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Netflix Goes All-In as Foreign Money Targets Paramount · The Ben Ferguson Podcast

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  Speaker 1: The jobs are put amazing in certain ways because we
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  Speaker 1: have tremendously fewer federal employees way down and now I
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  Speaker 1: could have left them and added to what we did
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  Speaker 1: and we would have had almost one hundred percent employment.
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  Speaker 1: I could have gotten a great kick out of the
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  Speaker 1: fact we're one hundred percent employed. But we got rid
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  Speaker 1: of tremendous numbers of federal workers, and we had some
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  Speaker 1: jobs were you had ten workers for one job, ten
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  Speaker 1: workers for a job that one person should be doing.
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  Speaker 2: You're listening to the forty seven Morning Update with Ben ferguson.
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  Speaker 3: Good Saturday morning. Nice to have you with us on
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  Speaker 3: the forty seven Morning Update, and we've got one big
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  Speaker 3: story for you, and it deals with national security. You
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  Speaker 3: may have not heard about the massive deal with Warner Brothers,
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  Speaker 3: Discovery and Netflix, also Paramount Skydance getting involved as well.
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  Speaker 3: So what is behind the deal, how does it deal
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  Speaker 3: with national security? And what does it mean for American jobs?
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  Speaker 3: Putting America first, I break it all down for you.
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  Speaker 3: It's a forty seven Morning Update and it starts right now.
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  Speaker 2: Story number one.
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  Speaker 3: You've heard me talking a lot about protecting American jobs
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  Speaker 3: and also talking about there was the big hearing in Washington,
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  Speaker 3: the debt with Netflix and Warner Brothers and Discovery in
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  Speaker 3: all of this, and I want to continue that conversation
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  Speaker 3: now and really dive into what you can expect moving
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  Speaker 3: forward and what's going to be happening. Joining me now
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  Speaker 3: talk about this is Clete Williams is the chief Global
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  Speaker 3: Affairs Officer with Netflix. Include I appreciate you coming on
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  Speaker 3: to talk even more about this. I want to get
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  Speaker 3: into the American job aspect of this first and foremost,
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  Speaker 3: because I don't think people realize, number one, how many
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  Speaker 3: jobs are being created in this country and directly with Netflix,
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  Speaker 3: but also indirectly with others that are making content that
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  Speaker 3: you guys are then buying and that supports the development
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  Speaker 3: of it as well.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah. No, thanks so much then for having me on,
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  Speaker 4: And obviously I'm thrilled to talk about this because this
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  Speaker 4: is one of the reasons I was so excited to
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  Speaker 4: join Netflix in the first place, because Netflix is a
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  Speaker 4: company that is really committed to growing investment and growing
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  Speaker 4: jobs in the United States. And just to give you
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  Speaker 4: a little bit of detail on that, you know, Netflix
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  Speaker 4: is a company who has you know, we started mailing
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  Speaker 4: DVDs around we got into streaming, and recently we've been
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  Speaker 4: getting into content. Right, it's really this classic American story,
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  Speaker 4: something that only could have happened in the United States.
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  Speaker 4: But as we've been getting into content, what we've done
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  Speaker 4: is we've tripled our workforce in the last couple of
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  Speaker 4: years and we are now filming in all fifty states
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  Speaker 4: in the United States. We've got a total of twelve
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  Speaker 4: hundred locations that we filmed in. And what this has done,
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  Speaker 4: it's supported one hundred and forty thousand production jobs in
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  Speaker 4: the country. It's supported two hundred and twenty five billion
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  Speaker 4: of economic output. And we're trying to do even more.
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  Speaker 4: You know, we're we're investing more into content as others
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  Speaker 4: in the industry are pulling back. And one of the
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  Speaker 4: really exciting stories is up in New Jersey where the
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  Speaker 4: Fort Monmouth base used to be. This base was closed
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  Speaker 4: down and now we're building a world class studio there
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  Speaker 4: one point two billion dollars into that economy. And so look,
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  Speaker 4: it's a really exciting story for.
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  Speaker 3: What's going on at Netflix, you know, for people that
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  Speaker 3: again and I go back to this is for me
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  Speaker 3: America first American jobs. I also wrote an op at
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  Speaker 3: Fox news dot Com. You can grab it there talking
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  Speaker 3: about why I believe that Ronald Reagan would be in
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  Speaker 3: favor of this merger between Netflix and Warner Brothers because
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  Speaker 3: of it doing so much to keep production and American
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  Speaker 3: interests first and foremost. He understood the value of exporting
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  Speaker 3: American ideals and American movies is an amazing way to
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  Speaker 3: have influence all over the world. You look at the
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  Speaker 3: other side of this, so people understand just the context
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  Speaker 3: that there has been a repeated hostile attempt to acquire
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  Speaker 3: from Paramount and Skuideance. What worries me about that side
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  Speaker 3: is a lot of outside of the un US money
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  Speaker 3: that can come in. I as a as a look,
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  Speaker 3: I want America to be shown in the best slide.
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  Speaker 3: I don't want there to be outside influenced. I worry
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  Speaker 3: about that. And you guys, to be very clear, your
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  Speaker 3: core is the United States of America. I want to
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  Speaker 3: make sure everybody understands that.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, look, that's absolutely right. And you know, I just
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  Speaker 4: mentioned this studio in New Jersey. What we're hoping to
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  Speaker 4: do with this studio in New Jersey is do a
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  Speaker 4: bunch of filming in the United States that would have
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  Speaker 4: otherwise been done in other places like the United Kingdom.
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  Speaker 4: And so this really is about strengthening the American industry,
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  Speaker 4: making sure that America remains number one in the world
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  Speaker 4: for production. And look, you brought out the situation with Paramount,
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  Speaker 4: who is making the hostile bid, And I think one
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  Speaker 4: of the points that you raise in some of the
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  Speaker 4: things that you've written is that there's really a clear
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  Speaker 4: contrast here, right. I mean, there's the job story and
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  Speaker 4: the fact that we've been creating jobs and they've been
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  Speaker 4: cutting them. Right, they had three in that thirty five
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  Speaker 4: hundred jobs cut with their Skydance merger. Just yesterday they
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  Speaker 4: announced they were going to reduce the workforce at CBS
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  Speaker 4: by fifteen percent. They've they've identified six billion in synergies,
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  Speaker 4: which is code for job cuts. That's actually probably going
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  Speaker 4: to be higher because this is the largest leverage buyout
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  Speaker 4: in history. But you know, speaking of the leverage buyout
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  Speaker 4: and speaking of the financing, here's where here's a big difference,
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  Speaker 4: and I think you know you will find very important,
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  Speaker 4: which is Netflix is an American deal with American dollars. Yeah,
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  Speaker 4: and the Paramount deal. Paramount has more equity from the
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  Speaker 4: Middle East than the United States.
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  Speaker 3: Hold on to say that again, because that's what that
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  Speaker 3: is my biggest warning. And when I was looking at this,
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  Speaker 3: I was I was one of those full disclosure. I've
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  Speaker 3: I've been critical of Netflix in the past on certain
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  Speaker 3: things I did I did, I like or don't like it.
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  Speaker 3: It's a big company. That would be normal. But my
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  Speaker 3: big red flag here was hold on a second. We're
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  Speaker 3: talking about major influence that would come into a collection
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  Speaker 3: slash studio and production from the Middle East. I do
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  Speaker 3: not like that or feel comfortable with it at all.
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  Speaker 4: No, I mean, I understand the concerns you're raising, right,
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  Speaker 4: I think you've written about that very eloquently, and and
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  Speaker 4: just the difference here American deal with American dollars versus
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  Speaker 4: something that you know has the majority of its equity
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  Speaker 4: from the Middle East. And look, there are concerns about
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  Speaker 4: what that would do on influence and what it would
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  Speaker 4: do for American soft power. But I think you know,
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  Speaker 4: the interesting thing that a lot of people haven't focused
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  Speaker 4: on is that this also causes regulatory problems for paramount
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  Speaker 4: that we don't have right in the US. You've got
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  Speaker 4: the Trophy Department and their Scifius review process, you know,
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  Speaker 4: which is going to have to look into whether this
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  Speaker 4: is you know, problematic foreign control. You've also got the
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  Speaker 4: European Union, you know, who may be concerned about you know,
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  Speaker 4: Middle East ownership of CNN and some of these other networks,
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  Speaker 4: and so, you know, I think that's a clear contrast
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  Speaker 4: between these two deals.
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  Speaker 3: Well, let's also talk about some of the misconceptions, and
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  Speaker 3: we saw I think some of this come out and
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  Speaker 3: then anti trust hearing that was in Washington, d C.
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  Speaker 3: There are a lot of people that just assume that
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  Speaker 3: Netflix is a company that has a massive studio and
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  Speaker 3: you guys are creating a lot of this content in
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  Speaker 3: your own studios. That is not the case at all.
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  Speaker 3: That is exactly the reason why this paramount Warner Brothers
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  Speaker 3: Discovery deal is what you guys are wanting to do,
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  Speaker 3: because you do want to get into that as well.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, that's absolutely right, and the contrast here is clear
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  Speaker 4: as well. You know, the Netflix deal is primarily a
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  Speaker 4: vertical merger, and what I mean by that is that,
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  Speaker 4: you know, we're proud of what we've done in the
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  Speaker 4: content production business in the last couple of years, but
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  Speaker 4: we've only been making our own stuff for around a decade.
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  Speaker 4: And you know, you contrast that with Warner Brothers, who
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  Speaker 4: has one hundred years of production in this business, who
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  Speaker 4: has all that iconic intellectual property, and so this is complementary.
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  Speaker 4: We're going to be able to bring that into the
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  Speaker 4: networks Netflix platform. You know, you also have this legacy
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  Speaker 4: studio out in Hollywood that that Warner Brothers has. You know,
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  Speaker 4: we're building this new, world class studio in New Jersey,
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  Speaker 4: but we haven't had that kind of thing yet, so
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  Speaker 4: we're bringing that together. Then there's this theatrical distribution business,
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  Speaker 4: another area where we have not been active, and we're
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  Speaker 4: going to bring that together. And so that's a vertical
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  Speaker 4: merger with complementary assets where we're going to be able
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  Speaker 4: to get more content to consumers for less, and we're
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  Speaker 4: going to keep all these major players and major buyers
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  Speaker 4: in the market. And then the Paramount deal is your
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  Speaker 4: classic horizontal merger with the Noah's Ark problem. You know,
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  Speaker 4: they're gonna have two of everything, right, they already have
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  Speaker 4: one of those big legacy studios out in Hollywood, so
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  Speaker 4: they're going to have to cut one there already have
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  Speaker 4: a major theatrical distribution business, So that's going to get
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  Speaker 4: cut and consolidated. And then look, you can also look
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  Speaker 4: at the news and the sports and all these other
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  Speaker 4: things where they're going to double up as well. And
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  Speaker 4: so I think, you know, if you look at these
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  Speaker 4: vertical mergers which have traditionally been treated very favorably by
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  Speaker 4: competition authorities versus a horizontal merger which traditionally has not
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  Speaker 4: been Again, I think on the regulatory front, it's pretty
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  Speaker 4: clear you know that that the Netflix deal has a
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  Speaker 4: clearer path, and I do think that's a misconception that
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  Speaker 4: the other side has trying to perpetuate.
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  Speaker 3: Let me ask you one question. It's a concern that
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  Speaker 3: I and many others have had that are conservatives, and
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  Speaker 3: that is that Netflix has been seen through many conservatives
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  Speaker 3: as an advocate for more of the left and woke
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  Speaker 3: type programming. Without going into you know, exact details, in general,
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  Speaker 3: that has been a major concern, and there has been
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  Speaker 3: a real concern that look, if you guys get even
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  Speaker 3: more powerful, bigger than what you are now, that that
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  Speaker 3: is going to explode in some way. And then the
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  Speaker 3: choice of hey, are our conservative stories or traditional stories
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  Speaker 3: are historically traditional you know, context stories not going to
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  Speaker 3: be told because of quote propaganda. How how would you
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  Speaker 3: answer and respond to that? Because that is a question.
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  Speaker 3: At Senator Holly talked about the hearing some of those
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  Speaker 3: clips people saw. I think it's a fair question ask well.
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  Speaker 4: Look, I appreciate you asking it, and I appreciate the
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  Speaker 4: opportunity to clear up what I think is a misconception here. Look,
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  Speaker 4: our mission at Netflix is to entertain the world and
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  Speaker 4: to run a profitable business. And in order to do that,
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  Speaker 4: you know, we need to provide something for everyone all
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  Speaker 4: across the spectrum, whether you're left, right, center, And look
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  Speaker 4: at the content we have. Right, We've got action movies,
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  Speaker 4: We've got rom coms, we got faith based shows, we've
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  Speaker 4: got documentaries about the military, westerns, you name it. And look,
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  Speaker 4: one of my favorite shows not one that you would
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  Speaker 4: traditionally think of as conservative, but I think it really
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  Speaker 4: is is Cobra Kai, Right. And the main character there,
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  Speaker 4: Johnny Lawrence, not only does he kick bud at Karate,
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  Speaker 4: but this is a blue collar guy who's set up
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  Speaker 4: that America has gotten too soft, too politically correct, and
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  Speaker 4: throughout the show he pushes back on that, and I
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  Speaker 4: think it's great. Look, I'm a conservative. I worked in
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  Speaker 4: the Trump White House, and I'm look, Ben, I'm not
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  Speaker 4: going to deny that there are shows I don't like, right,
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  Speaker 4: but I can just turn those off, right, I can
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  Speaker 4: just put on something else, because we have a lot
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  Speaker 4: of content on our platform. And I will say, as
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  Speaker 4: a conservative, what I'm proud of at Netflix is that
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  Speaker 4: we stand up for the First Amendment and we stand
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  Speaker 4: up for free speech. And there have been times in
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  Speaker 4: the past where we have had folks on the left
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  Speaker 4: who have wanted to cancel us and to cancel our
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  Speaker 4: programming because it was offensive to them. There was a
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  Speaker 4: very famous example a couple of years ago with Dave
• 11:29
  Speaker 4: Chappelle made some jokes that they didn't like, and we
• 11:32
  Speaker 4: stood up for it and we said, no, we're not
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  Speaker 4: going to pull that down. We don't censor. And look,
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  Speaker 4: that's the same reason we're not in China. You know,
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  Speaker 4: we're not in China. We're not going to do that.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, it's a great point and we're going to keep
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  Speaker 3: following this. Clett Williams, I appreciate you so much coming
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  Speaker 3: on chief Global Affairs Officer with Netflix, and I appreciate
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  Speaker 3: you answering that question what you did. I also think
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  Speaker 3: it's great to know that there are people like you that,
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  Speaker 3: by the way, came out of the Trump White House
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  Speaker 3: that are now high up at Netflix. I find that
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  Speaker 3: comforting to know I have an ally or friend there
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  Speaker 3: that's looking out for my interest in my family's interests
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  Speaker 3: as well. So I appreciate you coming on and talking
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  Speaker 3: about that.
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  Speaker 2: Thank you for listening to the forty seven Morning Update
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  Speaker 2: with Ben Ferguson. Please make sure you hit subscribe wherever
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  Speaker 2: you're listening to this podcast right now and for more
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  Speaker 2: in depth news, also subscribe to the Ben Ferguson podcast
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  Speaker 2: and we will see you back here on Monday morning.