Latest / Connecting the Dots / AI Chips, Media Power Plays, and Editorial Fault Lines

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AI Chips, Media Power Plays, and Editorial Fault Lines · Connecting the Dots

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  Today's tech news moves fast, but understanding
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  it shouldn't be hard. That's why Snarfl Solutions
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  Group brings you Connecting the Dots, where we
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  break down what's happening in tech and why it
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  matters to you. Now, let's dive in with your
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  hosts. Good morning, everyone. I'm Alex. And
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  I'm Morgan. We are broadcasting live from the
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  Snarfl Solutions Group headquarters right here
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  in, uh... Very foggy Sacramento, California.
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  Welcome to Connecting the Dots. That's right.
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  It is Tuesday, January 20th, 2026. And you are
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  not kidding about the fog. I mean, I had to practically
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  use sonar to find a parking spot this morning.
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  It is absolute pea soup out there. We have a
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  dense fog advisory in effect for Sacramento until,
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  what, noon today? Yeah, until 12 p .m. So for
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  anyone listening in the car right now, please,
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  lights on, take it slow. But looking at our Morningstar
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  report, Our fog is really nothing compared to
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  what's happening elsewhere. It's not even close.
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  The Morningstar is showing some serious, serious
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  winter conditions up in the Great Lakes region.
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  Yeah. Yeah. We're talking heavy lake effect snow,
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  genuine whiteout conditions. If you're anywhere
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  downwind of those lakes, travel is going to be
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  treacherous. And over on the East Coast, it's
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  just bitter cold. Just cold. Below average temps
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  pretty much everywhere. So yeah, grab an extra
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  coffee today. Definitely now usually I like to
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  start the show with some green numbers to warm
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  us up, but the financial markets are looking
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  a little chilly, too It is a bit of a sea of
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  red this morning. It was a down day across the
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  board. The Dow Jones closed down 0 .54 % sitting
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  at roughly $48 ,738. And the S &P 500 also took
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  a dip. Down 0 .20%. And for our crypto listeners,
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  Bitcoin didn't escape the slide either. It took
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  a pretty big hit. Down just over 2 % right to
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  around $90 ,700. So wallets are feeling a little
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  lighter today. They are. But hey, speaking of
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  wallets. and maybe finding a way to treat yourself
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  despite the market dip. Or find a gift for that
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  techie friend who is impossible to shop for.
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  Exactly. We should mention our sponsor, Old Glory.
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  check them out. Alright, let's shake off the
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  fog and get into the news. We've got three massive
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  stories in the SNARFL Tech article report today,
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  and frankly, they all seem to center on one thing.
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  Power. That is the perfect way to frame it. Who
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  has it, who wants it, and what they're willing
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  to pay. We're looking at a major geopolitical
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  pivot with Nvidia and China. A huge all -cash
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  merger attempt by Netflix. And some serious,
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  serious culture clash drama happening inside
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  CBS News. Let's jump right into that first story.
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  The AI chip compromise. For a long time, the
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  thinking from Washington has been pretty simple.
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  Right. Ban the chips, stop the tech flow. Right.
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  Starve the dragon. But it looks like that script
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  is being completely flipped. It really does.
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  President Trump has officially given the green
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  light for NVIDIA to export its H200 AI chips
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  to China. This is a huge pivot. Trump announced
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  it on Truth Social on Monday. He said he informed
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  Chinese President Xi Jinping and that Xi, quote,
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  responded positively. OK, but before people think
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  the floodgates are just opening wide, this isn't
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  a free for all, right? There's a catch. There
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  is always a catch. The U .S. government is going
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  to collect a 25 percent fee on every single one
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  of these chips sold. A 25 percent fee. So we're
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  pivoting from a strategy of total denial to taxing
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  the export. We're basically monetizing the competition.
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  Exactly. It's a shift to revenue generation.
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  And as Trump frames it, protecting national security
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  while creating American jobs. Nvidia shares actually
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  jumped on this news. I bet they did. I mean,
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  they're the world's most valuable company. This
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  opens up a massive market that was slam and shut.
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  But I want to pause on the hardware because it's
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  easy to gloss over the model numbers. This allows
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  the H 200. Previously, China could only buy the
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  H 20. What's the actual difference? It's a game
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  changer. I mean, the H20 was what they call a
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  neutered ship. It was specifically designed to
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  be slow to comply with export controls. Got it.
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  The H200 is a beast. Reports are saying it's
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  about six times more powerful. But the real story
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  is the memory. The memory? Yeah, specifically
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  high bandwidth memory or HBM. Think of it like
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  a highway. On the old chips, the highway for
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  data was two lanes, lots of traffic jams. Oh
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  yeah. The H -200 has a massive multi -lane superhighway.
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  It lets the chip crunch huge data sets incredibly
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  fast. This allows Chinese AI labs to build supercomputers
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  that are comparable to top US systems. Comparable.
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  That's the word that probably has some people
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  in the defense sector a little worried. It does.
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  But here's the nuance the administration is betting
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  on. The most advanced chips, the Blackwell and
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  the upcoming Rubin systems, are not part of this
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  deal. Okay, so those are still banned? Still
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  banned. So the logic seems to be sell them the
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  second best stuff, tax it heavily, but keep the
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  absolute cutting -edge tech here at home. Okay,
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  let's unpack that strategy. Why do this now?
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  I thought we were in a tech war. Well, it signals
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  a bit of a thaw. Remember that trade truce in
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  Busan, South Korea, back in October? This seems
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  to be a result of those talks. Right. But the
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  deeper strategic thinking is likely about dependency.
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  Dependency? Yeah! If we ban everything, a total
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  embargo, China has no choice but to pour billions
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  into Huawei and other firms to build their own
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  chips. And they might succeed. But if we sell
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  them our chips? If we sell them Nvidia chips,
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  they stay dependent on American tech. They build
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  their entire infrastructure around our architecture.
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  So keep your friends close and keep your customers
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  addicted to your product. Precisely. It's a way
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  to ensure they don't develop a completely separate
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  ecosystem that we have zero control over. OK,
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  but not everyone is buying this strategy. There's
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  some serious pushback. Serious is an understatement.
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  Dario Amadei, he's the CEO of Anthropic, a major
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  AI player, called this a blunder with incredible
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  national security implications. Just flat out
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  called it a mistake. A crazy mistake. Because
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  AI isn't just about chatbots. And that's where
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  the political opposition comes in, from both
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  sides of the aisle. You've got Senator Elizabeth
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  Warren calling it turbocharging China's bid for
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  technological and military dominance. And then
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  you have Republican Senator Pete Ricketts agreeing,
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  saying denying access is essential. The fear
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  is that these chips get used for military logistics,
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  for cyber warfare, advanced weapons. It really
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  is a high stakes gamble. On one side, you have
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  economic dominance making China a customer, creating
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  U .S. jobs. Keeping invidious stocks soaring.
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  And on the other, you have the military containment
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  argument. that we're selling them the very engine
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  they need to compete with us. And that is the
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  tension that's going to define this administration's
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  tech policy. Are we an economic superpower first
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  or a security state first? This deal suggests
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  they're trying to be both. Which is a very difficult
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  tightrope to walk. Very. If a Chinese cyber attack
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  hits US infrastructure using H200 chips, that
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  25 % tax revenue isn't going to look like a very
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  good trade. No, it certainly won't. Speaking
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  of huge sums of money and difficult tightropes,
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  let's move to our For our second story, Netflix
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  and Warner Bros. Discovery. This is a monster
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  deal. We knew Netflix was interested, but now
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  the terms have changed. They've revised their
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  offer to an all cash deal. And cash is king.
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  The price is still $27 .75 share, which values
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  the whole deal at a staggering $82 .7 billion.
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  Wow. Originally, this was going to involve like
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  $59 billion in debt financing, but now Netflix
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  is basically saying, no, we got this cash on
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  hand and credit facilities. Why the switch to
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  all cash? Is that just Netflix flexing or is
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  there a strategic reason? It's all about speed
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  and certainty. They want to close this thing
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  fast. They're aiming for a shareholder vote by
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  April 2026. And dead financing complicates things.
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  It really does. It requires banks, approvals,
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  interest rates. Cash is immediate. It makes the
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  deal much more attractive to shareholders. And
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  it helps them box out the competition, right?
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  Exactly. Paramount had offered way more money,
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  108 .4 billion dollars, but WBD rejected it.
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  Netflix knows there are other sharks in the water,
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  so they're upping the ante with the certainty
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  of cash. And there's a spinoff involved, too,
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  right? This isn't just swallowing the whole company.
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  Correct. Before the merger closes, Warner Bros.
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  Discovery will separate Discovery Global into
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  its own independent company. So Netflix is really
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  targeting the premium content engine. Exactly.
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  They want Warner Bros., the movie archive, HBO.
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  They want the scripted prestige stuff. They're
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  less interested in the reality TV side. So what
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  does this mean for us, the people sitting on
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  the couch on a Friday night? It means consolidation.
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  Extreme consolidation. The Netflix co -CEOs are
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  framing this as pro -consumer and pro -creator.
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  They're promising no studio closures. Yeah, I
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  feel like pro -consumer is corporate speak for.
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  We're about to raise subscription prices again.
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  And remember, Netflix already did that last January.
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  Senators Warren, Sanders, and Blumenthal are
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  already worried about a monopoly. Because where
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  else are you going to go? Right, if one company
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  owns Stranger Things, Game of Thrones, Harry
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  Potter, and DC Comics. That's a lot of leverage.
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  It is. But the funniest part is hearing Netflix
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  try to argue they aren't a monopoly. Oh, the
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  YouTube defense. It's fascinating. They're citing
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  Nielsen data to show that even if you combine
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  Netflix and Warner Bros, their viewership is
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  still smaller than YouTube's. Don't look at us.
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  Look at the cat videos. Exactly. We're just a
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  small fish compared to the ocean of YouTube.
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  It's a clever regulatory defense, arguing that
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  video is the market, not just premium streaming.
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  But analysts see right through that. Oh, yeah.
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  Pala Pescator pointed out, this is really about
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  preventing rivals from reaching scale. If this
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  goes through, the streaming landscape changes
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  forever. You'll just have fewer massive players.
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  It feels like we're just recreating cable TV,
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  but over the internet and probably more expensive.
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  That is the fear. The bundling era is back. All
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  right, let's shift gears to our third story.
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  We're going from the business of entertainment
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  to the business of news. And there's a lot of
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  drama. at CBS. This is such a fascinating look
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  at culture clash. We're talking about Barry Weiss,
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  who's now the head of CBS News after the Skydance
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  and Ellison purchase. Right. Formerly the New
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  York Times, founder of the Free Press and a new
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  profile in the New Yorker paints a pretty chaotic
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  picture of her start. Chaotic is the word. It
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  describes Weiss as a digital native, you know,
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  used to the speed and aggression of online media
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  struggling to mesh with the buttoned up world
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  of legacy TV. There's some wild anecdotes in
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  there. Apparently she wore a CBS baseball cap
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  to an editorial meeting and yelled, let's do
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  the having news. It definitely sets a tone. It
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  screams disruption. But beyond the hat, there
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  are deeper issues. There was an incident where
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  she urged staff to cover protests in Iran based
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  on video she saw online that looked like a movie
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  scene. And the veteran reporters had to step
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  in. Right. The senior reporters had to tell her,
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  Bari, those videos are three years old. Oh, wow.
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  It just highlights that danger of moving at Twitter
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  speed in a newsroom that relies on verification.
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  And then there's the efficiency memo. She asked
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  staff for a breakdown of how they spend their
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  time. Which drew immediate comparisons to Elon
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  Musk. It signals to staff that cuts are coming.
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  But the biggest controversy, the one that really
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  has the newsroom upset, is the 60 minutes incident.
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  Right, the El Salvador story. What happened there?
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  She pulled a completed story about the CECOP
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  prison right before it was supposed to air. Her
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  reasoning was that it lacked the Trump administration's
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  perspective on why they were sending Venezuelan
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  inmates there. And the staff saw that as political
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  interference. They did. I mean, 60 Minutes has
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  this long tradition of editorial independence.
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  The story did finally air this past Sunday, but
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  sources say Vice is pursuing what she calls a
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  debathification of CBS. Debathification. That's
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  a loaded term. It's an incredibly intense term.
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  It implies a purge of the old guard culture.
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  She wants to court conservative viewers feeling
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  the network has been too liberal. But is that
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  even a good business move? Industry execs are
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  skeptical. One told the New Yorker that the Maggi
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  audience is already spoken for by places like
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  Fox News, so pivoting CBS might just alienate
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  their current audience without gaining a new
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  one. It really feels like a collision of two
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  worlds. You have the move fast and break things,
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  startup energy crashing into the check your sources
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  three times legacy media tradition. And that
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  transition is rarely smooth. Whether she can
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  actually modernize CBS or she breaks the institution
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  in the process is going to be the media story
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  of the year. Well, from chip wars to streaming
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  wars to newsroom wars, it is a busy Tuesday.
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  S -K -O -N -I dot coms dot com. So we look at
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  the big picture today. What's the connection?
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  What ties these three very different stories
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  together? I think the through line today is consolidation
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  and control. How so? Well, look at Nvidia. The
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  U .S. government is realizing it can't fully
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  stop the flow of tech, so it's trying to control
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  it through taxation and dependency. It's moving
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  from blocking the river to just building a toll
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  booth on it. Exactly. And with Netflix. We see
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  that the streaming wars are entering their endgame.
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  consolidation. The big fish are eating the medium
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  fish. Right. Expect fewer choices, bigger platforms,
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  and likely higher prices no matter what the press
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  releases say. And finally, CBS. CBS shows us
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  that the control over information itself is being
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  fought over. The media landscape is shifting
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  from traditional rules to digital first aggression.
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  The very definition of news is being rewritten
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  in real time. It is a lot to keep track of. But
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  that is why we are here. Exactly. And here's
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  a final thought for you to chew on today. OK.
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  We talked about dependency with the China chips,
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  keeping them hooked on US tech. Right, the tollbooth
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  strategy. But look at Netflix. By buying up the
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  competition and the archives, aren't they doing
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  the same thing to us? If there's only one place
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  to get all the premium content, we aren't really
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  customers anymore. We're dependents. That is
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  a cheerful thought to end on. Anytime. We're
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  here to help at Snarful, so reach out on our
• 14:42
  website if you have any more suggestions. Have
• 14:44
  a great day, everyone.