ViacomCBS: A Content King in the Streaming War

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- Pt 1 with Chris Marangi

[00:03:31] - [First question] - What is ViacomCBS

[00:04:10] - What a typical media conglomerate looks like

[00:06:45] - The scale and size of ViacomCBS today 

[00:09:03] - Starting as a radio business and becoming a diversified conglomerate

[00:11:25] - What the competitive landscape looked like fifteen years ago 

[00:14:07] - Economics of a typical cable network channel like ESPN or MTV

[00:16:23] - Key differentiators between a good and a bad channel revenue-wise

[00:17:22] - The important roles movies play and how the film industry works writ large

[00:18:12] - Durable competitive advantages in producing strong content 

[00:19:26] - How much of their market cap is their catalog

[00:20:04] - Adopting a streaming model and the impact of this inflection point

[00:24:33] - Thoughts on customer acquisition in movies and streaming services

[00:25:33] - What has to go right for their market cap to double in the next decade

[00:27:55] - What will have gone wrong if they don’t grow over the next decade

[00:28:26] - Lessons for entrepreneurs and investors when studying ViacomCBS’s story

[00:29:33] - Learn more about ViacomCBS and the cable industry; Cable Cowboy

- Pt 2 with Naveen Chopra

[00:30:27] - [First question] - Overview of the different businesses within ViacomCBS

[00:34:07] - Size of the broadcast arm of ViacomCBS’s business and the costs of running it

[00:37:23] - How wide the range of content expenses can be 

[00:39:35] - Thoughts on making movies and the business model pre-pandemic

[00:42:47] - Is the box office opening night really that important?

[00:44:40] - How much box office attendance is down post-pandemic

[00:46:19] - Same day releases for streaming and box office can help acquire subscribers

[00:51:45] - Leveraging intellectual property to generate revenue

[00:53:23] - How much Netflix invests in content compared to ViacomCBS and competitors

[00:54:11] - Thoughts on the business model for streaming service revenue

[00:58:01] - Scaling Paramount+ to compete and compensate for pandemic impacts

[01:02:16] - What he’s most excited about for ViacomCBS and Paramount+ looking forward

[01:05:07] - Why speed is important and what keeps him up at night

[01:06:00] - Things in the macro-environment that could be good and bad for ViacomCBS

[01:07:54] - Lessons for entrepreneurs and investors when studying ViacomCBS’s story