Latest / The Future Travel Experience (FTE) Podcast / Hollywood special: Esdra Lamy of Warner Bros on movie magic at 38,000 feet

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Hollywood special: Esdra Lamy of Warner Bros on movie magic at 38,000 feet · The Future Travel Experience (FTE) Podcast

• 0:09
  SPEAKER_01: Have you ever felt like the world is moving too fast, that there's simply not enough time between clearing your inbox and joining the next team's call to give deep and meaningful thought into the technologies that are about to transform your aviation operation into it?
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_01: Well, help is at hand with this new future travel experience podcast.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_01: Proud to be part of the Apex family.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_01: My name is Max Cosny, and if you tune in for a collaborative and friendly forum where we'll guide you on the innovations that are too important to ignore.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_01: In each episode, I'll be interviewing aviation chiefs who've blazed a trail with new technology that you can listen on your way to work while traveling to an Apex FT event or even while walking your dog.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_01: Whatever your preference, you'll uncover a wealth of collaboration, best practice, and creative thinking that you enjoy.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_01: Hello and welcome to the episode where we go to Hollywood.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_01: You did hear me correctly, ladies and gentlemen.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_01: We are off to Tinseltown, or more specifically, to Burbank.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_01: We are just over the road from the Warner Brothers studios and catching up with Ezra Lamy, who is SVP at Warner Brothers and a board director at Apex on the future of in-flight entertainment.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_01: Esra talks to me about why the in-flight watching experience is one of the last great frontiers for enjoying great content free from the disruption of a million and one devices pinging you.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_01: We learn why the Barbie movie is one of the highest watch films ever in flight.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_01: And Ezra talks to me about his aspirational thoughts around one day a movie blockbuster being premiered in the sky at 38,000 feet.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_01: Enjoy the episode.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you, Max.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_00: How are you?
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_00: Although it's afternoon your time, it's it's always uh interesting speaking with folks from the other side of the world because you're trying to think real quickly what time must it be over there so that'll say good morning and make it about me and make it about my uh my person on the other end of the phone or the call.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_01: And that's why you're looking so bright and breezy, and I look so hanged at the start of the day.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_01: You've had a coffee, and I'm getting towards the end of it.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_01: But it's brilliant to have you on the podcast and um looking forward to hearing your views on some of the big trends affecting the industry.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I wanted to begin by asking you on those key trends and innovations.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_01: Um, what do you see at Warner Brothers in the um in-flight entertainment market as the key developments over the next sort of five or ten years?
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, that's uh that's a big one.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_00: That is uh you came out hot.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_00: I came out hot.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_00: I thought I get you off to that coffee.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_00: Um yes, and you know what, Max, that's a um that's a question that's at the top of mind, I'm sure, of every uh studio.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_00: And certainly it's a question that's at the top of mind of the industry as a whole.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_00: But as we uh I sit as in in this huge organization that's part of a big engine, and there's lots of um strategic thought process about where does each of the ecosystems in which our content that we provide to the world, where does it live?
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_00: And so when we narrow it down to my world um on the uh IFE space and flight entertainment and the excitement that I know myself and the team that handles this business that we have and making sure people are always watching the best content from our studio as they travel to go meet their loved ones for whatever reason they're they're traveling.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_00: That's the question that we often think about is okay, what's next?
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_00: Now we know the process is very straightforward.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_00: Max or Ezra or any of us, our friends and families get on a plane, they're all our connected customers with the airlines, right?
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_00: So they want to be entertained, rather they're having a tough day, rather they're a little nervous about the flight.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_00: Uh now they can sit down and just scroll through a bunch of movies, depends on the airline.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_00: You know, if you're flying certain ones, you might find 6,000 to watch.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so how do you now make this going forward continue to be exciting and continue to be relevant for our customers?
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_00: Um it's a question that there's not a perfect answer to because there's so many, uh, there's so many intricacies and so many different touch points that will impact that, right?
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_00: Today it's about free Wi-Fi and it's about streaming on board.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_00: That is the big headline that everyone's talking about and and and the concerns around that, because there are, you know, there's uh geo gating, you got to be worried about.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_00: Um, can someone get on a plane if all of a sudden XYZ Airline has uh been blessed by Leo and has a Wi-Fi partnership with the two big ones that are out there?
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_00: Uh now all of a sudden, can they go on and stream their HBO Max content or any other streaming service, Netflix, et cetera?
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, that obviously is the hot topic right now.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_00: But uh while that is certainly um what I call fair business challenges, we don't get too bad down on that.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_00: We know that will resolve itself because our legal team here does a good job with the fine-tuning of contracts that we have.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_00: And this is not our first rodeo into technology and fringing or coming into the space or improving um a particular ecosystem.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_00: So for me, as we sit back and look at the business, as my leadership challenges me, um, I look at a couple things.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_00: Um I look at, okay, what's going to help enhance the experience for our partners and their customers, our shared customers, right?
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_00: Because that's what they are.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_00: On the ground, there are customers, wherever they're consuming content, there are customers.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_00: And when they get on the plane at 30,000 feet, they become XYZ Airlines customers.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_00: And we share these customers.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_00: So what can help enhance the experience?
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_00: What can help maybe help them watch something on board that they may not have thought that they could see that at 30,000 feet at that moment in time?
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and so the next 10 years, I see some of the key innovations I see.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_00: I see the ability for someone to maybe be able to watch something that they could watch on their pay-per-view or through a transactional process.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_00: I see that maybe becoming something that could be available on certain flights with certain customers.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_00: I could see that being a thing in the next 10 years.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_00: Wouldn't that be great?
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_00: You're fine, you know, this movie's out and you know you've seen the promos, the promos for it come across your various devices, uh, if it's whether it's iTunes or Amazon, um, along with your groceries.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_00: Wouldn't that be cool if you now all of a sudden you have a downtime, you have a four or five-hour flight, and you're able to go on and watch that movie before because you were not able to make it to the movie theater when it first came out, but there's that window, that 45-day window, you're like, I'd like to see it because I'm hearing everyone talk about it.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_00: Could I see it now?
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and is there a way for uh us to partner with airlines to make that happen and respect the window and make sure we respect the partnerships that comes along with that and the economics that comes along with that, because that impacts a whole ecosystem if it's not done correctly?
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_00: So I see that being a thing.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_00: And the second thing, um, and this is might be my pipe dream, um, Max, is is there a world where we premiere a movie on board uh of an airplane in the next 10 years?
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_00: Now, that's a bold statement that's uh obviously uh that's aiming for beyond 30,000 feet statement.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but uh I feel that in the next 10 years, that could be a world where there's partnerships out there where you could see the a big movie premiering rather just within a few days, within uh however, whatever that window would be, um uh that you could see a big movie premiering um for certain passengers while they're traveling somewhere.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_01: That that coffee was good this morning, Estra.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_01: You're really setting it alight with these answers.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_01: So you really see a world where you could see a premiere of a movie at 35,000 feet on a particular airline partner um of Warner Brothers.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_01: Um give me a sh give me a score out.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_01: How lightly out of 10 do you think that will be to happen in the next five years?
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_00: I better put a disclaimer on that.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_00: That's aspirational, right?
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, you're asking me what would I like to see over the next 10 years?
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_00: That is something that I would like to see is the ability uh for that to catch up, for the technology to catch up and give us the ability to where if a studio uh head came to us and said, Hey, you know what?
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, we would like to do something special with this movie.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_00: We'd like to maybe have a flight uh that's flying somewhere and premiere this movie on board.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, look, we've done other things that uh were on unthink of for a while, right?
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, where uh we've uh over the last five years since this business move over to the content sales world, we've been able to premiere a show on board of an airplane um the day after it premiered on HBO and create a whole event around that.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_00: Um and that show wasn't just like that, which was the uh the sequel to Sex in the City.
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_00: And we were able to have a flight flying out of South America going into New York City and give them a whole experiential experience where they had Magnolia Cupcakes on board.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_00: They had DuraProduct in the first class lounge.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_00: Um, we did that partnership with Latam, and that has then evolved into much bigger things with other shows because it's worked both for, in this case, it was HBO Max.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_00: It worked both for HBO Max from a true uh experiential marketing perspective, and it worked for for Latam Airlines and and uh and a true um access and certainly experience for their customers that have had the chance to experience those.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_00: And we've done that twice now with and just like that, and we also did that with House of the Dragon um for season two, where that one we did that in three markets, where they were coming out of South America, Chile, and and Sao Apollo and going into Madrid, where they had this whole activation at the airport, got to have dragon eggs and and the whole like so so that's why I'm aspirational.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_00: Can you take it to the next level over the next 10 years?
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_01: No, I love that.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_01: I love that, as drawn.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_01: But if your aspiration is realized, I'm just following the logic through here.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_01: Surely then that becomes a really strong, you know, marketing and customer-facing promotional tool for the airline to sell tickets so that you can see this new blockbuster movie first on your flight, but only if you boot with us.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_00: It's uh, I mean, you could you can let your imagination run wild if that were to ever become a possibility or an option.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_00: Uh the same way um once we realize it could be a possibility and an option, and we were able to align with our partners, because all that starts with the creative partners, right?
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_00: Internally, I mean it these things, it as you can imagine, any big corporate in any big corporation, uh there's got to be the best ones that that that becomes um that do things that you wouldn't think of.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_00: It's because they figure out ways to collaborate internally.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that's one thing that's been a priority for us um at our studio, uh, our leadership, um, they lead by example, you know, have great relationship across the entire company.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_00: Um, because let's face it, when you are in the sales division of a movie studio, uh, as we are, and I can't speak for other studios, I can speak for the structure we have now at Warner Brothers Discovery, um, as the content sales team, we we are basically everybody's partners, right?
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_00: We're responsible for touching every uh every IP that comes across.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_00: And so we we respect the work that all the creatives have done and the work that the respective areas that produce, rather that's the TV group, rather that's the theatrical group, um, and and and certainly the the consumer product team and how they're managing these IPs and and putting putting things in the hands of consumers that are exciting.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, we've learned how to work collaboratively with them.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_00: And and so when things come up for opportunities to then provide something a little more and partnering with the Brotherton Airline or other partners that they partnership they structure out there, I can speak to Airline because that's my world.
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_00: Um, then that relationship allows for openness and collaboration.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_00: And uh because without them, none of this can can happen.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_01: So, what does a partner airline have to have for you to think, yeah, we want to work with you?
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_01: What attributes are important?
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_01: Well, money helps.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_00: Um so so look, it's uh I think you know, the beautiful thing about about uh our business.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_01: Let me flip it, Ezra, to say what be no matter the price, because there is always um something more tangent, you know, beyond money.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_01: Um what would you you know, if you were working with someone, what kind of red flags would would there be if you thought, no, I just don't see this working no matter what the price?
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_01: You know, are there certain things we just think we're not compatible?
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_00: Well, you know, this this ecosystem, the in-flight entertainment space, um IFE, it's unique uh versus all other platforms that we we tend to do business, right, with.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_00: And so it's unique from the standpoint of that uh there's very little cases where you have a total exclusivity on the content, because as the statistic goes, the average passenger will fly the same airline once, twice every year, give or take, or sometime every couple years.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_00: And so it's the unique reach is is very special to this um ecosystem and the IFP space.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_00: And so for us, I mean, the first and biggest thing that must be cleared is you got to clear DRM, right?
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_00: You your digital right management has to be in check, and you know, who we do business with, do we do we make we make sure that it's within the framework of what the studio and the legal team would allow?
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_00: And once that happens, then we're it's free, it's free game to do business with any airline around the world.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_00: Uh Warner Brothers Discovery content tends to be the most widely distributed content.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, I think we're and well over 150, 175 air airlines, uh brands around the world.
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_00: It's thousands of aircrafts, right?
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_00: That's millions, you know, tens of millions, hundreds of millions of of passengers that our content is connecting with on a daily basis.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_00: And so so we don't, we don't really restrain from doing business with anyone unless there's a reason for us not to, that borrowing legal, borrowing geopolitical stuff and and the likes, but for the most part, um, we do business with just about every everyone that comes uh our way through, either directly with us, uh, which we have a number of partnerships that are dealt directly with this with the airlines.
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_00: And then, of course, our great friends at the uh content service providers, the CSPs, um, whoever they bring towards us, uh, will engage and and figure out ways to structure deals that works for them.
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_00: Now, you know, you know, then it gets into commercial and all of that.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_00: How does that all that work?
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_00: Then that can be its own thing.
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_00: But from uh phase value, uh, we'll talk to everyone to see if there's a way we can help their passengers stay calm and cool by watching their favorite content at 30,000 feet.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_00: We want calm, cool passengers.
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_01: Uh subscribe to that.
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_01: You have spoken with um Joe Leader, who is my boss, and he was also he's group CEO of Apex and FTE.
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and in that interview you spoke about the cabin being one of the last curated media environments where passengers actively discover content rather than scroll past it.
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_01: I was fascinated by that.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_01: Can you tell me more?
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and that's uh and that's changing by the minute, right?
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_00: We uh as as we mentioned in the conversation, um, and as we've observed and just about every press release you see these days coming either from uh the various industry trades, Apex, FTE, um, and uh other industry trades, it's every day it's a headline of who just picked up free Wi-Fi, right?
• 15:53
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so it's it's definitely when I made the statement a year ago on the stage, uh actually not even a year ago, I guess earlier in the year at uh Apex Tech, I was referring to the idea of how us studios and content providers and airlines can continue to work well together and continuing to help keep that experience special and curated, regardless of what the narrative is around free Wi-Fi and the likes, and how that's going to force people to change habits and now want to bring their own device on board.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_00: And and so when I said that to Joe, I was literally referring to the fact that, hey, this is really the still the true place.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_00: When you're there, you are there.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_00: You are inside of the tube at 30,000 feet.
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_00: You can get up and walk and stretch your legs, you can go to the to use the laboratories.
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, but otherwise you're coming back to that seat and you are focused.
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_00: And if you have a screen in front of you, um it's very hard to ignore that screen and not engage with that screen.
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_00: And so, to that effect, that allows for all of our great programmers across all of the CSPs and the airlines around the world to really have a unique opportunity to put great content because they have amazing data because they know who's who for the most part, and they have a pretty good sense of what people are watching, which contents the most consume.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, by the way, you know, friends, Harry Potter, still some of the most watched content to this day, with very powerful YPs.
• 17:21
  SPEAKER_00: Um, by the way, the Harry Potter show is coming out later this year, um, the series.
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_00: So, so, so with that being said, they have the ability to really own that connection with the uh with the audience.
• 17:35
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and in a world where we have a million things to choose um day in and day out, we have a million decisions to make day in and day out.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_00: Um, whether we want to admit it or not as human beings, I think we love the idea of being able to sit down and see something that somebody created for us and have put some thoughts behind it, right?
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_00: Because you still don't have algorithm driving this, right?
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_00: Unlike when you're sitting at home on the ground and you're going through a streaming service.
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_00: Um, although I know there's being, there's a lot of strong efforts that's being made right now in the uh industry.
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_00: But this is the still the place where they create good content, you then able to get to see, oh, what can I discover today?
• 18:14
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, what mood am I in?
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_00: You know, we did these studies called, we did the the Need State studies about 10 years ago, where we we we looked at why does Max uh watch a certain piece of content when he's traveling?
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_00: You know, what mood is he in?
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_00: Did he just come out of an intense board meeting and Addis Ababa?
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_00: And he needs to really now calm down because uh it was just an intense four or five days, or he's coming from vacation with with the kids and needs the kids to relax and let's put in some uh some some Tom and Jerry or or Looney Tunes or Bluey, you name it.
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so so there's really no other place like that because everywhere else you are distracted.
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_00: You're at home, uh so-and-so is calling you.
• 18:55
  SPEAKER_00: You gotta get up and go walk the dog, you gotta get up and go do X, Y, Z.
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_00: So you're very distracted on the ground.
• 19:01
  SPEAKER_00: Versus this, you are truly are.
• 19:03
  SPEAKER_00: And your domain, you and yourself, you can get to decide what you control.
• 19:07
  SPEAKER_00: Even if you have someone next to you, it's still your screen, you're not sharing it with anybody else.
• 19:11
  SPEAKER_00: You get to decide what you watch on that screen.
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_01: If you see me watching horror movies, Esther, you need to give me a call and sort of give me some help.
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_01: And it's not so bad on that return.
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_01: But I was gonna say, I'm glad you mentioned um the holiday and kids because I'm used to curated content.
• 19:27
  SPEAKER_01: I'm uh old and grey enough to remember the days and it was all curated content, but my kids' minds are kind of blown by the fact that we didn't have on-demand TV when we were younger, they're so used to being in control of what they watch.
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_01: So what's the challenge there with that kind of generation coming through?
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_01: My my children are what, 16 and and 12?
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, well, you know, they're in their element because there they can truly, it's on demand and they can choose what they want to watch.
• 19:54
  SPEAKER_00: I have a 10-year-old daughter, and um a couple years ago we we suffered through the LA fires here.
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_00: And so uh this was her first time truly experiencing the linear environment of television broadcasting because for local news, we we all watch the local TV broadcast stations.
• 20:13
  SPEAKER_00: And this was the first time of her seeing, oh, this is how this works.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_00: I can't really change it, I can only watch what they put up.
• 20:19
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, and then there's these things that come up.
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_00: What are those?
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_00: Those are commercials.
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_00: Wait, they're selling you all this different product.
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_00: She was just fascinated by it all.
• 20:27
  SPEAKER_00: And luckily, you know, everything happened, and unfortunately, a lot of things happened in the city that uh we're still recovering from.
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_00: But that was her intro to broadcast and linear television and the ability to watch things that you can't control.
• 20:39
  SPEAKER_00: It's all programmed for you in that set certain way.
• 20:43
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, because this that this generation came up with everything at the fingertip where, okay, I don't want, I don't like this episode, let me swipe to the next one.
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_00: Um, wait, why can I not find the show in this said service that I'm used to watching?
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and so this generation is going to be more and more ever.
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, love the idea of on demand, but most of us still prefer the created content that is created for us.
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_00: If you think about it, um, I mentioned Friends earlier being still one of the top shows.
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_00: Um, friends has become a hit with early teens, right?
• 21:18
  SPEAKER_00: The 13 to 16-year-olds, because now they're seeing it in their own element.
• 21:22
  SPEAKER_00: Mind you, we have friends in multiple platforms around the world, whether you it's your local broadcast TV station somewhere in either evening or afternoon, uh, whether it's a cable network in in the US, uh, rather it's a uh it's uh it's an AVOD platform in the US.
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_00: We have friends in a lot of different environments.
• 21:41
  SPEAKER_00: But yet, when they can go somewhere and stream it and then uh decide which episode they want to watch, now they're claiming it, it's theirs.
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_00: And they're telling their parents, hey, I discovered this great show called Friends.
• 21:53
  SPEAKER_00: And you and you're looking at them as if, oh, okay, great.
• 21:57
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, like 30 years ago.
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_00: But uh, but yeah, I mean, that's the power of being able to uh to feel like you're in control, but yet we still prefer for someone to help create that for us, right?
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_00: Because um we're we're we're we're we're human nature, we're creatures of habit, and the idea of trying to make a decision yourself is very hard.
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_01: Even I suppose you look at when before we choose to watch something or buy something, we always look at other customer views, you know, ratings, IMBD, all that stuff.
• 22:28
  SPEAKER_01: So you're absolutely right we we do like a bit of kind of expert guidance to influence our decisions, don't we?
• 22:33
  SPEAKER_01: To know we're making the right choice.
• 22:35
  SPEAKER_00: That's right.
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_00: And and the other piece to this and look our we have a great insight team here led by my colleague Laura Gross and we've looked at things in 50 different ways every year to try to better understand what is the mood and how is the audience moving.
• 22:55
  SPEAKER_00: I mentioned we talked about need states, that's the whole comfort and what mood am I and am I looking to be excited, right?
• 23:01
  SPEAKER_00: You know, we we we talk about the value of time, how much time does how precious time is and what do we want to spend our time watching.
• 23:10
  SPEAKER_00: And then when you think about the things that people connect with that they talk about right um the memories.
• 23:15
  SPEAKER_00: I mean I think when we talk about time last year we looked at the formidable years when people feel that the age between 12 to 25 is when they feel content was at its best.
• 23:24
  SPEAKER_00: Any generation you ask that, that's what they'll tell you, right?
• 23:27
  SPEAKER_00: And so so of course um you know when they discover things that's been created for them, they want to take ownership of it.
• 23:36
  SPEAKER_01: Howdy there partners Future Travel Experience's 20th anniversary global is going to Texas.
• 23:44
  SPEAKER_01: Join us from the 8th to the 10th September in Dallas where we'll be bringing together airlines, airports, technologists, startups and industry partners who wish to reimagine the future of travel.
• 23:57
  SPEAKER_01: For attendance inquiries or to join us on the exhibition floor, please email me at max at future travelexperience dot com.
• 24:05
  SPEAKER_01: I'll see you there.
• 24:07
  SPEAKER_01: How do you see interactive content and that short form storytelling playing a part in in flight entertainment?
• 24:20
  SPEAKER_00: And observation and um and and there there's a little bit of aspirational but also there's some execution that's happening around that as well at least for us here at Warner Brothers Discovery.
• 24:32
  SPEAKER_00: So I see that becoming uh more and more prevalent especially with the with the younger um population but also to with people that want to be distracted right so there are two things I'll call out on that number one I think um we can't ignore the fact that as we talked about why Wi-Fi and connectivity getting more and more um impactful at 30,000 feet um that's going to create a dynamic where people want to be able to multitask right your multi-screen viewers um we mentioned you mentioned Joe Leader earlier I mean Joe is is famous for sharing his LinkedIn with like five different screens of him doing different things.
• 25:11
  SPEAKER_00: So I don't think there'll be too many Joe leaders like that on airplanes but um I think you will see more people wanting to be able to have their laptop open or their uh iPad while they're doing emails or texting or even browsing through social media but yet they're going to have the impactful content that they connect with in front of them in the screen which is why I think it's so important for airlines to really think about how they look at the decisions they're making and when it comes to seatback, the seedback experience versus non-seatback.
• 25:37
  SPEAKER_01: Go ahead you want to I just want to ask because I'm really interested if you're viewing this whether whether seatback um has a long-term future I'm just thinking my own experience um when we would fly with my old team um to deliver events around the world and and they were a generation behind me in the late 20s or early 20s to 230 say predominantly though they would always take in their own options to watch on board you know iPads shows they downloaded whereas an old guy like me I would just pretty much rely on watching something um on the on the screen back so as people like me move through and grow older and the the the core of the flyers becomes um a younger generation are are they gonna engage with that in flight entertainment in the same way that I have because they're so used to their own devices.
• 26:38
  SPEAKER_00: Have a sip of my chai uh because Max this is this is a big one for a lot right a lot of airlines as they're literally banking their futures and which path do they take right do I take the path of wireless or do I take the path of having seed back obviously most global airlines especially long haul airlines you the seatback is almost you got to have that and and if you're looking at that as a metric then it's hard to say when you are traveling other routes why shouldn't you have it?
• 27:11
  SPEAKER_00: I mean now I don't look at I don't have all the data that they look at when it comes to their net performer scores and uh how that impacts them.
• 27:19
  SPEAKER_00: But what I can say and whether it's conferences that we go to such as Apex Tech hearing the likes of Dominic from United or even when Ekrom was around from Delta uh when they kicked off the whole Delta sync and and then on to the free Wi-Fi and and so on is that the engagement really happened when from all of their feedback I'm speaking of, because I don't have this data firsthand, but speaking to their feedback and what they've shared publicly, these airlines have been in the forefront of it.
• 27:53
  SPEAKER_00: And mind you before I I mentioned Delta and and United JetBlue's offered free Wi-Fi for the last 13 years.
• 28:00
  SPEAKER_00: Yes one could argue that okay it's a lot better now a lot faster now because you have uh uh low earth orbit Leo and all of that Starlink and Amazon yes you could say all of that and certainly via set they've all rimped up to to uh to make things faster on the connectivity side but free wifi has been around with ChatBoo for 13 years and they've been one of our biggest customers and buying a lot of content across every part of our studio from theatrical classics and the HBO uh relationship that we have with ChatBlue.
• 28:32
  SPEAKER_00: And so I still I still feel that uh based on everything that we've hear the engagement is extremely high uh upwards of the 90s with all of those airlines who have made push to to really put the control in your hand as you said and giving you the power to bring your own screen.
• 28:51
  SPEAKER_00: I've seen people pull out their iPads on flight now this is a small non-scientific case study of one where they pull out their their iPad and frankly I've done it too but yet you see something on the screen you start scrolling you put away the iPad because you want to engage with that screen in front of you instead right most people sometimes lose their patience I've watched fumbling trying to put a screen in front of a little uh pocket holder in front of them so so I still think when there's a screen people will tend to leverage that screen and lean towards uh that screen experience because uh it's number one you get the the curation is there for you and number two it's uh it feels more as if you're sitting in your own little personal theater as opposed to trying to figure out how do I get the most comfortable with with the screen and and then at the same token if you then have Wi-Fi then you're engaging in your other screen maybe still having your emails on in the background or whatever else that you're using as a distraction.
• 29:45
  SPEAKER_01: You almost become as proficient as Joe in a way multiscreen multitasking I'll tell you something like on all the on the trips I mentioned with with um colleagues in the past the dominant convert topic conversation when you land anywhere is what were you watching?
• 30:00
  SPEAKER_01: What did you think of the movies, you know what that that's the kind of central topic as you come off the flight.
• 30:07
  SPEAKER_01: But I'd be interested to know your advice on how effectively do you think airlines gather the that information from people you know assessing the in-flight entertainment well um I I guess there's nowadays to your point um about multi screen I guess we talked about multi-screen earlier.
• 30:26
  SPEAKER_00: I I I think there are different ways to look at that.
• 30:29
  SPEAKER_00: Now as far as data airlines don't share data with us um or anybody for multitude of reasons um but the little that we know um is that uh as with any platform uh they're look at what is the engagement and how much viewing time I would imagine that people are spending watching Sid title and then that tells them the engagement for it.
• 30:54
  SPEAKER_00: I mean we've heard from various airlines that Barbie was in the top 10 for in some cases six plus months which is frankly unheard of right so it's one thing to say well it benefited actually no I think one of them I I heard for 12 months.
• 31:09
  SPEAKER_00: So it's one thing to say well it benefited because it was kept on board.
• 31:13
  SPEAKER_00: True.
• 31:13
  SPEAKER_00: But however you can be kept on board and no one's engaging with you, no one's watching you and they can see that the viewership rate would fall off so they would have to take it off and put something else in right and then the other aspect to that is the world of now everyone has a device they have access to to wifi everyone becomes a reporter or every everyone becomes the biggest word of mouth um for your for your business.
• 31:37
  SPEAKER_00: And so which means if I'm on board of a plane a couple years ago this happened actually where an influencer uh on TikTok was on a flight and they were looking for their favorite movie which surprise to us we didn't know this but crazy rich Asian is the airline movie.
• 31:54
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah and so because there was no crazy rich Asian because some people that's their go-to to relax you you never know why if it's I'm nervous that movie just relaxes me so they wanted to watch the crazy rich Asian they're going they go search for searching for it and it was not there and they went on TikTok and says can you believe that my favorite movie Crazy Rachation was not on the thing generated millions of views and hundreds of actually thousands of interaction of people within chiming in this is my favorite airline movie.
• 32:24
  SPEAKER_00: This is my favorite airline movie so so the people are very vocal when you don't think they're paying attention when you don't think when you can't put a a quantifier on the value of what uh in-flight entertainment brings to the to the consumer when you hear stuff like that you realize this is very impactful for a lot of people who who are looking to be distracted um or take the nerve off because there might be nervous flyers or they've just experienced something that that really they need that extra boost to help them uh relax and get away from reality for a bit.
• 32:54
  SPEAKER_01: What do you think it was about Barbie that made it so popular for so long?
• 32:57
  SPEAKER_01: Was there something unique about that film?
• 32:59
  SPEAKER_01: Is it kind of the all-good factor?
• 33:01
  SPEAKER_00: I mean what because that's really interesting if you could boil that down think what type of movie gets the attention to such a long duration over such a long you know number of months I mean look for those of us who are fathers to to girls um that in itself starts the conversation there and then for the for those of us who have little sisters that then starts the conversation growing up and then for those of us um who grew up around um going to school with girls we know that started the conversation and so you basically have a history of people really being engaged with with the Barbie brand right so I'm not going to get scientific about it other than the simple fact obviously a amazing cast you know led by a great producing team and and and Greta and and Margot and certainly uh amazing work by the studio marketing team and and then the way they marketed that film but the Barbie brand is powerful and then you put it together with a great story um a fun story and then you elevate that to the way the film was uh was laid out it was a community event it was a a film where after a while um uh uh the those statistics are not are not my expertise but I I'll paraphrase them after a while a film that gets to be to that level of the B level the billion level um it's not necessarily new people going to go see it it's people going back three four five times to see it and what start what started to happen with that film is is is just that now it became an event right people engage with it it became a community affair and whenever you have anything that becomes community uh as we can all as we've all experienced that takes into a life of its own and and it just becomes so massive and so connected and it was a time where that was frankly uh that was warranted and that was needed and um you know I always like to say and every time I've had the privilege of having conversations about the industry um with industry folks uh airlines in particular I always like to say it's a privilege that we get to bring our content uh to their passengers, right?
• 35:09
  SPEAKER_00: Because airlines do a uh the hard heavy lifting of connecting people by moving people from one place to the next to go connect with uh each other.
• 35:20
  SPEAKER_00: And uh and we as a studio we take great pride um in playing the role of connecting people through great storytelling.
• 35:28
  SPEAKER_00: And and when you have a movie like Barbie and then of course you had across the street at Universal with Oppenheimer from Christopher Nolan that then together now you you really see I always hear the the uh the cliche or all boats rise I mean that was truly a perfect example of all boats rise right with those two movies and theater just in essence competing for um for driving more more people that one is sold out that one is playing let me go across the the the hallway and go watch that one instead so so that just really created a whole community um environment um for Barbie and uh along the way same thing with with Oppenheimer so that was just one of those unicorn um moments that you just super often unscripted we haven't rehearsed this I watched both those movies on a flight I can recall so there you go that's evidence important so so wait wait wait max so to answer your question then uh to add to the answer to the question um we just had this conversation recently with the insight team about this the stat on Barbie and flight and one of the things that also came up is you have men who are curious about what is all the fuss about about that movie.
• 36:38
  SPEAKER_00: So they're on a plane by themselves in the private moment they're turning on Barbie watching Barbie because they're curious about what is all the hooplo was about so there's that's another reason why it was so special that it maintained the longevity that it did at the in in flight.
• 36:55
  SPEAKER_01: No I can't I know your time is a tight estra but I can't let you go without a final couple of questions one of which is as the insider as the connoisseur what do you watch in flight?
• 37:05
  SPEAKER_01: Talk us through your passenger journey.
• 37:08
  SPEAKER_00: When I'm on when I'm in flight it's very rare that I actually go watch one of our own movies because I've either seen it all or I have access to watch it.
• 37:15
  SPEAKER_00: So in some ways I take that slightly for granted and and I and I and I I'm truly appreciative of that privilege of having access to some of the best film catalog in the universe.
• 37:26
  SPEAKER_00: So when I am traveling I really truly do believe in what I said earlier which is being in this sort of uh last truly captive um environment um I look to discover so I always find myself uh swiping through catalogs of foreign films uh looking for what the next French comedy could be that I haven't seen that I haven't had access to um or if there's a big blockbuster that I haven't seen in the theater like for example you know Top Gun I watched that on an airplane Oppenheimer I watched that on an airplane uh things I did not get a chance to go to theater, I try to watch those.
• 38:08
  SPEAKER_00: And then sometimes I watch some of the most obscure things that I have no idea what they're talking about.
• 38:12
  SPEAKER_00: And I'll watch it and then I discover.
• 38:15
  SPEAKER_00: And I've also used that opportunity frankly at times to uh find shows that I would normally not go to a streaming service to watch and then I discover it and then that allows me to then go back and go finish it when I get off the plane.
• 38:28
  SPEAKER_00: So for example uh the latest one that I I did that with was a show is a show called C S E E with uh Jason Momoa.
• 38:35
  SPEAKER_00: It's uh a land of blind folks and I watched a couple episodes on a flight and then I'm like oh wow I gotta finish that and I binged the heck out of that thing on actually on our way on my flight to uh to uh the uh strategic meeting in Ethiopia that's when I watch all three or so seasons of that uh of that show so um to sum it up I I love the opportunity to discover on planes and it depends on the mood that I'm in it depends on how long the flight is and certainly if I have the option to also watch some sports I try to do that if there's a big sporting event going on if there's a golf tournament I'm gonna try to watch that um there's certainly now that we're heading into NBA finals if I'm on a plane doing one of those games and and there's live TV available I try to check that out and then when that's over then I want something to distract me for the next X amount of hours that are that remain.
• 39:23
  SPEAKER_00: So I'll look for a new series that I haven't seen or I'll look for a film that I haven't watched.
• 39:29
  SPEAKER_01: And just to wrap up you are also alongside your role at Warner Brothers board director Apex um tell us a bit more about that role and um what you see is the future important future direction for the Apex um airline passenger experience association yes and it's uh you know that's another privilege and and and I certainly you know thank the membership body of Apex um that vote all of us uh to represent them on the board it's it's certainly it's not in it's not the easiest um role to play because there's so many moving parts uh to the airline industry and all of the vendors that we represent and trying to curate something that really allows for everyone to be able to have the right moment with uh with every airline partners that they work with and certainly that we work with.
• 40:23
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's it's been interesting.
• 40:25
  SPEAKER_00: This is my second full term um and it's been interesting to see over the last uh three four years how much Apex continues to evolve and how much the uh board of directors really this current crew is heavily focused in trying to really understand and listen to the uh to what the uh the crew uh want what the members want to see out of apex um it's also uh very very uh refreshing to see the uh curiosity of wanting to innovate and uh we talked about this earlier and obviously you're one of those coming in bringing in that new set of eyeballs to help with that how do we innovate and evolve uh is the better word because we use that that word innovate gets overused at times but it's really about how do we evolve the organization to cater to the moment that we are facing right now for our industry.
• 41:17
  SPEAKER_00: As a as a member of Apex all of us who are members we know we show up there because Apex curates a great event that brings the airline community together.
• 41:28
  SPEAKER_00: We all of us suppliers supplies to the airlines and so Apex's role and my role as one of the members of the board is to help bring uh the right curation and the right environment for all of the members of Apex when they come as suppliers and certainly when the airline comes as potential partners and buyers for all of them is to be able to walk away from an environment where they feel A, there's learning happening, there's growth happening, there's curiosity happening and then that creates an environment for them to then be able to do what they do, which is buy what they need or pick up the things that they need to pick up to help make the in-flight experience better for their customers.
• 42:12
  SPEAKER_00: So our challenges are constantly how do we tackle uh changes that are happening in the industry whether that's uh other competing uh organizations that are driving similar or trying to drive similar uh narrative or rather frankly it's just about how do we evolve to where now we can become this perfect convex combination of providing great thought leadership events and and also creating a great environment where airlines will want to come to it.
• 42:41
  SPEAKER_00: Because as members we show up where the airlines show up as a studio we show up where clients show up if you showing up as just you and yourself, uh look with in this crazy tough economics time, no company wants to just shepherd people somewhere just to go do a bundle.
• 42:58
  SPEAKER_00: They want to know when they show up somewhere that they're actually going to learn something and most importantly help drive partnership um with the people that they go there to interact with in this case with the uh airline partners and so it's it's a role that um that allows for us to collaborate together because uh you you're on the board we're on the board with people from the airline and from the airline side people from the uh connectivity side um people from the OEM side and certainly studios and in my seat I uh I uh I represent the in essence the the Hollywood studios for the most part frankly I look at it as representing everyone who provides content um and I and I and I'm flattered to have the seat um and so we're always trying to figure out ways to make sure we create things that connect the studios better to the uh to the airlines right to uh to allow for opportunities for people to feel that they're being heard and that they're able to uh to get their job done In the right way by being a member of this organization.
• 44:05
  SPEAKER_00: And so it's a tough one to sometimes please everyone, myself included, because we always want it to be better.
• 44:16
  SPEAKER_00: And that's frankly is what drives all it drives us all is that ambition to make it better.
• 44:20
  SPEAKER_01: Ezra, just putting your Warner Brothers hat back on for a final wrap-up, you mentioned uh a new Harry Potter movie uh in the wings.
• 44:28
  SPEAKER_01: Anything else you want to flag with our listeners that we should be looking at for?
• 44:31
  SPEAKER_00: No breaking news from you, sir.
• 44:33
  SPEAKER_00: Harry Potter series, which we've talked about.
• 44:36
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, yes, that's uh well exclusive there for a moment.
• 44:40
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not just gonna go hey.
• 44:45
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, yes, that's all been publicly talked about.
• 44:47
  SPEAKER_00: The Harry Potter series is something that's been in the making for a while.
• 44:50
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so uh HBO, HBO Max, so that's uh at the end of the year, be on the lookout for that.
• 44:56
  SPEAKER_00: That's exciting.
• 44:57
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I mean, the process that they went through to to cast that series, and um and uh we had uh uh LA screenings a few weeks ago and we got to hear a little more about it.
• 45:07
  SPEAKER_00: So we're very excited about that because the Harry Potter brand is one of the most dominant brands in the world um any given year, top two.
• 45:16
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so it's a very exciting way to sort of reconnect the current generation, the old generation, the new generation with uh with such a grid IP.
• 45:26
  SPEAKER_00: Um so so as far as anything else, um, and and I'm gonna go back on something that I I I don't think I uh I think I digressed on, which is about uh being more interactive and in and and engaging content.
• 45:42
  SPEAKER_00: So a couple of things that we've done along that that's gonna be coming up soon, that uh this could be breaking for you, um, is now we've been able to look at our great IP, and we have an IP in the entertainment uh news magazine space uh called Extra.
• 45:57
  SPEAKER_00: And we are now uh actually creating a game show around Extra that would be engaging, where your pop culture knowledge will be put to the test as you'd be able to figure out what sort of so-and-so certain actor is talking about on the red carpet.
• 46:13
  SPEAKER_00: So that's something that uh people will probably get this glimpse of for the first time when we go to uh Apex and uh and uh Singapore later in the year.
• 46:22
  SPEAKER_00: This one is one that's frankly exclusive for Airlines, so which is a very special piece that we would have we're able to do that.
• 46:28
  SPEAKER_00: Uh kudos to my colleague Bob Moeller on the uh uh telepicture side for being able to work through this with us and certainly shout out to the great team at Extra, Jeremy, the executive producer, and really um providing the great content for us to be able to uh build that out.
• 46:43
  SPEAKER_00: So that's something that's exciting that's coming.
• 46:45
  SPEAKER_00: Um and then from uh a broader studio-wise, look, it's uh, you know, it's DC Studios is just cranking it up, right?
• 46:53
  SPEAKER_00: We have Supergirl coming later this this current fiscal year that we're talking about, you know, Cat in the Hat later in the year.
• 46:59
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, Dune, um the final chapter, so that's gonna be exciting.
• 47:03
  SPEAKER_00: But as we look to 2027, um, I think uh the anticipation for the next uh Superman is uh is an exciting one, Batman is an exciting one.
• 47:12
  SPEAKER_00: So there's there's a lot happening um uh within the studio.
• 47:17
  SPEAKER_00: So we're super excited again to be just in the environment of getting this great content.
• 47:22
  SPEAKER_01: Estra, tell us how you first became inspired by aviation and um your story about entering the industry.
• 47:30
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, that that one is a that's a very gosh, it's it's a it's a flashback question.
• 47:38
  SPEAKER_00: It it takes me back to uh to a kid um in the Caribbean in a little country called Haiti.
• 47:46
  SPEAKER_00: And I remember being a kid, uh, whenever an airplane would go overhead, I would fantasize.
• 47:53
  SPEAKER_00: I wonder where that plane was going.
• 47:54
  SPEAKER_00: That was before I got on a plane.
• 47:56
  SPEAKER_00: I was probably, I don't know, six, seven years old before I got on my first flight, which is wild because I think of my daughter now, who's been on, I think something like, I don't know, I count last counted a few hundred flights, um, has a 10-year-old.
• 48:09
  SPEAKER_00: And so I was six or seven, had not been on a plane yet.
• 48:12
  SPEAKER_00: And every time I'd see a plane, I would just imagine, I wonder where that plane is going.
• 48:16
  SPEAKER_00: And uh and my imagination would run wild.
• 48:18
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, you know, then you fast forward, you get on a plane, the most exciting day ever in my life.
• 48:24
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know, I think I was about 11 or 12 years old when that happens.
• 48:27
  SPEAKER_00: And it was the it was Pan Am, just to kind of give you a sense how far back this was.
• 48:33
  SPEAKER_00: Um, it was a Pan Am flight, and that was the best day of my life.
• 48:38
  SPEAKER_00: It was like, wow, airplanes are so fascinating.
• 48:41
  SPEAKER_00: And fast forward some 30 plus years later, Max, you wouldn't believe I still get that same tangling feeling whenever I get on a plane of how exciting it is to be flying through the sky in this huge metal tube, 30,000 something feet.
• 48:58
  SPEAKER_00: And and so, so to now, isn't it?
• 49:02
  SPEAKER_00: And it's it's it it's mind-boggling.
• 49:05
  SPEAKER_00: It it's just understanding all the physics and science behind it, still it leaves you to wonder how in the world are we doing this, right?
• 49:13
  SPEAKER_00: And then full of cargo, full of thousand passengers in some cases.
• 49:18
  SPEAKER_00: So, so now to be a part of the industry is is sort of the most surreal uh full circle uh experience because to get to be uh and somewhat in the front line of hearing what's happening, what's coming up, what are the challenges, what are the wins.
• 49:35
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, it is very, very much a full circle moment.
• 49:38
  SPEAKER_00: And so for me, my first four in the industry has with every one of us in the entertainment industry, it's really purely accidental.
• 49:44
  SPEAKER_00: Um part of it is just changes within the company, part of it is streamlining businesses in the company.
• 49:50
  SPEAKER_00: And the most important aspect of it is having a leader who see that uh that's something that I would probably uh that I would excel in and putting that responsibility on my plate.
• 50:00
  SPEAKER_00: And and I've embraced that responsibility since I've had it on my plate for the last uh five plus years, and uh and and certainly have an and ingrained myself into what the industry has to offer and uh and and being a part of what we talk about, being a part of Apex now uh really is completely full circle.
• 50:19
  SPEAKER_00: Um but uh yeah, so uh that's how that was my first experience um that really got me curious about airplanes and certainly ultimately being in the entertainment entertainment industry and now being uh a part of the uh the aviation ecosystem vendor ecosystems.
• 50:34
  SPEAKER_01: Well, it's another it's another one, another great story for me, but I actually can really res resonate with it because I remember playing with my brother playing football out in the you know in the in the back back field, and we'd look up at the planes coming to Gatwick and the contrails, and it's similar to you, just being fascinated by you know these incredible machines coming in, just hovering there, seemingly defying gravity as they they transcended through to land at Gatwick.
• 50:56
  SPEAKER_01: And and the fact that the industry can bring two people from you from Haiti, me from a little corner of England, and it unites people together from so many different backgrounds and cultures and experiences, and all glued by their their wonder at the aviation um sector and the the amazing things it can achieve, but it's just quite a story, isn't it, for us all to be part of.
• 51:17
  SPEAKER_00: It's uh and it's a huge privilege, and uh and and uh and we're we're grateful for the people before us uh who sacrificed a lot um to get us to this point to where we can now all feel safe.
• 51:30
  SPEAKER_00: Probably one of the safest things you can get on, um, flying 17-hour flight going somewhere on the other side of the world.
• 51:38
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's a miracle uh that we take for granted, like you say.
• 51:40
  SPEAKER_01: Um Ezra, it's been an absolute pleasure.
• 51:42
  SPEAKER_01: I know you have meetings to join, so I don't want to delay you any longer, but thank you so much for your insight on today's pod.
• 51:49
  SPEAKER_00: Um, Max, thank you.
• 51:50
  SPEAKER_00: It's a pleasure and uh looking forward to great things with you.
• 51:53
  SPEAKER_00: And um uh I'll say this again we're delighted to have you as a part of the Apex FTE family, and um and welcome on board and we'll look forward to great things.
• 52:03
  SPEAKER_00: Excellent.
• 52:04
  SPEAKER_00: No, my honor and privilege, and looking forward to working together.
• 52:06
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you so much.
• 52:07
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you.