On today’s episode, Variety’s Jem Aswad details our annual Hitmakers issue, featuring cover star Sabrina Carpenter. He details the year-long effort that goes into assembling the survey of the year’s top 25 tunes. And Todd Spangler gives us an update on the state of bidding for Warner Bros. Discovery.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
Welcome to Daily Variety, your daily dose of news and
analysis for entertainment industry insiders. It's Wednesday, December third, twenty
twenty five. I'm your host, Cynthia Lyttleton. I am co
editor in chief of Variety alongside Ramin Setuda. I'm in
la He's in New York, and Variety has reporters around
the world covering the business of entertainment. In today's episode,
(00:30):
we'll hear from Variety's music chief jam Oswad on how
we assemble our annual Hitmakers issue, which is published today
in print and online. It's a survey of the artists
and the teams behind the year's biggest music hits. The
Irrepressible Sabrina Carpenter is the radiance star on our cover.
And then we'll catch up on the Warner Brothers Discovery
bidding process with Todd Spangler. But before we get to that,
(00:53):
here are a few headlines just in this morning that
you need to know. This is the best time to
be a beatlemaniac since the end anthology series came out.
Sam Mendes is working on his four Beatle biopicks now.
The BBC and Turbine studios are working on a six
part drama revolving around the band's famous early stint in
Hamburg in the reaperbaand District. Hamburg Days is based on
(01:17):
the memoir of the legendary Bassis Klaus Worman Vorman was
a young guy in Hamburg who found himself in the
right club at the right time to intersect with history.
Mak Shau, everybody's talking about the snaffoos found in the
mad Men episodes that have become available on HBO Max.
This is a digital age problem of formatting and aspect ratio,
(01:40):
and this won't be the last time this happens. Sympathies
to mad Men creator Matt Weiner, who poured his heart
and soul into every frame. Rip Tammy Rosen, the longtime
head of communications for the Tribeca Film Festival and Sundance Institute,
has died at the age of forty nine. Rosen was
a force of nature, as you have to be to
(02:00):
get a film festival off the ground. Deep the sympathies
to her friends and family. All of these stories and
so much more can be found on Variety dot com
Right now. Now it's time for conversations with ridy journalists
about news and trends and show business. Jem Oswad, Variety's
executive editor of Music, discusses the year long process of
(02:24):
doing the research on the unsung heroes behind the pop
hits of the year and the challenge of capturing this
moment for our cover star, Sabrina Carpenter as she ascends
into arena headlining status. Here's a bite with Carpenter from
our very fun cover story video that indicates how serious
she is about understanding her audience. And that's followed by
(02:46):
my conversation with Jim.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
I really realized on the emails I can't send tour
how people value spontaneity in shows and also feeling like
they got something different in their city in that night
that no other city has gotten, and or just an
experience that they felt really special from. And so I
wanted to find a way to do that on this tour,
and we decided to make our own game of spin
(03:10):
the bottle, and instead of everyone kissing each other, we
don't do that. We spin the bottle and we sing
a different song every night. So it started because I
love doing covers. Honestly, if I could just be an
abba cover band on the side, I probably would that's
not a secret to anybody. But we've done We've done
quite a few Abba covers, but the most popular, I
would say on the store is Mama Miah.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
That was just like, by far the most fun for
everybody who've done All.
Speaker 3 (03:34):
Your Love on Me.
Speaker 1 (03:34):
We did nine to five, that was really fun.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
We've done kiss Me. We've done some really really great songs.
We did Super Freak in LA.
Speaker 1 (03:43):
Because obviously, jam oswad you are not even two hours
after landing at LAX coming in for the celebration that
is hit Makers, welcome back to LA.
Speaker 3 (03:57):
Well, thank you for that, and I figure I might
as well get started because this is all I'm going
to be doing for the next five days.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
Hit Makers. For the uninitiated, it's one of the biggest
print editions of the year that we do. It's one
of the biggest data efforts that we do around music
every year, where we basically take the measure of the
year's top twenty five songs, the most played twenty five songs.
And my favorite thing about this issue is that it
is consciously, from the moment it was birthed nine years ago,
(04:24):
about celebrating the people behind these songs. Of course, the
great artists and of course the songwriters. But behind every
great song is a team of people pushing the rock
up the hill. Nothing becomes a number one hit on
its own, and this issue always really looks at the
people from marketing and communications, to the producers, to the
(04:45):
contributor that made that one suggestion that turned good into great,
And when you get to the finish line, we always
congratulate you more than once because it's a real achievement.
How do you feel about this year's package?
Speaker 3 (04:57):
The challenge with hitmakers all along has been to keep
making it better because, to my continuing astonishment, it gets
bigger every single year.
Speaker 1 (05:07):
Again, I just want to stress there's so much research.
There's beat reporting three hundred and sixty five days of
the year to know who the power players are here.
But it really does show a lot of expertise of
our mighty music team, which you lead. So you start
by identifying the top twenty five songs. We get help
from that from our PMC siblings at Billboard and Luminate,
(05:28):
and we're very grateful for that.
Speaker 3 (05:30):
Quite honestly, I start getting the year to date charts
from Luminate starting in March. Usually by early July, I
have a general sense of what the charts are going
to look like, and by then you pretty much know
what the flavor of the year is.
Speaker 1 (05:45):
Certainly by summer it was looking like a Sabrina Carpenter
kind of year. And she also has Espresso. That incredible
earworm hit is in fact number twenty five, so it.
Speaker 3 (05:55):
Was not a hard decision to come to Sabrina Carpenter.
This has been a syndrome with the chart this year.
There are a lot of songs that have hung in
since twenty twenty four. It's something like thirteen songs from
twenty twenty four are on the twenty twenty five chart.
Four songs that were in the top ten last year
are also in the top ten this year.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
Looking at the chart page here, and you've got Shabouzi
and that incredible bar song, and Teddy Swims with Lose
Control and Benson Boone with Beautiful Things. But the champion
of that has got to be Pink Pony Club from
Chapel Roon, which I think general listeners might be surprised
to be reminded that that first came out in twenty
twenty and it had a long, slow but steady march
(06:38):
up the charts. It's especially cool to hear it when
you're in West Hollywood or driving through West Hollywood. You
really feel like you're part of a moment.
Speaker 3 (06:45):
The song has sort of been the centerpiece of her narrative.
They insisted on releasing it in her original record deal
with Atlantic Records. They released it in twenty twenty. It
was right around the beginning of the pandemic and she
was really at least from a record contract. Shortly after
that they managed to retain the rights to the song,
and I saw chapel Roone at the end of February
(07:08):
twenty twenty three. It was when this current arc was
just beginning, and I wrote this article that you can
find right now. It was just basically Chapel Rone meets
her moment because I was so blown away. I knew
a couple of her songs, but it was just like,
something is really going on here. You do this long enough,
you walk into a room and you're like, something's happening.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
Here, jem I cannot resist. Something is happening, and you
do know what it is, mister oswod Back to our
cover star, the challenge of doing a cover profile with
somebody like Sabrina carpenter who is in a white hot moment,
is that she gets a lot of coverage and in
the age of social media, there's not a lot of
mystery about people's lives. But at the same time, Sabrina
(07:51):
has been in the thick of things. And there was
of course quite a hubbub about her the original album
cover for her new album, Man's Best Friend, So there
was a lot for Salome hilu Ark fantastic correspondent to
unpack as she sat down with her in New York.
And it's a great conversation. I won't spoil it, but
she addresses the Man's Best Friend desta directly and a
(08:13):
lot of other things. It struck me reading it that
this is a person that is maturing as an artist.
Speaker 3 (08:18):
The thing that was remarkable to me is that she
was on our cover fourteen or fifteen months ago. And
when you're doing the kind of in depth cover stories
that we do, that's a challenge. But Sabrina is that
much farther along in her career. I mean, this is
really her growth period as a headlining artist, and I
wondered how we were going to do it differently. We
(08:40):
assigned a different writer to it, obviously, but what was
very interesting is that Sabrina was at the beginning of
the arc that she's on now. It was pegged to
when Short and Sweet had just come out. It was
much more about her career, it was much more about
her past. But this time Slome was very interesting. I
said to her that this article felt like a glimpse
(09:03):
into a gen Z girl's world in a way, because
she observed fans in the girl's room at Sabrina's Madison
Square Garden concert on Halloween and what they were talking
about and the fact that she and Sabrina were the
same age made for a connection and an understanding.
Speaker 1 (09:21):
It's always about casting that writer. Well again, congratulation, thank
you for all the labor on this issue. You did
it well and on deadline and so appreciative. And you're
not done yet though. You have MC duties on Saturday
when we have the awesome hit Maker's Brunch, which is
truly one of my favorite events on the calendar, and
I know for the music biz from all the unsung
(09:43):
heroes behind all these hits. It's a really fun community
thing just as we ease into the December holidays, and
you are a great host and Before we sign off
after all this talk about hitmakers, we have to give
a shout out to Variety's former music editor Shirley Halprin,
who's now Coeic of Rolling Stone. She is the mother
of hitmakers this when she was with us, and we
(10:04):
are grateful that she built such a sturdy franchise that
Jem You and the team have expanded on.
Speaker 3 (10:09):
What's become really a very special event for the music community.
People like the fact that it's kind of chill. It's
a brunch on a Saturday, it's invite only, people get
dressed up, and it's really just an opportunity to celebrate everybody.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
And now we'll check in with Variety Business editor Todd
Spangler on round two of bidding for Warner Brothers Discovery.
Will there be around three we'll discuss the state of
play for the three contenders, Ara, Mount, Comcast and Netflix.
Tad Spangler, thanks for joining me. Hello, Hello, There's a
lot going on. The Warner Brothers Discovery situation is kind
(10:47):
of a follow a bouncing ball. They are running a
tight ship. It's taken a while for a Variety and
other publications to really crack the details of what those
second round bids are but we are seeing some signs
of light as to what's in the bid, what people
are asking for, what they're not asking for. Let me
start by asking you dot catch us up in terms
of what's the state of play here.
Speaker 4 (11:08):
So we know that Netflix, Comcast, and Paramounts Guide Dance,
they all came back with higher bids. We don't know
what they're offering in terms of the dollar amount, but
what we do know is that Paramount's Guide Dance, which
just was created in August through skuy Dances take over Repairmount,
they up their bid and they're now going to Warner
(11:31):
Brothers Discovery with an offer for the entire company with
backing from three of these Middle Eastern sovereign well funds.
Speaker 1 (11:38):
Yes, that was an interesting development today, and not to
be labor this point, but our terrific correspondent in Rome,
Nick Vivrelli, and yourself reported about a week ago that
such a deal was in progress. At the time that
was met with some pretty fierce resistance from the Paramount's
Guidance camp. It sometimes does happen in reporting that you
(11:59):
can be a little ahead of the news when it's real,
and of course in deal making, nothing's done till it's done,
But we also knew there was more to the story,
and this morning there was that more to the story.
So what's significant about this beyond the fact that Paramount
has some serious financial muscle.
Speaker 4 (12:15):
Well, so this would be an all cash offer. We
understand that Netflix and Concasts would be mostly cash but
some equity as well, so obviously an all cash bid
is more attractive to the seller. The Ellisons have gone
to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Abu Dhabi to say, hey,
would you join this bid and own a piece of
(12:36):
the new company if the bid is successful.
Speaker 1 (12:38):
We certainly know from covering the wide world of media
and entertainment that Saudi Arabia, Qatar their Middle Eastern countries
are very, very eager to become much bigger players on
the world stage of media than the region has been
in the past, and certainly especially in Saudi Arabia, we
know that there is this awakening that it could be
(13:00):
hampering the country's growth and it's emergence on the world
stage not to have a more robust media sector. In
the last decade, they have been trying to change that,
so it comes as no surprise that they would be
interested in these assets. I mean, that is a lot
of financial firepower. It seems to me like David Ellison
(13:20):
is really trying to make the Warner Brothers Discovery board,
because that's who will decide this. He's trying to make
them an offer they literally can't refuse.
Speaker 4 (13:28):
Yes, that's been a strategy from the get come.
Speaker 1 (13:31):
And there is some I do know there is some
frustration in the c suite at Warner Brothers about that,
because I believe that their preference would be to have
continued with the plan They had planned to go forward
and separate sometime next year the Warner Brothers studio and
the HBO and HBO Max streamer from the existing cable channels,
(13:51):
the same process that NBC Universal is in the process
of now splitting off from now, MS Now and CNBC
and all of those channels. And I think if you
asked internally, the Warner Brothers preference would be to go
through with that. But David Ellison had other ideas and
has really forced this auction. And then what is your
(14:11):
sense of the Comcast of it all.
Speaker 4 (14:13):
What we've known for several weeks now is Comcast is interested,
like Netflix, in just the HBO Max and Warner Brothers
Studios side of it. So in that scenario, the idea
is that you would merge basically Peacock with HBO Max
and you would combine the studio operations into Mega's studio.
(14:35):
That you know, combines everything under the Universal umbrella with
everything under the Warner Brothers umbrella. So that would be
the plan there. For Netflix, we don't know what the
thinking is in terms of do they merge HBO Max
into Netflix proper, do they keep them separate brands for
some reason for a period of time. Those certain details
aren't clear just yet.
Speaker 1 (14:54):
We've heard speculation that the Netflix deal is also largely cash,
and it's into interesting because if one of the three
could use stock as currency, you'd think it would be Netflix.
Speaker 4 (15:05):
That's right.
Speaker 1 (15:05):
What is your hunch on the prospect that the Warner
Brothers board goes through this perhaps even another round and says,
you know, these just aren't compelling. We think we're going
to continue on with our plan and we will be
able to do better when these assets are discrete. Do
you have any sense of like, is that a path
that is still viable for them?
Speaker 2 (15:26):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (15:27):
I think that is a possibility. But again, what we
don't know is what is the premium that these three
bidders are offering. And it gets a little bit apple
store oranges when you're saying, what is the valuation of
Warner Brothers sliced off from the linear TV business? And
then how do you value that against a paramount skuidance
(15:47):
bid for the entire company? It gets tricky, right if
the Warnerer Discovery board feels that they have more upside
and going it alone making an acquisition play of somebody else,
If they believe that that's a stronger hand, they'll stick
with the split and go that way for sure.
Speaker 1 (16:05):
At the same time, we all know the words fiduciary duty,
and if the Ellisons throw a ton of money at
the company at a time when media asset valuation is
very volatile, it will be hard for them on a
purely fiduciary duty if they just put up a ton
of money. And when you're aligning not one, not two,
but three Middle Eastern sovereign wealth funds, I'm guessing you're
(16:28):
lining up a fair amount of coin.
Speaker 4 (16:29):
Yeah, but to your point, they could decide, Hey, we
want to control our own destiny and we think it'll
be better for investors if we go it alone.
Speaker 1 (16:38):
So much to watch, well, Todd, that keeps us all employed.
Thank you for your.
Speaker 4 (16:43):
Time, Thanks Cyndia.
Speaker 1 (16:48):
As we close out today's episode, here's a few things
we're watching for. Here comes Variety's Actors on Actors Season
twenty three. The rollout of the bi annual video interview
series begins ont December fifth, and we'll have one a
day through Wednesday, December seventeenth. We have a new partnership
with CNN to air the episodes, and they'll also be
(17:09):
available on Variety dot com and YouTube. As ever, there
are thirteen pairings this time. We start with Ariana Grande
and Adam Sandler and we end with Jennifer Lawrence and
Leonardo DiCaprio. Congrats to my coeic Ramin Setuta, who leads
the charge on this great franchise. Don't miss my colleague
Brian Steinberg's interesting report on a commercial coming to the
(17:31):
Super Bowl in February. It involves Svedka Vodka and AI.
We love to hear from our listeners, so please send thoughts, gripes,
and other feedback about Daily Variety to podcasts at Variety
dot com, and while you're at it, go to Variety
dot com and subscribe to Variety's Precious Print magazine Before
we go. Congrats to Ethan Hawk, the great actor and
(17:54):
star of FX's The Lowdown, will receive the Career Achievement
Honor at the Palm Springs Internet National Film Festival on
January three. Thanks for listening. This episode was written and
reported by me Cynthia Littleton, with contributions from jem Oswad
and Todd Spangler. Stick snickt Hick Picks. Please leave us
a review at the podcast platform of your choice, and
(18:15):
please tune in tomorrow for another episode of Daily Variety
Welcome to Daily Variety, your daily dose of news and
analysis for entertainment industry insiders. It's Wednesday, December third, twenty
twenty five. I'm your host, Cynthia Lyttleton. I am co
editor in chief of Variety alongside Ramin Setuda. I'm in
la He's in New York, and Variety has reporters around
the world covering the business of entertainment. In today's episode,
(00:30):
we'll hear from Variety's music chief jam Oswad on how
we assemble our annual Hitmakers issue, which is published today
in print and online. It's a survey of the artists
and the teams behind the year's biggest music hits. The
Irrepressible Sabrina Carpenter is the radiance star on our cover.
And then we'll catch up on the Warner Brothers Discovery
bidding process with Todd Spangler. But before we get to that,
(00:53):
here are a few headlines just in this morning that
you need to know. This is the best time to
be a beatlemaniac since the end anthology series came out.
Sam Mendes is working on his four Beatle biopicks now.
The BBC and Turbine studios are working on a six
part drama revolving around the band's famous early stint in
Hamburg in the reaperbaand District. Hamburg Days is based on
(01:17):
the memoir of the legendary Bassis Klaus Worman Vorman was
a young guy in Hamburg who found himself in the
right club at the right time to intersect with history.
Mak Shau, everybody's talking about the snaffoos found in the
mad Men episodes that have become available on HBO Max.
This is a digital age problem of formatting and aspect ratio,
(01:40):
and this won't be the last time this happens. Sympathies
to mad Men creator Matt Weiner, who poured his heart
and soul into every frame. Rip Tammy Rosen, the longtime
head of communications for the Tribeca Film Festival and Sundance Institute,
has died at the age of forty nine. Rosen was
a force of nature, as you have to be to
(02:00):
get a film festival off the ground. Deep the sympathies
to her friends and family. All of these stories and
so much more can be found on Variety dot com
Right now. Now it's time for conversations with ridy journalists
about news and trends and show business. Jem Oswad, Variety's
executive editor of Music, discusses the year long process of
(02:24):
doing the research on the unsung heroes behind the pop
hits of the year and the challenge of capturing this
moment for our cover star, Sabrina Carpenter as she ascends
into arena headlining status. Here's a bite with Carpenter from
our very fun cover story video that indicates how serious
she is about understanding her audience. And that's followed by
(02:46):
my conversation with Jim.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
I really realized on the emails I can't send tour
how people value spontaneity in shows and also feeling like
they got something different in their city in that night
that no other city has gotten, and or just an
experience that they felt really special from. And so I
wanted to find a way to do that on this tour,
and we decided to make our own game of spin
(03:10):
the bottle, and instead of everyone kissing each other, we
don't do that. We spin the bottle and we sing
a different song every night. So it started because I
love doing covers. Honestly, if I could just be an
abba cover band on the side, I probably would that's
not a secret to anybody. But we've done We've done
quite a few Abba covers, but the most popular, I
would say on the store is Mama Miah.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
That was just like, by far the most fun for
everybody who've done All.
Speaker 3 (03:34):
Your Love on Me.
Speaker 1 (03:34):
We did nine to five, that was really fun.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
We've done kiss Me. We've done some really really great songs.
We did Super Freak in LA.
Speaker 1 (03:43):
Because obviously, jam oswad you are not even two hours
after landing at LAX coming in for the celebration that
is hit Makers, welcome back to LA.
Speaker 3 (03:57):
Well, thank you for that, and I figure I might
as well get started because this is all I'm going
to be doing for the next five days.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
Hit Makers. For the uninitiated, it's one of the biggest
print editions of the year that we do. It's one
of the biggest data efforts that we do around music
every year, where we basically take the measure of the
year's top twenty five songs, the most played twenty five songs.
And my favorite thing about this issue is that it
is consciously, from the moment it was birthed nine years ago,
(04:24):
about celebrating the people behind these songs. Of course, the
great artists and of course the songwriters. But behind every
great song is a team of people pushing the rock
up the hill. Nothing becomes a number one hit on
its own, and this issue always really looks at the
people from marketing and communications, to the producers, to the
(04:45):
contributor that made that one suggestion that turned good into great,
And when you get to the finish line, we always
congratulate you more than once because it's a real achievement.
How do you feel about this year's package?
Speaker 3 (04:57):
The challenge with hitmakers all along has been to keep
making it better because, to my continuing astonishment, it gets
bigger every single year.
Speaker 1 (05:07):
Again, I just want to stress there's so much research.
There's beat reporting three hundred and sixty five days of
the year to know who the power players are here.
But it really does show a lot of expertise of
our mighty music team, which you lead. So you start
by identifying the top twenty five songs. We get help
from that from our PMC siblings at Billboard and Luminate,
(05:28):
and we're very grateful for that.
Speaker 3 (05:30):
Quite honestly, I start getting the year to date charts
from Luminate starting in March. Usually by early July, I
have a general sense of what the charts are going
to look like, and by then you pretty much know
what the flavor of the year is.
Speaker 1 (05:45):
Certainly by summer it was looking like a Sabrina Carpenter
kind of year. And she also has Espresso. That incredible
earworm hit is in fact number twenty five, so it.
Speaker 3 (05:55):
Was not a hard decision to come to Sabrina Carpenter.
This has been a syndrome with the chart this year.
There are a lot of songs that have hung in
since twenty twenty four. It's something like thirteen songs from
twenty twenty four are on the twenty twenty five chart.
Four songs that were in the top ten last year
are also in the top ten this year.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
Looking at the chart page here, and you've got Shabouzi
and that incredible bar song, and Teddy Swims with Lose
Control and Benson Boone with Beautiful Things. But the champion
of that has got to be Pink Pony Club from
Chapel Roon, which I think general listeners might be surprised
to be reminded that that first came out in twenty
twenty and it had a long, slow but steady march
(06:38):
up the charts. It's especially cool to hear it when
you're in West Hollywood or driving through West Hollywood. You
really feel like you're part of a moment.
Speaker 3 (06:45):
The song has sort of been the centerpiece of her narrative.
They insisted on releasing it in her original record deal
with Atlantic Records. They released it in twenty twenty. It
was right around the beginning of the pandemic and she
was really at least from a record contract. Shortly after
that they managed to retain the rights to the song,
and I saw chapel Roone at the end of February
(07:08):
twenty twenty three. It was when this current arc was
just beginning, and I wrote this article that you can
find right now. It was just basically Chapel Rone meets
her moment because I was so blown away. I knew
a couple of her songs, but it was just like,
something is really going on here. You do this long enough,
you walk into a room and you're like, something's happening.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
Here, jem I cannot resist. Something is happening, and you
do know what it is, mister oswod Back to our
cover star, the challenge of doing a cover profile with
somebody like Sabrina carpenter who is in a white hot moment,
is that she gets a lot of coverage and in
the age of social media, there's not a lot of
mystery about people's lives. But at the same time, Sabrina
(07:51):
has been in the thick of things. And there was
of course quite a hubbub about her the original album
cover for her new album, Man's Best Friend, So there
was a lot for Salome hilu Ark fantastic correspondent to
unpack as she sat down with her in New York.
And it's a great conversation. I won't spoil it, but
she addresses the Man's Best Friend desta directly and a
(08:13):
lot of other things. It struck me reading it that
this is a person that is maturing as an artist.
Speaker 3 (08:18):
The thing that was remarkable to me is that she
was on our cover fourteen or fifteen months ago. And
when you're doing the kind of in depth cover stories
that we do, that's a challenge. But Sabrina is that
much farther along in her career. I mean, this is
really her growth period as a headlining artist, and I
wondered how we were going to do it differently. We
(08:40):
assigned a different writer to it, obviously, but what was
very interesting is that Sabrina was at the beginning of
the arc that she's on now. It was pegged to
when Short and Sweet had just come out. It was
much more about her career, it was much more about
her past. But this time Slome was very interesting. I
said to her that this article felt like a glimpse
(09:03):
into a gen Z girl's world in a way, because
she observed fans in the girl's room at Sabrina's Madison
Square Garden concert on Halloween and what they were talking
about and the fact that she and Sabrina were the
same age made for a connection and an understanding.
Speaker 1 (09:21):
It's always about casting that writer. Well again, congratulation, thank
you for all the labor on this issue. You did
it well and on deadline and so appreciative. And you're
not done yet though. You have MC duties on Saturday
when we have the awesome hit Maker's Brunch, which is
truly one of my favorite events on the calendar, and
I know for the music biz from all the unsung
(09:43):
heroes behind all these hits. It's a really fun community
thing just as we ease into the December holidays, and
you are a great host and Before we sign off
after all this talk about hitmakers, we have to give
a shout out to Variety's former music editor Shirley Halprin,
who's now Coeic of Rolling Stone. She is the mother
of hitmakers this when she was with us, and we
(10:04):
are grateful that she built such a sturdy franchise that
Jem You and the team have expanded on.
Speaker 3 (10:09):
What's become really a very special event for the music community.
People like the fact that it's kind of chill. It's
a brunch on a Saturday, it's invite only, people get
dressed up, and it's really just an opportunity to celebrate everybody.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
And now we'll check in with Variety Business editor Todd
Spangler on round two of bidding for Warner Brothers Discovery.
Will there be around three we'll discuss the state of
play for the three contenders, Ara, Mount, Comcast and Netflix.
Tad Spangler, thanks for joining me. Hello, Hello, There's a
lot going on. The Warner Brothers Discovery situation is kind
(10:47):
of a follow a bouncing ball. They are running a
tight ship. It's taken a while for a Variety and
other publications to really crack the details of what those
second round bids are but we are seeing some signs
of light as to what's in the bid, what people
are asking for, what they're not asking for. Let me
start by asking you dot catch us up in terms
of what's the state of play here.
Speaker 4 (11:08):
So we know that Netflix, Comcast, and Paramounts Guide Dance,
they all came back with higher bids. We don't know
what they're offering in terms of the dollar amount, but
what we do know is that Paramount's Guide Dance, which
just was created in August through skuy Dances take over Repairmount,
they up their bid and they're now going to Warner
(11:31):
Brothers Discovery with an offer for the entire company with
backing from three of these Middle Eastern sovereign well funds.
Speaker 1 (11:38):
Yes, that was an interesting development today, and not to
be labor this point, but our terrific correspondent in Rome,
Nick Vivrelli, and yourself reported about a week ago that
such a deal was in progress. At the time that
was met with some pretty fierce resistance from the Paramount's
Guidance camp. It sometimes does happen in reporting that you
(11:59):
can be a little ahead of the news when it's real,
and of course in deal making, nothing's done till it's done,
But we also knew there was more to the story,
and this morning there was that more to the story.
So what's significant about this beyond the fact that Paramount
has some serious financial muscle.
Speaker 4 (12:15):
Well, so this would be an all cash offer. We
understand that Netflix and Concasts would be mostly cash but
some equity as well, so obviously an all cash bid
is more attractive to the seller. The Ellisons have gone
to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Abu Dhabi to say, hey,
would you join this bid and own a piece of
(12:36):
the new company if the bid is successful.
Speaker 1 (12:38):
We certainly know from covering the wide world of media
and entertainment that Saudi Arabia, Qatar their Middle Eastern countries
are very, very eager to become much bigger players on
the world stage of media than the region has been
in the past, and certainly especially in Saudi Arabia, we
know that there is this awakening that it could be
(13:00):
hampering the country's growth and it's emergence on the world
stage not to have a more robust media sector. In
the last decade, they have been trying to change that,
so it comes as no surprise that they would be
interested in these assets. I mean, that is a lot
of financial firepower. It seems to me like David Ellison
(13:20):
is really trying to make the Warner Brothers Discovery board,
because that's who will decide this. He's trying to make
them an offer they literally can't refuse.
Speaker 4 (13:28):
Yes, that's been a strategy from the get come.
Speaker 1 (13:31):
And there is some I do know there is some
frustration in the c suite at Warner Brothers about that,
because I believe that their preference would be to have
continued with the plan They had planned to go forward
and separate sometime next year the Warner Brothers studio and
the HBO and HBO Max streamer from the existing cable channels,
(13:51):
the same process that NBC Universal is in the process
of now splitting off from now, MS Now and CNBC
and all of those channels. And I think if you
asked internally, the Warner Brothers preference would be to go
through with that. But David Ellison had other ideas and
has really forced this auction. And then what is your
(14:11):
sense of the Comcast of it all.
Speaker 4 (14:13):
What we've known for several weeks now is Comcast is interested,
like Netflix, in just the HBO Max and Warner Brothers
Studios side of it. So in that scenario, the idea
is that you would merge basically Peacock with HBO Max
and you would combine the studio operations into Mega's studio.
(14:35):
That you know, combines everything under the Universal umbrella with
everything under the Warner Brothers umbrella. So that would be
the plan there. For Netflix, we don't know what the
thinking is in terms of do they merge HBO Max
into Netflix proper, do they keep them separate brands for
some reason for a period of time. Those certain details
aren't clear just yet.
Speaker 1 (14:54):
We've heard speculation that the Netflix deal is also largely cash,
and it's into interesting because if one of the three
could use stock as currency, you'd think it would be Netflix.
Speaker 4 (15:05):
That's right.
Speaker 1 (15:05):
What is your hunch on the prospect that the Warner
Brothers board goes through this perhaps even another round and says,
you know, these just aren't compelling. We think we're going
to continue on with our plan and we will be
able to do better when these assets are discrete. Do
you have any sense of like, is that a path
that is still viable for them?
Speaker 2 (15:26):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (15:27):
I think that is a possibility. But again, what we
don't know is what is the premium that these three
bidders are offering. And it gets a little bit apple
store oranges when you're saying, what is the valuation of
Warner Brothers sliced off from the linear TV business? And
then how do you value that against a paramount skuidance
(15:47):
bid for the entire company? It gets tricky, right if
the Warnerer Discovery board feels that they have more upside
and going it alone making an acquisition play of somebody else,
If they believe that that's a stronger hand, they'll stick
with the split and go that way for sure.
Speaker 1 (16:05):
At the same time, we all know the words fiduciary duty,
and if the Ellisons throw a ton of money at
the company at a time when media asset valuation is
very volatile, it will be hard for them on a
purely fiduciary duty if they just put up a ton
of money. And when you're aligning not one, not two,
but three Middle Eastern sovereign wealth funds, I'm guessing you're
(16:28):
lining up a fair amount of coin.
Speaker 4 (16:29):
Yeah, but to your point, they could decide, Hey, we
want to control our own destiny and we think it'll
be better for investors if we go it alone.
Speaker 1 (16:38):
So much to watch, well, Todd, that keeps us all employed.
Thank you for your.
Speaker 4 (16:43):
Time, Thanks Cyndia.
Speaker 1 (16:48):
As we close out today's episode, here's a few things
we're watching for. Here comes Variety's Actors on Actors Season
twenty three. The rollout of the bi annual video interview
series begins ont December fifth, and we'll have one a
day through Wednesday, December seventeenth. We have a new partnership
with CNN to air the episodes, and they'll also be
(17:09):
available on Variety dot com and YouTube. As ever, there
are thirteen pairings this time. We start with Ariana Grande
and Adam Sandler and we end with Jennifer Lawrence and
Leonardo DiCaprio. Congrats to my coeic Ramin Setuta, who leads
the charge on this great franchise. Don't miss my colleague
Brian Steinberg's interesting report on a commercial coming to the
(17:31):
Super Bowl in February. It involves Svedka Vodka and AI.
We love to hear from our listeners, so please send thoughts, gripes,
and other feedback about Daily Variety to podcasts at Variety
dot com, and while you're at it, go to Variety
dot com and subscribe to Variety's Precious Print magazine Before
we go. Congrats to Ethan Hawk, the great actor and
(17:54):
star of FX's The Lowdown, will receive the Career Achievement
Honor at the Palm Springs Internet National Film Festival on
January three. Thanks for listening. This episode was written and
reported by me Cynthia Littleton, with contributions from jem Oswad
and Todd Spangler. Stick snickt Hick Picks. Please leave us
a review at the podcast platform of your choice, and
(18:15):
please tune in tomorrow for another episode of Daily Variety
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.