The video explores the rapidly evolving landscape of the entertainment industry, specifically focusing on live events like concerts, sports, and comedy, and how these are shaping future trends. Michael Rapinoe of Live Nation Entertainment discusses the challenges of ticket pricing and the secondary market, emphasizing the tension between artists wanting to set fair prices for their fans and the high resale values driven by scalpers. He reflects on the need for more regulation and control to protect both artists and consumers.
A shift in women's sports, particularly in the WNBA, showcases significant growth in attendance and valuation. The video discusses how franchises like the New York Liberty and the Las Vegas Aces are witnessing burgeoning popularity thanks to improved facilities, player experiences, and infrastructure. The conversation touches on the migration of sports viewership from traditional television to streaming platforms and the accompanying shifts in valuations and investments.
Main takeaways from the video:
Please remember to turn on the CC button to view the subtitles.
Key Vocabularies and Common Phrases:
1. immediacy [ɪˈmiːdɪəsi] - (noun) - The quality of bringing one into direct and instant involvement with something, giving rise to a sense of urgency or excitement. - Synonyms: (urgency, directness, proximity)
The smart money is on the immediacy of live events.
2. scalper [ˈskælpər] - (noun) - A person who resells shares or tickets at a large or quick profit. - Synonyms: (reseller, speculator, profiteer)
The problem is scalpers and everyone else have done that.
3. secondary market [ˈsekəndɛri ˈmɑːrkət] - (noun) - A market where securities, goods, or services are bought and sold after being issued initially; in this context, reselling of event tickets. - Synonyms: (resale market, aftermarket, trade market)
They see 10 pages of secondary tickets and they get off.
4. cap [kæp] - (verb) - To restrict or limit the amount, price, or rate of something. - Synonyms: (limit, restrain, restrict)
How did they get all these tickets? Where did they come from? If I had to change it, Yes, I would love regulation on secondary, whether it's capped
5. regulation [ˌrɛɡjʊˈleɪʃən] - (noun) - A rule or directive made and maintained by an authority. - Synonyms: (rule, directive, mandate)
If I had to change it, Yes, I would love regulation on secondary.
6. monetize [ˈmʌnɪtaɪz] - (verb) - To convert into or express in the form of currency or to make money from something. - Synonyms: (capitalize, commercialize, profit)
We're super excited and think that it's factored into what we need to spend and what will monetize.
7. valuation [ˌvæljuˈeɪʃən] - (noun) - An estimation of something's worth or quality. - Synonyms: (appraisal, assessment, estimation)
We love dollar figures and valuations
8. infrastructure [ˈɪnfrəˌstrʌktʃər] - (noun) - The basic physical and organizational structures and facilities needed for the operation of a society or enterprise. - Synonyms: (framework, foundation, base)
Fortunately, that success and all the infrastructure that we had built to support that allowed us to be ready for this year.
9. sustainability [səˌsteɪnəˈbɪlɪti] - (noun) - The ability to be maintained at a certain rate or level; the capacity for being continued with minimal long-term effect on the environment. - Synonyms: (endurance, durability, longevity)
But that's why people ask about the sustainability of Peacock
10. converged [kənˈvɜːrdʒd] - (adjective) - To come together from different directions so as eventually to meet. - Synonyms: (united, merged, combined)
We have a converged service with wireless and broadband in more homes.
Bloomberg Screentime - The Next Phase of Pop Culture
Hello, welcome to Bloomberg Screen Time. I'm Ed Ludlow. And I'm Caroline Hyde. From the heart of Hollywood, the perfect place to discuss the future of entertainment. And that future depends on live events, live music, live sports, live comedy. Bloomberg's Screen Time gathered the business leaders, celebrities and entrepreneurs defining the next phase of pop culture.
Some of the businesses that once seemed stable, like cable and film, are contracting. The smart money is on the immediacy of live events. And that's where we start with Michael Rapinoe. He's the president and CEO of Live Nation Entertainment. He spoke with Bloomberg's Lucas Shaw.
How has what people will pay for changed in the last couple of years both in terms of sort of genre and venue or setting? And how are you guys responding to that, if at all? Listen, the concert business is a fabulous business to be in and I'm so proud of what we've built and what we have to do every day. And it's such a passionate business.
These artists are CEOs. They're brilliantly trying to connect with their artists. And it's the one product in the world that's worth more the second it's sold. Generally in business, we said, well, just price it to market. But as a brand manager, if you're the artist, you can't charge 3,000 for the front row and look your fan in the face. The problem is scalpers and everyone else have done that. So, you know, it's this ongoing tension.
What do you charge for the show? What's the supply, demand? There's always incredible demand. You can't charge market. Now, though, the scalper's not on the street corner. That artist gets to look every day on SeatGeek and Stubborn and go, oh my God, some scalper's making four grand a ticket. And I'm paying all the cost, me and the artist. So it's this ongoing challenge of what do they charge that's right for their business model?
90% of what they're going to make in life is coming from the road. So it's their financial business, but where do they find that line where it's accessible? The fan feels connected to them. They don't feel like they're over gouging and it's slowly moving up over time. And that creates a lot of the social news and tension that exists in the. In that what is the right price that you can deliver supply to man and keep fans happy.
Right. 95% of shows don't sell out. You don't hear about those. Those are priced under $100. Everyone is happy they got a ticket. There's no drama. Unfortunately, those 10 times a year, when you have 10 million people trying to buy a million Oasis tickets, you know, there's no nice way to tell 9 million passionate fans, sorry, the store is closed. So, you know, that. That creates lots of tension and they go online and they see.
They see 10 pages of secondary tickets and they get off. So do they get mad at Ticketmaster? We must have somehow let the scalpers in, gave tickets to the scalper. Yes, absolutely. That's the first place they like to punch. If you had a magic wand or you were sort of named Emperor for the day and you could change, just change ticketing however you wanted, what would you do?
Well, it's a great question, you know, so the first challenge overall and outside of America, there's really good scalper regulations. Right. Europe, very different. Europe, Most countries other than America. Yeah. But really what them off is, why is there 10 pages of scalpers selling $4,000 tickets? The system must be broken. Rapinoe, you made me sign up. I'm a fan. I'm willing to pay. You tell me it's sold out. But then who got. How did they get all these tickets? Where did they come from?
If I had to change it, Yes, I would love regulation on secondary, whether it's capped. We really believe the artist should have better control. It's frustrating with me with an artist capped, meaning that you can't resell that you can only resell at a certain price. Yeah, we think you should be able to resell. So the scalpers like to go to regulators and say, oh, I can't give this ticket to my grandmother if you close it. So that's not the problem we're having. The problem is professional bots all around the world, like, so I just think if you ask me how to fix it. Yes, that's the problem.
No matter how much we do on our side, it's frustrating for the fan to spend four grand. When Bruce Springsteen says, you know what? I only want to charge 300 for the front row. But no, the fan isn't getting it for 300. The bot is. And then they're charging three grand. So the artist is off because why doesn't he charge three grand? Charge market. Right. If you really want to fix it, just charge market. Then there's no secondary.
Well, the artists aren't going to do that because they're worried about their fans. So if they're going to sacrifice the revenue, which is unheard of for businesses, you shouldn't have A middleman that has nothing invested in the business, make any money from it. So we would love it regulated in some sense, cap it at 20%. Some people can make a little money. That would be the biggest part. That we get the most tension on the on sale is that.
I want to talk about the business of the wnba, because this is an absolutely fascinating moment to talk about this. Something big is happening. It's undeniable. You've both seen it from different perspectives. Clara, I want to start with you. Back in the day, not that long ago, about 2,000 people, average, showing up. I have the numbers here. Your average attendance this year. I believe I have this right, 12,730. That is higher than the WNBA average of 9,807. What happened. What was the key thing that happened to drive that number almost six times higher?
What happened to the New York Liberty? Well, first of all, we. We saw great numbers last year, like, and we had already broken a lot of business records last year in terms of viewership and attendance and even, you know, gate receipts, which is obviously what we all want from a business standpoint. Fortunately, that success and all the infrastructure that we had built to support that allowed us to be ready for this year. And this year, you know, it's undeniable that, you know, everybody got almost like a, you know, a significant increase in all of the important metrics. Right.
And the key, of course, is to just sustain that growth. Right. When you see these sorts of numbers when you're no longer playing, how does it make you feel that, like, I mean, you were there, you were, you were doing it, and now the numbers are coming little by little. It was the opportunity, and I think that's where we saw, like, the skyrocket. And it was. It was honestly, franchises being ready for that.
Yeah, I mean, it was franchises like New York, franchises like the Las Vegas Aces that were ready with a practice facility, with player experience. And so I think the numbers are reflective to a lot of different things. Television, all of that stuff. 2020, and all of the social justice and the bubble and the center stage that we were on during that time. But I think it was also a combination of just franchises being ready to sustain the growth.
So, Clara, as we think about what happens next, we're Bloomberg, after all. We love dollar figures and valuations. How do valuations go from here? How soon do we see $1 billion women's sports franchise, do you think? Well, I think I'm on record for saying that in 10 years, I think the New York Liberty can be the first billion dollar women's sports franchise.
All right, write it down. But what we really like about sports is that, you know, as television viewership is migrating from, you know, linear television via cable, satellite, et cetera, into a streaming environment, people's tastes didn't change. They still want to watch football games and basketball games and they want to watch movies and TV shows. And so what we're trying to build is, you know, sort of the next generation of an entertainment service and not just be solely focused on movies, television, vod.
Are you going to lean evermore into live events? Are they going to be these tent pole moments? Yeah, well, one of the things that I found when I got, I started in a couple of weeks before the pandemic, so not that long ago really, is that the company had done a lot of investing, mostly in Europe on live streaming. If you go Back to like 2018, 2019, it wasn't obvious that you were going to be able to stream premium sports at scale exclusively anywhere in the world. People would say it would break. It won't work. The fact that the company had made that investment paved the way for us to do a deal with the NFL and then ultimately the NBA.
And so I look at that as a pretty big advantage for us. We've got that investment and we're able to do it. I think leagues have come to trust us that we're going to be able to do it in a way that's a great experience for customers and represents their sport really well. So definitely something we're going to lean into. Coming up, one of the most powerful moguls in media on the future of tv. We're going to have a great year this year by all the analyst accounts, and maybe even the best year in the company's history are right there.
And so why would you not be excited? This is Bloomberg screen time from Hollywood. For three decades, Brian Roberts has watched the evolution of entertainment. As the head of Comcast through innovation, through acquisitions, he's seen revenue drive from below $1 billion to over 122 billion. And that growth includes NBC Universal, includes live sports like the Olympics, the NBA. Brian Roberts spoke about the future of entertainment with Bloomberg's Lucas Shaw.
If you were to go back 10 years and you said, let's design with you perfect knowledge of what the world looks like today, what would be a cool company? You would say, well, I like to connect everybody to what we're doing, whether it's in streaming or whether it's in AI or whether it's going to be in, you know, whatever comes next. Zoom calls, working from home. And we have the nation's most connected broadband customers. We have a converged service with wireless and broadband in more homes than AT&T, Verizon, T Mobile combined, and a lot of that content.
100 million people every quarter coming to watch today's show. Tonight's show, snl, which is fabulous as always this year, and don't know how Lorne Michaels can do it every time, but this being such an important year. And then film and television and the stories we have, and then, of course, sports. So I think we have a pretty great company. Why would you not be excited?
You brought up Peacock. I'm curious how long until Peacock is really a profitable and sustainable business on its own? Well, first of all, we don't look at it as on its own, so I'm not going to duck your question completely. But that's not how we're running the business. We're running it as part of the media business. So take the Olympics. 87% of the viewing was on NBC or one of our cable channels. 13% was on Peacock.
But together, we presented to the consumer all those choices. Every event, every athlete, every country that was a whole company, effortless. And so to pick one part of the company and say, well, how's that part doing? Well, if your goal is to just be Netflix, that's a really important question. If your goal is to have a media company that, particularly in the United States, which is where most of our emphasis is, we think NBC, we are going to get there, and Peacock is going to be part of how that happens.
As more and more people cut the cord, more people will take Peacock. But that's why people ask about the sustainability of Peacock. I get that it's part of this broader group. Right. But your cable networks are the ones that are kind of going in the wrong direction. Right. So you need something to offset that.
Peacock. We think this year will be the most losses we've had, even including the NBA investment that we're making. We're already improved. That's what last. NBA won't hurt profitability going forward. It might theoretically, in the short run, but in the long run, we're super excited and think that it's factored into what we need to spend and what will monetize.
Isn't that amazing that we actually would say something? We learn, the business evolves, the business grow, we understand the business, and we change. We don't stay rigid in the. We said this publicly, so we're not Going to go back on something. So what I love actually about the company is that we will sort of change and we will innovate and we will say those things and we will sort of just go, okay, maybe we're wrong then, or the business. That was the right decision then and now. This is the right decision now.
I think that's like, an amazing thing. That's what makes a very dynamic company, you know, to do let's make local language film and TV all around the world has never been done before. We sort of did it. So I actually love that part that we will publicly go, okay, we've learned more of the business has changed, so we're going to change.
You come from the world of TV. For $80 million, you can make eight episodes of a TV show. You can make a movie. I feel like for Netflix, a TV show is generally more economical than a movie. Why are you guys still in the movie business? Like, what is the value that Netflix gets from original movies?
Oh, I think that's too narrow of a way to look at it. Because it's not also. It's not about, like, economical. Like, we're not. It's. Members all around the world love movies and love TV shows and love nonfiction and love docs. Right. And love some of these live events. We do.
So we are pleasing and making all of those things with a great variety of what we do and a lot. And people love movies. We love movies. And people love movies. And so I don't think. I think looking at, like, cost in that way is sort of the wrong way to look at the business. I really look at it as.
We know people love movies, and so we should make lots of movies. So I just think it's really important that giving audiences lots of different kinds of things that we know they love. Something that you are now doing that a lot of other people do is live. You're going to start showing wrestling every week next year. This was a big deal for you. Why is a company that's so synonymous with On Demand doing more live programming?
And why did you want wrestling in particular? What I love about just live, it was just kind of. It's just kind of an expansion of programming. Right. There's certain types of things that just feel like they can be. They're kind of more exciting live or, you know, I'd say, look, the Tom Brady Roast, we would have done it regardless, live or not live. I think making it live had a fun, unpredictable energy conversation around what that was.
And so to me, live was just a Different, you know, it's just kind of another, you know, tool that we have of like, is this thing creatively better live? Is this a different kind of programming? Right. We can do. Which then obviously did lead to wwe. I have a little, you know, teeny. I have a little romanticism about Hollywood still because I'm from the before time, from when we came to Hollywood, it was still Hollywood, you know, now it's like techs all come down here and everything's disorienting and I don't know what a studio is anymore and what distribution is anymore.
But the idea that there's a lot and the people go to work on the lot and you know, it looks like a backlot and there's a guy in the corner, you know, smoking a cigar and he's rich and that, that's what you want. I like that. Yeah, yeah. Compared to the tech, you know, compared to Northern California tech guys. Yeah, that's. I like that. You know what I mean? Like, I've been lucky enough in my life to get to know kind of like tech people. And I live in New York now. I know Wall street people, you know, and Hollywood.
I'm just totally proud to be part of the Hollywood community. God, I want Hollywood. Like I want to replay that to 25 year old Matt and see what he has to do. I know it's. No, that's what I'm saying. After living through all this stuff, like, you know, like I'm not like the. Hollywood is like the most stand up place of all these industries, man. You know what I mean?
Coming up, music's evolution and where it's heading next. We've had five years of consecutive growth from streaming. We've had 10 years of consecutive growth of a company. But the challenges are always what's next. This is Bloomberg screen time from Hollywood. Record sales keep growing thanks to streaming. But where does the music industry turn to next to maintain that growth? Rob Stringer is the chairman of Sony Music Group.
He spoke with Bloomberg's Lucas Shaw. We've had five years of consecutive growth from streaming. We've had 10 years of consecutive growth from the company. But the challenges are always what's next. I mean, we are at a crossroads at the moment. We have AI and we have other challenges of just constantly looking how the business moves on. But you know, we're not a new company. We've been around a while, so we weathered plenty of storms in the past.
And whatever comes hitting our way next, I think we'll probably figure it out. What of Those new things do you consider the biggest opportunity or the biggest threat? Well, I think the threat is that the disruption from the next chapter of tech causes something that happens that doesn't to my mind, benefit the art. I mean, my view of where my background, where I come from was art first, business and tech was involved in that second. So if I look at the next chapter, I care about what happens with the art, the tech.
I mean, I've been through, I've been at the company a long time. I've been through plenty of different chapters of technological innovation, whether it be cassettes or CDs or downloads or streaming or whatever. So I look at it and say, how is it going to affect the art and how is our positioning going to be? Because at the end of the day, I look after 125 year old company, really, and to my mind it's like a modern art museum and we have amazing paintings from the past in there. And I'm always looking to put brand new paintings in there from future geniuses. And so therefore I'm always concerned with that.
Sometimes the tech bothers me more and sometimes it bothers me less. Is there a tech platform right now that you feel like, I guess you would like to see them pay you considerably more, Right? Like you're making plenty from Spotify? I imagine the answer to that. So you're just asking. You already know the answer to that. I'd like several tech platforms to pay me more.
Okay, I'll ask more directly. Does TikTok pay you guys enough? I think the debate on that would be did we start off with Tick tock on the right note and did we allow them to become what they think they are, which is a promotional platform? And we possibly did. They are not a promotional platform. They are a hugely profitable corporation and we allowed them to be MTV and we shouldn't have done that. And now we're backpedaling from there.
But the truth is we should get paid more by several of our DSP partners. And that's part of my job. It's to make sure that we're paid and in turn the artists are paid. I'm curious if you were starting a new company today, who is an artist out there? Like if you could just pick one and I'm going to build around you, who would you pick? I think the artist that's, you know, one that you should always bet on and is already a huge star and you can always bet on because they want it all the time and they do what it takes to be you know, present and relative all the time is Taylor Swift.
I was actually not thinking you were going to say that, but it's an obvious answer. The fun part about it is, everyone, you know, there's a huge opportunity coming with AI, and it's going to change the music industry the same way Pro Tools did. You know, when Pro Tools came along, people said, what is this? We need live instruments. And you realize it's a tool to create more music. And I think AI is going to do the same thing.
But there's always going to be a need for both human emotion and human error. When you started your career right, did you ever think you'd become one of the most in demand spokespeople for different companies in this country?
Yes and no. Yes, because I always believed in me and I always thought that if you give opportunity, we gonna make the most of it. But no, because at the time when I was entering into the music industry, it was only certain things we could do. It was certain things that wasn't legal that are legal now. Do you feel. I mean, you're obviously a little joking a little bit, but do you feel like growing acceptance of weed has kind of smoothed the path for you and made you kind of more presentable for companies?
I think it's the medical side of it is being brought forward a lot. You know, usually when medical is the first word, then you have more understanding. Because I've had people in my family who dealt with cancer and certain, you know, illnesses and cannabis, and THC has helped them, you know, ease the pain and have a smooth transition. So it's like. And then I look at my career and look at me and look at what I look like, and I look at some people in the industry and what they look like, and maybe they do alcohol and this and that and the other, but I do weed and I look like this. Like, you know, I'm saying, like 31 years later.
Also here at Screen Time, Bloomberg Business Week revealed its annual list of ones to watch in entertainment. These are the people poised to be the leaders of tomorrow. We asked them what they're watching out for.
For me, it's Issa Rae. So Issa is somebody who started as a YouTube, you know, creator, and I think was one of the few who successfully transitioned to Hollywood. And what I appreciate about her career is that she's not only successfully transitioned to Hollywood, but she's doing a lot of work to help bring others along.
Never forget where you came from, and always try to remain humble and, you know, really connect with the people who follow you don't think you're superior to. You're one of them, and they're one of you. So that's really important. You know, in this town, there's a lot of noise. There's a lot of temptation to try to follow trends or do things like that.
I think that, you know, sort of finding your own, you know, North Star and kind of being true to what interests you as an artist, as a creator, as a filmmaker is really important. I think that, you know, making yourself the first audience member is oftentimes the best way to do your best work. And the audience will find you if it's good. Hopefully.
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