Latest / What the Flux / Webjet hits a new low | The Big 4 banks' double standards | Murdoch acquires Vox Media

Transcript

Webjet hits a new low | The Big 4 banks' double standards | Murdoch acquires Vox Media · What the Flux

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: This is what the blacks. I'm Brett and I'm justin
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: As Friday, the twenty.
• 0:09
  Speaker 2: Second of May, Juzzy Boy, Australia's unemployment rate increased to
• 0:12
  Speaker 2: four and a half percent in April according to the ABS,
• 0:15
  Speaker 2: and the number of employed people dropped for the first
• 0:17
  Speaker 2: time this year. Wow, and you better believe the RBA
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: board will be looking at these new merrows before their
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: next rate decision.
• 0:24
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• 0:39
  Speaker 2: Three huge stories today, Juzzy boy, let's do it for
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: our first. Webjets shares have newsdived to record lows after
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: its travel bookings round to a Holtz.
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: Webjet bookings really struggling to take off, Banan, What is
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: going on here? Well?
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  Speaker 2: Webjet is the Melbourne based online travel agent business that's
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: been helping Australian's book their holidays since around nineteen nine.
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: The eight the website helps customers compare and book pretty
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: much everything travel, flight deals, accommodation, travel, insurance, car higher
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: and be Man.
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  Speaker 1: In twenty twenty four, Webjets split off it's arguably more
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: successful sibling, Webeds into a separately listed company, and now.
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  Speaker 2: Webjets earnings have plummeted. It's EBITDA was just over twenty
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: eight mil for the year to March thirty one.
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: And that was down from the thirty five meal the
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  Speaker 1: previous year, or down twenty percent.
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: And Jazuvoid it's only getting worse for Webjet. The past
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: seven weeks were even more challenging me through it well.
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: The Middle East War caused a dip in travel demands.
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: And to put the cherry on top, Virgin Airlines have
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  Speaker 1: decided to cut its commissions with webjet because it wants
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: to focus on its own holiday packages. Business investors did
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  Speaker 1: not love that one, and it sent webjets shares crashing
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: over eleven percent to a record low. And be Man.
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: This is a big issue for travel platforms like Webjet.
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  Speaker 1: We're facing major existential threats.
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  Speaker 2: On the one hand, the threat is from big airlines
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  Speaker 2: who are cutting out into media travel brokers to keep
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: some margin.
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: And on the other side, they're facing a threat from AI,
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: which can help consumers find flights, hotels, accommodation even easier
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: and two actually quicker too.
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  Speaker 2: So what's okay learning here?
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  Speaker 1: When the intermediary is no longer needed, it threatens more
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  Speaker 1: than its revenue, It threatens its entire relevance. We know
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  Speaker 1: that webjet is the middle man or intermediary when it
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: comes to travel bookings. Yeah, it makes its money from
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  Speaker 1: customer booking fees and taking commissions from travel providers like
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: airlines and hotels and jazuit.
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: These days, if a platform doesn't offer something genuinely unique
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  Speaker 2: or valuable, it risks becoming replaceable. Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: That thing that's unique might be exclusive inventory, or loyalty
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: or totally differentiated experience.
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  Speaker 2: And right now Webjet isn't clearly differentiating.
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and b Man Virgin aren't the only travel company
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: to offer their own direct booking system now.
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: Even hotel chains like Marriott, Hilton, and Wyndham have all
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: made a shift to direct booking systems to avoid spending
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  Speaker 2: on commissions with online travel agents like Expedia and booking
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  Speaker 2: dot com.
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  Speaker 1: Because b Man. When businesses want to protect their margins,
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: and customers can get answers directly from AI. The intermediary
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: suddenly looks a lot less essential for our second story.
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: Australia's major banks are hiking home loans after every RBA
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: or rate hike, but the interest rate on savings accounts
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  Speaker 2: is not follow I'm.
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: Sniffing some double standards here, be man, so tell me more.
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  Speaker 2: Well, the Reserve Bank of Australia has already raised the
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  Speaker 2: cash rate three times this year, a.
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  Speaker 1: Totally increase of seventy five basis points.
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  Speaker 2: And every single time the RBA lifts rates, the banks
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  Speaker 2: somehow managed to raise mortgage repayments approximately two seconds later.
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  Speaker 1: Funny how efficient they become when it's your money leaving
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: your account.
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  Speaker 2: Because it's now been revealed that the Big four banks
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  Speaker 2: did not fully pass on those rate hikes to save its.
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: Yeah, while the RBA raised the cash rate by point
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  Speaker 1: two five percent earlier this month, pom Bank only passed
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: on point one five percent to its existing savings customer.
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  Speaker 1: What about the other members of the Big four crew,
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  Speaker 1: well and Zena NAB. They lifted their rates by supposedly
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: point three five percent on savings accounts, but only if
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: you jump through a number of bonus hoops.
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: And the banks have mastered a very special skill here,
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  Speaker 2: charging you more immediately while paying you later. So what
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: is the key learning here? The advertised savings rate and
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: the rate people actually get two very different stories. You see,
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: b Man, the bank's bonus saver accounts sound high, but
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: they generally pay two different rates. They offer a very
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  Speaker 2: low base sometimes as low as point zero one percent tiny,
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: and then a higher bonus rate on top the jazieway.
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: To unlock the bonus you have to meet conditions every
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: single month, like growing your balance each month, or making
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: no withdrawals, or completing one hundred push ups while reading
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  Speaker 2: the alphabet backwards.
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  Speaker 1: And if you miss the condition, you fall back to
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  Speaker 1: the base rate, which is basically nothing, and the banks
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  Speaker 1: know most people won't qualify consistently. In fact, a few
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: years ago, the ah troop Will found that seventy one
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: percent of bonus interest accounts weren't receiving the bonus rate
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: on average each month YEP.
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: For most consumers, they miss out on the bonus rate
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  Speaker 2: because life gets in the way.
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  Speaker 1: Might be an emergency withdrawal or a tight month, or
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: even just people forgetting the rule.
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: So Joseewait. The banks have found a way to offer
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: a high rate, knowing that most customers won't actually achieve it.
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: And then they pocket the difference.
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: For our third and final story, James Murdoch's company, Loopers
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: Systems has bought Vox Media for over three hundred million
• 4:49
  Speaker 2: US dollars and it could be just the beginning for
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: his very own media empire. Youngest Murdoch giving his dad
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: a real run for his money, So tell me more so.
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: James Murdock is, of course, the younger son of media
• 4:59
  Speaker 2: giant Room Murdock, the.
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: Man who built a global empire of newspapers, TV networks
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  Speaker 1: and book publishers, including The Wall Street Journal, The Australian
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: Fox News and the man Rubert Murdoch's eldest son, Lachlan
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  Speaker 1: took over the empire last year and Jesse Wait. At
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: that time, James saltish in News Corp And Fox Corp
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: to resolve a complicated succession battle. And now James's company,
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: Looper Systems, has just bought roughly half of Vox Media
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: assets over three hundred million US dollars.
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: Now what parts of the assets did Looper Systems?
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: By Jusy Boy we're talking to the Vox website, New
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: York Magazine and Vox podcast.
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: That includes Esther Pearl's Where Should We Begin? And Voxes
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: Today Explained and Pivot.
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: In fact, be Man, the Vox Media podcast network includes
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: nearly fifty shows.
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: And reaches tens of millions across audio and video and social.
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: Which gives James Murdock a very quick ride to the
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: top of the podcast charts. So what's the key landing here?
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: The most appealing media investments and no longer a newspaper
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: or a TV network, It's a human with a microphone
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: and a loyal audience.
• 5:53
  Speaker 2: Podcasting has quietly become one of the most valuable corners
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: of the media industry, and.
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: With its growth over the last five years, it's becoming
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: an appealing bus and to buy into.
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: In fact, the global podcasting industry is projected to be
• 6:03
  Speaker 2: worth more than one hundred and thirty one billion US
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: dollars by twenty thirty, and.
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: Big media giants are taking note. B Man. Netflix teamed
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: up with iHeartMedia to buy exclusive rights to fourteen video
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: podcasts this year.
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: Spotify has acquired a bunch of production companies and shows
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: like The Joe Rogan Experience.
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: And pretty much every traditional media company has been scrambling
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: to add podcasts into the mix too.
• 6:22
  Speaker 2: Now The New York Times has one of the most
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: listened to podcasts in the world.
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: Nine Network has been trying to climb the pod chats.
• 6:28
  Speaker 2: ABC launched a whole new podcast strategy targeting gen Z.
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so traditional media is jumping on the podcasting wagon
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: because if you can't beat them, join it, or if.
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: You're James Murdocks O Looper Systems, just buy them.
• 6:38
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• 6:50
  Speaker 2: Thanks for listening, and we'll see you on Monday.