Lynnwood Bibbens, the founder and CEO of the streaming network ReachTV, joined Forbes senior writer Jabari Young at the Nasdaq MarketSite to discuss his plans for reimagining what TV at the airport looks like.
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00We've all been there before, right?
00:01Delayed at the airport, and then you
00:03find yourself at a restaurant looking at television?
00:06Just so happens you could be watching Reach TV.
00:08And in a minute, we'll introduce you
00:10to the CEO talking fast networks right here at the Nasdaq.
00:14Hello, everyone.
00:18This is Jabari Young, senior writer at Forbes.
00:20And I am at the Nasdaq market site.
00:22And I'm joined by Linwood Bibbins.
00:23He is the CEO of Reach TV.
00:26Now, Reach TV is a free ad-supported streaming
00:28network, better known as Fast Channel.
00:31And it's mainly shown at airports.
00:32So it's directly trying to go at the traveler, right?
00:36Linwood, this is your core audience,
00:37the traveler in the airport stuck
00:39like I was, waiting at the bar, just sitting there.
00:42And you look up, and there's Reach TV.
00:44And again, man, it's a phenomenal platform.
00:47I cannot wait to dive into the business.
00:48But first of all, my brother, how are you?
00:50And thank you for coming back to the Nasdaq.
00:51You've been here before.
00:52I've been here before.
00:53I appreciate you having me on.
00:55Yeah, I mean, it's been a phenomenal business,
00:58even from the concept of it all the way backwards.
01:01It's been a fun ride.
01:02I've loved to be part of it, the good and the bad.
01:05I'm always grateful for all of it.
01:07Yeah, well, I look forward to diving into it, man.
01:09Again, CNN, Airport Network, I'm going to go all into it.
01:11But first, we're at the stock market, man.
01:13You've got to give me a stock, right?
01:14What's something that's worked for you,
01:16something that's under the radar,
01:17that's got you getting returns, dividends?
01:19What's a good stock?
01:21You know, I'm kind of a boring guy.
01:22I did this back in 94, 95.
01:26I just bought the Qs.
01:28And people think it's boring, but it just keeps returning.
01:31Qs always returns.
01:32It's a consistency.
01:33And if you think the market's going up, stay there.
01:36I also bought some things that I learned in college.
01:40One of my professors, when I was at Westchester,
01:42said there was a study on cigarettes and everything else.
01:45He's going, they raised the price in New York.
01:47And what happened was people bought more.
01:49So he said, if there's ever a dip, buy it,
01:52and then you can get back out.
01:54So Philip Morris went through that billion dollar lawsuit.
01:57Stock dropped almost down to one third.
02:00I bought it, and within 12 months,
02:02it was back up to where it was originally.
02:03Yeah, because people love smoking.
02:04They're still going to smoke.
02:05So not a business I want to be in, but it was a good stock.
02:08Or participate in either, right?
02:10I don't smoke, yeah.
02:11I thought you would say Walmart, the media company.
02:13I thought you were going to say that.
02:15Well, I was telling Jim's from way back in the day.
02:17I bought Walmart a long time ago.
02:19I've kept it.
02:20I bought Netflix, because I can tell you today, I bought Netflix.
02:25Reed and Ted were doing an earnings call.
02:29And on the earnings call, he said,
02:31we have one job and one job only.
02:33We have to be HBO before HBO becomes Netflix.
02:36And I knew that if he knew that focus, I bought the stock.
02:39It was at $38 then.
02:42So that's the run that's been on,
02:45because he understood the mission.
02:46Yeah, yeah.
02:47Well, I mean, maybe I need to buy some Walmart now.
02:50Hey, listen, what's the first order as a CEO
02:53after a US presidential election?
02:54What do you have to do first?
02:56Because I've talked to CEOs the last few days,
02:58and you hear them on television.
02:59Everybody's trying to get themselves
03:01prepared for a new administration.
03:02In your world, what's the first thing you did?
03:04And what's the first thing you have to do after such a big
03:07world event happens?
03:10I think you've got to prepare well beforehand.
03:12So we've been through now a couple presidents.
03:16And for us, it was really just, what are we saying in the market?
03:21We stay out of politics.
03:23In general, we focus on more uplifting things and politics
03:27and going every direction.
03:28But we focused on, what was the importance
03:30going to come out of it?
03:31What was going to be important to each one of those candidates?
03:33And there's a common ground.
03:34And we knew that was around policies.
03:36We knew that was around infrastructure,
03:39the transportation.
03:40Travel and tourism is the key to the global economy.
03:44So we knew we were an important cog in that system,
03:47no matter who became president.
03:49So our goal was to be a better company
03:51and be prepared to work with whatever administration comes
03:53through.
03:54Yeah, because you have to work with them.
03:54If not, you're not going to work with anybody.
03:57Absolutely.
03:57Well, listen, take me inside the business of REACH TV.
04:00This is a fast channel started in 2016.
04:03You go three years funding it, going through your operations.
04:06And then October 2019, you're acquired by travel media
04:09company, Inc. Global.
04:10It's a part of this financial group with Stagwell Inc.
04:14And that's traded right here, Inc. Global,
04:16right here on the NASDAQ.
04:17You guys sit right under Inc. as of now.
04:19So the CEO of REACH TV.
04:21And again, this is for airport travelers and for hotel
04:25travelers in general.
04:26Take me inside the business.
04:27What's going on with it?
04:28And how are you trying to reinvent it?
04:29Because again, this was something
04:31that was seen in the airport networks, kind of came out.
04:34And here you guys find yourself on these screens now.
04:36We're not fully acquired, but they've
04:38made a big investment.
04:40Investor, then.
04:42Inc. Global's an investor.
04:43Correct.
04:44Right, right.
04:45I couldn't give up my ownership in this.
04:48So what happened is, the entire business model
04:51was, how do we look at what is out there that's broken?
04:55And what I saw was an opportunity
04:56to really talk to people that are traveling.
04:59And then the question was, well, how?
05:01And then as I looked around the landscape,
05:03I used to do film finance.
05:04So I used to watch content rights windows.
05:08And I realized that there was one rights window.
05:10I won't bore you with the details,
05:12but it didn't have a real definition.
05:15And I looked at where people were.
05:17And if I could build a network where people were,
05:20then I could serve them.
05:21And then I could have a business model.
05:23So when I looked at the airports,
05:25I saw travel and tourism makes up 10% of all global GDP.
05:30And in the US, it's 10% of our GDP.
05:33It's 10% of jobs.
05:35And the economic impact is tremendous.
05:37So I said, listen, if I can build a network
05:39inside this ecosystem, it's going
05:41to become extremely valuable.
05:43That process was figuring out, how do I sneak in?
05:47The other part of it was really important for me,
05:50especially for creators.
05:51When I was in the film finance world,
05:53I was on the finance side.
05:54So I used to listen to what happens
05:55when creators leave the room.
05:57And what I saw was that creators were
05:59really good at creating things, but they didn't know much
06:01about the business side.
06:03And so they were creating these great IP and owning nothing.
06:07So I wanted to figure out, if I could create a network,
06:10build a network that had guaranteed eyeballs,
06:13and go back to the creator community,
06:15and give them ownership in their own IP,
06:18and give them distribution, then together,
06:20we could license that content to other windows.
06:23So the key to that was me creating my own window,
06:25which I did, which is called closed circuit rights.
06:27And that's where we sit.
06:30So we can partner and have a seat at the table
06:33when NFL is divvying out rights.
06:34We get a seat at that table now.
06:36When other sports leagues are divvying out rights,
06:38they call us.
06:39If you want to get to our audience,
06:40you have to come through us.
06:41So that was an important part of that step and that process.
06:46And it's been like, it's been one crazy ride
06:49because we, I would say that we started off as one thing.
06:54And as we grew, we actually saw the pivot.
06:56And I think the pandemic has been the biggest blessing
06:59for the airport community.
07:01And it was, obviously at the time, it was not a blessing.
07:04But what it was is the airport world
07:07from 2001 through every single year,
07:10it grew by 6%, 5.6, 5.9.
07:14So there was an arrogance of, there wasn't innovation.
07:18There wasn't anything because they knew you were coming
07:20and you were kind of stuck.
07:21And what happened with the pandemic is it opened their eyes
07:24that those travelers could not come.
07:26And all of a sudden, everything became digital.
07:28Everything became tech, everything, everybody got an API.
07:32So you're now seeing this innovation
07:34inside the airport world that I was begging for before
07:37that now everybody's embracing.
07:39So that's a big change I've seen in the airport
07:42and the infrastructure community.
07:43Yeah, I mean, listen, me and you,
07:45we were always playing Texan and tie game.
07:47We were supposed to do this a long time ago.
07:49Full transparency.
07:50I'm in the airport over the last month, man.
07:52And I'm just seeing Reach TV everywhere, at my gate,
07:55at my, and it's like a sign.
07:56I gotta call Lima.
07:57We gotta talk about this.
07:58And then, you know, as I'm going
08:00and I'm researching the history
08:02of what this business model is.
08:04Again, you're attacking 400 plus million people
08:07that go through airports, right?
08:08And all those impressions, all of that inventory.
08:11And CNN, again, CNN had their own airport network
08:14and they started back in 1990.
08:15And this, they were, this is what they did.
08:17On television screens in the airport.
08:19And this is how they were able to grow their brand
08:22and to be so trusted.
08:23Because all those people that you're touching
08:25from all over the world and all different places.
08:27And so like, hey, why do people still advertise
08:30on billboards because you've got so much traffic coming
08:32and you don't know, right?
08:33But they shut down the CNN airport network in 2021.
08:36Jeff Zucker, the then CEO at that time,
08:38said it was not profitable for us anymore, right?
08:41I don't know if you would take that back today.
08:42It could be a mistake, right?
08:43Because again, travel is back.
08:45But here you guys are, you just purchased those screens.
08:47So you're in about 90 plus airports all over the US.
08:51And about 1200 screens, 500 plus thousand screens,
08:55500,000 screens throughout, you know, hotels in the US.
08:58I know the other time I was in my mirror, I turned it on.
09:01And so here you guys are trying to reinvent
09:03this business model that CNN said
09:05it's not profitable for us anymore, right?
09:07What are you doing differently
09:08and how's Reef TV going to be able to take it
09:11and make it profitable and keep growing?
09:13It's our singular focus.
09:15So for CNN, it was a nice to have.
09:18It's what we do.
09:19So that's the difference right off the bat, just to focus.
09:23Second is we built it in a different way
09:25because I came from the tech background.
09:27So our delivery allows us to deliver
09:29down to each and every screen.
09:32Traditional television, you push one button,
09:34it goes to everywhere.
09:35There's no customization in that.
09:36There's no creativity in that.
09:38We had to put and create,
09:40how do we get that into this airport?
09:42How do we get down to that screen?
09:44So right now we're serving 2400 gates.
09:47We're in 950 venues throughout the entire airport.
09:50We're probably going to double that for print
09:52in the next 12 months.
09:53So you're going to see us even more.
09:55With rights, with NBA rights, NFL rights,
09:58you got Amazon, excuse me, I am an AMC network with rights.
10:02We've focused on our business and what it is
10:06and what we wanted to accomplish.
10:08But I also think that one of the things you just mentioned
10:10was our business has been profitable, very profitable.
10:13We focus on our margins as well.
10:15So our margins were, at one point,
10:18we built, I built a business this way.
10:20Here's the cost structure.
10:22Here's the opportunity, inventory capacity
10:26of how much money we could.
10:27If we sold out, it'd be worth this, right?
10:29If that's X.
10:30What I said was, can I build a cost structure
10:32that's not more than Y, which is Y for me is 5%.
10:36Can I, if I can build a $200 million inventory business
10:39and can I keep my cost structure around 10 million?
10:41And then I can bet on myself
10:43because I bet I can get 5% no matter what.
10:46I can fail into the 5%.
10:48But if I go, if I do well, if I do 30 or 40 or 50%,
10:52my margins are really high.
10:53Yeah.
10:54We built that because of the way we deliver our content
10:57through a cloud-based system,
10:59the way we were able to use what we call a puck
11:01behind every single screen,
11:02which is really just our version of a set-top box
11:05so we can actually speak to it.
11:06So I can take a picture of us right now
11:08and say, Newark Terminal C, gate 20,
11:12and it'd be on in 30 seconds.
11:13Well, give me an example of how on the back end
11:15you would make money off that, right?
11:16Because I'm a customer, I'm in television,
11:18I mean, I'm in a restaurant, right?
11:20I see my, again, my flight is delayed.
11:21I gotta go chill, have something to eat.
11:23I'm at a restaurant, I look up, I see REACH TV here.
11:26Sports, I like sports.
11:27I was a sports journalist.
11:29It's talking to me, right?
11:30So now you have my attention.
11:31I can't hear you, but there's that QR code
11:33that pops up at the side.
11:34How is REACH TV then making money?
11:37And also, how is that particular,
11:39that establishment going to make money as well
11:42from that partnership?
11:43Think about who wants to talk to you.
11:45Right.
11:45So you're a traveler, you got your iPhone,
11:48you drive whatever car,
11:49so probably a P&G wants to talk to you.
11:51A GM wants to tell you what kind of car to buy.
11:54So, and think about it this way.
11:56I know where you are, so I'm not gonna send you
11:58a convertible in the middle of the winter here in New York.
12:01I'm gonna send you a-
12:02If it's paid for, I'll take it.
12:03I'm gonna give you a, no, I'm saying,
12:04for the advertising, I'm gonna give you the SUV.
12:06So if you're a GM, you come to a company like me and go,
12:09I can get the most influential people who are executives,
12:11who travel, who have disposable income,
12:13and I could talk to them, in one campaign,
12:15I could put 35 different creatives out.
12:18So because of our ability to go down to the screen,
12:21now GM can give me 30 different ones,
12:23they can put Buick in certain cities,
12:24they can put this in there, all in one campaign.
12:27When it comes to another television network,
12:29they gotta do 35 different campaigns.
12:31Depending on where you are.
12:31Exactly.
12:32You can do one with us and go to everywhere.
12:35That's why the advertisers love us,
12:36that's why they keep coming back.
12:38That's why we've had them since,
12:39some of the advertisers,
12:40let's say the Fortune 500, Fortune 100 guys,
12:43have been with us now for four straight years
12:45and keep investing and keep coming back.
12:48Because we keep delivering results.
12:49Well again, there was an infrastructure already there,
12:50you said profitable, are we talking over 100 million, under?
12:53No, under 100 million in profit,
12:57but margins of 43%.
12:59So, from the top line.
13:02So we're putting 43% to the bottom line.
13:04So we're really focused, and I plan on growing that, right?
13:06So our goal is to keep growing that,
13:09and our partners want us to grow,
13:11they want us to do well because they want us to be here.
13:13What you said about CNN not being profitable,
13:15yeah, then it doesn't make sense.
13:18But you also have to look at their business in totality.
13:20They had their networks, they were global,
13:22they were doing other things.
13:24This was a marketing tool for them, not a driver.
13:28Started in 1990, so man, it reached probably
13:30a 30-year run, a 30-year run,
13:32and you decided to pass this,
13:33and there's nothing wrong with copy and paste
13:35and reformatting, right?
13:36And adding the extras, you know?
13:39Like fours, we'll talk about that later.
13:42What's the best thing, man, about,
13:44or the best thing you like about being a CEO?
13:48I mean, I'm one of those people that I think,
13:52for me, it's been fun watching the growth of my team,
13:55watching the growth of others.
13:56I like to get people inspired, and I'm always positive.
13:59So I think we need more people with that same type
14:02of energy and attitude that, you know,
14:06who cares if you fail?
14:07I personally don't give, I don't care if I fail at all,
14:10because I'm also gonna win.
14:12Just the law of numbers, I win, that's what I do.
14:15And I win because I won't outwork anybody
14:17and I'll keep working until I do win.
14:21And I think that energy and that type of thing
14:23is something I love doing,
14:24and all the different companies I've built and sold
14:27is watching the people that grew with the business
14:30and being able to see them now as CEOs themselves
14:33and doing things and calling me back,
14:34and, hey, man, this is so cool how this works.
14:36And I think that's the part where, you know,
14:39I enjoy what I'm doing.
14:41I have no plans of going nowhere.
14:43So I gotta at least move in the lottery, Linwood.
14:46I'll still be right here.
14:47You'll still be here, but you'll be working, though.
14:48I'm working.
14:49Come on, man.
14:50Come on.
14:51You'll be a billionaire, you hit the lottery, come on, man.
14:52Billionaires are working.
14:53Yeah, come on.
14:55You know, listen, when you talk about, again,
14:57going back to the business,
14:58what's been the biggest positive surprise
15:00of, you know, starting REACH TV, growing it,
15:03now here we are in 2024,
15:04what's been the biggest positive surprise
15:06about the growth of REACH TV?
15:08Positive surprise.
15:09Yeah, I mean, I had a lot of positive surprises,
15:11so the list is long.
15:13I think the fact that we built something
15:16that now everybody else understands what we're doing
15:19and the people that are with us,
15:20when people are saying, no, this is never gonna work,
15:23you're never gonna be able to do this,
15:24you're never gonna be able to do that,
15:26they believed, and I'll give you the point
15:28that I think was the most important.
15:30When the pandemic happened, you know,
15:33we went from 40 million to zero, 50 million to zero,
15:37and everybody was panicking.
15:40So it just took 30 minutes to myself.
15:42And then the call I did with our team was,
15:44we're gonna find out today if everybody values us.
15:47And we were, just like I thought we would,
15:50but it was good to hear from someone else,
15:53all of our, we cut 70% of our costs
15:54because of the obligations we have to the airports,
15:57we're all waived.
15:58So we didn't get rid of anybody.
16:00We kept our whole team together
16:01and we decided to go the other way.
16:02We said, let's have innovation calls every Friday.
16:04Let's really think about, if we could do anything,
16:07what would we do?
16:09Those calls are why we are here right now,
16:12because those things got implemented
16:13and that's why we're at the business we are now.
16:15Yeah.
16:16So I guess the positive surprise to all the partners
16:18and the people that did believe you during the pandemic.
16:20How about negative surprise, man?
16:22What's been the negative?
16:23I think, I guess it's,
16:26the one negative thing that I know,
16:28and I won't call them out in particular,
16:31the ecosystem inside media has been just like
16:34every other ecosystem that we run into,
16:38especially minorities in this country.
16:39It was very set up, not for us.
16:42Yeah.
16:43And then in that process,
16:45usually technology is a great equalizer
16:47because you can't tell who's what on technology,
16:50but there's certain choke points in the technology now
16:54that there's certain companies that control
16:56like 85% of dollars.
16:58Yeah.
16:59And those companies,
17:00and they're actually writing rules outside of the rules
17:03that we're all supposed to go by.
17:05Watching that and seeing them get away with it
17:07because of the amount of money that they got
17:10going through their pipes,
17:10to me is the negative one word,
17:12cause it doesn't make sense.
17:14Yeah.
17:15And so when I always tell everybody,
17:17just keep working, keep driving,
17:18you run into these things.
17:20Those are things that I have to always try to figure out
17:22as a CEO, how do you overcome that?
17:24That's the one challenge.
17:25Well, how do you do it?
17:26What's the strategy that you use?
17:27You run into those rule books?
17:28Normally, I just go, I find ways around it.
17:31This one, I did.
17:32I found a way around it.
17:33Well, now we're launching it in like three weeks.
17:35Okay.
17:36And so if somebody has the pipes and they control it,
17:40but you already do most of your business direct.
17:42So 98% of our business is direct.
17:44Right.
17:44We don't use programmatic pipes.
17:45We don't do all that stuff.
17:47It's not because we don't want to,
17:48it's just we're not classified correctly there.
17:50So why not take the 98% and grow it?
17:53Yeah.
17:54So we're just gonna do our own direct platform,
17:56very much like NBC, one platform.
17:58We'll have reach TV, all access.
18:00Yeah.
18:00Eliminates the problem.
18:01Yeah.
18:02But where'd you grow up?
18:03I grew up in Jersey.
18:04Jersey, Middletown, Jersey?
18:05Middletown, Jersey.
18:06It was great.
18:07We were, you know, we didn't know it at the time.
18:09We didn't have much money,
18:11but our neighborhood was, Hillside was our park.
18:15And I lived across the street from the park.
18:16So our entire neighborhood was, you know,
18:19when we were kids, you were not allowed in the house.
18:21So we just were outside all day.
18:24And I'm friends with all of them to this day.
18:27I mean, we are family.
18:29I wouldn't even call us neighbors.
18:30I would say we're a family.
18:32And that bond that we've had, and I grew up that way,
18:36I was, I feel lucky and blessed that I grew up
18:37in that type of environment.
18:40So I have many sisters and brothers who,
18:42that's who they call themselves.
18:43And they talk about me and they're very proud of what I do.
18:46And we're proud of each other.
18:47So that part of it was great.
18:49And then being exposed to sports and, you know,
18:52that drive was great.
18:54And I've been, I've lived,
18:56I always look at life very positive
18:58because of my grandfather.
18:59My grandfather would come in and say, how are you?
19:02And he was waiting for one answer, which is I'm good.
19:06Right?
19:07And you can say all these other things
19:08and he'd keep asking until you say, I'm good.
19:10And he'd be like, thank you.
19:12Cause really you don't have any problems.
19:13What did that teach you when he kept on hammering home,
19:15are you, and waiting for that?
19:17It taught me to just stay positive.
19:19And, and it was like, my grandfather would say that,
19:23my grandmother would say, this too shall pass.
19:25So you put those two things together,
19:27nothing's as serious as it is.
19:29You know, you calm down a little bit.
19:31Right?
19:32So I don't take anything negative.
19:35I don't take it as something that it stops me at all.
19:37And even the positive things, I love it.
19:39And I just keep going.
19:40Sometimes I wish I would,
19:41I would say I would,
19:42I want to slow that down a little bit
19:44and enjoy some more of the wins,
19:45but I'm always on to the next thing anyway.
19:47Yeah.
19:48Well, you take a positive mindset
19:50coming out of Middletown, New Jersey,
19:52and then you go to Westchester,
19:53you major in finance, right?
19:54At that point, you're in college.
19:55What did you want to do?
19:56You're majoring in finance.
19:57What did you think you were going to be coming up?
19:59First, I was going to be an accountant.
20:00Accountant.
20:01And then I ran into a company,
20:03there's flyers on the campus as a,
20:05make like, I think at that time it was like $10 an hour.
20:08We're like, what, who makes $10 an hour?
20:10But so I went to the interview
20:11and it was selling cutco knives.
20:14Coco knife?
20:15Cutco.
20:15Cutco knives, okay.
20:16Yeah, the knives where you cut the leather.
20:19But I did well with it.
20:21And I actually enjoyed it and I got into it.
20:23So it changed my mentality from somebody
20:26wanting to do something not really engaging with people
20:29to being on the other side
20:30of really wanting to be engaged with people.
20:32So I found that I was good at that.
20:34And from there, I met some of my best friends
20:38and we're, if I have my phone,
20:40we have a 30 year text message group.
20:43We're all in the same fantasy leagues together.
20:45So, you know, we,
20:47they had two of my friends in there
20:48and started a company.
20:49And then they asked me
20:50because I was known as the cutco knives guy,
20:52but I was also known as the real organized guy
20:55to help them with their shipping,
20:56which was supposed to be six months.
20:58And I was done in two months.
20:59And I was like, all right,
21:00what are these big things over here?
21:01And they're like laptops that were handles on them.
21:04They were just big.
21:05And I messed that up with a couple of deals.
21:06And then within four months,
21:08I was the number one sales guy.
21:09So from there, they had no choice,
21:11but either pay me or I went back and said,
21:14I just want to be a partner.
21:15Yeah.
21:16Mark Cuban always has this interesting philosophy
21:18about salespeople.
21:19Like he said, if you could sell,
21:20if you're a salesman, you could sell something,
21:21you could sell anything, right?
21:22Like it's just one of the keys to life
21:24being a good salesman, right?
21:26Or a saleswoman.
21:27What piece of advice would you give that person
21:29who might be looking into that field of sales,
21:33marketing or something like that?
21:34What piece of advice would you give them?
21:35Because sound like you mastered it.
21:37Yeah, just be yourself.
21:38I mean, I look at everything I'm doing as,
21:40what am I doing for someone?
21:42And I'm not doing something to someone, right?
21:44And I really think about what's the best interest
21:47of them first and go backwards.
21:49Do I have the product?
21:50Am I delivering everything that they would need?
21:52No matter what it was, it was knives.
21:54I knew that, you know,
21:55your food might taste better if you can cut through that.
21:57Well done steak, you know, or something like that.
21:59But you know, whatever it is,
22:01I always think how do I service the person I'm talking to?
22:04How do I be a better friend?
22:05How do I be a better this?
22:07And then if you go with that mindset,
22:09you'll learn, you'll figure out what's needed
22:11and what's supposed to be there.
22:12And if you don't have it, you'll build it
22:14or you'll say, I don't have it.
22:15You know, I think I'm very honest in my communication
22:18of what I can and can't do.
22:20And then I don't need notes when I'm talking to anybody
22:23because I say exactly the same thing all the time.
22:26Authenticity.
22:27Yes.
22:28And I think that's the key.
22:29People try to fake it and we can all see it.
22:32We know those guys.
22:33Yeah, or you can feel it in the handshake,
22:34you know what I mean?
22:35It's not there.
22:36Listen, man, this is one of my favorite parts
22:37of when I do these interviews is the how you did it segment.
22:39Again, we know you are operating a fast channel,
22:42but how much capital does it take
22:44to start your own streaming network
22:46or your own streaming channel?
22:48Flashback to 2016 when you were getting this thing going.
22:50Yeah, that was fun.
22:52That was interesting.
22:54It took a lot of my own personal capital to do it.
22:56Did you use your 401k savings?
22:57What did you do?
22:58No, I mean, look, yeah, I'd sold a company before that.
23:00So I will tell you, I went,
23:02as a guy who sold 60 companies, seven companies,
23:05I went and said, let me see if some of the things
23:08I've heard about were true when it comes to raising capital.
23:11And I will tell you that a lot of them were true.
23:14I was told, I need you to prove the model.
23:17And I'm going, I think I did, right?
23:20Like, what do you mean?
23:22So I watched the venture capital,
23:24private equity kind of ecosystem is flawed
23:27because, and it's not so much a race thing,
23:31it's that there's not a representation on the other side.
23:34So you invest in people you know and people you trust.
23:38So if there's nobody on your side that knows you,
23:41it's hard to get capital.
23:43So that was one.
23:44Lucky I had it.
23:45And then two, and this is kind of some secret sauce,
23:48but I understood that all the networks
23:51needed to get into the airport.
23:53This is going to, what would our partners want to be?
23:55Where they want to be?
23:56So I was crazy enough to say to CBS, NBC, and ABC,
24:01I'm putting out an RFP for you to be my partner.
24:03You have to give me money to be in here.
24:06It's a pay to play to come in.
24:07And all three bid.
24:10So it worked.
24:12And I was able to offset some of the capital
24:15I had to put up because they put in money as well
24:16to come with us.
24:18So, and CBS was my first partner.
24:20So that was a, we did that, I think it was like two years,
24:24two year deal, three year deal.
24:26And is it a strictly ad share, RedMob, RedRef?
24:29Yeah, it was an upfront payment.
24:30They had to do commitments and guaranteed dollars.
24:34But it was a way for me to help build the network
24:37and offset it with the capital there
24:39and then put my own capital in.
24:40So, but it's going to cost you.
24:43And the other thing was I came from the rights window.
24:46So one of the things you talk about the capital needed,
24:48there was a company that did what I'm doing now.
24:51They failed.
24:52When I looked at why they failed,
24:53because I like to study,
24:54their content costs were too,
24:56were out of, it doesn't support this ecosystem.
25:00So what happened was they were buying TV rights.
25:02So if you look at the ecosystem, digital, AVOD, SVOD, TV,
25:07they were buying TV rights instead of,
25:10what I did was create a rights window
25:12to the right of digital.
25:13So I'm paying about one one hundredth
25:14of what TV is paying for the same show.
25:17Right, because that's my rights window.
25:19And once we did that,
25:21to cost the launch of Fast Channel,
25:22which would be, let's say 30 million here,
25:25cost me three.
25:27Right, not even.
25:28Right, and so there,
25:29that's how I was able to get so much.
25:31We have 198 hours worth of content in our library.
25:35Wow.
25:36So, and then we do probably about
25:3730 different originals right now.
25:39Yeah, yeah.
25:40And again, all those partnerships that you have,
25:42you know, already with NFL,
25:43I mean, the sports is there.
25:44You have sports, it's just there.
25:46Right, you need sports everywhere you go.
25:47I mean, 98 of the top 100 shows are sports.
25:50Yeah, NFL mostly.
25:51Yes.
25:52You know.
25:53I mean, so after you get this capital,
25:55I mean, obviously you're going
25:56and you're trying to build partnerships.
25:58How hard is it to get into the airport?
26:00I know you said minority,
26:01you know, minorities have a seat at the table
26:03when it comes to airports.
26:04You look at Atlanta as a classic example of that.
26:07How hard is it to get your content in the airport?
26:09Well, building it,
26:12most people try to take a screen.
26:14I went the other way.
26:15I'm gonna build a network.
26:17Building a network is more valuable all the way around.
26:19Valuations, everything else,
26:21but also it's an easier conversation.
26:23I'm gonna build a television network.
26:24I wanna put my television network in your location.
26:27Also, I was a retailer,
26:28so I know what retailers wanna do is just sell more stuff.
26:31I usually use the last S as a different word,
26:34but so we paid them,
26:36and then we came in,
26:38and then we showed them the value,
26:39and then all of a sudden,
26:40then it started changing up.
26:41They wanted to do things with us,
26:43but I was also smart.
26:45I'm not gonna go airport by airport by airport.
26:47It took CNN 30 years,
26:49and they were in 55 airports.
26:50What I did was say,
26:51who's operating in those airports
26:53that I can partner with,
26:54and that was HMS Host.
26:56They were my first,
26:58and they're the number one food
26:59and beverage operator in the airport.
27:00So from day one,
27:02when I signed my contract,
27:03I had a contract for 68 airports, right?
27:06So in day one,
27:07I'm more airports than CNN.
27:09I just rolled it out,
27:10so we rolled it out in the first 18 months.
27:12We were in 68 airports.
27:13They were in 55,
27:15so I used the power of leveraging
27:16the people that already are doing it,
27:17who already had screens,
27:19and I had no ego about owning everything in it.
27:21I just said,
27:22I wanna own my screens in your place,
27:24so that was our quick way of scaling
27:27and delivering value to our partners,
27:31because you know the airport.
27:32The funny part about the HMS Host thing
27:34is a byproduct of just asking people questions.
27:38So you go to Starbucks,
27:39or you go to the Palm Restaurant, JFK,
27:42and when you get your bill,
27:43later on at home,
27:45you see some company called HMS Host,
27:46but you're at the Palm.
27:48So their biggest thing they used to get
27:49was 4,000 calls a month of people going,
27:52who are you, right?
27:53And so when we started,
27:55we used to put their logos on the screens
27:57so that people knew they were actually
27:58in a HMS Host location,
28:00or in an OTG location,
28:02and then those calls went from 4,000 to 200.
28:04Wow, man.
28:05So just a byproduct of service that we're doing,
28:08and I call our network a customer service network.
28:11We allow bartenders,
28:12and we allow airports to know
28:14that there's gonna be quality content
28:16and engaging their audience,
28:17the travelers that come in,
28:19who have two big problems,
28:21two big emotions,
28:22guilt and stress.
28:24Stress is what we're supposed to take away from them.
28:27The guilt, that's why you're duty free,
28:28and you can buy gas and do everything else.
28:30So our job is just bring down the stress level.
28:34Lean back experience.
28:35Lean back.
28:36Take your time and take a load off.
28:38Looking at that, man,
28:39as we wrap up,
28:40the future of the Fast Challenge, right?
28:42Nielsen comes out with their report,
28:45at-a-glance report all the time.
28:46I mean, Tubi, Roku Channel, Pluto TV,
28:49there's a leading of the Fast Channel market.
28:51You're talking about 4.1% of the entire TV viewership
28:56are on Fast Channels,
28:57and that's only growing, right?
28:58IBISWorld says that this is a 61.3 billion industry.
29:02Netflix is dominating it,
29:03but it's expected to grow to 86 billion by 2029,
29:06and I'm sure that's gonna go.
29:07There are challenges, though.
29:08You have fragmentation.
29:09You got content quality.
29:11Licensing disputes, right?
29:13Talk to that creator, right?
29:14And also, before I even get there,
29:16what do you think the future of Fast Channels is?
29:18Can that 4.1, can it get to 20% by the end of the decade?
29:21What are we talking?
29:22I think two things.
29:24Number one, I think that it's gonna keep growing.
29:26People want their own choices,
29:28and people find what they wanna watch.
29:30I do think there's gonna be consolidation,
29:34and then that consolidation
29:35is gonna give you a better option,
29:37and somebody's gonna come, maybe somebody here,
29:40and somebody's gonna create something
29:42that allows us to kind of flip through all of them quickly,
29:45see what you're watching so I can watch what you're watching
29:47and really create something that's an easier experience,
29:50because right now, the one part of that experience
29:55so Fast versus like a Netflix
29:58is they're averaging like 22 minutes
30:01for people to figure out what show they wanna watch.
30:03That's not a great experience.
30:04If you go there to watch a show, a great experience.
30:08So a lot of Fast Channels have great experiences
30:09when you know what you wanna watch,
30:11and not so great experiences when you don't.
30:13Fragmentation, yeah.
30:14So that's the part that needs to be fixed,
30:16and there's tech out there, but it hasn't,
30:19there's companies that are smaller that have the tech,
30:20and there's companies over here
30:21that haven't really got together yet.
30:23But I think that's something that could be an AI tool.
30:26So these are things that is gonna move fast.
30:29No pun intended, but it's gonna move fast.
30:31Yeah, and grow.
30:32If your advice that you would give
30:34for the content creator,
30:35that person who may wanna be on your channels,
30:37because they say, hey, got Reece TV,
30:39they're on the airports, I got some content
30:40they wanna license to you.
30:41What advice do you give them about,
30:43first, how to get on Reece TV,
30:45and then for me, I think it's just a quality thing,
30:47making sure that the content is quality.
30:50You don't need to spend a lot of money
30:52on content to make it quality.
30:53You need to spend a lot of thought process
30:56on what you're gonna shoot, and really have a plan.
30:59I see a lot of people call me,
31:01and they don't understanding that we have live sports,
31:05we have live Bloomberg,
31:06we have live other things.
31:08We can't go from that to that, right?
31:11And so be honest, and say, I need help.
31:14Ask for a GoPro.
31:16We have a submissions at reecetv.com
31:19that goes through that process.
31:22But I think you just gotta be really honest
31:24about what you wanna do.
31:26Look at your price points.
31:27We don't pay a lot of money to produce content,
31:29but we produce it at scale.
31:30And I'll give you a cheat code advice.
31:33Here's one.
31:34A lot of creators are trying to go get big names
31:37and do all this stuff,
31:38and the cost of that is just ridiculous.
31:41The cheat code of that is,
31:42is there events, or is there places that you go,
31:45or a bunch of people go to,
31:46that you can then bulk shoot,
31:49and get the same people you're trying to get
31:50that happen to be the same place?
31:52So if I was a filmmaker,
31:53and I wanted to talk about,
31:55I'd see if I could get a booth,
31:56or I could film people going to South by Southwest.
31:59I'm just making this up.
32:00But that's more, you can get an opportunity
32:03to get 10 people that you wanted
32:05from the industry you want in one place.
32:07That's a better chance of getting it.
32:08And then you can shoot it in a really good quality,
32:11and be able to get multiple episodes.
32:13More cost effective.
32:14More cost effective.
32:15I think that the content costs are gonna come down.
32:18I know a lot of actors are a little nervous about AI,
32:21but I think the content cost needs to come down
32:23and be more aligned with what the ratings are,
32:26and what they're getting.
32:27Yeah, most definitely.
32:28Hey man, ready to wrap up here as we move.
32:30Quick rapid reaction stuff, right?
32:32Speaking of creators, Players TV, one of my favorite.
32:35You guys were in a partnership in January 2020.
32:37It fell through, where do we stand on that?
32:40Are you guys going to be partnering with them again?
32:42Yeah, of course.
32:42I'm always supporting everybody.
32:44Yeah.
32:44It's something, it's a moment in time.
32:46They were doing it.
32:47They wanted to restructure how they were doing things.
32:49It's great.
32:50I mean, me and Duran, we're all tight.
32:51We're good.
32:52I think they're gonna be great.
32:54I think they just,
32:55we're gonna figure out what structures.
32:57We're doing original content series together.
32:59Things of that nature.
33:00And we work with a bunch of the players as well.
33:02Well, listen, you want to expand, right?
33:04Australia, Dubai, Singapore were on the list,
33:06United Kingdom.
33:08When you take a look at the geopolitical landscape
33:10as a whole, as you're a businessman,
33:12what do you see and could any tension impact things?
33:15Well, I mean, of course, I've got work,
33:17I didn't, the bigger.
33:18We already have a couple of them now.
33:19Those aren't impacting it as much now,
33:22if it scaled out would.
33:24But you gotta look at, I look at it this way.
33:26The global travel and tourism went from 9.9 trillion
33:30in 22 to 11.1 trillion this year.
33:33It's expected to go to 16.6 trillion by 2032.
33:37That is the fastest growing sector
33:39in our entire ecosystem.
33:42So I'm in a great position, especially if I own that.
33:44So I'm focused on that.
33:46If there's something that happens, I will adjust,
33:49but our focus is right where it's supposed to be
33:51is like, we want to capture,
33:53we want to be the network that captures
33:54that entire ecosystem.
33:55Yeah, yeah.
33:56First million, how'd you make it?
33:59Selling computers.
34:00How'd you spend it?
34:02Buying all kinds of stuff.
34:03Like what?
34:04What was the one thing that you said,
34:06what am I doing?
34:08It was, we bought a shore house.
34:12We bought, I think I bought a 300ZX convertible.
34:16I was super excited.
34:18Jeez, you still got the house?
34:20No, we sold the house.
34:21We did really well.
34:22You could use it sometimes if you wanted to be there.
34:23And we did a house in Hamptons after that.
34:25But yeah, like, we were fun.
34:27And remember, I went through that business
34:30with like four of my best friends from college.
34:32So we were all crazy and having fun.
34:35We probably were on a plane every week going somewhere.
34:37So.
34:38That sounds like a good way to spend a million dollars.
34:41Best management book, man.
34:42Listen, winter time is pretty much here, right?
34:43We're going to be all home, locked in the house, right?
34:46And if we're not watching Reece TV,
34:47we've got to read a book.
34:48What's a leadership book that you can recommend someone
34:51to head into 2025 with some new skills?
34:53You know, it's funny you say that.
34:56Somebody asked me that the other day.
34:58Asked me about what do I get leadership from.
35:00When I'm not working, I read entertaining books for me.
35:03Like, I'm John Grisham.
35:05I'd like to just take my mind into another place.
35:07Yeah.
35:08And I just like to read stories.
35:11It almost helps me kind of like,
35:13have more empathy when I'm leading.
35:15So I don't really read a lot of those
35:17because they're kind of, a lot of them say the same things.
35:20I follow people, right?
35:21And I'll watch their TED Talks or I'll listen to them
35:24or Bezos is somebody I've followed and tracked
35:27and I've done business with Amazon.
35:28So I know how they operate.
35:30I've kind of adopted their operational things
35:32into my ecosystem of what I do more than I read a book.
35:36I like to look at what are they really doing?
35:39Yeah.
35:39Times are changing.
35:40Podcasts.
35:41Yeah.
35:42I mean, they've got so much coming at you
35:43that I need some time.
35:45And also some audio books.
35:46I could do that.
35:47So those have been really good.
35:48It's been nice hearing like, one of the books,
35:51Oprah's a co-writer and hearing her narrate the book
35:53is kind of cool.
35:55Well, it's one of my favorite books, man.
35:56Get you out of here on this is good to great.
35:57Obviously, people know that.
36:00What's the difference between a good fast channel
36:02and a great one?
36:04I think take that to the difference
36:05in between being great and exceptional.
36:08I think people, you need to understand this.
36:10There's bad people, okay.
36:12There's good.
36:14There's excellent.
36:15And then there's this little line about that big
36:17that's exceptional.
36:19The difference between excellent and exceptional
36:22in compensation is ridiculous.
36:27Because that's that last part that a lot of people don't do.
36:30And that's the part that is the sticky part.
36:32That's the reason you have a Netflix
36:34versus some other things that are not here.
36:36It's that last little bit.
36:38And I tell everybody, if you get to 90% of something
36:40and you don't finish it, it pushes you back.
36:42It don't start at 90 when you come back.
36:44You start at 50 because you were right at that point.
36:47And to get to that last 10 is the hardest part.
36:51And that's the one that, if you win those battles,
36:53if you go there, that's when you can be,
36:55that's when you can do things
36:57that you never thought you could do.
36:58And I tell our team all the time,
37:00take your day, look at what you're looking at.
37:02100% of all the stuff that comes into you, 20% matters.
37:06Look at the 20, focus on it, look at what's in that
37:10and I bet you if you solve for the 20,
37:12it solves for the other stuff that's in it.
37:14And we've done that and we've changed it.
37:15That's how we could do this as a small team,
37:18be able to beat with other people
37:19because they don't know
37:20how we are operating behind the scenes.
37:22Yeah, man, sounds like I need to read a Wes Craven book
37:24or a Stephen King or something like that
37:26to get to all that.
37:27Yeah, listen, yeah, might as well.
37:28To get the business books, I need to read thrillers,
37:30you know, all that.
37:31I'm John Grisham, I could picture the whole book.
37:33I'm already casted in everything.
37:35So I'm like, dude, must be in my head.
37:37A book club on Reece TV or something like that.
37:40I won't, we get a lot of that coming.
37:42We are next to Hudson.
37:43Yeah.
37:45Linwood business man, I appreciate the time.
37:47Reece TV, you'll probably see it
37:49if you're at the airport like I am all the time.
37:51So definitely make sure you check it out.
37:52I appreciate it, man.
37:53We'll look forward to having you back
37:54to talk some more business.
37:55And I love seeing what you're doing, man.
37:56You're killing it.
37:57I appreciate it, man.
37:58It's been a long time, but I love it.
37:59Yeah, man, yeah, yeah.
38:00Well, we finally got you.
38:01I had to watch Reece TV.
38:03Had to reach you, had to reach you.
38:05Jabari Young here at the NASDAQ market site.