Steve Mosko on Transitioning From Studio Life to Startup Mentality at Village Roadshow

had a long relationship with Warner Brothers. Moscow is on a mission to build out the company so that it can produce its own movies and TV shows for the first time. Here, Steve speaks candidly about making the shift from studio boss to launching a lean and scrappy start

up operation. He also shares some intriguing examples of what he learned about the media market place last year before he joined Village road Show, when he teamed with producer Jeff Robinov to raise money for Robinov's studio aid venture. Steve Moscow, CEO of Village road Show Entertainment Group, thank you so much for stopping by to talk to us today, Sintia Littleton. Good to see you. How long have we known each other? It is going back to I want

to say years right. I think Bill Clinton was definitely in office. I think it was a nappy We got to know each other. We both had many different bosses over the years, but here we are correct. It's good to see you. Yeah, it's good to see you, and it's a very very exciting move for you. He had a long run at one of the major studios, leading Sony Pictures Television at a at a very prosperous time, difficult time in the business. Now, it was always good

to me. Always it was hard, but it was always good. If you can't have fun in this business and and sort of enjoy, and you know, every time you walk on a studio a lot, if you don't have a little bit of a like a how lucky are we to be in this business, then you're probably in the

wrong business. And you've always had that spirit. I feel felt blessed every day got up in the morning and gone to work up well in October, starting in October, getting up in the morning and going to work has been your new gig as CEO of Village Road Show Entertainment. Tell us how, tell us how you became recruited to a company that has its roots in Australia and is largely known for film production. Sure, it's actually an interesting story. So there was a period of time when I left Sony.

I was looking a lot of different things. When I was trying to initially looked at buying Tribune and something's changed in the political landscape, or the CAF for broadcast stations went up and just made that a little bit more difficult, and some other things came along. But I was for a while I was out raising money with Jeff Robinov, who was a terrific executive and was at Warner Brothers, and you know, I was talking to him

about joining Studio eight. And we were out raising money, uh and making the rounds in New York and had met with the folks who owned Villa Droo with the people from Vine and um this is a funny story now, by the way, and just just a level set. This is Vine Alternative Investments and this is one of two private equity companies that in acquired a majority ownership in

Villa trod Show Vinds the majority owner gotch Okay. Anyway, we were going around and seeing KKR and I like all the big one, big private equity firms and we're having great meetings, and you know, I mean you typically you always get even if they're not interested, the meeting goes great. And I've been through enough meetings in my life to know what the good ones and bad ones are.

But the meeting we actually have a Vine was horrible and for a lot of different reasons I won't get into, but it was no one's fault, but they really didn't invest in startups similar what we were doing. And anyway, long story short to meeting did not go well. I've been to a lot of that meetings. Like I said, for me, it's just just let's get in and out of here pretty quickly. But I said the gentleman of Vine, I said, it might be a good idea of you and I have breakfast because I don't like the end

meetings on a bad note. Right, So we have breakfast at Shutters in Los Angeles and had a great breakfast and couldn't have gone better. And signing the check and he says to me, go, so what are you doing this weekend? I said, well, I'm actually giving the commencement

in my alma monitor in a couple of weeks. So at University of Delaware, so I'm finalizing the speech and he said, you're kidding me, Like I went to Delaware so on What that led to was this great another hour conversation about a lot of things we shared in common with the University of Delaware, what have you? And I said, look, if we're considering some things at Village road Show and if you're interested, I'd love to talk

to you. For a lot of different reasons, it didn't work out with Studio Aid, so I called the folks at at vying about Village Road Show and and here we are, so it would say it was the right decision. And it's been amazing. It's only been a few months, but we're hanging on this great track and I just think it's you know, it's been a it's a great

time to be in entertainment business. And I know that seems contrary to a lot of things you're here these days because there's all these big shifts which we will look back in his a few years ago, Wow, like that was historical moment. We have Disney and Fox getting together, some of the things going on with A T and T and Warners, and there's just a lot of seismatic shifts. Uh, but within that for someone like ourselves, it's great opportunity.

You can almost feel the winds of change literally literally blowing your hair. Let me ask you before I want to talk about strategy at Villa road Show, but what did you learn from that process of you were you were? You were working with Jeff robin offro has a film production venture that's based at Sony called Studio eight, And what did you learn in that process of making the round the money rounds of trying to raise money? What did you learn about what what the market is interested in,

where investors focus is. Because I would imagine that would have been a very instructive process for somebody who was about to take right the job that you have now. Well, a couple of things. One is, I think and rightly so. Jeff and I were banking on the fact that we had great reputations in our respective fields, and I think people also respect the fact we were two very different

personalities that match together very well. Um. But now that I'm involved with Village Roacho, I do see that one of the things that's very important is having access to I P Because like I said, I think it's Studio eight. It would have been a trickier road for us, um for the television piece at least um not having i

P to start with. And we can talk a little bit about Village, but you know, there's access to i P at Village Road Show, which is absolutely giving us a jump start in building our businesses, both on the film and TV side. So what you learned is if you're going to go out and raise money for any kind of studio or production business, it's extremely helpful to own or have access to IP. You kind of have to bring something other than I worked for twenty five

years and Sony I worked so many years. Warners not by the way, not that that's not important, believe me. I mean because I don't. I think we got through the door and we actually we're able to raise the money. It was so it wasn't you know, it was impossible, But in terms of building the business only going forward basis, it's it's pretty Uh, it helps have I PICK. Yeah, So you like your chances at Villa. I love our chances, very excited. So the company was has been historically known

for films. Did you know why there was a was there a sense of films as our mission? And we don't we we just don't know how to do TV or was it was it even a more conscious decision, We're just not going to be in that market until obviously, in this day and age, you can't be a content producer without being in some kind of TV or digital content. Well, here's the good news of the Drow show is an amazing brand and what I've learned in might travel so far is that it has great I mean you mentioned

Villa Droo. People have a great feeling towards it, certainly in the industry at consumers too because people I've mentioned that nothing to do with the business, Remember Villa Droho. I saw that there production you know, their logo before the matrix, and I saw it before I analyzed this,

and I saw, you know, for Mad Max. So all the movies that they invested in, um no, I think it was the strategy of the prior ownership the Australian company that their job was to finance films for Warner Brothers and by the way, did a very successful job over decades building this library with Warner Brothers of some pretty amazing films which we obviously go on or have financed. So that's what they did and that's what they were good at and I'm very grateful that they built that.

So I think when Vine came in, UM, I think they looked at the business and said, well, you know, if we're gonna grow the company, we need to get into production. So um that's where I come in, and I think they recognized that a while ago. Unfortunately, UM, we hit it off and I was the right person to be to run the company. So essentially, we're gonna here's what the company's gonna look like going forward. It's

and it's four major tempoles. One is we're going to continue to do film financing and we're currently doing the same thing with one of brothers. We've done it for decades and and uh, that's gonna be an important part of our business. We're also, i'd say tempole two is we're going to develop our own movies two to four year um, primarily for streaming services, but not not. If we find a film we like that we like to

release theatrically, will consider that as well. But two to four films per year, uh probably be what we'll do there. We're gonna build a television business, not unlike what I did at Sony. Just say a smaller version of it, but will be in comedy and drama all platforms. Early days, we'll be looking mostly at streaming services um to deliver the content. It's much more predictable from a financial standpoint. UM, So we'll do that, and then we're gonna be in

the production services business. Uh. So we will be producing our own content, but we'll also be worked for hire for others who need to help, uh to produce their own shows. But what I found there's are a lot of people that have great ideas sell them to cable networks or streaming platforms, but don't know how to produce them. So we will offer that service up to those who need it. So you're really in the process right now.

You're you're beefing up and building all this infrastr You're based in Los Angeles, right, so we have our offices are in Century City. We also have an office on the ward of those a lot. What's really interesting is and I feel very grateful that this happened. Although at the time, UM, it was hard and you were you were actually remember this, uh, when Howard Stranger put me

in charge of Sony's television business. Yeah, it was Look, it was really hard, and I think a lot of people didn't believe we could actually build it at that time from where we were and it wasn't doing very well at all. And you remember that there was a network division and the one that iran which was cable and syndication. And over the years we built a pretty good company and we did a brick by brick and very smart about how we you know, jumped into it

at the time. We got the basic cable first and then worked our way in the broadcast network and we're all genres what have you? That experience of building a company rebuilding for that, but it was it was it was rebuilding, but it was also building however you want

to phrase it. But that experience was very, very valuable to what I'm doing today because the good part of it is, you know, back then when I when I took over Sony's business, we laid off about a third of the workforce, which was very painful and not not a good situation. But in order to build a business coming forward to had be done, I think we did the right way as good as you can do it. Um this we're kind of starting from ground zero. I mean,

they've never had been the production business. So it's a much more productive. Um it's a happier way of doing, a nicer way because we're building it. We weren't. We didn't have to clean up anything, and um, it's it's very exciting. And there was a good core group of people there, um and finance and legal and Bruce Berman has been there for a while, came from Waters has overseeing the future division. Right, so we have a great

core group. Now we're hiring out our team and so yeah, but that experience back then was was very helpful, just in terms of like how you position a new company like this, how you approach the market. You don't want to overpromise, but at the same time you want to communicate to people what exactly what you're doing, UM, what

your focus is. So I'm glad and I and I and there's a part of me it thinks like all the things I've done in my career, both working on the broadcast side and studio, had actually prepared me for this moment, which is, like I said, we think a great opportunity. Um it sounds like for all of this, you've gotten a real commitment for some serious resources Vine to put into the because obviously you can't hire people. We have enough. Yeah, we're just fine. I want to

build a lean, mean company. I don't the mistakes some people make when they do these types of startups, as they just get a little too far ahead of themselves in terms of hiring too many people. You know. So we're gonna have a what we're gonna do, which I think is fascinating, which I wish it was. It would be difficult to do with Sony just because of the way it was structured. But um, we're gonna build. I would call the studio the future in terms of how

we view development. So you know, as I mentioned Bruce overseas the feature team, UM, Jillian Applebaum who works for him, her lanes primarily for features. UM. But if she as she developing a project, if it turns out it goes from being a movie to a television I would say, a long form television series, still she'll stick with it. On the same token, one of our our VP of development on TV, Adam Dunlap, if he's developing a TV show and wait a minute, turns into a movie, he'll

stick with as well. So what we're trying to do is create a development situation where people kind of have their lane, but they can also crossover depending upon where the development goes. Because in the end, what you want to be able to do is tell a story the right way, delivered on the right plat form in order to make the most money and haven't be seen by as many people as possible. So we're kind of taking an approach which I think some of the platforms actually

take in terms of crossing over. But I will tell you in terms as we recruit people talk about the company, that's more than one of the more exciting parts of it, which is, you know, not being a siloed, old school development type studio. You don't have a lot of trip

wars because you're you're just bringing in the people. It's funny because Shannon Perry, who's doing unscripted for Uce, actually has a relationship with a company has a lot of ideas for scripted both TV and film, and so she's working closely with our with Jillian and Adam and you know, everybody's working collaboratively, and it's it's a nice it's nice to watch as I think from the type of company we are, it's the most effective way to do things.

But and again just to reinforce like this, this is a new level of activity for the company that has been completely Yes in the finance side were so when I came in. Uh, it was funny because when we made the change, I wanted to meet with the team in person and uh, you know, having come from a company, when you you make those transitional announcements, it's lots of people, we said in the conference and I think it was nine people and you know there we have some people

in Australia. Is still there were in finance. UM, we're building out the rest of our team. So it's I love at this point in my life. It's like I said, I've never felt more energized or more interested in the business. And sometimes we here in the bigger companies you tend to have you know, it's it's there's a lot, a lot of moving pieces and in this it's just it's just it's a startup in some respects. It's a startup

with I P with the real business behind it. UM. So the startup portion of it's really on the original production. So it's used to come into it. It's nice to come in when you think of a startup that you think like Okay, you have nobody. We we had a core team of people there that we're running the business. Now we're kind of bolting on this original production feature

and TV. But in terms of the i P, is that what is the source of that is that older films or no. So, um, we'll see how it works out with some of the water product that's that's in the library. But mine actually owns several libraries, one of which is the Rights Your Library, so we have the ability to make agreements with them to access that i P. So things like Star Search and Nash Bridges and Lifestyles which and famous there's a lot of really you know,

the Great Santini. There's some really interesting i P in there, which you know, we're getting a lot of interest in and uh so that part's exciting and what we don't want to become is a company that's just folks Is on Remax. But at the same time, UM, we think we can take some of this branded i P and use it as the way to kind of get a get ball rolling and get get out the door with some ideas and uh we'll go from there. But we're going to develop original i P as well. But there's

some really great stuff in these libraries. We're gonna exploit knowing you and your sales prowess. If Lifestyles are the Rich and Famous isn't back on the air by next year, I'll be disappointed. I'm hoping it is. We We've got a lot of really good Uh you'll hear a couple of things coming up in near future with some of the I p but it's it's exciting. Do you think

does Vine have an appetite for for additional acquisitions. I'd say it this way, Um, I think that there's plenty of opportunity with all the things going on in the world in terms of these companies coming together. You know, there could be some things that naturally fall out that our core to these new merged companies. So I would say it this way that you know, it's something I'm curious about and interested to keep my eye on building

the company outside of what you currently see. So as much as we want to, you know, create original content both in future and TV side, Um, I think it's gonna be important to we look different ways to grow the company. Yeah, um interesting. Obviously streaming is important. I mean it's that they're huge buyers of programming. But I've had a lot of producers talk to me about one of the one of the sort of game changing things about streaming is the way that shows or finance and

the way they're paid for. And typically content is paid for on a cost plus model, which basically means paying the license fee plus whatever you negotiate, you know, ten twenties on a high end, thirty percent margin, and that money comes much sooner to the producer than under the old syndication model. Does that fundamentally does that shift in

this market? Does that fundamentally make it easier, less um less costly than a for a producer to to for a production company Villa Drow show to enter the market as opposed to having to in the old model, having to be able to deficit finance you know, four or five seasons of a show if you're lucky to before you get to that profitability. I think a couple of things.

One is, uh, it's I think this new model is allowing us to get into the business because there's been several people, big names, who have tried to get into television business and didn't really understand how it worked. So they thought, wow, I've got making twenty pilots and we got five picked up and it's fantastic. Well, the math on that's not great. You've lost a lot of money

on the fifteen that didn't get picked up. And if I that did get picked up, you're not You weren't going to make any money until four or five years down the road, and then that's over a period of time. So it's easier now in some ways if you're our type of company to come into a business where there's predictable returns on your investment. Now some people would are you,

I know, but you missed a huge upside. The flip side of that is if you look at the failure rate on some of these network shows in terms of going from the success ray I should say, from script to syndication hit. You know, it's like it's like kids who go to college to play basketball but think you're gonna go the NBA. Of course, you know, there are people go the NBA, but there are a lot of kids who are sitting at home not playing in the NBA. So look, it's a predictable business. I mean, there are

predictable earnings attached to these streaming deals. Uh, for a big studio that's doing those kinds of deals. It's not great. That's what you're living off because you've built this huge infrastructure, global infrastructure, lots of people, lots of expensive real estate where the big where you're the ideas, I gotta get these network shows that I can then sell internationally. That

justifies this big overhead. And for us, we don't. I mean, it can predictable a Netflix deal or an Amazon deal or an Apple deal where it's you know, we go to Sirius say we have a series picked up. It's predictable, upside, we cash flow of the production, we get paid at the end. That's that's you know, that's the business friend, and it's great for us. Will we do network programs absolutely? Will we be a more measured approach to it? Absolutely?

I think sometimes and look, part of our thing is and this was the thing we were when I was at Sony. I mean, we're Switzerland. We will be. We want to be in business with everybody, right, which includes cable networks and syndication and where it makes sense, right.

So I think as you know, you you talk about you know, what we're doing as a company, there's there's a lot of opportunity to the fringe on the fringes in the business outside just the streaming services, or I think we can make smart business arrangements and haven't makes sense for our company be involved in. So yeah, it's are you finding I mean right now there's no shortage of there's no shortage of buyers, but there's also no

shortage of producers and production companies. Are you finding a welcome reception when you I mean, are you at the point of going out to pitch people ideas at this point? Were There have been a couple of things that come out of our library that we kind of initiated early on that we've had great response to. But there's a couple more hires I need to make before we get

like full on. Um, So we're like I said, I you know, you know me well enough to know there's a part of me which I want to run out the door like on fire day one going look at

you know, we're in business. But like I said, I learned, I learned a lot of valuable lessons back in the day when you know, we started up at Sony, you know, kind of re engineering the company that you don't want to get too far ahead of yourself I mean, I I plan on this being a long term, you know venture, So kind of the steps we make early days have to be the right ones. I don't want them to

be missteps. So we get a couple of the right people in place, But there were a couple of obvious things, um that we had an opportunity to take out, and we're working on. But but yeah, so the response, Look, there's spons has been great and there's one. Not to sound like the get off your lawn, get off my law guy, but the one valuable lessons I passed on to my kids and I pass on any the younger people I bump into through I mean, on the board of l m U and speak to a lot of

colleges and high schools. You know, it does matter. Um, your reputation is important, and how you handle yourself through your career is important, and how you treat people is important. And the one thing I learned during my I took time off in between my time with Sony and al Villa Drow show, is you know, all those things you think maybe that matters to you but didn't matter other people's people, they do matter. So not only have I been overwhelmed by the rest Fonst. Village road Show and

the good feelings forwards them. It's been I'm grateful for some of the nice things people said to me about coming back into the business and re entering it with this company. And uh so the people stuff has always mattered to me. And uh you know, when you're in a big company, there's a lot of political forces and it's tough doing business and you gotta make difficult decisions, but you can do it in a way where you

maintain your dignity and friendships and morals and ethics. And I think you know, I did my best along the way to keep all those things in check. So the Steve Moscow brand is strong. Well, it gives me faith in humans when that stuff matters. So what would you say has been the hardest or the most surprising thing that you have found as you are starting to build out these other areas. I'll be honest with you. I've

enjoyed every minute of it. I Mean I knew coming in that it would be different than working for a big studio. So things like um, like when you thinks that would have been done by people that work for you, I'm doing them now, right, You are so and I not really, but you know, but they're like things like, um, you just have to work a little harder to prove the people how you know, how much you want to

be in business with them. So things like like there were meetings in the past where I was said, oh, if you want to do that, come to my office. Now it's like I'm going to them. So I think so if there's and my making this up because you know, but like Jimmy Miller is a friend of mine, Mosaic and we're working on some things together. You know, a lot of times people will come to the studio for those kinds of being I've been very aggressive and saying no,

I will, I'll come to your office. I'll make it easy for you. So I don't know, I've just enjoyed. I've enjoyed every minute. And I really just this is exactly what I wanted to do with this part of my career. So even like hiring people, um, taking meetings, like I knew what it was going to be different and I was ready for it. So, um, I I don't know that anything has been hard. The one I will say this, and it's not hard, it's just different.

This is really a right brain left brain job. So when I came into the company, it was kind of funny that, Um, the first month UM we had, I was evacuated my house in Westley Village for the fires, so I was out of that for a week. Um, then the holiday. I mean, there's a lot of things going on. We had to prepare a five year plan. We had a board meeting, so then Christmas comes and then we had and then I go on the road to meet with some of the limited partners and I

was in Tallahassee and Toronto and New York. Then I came back and I had like a creative meeting from the shows were developing. So the really interesting, fascinating part of this job now is using like I'm using all the tools in my toolbox. I sit in front of bankers and talk about what are what we're doing to build a company. Then the next day I'm talking to managers and agents and talent saying this is why you ought to be in business with us. That's why I love about it. And if I need it, if I

need anything, I'm getting it myself. And it's fun. Like I said, I I think a lot of people who are in my position now I've struggled with this notion of like, well, my parking space used to be right there and my name was on it, and I had a fruit basket and everybody came to see me and bump up all that stuff. None of that matters to me,

you know. I'm just, like I said, I'm enjoying building the company, working with the people at Vine who are terrific, uh, like building our plan and we're gonna build a company out I at the expectations of what it could be. You know, we haven't gone out running our mouth off about how great gonna be. We'll let our work kind of show for it. And like I said, I'm actually just grateful I handled myself that I did coming through because people actually want to be in business with us,

If it makes sense. It's so great that you had that bad meeting with the Vine Alternative Alternative Investments. It's bizarre, actually because but it was meant to be. And actually, uh, after I left Sony, like I said, I was very lucky form the standpoint at the time to really make the right decision. But um, I always had this weird feeling that something like that was gonna happen, because like I said, I, you know, I was the Sinclair situation was one where podcast and you know, my first job

in television, I was hired by David Smith's father. So that goes back forty years from Baltimore. UM, A couple of things popped up, but it's funny how things happened. This was the one the one thing I would I will tell you though, because you're saying that that you know what was the difficult part of it of joining

Village road show Horst part. The one thing I did, which I would give advice to anybody whose sizes making any kind of career change is try to find things you can do in your day that are consistent with what you did when you were working. So in other words, like I get up really early and wanting to go work out before you had when you were I like, my mornings were pretty set, Like I wake up a certain time really early, and I lived for what ways out of town, so I drive in, workout and got

to work. I kept that exact schedule in the morning, UM, every day after I left. So when I went, Yeah, so I went back to the village, I went back to work, Like my mornings start off exactly the same way they had forever. So it wasn't that I thought that would be a big change, but it wasn't. The transition was great and and I enjoyed every second. And I was in between Sony and Village. That's great. Well

you kept your discipline. Yes, now I understand in addition to launching, you know, building out this company, launching these this whole new division of the company, you've also taken to podcasting yourself. I have to tell me about your podcast. It's called unsung Ly. So, um along, I wanted to make sure I kept my mind sharp, uh, you know, amongst other things. But there was a guy I worked with at Sony when I first came Sonny and Bill Benson, and he was my assistant. He was paying his way

through school and we remained friends over the years. Look him up. He has a company. He has a thing called a mental gym, and he's a very very smart and great guy. Anyway, what I had set out to was write a book on leadership when I left Sony, and what I realized along the way was that we need a couple more hooks, uh and build too. And Bill was co writing it with me. So anyway, um, we decided we would do a podcast as a way to kind of get these more stories and leadership whatever.

And what we realized is that there are a lot of people in the entertainment business or in lots of businesses who are leaders, but their leaders with publicists and are great self promoters. And by the way, good for them. We're not knocking what they do. But what we also came to realize was that there are people in life

that are great leaders but you hear nothing about. And it could be a teacher in some small town that does something special or you know, I live in Thousand Oaks area, and when they had the mass shooting, um, people just step up. And they're not looking for to be noted, to be honored, to be you know, any of those things. They just didn't because it was the right thing. So we want to down the road of finding people who did amazing things or amazing leaders that

you've never heard of. And uh, we did ten episodes and uh then I went back to work and now we're trying to figure out the scheduling. But Steve Moscow, your energy and enthusiasm for this new gig is palpable. Congratulations to you, Good luck, and come back and visit us and tell us how think how great things are going for Village Road Show in a in a year or so. And Synthea, thank you, it's great to see you.

And uh like I said, you've always been the shining star in your industry for me and uh so, anyway, it's just great to reconnect and thank you for having me. Thanks Steve, thanks for listening. Be sure to tune in next week for another episode of Strictly Business