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Let's go live now to LA where Lucas is speaking with Paramount Skuidance chairman and CEO David Ellison.
We got to start with Paramount. You chase this company for a couple of years, if not longer. If you look at what they own, they have a bunch of cable networks that have been in decline for almost as long as I've been doing my job. They have a movie studio that is by most metrics, the last place movie studios the last few years at a streaming service that in terms of at least engagement is sort of
in the third tier. So why were you so interested in what do you see in the company that investors and a lot of other potential bidders did not.
Yeah, no, absolutely, it's a great question.
First, I just want to say we couldn't be more excited about the place that we're starting with the asset that we purchased. Right, we have eighty million stream subscribers. We have one of the best basically content libraries in existence with Paramount and CBS. And I also think you
need to distinguish when you talk about the linear business. Right, there's the cable, which yes, has been declined, but if you look at CBS, it actually is a remarkable asset that's been number one in prime time for seventeenth straight seasons, incredible sports rights which we're growing, and it's still highly highly profitable and cash flow perspective, and I agree with you, has not been run in the best manner for the
last fifteen years. And for me, that's all opportunity, an opportunity to really reignite the creative content engines, to navigate the transition that's required to really turn Paramount Plus into a leader in streaming, and we believe we have the ability to both win in content and also become the most technologically capable media company to effectively navigate this transition. We always looked at you know, you can look at the music business ten years ago.
We believe we can navigate that.
We also really looked at where traditional tech companies were, you know, call it ten fifteen years ago, and there is a period of time where you know, the Microsoft's the world, the Oracles of the world were being disrupted and those companies that actually disrupted themselves and transitions are now all.
Traded at all time highs. We believe we have the opportunity to do the same thing.
So you talked about streaming. You mentioned that the eighty million subscribers earlier. You know, you look at it those those monthly Nielsen reports that people pay a lot of attention to. Right are youtubes that thirteen percent of TV viewing Netflix? Is that between eight and nine most months. Paramount When you combine Paramount plus and Pluto, it sort of sits around two percent. You can correct me if
I'm off there. I think it's about right. So how do you get that up forget about thirteen or eight like Disney's in the four or five range. How do you get that up there? And you've talked about content and tech? Can you get specific on those fronts like what you're going to do?
Absolutely?
So, Look, one of the things we really believed in, like what I'll say, we're nine weeks in and I'm really proud of the momentum the team has been able to build over the last nine weeks. One of the things we really believe being the first owned and operated studio to my knowledge, since actually Walt Disney built his own shop, was that we would have the opportunity to really think long term that means long term partners with talent where you can basically say, don't just think about
your next movie or your next show. We want to build a relationship with you over a decade and actually say we're going to make your next four or five movies, your next four or five series, and really think long term and invest for long term growth. The great news and when you look at we had to win in content, I think we're well on our way to being.
Able to do that.
If you look at specifics right, we're able to get the Obviously, the UFC deal is one of the first things we announced we came over. We're incredibly proud that Activision chose to partner with us on Call of Duty, which is the most successful video game franchise of all
time with five hundred million units sold. We're able to have James Mangold come over and obviously call his one of the greatest filmmakers working to call Paramount home Boulder Light, who obviously had incredible hits like Weapons earlier this year. In addition to that, you know, we've been able to secure high profile packages for streaming with basically Paramount Plus. And then we're also really reinvigorating what we're doing in news with CBS News with the acquisition of the Free Press.
And then I think when you look at CBS's broadcast lineup, I think we have the strongest lineup, maybe arguably in the company's history. And so I think we've really successfully reinvigorated the creative content engines of the company in a really short period of time.
And I think we're going to be able to do that at scale.
So that's one two. You know, I think when you look at kind of ten thousand feet, Silicon Valley has done an excellent job of really coming into Hollywood. I mean the platform that Netflix has built, the platform that basically Amazon is built, and these are incredible companies.
I'd say the platform that Amazon has built is not very good, but they do have the benefit of Amazon behind. Even people who work at Amazon but acknowledge the product could be better.
I think when you look at the number of subscribers, I think they're doing okay. And you know, from from that standpoint, but what we really want to become. We talk about becoming the most technologically capable media company. Believe we have the capability to do that. We're bringing in the appropriate leadership. You know, we just obviously hired our CPO Dan Glasgow, who was formerly obviously running product at metaphor Facebook, who is obviously a phenomenal leader, to come
into the business. And we have really deep tech partnerships that are really going to enable, we think Paramount for the first time to actually build platforms that are competitive with Netflix, that are competitive with Amazon, and actually successfully grow in scale. And I think you've said this, You've talked about this a lot, given this moment in time that we exist in, great art and great technology need to work hand in hand together to effectuate the transition the overall businesses in.
Is there some things like concrete about the Paramount plus platform right now that you think is clearly substandard, And how like I've heard you talk about the recommendation algorithm right and how you think that could be better. Does having us a better recommendation algorithm really going to bring in ten million new customers or make people spend an extra two hours a day with your service?
So you have to do two things.
One like, let's just talk about the asset that we acquire we inherited. Right, Paramount as it exists today operates three streaming platforms, three separate texts on two different clouds, which is both inefficient and wildly expensive. So if you actually said I'm gonna if I had unlimited resources, this is not how you do.
For those who don't follow, the three services are Paramount Plus, Pluto TV, and bpt plus correct.
So we're in the process right now of basically consolidating all of those onto a single into a single stack, which will both significantly improve the operational capabilities of the product, and we're doing a lot to basically overhaul every single aspect of the stack. But also the more data that you obviously get in there, which is the more users, the better you're going to be.
Able to recommend content.
So we are we're definitely overhauling basically the product right now.
But in addition to that, to me.
Technology is really in service of the content, not the other way around, and we're going to make significantly more shows at Paramount Plus.
We are investing in sports rights. You know, when you look at the acquisition of the UFC, that.
Is the largest sport that is basically not shared between multiple platforms, and to basically and they have one hundred million fans, They've grown twenty five percent from twenty nineteen to date. They grew at that level sitting behind a double paywall. So we think when you eliminate that double paywall, it's going to open it up and make it much more accessible. Literally, one paper you fight is what a
Paramount Plus subscription is. And then basically those one hundred million fans are going to be able to get access to everything they love. And in addition to that, when you look at the overall sports strategy, which cannot be more important to us, Paramount had a really strong fall and spring sports calendar, but really light in the summer.
The football in the fall, you have March Madness. In the spring, you have.
The Masters, which which we're incredibly proud to be partners with, and now with UFC, we have a year long sports strategy and that in addition to all of the new originals that we're going to be making for p plus, there's going to be more content, there's gonna be a better tech product that's going.
To yield additional engagement and scale.
So I won't I have a follow up on that, but I'm curious because you mentioned Pluto. You've talked a lot about combining the back end. How is it that you just combine all those services into one consumer facing app where if you want to watch Pluto, you're just going to Paramount Plus.
So right now we're basically combining the back the back end. It's certainly something we've discussed and.
Explore, but not something we're planning to do right now.
Got it? And you're in the like the fun spending money, showing people you're here to reinvigorate the company phase. When does the less fun part?
So, look, one of the things that I think is actually important is this business can be operated a lot more efficiently than was operated in the past. And you know, we've obviously announced you know, two billion dollars and obviously run rate synergies. We've said we're going to meaningfully obviously exceed those targets, and from our perspective, we intend to do that as quickly as possible so that we can basically get that behind us and then have the entire team just building for the future.
So does that do cuts start before the end of the year.
You know, I can't answer that question.
Let's go to a couple other questions you probably can't answer.
Have you We're going there already.
All right, have you made an offer yet for Warner Brothers Discovery.
All right, we'll talk about tennis.
We'll get to tennis at the end. I already I don't know if you saw it. I asked Greg Peters, who is better at tennis? Him or Bill Gate? You can probably answer that question. He dodged, But.
The atention I actually can't as attention, I've never seen either of them play tennis, so I don't feel equipped to be able to do.
Let's go back to the offer for Warner Brothers Discovery.
So so, look, we're a publicly traded company, and I think you know, we're not in a position to be able comment on rumors speculation of any kind, because there's a couple of rumors and speculations obviously out there in terms of what we.
May or may not be doing. But look, what I can't comment on is.
People to kind of understand our mindset, right, And I actually think, you know, ironically, it was David Zaslov last year that said, you know, consolidation the medium business is important, and the way we approach everything is first and foremost, what's good for the talent community, what's good for our shareholders, and value creation and what's good for basically storytelling at large.
And so from our standpoint, whether we were approach any acquisition, and I actually do think there's a lot of options out there in terms of what actually might be actionable in the near future, we would approach that through the lens of wanting to make more, not less, you know, because.
The natural conclusion if you were to merge with one of those Discovery is you take two companies that combines I don't remember the content's been between the two of them, but spend billions of dollars. And much as you're combining Guidance and Paramount, you take money out. You would take money out there. Companies that merge don't tend to spend more money on the other side of it.
So what I would say, and again I'm not going to comment on Warner Brothers Discovery, but you know you said it when you talked about Paramount. You actually need more content to yield more engagement. And so we would actually want to be in the business throughout whatever lens we were looking at of actually producing more, you know, more movies, more television series, more to get to scale because you need that content, you need that great storytelling
to yield engagement. And from that standpoint, we're also in the business first and foremost of creating long term value creation.
And you know, in one of the things I think.
I hope we've we've proven obviously with our family is we are in the business of building long term value for shareholders, and I think we've done that successfully.
You mentioned there are a lot of other things out there that could be actionable. What else is on the list?
Same thing, I can't comment on it.
I'll do one more so. We were told that you actually made an offer for Warner Brothers Discovery that was rejected.
Same answer.
It seems like most people think this is I promise it's not the same question. It's the bridge to something else. Most people think that you guys are the only ones who can get that deal done. And one of the reasons is because of the relationship between your father and the current instration. How would you characterize the relationship between your family and the president at the moment?
Great question.
I think we have a we have a good relationship with the with the administration, and look, I think if you look to that, I do believe other things that have been rumored about, right are very large scale players that would affect that could potentially create monopolies obviously in
the ecosystem. And again, I think when you look at the lens of consolidation for us, I'll keep going back to it, it's always how do you create long term value creation, how do you put yourself in a position to produce more content, not less, and how do you ultimately build something that is better for the consumer, not opportunities that will create things like you know, too much pricing power. And I think if you look at our business,
I hear it all the time. The notion of going to seven different apps is not the greatest experience from the consumer's point of view.
And I think what we look for is.
Really how do we serve the consumer, how do we serve the talent community, who we are so grateful for the fact that they have really embraced us since this acquisition, and how to create long term value for shareholders. Those are going to be the lens of which we always approach everything. And what I'm and I think we have the capital and resources to be opportunistic when those opportunities arrive, and we do have a.
Good relationship, so one opportunity you took and you mentioned earlier with buying the Free Press, the track record of big media companies like Paramount buying digital media companies like the Free Press is abysmal, at least over the last several years. So why are you buying this company and what was the thought behind it?
Absolutely so one.
What our goal is in news is we want to become the most trusted destination in news media.
That is our goal.
And I don't think it's a controversial thing to say right now that the civil discourse that currently exists is not in a great place. And we basically believe in all the things that the Free Press believed in, which is the you know, we want to speak to these set twenty percent of the audience that identifies themselves as
center left to center right. We believe in the open exchange of ideas and then you know, fundamentally presenting both sides and allowing the audience to ultimately make their determination about how they feel about it. But they're presented with the facts, and we think that, you know, the Free Press recognized some of the issues that have been occurring and built a company as part of the solution to.
What issues are you referring to there.
The notion of really just saying we want to get back into the trust business, we want to get back into the truth business. And then in addition to that, when you look at news right we have I cannot properly express how much respect and admiration I have for the legacy of CBS News in sixty minutes.
It's remarkable.
But also the company does not have a digital strategy, and one of you know, which is why the Free Press was a critical part of that acquisition, because you need to be able to meet people where they are.
I'm just curious is remaining independent ish.
So basically the Free Press will obviously stay in the digital landscape in which they're going towards.
But I also think when you talk about meeting people where they.
Are, that's in broadcast news, that's obviously you know on the Free Press's website, that's in podcasts, but that's also eventually going to be in direct to consumer And we do want to actually build a home in the d TWOC platform, which to my knowledge, our competitors are not doing where you can actually go get all of that in a digital environment you're consumer, and the Free Press is an accelerate to be able to complish.
That cold doesn't the CBS already have a digital news network.
They do, but we think that this basically accelerates and supercharges it.
Basically said, you have a lot of respect to CBS News, but in bringing in someone to completely overhaul it would suggest that you thought that things weren't operating as well as they could have been. And how would you assess it, not just from a business standpoint, but from a content standpoint. Do you feel like the news that they were putting out there was where you want it to be? Do you think there are things they could be doing better or worse?
So, as I've kind of said this before, I'm not going to be in the position of ever making political statements like we're we're an entertainment company first, and we have the viewpoint of if you're breathing your audience and we basically so, and so from that standpoint, we want
to entertain our audiences first. What I will say, and I've said this and I said this in a letter I sent up to the team earlier this week, is that I do believe that this is an opportunity when you look at where things sit, that we want to be able to get back to a place where everyone can have dialogue.
We believe in civil discourse.
We believe in the open exchange and debate of ideas is how you get to the right answer. And we think that there is a responsibility with news to make sure that you were promoting that. But at the end of the day, it's always up to the viewer in the audience to decide. And we're in the business of first and foremost earning their trust and that is done over time, and we hope that we you know, we're going to work really hard to earn our audience trusts every day.
You can understand though, why when you're talking about restoring trust and speaking to every one, you know, you put someone in Barry's background as primarily as an opinion columnist, right, She's not a kind of died in the wool news reporter. And there are going to be people at CBS News, and there have been a lot of people outside of the journalists outside of CBS News already who are seem very concerned because opinion and news are typically kept separate.
And now you have of the editorial leader of this news group whose background is an opinion Yeah, well, I.
Mean Look, I'll continue to say the same thing, like, I'm not going to make a political statement.
I'm really not going to do it.
I'm not asking a political statement. But you can understand maybe why some of the staff is nervous or I'm sure your art you've got, you and your team are already ready for there to be a bunch of leaks over the next few weeks of people who don't like whatever direction it's going in.
Yeah, looks, what I think I said is like again, I'll keep going back to it. I think if you look at the value system that basically the Free Press has been operated under really does align with the value system that we believe in, which I also believe is in line with the legacy of CBS News. And if you actually go to that, I do believe there are areas where we collectively can and will do better. But I also have the utmost respect for the team that
exists there. And again, I wouldn't judge us based on what I sit here and say today, judges basically over time, as we basically proved that I mean, you know, I mean again, like this is going to be one where we're going to need to demonstrate every single day that we're obviously earning people's trust.
I obviously deeply believe in the free press.
I believe in the team at CBS News, and I believe we're going to accomplish the goal of building that trusted destination news and media.
Are you and Barry. I don't know if this counts as politics for you, but you have a lot of common ground on a big issue, which is Israel, and you have spoken publicly about it. Your company issued a statement expressing concern about how some artists were speaking about it. Why did you feel the need to speak out on that issue and how has the blowback been?
Yeah, So look, just to go back to the statement that we made, right was very simply, we made a statement that was effectively discriminating based on where somebody is from Israel, and I and I and I stand by
that statement. In addition to that, when you look at what's going on in the world, you know the fact that we are effectively at a historic piece deal with hostages being returned home as early as this week in our Monday I think that is a historical, historic accomplishment and one that we should all be happy so that those hostages can get home with their families.
I believe that there was a piece about sort of some employees of yours who were upset about the statement that you put out, And I'm just curious have you heard from it? And I know just from day to day life that there are a lot of people in the talent community who feel a little bit differently about this subject than you do. Have you heard from from any of them?
And there you know, so so obviously I saw that piece and look, the you know, we believe in the First Amendment, they are one hundred percent entitled to their opinion. We're we're we're entitled to ours and they know we haven't heard from anybody.
Else directly, got it.
We haven't talked about your dad at all. Who is the biggest shareholder in your company, I believe or what one of Yeah, the deal that you don't want to talk about that you might do would also be thanks in part to his oar jess what advice has he given you about running a big company? And what is the relationship between the two of you?
Like, so, look, we we my father and I couldn't have a better relationship. We talked just about every day or every other day, you know, Look, he's a pretty phenomenal mentor. And and I think, you know, I think, especially when you look at it from a shareholder capacity, I think he has about as good of a track record as you can get for actually creating value. You look at the growth of Oracle this year across everything he's done in our businesses and as well as you know,
our stock has obviously also performed since we closed. Yeah, and and so you know, from that standpoint, you know, he is focused on how do we maximize value for shareholders?
I think is one of the best in the world of doing that.
And I think that's a voice that everyone should be really happy about the fact that that's obviously, you know, helping to guide and steer the company. So from that standpoint, and look, the other thing I would say is, you know, I've had phenomenal mentors that I'm grateful to, you know, including Steve Jobs and David Geffen, And honestly, I'm grateful for everything I've been able to learn from them.
And we couldn't have a better relationship.
And when you say guidance deer, so are you like, how often is you talk to your dad every day? You're talking about the company every day, like is he I think a lot of people who work there want to know, right, like is ultimately you know, how involved is Larry Elson going to be in Paramount?
So look, I run the company day to day, make no mistake about that. He is the largest shareholder in the business. And I think what's important for everybody to know is the way he approaches this is.
How do we maximize value for our shareholders? And he's exceptional with that.
Given the amount of money that you guys have at your disposal, you mentioned shareholders, Like, why not just take the company private?
So great question one Actually think it's very really simple. It goes back to that question of value. We think there is actually more value and more opportunity in being a public.
Company and being in private company.
And given so your dad's you've got Paramount. Your dad seems to be involved in the new ownership consortium for TikTok in the US, we maybe have the Warner Brothers Discovery deal. What do you say to people.
No right to questions?
I can't actually answer, true, but this is this is this I think I can answer this one. What do you say to people who seem who are concerned that there's just like an an Ellison slash Ellison Trump plot to just like corner the media business.
You've got Elon with Twitter.
You know they're they're no, I know where you're going. Look it's I'm going to headline. I'm doing better.
I can uh, I can only speak to.
Look, I think I can speak to my personal state of mind? Right? Is that fair to do that?
So what I can tell you is that conversation has never once been discussed or brought up. You know, when we basically approach things, it is going back to always how do we create basically value for shareholders? And look, go back to what I've been doing, like the last fifteen years of my life, right, I mean like this is it's sorry.
I kind of look at this.
And I'm like, can we this is the last twenty plus years of my life not equate?
And what I mean by that is.
I went to film school at USC Right, I started when I literally started in this business when I was eighteen years old. I fell in love with movies when I was literally a little kid. And you know, my mom and I would go to the movies every single weekend. That's literally what we did without fail. We went fifty two weeks a year and just saw anything that was playing.
And you know, we had a VHS collection of you know at home where like me and my sister's idea of like the greatest day on a Sunday was let's go watch all the Rocky movies back to back in one day, or let's go watch the Star Wars trilogy. So I have literally loved this business and love storytelling since I was a kid.
I went to school for it.
I built sky Dance and launched it in twenty ten really with the understanding that the disruption between the bridge that has been built between Silicon Valley and Hollywood was going to happen.
We saw that over fifteen years ago.
We built a company that was, you know, the tip of the spear for that disruption on the content creation side, with one of our guiding thematics always being where entertainment is heading, right.
You know, the Slate deal we did where we got all of the.
Crown jewels in Paramounts franchises without taking things that are normally put into those kind of deals was revolutionary at the time. You know, our second series, Grayson Frankee, you know, we took to Netflix before House of Cards was released because we believed in anything, anywhere, anytime, and any device
before it had been proven. We've taken early bets into interactive and virtual reality, and we took and we took ten pole movies direct to consum during a time period where we thought that was the right thing to do. So from that standpoint, I have always loved and believed in this business.
I love storytelling.
I believe in the value of basically entertainment and media and what these stories mean and it's a privilege to get to.
Tell them in our culture.
And as it relates to news, which is the other part of the question you're asking, we really do want to be in.
The trust business first and foremost.
We really do want to talk to that seventy percent of the audience and we want to get back to having that level of civil discourse. So none of those things that have been talked about have ever been discussed inside of my relationship with my dad.
I'm the tech front because you talk about that kind of seeing the friction between Hollywood and Philicon Valley early. The other sort of big boogeyman in the news right now is AI. What is your perception of aura? Are you guys opting out of your product being in there, How are you thinking about using AI?
Yeah, so look at say two things to that, right, Like, fundamentally we are in the business of building, creating, and protecting value of intellectual property. So sore we have been in that business, we always continue to be in that business.
Look, there's a really healthy debate.
Around inputs that I don't really want to get into because we don't have enough time. But I think when you look at the outputs, those need to be protected. Copyright basically needs to be protected on the outputs of those businesses. But what I would also say is as
an industry, we do need to embrace technology. And I think if you look at artificial intelligence, there are several areas to where you know, AI is going to impact our business and and I actually think it's important to do it in a way that is responsible, that is fundamentally a tool for artists. So I'll go back to a Pixar story and forgive the SEMAI long answer to this, but I just I'll go to this as one that
I happened to be able to live through. You know, I remember basically in the you know, when Steve and John Laster basically built Pixar.
The attack on them at the time.
Was that they didn't like animators and they didn't like the medium of animation, which when you talk to either John or Steve, you know John who was a classically trained Walt Disney animator, they loved storytelling, they loved animation. What they said was, we're just giving the artists a new pencil to actually enable them to draw and create
something they've never been able to create before. And I think the reality is is much like when James Cameron, you know, in nineteen ninety two, basically started doing digital comps as opposed to optical comps, and that was a controversial thing at the time as well. I do think you were in one of these inflection point moments where the software CPU pipelines are going to start to be augmented or replaced by model drive in GPU pipelines, and there's a responsible way to do that, and there's an
irresponsible way to do that. We're going to air on the side of basically partnering with that technology to do it in a way that we think is good for artists.
My last best was a short one so that the folks in the back, don't kill me. Who's a better pilot? You were, Tom Cruise, I'm not that one.
I'll play the fifth on it. It's no Look. What I'll say is Tom is an exceptional pilot. Like I'll actually say he I was.
I started flying when I was thirteen years old, and by the time I was twenty, I was one of the top ten aerbatic pilots in the country, so literally like flying air shows like three miles an hour, fifteen feet off the ground.
So that was a wonderful chapter in my life.
But I think the training that he did to be able to do the sequences in mission impossible. The fact that he captured all of that filming in camera on top gunn Maverick. For me, he's just the gold standard and I have nothing but the most admiration respect for him.