The Ben Mulroney Show - Netflix has taken aim at the NFL, should T.V. Networks be panicking?

Episode Date: February 24, 2025

Guests and Topics: -Netflix has taken aim at the NFL, should T.V. Networks be panicking? with Guest: Tony Chapman, Host of the award winning podcast Chatter that Matters, Founder of Chatter AI If you enjoyed the podcast, tell a friend! For more of the Ben Mulroney Show, subscribe to the podcast! https://globalnews.ca/national/program/the-ben-mulroney-show Follow Ben on Twitter/X at https://x.com/BenMulroney Enjoy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

At Desjardins, we speak business. We speak startup funding and comprehensive game plans. We've mastered made-to-measure growth and expansion advice, and we can talk your ear off about transferring your business when the time comes. Because at Desjardins Business, we speak the same language you do, business. So join the more than 400,000 Canadian entrepreneurs who already count on us and contact Desjardins today. We'd love to talk business Welcome back to the Ben Mulroney show. Thank you so much for joining us on this Monday across the chorus radio network our prime minister Finds himself in Kiev Ukraine with a dozen other world leaders marking the third anniversary of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

And I've said before, I do not have a reflexive disdain for the Liberal government when they do something right. I will stand shoulder to shoulder with them. And their dogged support of Ukraine is something I am 100% in lockstep with them on. Ukraine is the victim. Russia is the aggressor. Full stop. That's it.

I have no idea what is going on with the president and his warming up, cozying up to Vladimir Putin. We'll get to that in a moment. But when the prime minister says that he is in support of continuing to help shoulder the responsibility of defending Ukraine, I'm down with that. And he just announced that Canada will provide $5 billion in aid to Ukraine. And before anybody gets upset that we don't have that money to spend, this is, these are from funds from seized Russian assets. And I'm, I'm very glad that he's doing this. I think this is, this is great.

He's also, however, saying that everything's on the table, including sending Canadian troops to Ukraine under a possible peace deal. Okay, sure, I don't know that we necessarily have the ability to do anything in the world theater with our military, given the sorry state of the Canadian military today. That's not a reflection of the people in the military. It's a it's more of the systems and the hardware that

they've got. But we'll have to see the 5 billion though is a big deal. That's more money pledged than the entire EU. I think they're they pledged 3.5 billion and we pledged five. So I'm quite proud of that as a Canadian. So back to Donald Trump, I gotta say it's a head scratcher. I do not understand the motivation to treat Vladimir Putin as a good faith actor in all of this. But Donald Trump has been doing that for a couple of weeks now. And if

you'll remember last week, Donald Trump called Vladimir Zelensky a dictator because he has not held an election in over a year. The elections were suspended. One of the reasons is the country is in in war. And all of Zelensky's opponents support this move not to have an election. So a reporter asked Donald Trump, since he thinks Zelensky's a dictator, does he also think President Putin is a dictator?

Here's what he had to say. I think that President Putin and President Zelensky are gonna have to get together because you know what? We wanna stop killing millions of people. How is it so hard to... this is the low-hanging fruit. If Zelensky is a dictator, in your mind, then what do you call Vladimir Putin, who has never seen or been in an election that he couldn't rig. He's been in power for 20 years, feels like, with a with a short period of time where he was the prime minister until he could fix the Constitution so that he could run again. I don't understand the motivation or this realignment that is happening in

American geopolitics. And further to that, the Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth was on Fox News and he was asked if it's fair to say Russia's attack on Ukraine that started this war was unprovoked. — Polinsky should come to the table because this economic partnership is an important thing for the future of his country, and we hope that he will very soon. — But fair to say Russia attacked unprovoked into Ukraine three years ago tomorrow. Fair to say it's a very complicated situation. Okay, we'll leave it there.

Why can't you just say that it was unprovoked? What's going on with the Russia of it all? Does Putin have leverage here? And if so, what leverage does he have? I don't know. But it's a question that needs to be answered because this doesn't make any sense. Sitting down with Vladimir Putin, Trump sitting down with Vladimir Putin doesn't make any sense. But maybe it'll come out. I don't know. One thing that

Trump has been able to do is get our liberal government to take seriously issues at our border, issues with fentanyl, issues with illegal crossings at the border into the United States. And our Minister of Public Safety, Minister McGinty, gave an update on the Canada-U.S. enforcement called the Joint Strike Task Force on fentanyl. Here's what he had to say. It started. It involves setting up 10 separate teams both in Canada and in the United States. It will be focused very much on intelligence around fentanyl, disrupting, tracking, tracing. It will

link into the new laboratories we're creating here in Canada, at Health Canada, to better track and trace what's coming, particularly the precursors from China. So it's going, it's moving forward. Our officials, our RCMP folks, many of them have been in and out of Washington now for the last several months. This is coming to fruition. Okay, I've said it many times before. This is a country that doesn't take the serious stuff seriously. And it is nice to hear from the government that finally on these matters

that should be taken seriously, they are acting decisively and seriously. I did not know what was gonna go into the plan of protecting our country and protecting the United States from fentanyl that comes from within our borders. It is nice to hear that the wheels are in motion to create a buttress, to create an intelligence and law enforcement body to make it harder

for fentanyl to be produced in Canada. And if it is produced in Canada, make it harder for it to get across the border. This this is good news. This is good news. Now I hope that this good news makes it to the White House so that President Trump can see that we are as serious about this as we promised him we would be so that those tariffs that he said were contingent on this do not come into effect. Now he's also said that they were contingent on a whole bunch of other new things as well. That's Donald Trump being Donald

Trump. But on this issue, the liberal government is keeping to its word and I'm very glad to hear that this is an actual plan that is being put into effect. Not a plan for a plan, not a performative word salad, but this actually sounds like a very real thing that will make Canada safer and by extension, our friends and allies south of the border. David McGinty continued in this conversation about the scope of the fentanyl crisis. Here's what he had to say.

The more I see and hear and learn about the fentanyl crisis, the more concerned I'm becoming. It's a multifaceted problem. The folks involved are from all kinds of backgrounds. The chemical recipes keep changing. So we're going to have to keep our eye on this on a go-forward basis. So that is a little less, I'm a little less glowing about this part. This is more concerning to me.

Or maybe this just proves what I said before, that prior to Donald Trump, we didn't take this seriously. We should have taken it seriously. And I think what Minister McGinty is saying is he didn't take it seriously. That prior to this, he didn't know the scope or how deep or large or vast this problem was. And now, because he's been forced to, because this liberal government has been forced to take a serious look at this issue. They are finally appreciating that the fentanyl scourge is in fact a really big problem here at home. You'll remember a couple of weeks ago,

Mark Carney said that the issue of fentanyl is a crisis in the United States. It's a challenge here at home. And then he repeated it. It's a crisis there, a challenge here. I would humbly submit that anywhere where there is fentanyl, it is a crisis. It is deadly, it is addictive, it is cheap,

and it is a destroyer of lives and of communities. And ultimately it can bring on the downfall of a great many people. And I think our future prime minister is going to have to take this a lot more seriously because it is a crisis writ large in the United States and indeed in Canada. And at the very least, we're starting to take it seriously here. All right, I'm very pleased for our weekly chat with Tony Chapman, the host of the award winning podcast Chatter That Matters and the founder of Chatter AI. Tony, welcome to the show. Always a pleasure to be here. shouldn't surprise anybody because we've seen the writing on the wall for months. Netflix wants to go after the grand name of live events, Sunday football.

Yeah, it's an amazing move on their part and it really will spell the end of what I consider cable TV because that's the last bastion of point in television is live sports. Well, it's live sports, but also live news is also the one thing that we were told streaming was never going to be able to do. Yeah. I mean, listen, live news is one element, but I would argue we get news 24 hours a day. It's within our research desire. Look at your podcast. It's one of the most popular podcasts. I don't have to listen to you on the radio. I can get it anywhere. When it comes to sports, especially the NFL and the States,

that was one of the reasons I held onto my cable package. That's one of the reasons I bought ESPN. And Netflix made a move when they got the Christmas game. And I tell you something, they didn't just get anger, the networks, Amazon was angry because Amazon thought they had the first mover advantage. So what the NFL is doing is playing a game of cards. And instead of the Fox versus CBS and a limited war chest, they now have unlimited war chests

lining up to bid because whoever gets the NFL rights is going to have stickiness. And when you come to subscription services, you want to have people that not only just get you because they want to watch the next morning show, you want people to stay with you. And that's what the NFL is. It's stickiness. And believe me, those NFL owners are going to demand a huge bid for that bounty. Talk to me about the scale of the return on this sort of investment. Could Netflix live sports, could that division potentially be more lucrative than the TV shows and movies that they that they have in their catalog? You know, it's it again, it comes down to how many additional subscribers and how much I reduce churn. So what they will measure that on is very different than the old days is can I sell

advertising to support this investment, they'll look at it and say, if I'm getting a multiple in the stock market at 10x, because the subscribers worth more than a one-off customer, and the NFL is driving new subscriptions and they're driving lower and they're driving less churn, the value of that business is billions and billions of dollars. So that's how they're going to look at it. What is my market capitalization? And then the cost of production, when you think about the cost of producing an NFL game versus bringing in big stars for that series that might be a hit or not,

again, it makes really good business sense for them to be building this business. And one thing I wanna add to it, look at what they did with Formula One with Drive to Survive. They can take their content and they can turn it like liquid across every touch point. So it's not just the football game. Let's get behind the scenes of the quarterbacks. Let's get into the dress room. Let's

look at all the different drama that goes with it. So the NFL knows that there's a new sheriff in town. It's called streaming services. And they are licking their chops in terms of what this is worth. This also opens the door for a bump in how much you pay for Netflix because I'm currently paying for whatever I'm paying for Netflix that doesn't include this package. If all of a sudden they bring that bonus package on, they can justify a higher cost. Justify a higher cost. They also have the data on you that you're willing to do it. They also will know are you a sports gambler? Do you buy merchandise? Data is the new oil and all this is doing is giving them increased, wow, not only did you subscribe

to it, you actually watch 14 hours and 22 minutes and 11 seconds of football every week. And this is exactly what they know with this data. So you understand that people don't realize that data, monetization of data is what's driving the new economy and live eyeballs to sports is data for them. They'll also know, by the way, what are they going to charge for ads within the game? Are you going to buy the premium package that's ad free or are you going to buy the package that includes ads? They're going to slice and dice this thing. It's going to be a money machine for all parties.

And I saw you CBS and Fox are just going to be left. They I don't care what they show up with a war chest. They can't compete when it comes to data and the monetization of it. Well, Tony Chapman, I think we need to pause for a moment of silence because the sad news that the world will be losing Hooters. Hooters is as prepared to file for bankruptcy, amid declining foot traffic. And I got to ask, does sex not sell anymore? Did the internet kill Hooters?

Because I could just order wings to my house and see pretty girls streaming on my computer. I think what really hurt Hooters is that as the world moved on, they didn't march and step. And I think the fact that everybody has a cell phone and people were probably walking out of a Hooters with their hoodies up and sunglasses on, they didn't march and step. And I think the fact that everybody has a cell phone and people would probably walking out of Hooters with their hoodies up and sunglasses on, hoping not to be discovered because it would

be on the internet. I think Hooters is just, you know, but they're not the only ones. So the sad thing about the restaurant industry, it's struggling. And once again, and I don't want to sidebar, it's one, another example of private equity. These are people that have a lot of money

saying I can go in, buy the Hooters franchise, bar, it's another example of private equity. These are people that have a lot of money saying, I can go in, buy the Hooters franchise, squeeze the costs out, and resell it again and make a fortune. And time and time again, when it's come to the restaurant business, including Red Lobsters of the world, Venture Capital has no idea what it takes to run a restaurant. And very often, they're left with putting a lot of money in and watching it all evaporate. And Hooters is just a great example of that. Well, you know, I want to talk about the American mall and the North American mall, because the I think that the trend is similar up here in Canada. But a lot of people were very quick to signal the death of retail and specifically the great American mall. But there's a little

bit of a rebirth, a reinvention going on with these malls. Talk to me about how they're remaining relevant today. Well, the oxygen of retail is traffic. The only way you breathe life into your store is somebody walking in. Very quickly, malls were built when we had highways and suburbs, and people said, that's a destination I'm going to go to because everything's there. Well, now everything's within arm's reach of desire. So the mall started collapsing because I can get anything I want on Amazon. So what are they doing different? They're taking their parking lots and saying, what if we built condos and created density,

created traffic around our malls and then reimagine the malls to include health centers and gyms, social spaces, restaurants, entertainment, and of course, shopping. So instead of the old days where if I had a Sears or an Eaton's, I was the success story, now I actually need shopping. I need density. I need actual condos there. And if I put the condos up, they'll feed them all. Cadillac Fairview, by the way, Yorkdale of the world, I think has a plan for 14 condos.

The reality is will Toronto support new condo development? Because what we've seen right now is we have a surplus of condos and not enough buyers. But down the road, putting condos into your shopping centers is just smart move because it brings the traffic to the mall versus what Amazon's done in bringing the traffic to your armchair. But I really love this idea and we're seeing it happen in North America writ large,

where yes, they're adding the density, because these malls in most urban centers are on subway lines or by the highway. So they're connected to everything. And you've got these, the former pillar tenants, the big box stores that aren't there anymore, that's a lot of real estate that you can put a school in, or as you said, like a health center, and you make the mall

the neighborhood to that condo. I think it's a brilliant idea. And I think we're gonna see these communities come into this close net, there's gonna be a moat around it, and saying, if I'm there and I live in a condo and I have everything in that mall, and I can work remote, or I don't have to go into work more than two or three days a week, why would I leave that? Everything's within arm's reach again. And I think that's smart marketing. When you understand the unmet need is convenience.

Yeah. I want convenience. Well, convenience is on my phone. Yeah, but I still want to be socializing. I still want to go to the movies. I still want to hang out with people. I want to go bowling. I want to have a roller coaster. I mean, whatever your density allows you, I think that is just a great lesson for anybody listening. Stop worrying about what you do and focus on what matters most to the customer you're after and then pivot your business accordingly.

And the mall and the reinvention is a great example of that. But I think we should make the distinction there's there's lots of different types of malls right we're talking about those big high-end malls there's the strip malls of the world those those may be going the way of the dodo bird. Well the strip mall again if it's positioned in within a city market that I can walk to that's convenience but if it's just one of the many strip malls that were built because at the time was a license to print money they're gonna be in danger because what I don't want to go out my car the traffic it's just one of the many strip malls that were built because at the time was a license to print money, they're going to be in danger because, look, I don't want to go out in my

car. The traffic, it's congestion. It's a mess. If I can walk somewhere. So I think it's interesting. We're almost going back in time where my walking score is everything. And a lot of people are saying that's what matters because either I don't have a car anymore, which is a lot of youth.

They're not even getting driver's licenses, or I just don't want to battle. Tony, we're going to leave it there. Thank you so much. We'll talk to you next week. Always a pleasure, my friend. Daniel Blanchard is no ordinary thief. His heists are ingenious. His escapes defy belief.

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