Latest / What the Flux / Seven & Triple M's mega-merger | Trump’s Hollywood tariff | Amazon’s $2.5 billion trap

Transcript

Seven & Triple M's mega-merger | Trump’s Hollywood tariff | Amazon’s $2.5 billion trap · What the Flux

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: This is what the Flux.
• 0:06
  Speaker 2: I'm Brett and I'm Justin and it's Friday, third of October.
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: Juzzy Boy.
• 0:10
  Speaker 3: Albo, the Aussie Prime Minister, seems pretty keen to add
• 0:13
  Speaker 3: more competition to the supermarket wars in Australia. In fact,
• 0:16
  Speaker 3: earlier this week he was in the United Arab Emirates
• 0:18
  Speaker 3: and has been encouraging the UAE's largest hypermarket chain, Lulu,
• 0:22
  Speaker 3: to open stores in Australia.
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: That's right, hypermarket.
• 0:26
  Speaker 3: It's a supermarket and department store and electronics retailer.
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: All in one hop.
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: That coals man thirty six thousand dollars. That is the
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: average cost of an Australian wedding. In the Flux app,
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: we break down all the wedding expenses and there are
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: proximate costs, including how you can do it for a
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: whole lot cheap out your plan. If you just got
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: to gauge you're thinking about getting married. Make sure to
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: download the Blacks app and check out our latest.
• 0:47
  Speaker 3: Article three marvelous stories Today Juzzy Boy, let's do it
• 0:50
  Speaker 3: for our first seven. West Media and Southern Cross Media
• 0:54
  Speaker 3: have announced plans to merge into a four hundred and
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  Speaker 3: fifteen million dollar content machine.
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: These two companies only worth one hundred and fifteen mil together.
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: How things have changed in the media landscape? Yeah, we
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: wore all right.
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  Speaker 3: So seven West Media is one of Australia's largest free
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  Speaker 3: to air TV and media companies.
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: We're talking the owner of Channel seven, the West Australian,
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: the Sunday Times.
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  Speaker 3: We're also talking the owner of the broadcast rights to
• 1:15
  Speaker 3: the AFL and Cricket.
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: And of course My Kitchen Rules and Home and Away two.
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: Yep, can't forget that.
• 1:19
  Speaker 3: It also has seven two, seven Mates, seven, Bravo streaming platform,
• 1:22
  Speaker 3: seven plus all in its stable and Southern.
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: Cross well, they're the owners of Hit network like foxfam
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: as well as Triple Out.
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: Now, jes it boy, we know that Southern Cross Media
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: has been keen to sell.
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: They even had serious talks between Southern Cross and their
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: arch rival Arn Media.
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  Speaker 3: But now seven West Media has swooped in announcing plans
• 1:39
  Speaker 3: to merge with Southern Cross Media.
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: Alf Stewart would be flame and impressed with this.
• 1:44
  Speaker 3: As part of this deal, it would mean that seven
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  Speaker 3: shareholders own auty nine point nine percent of the combined company.
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: Well, Southern Cross shareows get fifty point one percent of
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  Speaker 2: the company and jasboid.
• 1:52
  Speaker 3: This seems to be a necessary step for both companies
• 1:54
  Speaker 3: who are battle in the new media landscape.
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: So true, So what is the key learning here?
• 1:59
  Speaker 3: Media firms are being forced to consolidate to protect their
• 2:02
  Speaker 3: margins and their relevance.
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: You see, bee Man, the old advertising model is under siege.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, viewers have split across streaming platforms, social media, podcasts,
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  Speaker 3: and traditional TV and radio.
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  Speaker 2: In fact, the commercial broadcasters have seen ad spend lumber
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: since the early two thousand.
• 2:15
  Speaker 3: Yeah, between Channel seven nine and ten, they've seen their
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  Speaker 3: share of Australian ads spend fall from forty three percent
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  Speaker 3: to seventeen percent. And that's between two thousand and six
• 2:24
  Speaker 3: and twenty twenty two, and it continues to decline more
• 2:26
  Speaker 3: and more since then. That means ad dollars are spread
• 2:29
  Speaker 3: thinner and harder to lock in.
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  Speaker 2: So by merging seven West and Southern Cross can bundle
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: their offerings together, and so it has one juicy advertising
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  Speaker 2: package to advertisers.
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  Speaker 3: You think ads across sports, on TV, talk radio shows,
• 2:40
  Speaker 3: regional news, digital masked heads all together.
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: And this scale gives advertisers richer insights, Who's watching, who's listening,
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: who's clicking and J.
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: Boy clearly Seven West has needed to act.
• 2:50
  Speaker 3: Its profits are down approximately sixty two percent in twenty
• 2:53
  Speaker 3: twenty five compared to the last.
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: Year, so both companies will be hoping at shareholders also
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: see their value in this deal, so they cannot only
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: so by the loan, but hopefully arrive together.
• 3:02
  Speaker 3: For our second story, Donald Trump has slapped a one
• 3:05
  Speaker 3: hundred percent tariff on foreign made films, throwing Hollywood and
• 3:09
  Speaker 3: Australia's movie industry into chaos.
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: You're telling me thor movies won't be made in Australia
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  Speaker 2: any will be, man.
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: Tell me what use boy?
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  Speaker 3: We all know Hollywood as the epicenter of celebrity culture
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  Speaker 3: and influences, and of course movie studios.
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  Speaker 2: You've got Paramount based in Hollywood. Steel Or Warner Brothers
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: and Disney are a bit further out, but very much
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: still in la.
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: In May this year, Donald Trump got pretty down frustrated.
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  Speaker 2: It sounds unlike the man who tweets out literally everything
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  Speaker 2: and anything.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, he claimed that the US Film Ministry had been
• 3:34
  Speaker 3: quote stolen by overseas production or as he.
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  Speaker 2: Said, it's been like stealing candy from a baby.
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  Speaker 3: That's because film studios from the US are often lured
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  Speaker 3: to film in other countries by foreign tax breaks.
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: Like Mission Impossible and Jurassic World Rebirth, We're both shot
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: outside the US.
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  Speaker 3: So now Trump has announced plans to slap a one
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  Speaker 3: hundred percent tariff on films made outside of the US.
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  Speaker 3: This could be a major blow for the film industry
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  Speaker 3: globally and particularly in Australia.
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  Speaker 2: So what is the key learning here? Film isn't just.
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: Art or entertainment.
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  Speaker 3: It's become a global trade game, and that is to
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  Speaker 3: the detriment of the US film industry.
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: This one Jazi Boy.
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  Speaker 3: There were twenty nine percent fewer movies and TV series
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  Speaker 3: with budgets above forty mili USD that were filmed in
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  Speaker 3: the US in twenty twenty four, and that's in comparison
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  Speaker 3: to twenty twenty two.
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  Speaker 2: And that's largely because the UK, Australia, and Canada have
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: given these production companies major tax incentives. In fact, the
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: Australian government offers a thirty percent rebate on production costs
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  Speaker 2: for large budget films from overseas. This effectively becomes a
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: subsidy on every dollar that they spend in our country.
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  Speaker 2: In fact, be Man Screen Australia reported one point seven
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  Speaker 2: billion dollars spent locally on these productions in twenty twenty
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  Speaker 2: three twenty twenty four, which is very large in Australia.
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  Speaker 1: So, Jazi boy.
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  Speaker 3: While it's unclear how serious Trump is and how the
• 4:45
  Speaker 3: tariff would actually work, it's certainly a scary message for
• 4:48
  Speaker 3: the local film industry.
• 4:49
  Speaker 2: For our third and final story, Amazon has copped a
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  Speaker 2: record breaking two and a half billion US dollar fined
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: and refund bill for making Amazon Prime sign ups too
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: easy and cancelation it's too hard.
• 5:00
  Speaker 3: This is when getting too good at the game becomes problematic.
• 5:03
  Speaker 3: Juzzy boy, so tell me what's going on.
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: Amazon Prime is the subscription membership for Amazon that launched
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: in two thousand and five YEP.
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  Speaker 3: Its main value is that it gives members free shipping
• 5:12
  Speaker 3: and same day delivery or next day delivery on Amazon products.
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: And the man it's grown into a forty four billion
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: US dollar a year subscription be he met.
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: Wow Get this one, juzy boy.
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  Speaker 3: Nearly one hundred and ninety seven million Americans are estimated
• 5:24
  Speaker 3: to have Prime.
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  Speaker 2: And that is more than half the US population.
• 5:26
  Speaker 3: Now, Amazon will pay one billion US dollars in penalties
• 5:30
  Speaker 3: to the US's Federal Trade Commission and one and a
• 5:32
  Speaker 3: half billion US dollars in customer refunds.
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: And why is that?
• 5:36
  Speaker 3: Well, the FTC claims that Amazon's Prime subscription violated its rules.
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: They claim Amazon made it very easy to access the
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: subscription and very hard to cancel.
• 5:46
  Speaker 3: And this is the largest civil penalty ever for an
• 5:48
  Speaker 3: FTC rule violation and b.
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: Man, it's five point six percent of amazon Primes annual
• 5:53
  Speaker 2: revenue and joy boy.
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: Amazon has denied wrongdoing, but also agreed to changees.
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: Like clearer disclosures, easier camation buttons.
• 6:01
  Speaker 3: All part of the hope that consumers can avoid the
• 6:03
  Speaker 3: subscription trap.
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  Speaker 2: So what is the key learning here?
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  Speaker 3: Subscription traps are designed to keep customers paying longer than
• 6:10
  Speaker 3: they intend by making cancelation difficult.
• 6:13
  Speaker 2: In fact, they man Amazon documents revealed internal staff actually
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: referred to parts of the Prime sign up flows as
• 6:19
  Speaker 2: a conversion.
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  Speaker 3: Trap, and finding the cancel button for an Amazon Prime
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  Speaker 3: subscription is like finding a needle in a haystack while blindfolded.
• 6:26
  Speaker 2: Yeah. In fact, it's believed that more than thirty five
• 6:28
  Speaker 2: million US customers alone were sucked into this Prime subscription trap.
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: And don't get me started on audible gig boy, that's
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: a whole other thing.
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  Speaker 3: So now Amazon is paying the price for its trap
• 6:38
  Speaker 3: and hopefully it sets a present for other companies to
• 6:40
  Speaker 3: remove the trap as well.
• 6:41
  Speaker 2: Just got engaged. Well it's a very exciting time, but
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: also a bit of a scary time when it comes
• 6:46
  Speaker 2: to the costs. There's the venue, the wedding planners, the
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: catering and drinks, photography, videography. We break it down all
• 6:52
  Speaker 2: in the Flux app, so make sure to download the
• 6:53
  Speaker 2: app and check it out.
• 6:54
  Speaker 3: Thanks for listening, and we'll see you on a Monday.
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: Music