September 3, 2024 • 18 mins
The dynamics related to this "blackout" and how privately held DirecTV views the future of the television business model seemingly appeared to be the focus of an "analyst call" hosted by the Chief Financial Officer for the direct broadcast satellite company. From the get-go, the session, which did not include an opportunity for journalists' query, saw Ray Carpenter offer a one-sided, biased viewpoint on one of the touchiest subjects impacting TV stations today: retransmission consent, and what constitutes fair compensation.
"Price gauging" and "a lack of flexibility" programmers "institute" on distributors were just some of the comments Carpenter lobbed at The Walt Disney Co., which saw its station go dark across DirecTV and U-Verse channel lineups on Sunday at 7pm Eastern. While there are always two players involved in a carriage fee negotiation process, MVPDs have consistently pointed fingers at broadcast TV station owners as the guilty party when the loss of TV stations — by law — must come in the absence of a fresh retransmission consent agreements.
On Tuesday morning, Carpenter and DirecTV took it up a notch, and the RBR+TVBR InFOCUS Podcast, presented by dot.FM, is pleased to offer excerpts from the DirecTV analyst call — giving the broadcast media industry an opportunity to hear for themselves the DBS provider's view on retransmission consent.
"Price gauging" and "a lack of flexibility" programmers "institute" on distributors were just some of the comments Carpenter lobbed at The Walt Disney Co., which saw its station go dark across DirecTV and U-Verse channel lineups on Sunday at 7pm Eastern. While there are always two players involved in a carriage fee negotiation process, MVPDs have consistently pointed fingers at broadcast TV station owners as the guilty party when the loss of TV stations — by law — must come in the absence of a fresh retransmission consent agreements.
On Tuesday morning, Carpenter and DirecTV took it up a notch, and the RBR+TVBR InFOCUS Podcast, presented by dot.FM, is pleased to offer excerpts from the DirecTV analyst call — giving the broadcast media industry an opportunity to hear for themselves the DBS provider's view on retransmission consent.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
This is the rbr tvbr in Focus podcast. Here's your host,
Radio and Television Business Report Editor in Chief Adam R.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Jacobson.
Speaker 3 (00:14):
Hello, and welcome to the in Focus podcast, which is
presented by dot fm streaming social podcast to broadcast. Get
a dot fm domain name by heading over to get
dot fm today. Well, price gouging and a lack of
flexibility programmers institute on distributors were just some of the
comments that Ray Carpenter, chief financial Officer of DirecTV, shared
(00:39):
in a quote analyst call that he hosted on Tuesday morning,
some thirty six hours after the Walt Disney channels broadcast
and cable television channels went dark across DirecTV and U
Verse due to the lack of a fresh retransmission consent agreement.
(01:00):
Direct TV was certainly poignant and one sided in its
explanation as to how and why this took place, and,
in addition to Ray Carpenter, the CFO at DirecTV clearly
elucidating his thoughts on how it all took place, blaming
(01:22):
Walt Disney for every opportunity they had to sign a
deal that takes two parties to reach an agreement on.
There were questions from a series of analysts as far
as how quite frankly, this impacts DirecTV. We'll focus on
that as we look at the Direct TV and Disney
(01:43):
dispute in this edition of the in Focus podcast. We're
pleased to offer excerpts at this time, and we begin
at the end of mister Carpenter's commentary right before he
took questions from analysts.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
This is really what we're looking for with Disney and
Project and it's a lot of the same themes. The
issue is just at least with where we've left it
with Disney in terms of the last discussions. These are
areas that they're just not willing to work with us on,
you know, firsts. You know, we need to make sure
(02:19):
that the price of the content that we're asking our
customers to pay for alignance to the content and that
it's not being used to subsidize other projects or initiatives
that aren't making money that our customers don't benefit from.
We also think it's important that our customers get access
to content when it's released and not be put in
(02:39):
this subservient position as it relates to access. Because they
want to future at first on their platform, their DNC platform.
We need a flexibility so that we can create these
genre and more skinny packages that we know customers want. Again,
customers don't resonate with buying content as it relates to
(03:02):
a programmer. They resonate with buying paying for content that
aligns with their interests in what they care about and
ultimately that customers have choice to choose the D two
C content they want to pair with their packages. We
think that you know, having the ability to offer D
two C content and the DTC app experience is great,
(03:24):
but it shouldn't be forced down the throat of every
customer out there that is just a different, a different
version of the same problem as it relates to these
floaded packages and ultimately unlock the experience of bringing the
D two C and linear content together so that when
you're looking for what it is you want to watch,
when you're looking for how to manage your content the
(03:45):
best way, or you want new and interesting content curated
and brought to you to discover that you're not having
to work, you know, across multiple platforms, multiple accounts, and
multiple subscription services. And that would mean that we want
to be a partner in helping to distribute Disney content
both the content that is invested and provided via their
(04:10):
linear channels, but also the content that they offer on
the DTA C side. And we think all of this
could work in a way that is not only good
for both us and Disney, but most importantly for our customers.
And that's ultimately what we're focused on, and we think
Disney should be too, and so we hope that we
can bring them to the table. But you know, I
(04:32):
think many of you understand that this this dispute is
not a run of the mill dispute. This is not
the kind of dispute where we're haggling over you know,
percentage point on a rate. This is really about changing
the model in a way that gives everyone confidence that
(04:54):
this industry can survive and finally serve customers and live
up to the promise that has been out there. With
all the investment and content and all the capabilities across technology,
we can do a lot better than this, and we
think Disney should partner with us in delivering that, and
we hope that they will.
Speaker 3 (05:14):
Questions were then taken at this time.
Speaker 4 (05:18):
The first question comes from a line of Rich Greenbelt
with Light Shared Partners.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
Your lote is not open.
Speaker 5 (05:27):
Hi, Thanks for taking the question.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
Ray.
Speaker 5 (05:29):
You know, I think I got two pieces of this.
One is the obvious. I think you've got a lot
of people listening in on this conference call. I would
say most people believe, you know, you've got Monday Night
football coming up on ESPN. Charter sort of collapsed and
agreed to a deal just before Aaron Rodgers took a
snap his only snap. Why is this not the exact
(05:53):
same thing? Like, you know, you're showing force now you're
in a blackout situation and Direct TV will just bleak
kind of cave to Disney's demands when we get to
Monday Night. And then the second question is just a
very straightforward question on Venue.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
As you think about these.
Speaker 5 (06:10):
Smaller bundles, has Disney enabled you to sell this same
package that they're offering in Venue, Like can you do
that at the same pricing that they're doing with Venue
as part of this negotiation or can you comment on that?
Speaker 2 (06:24):
Would be great? Thank you? Yeah, thanks, Rich, appreciate the question, right.
I guess to start, it probably wouldn't be satisfactory to
say that, you know, one reason we wont cave is
you know, I'm a diehard Bears fan. And even though
Rogers now plays for the Jets, I'm still not interested
in watching them play because it brings back you all
(06:45):
kinds of bad memories. But I think, you know, in
addition to that, you you a similar question was asked
of us when we were when we had a dispute
the Next Star and I think our remember, even the
CEO of Next Star for that we would cave before
the season started. And you remember, this was in the
(07:06):
backdrop of us, you know, losing rights to the NFL
Sunday ticket and so you know, it seemed like it
was this perfect storm that we would just have to capitulated,
and we didn't. And the reason for that is this
is much more than, like I had mentioned at the
end of my comments, a run of the mill dispute.
(07:26):
This is, you know, more existential for us, and we
we would hate for our customers to not have access
to any of the great content that is available via
the Disney channels. But we're not playing a short term game,
you know. For us, which is a little different than
(07:47):
Charter Video is all we have videos. What we're focused
on in videos, what you know, makes up our future.
Starter has other products that they can sell and you help,
you know, sort of uh, build into whatever equation works
best for them. We need something that is going to
(08:08):
work for the long term sustainability of our video customers,
and that is all they buy from us. So the
result is there. You know, it doesn't mean that we're
not going to work as hard as we can to,
you know, to find some sort of agreement. But we
definitely did not go into this thinking, hey, let's just see,
(08:32):
you know, how much of this we can leverage before
the Monday night football game comes around, and then you know,
we'll we'll, we'll make a deal. We're prepared to take
this as long as it needs to for us to
get what is most important for us. And again I
want to stress that what we're fighting for has a
lot less to do with traditional you know, sort of
rate huh negotiations and much more around this flexibility of packaging,
(08:59):
the ability to offer for you know, the great content
that both sits within the linear framework as well as
outside of it, but to do it in a way
that meets the needs of customers, not the needs of programmers. Uh.
And that's really what we're fitly important. And you know,
we don't have any dates that are drawn on the
sand that we're going to give regardless including you know,
(09:22):
the money Football game as it released, the venue, you know,
nothing with the programmers that were offered in a vacuum,
and so you always have to look at the entirety
of the package of what they're proposing. And what I
can tell you without getting into too many of the specifics,
is just there was some flexibility as it relates to
(09:42):
replicating the venue side of the equation that was proposed,
but it came with so many other provisions that were
very detrimental to our customers and our business that you
had to be agreed to along with that. And you know,
so I can't get into the details, but what I
(10:04):
can tell you is that if it was just that
in isolation and then everything else was sort of negotiated
and agreed to on the merits of what was best,
you know, for the consumer around these principles we've been
talking about, then you know, we probably wouldn't be here today.
But what they even proposed as it relates to that
(10:25):
flexibility had so many other negative implications for all the
other content that they wanted us to agree to, both
in terms of price and penetration rates, that we just
could not could not agree to that and still believe
that we would have a business that would make sense
(10:46):
to continue to invest in and and survive longer term.
Speaker 5 (10:51):
Thanks for the detailed answers to both questions.
Speaker 2 (10:56):
Thank you.
Speaker 4 (10:58):
The next question because in right of Robert Patman, Wait,
Marfy Patison, your lonies, that.
Speaker 3 (11:04):
Will be in.
Speaker 4 (11:07):
All right, good morning. Looking back at the Charter deal template,
can you speak to how important include in America?
Speaker 1 (11:18):
Yep?
Speaker 2 (11:18):
If I okay? Great?
Speaker 4 (11:21):
So look looking back at the Charter deal template, can
you speak to how important including Disney Plus and ESDM
plus and the upcoming flagship launch is part of your
negotiations and actually paying a wholesale rate for these services?
And do you also.
Speaker 1 (11:38):
Intend or hope to reduce the number of longer tail
networks as part of the negotiations. And then just steparitely,
any details that you can share around what percent of
your total programming spend.
Speaker 4 (11:51):
Disney represents today and what the ask is from Disney
on the overall increase they're seeking. Thanks a lot.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
Yeah, let's see. So first, as it relates to embedding
the DTOC services into the packages, there is value in that,
but what's important is that it's not a replica of
the model that got us here in the first place,
where it has to be distributed and paid for by
(12:21):
one hundred percent or a large percentage of the customers.
And so again, making sure that customers have that flexibility
and choice is what's critical for us. You know, I
think there have been some reports out there that the
take rates on you know, what Charter has in terms
of Disney Plus have been pretty low and underwhelming, and
(12:44):
I don't think that has anything to do with Charter.
I think that has to do with, you know, how
that service is being pushed across a large number of customers,
of which, as great as that content is, not every
customer wants it, and so they're not going to sign
up for it, you know, even in some cases, even
(13:05):
if it's embedded already in the cost of their service.
And so, you know, we want to have the ability
to do that, but we don't want it to be
We don't think it's fair for customers who don't want
that product or service to have to pay for it,
especially you know, across a very high percentage of our customers.
(13:27):
And then what remind me of the second question again, Yeah,
I was just asking about the longer tailed networks and
then separately as it relates to what Disney represents your programming. Yeah,
on the longtail networks generally, you know, some of those networks,
(13:48):
we've just seen that the investment in them is really dwindled,
and I think you know, in particular for Disney, they
even you mentioned that you know, publicly, and so you know,
we don't mind having the ability to offer those as
it relates to our customers, but we don't think it's
something that you know, should necessarily be required or you know,
(14:13):
have a high, high penetration rate to it, and so
those would likely fall in you know, some very specific
genre packages or just be you know, a standalone all
the car and if they're not going to invest in
those particular services, then you know, there's not a lot
of value in providing them that so so that you
(14:33):
know that that's sort of our take there. So it's
not as binary or rigid as you know, you know,
all or nothing, either we have access to them or not.
It's much more where's the flexibility and choice that comes
with it, so that customers can make, you know, a
choice that better suits with their needs, whether that's within
a genre pack or you know, in all the car
(14:55):
basis for some of those you know, smaller less washed channels.
In terms of I guess, I guess the one way
to think about it. I'll try to help you do
the mosaic mask to get to you know, what you're
asking on a percentage of spend. I think you saw
we we shared, you know, some third party data that
shows you know, when you add it all up, you know,
(15:16):
roughly the content costs as it relates to Disney's about
two hundred and seventy dollars or so or sub and
then know that what they're asking for is north of that,
and the data that we're giving you know that that
we show on the slide is third party data, but
(15:37):
you know it doesn't I think it's it's definitely within
the ballpark to come to that conclusion. And so you
can kind of use that mask to get pretty close.
And then I'll just tell you in total, I mean,
we're talking about you know, just under two billion to
over two billion in annual costs for us, So it's
(16:00):
a significant percentage when you look at our overall content
just reflected by Disney.
Speaker 3 (16:09):
And that's just a sample of the hour long analyst
call hosted by DirectTV Chief financial Officer Ray Carpenter Tuesday,
September third. While the Walt Disney Company did not have
its own press conference, it did issue a statement on
Sunday in which Dana Walden and Alan Bergman, co chairman
(16:32):
for Disney Entertainment, and ESPN chairman Jimmy Pittarro said, quote,
direct TV chose to deny millions of subscribers access to
our content just as we head into the final week
of the US Open in Europe for college football and
the opening of the NFL season. While we're open to
offering DirecTV flexibility and terms which we've extended to other distributors,
(16:56):
we will not enter into an agreement that undervalues are
for folio of television channels and programs. We invest significantly
to deliver the number one brands and entertainment, news and sports,
because that's what our viewers expect and deserve. We urge
DirectTV to do what's in the best interest of their
customers and finalize a deal that would immediately restore our programming.
(17:22):
Disney then directed fans to http colin forward slash forward
slash keep my ESPN dot com for further information. And
alternate ways to access ESPN content. So whether it is
a revolution in the making or the eve of destruction
(17:42):
for the direct broadcast satellite companies DirecTV and Dish or
any MVPD, that's perhaps the next question the industry we'll
be asking, And with that we thank you for tuning
in to this radio and television business report and focus podcast.
It was presented by FM streaming social podcast or broadcast.
(18:03):
Get a dot fm domain name by heading to get
dot fm. Today on the road in New York, this
is Adamar Jacobson for the in Focus podcast. We'll see
you next time. Take care,
This is the rbr tvbr in Focus podcast. Here's your host,
Radio and Television Business Report Editor in Chief Adam R.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Jacobson.
Speaker 3 (00:14):
Hello, and welcome to the in Focus podcast, which is
presented by dot fm streaming social podcast to broadcast. Get
a dot fm domain name by heading over to get
dot fm today. Well, price gouging and a lack of
flexibility programmers institute on distributors were just some of the
comments that Ray Carpenter, chief financial Officer of DirecTV, shared
(00:39):
in a quote analyst call that he hosted on Tuesday morning,
some thirty six hours after the Walt Disney channels broadcast
and cable television channels went dark across DirecTV and U
Verse due to the lack of a fresh retransmission consent agreement.
(01:00):
Direct TV was certainly poignant and one sided in its
explanation as to how and why this took place, and,
in addition to Ray Carpenter, the CFO at DirecTV clearly
elucidating his thoughts on how it all took place, blaming
(01:22):
Walt Disney for every opportunity they had to sign a
deal that takes two parties to reach an agreement on.
There were questions from a series of analysts as far
as how quite frankly, this impacts DirecTV. We'll focus on
that as we look at the Direct TV and Disney
(01:43):
dispute in this edition of the in Focus podcast. We're
pleased to offer excerpts at this time, and we begin
at the end of mister Carpenter's commentary right before he
took questions from analysts.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
This is really what we're looking for with Disney and
Project and it's a lot of the same themes. The
issue is just at least with where we've left it
with Disney in terms of the last discussions. These are
areas that they're just not willing to work with us on,
you know, firsts. You know, we need to make sure
(02:19):
that the price of the content that we're asking our
customers to pay for alignance to the content and that
it's not being used to subsidize other projects or initiatives
that aren't making money that our customers don't benefit from.
We also think it's important that our customers get access
to content when it's released and not be put in
(02:39):
this subservient position as it relates to access. Because they
want to future at first on their platform, their DNC platform.
We need a flexibility so that we can create these
genre and more skinny packages that we know customers want. Again,
customers don't resonate with buying content as it relates to
(03:02):
a programmer. They resonate with buying paying for content that
aligns with their interests in what they care about and
ultimately that customers have choice to choose the D two
C content they want to pair with their packages. We
think that you know, having the ability to offer D
two C content and the DTC app experience is great,
(03:24):
but it shouldn't be forced down the throat of every
customer out there that is just a different, a different
version of the same problem as it relates to these
floaded packages and ultimately unlock the experience of bringing the
D two C and linear content together so that when
you're looking for what it is you want to watch,
when you're looking for how to manage your content the
(03:45):
best way, or you want new and interesting content curated
and brought to you to discover that you're not having
to work, you know, across multiple platforms, multiple accounts, and
multiple subscription services. And that would mean that we want
to be a partner in helping to distribute Disney content
both the content that is invested and provided via their
(04:10):
linear channels, but also the content that they offer on
the DTA C side. And we think all of this
could work in a way that is not only good
for both us and Disney, but most importantly for our customers.
And that's ultimately what we're focused on, and we think
Disney should be too, and so we hope that we
can bring them to the table. But you know, I
(04:32):
think many of you understand that this this dispute is
not a run of the mill dispute. This is not
the kind of dispute where we're haggling over you know,
percentage point on a rate. This is really about changing
the model in a way that gives everyone confidence that
(04:54):
this industry can survive and finally serve customers and live
up to the promise that has been out there. With
all the investment and content and all the capabilities across technology,
we can do a lot better than this, and we
think Disney should partner with us in delivering that, and
we hope that they will.
Speaker 3 (05:14):
Questions were then taken at this time.
Speaker 4 (05:18):
The first question comes from a line of Rich Greenbelt
with Light Shared Partners.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
Your lote is not open.
Speaker 5 (05:27):
Hi, Thanks for taking the question.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
Ray.
Speaker 5 (05:29):
You know, I think I got two pieces of this.
One is the obvious. I think you've got a lot
of people listening in on this conference call. I would
say most people believe, you know, you've got Monday Night
football coming up on ESPN. Charter sort of collapsed and
agreed to a deal just before Aaron Rodgers took a
snap his only snap. Why is this not the exact
(05:53):
same thing? Like, you know, you're showing force now you're
in a blackout situation and Direct TV will just bleak
kind of cave to Disney's demands when we get to
Monday Night. And then the second question is just a
very straightforward question on Venue.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
As you think about these.
Speaker 5 (06:10):
Smaller bundles, has Disney enabled you to sell this same
package that they're offering in Venue, Like can you do
that at the same pricing that they're doing with Venue
as part of this negotiation or can you comment on that?
Speaker 2 (06:24):
Would be great? Thank you? Yeah, thanks, Rich, appreciate the question, right.
I guess to start, it probably wouldn't be satisfactory to
say that, you know, one reason we wont cave is
you know, I'm a diehard Bears fan. And even though
Rogers now plays for the Jets, I'm still not interested
in watching them play because it brings back you all
(06:45):
kinds of bad memories. But I think, you know, in
addition to that, you you a similar question was asked
of us when we were when we had a dispute
the Next Star and I think our remember, even the
CEO of Next Star for that we would cave before
the season started. And you remember, this was in the
(07:06):
backdrop of us, you know, losing rights to the NFL
Sunday ticket and so you know, it seemed like it
was this perfect storm that we would just have to capitulated,
and we didn't. And the reason for that is this
is much more than, like I had mentioned at the
end of my comments, a run of the mill dispute.
(07:26):
This is, you know, more existential for us, and we
we would hate for our customers to not have access
to any of the great content that is available via
the Disney channels. But we're not playing a short term game,
you know. For us, which is a little different than
(07:47):
Charter Video is all we have videos. What we're focused
on in videos, what you know, makes up our future.
Starter has other products that they can sell and you help,
you know, sort of uh, build into whatever equation works
best for them. We need something that is going to
(08:08):
work for the long term sustainability of our video customers,
and that is all they buy from us. So the
result is there. You know, it doesn't mean that we're
not going to work as hard as we can to,
you know, to find some sort of agreement. But we
definitely did not go into this thinking, hey, let's just see,
(08:32):
you know, how much of this we can leverage before
the Monday night football game comes around, and then you know,
we'll we'll, we'll make a deal. We're prepared to take
this as long as it needs to for us to
get what is most important for us. And again I
want to stress that what we're fighting for has a
lot less to do with traditional you know, sort of
rate huh negotiations and much more around this flexibility of packaging,
(08:59):
the ability to offer for you know, the great content
that both sits within the linear framework as well as
outside of it, but to do it in a way
that meets the needs of customers, not the needs of programmers. Uh.
And that's really what we're fitly important. And you know,
we don't have any dates that are drawn on the
sand that we're going to give regardless including you know,
(09:22):
the money Football game as it released, the venue, you know,
nothing with the programmers that were offered in a vacuum,
and so you always have to look at the entirety
of the package of what they're proposing. And what I
can tell you without getting into too many of the specifics,
is just there was some flexibility as it relates to
(09:42):
replicating the venue side of the equation that was proposed,
but it came with so many other provisions that were
very detrimental to our customers and our business that you
had to be agreed to along with that. And you know,
so I can't get into the details, but what I
(10:04):
can tell you is that if it was just that
in isolation and then everything else was sort of negotiated
and agreed to on the merits of what was best,
you know, for the consumer around these principles we've been
talking about, then you know, we probably wouldn't be here today.
But what they even proposed as it relates to that
(10:25):
flexibility had so many other negative implications for all the
other content that they wanted us to agree to, both
in terms of price and penetration rates, that we just
could not could not agree to that and still believe
that we would have a business that would make sense
(10:46):
to continue to invest in and and survive longer term.
Speaker 5 (10:51):
Thanks for the detailed answers to both questions.
Speaker 2 (10:56):
Thank you.
Speaker 4 (10:58):
The next question because in right of Robert Patman, Wait,
Marfy Patison, your lonies, that.
Speaker 3 (11:04):
Will be in.
Speaker 4 (11:07):
All right, good morning. Looking back at the Charter deal template,
can you speak to how important include in America?
Speaker 1 (11:18):
Yep?
Speaker 2 (11:18):
If I okay? Great?
Speaker 4 (11:21):
So look looking back at the Charter deal template, can
you speak to how important including Disney Plus and ESDM
plus and the upcoming flagship launch is part of your
negotiations and actually paying a wholesale rate for these services?
And do you also.
Speaker 1 (11:38):
Intend or hope to reduce the number of longer tail
networks as part of the negotiations. And then just steparitely,
any details that you can share around what percent of
your total programming spend.
Speaker 4 (11:51):
Disney represents today and what the ask is from Disney
on the overall increase they're seeking. Thanks a lot.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
Yeah, let's see. So first, as it relates to embedding
the DTOC services into the packages, there is value in that,
but what's important is that it's not a replica of
the model that got us here in the first place,
where it has to be distributed and paid for by
(12:21):
one hundred percent or a large percentage of the customers.
And so again, making sure that customers have that flexibility
and choice is what's critical for us. You know, I
think there have been some reports out there that the
take rates on you know, what Charter has in terms
of Disney Plus have been pretty low and underwhelming, and
(12:44):
I don't think that has anything to do with Charter.
I think that has to do with, you know, how
that service is being pushed across a large number of customers,
of which, as great as that content is, not every
customer wants it, and so they're not going to sign
up for it, you know, even in some cases, even
(13:05):
if it's embedded already in the cost of their service.
And so, you know, we want to have the ability
to do that, but we don't want it to be
We don't think it's fair for customers who don't want
that product or service to have to pay for it,
especially you know, across a very high percentage of our customers.
(13:27):
And then what remind me of the second question again, Yeah,
I was just asking about the longer tailed networks and
then separately as it relates to what Disney represents your programming. Yeah,
on the longtail networks generally, you know, some of those networks,
(13:48):
we've just seen that the investment in them is really dwindled,
and I think you know, in particular for Disney, they
even you mentioned that you know, publicly, and so you know,
we don't mind having the ability to offer those as
it relates to our customers, but we don't think it's
something that you know, should necessarily be required or you know,
(14:13):
have a high, high penetration rate to it, and so
those would likely fall in you know, some very specific
genre packages or just be you know, a standalone all
the car and if they're not going to invest in
those particular services, then you know, there's not a lot
of value in providing them that so so that you
(14:33):
know that that's sort of our take there. So it's
not as binary or rigid as you know, you know,
all or nothing, either we have access to them or not.
It's much more where's the flexibility and choice that comes
with it, so that customers can make, you know, a
choice that better suits with their needs, whether that's within
a genre pack or you know, in all the car
(14:55):
basis for some of those you know, smaller less washed channels.
In terms of I guess, I guess the one way
to think about it. I'll try to help you do
the mosaic mask to get to you know, what you're
asking on a percentage of spend. I think you saw
we we shared, you know, some third party data that
shows you know, when you add it all up, you know,
(15:16):
roughly the content costs as it relates to Disney's about
two hundred and seventy dollars or so or sub and
then know that what they're asking for is north of that,
and the data that we're giving you know that that
we show on the slide is third party data, but
(15:37):
you know it doesn't I think it's it's definitely within
the ballpark to come to that conclusion. And so you
can kind of use that mask to get pretty close.
And then I'll just tell you in total, I mean,
we're talking about you know, just under two billion to
over two billion in annual costs for us, So it's
(16:00):
a significant percentage when you look at our overall content
just reflected by Disney.
Speaker 3 (16:09):
And that's just a sample of the hour long analyst
call hosted by DirectTV Chief financial Officer Ray Carpenter Tuesday,
September third. While the Walt Disney Company did not have
its own press conference, it did issue a statement on
Sunday in which Dana Walden and Alan Bergman, co chairman
(16:32):
for Disney Entertainment, and ESPN chairman Jimmy Pittarro said, quote,
direct TV chose to deny millions of subscribers access to
our content just as we head into the final week
of the US Open in Europe for college football and
the opening of the NFL season. While we're open to
offering DirecTV flexibility and terms which we've extended to other distributors,
(16:56):
we will not enter into an agreement that undervalues are
for folio of television channels and programs. We invest significantly
to deliver the number one brands and entertainment, news and sports,
because that's what our viewers expect and deserve. We urge
DirectTV to do what's in the best interest of their
customers and finalize a deal that would immediately restore our programming.
(17:22):
Disney then directed fans to http colin forward slash forward
slash keep my ESPN dot com for further information. And
alternate ways to access ESPN content. So whether it is
a revolution in the making or the eve of destruction
(17:42):
for the direct broadcast satellite companies DirecTV and Dish or
any MVPD, that's perhaps the next question the industry we'll
be asking, And with that we thank you for tuning
in to this radio and television business report and focus podcast.
It was presented by FM streaming social podcast or broadcast.
(18:03):
Get a dot fm domain name by heading to get
dot fm. Today on the road in New York, this
is Adamar Jacobson for the in Focus podcast. We'll see
you next time. Take care,
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