00:00 Speaker A
All right, joining me here at Cannes Lions is former BET CEO and author of I am Debra Lee, Debra Lee, good to see you.
00:09 Debra Lee
All right. Thank you.
00:11 Speaker A
So, BET is still under the Paramount umbrella. So, Paramount is still looking to close that deal with Skydance. How has nobody stepped up and just opened up a checkbook real wide for an asset like BET and historic asset that is still putting out some darn good content?
00:31 Debra Lee
Right.
00:32 Debra Lee
Yeah, I don’t understand it. Um, you know, I wasn’t involved when they tried to sell it a couple of years ago. I heard some of the buyers, potential buyers, thought it was overpriced. Uh, but BET is still very unique. And when they have things like the BET Awards or things happen in the Black community, uh, black viewers and other viewers go there first. Uh, so it’s still doing well. They just celebrated their 45th anniversary. I was there for 32 of those 45 years. So I still feel a tongue toward it. Uh, but I don’t know. I, I really hope it makes it through the the merger and that someone takes it under their arm and really continues the magic that is BET. When I was there, when Viacom purchased BET, Redstone, Mel Karmazin, Mel Karmazin was the operator, he was COO, and he loved BET. And, you know, he said one time in negotiations, what do you think two Jewish guys are going to run? I don’t think I’ve ever said that publicly. But he let us do our thing, you know, and as long as ratings were going in the right direction, he was happy and he was supportive. Uh, so I, I hope they have that kind of support and whatever new structure there is. There’s so much going on in a media business right now. Everyone’s trying to survive linear networks, streaming networks. I’ve seen it, you know, over the past 40 years. I’ve never seen anything this volatile.
02:59 Speaker A
What’s Yes, this Cannes Lions comes at quite a moment. I mean, I know you can’t talk specifically, but Warner Brothers has decided to split. Comcast is splitting, Paramount is nearing for them, hopefully closing that deal with Skydance. But what I can’t figure out is what happens to linear TV networks? Do they eventually I mean, you have the managers in there. They’re cutting a lot of expenses because the ad revenue is declining. Where are these assets a decade from now?
04:03 Debra Lee
Right.
04:14 Debra Lee
Comcast.
04:20 Debra Lee
Right. Right.
04:29 Debra Lee
That’s a great question. I think they still have a strong life. I just don’t know how long it is. I mean, they’re still generating lots of revenue now. I left BET and Viacom almost eight years ago, and I saw this coming. I mean, I’ll be honest, I saw it coming. Resources were being pushed into streaming. Linear networks were fighting for resources. But the viewing audience is still there. You know, you look at channels like BET or TNT or Discovery. So the the audiences are still there, and not everybody wants to be on streaming. And it’s funny to me because I remember when cable operators said, oh, we need a la carte. People don’t want to pay for all these networks. So they tried to force that. It never happened. But now you have five or six streaming services, people who love content, put all those streaming services together, and we’re back to cable the way it looked 20 years ago. So I think there’ll be consolidation on the streaming side. You know, I think there may be some consolidation on the linear side. But linear networks are still strong, and they’re going to be around for a while. It’s just in what form.
06:55 Speaker A
How difficult is it to separate a linear operation from a streaming network? I think there’s this sense that poof, we’re going to split these companies up. One’s going to trade publicly. The other one is going to go somewhere else. I mean, it doesn’t exactly work like that, though.
07:24 Debra Lee
No, I think it’s harder than most people realize. And um, the interesting thing is, for the past five to 10 years, we’ve been putting them together. You know, oh, we have to have the linear networks with the streaming networks.
07:48 Speaker A
Linear TV, that content creates the streaming content, we’re all going to make a lot of money. Right. Lastly, Debra, can the linear TV networks as a standalone asset, they’re going to be public. I think of what Comcast is doing, could they what does that a public company look like? Is it a company managed for cost savings? And they have to maybe not put out the most amazing programming because they’re so mindful of this switch to streaming.
08:26 Debra Lee
Yes.
08:37 Debra Lee
Right.
09:00 Debra Lee
Yeah, I think they have to do both. They have to cut costs as does streaming, and they have to continue to invest in programming, maybe not as much as they used to, because they are competing against streaming, but they have to keep the consumers interested. You know, consumers find the programming they want. So they have to create content on a continuous basis, and they have to market it. Hence why we’re at Cannes Lions, because marketing is very important, brands are very important. You know, cable introduced the idea of diversity in media and programming. Before that, we had four networks if you count Fox. And you know, cable was the promise of diversity. Oh, you can have a women’s network, you can have a network for Hispanics, for golf, for, you know. And so all of a sudden you had 500 channels. And now that’s been cut back, but people still want their favorite brands. And if they don’t see them on streaming, they’re going to continue to watch linear. So we have some restructuring to get through.
11:03 Speaker A
All right, fair enough. Former BET CEO and author of I am Debra Lee, Debra Lee. Good to see you here. Thanks for stopping by. I appreciate it.
11:12 Debra Lee
Great. Thank you, Ryan. Thanks for having me.
11:15 Speaker A
Of course.
