The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway - No Mercy / No Malice: The Streaming Wars and Affordability

Episode Date: December 13, 2025

As read by George Hahn. https://www.profgalloway.com/the-streaming-wars-and-affordability/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Support for this show comes from Odu. Running a business is hard enough, so why make it harder with a dozen different apps that don't talk to each other? Introducing Odu, it's the only business software you'll ever need. It's an all-in-one fully integrated platform that makes your work easier, CRM, accounting, inventory, e-commerce, and more. And the best part, O-Doo replaces multiple expensive platforms for a fraction of the cost. That's why over thousands of businesses

have made the switch. So why not you? Try O-D-U for free at O-D-O-O-O-D-O-com. That's O-D-O-O-O-O-com. Canada's Wonderland is bringing the holiday magic this season with Winterfest on select nights now through January 3rd. Step into a winter wonderland filled with millions of dazzling lights,

festive shows, rides, and holiday treats. Plus, Coca-Cola is back with Canada's kindest community, celebrating acts of kindness nationwide with a chance at 100,000 donation for the winning community and a 2026 holiday caravan stop. Learn more at canadaswunderland.com. Maybe it's just a phase you're going through.

You'll get over it. I can't help you with that. The next appointment is in six months. You're not alone. Finding mental health support shouldn't leave you feeling more lost. At CAMH, we know how frustrating it can be trying to access care.

We're working to build a future where the path to support is clear, and every step forward feels like progress, not another wrong turn. Visit camh.ca to help us forge a better path for mental health care. I'm Scott Galloway, and this is no mercy, no malice. The fate of Warner Brothers is unclear. What's clear is that consolidation and concentration are bad for consumers and affordability. Streaming wars and affordability. as read by George Hahn.

Netflix's $83 billion deal to buy most of Warner Brothers would unite Stranger Things and K-pop Demon Hunters with Game of Thrones and the White Lotus, creating a streaming powerhouse. With Netflix's Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters at the helm,

the combined company would also be led by the smartest team in the entertainment industry. I know, Ted, and like most who meet him, admire him. I don't know David Ellison, and I find kids of billionaires trying to reshape the culture with a 12-figure jackhammer a bit gross. But the Paramount Boss,

who's trying to thwart Netflix with a hostile $108 billion bid for Warner Brothers, is right. A Netflix takeover would likely be bad, news for consumers at a time when many are facing an affordability crunch. The fight over the century-old studio is also a great example of the cronyism and head-up-your-ass economics of the Trump administration that adds fuel to the crisis. Ellison argued on CNBC that allowing two of the biggest streaming services to join forces

is anti-competitive. As the son of Larry Ellison, the world's third richest person, Paramount CEO has close ties to Donald Trump and access to a seemingly bottomless pool of capital. It's obnoxious, listening to a guy raised in a gravity-free financial environment warning others about the dangers of market distortion. After giving that interview, did he go into the kitchen of the restaurant and lecture the line cooks on the dignity of minimum wage? I digress. After giving giving the elder Ellison the significant role in his plan to transfer TikTok's U.S. operations to a group of American investors, Trump is pledging to get involved in the regulatory fate

of a Warner Brothers takeover. This is straight up socialism, the state controlling the means of production. Everyone knows we're sliding into a stew of autocracy, kleptocracy. So Sarandos also wooed Trump in the lead-up to announcing his agreement on December 5th, securing a secret White House meeting with the president. But before unveiling his rival offer two days later, Ellison reminded his adversary who has the political edge. The Silicon Valley Scion was spotted beside Trump at a ceremony in D.C. Who the president or podcasters believe as the rightful owner shouldn't matter. It's simple. It should be. It should be. be whoever shows up with the biggest check and passes regulatory reviews.

Concentration of power in streaming might corrupt the market, similar to the corruption the country endures when a few people can reshape media, tech, and Washington. Anyway, back to streaming. With more than 300 million subscribers, Netflix already has a leading position. Netflix, Amazon Prime, and Disney, control over 60% of the market. Acquiring Warner Brothers would give it even more power, with one of the largest libraries of premium scripted content and some of the most valuable entertainment franchises. Combining HBO, the gold standard of television, with Netflix, the streaming superstore, is like fusing LVMH and Walmart. If Netflix captures HBO,

Max, the streaming war, ad-free original content, is over. The upshot, despite Netflix's assurances that the combo will create greater value for consumers is fewer choices. At some point, as concentration intensifies, all the company's stocks will fall, as there are fewer people who can afford to buy their stuff. This trend is well underway, with the top 10 percent already accounting for 50 percent of consumer spending, making the economy more fragile. One-tenth of the population can crash the train. A Paramount deal also raises competition concerns, given the two companies have rival film studios with theatrical releases and overlapping streaming services. But there's a reason Paramount would probably face an easier regulatory path,

and that's not just the support it would receive from Trump. It boils down to market share. Streaming prices are climbing, along with the cost of groceries, gas, and housing, as the industry consolidates. The average subscription price for the top 10 U.S. platforms has risen 12% this year, far outpacing inflation, following double-digit increases since 2022. U.S. households spend an average of $70 a month on streaming services, a significant sum for people whose grocery bills have climbed 30% over the past five years. The companies say they have to raise prices to pay for the premium content they provide. But what the increases really signal is a transfer of capital from consumers and labor to shareholders.

Adding the studio and streaming assets of Warner Brothers would give Netflix even more leverage. If Netflix wins, the most critical question will be whether it's competing with premium streaming platforms or virtually all digital video content vying for attention. Netflix isn't nearly as dominant if you factor in Alphabet's YouTube and BightDance's TikTok, as Kara Swisher, my pivot co-host points out. But regulators should adopt the narrower market definition. Otherwise, it's akin to chicken producers defending their control of the market

by suggesting their competition extends to cattle ranchers and pistachio farmers. Also, consolidation won't stop with Netflix or Paramount and Warner Brothers. The deal will only put more pressure on rivals, including Comcast, to follow with their own, transactions to scale their streaming platforms.

Streaming subscriptions are just one part of a wider debate. Everyone from Donald Trump to New York mayor-elect Zoran Mamdani is talking about affordability. However, the country is long on indignation and short on ideas or programs to actually bring prices down. The president has insisted that tariffs will boost the economy when in fact they're pushing prices higher and fueling concerns over the cost of living. Trump, who once vowed to make America affordable again, now calls concerns about increasing prices a hoax perpetrated by the Democrats. Americans know this is bullshit. The use of buy now pay later services is rising to record levels

this holiday season. Yet they're also not buying the message from Democrats who highlight the need to curb health, housing, food, and energy costs, but resort to stoking outrage and throwing money at people versus implementing concrete structural change. Here are four ideas that aren't sexy, i.e., they will take work. Number one, build baby build. Housing should be at the top of the agenda,

as it's the primary culprit driving the lack of affordability. Half of renter households in the U.S. are cost-burdened, meaning they spend 30% or more of their income on shelter. Higher expenses curb labor mobility and productivity, deter families from seeking medical care, contribute to anxiety and depression, and fuel homelessness. While rent control is tempting, it suppresses development longer term, only adding to the problem. Higher costs of labor, building materials, and regulatory compliance exacerbate the housing shortfall. We should have tax credits to unleash private development to build 8 million to 10 million homes in the next decade. YIMBY laws, yes in my backyard, and cost-effective building are also part of the solution.

Manufactured homes built in factories and finished on-site are 35% to 73% cheaper than homes built entirely on location. Number two, nationalize medicine. The U.S. healthcare system is broken for the bottom 90%. Many Americans are one medical expense away from sliding into debt. More than 30 million citizens, especially black and Hispanic adults, borrowed money to pay for health care last year, accumulating $74 billion in medical debt. Enough.

Let's take Medicare and lower eligibility by two years every year for the next decade. That would bring the age of eligibility to 45 in 10 years. What is that called? Nationalized medicine We can help younger people in other ways. They aren't the ones accounting for the vast majority of surging health costs. Number three, impose tuition caps. We also need tuition caps based on income.

As a freshman at UCLA, I benefited from an annual tuition of just $1,350, and an admissions rate of $74. percent. A degree from a prestigious school opens doors and potentially quadruples the income a person can expect to make, but the ROI has declined as costs have ballooned. If your family is middle class, the tuition should reflect that. Colby last year announced a program to cap the cost of tuition room and board at $10,000 a year for families who earn up to $1,000. $100,000 and $15,000 a year for those with incomes ranging from $100,000 to $150,000. That compares with a net price of as much as $53,000 a year.

If universities with endowments greater than $1 billion aren't increasing freshman enrollment faster than the population is growing, they should lose their tax-free status. They've decided their burkin bags, not public servants. And number four, trust-busting. Concentration of power harms consumers and workers, with the benefits flowing to shareholders. It's up to regulators to break up or block harmful oligopolis that stifle competition. The nation's regulators are supposed to enforce antitrust law based on guidelines about market share and other standards, but giving the president the ability to engage in post hoc manipulation undermines the rule of law, as Herbert Hovenkamp, an antitrust scholar, told the New York

Times. The pursuit of Warner Brothers is more than just a transaction. It's a microcosm of a wider emergency. We can't complain about surging costs while ignoring. the factors behind them. We need to have an adult conversation, saying no to harmful deals, and yes, to policies that spur competition and rein in health, housing, and education costs. It's telling that the loudest objection to this nascent monopoly comes from a Hollywood mogul who's never lived outside one.

But we should listen to him. Consolidation is a tax on the young and the poor levied to protect the old and the rich. Affordability begins with a simple idea. More firms, more competition, more oxygen. Life is so rich. Support for this show comes from Odu. Running a business is hard enough, so why make it harder with a dozen different apps that don't talk to each other?

Introducing Odu, it's the only business software you'll ever need. It's an all-in-one fully integrated platform that makes your work easier, CRM, accounting, inventory, e-commerce, and more. And the best part, Odu replaces multiple expensive platforms. for a fraction of the cost. That's why over thousands of businesses have made the switch. So why not you? Try O-D-U for free at O-D-O-D-O-O-com.

That's O-D-O-O-O-O-com.