Dubai Influencers vs Iran

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2:03Start your spring with low prices guaranteed at the Home Depot. Exclusions apply to home Depot.com, slash price match for details. Hello, and welcome to this episode of the rest's entertainment with me, Marina Hyde. And me, Richard Osman, hi, Marina. Hello, Richard, how are you? I'm not too bad. All things considered. All things considered. Might as well call this podcast, all things considered, because we're a lovely alternative to actually looking at anything else that's going on in the world. We are going to have to slightly go there this week, though, because we are going to be talking about Dubai influences. And it's quite interesting when what might be the beginnings of World War 3 is deemed to be breaking out. How amazing people have said, oh, what about all those people in Dubai who tell us how fabulous it is? I don't know, that seems to be their main takeaway. We are going to discuss it, though. Also, I thought it was widely understood. We've been in the middle of World War 3 for a long time, so this must be World War 4.

3:04Oh, I see, OK. Maybe even 5. It's like too fast, too furious now. Yeah. Wars. We're also going to talk about the Brits and Shock Horror was actually good. And it's British music, like in an amazing place at the moment. I'm also going to be telling you why the best-selling single in Britain is not number one, and hasn't been all year. So I'll be explaining why that is. I also have some career news, which I will talk about at some point in this show. And we are going to talk about the update to the biggest deal struggling to be born in Hollywood as Paramount finally made a successful bid for Warners and Netflix are out of it. And we're going to say what that means for the business and for us as consumers of entertainment. I think it's actually quite an interesting story for a business story. Yeah. I think it's quite good. No, absolutely no, there's no shade on the rest of the money there. But this is an interesting business story. Well, yes. No, all of this was interesting. We're going to get another business story, OK. So the weekend, huge historic events in Iran

4:07and the wider Middle East region, the killing of the Ayatollah in a US-Israeli strike, retaliatory attacks by Iran, some drone strikes in Dubai. But I hear you ask, what of an influencer's golf trip to Marbella? Let me go to the husband of Patrick Eccleston, Sam Palmer, to his Instagram for an update. I know there is bigger problems than my golf trip, I'll give you one. But honestly, I am boiling inside. I was so looking forward to it, it was going to be brilliant. Hang on, I've got another Dubai-based influencer. By the way, everyone in Dubai is an influencer and we'll talk about that and why. Another one, there's an Australian one called Luis Darki who's verdict on what she was seeing out of her window was, can't everyone just chill out? So some interesting content moment. Is she related to David Stark? Yeah, it didn't say, I think it's unlikely. We're only being slightly serious, of course. But it's sort of fascinating that in these huge seismic global events, something very noticeable has been going on

5:09and there is a massive tide of commentary online of people pointedly asking, oh, what's become of all the influences telling us about their fabulous lives? And the reason for that is, Dubai is the influencer capital of the world. It's extraordinary. It's a city of 4 million people. There are 50,000 influences. That one in 80 people in Dubai is an influencer. So there were only about 79 people to influence each of them? Effectively, yes. And all of them essentially work tacitly in the cause of suggesting that Dubai is a place of luxury and crucially safety. And I think, so we're going to talk today about what it means when a place's image is contracted out almost completely to this whole new breed of content creators. And what it says about the status of influencing that people are actually slightly distracted from the possibility of imminent war,

6:09but sort of to unleash a certain kind of shard and fraud as to what is happening to this whole strata of people. How quickly an actual war becomes part of the cultural war? Yeah. I have also, by the way, just so you know, as a little treat for you, I've put all of your details through the Dubai Creator Economy website to see if you'd be eligible to move there on a free golden visa and I'll be giving you the results later. Presumably I can get even better terms today than I could on fire. We shall find out. But it's interesting, by the way, that either that thing is this, which I think some people don't know this idea that they are actively pursuing creators. So we'll talk about why they're doing that and we'll talk about whether Marina Hyde would be eligible for a tax-free existence in Dubai for the next 10 years. Oh, gosh. What would happen if we moved the podcast back there essentially? Right. All sorts of things have been sort of lost leaders and they've made it to try and get people into Dubai and it's been, under the most extraordinary successful city that's been sort of conjured up out of nowhere

7:11and bits of reclaimed from the sea in an incredibly short space of time. And it's amazing how much content creators, influences for one another word are key to that. They have a whole something called the creator HQ. It's a government initiative, right? Creators HQ, yeah. And in the same way that sort of Emirates at the start was a way to, the airline was a way to sort of get people. It was almost like a loss of the easy to get people to pass through. This is what they've also tried to do with content creators. Yeah. And they wanted, well, I mean, they want, until Friday they were saying they wanted to grow this part of the economy to contribute 5% of GDP by 2031, which is quite a big part of any country's economy, 5%. It was the beginning of last year, beginning of 2025, they launched this then creators HQ. And the idea was to get 10,000 influences into Dubai. That's the, can you imagine? They want to 10,000 influences in Dubai. What are we short of? Influences.

8:12And when we say influences, obviously, everyone means different things, but they've talked about content creators, essentially. And so you can apply, if you live in any country in the world, you can apply to move to Dubai under this scheme. And under this scheme, they give you a number of different things. They give you a visa. They give you like a physical creators HQ hub, which has podcast studios, offices, all those things. They will give you business and legal support. They will essentially set you up as a business. There's a whole structure of people who deal with this. Yes, exactly. Agents, producers, people who get you follow accounts. It's like a whole professional strata in Dubai. So you can apply. When you see all of these people who are saying, yeah, you know what, fed up with Britain. Britain is, you know, there's no room for entrepreneurs in Britain. And I'm going to move to Dubai where you can get things easier. This is what they're talking about. They're talking about the fact that someone is saying, oh, no, we will sort everything out for you.

9:14Come over here for free. I'm going to give you these offices. We're going to give you these podcast studios. You are going to live tax-free. We're going to set up a company that you hold your own. The government is not going to keep any of you up. So they are literally being incentivized, massively incentivized. There are not percent personal income tax, is that correct? Not percent personal income tax and a very, very local corporation tax as well. So they're paying very, very, very little tax. What they are essentially saying, a lot of these influencers go over there, particularly the ones who talk about it in a political way, they're saying, oh, no, this is the place where capitalism reigns. You know, no, this is the place where socialism reigns because you're going over there because someone is funding you. Someone is taking money and giving you that money and subsidising you to do the thing that you do. That's it's socialism. That's okay. Just admit it. Just say, I'm going over there because I'm getting a handout. I'm going over there. I'm going to a foreign country and taking all the tech companies in the US with all their handouts, their tech standards, the biggest welfare queens in the world. It's exactly right. But it like that. Listen, the place where anyone who tells you socialism doesn't work, take a look at the very, very top level of influencers and tech bosses.

10:18It is working absolutely beautifully for them because they live in a socialist utopia. And essentially, that's what Dubai is in Europe if you're around. They are the sort of basic, sad little stormtroopers of late sage capitalism and it's going to split them out. They're sales drones and they're selling with their advertisement. Advertainment, is that a failure? I don't know, it is now. They're selling hotels, yachts, luxury, lifestyle, medical procedures. You can sell them a lot easier over there than you can in more regulated economies. Essentially, influencing is the chief means by which things are sold there. They've made it on this. It's extraordinarily, the city itself has become constructed in a sort of Instagram friendly way. Instagram has a headquarters then, and no surprise. And there's obviously a sort of dark side to this because you can be detained for making to family comments. You do sometimes have to do state work. Although it is, it's never discussed.

11:19People don't say whether they've been paid or whether it's just, you know, you're on the team now you take one for it. And it's just the course of doing business and they never rock the boat. So here's, so creators HQ, here's the eligibility for it. Okay. And I would say it's a relatively low bar if you're involved in the world of content at all. So you have to have a proven content career. I've been through every single bit of this with you. So you've, you've got a proven content career. I think it's fair to say, you know, those columns, those columns that you're writing about David Meller, that's a content career. That was the beginning of it. And it's a, and it's a career of sorts. Preven content career, evidence of income from digital activities. Now, I assume that, well, I mean, this is the digital, the guardian is digital. So you will have some evidence of income from digital activities. That's you need strong engagement or measurable impact. So do you have strong engagement or measurable impact? I would have said, when I ticked the box fee because of what you, the nonsense you were talking about, your bookshelves,

12:22and how you organize your bookshelves. And I think that that had strong engagement because so many people disagreed with you. And I think it had measurable impact because everyone just went, I, do you know what? I'm actually fine with the way I did my bookshelves. I mean, if you'd like to get away from this, we'll love this career. Press coverage awards, brand co-labs, awards. You're always willing, like, columnists at the year or something, aren't you? I have quite a few of them. Have you? Okay, that's good. Brand co-labs, less so, but that's a, listen, that's, that's okay. But awards, I think, are big for them. And the final one, clean legal record. I ticked yes for that. I don't, I think I have one. Yeah. Yeah, no, yes. I have a clean legal record. So that is all you need. If you can demonstrate that, and also if you can demonstrate, it's not necessarily just follow account. It's, it's, you can demonstrate your influence. Well, I think that stuff is not like trying to get into the dead eye nights, right? It's, I think, you know, it's a load, it is a load of, it's very hard on getting to the baron nights. Wow, that's a, that's a, that's one for the fast. Isn't it just? So if you have all of those things and you want to go over there,

13:24I'd say they will give you visa assistance, company set up, legal support, a co-lab opportunities. So I know you don't have a lot of brand co-labs, but the good news for you is if you go to Dubai, you will get loads of co-lab opportunities. What do I have in this podcast? They, oh, that's true. That's a co-lab. We co-lab with octopus energy. Yes. Right, Mundo. So again, that's another tick that I didn't tick. Right. You've got brand co-labs. They were also then when you go out there, they will give you workshops and mentoring and training in the following areas. And it's interesting the order they put this in. Firstly, branding, okay? Helpful. Production. Joey does all that for us. Monetization, they'll do a workshop in that, engagement and finally storytelling, which is the last of the things to do. Oh my god, this is psychological penal, Connolly. I've forgotten the, I can't do it. They will do all of those things for you. Also, one of the key things is if you get above another eligibility requirement, which we'll go into, you can get a golden visa. Now, golden visa, like anything which has gold in the title is cool.

14:26It is. That's true. Otherwise, why would they call it that? Think of it. Why don't you think it through the tiny bit? If you're going to do me, I will move to do I. Feel something like someone. Don't know so much about branding. So golden visa, you get 10 years residency in Dubai, which is renewable as well. Well, it's a second prize. 20 years. You get 10 years residency in Dubai and for relatives as well. And if you say it's absolutely text free, all that kind of stuff. And for that, you do need, again, it's all of those editabilities, but at a slightly higher bar. So I put everything through for you. And it says, this is the things they are looking for. This is the reason why they would give you a golden visa that are looking for established creators with international audiences. Now, we have a lot of listeners in Australia and Australia. So I think that's, I think that absolutely counts. And our friends in America, they are looking for genuinely. They carved this out.

15:26They're looking for podcasters with measurable cultural impact. They are looking for podcasters with measurable cultural impact. And that's what I'm looking at right now. Well, as I say, the weekend has maybe changed some of this stuff. You would be eligible immediately, absolutely free, you'd have to pay a single thing for 10 years residency. But that's why a lot of these people are moving to Dubai. That's what I'm saying. They're not moving to Dubai because they are entrepreneurs who are going, oh, finally, there's a place where I can move quickly. And you know, it's they are moving there because someone is incentivizing them with dollars from the government to do that. Dubai influencer content comes with such a distinct set of tropes. They're actually very narrow. And you know, this is like, but it's the sort of skyline flecks like themselves in front of this amazing and very recognizable skyline, supercars, helicopters, private jets, they all rent them by the way and they rent time in them. They didn't half of these things never take off. They just have pictures of them sitting in them.

16:28That's one of the things I object to so much. It's like influencing is so uncool. It's like all of this stuff is just so sort of basic. The entire sort of possibility and, you know, creativity if human experience sort of distilled down to about 10 template images that were involved, like white fluffy bath robes, champagne flutes, a private jet seat. I mean, come on. This is so dull. Like I said, you are a little late capitalist room trooper that's going to get spat out by the system anyhow. Sorry, oh, beach clubs. That's another big thing that, you know, the Palm Jamera. Well, that was hit by a missile on Saturday hotels, shopping malls, the hall we get from it all. And that whole pool slide entrepreneur lifestyle, you know, here I am in this amazing place. I'm on my laptop, you know, I manifested this. I, this is my business. But the kind of underlying thing of all of this things are, as I said before, it's luxury and it's safety. And a huge amount of them spend a lot of time saying, I've moved here because, you know, I hate London, London's a mess or wherever I live before is a mess.

17:31And there's crime, there, you know, this is incredibly safe. And obviously something absolutely extraordinary has happened. By the way, that we hope everyone is deeply safe and all of that stuff. But it shines a light on this gilded world that's been so effective. But it's a low profession. It's honestly, it's like a state agency or Traffitwoods or journalists. They're like, they're down there or though, you know, it's a hated profession. People feel like, I suppose essentially, it is built on boasting, saying, look what I've got, look what I'm doing. And also, and do my content in particular is very smug. But as you say stuff that you actually don't have. Yes. And do my content, I think in particular, is very like, you know, the grass is the grass is greener. So in some ways, but if you look at the level of shard and Freud online, as soon as the event started unfolding on Saturday,

18:32there's those compelling stories. We talked what's before about that amazing, no going back. God, I mean, that's 20 years ago, I must have seen that. Maybe more that extraordinary documentary about, I said, on Channel 4, people who start new lives. And this is, do you remember? And there was one who went to a sort of desert island and it was going to be perfect. And let's just say it really isn't. And I suppose this feeling of most people who are in this country, who are in a cost of living crisis, who are struggling in all sorts of different ways, there is some sort of sense that it's being round down your throat, this perfect lifestyle. And this is why in lots of ways, people hate influencers. They want to sort of be them at some level that they don't talk about. But they are, as I say, they're down there with state agents and journalists. A huge amount of following influencers has become about, we talked about this when we talked about Tattle Ice, of Richard, or Embittered Detective Work, as the same to some degree with the Beckham's. Like, what you're saying is the situation isn't the situation. This isn't what you're selling it has.

19:33Now we've just seen that on a geopolitical level, like the thing that Dubai has used all of this army of people to say about itself is, in fact, suddenly not the case. It is not a place currently of safety. And, you know, who knows what will have unfolded, even by the time this podcast goes out, but something very, very significant happened. And, you know, it's a new kind of Middle East. There is no oil. This is a new kind of Middle East Dubai, and it's... Influences are the oil here. In the same way that, you know, Saudi Arabia, we've talked a lot before, you know, everyone's tourist money is incredibly important. Hollywood money is important. Cultural money is important. The interesting thing in this is the understanding that Dubai certainly has, and I think Saudi Arabia certainly has, that the creator economy is the fastest-growing part of the new entertainment economy, in a way that, because of our history and entertainment, we haven't quite got on board with. We still slightly think of the creator economy as something slightly other,

20:34and they understand, actually, that is where all the money and entertainment is going to be in the next 10, 15, 20 years. So that's why they're throwing all this money at this... But they've concentrated so much of it on this, that it... And until now, there's been no question that it wasn't just going to keep going on at the same level. But now, you see how precarious all these things. And actually, that's mirrored by influencing not just in Dubai, influencing anywhere. People who understand tech and understand the algorithms will always say to you, it seems like it's a great thing. But actually, if the rug goes undy for one reason or another, say, I don't know, you'll found to have done something wrong, or people decide to cancel you in the way they can in that world, then suddenly you have absolutely nothing, and you're really, really stark. But if you're to counterpoint to that, if you're an individual influence, so that's definitely the case. It's incredibly precarious. As it has... If you're a pop star, or a TV presenter, or anything like that, but if you are a big media organisation, and that's what the Dubai government is acting at as here,

21:36they don't mind a few influences being disgraced, because they're constantly being replaced. You know, there's always... What happened here is the entire stick has had the rug pulled underneath it, because what you're saying is this is a place of great luxury and great safety, and suddenly, it's not. And I think it's very difficult. With that many people, you were out there creating content. Yeah, I'm sure. Listen, not depressing, we may... No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. I think depressingly, this is content at the moment for those influences. But if I were there, and you can see that their management has been in touch with them and said, be very, very careful what you post. Do not make it... The inadequacy of the pivot, like Louise is this man who is an apprentice, runner-up, who's got a very successful podcast, which she does from Dubai. And now, I saw her saying, you know, doing a post, saying, home-baked bread rolls, you know, keeping the kids entertained and indoors. And I just thought, yeah, this isn't really like lockdown. You... I just think it's... Bread rolls are not going to cut it here. And, you know, getting your content right,

22:41there's already a backlash now over the last two days for people saying, even this situation, you're making all about you. And because people have this kind of bedrock idea that influences a self-absorbed and unserious, and, you know, maybe they are, because it's not in their real lives, perhaps, but certainly in the way they present themselves and the way they make this kind of advertisement content. And there's such a big backlash that you can see certain people just didn't write, who people are used to posting things 20 times a day, didn't, because someone had said to maybe Kate Ferdinand, really, I'm sorry, be really sure when you put down what you're going to put, that it does not, like, completely send to you or doesn't. And I think it's very difficult when you're not, you're now have got a city, as I say, where there's 50,000 influencers. Every single thing, what do you do? Now, one of the two fundamental talents on which all of their content has been based, which is this is paradise and it's safe, has been very significantly

23:41undermined, not necessarily forever undermined at all. But what now? I mean, all the comments beneath, all the things that you're trying to sell, people will have a number of views about quite how realistic what you're saying. Yeah, and to reiterate, you know, we hope that everyone across the Middle East stays completely safe, but this is an area we wanted to talk about. No one is expecting people to become war correspondents overnight, of course not. But it's very difficult to see how that many people, that big, you know, professional class, as it were, has to sort of pivot completely and to see what they'll do. They may be able to write themselves pretty easily, but I think that something quite seismic has been, has occurred and something very, very significant has been undermined. Yeah, and I hope it's interesting to hear about this idea of creators HQ, which is a very, very real thing, which is really, really targeting influencers and every single time you see somebody say, I'm leaving this country, I'm going to Dubai because, you know, I have opportunities

24:44there. What they're saying is the government of Dubai and everything that stands for and everything that happens in their name are funding me to go and do this. So I'm leaving. I'm a civil servant. I'm leaving, yeah, but you are. I'm leaving a liberal democracy because of the difficulties and challenges that are involved in a liberal democracy to go somewhere where I'm being a paid shield, which is, you can be a patient. If you want, we all pay the shields for things that we believe in, that's absolutely fine. But that's what they are and I'm being funded. Someone is paying for me to do that in a way that speaks of nothing but socialism. That's exactly what's happening there. They are going from a non-socialist society into a socialist society and someone is paying them for the soft power that they bring, which brings me to finally the creator's HQ, I ticked every single box that I thought applied to you. And they say that you are definitively qualified for both creators HQ and for the golden visa in a category called Distinguished Talent in Media and Digital Content.

25:50So you could go out there tomorrow. Listen, anyone can go out there tomorrow if you can get a flight, which you can't currently. Right, after the break, we are going to be talking about another seismic shift at this time in the Paramount's attempts to buy warners, which has been successful and Netflix is out. And we're also going to be talking about the Brits, which happened on Saturday night, and was perhaps actually good. Guys, breaking news, we are going to be interviewing Tim Davy, the outgoing director general of the BBC. So please send us your questions to the rest of entertainment at golehanger.com, put Tim Davy in the subject line so we don't miss it. There's always many things we can discuss on the matter of the BBC. And that will go out next week. This episode is brought to you by Bumble. Now, there's a modern phenomenon when someone says they're on the apps, but what they actually mean is they downloaded them, opened them once, and then immediately felt

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27:58whether it's waves lapping at the shore or snoozing in a hammock that overlooks, well, whatever you want it to. So you can all enjoy the payoff come summer with Berba's early booking deals. Rise and shine, average savings $141, select homes only. Protein is now at Starbucks, and it's never tasted so good. You can add protein, cold foam to your favorite drink or try one of our new protein lattes or matcha. Try it today at Starbucks. Welcome back, everybody. Now we're going to talk about Warner and Paramount and Netflix. But I promise some career news, which is I am leaving House of Games. It will no longer be Richard Osman's House of Games. It will be somebody else's House of Games. And I gladly hand over the keys. And I just wanted to go on record of saying how much I love it and loved it. And I've done 800 episodes. I was going to say how many and how many seasons?

29:02Oh, seasons I don't know. We don't really. I just have a lot of episodes and I've loved it. And of course, I met my wife through it as well. And it just with the writing comes the point, you know, where where you have to hand it over. The BBC have very, very, which I'm very glad about. I've said they will continue it. So that incredible team I get to work with, still going to be making it with there with a different host. But not with me anymore. I will do one final week. I'll do one final week where I hand over to the new host, which will be a lot of fun. But oh my god, I've loved it. I love doing it so much. And I'll be gutted when I don't do it anymore. But you know, I had to in the same way with pointless. But you know, we filmed 110 episodes last year, which are still going out now. And those will be my last ones apart from one final day. Well, I wonder how many hundreds of those episodes have been watched in my house. And I will say, thank you. You have brought such joy to everyone in my family. So thank you. And onwards.

30:08Looking forward to Sioux Pollard's House of Games. That out of the way, let's talk about more minor show business, the acquisition of Warner Brothers by Paramount Skydance. Well, you've thrown that into the shade now, haven't you? Haven't I just took us through what has happened there? Right. Yes. Now, the last time we covered this, and in fact, until just the end of last week, Netflix were kind of locked on as you could be at this stage to acquire Warner Brothers, one of the huge studios. But at the last minute Paramount, Paramount Skydance, remember, Skydance was a small film studio, which recently acquired Paramount. And now almost immediately, they raised their offer to $31 a share. Netflix were given four days to respond to a counter. And co-CEO's Ted Sarandas and Greg Peters said, after one day in the end, you're all right. We're walking away. It's not right for us at this price. Netflix said, essentially, that Warner Brothers would be a nice thing to have at the right price. It is not a must-have

31:09at any price. Which it is for Paramount Skydance. Which it is for, yeah. Anyhow. Hugely overpaid. Well, they're buying it for $111 billion. And it looks like, you know, they will get it. Remember, Larry Ellison is like, you know, he's always bumping along in the top four. I think he's currently the fourth richest man in the world, but sometimes he's the second. It just moves around a little bit. Larry Ellison, he's now said he will backstop the deal. But it's his son, always referred to on this podcast as Kendall Ellison, but actually called David apparently. David, who wants this, but they're close to the Trumps. And it's thought that people think for that reason it will get through whatever regulatory things that Netflix would have found quite difficult. Now, despite the initial shock, when we first covered this, when Netflix was sort of sweeping in for it, I came to think, and lots of other people came to think, and I'm sure you probably did, that actually Netflix was the better deal for Hollywood. By far. For them to have won this would have been better for the town, for the people who work at Warner's, for all of those things. Mainly because Netflix and Warner Brothers do quite separate things. So the synergies of those two companies come together. You will talk about

32:14the savings, the Paranat skydance you're going to make with Netflix and Warner Brothers. Actually, they would have multiplied each other a little bit more. And these two companies, I think, divide each other a little bit more. So they'll be all for a lot less jobs, I think. And right up until last week when Ted Sarandos was still pushing this deal, he was saying repeatedly, as many times as possible on record, he was really committing to cinema release. What, remember, what we call, they call windows. The time that a film is in the theaters before it comes to other forms of release. And when it eventually ends up on streaming now Netflix, sometimes we'll have something in theaters for a week. And then it'll be on streaming. There are several windows between something going to streaming where you can pay for it, where you can do all sorts of different things. And creators really, really wanted it preserved. Now, Ted Sarandos went on the record and said, no, no, no, no, we're definitely going to stick to it. Okay, so he hasn't got it now and he can go back to slagging off cinemas. Yes. Generally Netflix seem thrilled to have lost out. Oh my god, this is one of the great losses ever. And we'll get to that. They got to the point

33:15where there was so much political pressure, which they weren't interested in. And they've never had it really. They've never had political pressure. Exactly. They don't have news. They don't have all sorts of things that bring political pressure. They were being told to fire Susan Rice from their board, all sorts of things that they are not used to having. The price was going up and up into a point where they thought this doesn't make any commercial sense for them. And their shareholders hated it, Richard. The shareholders hated it. And the second that they pulled out, and they pulled out immediately, they were like, oh no, you can have that. The second they pulled out, their shares were not 10%. Yeah, by the end, I think, yeah, their shares are on a turn now. It's great. Okay, so what's this going to mean for all the little different bits of this? And for us, as people who even over here consume a huge amount of the things they make. Okay, so for movies, David Ellison has said, the combined Warner Paramount entity will release 30 films a year to which I can only say, lol, okay, that is, I absolutely will lay it down here. I don't think that's going to happen. It'd be lovely if it did. I don't think it's going to happen.

34:16If it does happen, by the way, there will be like 12 movies that you think, what's that weird time movie that got released for like one day? What's that AI film made with Oracle AI? Remember Ellison's run Oracle? In general, everything we've ever seen in the history of all of this is that studio mergers lead to fewer and not more titles. It happened when Disney acquired Fox. So what they now have, they have two lots, two studio complexes. I mean, the Paramount lot is one of the most beautiful buildings in Los Angeles. And I, you know, my thoughts, you know, that doesn't mean much, but actually this is genuinely a beautiful, a beautiful building, a series of buildings. The Warner lot, which is also very historic, they will, I think, I'll produce a journey, it's just saying to me, they'll have like 88 sound stages. Paramount is saying that they will make six billion of savings. And when they're talking about savings, let's be very honest with that. They're talking about, they're talking about thousands of people losing their jobs. Yeah. Ted Sarandas has been saying, okay, with that level, remember, this is leveraged, this is a leveraged bite. They have a huge amount of debt. There's no way that six billion will

35:16be enough. Netflix estimate that Paramount are going to have to make 16 billion, 16 billion of savings. I mean, there's so many different bits of this empire. So there's, what happens with talent? A talent going to be sort of sniffing, going to think, you know, the Alison's are clearly you know, Lindsey Gray and the sort of ancient and awful Republican Senator was snapped with David Ellison, who was his guest at the State of the Union last week. Everyone knows that the Ellison's are very close to Trump. Will, will lots of talent thing. We would read it again, this can only be to Netflix. Netflix. Why would I not go to Netflix? Why would I not go to Netflix? In another way, I would say though, talent is not in a position to be sniffy. Hollywood isn't a lot of trouble. And you know, if at the start, Kendall Ellison does make 30 films a year. He's going to need people to be in them. Sports wise, this is looking pretty good because they now have all the football, their football, UFC golf. They have, you know, the college basketball tournament, March Madness. That is mega. It's like a huge cultural moment. So they have all of that.

36:19I think in some ways, what's very interesting is the TV networks. There is a whole sort of hot take industry that in fact, this has only ever been about news, which is too hot to take for me. But that CBS, which is currently going through a whole kind of a load of convulsions, which has been put under the control of Barry White who is a sort of conservative, friendly kind of person who's never run a network, but is now running this. What happens to CNN? Do they all have to report into Barry White? So the basic principle here is that CNN, which is one of the big news networks over there, is now under direct control of people who are very, very close to Trump. Well, media power in general is shifting towards being Trump friendly across across everything. What he does require people to be Trump, you can't say, oh, you know, he's just their tacit supporters of Trump always wants you to be overtly political and to bend the knee. Yeah, it did, yeah, to, to bend the knee. So lots of things are shifting and other people will say, oh, well, it was a long way, the long time the other way. So that's fine. In terms of the

37:20natures of the nature of the deal, I'm sure one has shareholders love being told that shares are worth $31 because they were bumbling along at like $11 for a long time back then. So I'm sure they love that. But as we say, they have a vast amount of debt. Something like 57 billion of this deal is debt. Some, most of it, junk-rated. And then you add into the debt that was already on Warner's books. There are, there are estimates you're somewhere around 90 billion of debt here. And that's all very well. By the way, if you're bankrolled by Larry Edison, because he runs Oracle and Oracle is riding like on the unbelievable AI boom. I mean, it's the value of that company is so enormous. They went back and back and back with more and more and more money because money was meaning this to them at the moment because they are so awash with it because of AI. So AI, as you say, yeah, we can make movies with AI. But if AI turns out to be a bubble, and it's going to turn out to be some sort of bubble at some point for sure, then suddenly that

38:2290 billion dollars of debt is going to be very, very, very difficult to service. And if that becomes very difficult to service, then you have a huge behemoth right in the heart of Hollywood, right in the heart of creating content for television, film and everything, which will be almost crippled. And then they get some more of what is part of this deal, which is Saudi money. It doesn't look amazing in lots of different ways. And in terms of who's running this, I mean, who is David Ellison? He was running something called Skydance, honestly, about 15 minutes ago. I always think people in the film business will tell you that if you ever see a producer on the red carpet with the stars of the film, that guy is a real arsehole. If you look at Top Gun Maverick, which is by far the biggest thing, Skydance ever produced, who is there with Tom Cruise and all of them on the red carpet, is of course David Ellison. He's trying to create this enormous media company at incredible speed.

39:24And doing it, by the way, purely through spending his dad's money. Yeah. I mean, it's not like, oh my god, he's really transformed. Well, his dad is backstopping this. Yeah, exactly that. That's which is the difference. I mean, I suppose we have to believe it. But ultimately, it means awfully huge layoffs. But Netflix has emerged. Amazing. Amazingly. Clearly, we know their investors didn't like the deal. But when you do a deal, it's big or you come closer doing deal this big, you get to look completely over the entity you wish to acquire books. So they know every single thing about how they're not the same. Remember, Netflix are not the same as these old Hollywood legacy studio companies. They're doing something totally different. And of course, they've hired lots of people of those companies. So it's not like they have no institutional knowledge of how these companies work. But they've now seen exactly everything and say all rates are different parts of the year at different times. I mean, literally, we're now Netflix doing our front because they haven't added it. It's all very different.

40:25So they've had a chance to look at exactly how it all works. And they've managed to get away from it. And they're also getting a $2.8 billion cancellation fee. I think it might be 2.9 bit. It's something ridiculous. And Washington is not up in their business any longer, which was becoming very difficult. I mean, they're a bit more on the radar now because people have had to think about them, which they never had to before. They were just the sort of TV company. And also, one of their big competitors has been forced to massively overpay for something because they've had to consistently top Netflix's deal. So it sort of couldn't be a better loss. I mean, it might be one of the all-time great losses in corporate history. Yeah. This one, everything about it has turned Netflix's way. We should say that just in general, they just, and I understand why they have to happen in a very, very difficult climate for the whole business, but almost always these big mergers don't work. I mean, I was talking to someone who

41:25works at a senior level on the creative side and said, you know, I've done so many reorientation days where it's like, hi, welcome to a new corporate overlord. I've done like three in the last decade now. I've got to now do another. These things don't tend to work. Maybe they'll prove us all wrong and make 30 great AI films, yeah. Or maybe the term oil is not a tool over. And it certainly isn't over in terms of job losses. I mean, so many thousands of people are going to lose their jobs. There was a separate thing recently, Jack Dorsey, who set up Twitter originally. I remember seeing this, you know, now when we look at where Twitter is, we sort of see him as a, as, you know, some sort of great hope. But he has a George W. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, he has a company called Block, which is a payments company. And he has just laid off 40% of the staff of that company, laid off 4,000 people. And he has not laid them off because Block is doing badly. Block is doing very, very well. He laid them off because AI is now doing the work of most of his

42:28employees. And he says, this is a direct quote from Jack Dorsey. Within the next year, I believe the majority of companies will reach the same conclusion and make similar structural changes. By which he means that they will lose. We'll all essentially be deviant for 40% of their workforce. And, you know, there's about over 50,000 employees within this merger. You lose 40% of that. That's, you know, it's a lot of people. And it feels again, like we were talking in the Dubai thing, it feels like there's such an unfairness to it, which is, which is, you know, a group of people playing by different rules because they've been funded by something that's not based on anything real. It's ever been thus. But, you know, I do think Netflix would have been a better home for Warner Brothers. Listen, let's take them like their word. If they do massively ramp up movie production, that will be very, very good news. And it's doable and perhaps they will do it. They can only do it if they use AI oracle AI on it. They can't possibly put out 30 movies a year. They just can't.

43:33And it's not going to happen. And if it does, a significant part of those films will be made by AI. There's only one Jason Statham. That's what I'm saying. That's what I'm always saying. It's essentially the point I'm making in every single item we ever do on the film. What would Latin for? There's only one Jason Statham be. I've got to try one again. Should we end with some good news, which was the Brits this weekend. It's moved up to Manchester at the Co-operina, which, if you remember when that opened up, was derided because they're you know, kept being shut down and there were all sorts of issues and now has turned into like an unbelievable venue with insane acoustics. You know, after, you know, the BAFTAs and what have you to have this ceremony, because the Brits does feel like, you know, all the world ceremonies feel like, you know, they're less significant than they were. But it felt like a room full of people working in an industry that's that's absolutely firing on all cylinders. Amazing performances, amazing winners, amazing energy, a host who's actually a comedian, so can do jokes. And I just thought it was worth noting that it feels like sort of a good new story. There's

44:34bad news stories within the music industry for sure that decline of live music, that decline of live venues and things like that wall fallacy, one best band spoke about that. But it felt like in terms of creativity and in terms of, you know, an industry that's, you know, doesn't always show its best side. It felt like a really celebrated evening. Absolutely it did. And there were so much sort of great, great stuff out. I will say in terms of sort of TV, which is the medium one, via which most people have seen this ceremony, the ratings are down. I agree that the story it's celebrating is very, very successful. The ratings are down. It's like the 10th most watch programme on Saturday night. It's behind Michael McIntyre's big show Got Talent, Weakerslink, gladiators, the news, obviously, always. So yes, I think that it's interesting that industry at celebrating is doing very well. The British side of it, but the, but award ceremonies in general are, they're becoming very difficult and we will end up talking about this, but particularly

45:35after what happened at the, the BAFTAs the week before, but I noticed that so much conversation around the Brits was online was about censorship and they were saying, you know, people have been censored for saying free Palestine or, you know, making comments about ice. In fact, even some very, very Anadine joke Jack Whitehall made about Peter Mandelson was censored. Some of these things, by the way, are cut for length and people don't realise that. The show overruns, they have a slot, certain things have to go and maybe they just took the view that, like, lots of politics jokes, we don't need millions of them because that's not really what this place is about. Yeah, that joke was just, there was a table of politicians, Andy Burnham and Lisa and Andy, and he'd done a joke about Andy Burnham saying, this is the only party you get invited to these days. And then he said, oh, who else is on the table? I'm sure I saw Peter Mandelson on the list. Oh, that was a different list. Yeah. Perfectly serviceable gag. But I mean, I'd cast it because it's not, there was better stuff. Sean Ryder had to have an entire anecdote, believe it. So, Sean Ryder had, of course he did. Sean Ryder had, of course he did, had an anecdote about being busted for

46:40drugs possession at the Brits in 1990. And it was just like the whole thing just had to go. So there was, there's a lot of complaint about censorship. I have to say that artists, often used to, in decades gone by, often used to use awards ceremonies to make political points and things that we know they did. But all of the censorship stories in the last year have come from sort of creative events of its kneecap and Bob Villain and Glastonbury, John Davidson, at BAFTAs we're going to get to that. It's become such a sort of culture war minefield. In the past, when these stands were taken or people said these things, they didn't happen in the sort of frenzied world of social media, which, and it's not the fault of the broadcasters, is a big part in our lives of why we can't have nice things. Social media just means you can't have this moment. You know, and you could, and of course there've been, and awards ceremonies are, I mean, they're so dull that they're a really good time to take a stand because everyone's excited. But if you do anything off the script, people always have to be at film or music or

47:41any sort of awards. But now, doing it in a world where the social media reaction is instant and it becomes a huge thing, we have to understand that broadcasters operate under codes and in America, they cut lots of things in the Grammys because you're not allowed to swear. So you can probably mention ice, but you can't say F ice because then you're swearing. We have different broadcasters laws. We have the things that can be said at the Brits after 9pm are different to the things that can be said before 9pm. But there is a sort of general misunder, just a lack of understanding, which you'd think when we have had this long in social media about media law. Funny off the times to do an article last week saying, this is the reason we don't allow comments under most of our, Andrew, Martin, Windsor content. And this is the reason. And I'm not joking, as you know, I'm obsessed with newspaper comments. I've read all of them. It was people just saying underneath, why don't you just say this is nothing to do with you? It's just what commenters

48:42are saying. Hi, this is sort of our job. We have most of us have been through libel actions or things that were threatened as libel actions. And we understand the law better than you. We have to protect ourselves because it will not be you paying when somebody takes legal action. And the sort of general failure to understand it all. I mean, if I was running one of the big media organizations, I would connect pretty much everything these days. I mean, because everything, you know what? Because the next day, all I have to deal with is someone, it's someone saying so, you know, I would, I would just, you know, I'm not even going to show it kind of everything. Well, bear in mind that everything they had to cut on Saturday from the Brits, they have had a week of playing out in the aftermath of what happened at the BAFTAs to remind everybody when Michael B. Jordan and Darryl Indo, who behind Sennis were on the stage, John Davison, who has Tourette's involuntary take said the N word. It was not cut from the broadcast, despite there being a long delay. We have to talk about this. I have to say, I think it was absolutely

49:44awful, horrendous that those two guys should have to stand there and that they heard it. I think it is horrendous that to some degree, John Davison was put in that situation reportedly. We don't know, but reportedly, he said, I am concerned that I'm near an audience microphone. I'm concerned that they put an audience microphone there. This is, I have to say, the BBC say they want a quick investigation. It shouldn't take too long because this is a mega, mega mistake. It's really, really bad. Everyone knew what had happened in the room. That's what so odd. It's not like, oh, I didn't, they said they didn't hear it in the editing truck. But the things you don't need to hear it in the editing truck and in editing trucks often, you don't hear it because you've got lots of different mics all going at the same time where you definitely hear it is in the room. What you have in the room are floor managers, stage managers, members of the crew, members of production. They are there and they are in direct contact with the truck as well. There is absolutely. By the way, the BBC did not put it out deliberately. Sometimes when you see things

50:49and people go, oh, they're happy putting that out. It's a mistake. It's a catastrophic mistake. Nobody on any side of this discussion is happy. Everybody is unhappy with everything that happened. There was a huge mistake that happened in the middle, which is there's a lack of communication. You know, I had messages from people who are at the thing saying to you, oh, my God, this has just happened and it's, you know, so everyone heard it. Everyone knew it. And it did not get through from the floor to the truck. It did not get through from the truck to when it's delivered for broadcast as well. And it took another 24 hours for that to get through. Listen, I absolutely certainly they can find out what the issue was and they can find it out quickly. It is definitively no one has done this on purpose. But it is, you know, in the climate we live in, as you say, you know, with social media and what happened at Glastonbury, it's sort of extraordinary that it wasn't picked up. And it has caused such upset for everyone on every side of this argument that you sort of feel, come on. I'll be honest with you, there was a point

51:52last week where I thought, perhaps awful as this is, this will lead to something better and it will, and I think lots of people did. And there will be more awareness and there'll be more understanding of Tourette's and the understanding of that in this situation, why it's particularly unique, that it's a neurological thing that someone can't help. I don't know if you've seen Saturday and Night Live did a sketch on, I think they may be cussed it from the broadcast, but they've put it out deliberately on their social media in which some of who they've identified, all decided of the worst people in entertainment, Mel Gibson, Armingham, Bill Cosby, they turn up and they blame all their various scandals on the fact that they just have Tourette's, they can't help them say in these things, okay. I can't, okay, SNL, you want a good target? Like the BBC is right there, really self-important award organizers are right there. If you want to be brave, you could do two very low level operatives in a truck having to have a very high level debate about competing

52:56rights against the clock post a decade where identity politics was given primacy over everything. I mean, that might have been something to do. Instead, you've punched down, I mean, sorry, I already knew that SNL were basic and depressing and not funny and that 90 percent of the sketch just go on too long, two minutes too long because they can't work out how to get out of them or maybe it's just self-indulgence. But you know what? Now I also know that they do disabled jokes, okay. Tell your friends, SNL punched down at people with disabilities. They had many other targets they could have chosen. Of course, they should have made something about, you know, you're not going to not do it address this unless you're particularly wet, but the idea that you've made Tourette sound like something that, you know, people just say they make up to get out of bad things they've done is to me, mind-blowing, and no, I no longer think something good can come out of something awful that happened the weekend before. I think it's indicative of the fact that in the UK, Tourette's awareness has has quite a long history and a lot of work has been done and there's there's

54:00so much by John Davidson. So much by John Davidson. And there is another more of an understanding in the UK about what Tourette's is and people do understand that if you have a tick, you're not saying your deepest darkest desire, you're saying the opposite, which is you're saying that the worst thing you could possibly say, that's the point of it. It has that self-destructiveness in it. And that has been something that Tourette's campaigners in the UK have dealt with for years and years and years and years trying to get people to understand that. And you know, I'm Pete Bennett who went on big brother and things like that. It's something culturally we have come to understand a little bit more. It becomes apparent that that that has not crossed the Atlantic. But in the wake of this. And there is an award-winning film that will explain this. The whole thing. It is all there. There were so many videos posted by black people with Tourette trying to explain and essentially defending John Davidson. And listen, as I said, it is absolutely horrendous. The Michael B. Jordan and Darrell Endos stood up and and heard that and it was I you know, I wish that they had it hadn't

55:00happened. But to end the week, a whole week on when you would think that all sorts of different awareness of a neurological condition might have been increased to end it. Punching down at people with disabilities is so depressing. Shame on SNL. I wonder what the the the Ministry of Culture and Dubai would have to say about that. Marina, I just wanted to I've just unticked a box. I was going to talk about Olivia Dean and why the biggest setting song in Britain at the moment is not number one. Let's do that next week. You know, if you're a geek like me about the charts and about things like that, then there's a really interesting story happening in the charts. Can we do a deep dive on the charts and how we're there? Yeah, because I don't want to detract from that grand finish. Okay, recommendations. I am going to recommend on Amazon Prime. A brilliant documentary made by Morgan Neville called Man on the Run about Paul McCartney and the sort of decade after the Beatles split up essentially a way of Paul McCartney finding a way to be the most famous man in the world and have a family and make music. It's really, really, really beautiful and

56:02interesting and the music is great and he takes so many wrong turns, which is incredibly honest about. You can see he's obviously sat in an edit and looked at this, but you can see that every single thing that Morgan Neville has put in their Paul McCartney's gone, okay, fair enough, because there are bits in there where you go, oh, because we all make mistakes. It's really, really, really lovely and if it's possible to think even more highly of Paul McCartney, than you already did, then you do by the end of this is Man on the Run on Amazon Prime. I would like to recommend the secret agent, which is a brilliant Brazilian film. The story's extraordinary about living amongst corruption and paranoia and I'm ashamed to say that I knew so little about that part of Brazil's history. I need stuff about Chile, about Argentina, but I didn't know about this and it stars Wagner Moran. It really is. The production design, by the way, you cannot believe and there's huge crowd scenes in lots of different parts.

57:05You can't believe that this film wasn't shot in 1977. Everything, the color of it, that every single, every thread of the clothes, every single thing seems that you're right there and there are a couple of bits where you kind of are in the present day and it's so interesting to see just the completely different lighting, just the way everything looks completely different anyway, but it's a really interesting story and I've been thinking about it ever since, so that's the secret agent. See you all on Thursday. Monster Energy. Everybody knows why Monster Zero Ultra. That's the OG. It kicked off this whole Zero Sugar Energy drink thing, but Ultra is a whole lineup now. You've got strawberry dreams, blue Hawaiian, sunrise, and vice guava and they all bring the Monster Energy punch,

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