News and Deal Buzz From Inside Sun Valley’s Billionaire Summer Camp

0:00Hi, everyone. It's Amy Poehler, and I'm launching a new podcast called Good Hang. In preparation for that, I asked some of my friends to send in some videos and give me some advice. Just be yourself and the guests will come. Don't be the celebrity that this is their, like, sixth thing they're doing. I love true crime and cooking podcasts. Is there any way you could combine the two? Well, everyone has an opinion and a podcast. So, join me for Good Hang. It's rough out there. We're just trying to lighten it up a little. Hey Chicago, class it up with Crocs. You know back to school is coming in fast.

0:37So why wait to find your new fave footwear? Step into a local Crocs store and step into your new look. Try it. Style it. Make it yours. Because the right pair doesn't just show up, it shows off. First day fits, handled. Walk out ready for whatever's next. Visit your nearest Crocs store today. Labor Day savings are happening now at the Home Depot with select appliances starting at$399. Plus, save up to an extra$1 ,000 and get free delivery on appliance purchases of$998 or more. Get a Whirlpool laundry tower featuring industry-first UV clean technology designed to reduce bacteria in the wash without fading fabrics.

1:19Plus, with great prices at the Home Depot, you can save on select appliances designed to make laundry day easier. Shop Labor Day savings at the Home Depot today. Offer valid August 27th through September 16th. USLAC store online for details. It is Friday, July 11th. If you're like me and you're interested in the future of media and entertainment, technology, or just a fan of 70-something white men in polo shirts and fleece vests, you're probably paying attention to the annual Allen & Company Conference in Sun Valley. It's famously known as Summer Camp for Billionaires. Every year, right after July 4th, the PJs arrive in Idaho and the CEOs spend a few days hearing presentations, doing meetings, occasionally even hatching a deal.

1:59Comcast started the process to buy NBC at Sun Valley. Time Warner sold to AOL back in the day based on conversations that started there, unfortunately for them. And this year, all our favorite entertainment moguls were there. Bob Iger at Disney, Ted Sarandos from Netflix, David Zaslav at Warner Discovery. Even Brian Grazer, the producer, keeps getting himself invited every year. Not sure why. Plus all the tech overlords, everyone from Tim Cook at Apple to Andy Jassy at Amazon, Sam Altman at OpenAI and the commissioners of all the major sports leagues. Basically, anyone who matters gets an invite.

2:30And as they gather, we start to hear rumblings leak out. Last year, our guy, David Zaslav, he predicted that next year would be super active with media M &A. That hasn't really happened, except for Zaslav himself announcing a split of his own company. That's happening. So what was the buzz this year? The details, the themes, who was spotted with whom? David Ellison of Skydance was there looking pretty confident that his Paramount deal would close. Little breadcrumbs that could be the sign of much bigger things to come. That's what we're talking about today. At the center of it all is Julia Boorstin of CNBC.

3:01She's covered Sun Valley for years and was back in the mountains doing interviews with everyone from Roger Goodell of the NFL to the CEO of Clear. Today, it's the Sun Valley Buzz Report and a lot more. From the Ringer and Puck, I'm Matt Bellany, and this is The Town.

3:19Okay, we are here with Julia Borsten, who is the senior media and tech correspondent for CNBC and author of the bestselling book, When Women Lead. Welcome back. It's been a while, Julia. It's been a while. It's great to be here. Big fan of the podcast. Oh, I appreciate that. Thank you. So you are in Sun Valley. I'm very jealous. It's very picturesque there. You've been there all week. You've been interviewing CEOs. You've been walking the grounds. I hope you've spent some time reflecting at the duck pond. I've heard it's very beautiful there. I have not been to that portion of that resort. Give us the buzz.

3:54What are people talking about in the media, entertainment, tech world at Sun Valley? First, I have to say everyone is here. I don't know if there's any other event other than maybe Davos that gathers such heavy hitters, whether it's tech with Tim Cook, Andy Jassy, Satya Nadella, media. You have Ted Sarandos, Bob Iger, all of these guys, Barry Diller, everyone's here. And they're all talking about two big things, AI and the economy slash politics. A lot of buzz about politics. Scott Bessent, Secretary Bessent spoke on the first full day of the conference. He was interviewed on stage by my colleague, Andrew Ross Sorkin.

4:36And from what I hear talking to a lot of CEOs here, they like what they heard. I heard he started off a little bit more tentative. And then by the end, he was charming. He was relatable. People found him insightful and reassuring. So basically behind closed doors, these tariffs are nonsense, noise, don't believe a word Trump says. No, what I heard actually was that people, so obviously people are worried about the economy. They're worried about tariffs. But the reassuring note that people heard from Secretary Bessent was that it's all part of a master plan and it's going to be okay. So not that it's noise, but it's part of some strategic plan and that it's not going to destroy the economy and it's going to actually end up benefiting things.

5:21And I think that people were reassured that this idea that the tariffs are going to end up in the 20 to 30 % range and it's not going to be destructive. And just, they heard from Besant that, don't worry, we care about the economy. We don't want tariffs to bring the economy to a screeching halt. We want consumer spending to stay high and we want unemployment to stay low. And I think just hearing that reassurance about tariffs was something that helped the mood here a bit. Right. So you mentioned AI. Sam Altman was there, OpenAI, and Bob Iger was there. Disney suing MidJourney, an AI company, for lifting its content, allegedly.

6:00What is the interaction or the feeling amongst the media types towards the AI folks? Is it openly hostile? Are they all back-slapping? What do you hear from them when you talk to them about the perception of AI? Well, it's worth noting for that mid-journey lawsuit, it's not just Disney. It's Disney and Comcast together. And Brian Roberts is there as well. Brian Roberts is here, as is Bob Iger. We have great video of them walking together. There was even a back pat. Oh, how huge. We have a great back pat between them. And they're teaming up on this lawsuit because they both have the shared interest in protecting their IP.

6:39They famously are big rivals. They do not love each other. Famously big rivals, yes. But they look very friendly, very congenial, love a good Bob Iger, Brian Roberts back pat as they sue MidJourney together. I did not see MidJourney CEO here. I will tell you, Sam Altman is here. I spoke to him on the first day of the conference. He told me he's not worried about a war for talent with Mark Zuckerberg, which is another topic of conversation here. He's not worried about that. He's not worried about it. He thinks things are going to be great. Altman told me his relationship with Microsoft is going to be great.

7:10They're going to build better computers. Is he a weird guy, Sam Altman? Sam Altman is really charming. I mean, he did wear very intense glasses. I don't know if you've seen any of the photos from Sun Valley. He was wearing these huge white sunglasses. It's like sociopath glasses. Well, no, they were like, I thought they were smart glasses. I said, Sam, are those smart glasses? Do you have weird cameras inside them? And he said, no, I hate smart glasses. So they were just high fashion glasses. That's because OpenAI does not offer a smart glasses product, I'm sure. No. And I asked him what we should expect from his partnership with Johnny Ive, because they're going to be building some sort of hardware.

7:47Right. He said, it's not going to be smart glasses. He said, whatever it is, it's going to be great. But he said he doesn't like smart glasses. They're going to replace your eyeballs. That sounds uncomfortable. Anyway, so back to the media giants and AI. MidJourney is not here. The thing when it comes to the media giants and AI is we have to remember that everyone is already using visual effects that deploy AI. And that's been in the works for a while. So when it comes to just general AI tools, I think there's a lot of optimism that AI is going to drive efficiencies, streamline things, shorten production times, and lower production costs.

8:24One thing I heard talking to a number of executives here is that AI is not going to replace writers. Obviously, there are all sorts of protections in place. But when it comes to production costs and things like previs, taking a script, previsualizing the entire thing, not in a storyboard way, but in a super high production value, really get a sense of whether or not something is going to work on screen way, that's going to have a huge impact for the studios. So I did hear a lot of optimism about cost production times coming down. And that fact, allowing the studios to focus their energies and their investments more on the high value work and probably actually spending more time in edit after they've produced things using AI tools.

9:13So there are a number of people here, including Brian Grazer. I was just talking to him about AI. And he was saying that, you know, he sees AI as a co-pilot, but it can't invent soul. He said it can supercharge scale, but the future isn't about replacing artists. It's about unleashing them, amplifying them. So Brian Grazer really sticking with his perspective. That is a it's a valuable co-pilot. That is a very diligent and ass covering way to state the issue, I think. not necessarily wrong, but I think the industry would prefer that it unfolds that way. I think there's this question of how do you maintain creativity?

9:52There was a great article in the New Yorker recently, which I was talking about with one of the media executives here about sort of how AI can have a homogenizing effect when it comes to creativity. And so having this conversation with this CEO about that, we were just talking about how it can be this great tool where you can use it for idea generation and brainstorming. So people are thinking about how they can deploy AI to really help their bottom lines at a time when there's so much pressure on costs and whether it's fighting to figure out who's going to get access to live sports content, which is another big topic here.

10:28If you're going to figure out where to put your money, you want to spend less money on visual effects and more money making sure you have the few top stars that are predictable, sure things at the box office or to spend that money on the kind of sports content that people still want to watch more than anything else. Right. So let's talk about the deal front, because David Ellison was there, the CEO of Skydance. He is in the process of trying to buy Paramount. He was not going to go. And then he was a last minute addition. I think the fact that the Trump litigation against CBS settled was a influencing factor on whether he goes to Sun Valley.

11:05He was doing meetings. Did you talk to him? Did you hear whether people were interested in talking to him and figuring out what his vision is for Paramount? Yeah. Interestingly, Sherry Redstone has been here every year for the past many years. She was not here this year. I didn't see David. I know he was here. I confirmed with various people that he was here, but he was keeping a low profile. I think he was doing a lot of meetings. I think he was doing everyone I talked to here said it's like speed dating. One reason why Allen & Co. gets all the most powerful people across so many industries here is because it is so incredibly efficient.

11:43Everyone you could ever want to talk to, partners, potential partners, rivals. So what's interesting about this Paramount move with David Elson is that it comes as we have these two other big moves happening in the media space, right? You have Comcast completing a split of Bursant, which is CNBC's parent company. Right. And all the cable channels that they're sending off. Yes. Yes. And at the same time, you have Warner Brothers Discovery doing a similar split of its company into two parts. And with Paramount under new ownership, and then Comcast and WBD's two splits, there's this question of what are the deals that are going to come in the next year?

12:19And how will all of those pieces be rearranged and those assets sold off in chunks or even individually to create a more efficient world, especially when it comes to the TV landscape, which is facing so many challenges. In terms of Ellison, one interesting question for him is what's going to happen with CBS and the NFL. I interviewed NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell here. It was a great interview. You can find it on CNBC.com. And I asked him what's going to happen once this Paramount deal goes through and CBS changes ownership, because that gives Goodell and the NFL an option to renegotiate that CBS deal.

12:58Which he is 100 % going to do, even though he said to you, oh, we're looking at all of our options and we'll decide. We have plenty of time to decide whether that's happening. He's doing it. He's going to renegotiate, or he most likely will, because it makes sense. He has the option to get a lot more money out of this. Will they stick with CBS and have distribution on CBS? likely is what he said to me because they like CBS as a broadcast distribution partner. But this idea that CBS's NFL rights could be in play is a really big deal for the future of CBS. Oh, the Skydance people definitely know that.

13:34And I think that they have spent the last couple years building up that relationship with the NFL. And Goodell talked about how he already has a good relationship with Skydance based on some of the documentary stuff they do together. And I think that's important because I don't see the NFL just ghosting CBS. They are going to extract some kind of benefit for value out of this right that they have to renegotiate. And then in 2029, they have another right coming up to renegotiate. So I think they're going to they're going to get what they want. They're pound of flesh. But I don't see them abandoning CBS.

14:15Yeah, CBS is a really important broadcast partner for them. And I think what's been interesting about watching Goodell's deal-making over the past several years is how he's maintained and strengthened his relationship with the broadcasters, but also managed to create all of this extra content for the streamers, specifically those Christmas Day games for Netflix. This year, Goodell talked about how they have this new exclusive YouTube game, which is in the first week of the season. That's a big deal to have that game on YouTube. It's not behind a paywall. And so he always says he's going where the viewers are.

14:48But what that means is, yeah, he has to stay on broadcast TV, but he's also figuring out how to be in all of these different platforms and how to get paid for that. I mean, talk about unlocking value. One of the other interesting things he said to you guys was they want 16 international games for the NFL. And that would be a big increase. And he didn't explicitly say it. But what he wants is he wants to sell that to Netflix, right? Yeah. Like Netflix is a potential buyer for an international package of one game a week. And it would serve the Netflix international audience air at 930 Eastern in the US.

15:26And you know what? They're going to get it. But what's great about this for Goodell is that he'll expand internationally, build that audience. And then not only would it be a good option for Netflix, which certainly wants more live sports, but he can also get bids from YouTube and Amazon, which also have a global footprint. So there's a real market for this value. But going back to Ellison is, I think this question of how's he gonna make the studio work? What is he gonna do with these TV assets, which maybe are less valuable than they were when he first wanted to buy them? Right. The landscape has shifted so much, even in the past couple of years, in terms of the value continuing to move into streaming.

16:08and still uncertainty around the movie industry. Well, he could put these cable assets with Versant. They could be a sister company of CNBC. You could start appearing on VH1 and MTV. You want to do the challenge? By the way, other assets that would be a good fit would say the Food Network. Versant's going to have the Golf Channel. There are plenty of the assets in the Warner Brothers Discovery spin that would be useful for Versant as well. So I think a year from now, once the spins are completed, once Paramount has shifted hands over to Skydance, I think we could be looking at a very different landscape next year at Sun Valley.

16:52Hey, Chicago, class it up with Crocs. You know back to school is coming in fast. So why wait to find your new fave footwear? Step into a local Crocs store and step into your new look. Try it, style it, Make it yours. Because the right pair doesn't just show up, it shows off. First day fits, handled. Walk out ready for whatever's next. Visit your nearest Croc store today. Labor Day savings are happening now at the Home Depot with select appliances starting at$399. Plus, save up to an extra$1 ,000 and get free delivery on appliance purchases of$998 or more. Get a Whirlpool laundry tower featuring industry-first UV clean technology designed to reduce bacteria in the wash without fading fabrics.

17:40Plus, with great prices at the Home Depot, you can save on select appliances designed to make laundry day easier. Shop Labor Day savings at the Home Depot today. Offer valid August 27th through September 16th. Do us only see store online for details. So you are the CEO whisperer. You do all the big interviews when the earnings calls happen. They get off the call and then they go on CNBC and you interview them. Specifically Bob Iger. You always interview him. What is the secret to getting the most out of a Bob Iger interview? He's very savvy and he knows what he's doing. He's made some missteps in the past.

18:15I think his Sun Valley interview a couple years ago during the strikes was a misstep. And I have noticed that he has not done any Sun Valley television interviews since then. What is the secret to a good interview with Bob Iger? To me, the secret of a good interview is really doing your homework. I'm a big believer in overpreparing. I've done a lot of interviews with him and also with other CEOs right on the heels of earnings. And I think having a good sense of what questions I need to get to before even knowing what the earnings are going to be. And then being able to do that real-time analysis of the actual numbers versus the expectations, figuring out where the shortfalls are and where the big wins are.

18:54and the spin and what they want to talk about versus what you know you need to get out of them. Yeah, which is why you always want to know what you need to get out of them before you even see what the results are. But I love doing a live interview on the heels of earnings. It's so much fun, such an adrenaline rush. I can't even imagine having to look at those reports and say, okay, what are the five questions I want to ask? I've interviewed Iger. He's very good in those situations. It's very difficult to get out of him what you want. And I always think that you do a nice job with him. Thank you.

19:27I appreciate it. So speaking of interviewers, Charlie Rose was at Sun Valley interviewing Barry Diller. I know Charlie Rose used to do a lot of those closed door things, but he's been persona non grata for a while after his B2 scandal. Is he back? Is Charlie Rose back? I mean, he's certainly back here in that he did an onstage interview. I think he has been seen here in Sun Valley since he was canceled, if I'm allowed to use that term, since he was canceled. But I don't know if he's done any onstage interviews since then. Look, he's older. I believe he's 82 now. So I don't know what his professional future holds.

20:07But interesting that he interviewed Dillard. Yeah, I always wonder because it's like he's been welcomed back by the CEO class, but that was off the record. And it was not televised. And I wonder if he has a path back to being a public person now. But I don't know. At 82, are people really restarting their careers? I don't know. Larry David's got a new show at 78. Oh, I can't wait to watch it. All right. Linda Yaccarino, the former NBC Universal ads chief turned Twitter slash ex-CEO, left the company this past week. You did a very famous interview with her when she took that job in which she, should we call it a meltdown?

20:49She had a very contentious interview with you. Were you surprised by this? Did you have two years as the over under on how long she would last? And what is your impression of the real reason she left? So the news broke while I was here reporting. And as I was here talking to all the CEOs about this news, and I was on TV a couple times talking about it. The universal response I heard from CEOs here, many of whom either did deals with her or knew her professionally, was this. I'm amazed it took this long. I know, I know. I actually, I thought she would last two years. This is about how long I thought she would last.

21:28She had a very tough job. Yes, we did have a very bizarre interview a couple of years ago at the Code Conference where she was unable to answer some basic questions that I asked her about the business. I asked her about the challenge of having Elon Musk act in many ways as if he were the CEO of X slash Twitter. She was not happy about me implying that maybe she was a CEO name only. And she made that very clear. But then she got layered. She got when Elon merged X with his AI company. XAI. Yeah. She essentially got a boss and she was no longer the CEO of the company. And I think, I mean, from all the reporting I've read, that's the real reason why she left.

22:12It wasn't that Grok started spouting anti-Semitic tropes. It wasn't that stuff. It was that they had a falling out that simmered over the fact that she now had a boss between her and Elon. She was layered. And yes, I would say it was not the most recent Grok pro-Nazi comments that were posted on Twitter, or excuse me, X, because this was a breakup between Linda and X that, from what I understand, was in the works for quite some time. I think she had a really hard job. Oh, one of the hardest. A couple of years ago, on stage with my colleague, Andrew Ross Sorkin, Elon Musk insulted advertisers. You can say, he said, go fuck yourself.

22:51To Bob Iger. Yes. Who was sitting in the audience, which is a very challenging thing. If you are Lindy Acherino trying to negotiate ad deals with everyone on Bob Iger's team. Although they came back. Disney came back and so did the others. I think that was after they threatened to sue citing some kind of weird anti-competition thing where they were saying that you were being anti-competitive if you decided not to put your ads next to hate speech. But that's a whole separate thing. For Linda, I think what's so interesting is when she was at NBCUniversal, so much of her pitch to advertisers was that this is premium content.

23:30Not only is this safe, Like, you know exactly what you're getting. You're paying for premium content. And don't go to Meta, which notoriously was competing with, this idea of don't put your ads on Meta's platforms. Put your ads on NBC where you know it's safe and premium. No Nazis. For her to go from that. No Nazi pornography. To go from that over to X, where after Elon Musk took over, they fired a lot of their trust and safety team. And they also made very conscious decisions to focus on free speech and opening the platform to make sure it was a free exchange of ideas, which means possibly far more problematic content.

24:10And so she shifted gears to talk about how she was all about free speech and open platforms, which is just less reliable for advertisers. And when I was in Cannes just last month, people were talking about the fact that there are these threats to the ad agencies you have to advertise. There was that interview she did with Axios on stage at Cannes in which she insulted the Wall Street Journal and said that she thought that their reporting about the sort of forced advertising on X was inaccurate. it. But people were talking about that. And I was hearing from a lot of ad agencies that they were putting an incredible, that X was putting an incredible amount of pressure on them to advertise.

24:50So I think all of this adds up to a really tough position with advertisers. Yeah, it's unbelievable. I never understood that. It's like, talk about free speech. The ad buyers have free speech as well. If they choose not to put their ads next to Nazis and porn, that's their choice. I mean, yes. But I think it's just interesting looking at all the stuff she had to struggle with. So you think she did an okay job there? I think that especially in the past, you know, six to nine months in the wake of Trump's election, if you look at the reports of ad dollars returning to X and even the fact that you see these, these advertisers reemerge on X that weren't there before there, there has been progress in the past nine months, but I think she was, she's been in a tough situation.