopefully many of you have watched, it was a differentiated experience
25:36in many ways with Gold Zone and multi-view.
25:39So we try to innovate and embrace those new formats for the sort of streaming viewing
25:43experience.
25:44I tested out the AI Al Michaels.
25:47That was a fun, they had an AI program where you could tee up your highlights and Al Michaels
25:53would narrate it for you.
25:55That felt very, very futuristic.
25:59Are you already trying to find a way to communicate with those viewers, those sports subscribers
26:04about the NBA that you have coming to the platform?
26:07It's still more than a year away.
26:10Yes.
26:11So I think the actual, the reality is that a lot of people come for sports, but we're
26:16trying to figure out what types of entertainment content they want to engage with, right?
26:22Because sports have that seasonality to it.
26:25But what our learning is that library content is the real engagement driver, right?
26:30It's sort of the unsung hero because we tend to talk about the tentpole events.
26:34We talk about the Payone films.
26:36We don't really talk about the modern families or the 30 Rocks.
26:41Those are the shows that are like Grey's Anatomy.
26:44Those are the shows people come back over and over, right?
26:47So if you want to sort of type them over, the sports viewers to the next NFL game or
26:52to the next NBA game, you got to provide them a lot of these types of comfort food to keep
26:57them on the platform, right?
26:59And keep them coming back and habituated.
27:01So that's what we're trying to do.
27:04And we are building out excitement for NBA, even though it's 30 months out.
27:10She'll be here before we know it.
27:12I would love to throw this out to anybody.
27:15I would say this year in particular, the business of YouTube is really like the importance of
27:21YouTube is almost a crossroads of the world for streaming video, like so many paths run
27:27through YouTube.
27:28I would love to just get a sense of, if at all, if any of your companies interact with
27:33them and how you use that free distribution to your advantage.
27:37Go ahead, Frank.
27:39I can start on that one.
27:40As I said, we have an approach that is customer driven.
27:43So we survey customers and ask them which services they would want to have in the Verizon
27:49Perks.
27:50And the last one that we introduced was YouTube Premium.
27:54So we've seen in our research the demand increasing for that service.
28:00We launched it a couple of months ago, and it's resonating well with customers.
28:04So we are agnostic in terms of which subscription services we are offering.
28:11We test them with customers.
28:13Some have got a long staying power, like we've been five years with Disney, but we see new
28:20ones coming, and YouTube Premium is the latest example.
28:25I think there are two very distinct businesses within YouTube.
28:29Obviously, there's YouTube TV, and-
28:32Just to be clear, I was talking about the general garden variety.
28:35General UGC.
28:36So in regards to the latter, the UGC content, I think it's undeniable what share of attention
28:43that platform takes from people's day, but it's not the only one.
28:49And so when we think about that, we think about it as being a very powerful platform
28:54for sampling, for distribution, for content discovery, for building franchise and IP that
29:00drives, for example, in our case, consumer products, demands, et cetera.
29:05So it's a very powerful way to reach a large audience on a global scale.
29:12But so are some of the other platforms that are emerging and taking tremendous share of
29:17attention.
29:18TikTok, for example, and gaming platforms.
29:22And so one of the things that I'm most excited about is our investment with Epic and other
29:29gaming platforms like that, where we can look to create very unique moments of convergence
29:35between somebody who is in a chat or in a gaming experience or streaming video.
29:42And I think what's really interesting on the horizon is how those kinds of different experiences
29:47come together.
29:48YouTube is one place where it's happening, but there is tremendous innovation happening
29:53through those other platforms as well.
29:55Yeah, it was very telling that Disney made a significant investment in Epic Games.
30:00That is only going to bring those brands and those capabilities closer together.
30:06Adam?
30:07We had a pretty heated debate when we launched FIX on should we license our content, both
30:13fast and VOD, to other AVOTS?
30:16And I include YouTube as one of them.
30:19And for a couple of months, the answer was absolutely not.
30:21Why would we?
30:22Because at the end of the day, we have our own service, our own platform.
30:25And at some point, we started testing with this guy.
30:31And we saw that not only was it not cannibalizing our own audience, it was actually making it
30:34bigger.
30:35And the reason for that is you promote your content, you promote your brand, and you make
30:41money in the process.
30:43What's not to like?
30:45Correct.
30:46There may be a balance to it.
30:47I don't know if there's a limit.
30:48We haven't really got to that point.
30:51We see YouTube the same way that we see Samsung, or Amazon, or Roku.
30:57It's just a fantastic sampling platform.
31:01It's a great promotion platform, and you add a couple dollars to your balance sheet.
31:06So that's the strategy.
31:08Do your fast channels, do you ever interact with YouTube, or is that these are two totally
31:12separate ecosystems?
31:13It's definitely two separate ecosystems.
31:16YouTube is a very important app on our platform, a massive amount of consumption.
31:21We're proud to have them as a partner as well.
31:23When you turn on your device, there's definitely a link to YouTube right there.
31:27Absolutely.
31:28So they are a part of our ecosystem, just like our folks here.
31:33When I look at YouTube, I think about it from the content side.
31:36YouTube has been an incredible place for new content to emerge, content that would be very
31:42difficult to find a home on a streaming platform that's premium like Disney+, or NBC Peacock,
31:50or VIX.
31:52There's an amazing group of creators that do this every day.
31:59There's gems that, honestly, we found.
32:02I see that as a new creative platform that we can bring.
32:06One of the challenges of YouTube is that you're one of billions of videos.
32:11In a TV Plus environment, I can curate that.
32:13I can hone that down, hone it into a concentrated experience for the user, and now they, the
32:20creators, can get a one-to-one experience on the 65-inch TV through a 10-foot experience.
32:27That was, 10 years ago, impossible to do, and today you can do that.
32:32I look at the content world from that lens, and how does this new creator community live
32:38on a television experience, both in the U.S. and around the world, and in your pocket on
32:44the phone that I can deliver directly to a user?
32:49I expect that the world of creation is going to change with them as this becomes a bigger
32:54platform for them, and I think that's what we're excited to see.
33:00We have partnerships and deals in place with some creators now that we're excited about.
33:06We launched a channel called Animation Plus, and adult animation was, outside of Hulu and
33:12a few other places, was largely not available in cable and changing, and a giant creator
33:18community came together and said, hey, we're going to build this next phase of adult animation.
33:24We were along for the ride, and it's been an incredible journey with them, and you can
33:29just see their minds spinning and new ideas coming that would have never seen the light
33:34of day if it wasn't for a platform like YouTube that we can now bring into a television experience.
33:39And your rev share model makes it, I mean, it's never easy, never easy to get a channel
33:43off the ground or create content, but your rev share model does lower some of the barriers
33:47to entry.
33:48Yeah, 100%.
33:49You don't have to have quite as much just to get the channel up and running.
33:52I think we all know that 15 years ago to launch a cable channel onto a cable platform would
33:57have cost billions of dollars to do, nearly impossible, even if you had the money just
34:03to get on.
34:04But today, for thousands of dollars, you can launch a 24-7 linear channel across six, accessible
34:11to 600 million devices around the world.
34:14That's pretty incredible.
34:15It's incredible when you think of a business that used to be so geographically bound.
34:19I mean, you know, television in the U.S. until 10, 12 years ago was so geographically distinct.
34:26Your local station, your network had.
34:28My last question, we have all of 60 seconds here, but we can push a little bit.
34:33Global rights.
34:34Not only global content rights, but even global distribution preferences.
34:39You know, what works in the United States isn't going to work in Eastern Europe and
34:42vice versa.
34:43How do you sort of like high-level thoughts on like how you manage the different needs
34:49in different territories?
34:50Adam, I know VIX is, you know, you're both in the U.S. and also in Latin America.
34:55Is it basically the same or do you have to really get distinct and bespoke in each territory
34:59to make sure you have the best distribution possible?
35:03So I think the interesting thing for us is, you know, a Spanish speaker is a Spanish speaker.
35:07The way that, you know, people in Mexico consume is different to the way that people in Colombia
35:11and Argentina.
35:12And the dialects are so different.
35:13And the dialects.
35:14There are shows that just, you know, can penetrate all those markets.
35:18So we do do a lot of customization when it comes to programming to each of the markets.
35:23But look, there is a huge Mexican population in the U.S.
35:27So that allows us to have a lot of synergies.
35:28And, you know, when we produce in Mexico for Mexico and for the U.S., fortunately, a lot
35:33of the, you know, Mexican content, Turkish content, Colombian content works amongst all
35:38Spanish speakers across the world.
35:41So, you know, our geography is a little bit different to some of these guys that have
35:45global distribution.
35:46But, you know, it's a bit of both.
35:48It's Mexico as a hub, but also customization at a local level.
35:54For us, it's all about the content.
35:55So Disney Plus is in over 150 countries around the world, and we have nearly 230 million
36:01subscriptions.
36:02So it's an enormous global footprint.
36:05And we're uniquely positioned to have brands and franchises that are recognized across
36:09the world in English markets and non-English markets.
36:13So that's a very unique position to be in.
36:16But what we've learned is that the local markets do demand a local flavor to the content.
36:22So for us, it's all about supplementing that global content and that IP and franchises
36:28people know instinctively with a local flavor that, you know, meets the local community's
36:35needs and reflects that local consumer base.
36:39In the case of Latin America, it's sports, live sports, and a significant investment
36:43in live sports.
36:45In the case of Korea, for example, it's original dramas and general entertainment.
36:52In Japan, it's anime.
36:54So in each of those markets, we have a very distinct local originals and current strategy
37:01that supplements what we're producing from the U.S. here.
37:05And that seems to be the sweet spot, leading with those global tentpoles that are known
37:12and bring in large audiences, and then complementing that with the local flavor.
37:17A lot to manage.
37:18Annie, you want to wrap us up?
37:20Yeah, I'm quite envious of Elisa and the global scale of Disney.
37:24I think I'm going to bring up the other end of the spectrum, which is we're hyper-focused
37:28on the domestic market.
37:30But we've also learned global expansion is very expensive, especially if you're coming
37:35in late.
37:36So we're taking more of a market-by-market approach, and mostly through joint ventures.
37:41So we do have a JV in Europe with Paramount, called Sky Showtime.
37:46And we have a JV in Africa with Multi Choice, called Showmax.
37:50So it is much more of a complex strategy, right?
37:54Because we don't have that sort of single brand global scale.
37:58But we're trying to get creative with how do we expand globally.
38:01Well, I mean, we've learned nothing else.
38:03There are so many avenues to getting content out, so many avenues and tools for reaching
38:07people.
38:09Thank you so much for being here and sharing your insights.
38:10Really appreciate it.