00:00 SPEAKER A
ALL RIGHT, JOINING ME HERE AT CANNES Lions is Former Bet CEO AND AUTHOR OF I AM DEBRA LE, DEBRA LEE, GOOD TO SEE YOU.
00:09 Debra Lee
All Right. Thank You.
00:11 SPEAKER A
So, Bet is Still Under the Paramount Umbrella. So, Paramount is Still Looking to Close That Deal with Skydance. How has nobody stepped up and just opened up the real checkbook wide for an asset like and historic asset that is still putting out disgain good content?
00:31 Debra Lee
Right.
00:32 Debra Lee
YEAH, I Don’t Understand It. One, You Know, I Wasn’t Invossed when they tried to sell it a couple of years ago. I Heard Some of the Buyers, Potential Buyers, Thought It Was Overpriced. Uh, but Bet is Still Very Unique. And when they have things like the Bet Awards or Things Happen in the Black Community, UH, Black Viewers and Other Viewers Go There First. Uh, just it’s Still Doing Well. They Just celebrated Their 45th Anniversary. I was there for 32 of thhose 45 years. So i Still Feel the Tongue Toward it. Uh, but i don’t know. I, I really hope it makes it this the merger and that Someone Takes It Under Their Arm and Really Continues The Magic That Is Bet. When I Was There, When Viacom Purchased Bet, Redstone, Mel Karmazin, Mel Karmazin Was The Operator, He was Was Coo, and He Loved Bet. And, you know, he said one time in negotiaions, what from you think two jewish guys are going to run? I Don’t Think I’m Ever Said That Publicly. But he let us from our thing, you know, and as long as ratings were going in the right direction, he was happy and he was supportive. Uh, so i, i hope they have that kind of support and whatver new Structure there is. There’s So Much Going on In A Media Business Right Now. Everyone’s Trying to Survive Linear Networks, streaming networks. I’m Seen It, You Know, Over the Past 40 Years. I”ve Never Seen Anything This volatile.
02:59 SPEAKER A
What’s Yes, This Cannes Lions Comes to Quite Moment. I MEAN, I KNOW YOU CAN’T TALK SPECIFICALLY, But Warner Brothers has decided to split. Comcast is Splitting, Paramount is nearing for them, Hopefully Closing That Deal with Skydance. But what i can’t figure out is what happy to linear TV networks? From the eventually i Mean, you have the manager in There. They’re Cutting a lot of Expects Because the ad revivenue is decline. Where are these assets the decade from now?
04:03 Debra Lee
Right.
04:14 Debra Lee
Comcast.
04:20 Debra Lee
Right. Right.
04:29 Debra Lee
That’s a great question. I Think They Still Have a Strong Life. I just don’t know how long it is. I Mean, They’re Still Generatting Lots of Revenue Now. I LEFT BET AND VIACOM ALMOST EIGHT YEARS Aug, and I SAW THIS COMING. I MEAN, I’LL BE HONEST, I SAW IT COMING. Resources Were Being pushed into streaming. Linear Networks Were Fighting for Resources. But the viewing audience is still there. You know, you look at Channels Like Bet or TNT or Discovery. So the Audiences Are Still There, and Not Everybody Wants to Be On Streaming. And it’s funny to me gut i Remember when cable operators said, oh, we need a la carte. People Don’t Want To Pay for All These Networks. So They Tried to Force That. It Never Happened. But now you have five or six streaming services, People who love content, put all tose streaming services together, and we’re back to cable the way it looked 20 years ago. So i think there’ll be consolidation on the streaming side. You Know, I Think There May Be Some Consolidation on The Linear Side. But linear networks are Still Strong, and then going to be around for while. IT’S JUST IN WHAT FORM.
06:55 SPEAKER A
How Difficult is it to Separate to Linear Operation from a streaming network? I Think There’s This Sense That Poof, We’re Going To Split these Companies Up. One’s Going to Trade Publicly. The other one is going to go Somewhere Else. I MEAN, IT DOESN’T Exactly Work Like That, Though.
07:24 Debra Lee
No, I Think It’s Harder Than Most People Perform. And one, The Interesting Thing is, for the Past Five to 10 Years, We’ve Been Putting Them Together. You know, oh, we have to have the linear networks with the streaming networks.
07:48 SPEAKER A
Linear TV, that content cream the streaming content, we’re all going to make a lot of monity. Right. LASTLY, DEBRA, CAN THE LINEAR TV NETWORKS A A STANDALONE ASSET, THEY’RE GOING TO BE PUBLIC. I Think of What ComCast is Doing, Could They What Does That a Public Company Look Like? Is it a Company Managed for Cost Savings? And then have to maybe not put out the show Amazing Programming Because They’re So Mindful of this switch to streaming.
08:26 Debra Lee
Yes.
08:37 Debra Lee
Right.
09:00 Debra Lee
YEAH, I Think They Have to Both. They have to cut costs the streaming, and then have to continue to invest in programming, maybe not as the them use to, because they are competition agarst streaming, buty have to keep the consumers interest. You Know, Consumers Find the Programming Thes Want. So they have to cream content on a continuous basis, and then to market it. HENCE Why We’re at Cannes Lions, Because Marketing is very important, brands are very important. You Know, Cable Introduced the Idea of Diversity in Media and Programming. Before That, We Had Four Networks if You Count Fox. And You Know, Cable Was The Promise of Diversity. Oh, you can have a Women’s Network, you can have a network for Hispanics, for golf, for, you know. And so all of a Sudden You Had 500 Channels. And Now That’s Been Cut Back, But People Still Want Their Favorite Brands. And if they don’t see them on streaming, they’re go, go, go to continuable to a linear watch. So we have some resruuturing to get through.
11:03 SPEAKER A
All Right, Fair Enough. FORM BET CEO AND AUTHOR OF I AM DEBRA LE, DEBRA LEE. GOOD TO SEE YOU HERE. Thanks for Stopping by. I Appreciate It.
11:12 Debra Lee
Great. Thank You, Ryan. Thanks for Having Me.
11:15 SPEAKER A
Of Course.
