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Episode 88: January 7, 2022

    Topics Include:

    • [0:00] Moby Dick.
    • [1:20] The Bob Chapek era has officially begun.
    • [3:03] Rich called the crypto top.
    • [4:06] Covid is the world’s greatest IQ test(s).
    • [8:37] Michael Rubin’s savage acquisition of Topps.
    • [9:58] Fanatics is a great example on how to disrupt an industry.
    • [12:23] Advertising and sponsorship platforms are the clear early winners in NY sports betting.
    • [15:12] AT&T tops table again in post-paid nets.
    • [19:23] Wireless impact on cable broadband intensifying.
    • [24:52] Why is Scott Rosenberg leaving Roku?
    • [29:03] The New York Times finally acquires The Athletic.
    • [33:40] UFC domestic rights are going higher next round.
    • [40:28] PlayStation has a leg up on Oculus in bringing VR to gamers.
    • [41:55] Metaverse wars are going to heat up in 2022.
    • [44:42] Podcasting still has meaningful share to take from terrestrial radio.
    • [48:08] HBO/HBO Max’s big year.
    • [51:54] Candle Media’s portfolio growing at incredible speed.
    • [53:12] Expect even more creation of interactive experiences based on linear IP and vice versa.
    • [55:27] Imax is becoming the movie industry.
    • [58:50] Adam Aron’s expensive ticket to the Rose Bowl.
    • [1:01:07] Moby Dick.
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Episode 87: December 31, 2021

    Topics Include:

    • [0:00] 2021.
    • [4:04] Disney and Comcast End Hulu Partnership Three Years Early.
    • [7:15] Amazon Acquires Thursday Night Football and YouTube TV Takes Sunday Ticket.
    • [10:34] HBO/HBO Max Hit 50 Million Subscribers.
    • [14:02] Verizon Drops To Last Place In Wireless Phone Net Adds.
    • [14:51] Roku Raises Equity to Accelerate Original Programming.
    • [18:05] Dish’s Spectrum Included in iPhone 13.
    • [19:43] Disney Releases All Theatrical Films Day-and-Date on Disney+.
    • [23:48] Apple’s IDFA Opt-In Causes Wide-Ranging Pain, Accelerating Push to Subscriptions.
    • [26:45] Interactive Media Platforms Become Critical for Marketers and Distribution of Content.
    • [31:18] Google Achieves Dominance of Connected TV Ad Spend.
    • [33:27] Podcast Ad Spend Gaps Up and Apple Launches Podcast Subscription.
    • [34:52] Snapchat Reaches 500,000 Advertisers and Bitmoji’s Importance Grows.
    • [39:04] MGM Studios Acquired by Comcast’s NBC Universal.
    • [41:51] Creator Direct-to-Consumer Platforms See Exponential Growth.
    • [43:29] Apple TV+ Content Budget Soars to $5 Billion.
    • [45:06] Sports Teams/Leagues Need New Revenue Streams as Media Rights Start to Disappoint.
    • [47:44] Live Events Return Strong, Movie Theaters Struggle.
    • [52:00] Legacy Media Stops Investing in TV Everywhere, as DTC Takes Center Stage.
    • [54:02] Call of Duty Multi-Experience Paradigm Replicated and Imitated.
    • [56:48] Verizon Sells Media Assets.
    • [58:55] Donald Trump Launches DTC Media Platform.
    • [59:32] Other topics that dominated 2021: David Zaslav, Apes, and web3.
    • [1:03:43] Thank you all.
    • [1:05:14] Auld Lang Syne.
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Episode 86: December 24, 2021

    Key Topics Include:

    • [0:00] Jingle Bells (Dogs).
    • [0:15] A sequel to Rich’s Peacock TikTok.
    • [1:03] Happy Festivus.
    • [2:23] Who doesn’t want to get stuck quarantining in Vegas?
    • [6:14] Omicron throws Comcast’s Winter Olympics in flux.
    • [8:03] Jack calls out attempts to centralize the decentralized web.
    • [14:17] Congratulations to your Finance Charlatans of the Year!
    • [17:03] The Sixers have a “concrete” metaverse strategy.
    • Is Crypto advertising bigger than sports betting advertising?
    • [20:34] Does Spider-Man’s success change our day-and-date viewpoint?
    • [29:20] Iger knows that Disney+ needs more diverse content.
    • [30:41] Should Apple have bought Disney? Agree to Disagree.
    • [40:31] AT&T sheds another non-core asset.
    • [45:30] Expect Triller’s desperate public play to end badly.
    • [47:50] Continued increases in sports rights are a good omen for WWE.
    • [51:34] TBD if Zynga can be successful away from their core competencies.
    • [54:24] I just want a hug in the metaverseTM.
    • [54:34] Snow & Heat Miser.
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Episode 85: December 17, 2021

    Topics Include:

    • [0:00] Let’s Get It On.
    • [3:08] Seven Fishes or Seven Phish Shows?
    • [4:48] YouTube TV’s $15/month chess move.
    • [8:18] Is Netflix India cutting price or pushing subs toward TVs?
    • [12:44] Disney cannot afford to lose IPL rights.
    • [13:57] What impact will Cable have in wireless next year?
    • [19:03] Fubo’s sports betting fantasy is evaporating.
    • [22:27] We read mean (Fubo) tweets.
    • [24:09] TikTok is going to catch up to Instagram far quicker than people realize.
    • [26:06] The sky is falling.
    • [30:38] Digital ownership is a huge opportunity for large brands.
    • [32:33] Shopify is now doing for the digital world what they have done for the physical world.
    • [37:00] Reddit is finally going public.
    • [40:41] Spotify’s advertising opportunity is underappreciated.
    • [44:02] Google’s Best Buy issues are a plus for Roku.
    • [47:38] Peloton has (another) bad week.
    • [49:40] I’m Still Standing.
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Episode 84: December 10, 2021

    Key Topics Include:

    • [0:00] Around the World.
    • [0:42] Jingle Ball.
    • [2:52] BuzzFeed’s lack of consumer passion and brand equity.
    • [9:09] The power of YouTube.
    • [15:40] More fodder for the competitive wireless home broadband debate.
    • [21:00] Can Cable disrupt wireless?
    • [24:50] Discord’s low hanging monetization fruit.
    • [32:11] AMC CEO stock sales speak louder than his words.
    • [34:23] MSG Sphere is poised for innovative and flexible content creation.
    • [37:10] Amazon’s sports ambitions are bigger than industry realizes.
    • [45:31] Theatrical windows are too inflexible.
    • [48:28] Sports books need content to lower acquisition costs.
    • [55:28] Gamer revolts show web3 education is still in its infancy.
    • [59:50] Elon teaches us how to pick the right web3 urinal.
    • [1:03:38] When You Wish Upon a Star.
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Episode 83: December 3, 2021

    Topics Include:

    • [0:00 Soul Bossa Nova.
    • [1:05] Every good podcast has a donkey.
    • [4:23] A Twitter CEO not in a yurt.
    • [10:43] FCC confirmations and broadband regulation.
    • [13:20] Disney Comcast news sadly did not involve Hulu resolution.
    • [16:33] We are about to learn who Bob Chapek really is. 
    • [19:12] Does offering deep discounts to gain streaming subs make sense?
    • [23:59] Sinclair STILL does not have a viable DTC product.
    • [27:14] Current MLB lockout tied to compensation, not RSNs.
    • [28:29] The power of football vs. everything else.
    • [32:41] Facebook is going to have to build the metaverse without M&A.
    • [36:45] Gambling is not entertaining when you lose money.
    • [40:06] Why Amazon and Dish could disrupt telecoms.
    • [44:33] Theaters need to become much more special relative to the at-home experience.
    • [51:38] Do NFT communities have lasting power?
    • [59:30] Thinking about creating a DAO for stuff.
    • [1:00:18] The Man and the Donkey.
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Episode 82: November 26, 2021

    Topics Include:

    • [0:00] On Repeat.
    • [2:42] COVID returns, did it ever leave? 
    • [5:40] Farewell Vonage.
    • [7:01] Sell-side wakes up to Disney+ content slowdown.
    • [10:28] Disney needs new movies for D+ sub growth.
    • [13:00] HBO Max’s targeting can improve.
    • [20:47] Dec 1 a big day for FCC’s Rosenworcel and Sohn.
    • [23:22] As FCC gets sorted, TracFone deal approval and C-Band resolutions emerge.
    • [28:16] Is Amazon’s NFL innovation right on schedule or a troubling delay?
    • [34:06] Roku’s content ambitions.
    • [40:36] Netflix’s content verticals on Spotify to get mimicked by other brands.
    • [45:33] The importance of social to build a media company.
    • [47:36] Roblox’s Game Fund a critical piece of their age-up strategy.
    • [50:32] web3 decentralization comes at a tradeoff of simplicity.
    • [54:30] Our takeaways from the ConstitutionDAO debacle.
    • [58:08] NFTs at the Thanksgiving Day parade.

    [59:35] Dominick the Donkey.

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Episode 81: November 19, 2021

    Topics Include:

    • [0:00] Home on the Range.
    • [5:55] Liberty’s managed Q&A.
    • [9:40] Is Malone turning against the bundle he built?
    • [10:13] Warner Bros. will not be a one-size-fits all offering.
    • [15:36] Malone is more self-aware than Charter on competition.
    • [19:00] Gigi Sohn should be confirmed as FCC Commish, but when?
    • [21:11] It is time for Bobby Kotick to wave the white flag. Where’s the Board?
    • [25:13] Should Activision Blizzard break up the company?
    • [26:28] Netflix’s viewership data is to attract talent, not advertisers.
    • [34:15] Disney should use last week’s Viacom playbook to drive subs.
    • [36:20] Roblox introduces the immersive future of advertising.
    • [41:27] Roblox will have to eventually embrace interoperability.
    • [50:33] Is Tom Rutledge the next to drop Sinclair’s RSNs?
    • [53:28] Sports rights cost inflation now impacting streaming: EPL 2.7x last deal.
    • [58:43] Hulu Live + Disney bundle is likely all about vMVPD churn.
    • [1:03:11] Twitter is finally encouraging innovation on the platform.
    • [1:04:46] Star power is not always transferrable between social media platforms.
    • [1:07:25] Owning assets as an expression of community is a hallmark of web3.
    • [1:12:07] Misunderstanding.
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Episode 80: November 12, 2021

    • [0:00] Silence Kid.
    • [1:37] Do length of EPS opening remarks correlate with stock performance?
    • [4:04] Everyone’s building “a metaverse.”
    • [10:30] Betting “now” strengthens the ESPN brand.
    • [13:50] Sportsbook War’s biggest winners are owners of advertising/sponsorship inventory.
    • [16:14] Streaming platforms becoming much more serious about sports rights.
    • [19:00] How many movies per year satisfy the “collective” experience?
    • [27:30] Disney needs to change their theatrical/Disney+ strategy.
    • [30:07] Should Twitter Blue features be native to all users?
    • [34:15] If live audio is a space to own, Twitter will own it.
    • [35:24] Cheaper CPE for Starlink.
    • [37:13] The problem with play to earn games.
    • [41:13] More on the C-Band delay and the rise of wireless home broadband
    • [43:58] John Malone wonders if cable will morph into the airline Industry.
    • [51:16] Spotify wants to be all things audio.
    • [53:30] It is Adam Aron selling, not JP Morgan.
    • [56:18] Jeffrey, Jeffrey Bezos.
    • [57:07] The Lemon Song.
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