Versant Media Group, Inc. (CMCSA) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Please welcome Wylie Collins, EVP, Investor Relations and Treasury.

Good afternoon, and thank you for joining us for Versant's inaugural Investor Day. We've been working hard to prepare Versant for its journey as an independent company, and we're excited to share our vision for the future. We have a packed agenda today. You'll hear from our leadership team about the businesses that comprise Versant, and you'll also hear from some of our on-air talent and a few of our key partners. We also have a break in the agenda to allow us to catch our breath for at least a few minutes and at the end of the presentations, we will have a Q&A session. For those of you with us here today, we also hope you'll join us for a reception after the program. But before we get to any of that, I would like to draw your attention to the important notice on the screen right now which concerns forward-looking statements, non-GAAP measures and other information. But most importantly, let's get the program underway. Thank you once again for joining us, and we'll see you at the Q&A. [Presentation]

Please welcome VERSANT's Chief Executive Officer, Mark Lazarus.

Thank you. That tape has great energy, and it gives me a lot of energy. Thank you all for being here. We are thrilled to be able to be here today to talk with you about our strategy and our plans. Now I've spent my entire career in media. That's some 40 years. In that time, I have been a disruptor. I have been disrupted and I know that this is an incredibly interesting time and a challenging time for our industry. We are certainly aware of the trends, but it is also a time of great opportunity. And I've never been more excited than I am right now. Because as you will see today, Versant has a unique set of assets, a dedicated leadership team, and we are prepared to defy expectations, be innovators in the markets that we serve. This is a company with a mandate to build beyond cable, in fact, beyond media, when we are ready to transform and positioning ourselves to win. So let's dive in. First, Versant is a home to a diversified collection of 11 well-known brands. Our portfolio includes networks, streaming, digital transaction, software solutions and more. And we have spent this last year, separating the companies, operating these businesses and strategically planning for transformation. Unlike most other companies, our brands play an integral role in the lives of our fans, and we know why. Live is still the domain of the television networks and Versant is there at the moment that people care about. During the biggest moments for our country, be that election nights or inauguration days, critical moments in the stock market from opening bells to news -- the breaking news, exhilarating moments on the pitch, the track, the court or the green or wherever champions are crowned. We are the most talked about moments in Hollywood by owning the red carpet. If audiences care, we are there, which means that right now for millions of people, the country's most devoted audiences, not to mention our advertisers and our distributors, Versant is indispensable. Our vision is clear. And you can see it here, but let me read it out loud. Versant is an industry-changing force. I'm going to say that part again. Versant is an industry-changing force in sports, news and entertainment. Home to iconic and trusted brands that inspire that inform and delight audiences. Our unique combination of content and services enrich the cultural fabric igniting passions, sparking conversations and connecting people to what they love most, okay? So what does that exactly mean? Well, at the heart of it, it's about the audiences, the fans, the users, our customers. Last year, 14.4 billion hours of content were watched on our -- in our programs. Fully half the country watches our content each and every month with distribution that puts us well ahead of almost every streamer out there. And it's not just about content, it's also about commerce. Our digital platforms processed 140 million transactions this past year. That includes tee times, movie tickets, video rentals and video purchases. So this company goes well beyond advertising and subscriptions. It also helps to explain why we'll have such a strong, profitable business from day 1. In fiscal 2025, Versant is expected to generate $6.6 billion in revenue, $2.2 billion in EBITDA and $1.4 billion in free cash flow. That's a tremendous starting point. We also have an exceptional and experienced management team. Every single person up here has a deep understanding of our industry, a passion for our brands, and most importantly a strong vision for how to grow their unique audiences and the surrounding businesses. Now personally, I'm excited for you to be able to meet the team that we've assembled. You're going to hear from the entire top row today about their businesses and about our plans. But I'm also excited for this team because with this new company, they will have the ability and the resources to invest in these businesses and flex in new ways to bring their best ideas to life. Our management team will also be supported by a world-class Board of Directors with experience over decades, helping steer public companies. And we're glad that our Board Chair, David Novak, and our Board member, David Eun, are here with us today. Thank you both for being here. This group will draw on their wide range of expertise across industries, their experience driving innovation, transformation, and I'm thrilled that we will have their guidance. We will operate in 4 large growing markets: business news and personal finance, political news and opinion, golf and athletics participation and sports and genre entertainment. And what you'll see is that every single one of these, we have a beloved brand, very large and loyal audiences, financial scale, powerful digital platforms that take us beyond television and in many cases, beyond media. In each and every one, there are strong growth opportunities. Yes, we have big TV revenues, but that only scratches the surface. So let me take you through each of these one by one. First, Business News and Personal Finance, this is upwards of a $20 billion market with more people looking to understand the 24/7 markets and looking for timely information about trends impacting their portfolios now more than ever. We are the market leaders with CNBC. Since 2019, the number of retail investors has gone up 40% to 107 million people, and the audience for online business and financial news has grown 25%. CNBC is the #1 global business media brand. It is also the leading digital site for business news and the #1 media outlet for top CEOs and C-suite executives to get their message out. And if you look at the market for political news in opinion, you'll see a very similar story. The audience that's interested in political issues and current events has grown 35% since 2019 to a total of 75 million people. And once again, Versant leads with MS Now. MS NOW is the #2 rated network in every genre for 7 straight years and is the #3 network so far in 2025 with a lot of momentum since last month's election, where we were the dominant network. In addition to the success on television, it's also the #1 digital site for political news and the #1 news brand on YouTube in 2024. That shows real range, real scale, real market power. We move to the golf industry. This is a $45 billion market, and it's growing fast, both on and off the course with 59 million fans in counting, up 37% in just 2 years. Versant is at the center of this momentum, capturing 40% of all golf hours watched with more live golf than all other networks combined. We also deliver a suite of services to golfers and golf courses which you'll hear more about in just a minute. There's lots of opportunity in golf and we're ready to continue to deliver high-quality median services for our fans and the broader golf industry. And then there's the broadest and biggest market of malls, sports and entertainment. The popularity for this just keeps increasing with 700 billion hours watched in the industry, and it's a $200 billion market. Audiences continue to gravitate towards these cultural moments and that command real attention and scale. From USA on television with the #1 scripted original this year in the rainmaker to Fandango for movie tickets or to buy or rent and stream at home video, Rotten Tomatoes for review and discovery, to E! SYFY and Oxygen for pop culture, science fiction and True Crime, all genres with proven digital, live and micro-transaction revenue success. We are big in TV, and we have large digital audiences with huge transactional volume. Now across all of these markets, 2 big things really differentiate us from the rest. First, it's the strength of our brands. And you can see they are well known across the country with near total awareness. And as I mentioned, these are big, profitable portfolio which has been historically managed with different priorities. Investing to build these brands was simply not a priority. I was managing some of them. They were under resourced, but that won't be the case anymore. Now we will invest back into the business. The second element that differentiates us is our focus on live programming. Live programming is a major driver of today's total TV audience and accounts for more than 1/3 of the viewing this past year compared to just 1/4 just a few years back. At Versant, 62% of our audience comes from live programming, largely across sports and news. Live TV is hard. We produce a lot of it. It's what the audiences are looking for. We do it really well, not that many people do. And by the way, the influence of our audience is truly remarkable. Just think about Morning Joe and Squawk Box. We are reaching the most important people in the world live every day. We also have long-term relationships with sports leagues, including the PGA Tour and NASCAR, who are fantastic partners and their leaders are here with us today, and you'll meet them in just a few moments. Just take a look at all of our exclusive programming. We've invested in established leagues like the PGA Tour and NASCAR as well as the Premier League and WWE. We're also investing in the rapidly growing fan bases across women's sports like golf, volleyball, the WNBA. And finally, there's the Olympics which, while not exclusive to us, will be on our air live from Milan in a few weeks and again, in 2028 from Los Angeles as well as a large array of college sports. We also continue to invest in sports. We recently announced an extension of our U.S. GA partnership and a new partnership with the Pac-12. The 62% mix of Versant's audience across live news and sports puts us ahead of established competitors like Paramount WBD and Disney on a percentage basis. With this mix of must-see programming, we're entering the market with significant scale right out of the gate. Whether you measure scale by the time people spend with us or the number of addressable homes we reach, Versant rivals that of almost every streamer in the market. Live programming continues to drive audiences and most of our live events spanning news, sports and entertainment are exclusive to our platforms and can't be found anywhere else. I repeat that exclusive to our platforms and can't be found anywhere else, which makes Versant a valuable partner to advertisers and our pay-TV distribution partners. You can see this when you look at the details of our audience scale in our core markets and how we stack up against our competitors with leading positions in business news, political news and opinion and golf. The rest of our content, the 38% comes from entertainment program a mix of live moments, scripted and unscripted programming and an incredible library that we own and can monetize in new ways, in some cases, monetize for the very first time. With this strong foundation, we have a multipart strategy to win. First, we're going to win with premium content. Content is who we are and what we do best. Our TV business is still big and profitable, and we will be able to lever our brands. Second, we're going to keep expanding our audience beyond the pay TV ecosystem. We're going to reach new customers, whether that's through new video distribution channels or new experiences like podcasts, live events or transactional. In other words, growth. A third is we're going to scale and launch digital platforms from growing already successful platforms like GolfNow, and Fandango to developing new offerings and services that harness the momentum of our trusted brands and that scale of our audiences, and that translates to more growth. And finally, we will do all of this with a relentless focus on operating efficiency and a disciplined capital allocation with our strong balance sheet at the core. That includes directing capital to pursue opportunities that align closely with our strategy as we work to turn our diverse portfolio of brands into an even more diverse set of revenue streams. We are making acquisitions like free TV networks and Indy Cinema, which will extend our leadership to new audiences and services. Anand will share more on these in a few minutes. While we're not afraid to -- we're also not afraid to consider value-maximizing options for businesses that may not perfectly fit or align with our new direction. It's exactly what we're doing right now with sports engine, where we're exploring strategic alternatives. If you take a quick look at our 2024 revenue mix. 83% of our revenue came from our network businesses in some form, while 17% came from our digital platforms and other non-pay TV resources. Over the next few years, we're going to evolve each of these business models to be more balanced. And every strategic decision we are making is with that goal in mind. As you can see, in each of our 4 markets, we are in various stages of this evolution and how we shift is going to be determined by specific market dynamics and opportunities and needs of our consumers and our fans. Let me give you an example of how we did this already with our golf business. It's the most developed of the businesses we operate in that regard, and it's the best indicator of where we're headed. 15 years ago, our golf business was just the Gulf channel, but then we started investing. We acquired the [ Nascent ] but rapidly growing GolfNow, which is a business where golfers can book online tee time similar to OpenTable or Resyi for restaurant reservations. And that took our golf revenues outside of pay TV. We then started branching into software for golf courses, and we've seen enormous success there. We recently also added a digital subscription business called GolfPass, where golfers get exclusive content and learn from the great Rory McIlroy and gain other benefits from their membership like Tee Times and rewards. So right now, when you look at our overall golf business, about half of our revenue comes from pay TV and half comes from GolfNow and our other related services that we offer. We are not in the golf media business. We are in the golf business. And that is the model for what Versant will do across all of our verticals, investment in growth, powered by our trusted brands, knowing that we'll have to execute and approach that will be tailored for each of other specific markets and each specific brand. I want to say in closing, Versant's competitive advantage is clear. We are not stuck in old media. We are being unleashed to grow further and grow our businesses beyond the bundle. Our mission is to expand beyond the multichannel universe and these vertical markets all have significant opportunities. In fact, one of our definitions of Versant is vertically ascendant, and we are well on our way. We are a leader in 4 large and growing markets, that are vital to their audiences and their partners with live programming, you just can't miss. We have an experienced management team that is ready to run with these businesses and to use this unique combination of financial scale and flexibility to invest today as we build for tomorrow. And now to tell you more about our strategy and our plans of how exactly we're going to go about this, please welcome my friend, my partner, our COO and CFO, Anand Kini.

So thank you, Mark, and thank you all for being here. So you just heard Mark review our growth strategy, and that growth strategy is the foundation of our business model. And it's also how we plan to drive significant shareholder value. And we're going to drive it really across 3 dimensions. So first, our exclusive, mostly live programming and brands make us economically advantaged in pay TV. So as a result, we have and will continue to have a highly profitable portfolio of networks. Second, our network leadership and brand strength enables us to grow by expanding our audience and building digital platforms that address a full spectrum of consumer needs in markets that we know very, very well. As you just saw, these markets are very large totaling hundreds of billions of dollars. And we believe we have a lot of room to grow share. So our business model isn't just about harvesting current success. But rather, it's on building and extending it. And then third, this all comes together to form a stable, highly cash-generating business, driving immediate returns to shareholders while we concurrently transition to a growth platform long term. We think there are few, if any, other companies that can pursue and execute this strategy. It takes programming that audiences want and can't get anywhere else. Brands that consumers love, leadership in growing dynamic markets, a proven track record of building growth platforms and a well-capitalized financial model that enables the investment. Versant checks every one of those boxes. So now I'd like to dig deeper into each element of that growth strategy and the impact on our business. So let me begin with how we are going to continue to win with premium content and how that underpins our success in Pay TV. Let me start with some table setting. We're all aware of the structural challenges facing Pay TV. And they are real, whether that's moderate cord cutting, audience fragmentation or digital competition. However, at the same time, Pay TV is a massive audience platform that we believe will remain highly relevant for many years to come. So even with all the growth in streaming, Pay TV still represents 2/3 of all professional video hours consumed. And virtually all the hours of sports and news watched. So in other words, while it's not a growth business, we believe pay TV's demise has been significantly exaggerated. And we're confident it will be an important part of the media ecosystem and highly profitable for many years to come. And this isn't only because of pay TV's vast scale. It's also because of our success in this market. We are winning in pay TV due to our differentiated exclusive content. And there's a specific example that I think illustrates our success and also highlights how Versant is a leading voice in the biggest moments for our country. So for that, let's go back to the 2024 election. At every moment on that road to election day, MS NOW was there and massive audiences watched. From the state of the union in March, which generated the largest state of the union audience in MS NOW's history, to the very first Harris-Walz rally when MSW NOW was the top-rated network in all of TV to the Democratic National Convention, when yet again, it was the top-rated TV network beating all competitors in cable and broadcast. And then to election night, where MS NOW once more, enjoyed great success. So put very simply, MS NOW was the place to see and understand what was happening. And this isn't only about 2024. So just last month, MS NOW was the #1 network in all of cable on election night, and you're going to hear more about that from Rebecca in a little bit. And we're going to keep building on this momentum into the 2026 midterms, the 2028 presidential election at all points in between. Just like with major news events, there are countless examples of our success in value in sports. Mark already talked about our breadth in sports, but we also have great depth. And I think it's the combination of those 2 that make us truly indispensable for sports fans. So we have more NASCAR Cup Series races than any other platform. We have 45% of all Premier League soccer matches aired. We're the only outlet that's going to have more than 50 WNBA games, including the playoffs. We're WWE's largest television network partner with live events every week of the year. And we have more than 2x as many PGA tour events as any other network. And in just a few weeks, we're going to be airing 475 hours of the Milan Olympics. Importantly, other than the Olympics, all of these sporting events are exclusive to Versant. So viewers can't get them in any other way. Now whether it's through sports or news or entertainment, Versant's brands reach the entire U.S., and they really connect people to what they love. Our programming resonates broadly across various demographics and also attracts some of the most sought-after audiences. It's really what makes our network so valuable when you're talking about audiences, distributors or marketers. So in Americas Heartland, it might be NASCAR and the WWE. In urban areas, it could be the premier lead PGA Tour or CNBC. And of not there, the Golf Channel and CNBC feature audiences with the highest household income across both all TV networks and the largest streamers. Or if you're looking to reach women and also a lot of men, it's the WNBA, MS NOW or E!. The point is, no matter what part of the country or what kind of audience, Versant is the place for hugely popular, exclusive and live programming. And that's just our existing audience. Our brands and market leadership enable us to reach new audiences, expanding and growing our business. These new audiences will be from outside pay TV. So pay TV today comprises 67 million households where we are very well positioned. We've broadly distributed networks and a profitable business model. And yet, this is still only about half of U.S. households. So to reach the other half, we are going beyond pay TV through things like AVOD and SVOD, over the air and social media and also entirely different non-video formats like audio and live events. And through these new distribution channels, we can nearly double our audience reach and monetize our content in new ways. That's going to evolve our revenue mix and drive growth. And finally, this isn't just some kind of aspiration or future plan, but rather it's an effort already well underway. And on this, we have momentum. So whether it's our news digital sites, apps, YouTube presence, live events, all of which are market leaders to adding over-the-air distribution to Oxygen network. So we reach new viewers who can access the network through an antenna. And that now currently accounts for about 20% of Oxygen's audience. And as Versant, we're now investing in a new set of growth drivers to further expand the audience. Things like a D2C service for MS NOW fans, a Fandango ad-supported streaming offering and an acquisition of a company called Free TV Networks. You're going to hear about all 3 of these today, but let me spend a little bit of time on that very last one. I mentioned that about half of U.S. households are not pay TV subscribers and help address these households. We recently entered into an agreement in principle to acquire Free TV Networks. If you're wondering what the company does well, the name kind of says it all, it offers free ad-supported networks delivered on a digital broadcast over the air. So consumers access these networks at no cost, either through a physical antenna or through certain video distributors. And then through its long-term carriage agreements with local stations across the country, Free TV Networks reaches basically all U.S. households with a TV. The company was founded by Jonathan Katz, and he had built a similar business, which he sold to Scripps Networks back in 2017. So he has a proven track record of growing these businesses rapidly. The company currently has 4 networks, each of which target a distinct audience with relevant library titles from third-party studios. And over time, we plan to adverse in series to the programming schedule as well. And we potentially will add new networks too. While Free TV Networks is only 2 years old, it's already seeing really good traction with audience and advertising. Now as to why we're bullish on this business, it's really because the fundamentals of the business and the industry are very strong. So the aggregate over-the-air audience is increasing industry-wide. There's about 20 million households today access TV exclusively over the air, and that represents about 16% of all households in the U.S. And importantly, this represents just viewers who use their antennas exclusively. The available market for OTA networks is much larger than that because it also includes, for example, those who can access the OTA networks through their video distributors. And with home antenna is now costing as little as $20, and streaming service prices continuing to increase over-the-air has emerged as a very cost-effective option for consumers. And we see these favorable trends in ratings. So 2 of the top 25 rated networks in all of TV are in this over-the-air category. And competitor over-the-air networks are realizing double-digit ratings growth year-on-year. The audience strength then is translating to healthy monetization with scaled OTA portfolios generating hundreds of millions of revenue. And to be clear, Free TV Networks is small today but we plan to invest. And the growth potential is significant and the business naturally extends to fast channels, too. And then more broadly, this business is aligned with the strategy, our strategy of expanding audience addressing non pay TV homes and driving growth. So I just reviewed now some plans on how we're going to reach new audiences. I'd now like to cover how we're thinking of launching and scaling our digital platforms because that's also a way that we expect to meaningfully grow and evolve versus revenue mix. So today, we operate 2 large popular platforms in GolfNow and Fandango. These platforms have done really well, but there's still a lot of untapped opportunity. Just to take one example. Despite its leadership in golf course management software and tee time reservations, GolfNow is only used by about 1/4 of golf courses and represents less than 10% of total golf grounds booked. It's a very similar story for Fandango in terms of its relative share. With the strength of these products and the size of the relevant markets, the opportunity to gain share is clear, and that's the focus of our investment and execution plans. You're going to hear more specifics on exactly how we plan to increase share from Will McIntosh, the leader of those platforms later today. At the same time, we are also focused on developing new platforms. So for Fandango, we're moving into the business-to-business services, much like we did with GolfNow. We're doing so through the acquisition of Indy Cinema, which makes a software platform for cinema operators. For GolfNow, we're expanding internationally. And we will take our expertise to new markets, including a CNBC subscription service focused on the retail investor. You're going to hear more about the CNBC and golf opportunities later. So let me dig into that first example Indy Cinema. So Indy offers the only full-service operating system for cinema operators. It's a comprehensive solution addressing all operator needs be going from ticketing to point of sale to inventory management to real-time analytics and more. It basically encompasses everything a cinema operator needs to run their business. We think Indy Cinema has the best product in the market with a great opportunity to win significant share. So most existing technology services for cinema operators, their legacy base, they're challenging to implement, and they're fragmented. In contrast, Indy offers a modern cloud-based platform with significant native functionality as well as integration to top third-party services. So it offers a unified one-stop solution. It's also global in scope as Indy brings customers from around the world. So with Fandango's deep relationships with cinema operators, we're well positioned to grow Indy by offering it together with our existing Fandango ticketing service. Indy is already generating significant cost savings and incremental revenue for its customers, and we are confident that we will now do so for a much larger universe. And that includes more than just cinemas even if that's our initial focus. We see potential to support thousands of other entertainment venues, which taken together, comprise an over $50 billion marketplace. Financially, our acquisition of Indy Cinema and pending purchase of Free TV Networks don't impact our capital position and liquidity much at all. And we expect them to positively and quickly contribute to the P&L. These deals underscore how we identify and execute upon strategic opportunities to drive versus growth. We look for businesses that are aligned with our 4 core markets, focused on natural extensions of our brands and help transition our business model because that's how we win. As Mark said, we win with more premium content reaching more people as we expand our audience and driving more experiences, services and platforms. Then that translates to a strong dynamic business that can drive value in the short, medium and long term. Now you're going to hear from each of our business leads about where we're headed, and we're going to start with CNBC and KC Sullivan. [Presentation]

Good afternoon, everyone. That video captures everything that I love about this brand. I've been lucky enough to be part of CNBC for more than a decade as CFO, Head of our International business and the leader of the global ad sales strategy and for the last 3 years as President. Every day, I'm reminded that now more than ever, CNBC is a powerful, essential global brand. You may have noticed our new logo. It's a symbol of the direction where we're headed and the exciting new chapter we're headed into. We are the #1 destination for global business media. Our insights reach 500 million people around the world every month. And we see the passion and loyalty of our audience in many different ways, from the most Google searches to the highest brand favorability. And in my mind, just as important as our scale is who we reach. As you've heard already, the most influential CEOs and leaders turn to CNBC with more than 200 CEOs of S&P 500 companies appearing on our air in the past year. And it's not just the business world. We've had over 180 interviews with top administration officials, including President Trump in 2025. They all come to CNBC because they know what we stand for, reporting that is fast accurate, actionable and unbiased. Our balance perspective has made us the epicenter for all things business. We're the leaders of major public and private companies come to set the global agenda. And as a result, for 30 years, we've cultivated the most highly educated and most affluent audience in all of cable television. The numbers confirmed. CNBC is winning the decision makers that move markets and shape the global economy like financial industry professionals, retail investors and high net worth individuals. These are the valuable sought-after viewers that our guests, partners and advertisers want to reach and no one else can attract. But our relationship extends far beyond just TV. We enjoy a leading scale with our global digital assets as well with the most visitors and most times spend. We want to super serve our audience wherever and whenever they turn to us, whether that's on our network, global digital platforms, YouTube channels, newsletters or through subscription products like CNBC Pro. And I want to be clear, while the business news space may be crowded, the unique combination of brand strength and engagement with CNBC in a class of its own with no meaningful competition in our space. It's why CNBC is already making headway towards diversifying our revenue mix. And we're just going to keep that momentum going. Now that all starts by continuing to deliver premium business news content. Whether that's Joe Kernen, Becky Quick and Andrew Ross Sorkin holding a Fortune 500 CEO to account right here at the Nasdaq for Jim Cramer and Carl Quintanilla broadcasting live from the floor of the New York Stock Exchange or David Faber breaking news on a major M&A deal on The Faber Report. That unrivaled access of our world-class talent means that we can deliver exclusive timely information in the moments that matter. We're committed to reaching even more consumers with this information through video and other formats like events and podcasts. Now we have many vehicles to drive that growth. But today, I'd like to focus on 2 specific areas. First, given the value of our platforms, brands and audiences, CNBC is a compelling partner for premier business and financial firms. So we'll continue to develop strategic partnerships that accelerate our growth. And second, we see an opportunity to expand our own platforms to address broader consumer needs and interests. I'll start with the partnership approach. We're constantly evaluating partners that value the strength and credibility of our brand, the quality of our journalism and the power of our audience. But we're also looking for companies that are leaders in the sectors driving today's economy so that we can extend our offering to the areas our audience cares about most. We've done this by aligning with AI companies to develop new products for our consumers, exploring audience needs around crypto. And today, by stepping into an exciting emerging asset class, the prediction markets. If you've been watching CNBC, you know that prediction markets are quickly shaping how investors and business leaders think about important events, whether the Fed will increase interest rates, who win the next presidential election. So today, I'm pleased to announce that CNBC has entered an agreement with Kalshi, the leading prediction market platform. There's 3 ways this relationship will work. First, it will enhance our editorial coverage. Every day, our anchors and analysts unpack the biggest questions facing companies and the economy. And now they have access to exclusive data from Kalshi to more deeply understand public consensus in real time. Second, there's a significant growth opportunity for our business. As part of this deal, Kalshi's prediction markets will be profiled across our platforms. We've also agreed to a multiyear commercial relationship around advertising and customer acquisition. Finally, Kalshi will help us connect with a generation of younger, digitally native audiences since many of Kalshi's users are under the age of 40, and increasingly consume business news through data-driven formats. We will also have an exclusive markets page on Kalshi's platform. And I should say, this is just one example of how CNBC is forging new strategic partnerships to deliver accelerated growth. Another way that we'll deliver growth is by investing in new services that expand both our audience and monetization. We're taking deliberate steps to evolve our entire digital ecosystem with a clear priority around subscription, reflecting our deep belief in the value of quality journalism. So we ask ourselves, where do we have a right to play and the resources to offer a compelling, differentiated and superior solution? And the answer could not be clear, the retail investor. You've heard earlier about the rise of retail investing. This is an impressive growing market with millions of active retail investors who represent over $5 billion in weekly trading inflows, and many are already CNBC fans. We know these investors already subscribe to services to support their investing in financial needs. In fact, households earning over $200,000 pay for, on average, 3 finance-related subscriptions. And there is a market of 18 million people who are both active retail investors and business news subscribers. That tells us something important. There's a major opportunity here. With CNBC Pro, we already have the foundation in an established audience that is able and willing to pay, but we're ready to go further. Here's what investors have told us. Current subscription products are fragmented, subscale, narrow and focus and lack the trust and depth that CNBC can provide. What they want is stock recommendations, tools and data, real-time information and a smart actionable analysis from a brand that they trust. And get this, half of consumers we surveyed say that all 4 of those elements matter most in the business news product. So we're evolving CNBC Pro in launching a new product that brings all of this together plus robust portfolio tracking, advanced charting, AI-powered quantitative analysis and community tools. Supporting all of these features is a deeply personalized experience that harnesses the power of AI to deliver content feeds that are tailored to each individual user. Work is already underway to build this comprehensive must-have service for the retail investor. And over time, we'll explore other areas of interest like wealth, energy options. So in closing, let me say this. It's not lost on me that most in this room, know CNBC intimately. It's a privilege to play such an important role in what you all do day in and day out. And it's in conversations I've had with so many of you in this room about what CNBC needs to business and the markets and how we can raise the bar even higher. That's what gives me tremendous faith in the future of CNBC. So as you've heard today, that future is already coming into focus, and I'm proud to be part of the journey. And knowing that I'm in a room full of investors, we wouldn't be super serving our audience if I didn't give you some exclusive CNBC content. So I'm pleased to welcome 2 people who are instrumental in our efforts. Our Editor-in-Chief David Cho and co-anchor of CNBC Squawk Box, Andrew Ross Sorkin.

Good afternoon, everybody. It's a privilege here to be with David somebody I've actually been competing against in a way for a long time. You've been in this business now 30 years.

Yes, a long time.

Long time. You've been at Barron's, you've been in Washington Post and you came to lead CNBC just about in August now. So the big question is you had a pretty good gig before this. Why did you decide to take on this opportunity and to come to Versant.

To hang with you, of course, on this stage. No, I mean, listen, there's a lot that went into it, but I would say a big reason why decided to come -- it's actually because of the spin. That may sound strange. But to me, the spin represented opportunity, it represented -- we would be free to go for it, to innovate, to form partnerships, some of which KC talked about, whether it's Kalshi or artificial intelligence company, we would be free to sort of go for it. But the spin to me also meant that you'd be urgent for us to do it. There'd be pressure, I kind of wanted that start-up mentality. It's just the great thing about CNBC is we're well capitalized, and we also have an established name brand. We don't have the same struggles of other startups. My only question really was -- is the leadership team right? Is it the right group of people? And as I got to know KC, Anand, Laz, I felt this was the right team to join. They were urgent, they're idea oriented. They've got to really operate on egos like in the discussions, we get to truth and ideas. It's been a great team. So I think we can take some really big swings.

Okay. So here's the question that I have for you because you -- and we -- as I said, we've both been competing against each other in this space for a long time. I don't know how you think business journalism has fundamentally changed over the period of time that you've been in it now. But maybe more importantly, where you think it all goes, what it actually ends up looking like as we're all sitting here trying to figure out the future?

Yes. Well, listen, it's journalism and business journalism in particular, is always changing. It's been changing for all the entire 30 years I've been in it. But if you look at the landscape now, actually, there are news organizations that are doing very well. They're like growing revenues, they're growing in prominence. And they're -- what they're doing is they're putting up and we've seen this kind of increase over the past couple of years, they are increasingly emphasizing exclusive high-quality content. And they're asking people to pay for it. And I don't think everybody can do this. Like I think local journalism has really struggled in this regard. And there are some that just chase cheaper clicks and now they're struggling to put up paywalls. Let me tell you, CNBC definitely is worth paying for. It's definitely worth -- if you think about by the time Jim Cramer wraps. We've got about 80 to 85 interviews a day. Many of them are exclusive. The stuff that you can only get at CNBC and those stories, those journalists of that they move markets. Let me give you a couple of examples from the past few weeks. So a few weeks ago, Kraft Heinz announced that they were going to explore splitting. So Mac & Cheese was divorcing from ketchup basically. Now later that afternoon, your cohost Becky Quick, she called me and said, "I have an exclusive here, that the guy who put ketchup and Mac & Cheese together and is their biggest shareholder, Warren Buffet is not happy about this. So we broke that story on air. We published a story. We alerted it at that moment, and the stock moved 7% off that story. And it moved because that story came from a trusted brand and a trusted journalist. And you've probably experienced this a lot of times, too, as you've sort of done this. Around that same time, actually, we broke one of the biggest stories in technology, which was the $100 billion deal between OpenAI and NVIDIA. And when we broke that story on air, and we broke it online, too, the markets were down 1%. And the markets ended up, up 1%. That story literally moved the markets 2%. And if you're anywhere in business or in technology or in the markets, you -- that information isn't nice to have. It's essential to have. You have to have that in the moment it's breaking. If you love Mac & Cheese, you probably want to read that story, too. So I think if you look at that, I'm pretty confident people will pay for that. companies will pay for that. There are partnerships to be done with artificial intelligence firms on all of this. The future is bright on that front.

Okay. So here's a question for you. One of the craziest things that I find about my job is not just who we have on our broadcast and the exclusive news that we're able to bring people, but actually who's watching it in real time, which is to say, I think myself, Joe and Becky every single morning, as we're looking down at our e-mail and oftentimes our phone are getting literally text messages from some of the leading CEOs in America to the White House. And you can feel it. You can see it. Sometimes they're writing in real time about a guest that's coming up or a question that was asked saying, I can't believe this is happening or you should really go figure this out. And my question to you is, not just how important it is to be able to capture that audience, but what you think you're going to need to do to keep and grow that audience?

Yes, that's a great question. I mean I was in the control room, I think, when I was watching you guys down at the NASDAQ. And literally, this morning, you were talking about housing and the Fed, there were Trump administration officials tweeting at you, answering the questions that you're raising on air in real time. It's amazing to see just our power to convene and to gather that influential people. And I saw it at your 30th squad party, too. Just the people in that room, it was like the power brokers of business and politics and Bill Murray.

Bill Murray and Warren Buffett.

Warren Buffett, there we go. But that's a very unique part of CNBC, this power to convene. And so I'll say how do -- we have to keep that and continue to put out high-quality programming, no question. But I also think a big part of CNBC's future is that you take the greatness of what we're doing on cable and you bring it before the massive audience we have online, but you've got to bring it into forms that digital audiences will consume it. Not all digital audiences will just take in the cable stream raw. So that may be part of it. But I think if you put it in forms they can really absorb it, then we're going to expose huge audiences to our highest quality content.

A final question. We talk about leadership on Squawk Box all the time, the philosophy of leadership and who's good at it, who's not good at it. And I'm curious, right now, when you think about the leadership in the world of news of live, what does it actually take to be effective now? And how is that different than before?

Yes. I mean there's -- listen, there's many answers to this. I think the guests on Squawk would have many answers to this. I mean, I guess, to me, right now in this moment, what you see is essential over and over again is leadership in the midst of change. And we've got to be adaptable. We got to understand how platforms are changing, the rise of LLMs. We've got to be flexible and adapt to that. Let me give you like an example of this. KC talked about this outreach to retail investors. I think we have incredible expertise on air on shows like Halftime and Fast Money. Some of the biggest names in investing are on our air every day. One of our keys is to take that greatness, those names because investing, like you can get investing information, but investing decisions are often made because you trust the person that's telling it to you. When Jim Cramer says, buy this dip or don't buy this dip, it creates waves because people know him and they trust him. And he's been around in investing for so long. So taking all of that and bringing it into the digital space will be one of our keys, but that's going to take a change in how we do things. The 2 newsrooms are going to really have to work together, communicate see this future together. And so leadership at CNBC will be bringing that kind of unity in the newsroom.

David, I want to thank you. I know you're excited. I'm here because I'm excited about this. I genuinely am. And now I want to turn it over to our colleagues from MS NOW.

Great.

Which I'm also very excited about.

Thank you. Appreciate it.

Thank you. [Presentation]

Please welcome Rebecca Kutler, President of MS NOW.

I think I might have seen that video about 1,000 times, and I still say wow, every time. And that is why we are just so thrilled to be here with you and share with you our vision for MS NOW and tell you about what we are building. It's about the power of democracy and what it means to be both an informed and an engaged audience. And that is what will be at the core of everything we do as a brand moving forward because our audience knows that we, MS NOW, is the place for politics. I spent my entire career at the intersection of politics and news, covering breaking stories, producing presidential debates and election nights and leading newsroom innovations in a rapidly changing media ecosystem. And I am leveraging every ounce of that experience as we write this next chapter for MS NOW. This is an exciting time for our business. As you all just heard from Mark, political news is a growth category. So let me walk you through a few facts that might surprise you. Let's start by looking at the entire $59 billion cable business. We often hear about the impact of sports, which is important. But did you know that it's news programming that accounts for 25% of all hours watched on cable, including billions of hours on MS Now. Right now, 3 of the top 5 cable networks in the United States are all political news. It's also true on podcasts, YouTube, TikTok, 3 important platforms where we are active and we are growing. There is so much energy and interest in political media right now, and that is only going to ramp up as we look ahead to 2026, a pivotal midterm election and 2028, the next presidential race. And MS NOW, we are poised to capitalize on all of this momentum. While the challenges of cord cutting are real, our viewers are bucking some of those trends. In fact, MS NOW viewers are 60% less likely to cut the cord, making our network must carry for pay TV distribution partners. And over the last decade, as much of the industry saw substantial declines, we at MS NOW have nearly doubled our audience in prime time. Let me repeat that. We have doubled our audience in prime time. And beyond viewership numbers, our business is strong. Over the last 5 years, we have delivered the highest revenue in our network's 3-decade history. In other words, despite the headwinds of cord cutting, when you look at the 2 metrics that matter the most in our business, the dedication of our audience and our financials, MS NOW has a strong story to tell. Let me show you another fact that I think is going to surprise you. The MS NOW audience is a lot more politically diverse than most people realize. Yes. Democrats are and always will be essential to our brand and our DNA, but they're actually only about half of our audience. The other half, independents and Republicans. And when we look at the growth of our audience, the broad appeal that we talked about, that has been a big driver of our recent success. MS NOW has seen double-digit growth from Democrats, independents and Republicans, and we are the only news network that can say that. Of course, there are still ebbs and flows in television viewership. You already heard about the attention we command during an election year. And while it has hardly been a slow year for news, it is what I actually like to call the off-season for politics. In 2025, we are seeing exactly the level of volatility in our audience that we would expect after a presidential campaign. But that volatility, it does not diminish MS NOW's track record of growth over the long term. Look at this. 20 years ago, we were averaging 375,000 viewers in prime time. 10 years ago, 686,000. Today, that number has grown to nearly 1.2 million viewers. That is a steady growth trajectory over the past 2 decades. And as the midterms take center stage, in our political conversations, we expect viewership increases to follow once again. We're already getting a glimpse of our potential. A few weeks ago, on election night, as the results rolled in and candidates took the stages around the country, MS NOW, we were #1 across all of cable, not just cable news, all of cable. And that momentum, it did not end on that Tuesday night. In the weeks following the election, our viewership was up 34% across the day in total viewers. So in many ways, this is just the opening act for what we expect the potential for the next 3 years to look like. At the same time, we are rapidly growing in ways that go beyond traditional ratings. Let's look at the entire MS NOW ecosystem, which is designed to reach our audience on a growing number of platforms. One example that comes to mind. A recent interview we did with speaker, Mike Johnson, it was right before the longest government shutdown in history. He sat down with our Senior Capitol Hill reporter, Ali Vitali. It was a conversation they had at aired on Morning Joe. And then we put that same interview, we put it on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, YouTube, and that powered the entire news cycle. And the numbers bear this out. When we consider the whole MS NOW ecosystem, we have one of the most loyal and engaged audiences in all of media. Let me give you a few stats. Our fans, they are loyal. They consume an average of 8 hours of MS NOW on cable each week. We call that engagement, and MS NOW has ranked first or second in engagement in all of cable for 8 consecutive calendar years. Our fans, they are online. They spend more time on our website than any other political news site, and our fans are social across TikTok and YouTube. In 2025, our YouTube channel has driven more views than CBS News, NBC News and ABC News combined. We are running neck and neck with Fox for first place this year. And nowhere is that cross-platform appeal of MS NOW more evident than in our growing podcast business. This is allowing us to reach new audiences and monetize our content in new ways. We are quickly building a strong slate. This includes audio native megahits and showcasts that extend the reach of our top programming. This year, MS NOW is on track to see more than 135 million podcast downloads, far more than many of our digital-first competitors. And we are excited to continue investing in this space with new shows continuing to drop. Just this week, Rachel Maddow Presents: Burn Order. It dropped just a few days ago. It's already near the top of the Apple podcast charts. In short, MS NOW enters a new era as a proud Versant brand. We are starting from a position of strength. So much of our strength is derived from our trusted talent. They reach loyal audiences across multiple platforms. Let's look at this example. Nicolle Wallace, she also launched a podcast this year, The Best People. It shot to the top of the Apple charts. It stayed there for 3 consecutive weeks in #1. And now we can take each of those podcast episodes. Of course, we put them on YouTube, but we also give them a weekend slot on linear television. This makes us more efficient and more effective at reaching our audiences everywhere they consume content. And then there's Morning Joe. It's the most watched cable morning show in the nation's capital. It's where the country's top politicians and policymakers turn to see and be seen by their colleagues Joe and Mika's high-profile viewers are a premium demographic, which is why as the show prepares to mark its 20th anniversary, they have just launched a newsletter to extend their influence into the afternoon and further engage one of the most coveted audiences in all of television. But beyond our headliners, we are building something new, independent news gathering operation. It is driving the headlines. It is led by the Emmy, Murrow, Pulitzer and Peabody award-winning journalists that you see here. And our reporters are already making an impact. We are breaking exclusive stories ahead of our competitors and delivering essential coverage to our audience. So as you can see, we are building something here with a plan to expand by pulling multiple growth levers for our business over the next few years. First and foremost, the path to the 2028 presidential election will run through MS NOW. And if recent history is any guide, that means double-digit audience growth. I want everyone to remember that right after the midterms, basically 1 year from today, the 2028 election kicks off. We expect MS NOW to be the home to many of the cycle's biggest live moments across 2 contested primaries and the general election. And I think it's fair to say that every candidate will need to spend time with our audience. On top of that, next year, we will be unveiling the first-ever D2C offering for the MS NOW community. You already heard how this fits into Versant's overall strategy, but let me speak to what this means for MS NOW. This is an inflection point for our brand and for our business. In MS NOW's 30-year history, there has never been a serious investment in digital. And our audience has never been given the chance to engage with a direct-to-consumer product that is built for them. It's kind of crazy that no one has built something to reach this incredibly valuable audience until now because the opportunity and the potential audience is significant. From the 24 million Americans who currently pay for a political news subscription to the 130 million political news consumers in the U.S. The appetite is there. But why do we think our product will stand out? Well, we think about the marketplace, and there are a couple of strategies that we believe show promise for us. Fox, yes, Fox, they have proven that you can build a subscription model catering to super fans. Meanwhile, the New York Times has built a digital business by investing in verticals, audio, games, cooking, we have taken those lessons, and we are building a product that will include the best of both. Our D2C offering will allow users to watch MS NOW's linear feed live on the app, which our super fans will love. But let me be clear, this product is not your typical streaming service, and it's not just another news subscription. It will be a membership community designed to serve our core audience in 3 ways: First, unlocking access to our talent through live and virtual events, providing curated insights just for them, not another endless doom scroll and empowering communities with new moderated spaces for intelligent discussion because while others are attempting the same old SVODs, MS NOW is building a membership community. So what does that mean? We know in this fragmented landscape, people are craving connection. We see it in our live events, which, by the way, we expect to triple next year. So when our fans sign up for MS NOW's D2C offering, they will be able to interact with people who share their interests and their passions, whether that's neighbors in their local communities or people from across the country. Right now, we are doing consumer research, and we are talking to super fans and future fans to find out exactly what they want. We are aiming to launch this product next summer just as the midterm elections are heating up. Our D2C product will be an important part of the overall MS NOW ecosystem. This will help amplify and connect the different parts of our business, cable, digital, newsletters, podcasts, live events because in every arena, we have the runway and the strategy to grow. So if you take anything away from this presentation, let it be this. We are focusing on gaining market share across our entire ecosystem, and we are committed to dominating the election cycles over the next 3 years, and we are going to turn these strengths into the ideal launchpad for our new products and platforms. There has never been a more important time to do the work that we are privileged to do. We are built for the future and the future for MS is now. [Presentation]

Yes, that's a hard act to follow for real. Welcome back, everyone. First, a disclosure, because many of you may know me in my role as senior media and technology reporter for CNBC. In that role, I cover many of the topics and dynamics that you've heard discussed on the stage here today. But today, I'm here as a member of the Versant team. So as you could tell from that video, leading up to this, we're now going to shift gears and talk about Versant's strategies, specifically in entertainment and sports. And we're going to dive in with the 2 leaders of those businesses. Please welcome Val Boreland and Matt Hong. Hi.

How are you?

It's nice to see you, Julia.

Good to see you. I have to tell you, I tried to convince Matt to come out in a towel, but I couldn't get him to go for it.

It's not on brand. It's not on brand for him.

I guess not, I guess not, yes.

So I want to start off and hear a little bit about your backgrounds and how your various experiences is informing the way you're approaching your new roles. Val, let's start with you.

Sure, sure. Hi. I'm Versant's President of Entertainment, and I was at NBCUniversal for the last 9 years, where I led programming strategy and content acquisition for the cable networks and for NBC. I was also part of the original team that started Peacock. Prior to NBCUniversal, I led programming strategy at other cable networks like Viacom that we now know as Paramount and Life Time Television, which is part of A&E Networks. And I've led all aspects of programming, including original programming, live content, content strategy and acquisitions.

So what about you, Matt? What's your background? And how does it play into your approach to this new role?

Yes. Well, I'm the new kid on the stage. I joined Versant this past June to oversee USA Sports, which is the new name for our Sports division. I previously was the President of PlayOn Sports, which is a streaming and ticketing platform in the high school space owned by KKR. And then I previously worked at Turner Sports, now TNT Sports for 11-plus years, the last role as COO. And then prior to sports, I worked in digital at Thomson, which is now Thomson Reuters and then 6-plus years at AOL prior to that.

In a different era of this media ecosystem. Val earlier, we heard a little bit about what's going on in entertainment. And one thing that I report on every day, including today, is how incredibly competitive this market is. And the fact that Versant is going to be a smaller player relative to these media giants raises questions about how you're going to approach that? What's your strategy?

Yes. So Julia, I wouldn't say we're a small player. We're actually a big player. We have really big brands. Versant's viewers watched billions of hours of content on their entertainment networks last year. And that's because we spent decades building these networks and a deep connection to our fans. So we're going to continue to do the things that we do exceptionally well with these big brands. So let's first talk about E!. You heard Mark and Anand talk about the importance of live programming. Well, E! is going to cover the live red carpets of the Oscars, the Grammys, the Emmys, the Met Gala and more. And next month, we're actually kicking off award season with a live broadcast of the Critics Choice Awards ceremony, which will be hosted again this year by Chelsea Handler, which is great because she's not only a brilliant comedian, but she does her best work in live. And tomorrow, for the first time ever, we'll be announcing the Critics Choice Awards nominations live on E! with a simulcast on USA Network. So let's talk about USA Network. It's a top 5 cable network for 30 years running. Matt and I actually work as teammates programming USA Network, which caters to an audience that enjoys both sports and entertainment content. And the types of entertainment content I look for rely on recognizable IP and well-known personalities. So this summer, we had our original scripted series based on the John Grisham novel, The Rainmaker, which premiered stupendously, had a really great first season, and we've actually already announced that we're picking up the second season of that show. We have another scripted series that is based on a very popular book series called Anna Pigeon that will be premiering next year. And of course, USA Network does unscripted content. Currently, we have a show called Everything on the Menu with Braun Strowman. Braun is a very popular and very large WWE legend.

Favorite show.

Yes. Matt loves the show. It's doing really well. Actually, tomorrow is our season fine, but I'm pretty optimistic that we'll pick up the second season of that show as well. And third, we have true crime. We have a long history of serving this audience on oxygen. And as a result, we've built a large library of content. Our most popular show Snapped is about to celebrate its 700th episode next year. And the great thing about this content is that we own it. So we're able to monetize it by selling second window rights to third-party platforms. And then finally, we have Sci-Fi. It's another discrete and passionate fan base that loves our science fiction, fantasy and action content. And we're excited about the original scripted series we have a third season of returning next year called The Ark. So simply put, our strategy is to keep super serving these fandoms with our scripted, unscripted live and sports content and to continue to build our content library so that we can leverage them in new ways through licensing, distribution and building our own AVOD content so we can continue to grow our audiences.

So maybe not as large as some of the other media conglomerates, but with these dedicated fan bases and really deep in each of these areas. The true crime category, whenever I see these stats, it's just fascinating. How obsessive those fans are. But when you look, though, at this idea of competing with the larger giants, Matt, walk us through here what your strategy is for sports because you're competing not just for eyeballs, but also for sports rights.

Yes. I mean, Julie, I'd say like Val in entertainment for sports, we're taking a very targeted approach. So really, our strategy is to align with sports programming that we're confident that we can be ROI positive with, so that we can generate returns via distribution revenue and advertising revenue. And then from there, we go deep in both quality and quantity with the leagues that we partner with. So to illustrate, on USA Network, we'll have 1,400 hours of live sports in 2026, which is about 4 hours a day of live sports on USA Network. As you've heard, this includes top-tier programming from NASCAR, from WWE, from Premier League, from the PGA Tour and for many others. Plus, we'll have 17 hours -- or excuse me, 17 days of the Winter Olympics in 2026 on USA Network. So that's over 2-plus weeks of Team USA on USA Network. Switching to golf channel. We'll have 3,200 hours of live golf and studio coverage in 2026. So that's 9 hours of live per day. from the PGA Tour, the LPGA Tour, the DP World Tour and then from innovative new programming that we'll try such as the golf channel games in a couple of weeks with Rory McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler, and then the reboot of the super popular reality golf show, Big Break later in 2026. So as Val noted, our audiences watch well over 1 billion hours of live sports across Versant Networks in the trailing 12 months. And so really, what these numbers show is that the strength of linear continues to be substantial and for live sports, it's unmatched.

And these deep passionate fandoms, and I know we're going to be hearing more about golf coming up right after this conversation. So you mentioned some of the sports you mentioned are going to be broadcast in partnership with NBC. How are you going to manage sharing those rights and not just the rights, but also the production and the talent?

Yes. I mean the short answer is we will be quite independent from NBC in all of these areas going forward. So I think Anand and Mark talked about rights, and we'll start there. So with the exception of the Olympics, Versant has direct contractual relationships with each of the sports leagues that we've talked about today. So whether it's NASCAR or the PGA Tour or WWE, we're independent from NBC going forward and have direct contracts with each of these networks. And most of these deals are long term, too, so lasting well beyond 2030. It's the same thing for our talent. So our on-air commentators and announcers, direct relationships for every on-air person that you'll see on USA Network or Golf Channel with the exception of the Olympics coverage. So -- but for every other sport, direct relationships with talent going forward. And then last is production. So here, I'd say we're not only distinct from NBC going forward, but we're, I would say, differentiated from the rest of the industry, including the streaming companies. And so really, that's about the model that we have for production going forward, which is a combination of quality, but also efficiency. And so one of the things that the spin has done has allowed us to essentially build our production team from scratch. So we started with a core group of, I would call them, industry experts and well-renowned production personnel that will serve as the core of our production team going forward. And then because we didn't inherit a large legacy employee base for production, we're really supplementing and adding to this core team, a large network of freelancers, which really then speaks to the efficiency and the nimbleness that we'll have going forward. So in the past few months alone, other networks and streamers have approached us about producing live sports for them, which is, I think, a testament to our model of both quality, but also efficiency.

Now Matt just mentioned the strength in linear, but also talking about the context of competing in this streaming world as well. I want to hear from you, Val, a little bit about your plans to build your entertainment division beyond linear. You've mentioned how many billions of hours have been viewed, but a lot of that is happening outside the cable ecosystem. What are your plans and your strategy when it comes to building these brands outside of linear?

Yes. Well, obviously, I'm very excited about our linear networks, but we have real opportunities in digital, social and streaming. Our E! Digital Studio creates original programming and pop culture moments, not only for fans, but also for talent. You saw Eyal and Lonnie and their towels from their sauna. Well, that show Hot Goss, was created by our E! Digital Studio, and it became viral. It's generated approximately 90 million video views and has become our fastest-growing short-form franchise on E! Digital. And as a result, we're going to develop a longer-form version for YouTube. Another great example is the very popular Glambot. So the Glambot is a high-speed robotic camera that captures these dramatic slow motion video portraits of celebrities on the red carpets. You can actually see some of them in your screens. This has blown up on social. It's a social media sensation. And again, not just with our fans, but also with the celebrities who can't wait to have their red carpet looks captured. So I have to tell you, I've witnessed some of the most famous stars, film, TV and music stars, waiting in line to get their picture taken by the Glambot. And Julia, you and I know that celebrities rarely wait for anything, but for Glambot, they make the exception. And then I have one last example, which would be streaming on our Fandango at Home AVOD service. We're currently developing a content strategy that leverages our substantial library assets. We're working on strategic content acquisitions with third-party studios and eventually will create original programming. Fandango at Home is going to present a valuable opportunity to reach streaming audiences, and we can effectively use our linear networks to promote back to the AVOD service. And I work very closely with Will McIntosh on Fandango at Home, and I know he's going to come out a little bit and talk more about it. So I'll stop there. I didn't even get into FAST channels and podcasting. We really have a lot of opportunities to grow beyond linear.

All of these different platforms, and I'm excited to try out that streaming platform. As a media reporter, very curious about that.

Yes. No, it's exciting.

So in terms of growth opportunities, Matt, you have talked about wanting to partner with the sports leagues. And Versant did just sign an 11-year deal with the WNBA, which is a very fast-growing league, something I've reported on a lot for CNBC. What happens next in that deal? Where do you see that going?

Yes. So we'll start with what attracted us to the WNBA. To your point, Julia, it's a league that is experiencing, I would say, hockey stick-like growth, both in terms of audience and revenue and all of the metrics that we would track. For us, importantly, it's a property that we feel like we can get ROI from the various sources of revenue that we talked about earlier. So in terms of what that property looks like for us, starting in 2026, which is the first year of an 11-year deal, we'll have 50-plus games. We'll launch a regular season franchise of Wednesday Night Double Headers on USA Network. And so that will be the franchise that we build relative to the sport and to the league. We're also covering the playoffs. And then in 3 of the 11 years, we'll have the WNBA finals. And so really, our strategy is to make the WNBA appointment television. And I think part of why the league chose us is because of our history and our expertise and our ability to have done this with other of our league partners and programming in the past, whether it's Premier League, which is aired on USA Network since 2013 or the PGA Tour, which first aired on Golf Channel in 1999. I would say that our leadership team at USA Sports has a lot of experience doing this in terms of quality of production, how we program the assets, marketing, character development and storytelling. So we have a lot of experience helping a league to grow their fan base and really creating a sticky connection with fans. And so that's what we're looking forward to doing with the WNBA.

Yes.

That's the one I'm the most excited about. It's WNBA. It's huge, right?

It's huge. And it really does seem like this is a tipping point here for women's sports.

Yes. Absolutely.

And I do cover sports media rights. And one thing we've seen with all these rights negotiations is that Amazon, Apple, all the tech giants are getting involved in bidding for these rights. How are you going to compete with those bidders?

I mean I'd say not only are we currently competing, but we're having quite a bit of success. So we talked about the WNBA deal, which was a competitive marketplace for those rights. You also heard that in the last 5 months, we've locked in a long-term renewal with the USGA and the 11 championships and the majors associated with that property and then another competitive deal that we won relative to the Pac-12, which will allow us to have college football and men's and women's college basketball. Again, all of these deals are long term, so they're somewhere between 5 years and 11 years. If I'm looking at it from a marketplace perspective, what are some of the reasons that we as Versant or we as USA Sports are attractive to league partners. First of all, I'd say we will go after sports that we feel like we can help grow, again, with that overlay of ROI. So we'll continue to be disciplined about where we can generate a return from distribution and advertising revenue. We talked about the unique reach that television provides and how that's attractive to league partners. I'll reiterate our success that we've had with other programming in terms of production and marketing and promotion and how we've been able to grow other properties. And last, I'll say that sports is a very relationship-based business. And our leadership team at Versant as well as at USA Sports has deep and long-standing relationships with a lot of league partners, 2 of which you'll hear from or we'll hear from soon here. So I think we're very much competing and competing well for the properties that make sense for us, and we'll continue to do so.

So before we hear more about those relationships in the golf channel, I want to ask a final question of you both because this is a new business. What do you think is the biggest misconception for each of you about your business and their future at Versant? Do you want to start first?

Yes, sure. I would say the biggest misconception about our business is that we'll be challenged without NBCUniversal. And I can argue that what we built as part of NBCUniversal wasn't very successful and very profitable, but we weren't a priority for that company, for the company. And as Mark mentioned earlier, we, at Versant, get to invest back into our businesses and create more opportunities to experiment and move quickly. I talked earlier about the faster green lighting like the Season 2 of Rainmaker. We can create new partnerships. We just announced that we have a new partnership with the Screen Actors Guild Awards to cover their red carpet next year, which is great because that adds yet more live programming into our slate. We're going to create more licensing opportunities. We're currently in negotiation with multiple streamers about licensing our content library. And actually, just this week, we closed a really big licensing deal with a major streamer that we're going to announce in a couple of days. So please keep an eye out for that announcement. And Julia, it's just revenue opportunities like these that are going to be easier to develop as an independent company. And actually, I have a great analogy to describe this, and I know Matt loves this one. I say that it's like being part of a popular singing group that being part of NBC is like being part of NSYNC or Destiny's Child. And at Versant, we're solo artist. We're just in Timberlake and we're Beyonce. And they both achieved great success within their groups. But at solo artists, they had the freedom to make decisions that best suited them and allowed them to thrive without limitations. And that's the kind of experience I'm really excited to have at Versant.

I like the Beyonce analogy.

Yes.

That's why I like that analogy because that makes me J. Timberlake.

That makes him Justin Timberlake.

So Matt, what's a misconception that you see out there you want to dispel?