Sky’s the Limit

**Dylan Byers** (0:02)
And I suppose anyone in the media space over the last 10, 20, 30 years would look at this and say like, that's not media, that's something else. And the truth is like, yes, but media is becoming something else.

**Peter Hamby** (0:17)
Welcome to The Powers That Be Daily, Pucks podcast focused on the intersection of Wall Street, Washington, Silicon Valley, and Hollywood, and the players who run it all. I'm Peter Hamby.
It's Wednesday, July 8th. Today, I'm joined by Dylan Byers, who explains why Versant is more than just their declining linear cable assets. That's right, Versant just acquired Full Swing, a popular golf simulator. And while that may seem off target, Dylan tells me it's actually a pretty clever move from a media company that's trying to grow revenue in more ways than just cable. Meanwhile, over in the UK, Sky just acquired ITV, which will make the combined company with all of its sports assets a delicious acquisition target if they can get through British regulatory scrutiny.
We'll discuss all that and much more on today's episode The Powers That Be.

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**Peter Hamby** (1:45)
Happy Wednesday everybody and welcome to The Powers That Be. I'm joined today by my colleague Dylan Byers. We're going to talk about some interesting media stories you might not be paying attention to, but they are fascinating. They do have implications for the broader industry. First, Versant is buying a golf simulator company, full swing for over $500 million. Now remember, Versant is the spinoff cable bundle from NBC that includes MSNBC, CNBC, a bunch of other channels. Dylan's going to break that down for me and why this matters. We're also going to talk about Sky, remember, which is part of the most recent NBCU spinoff from Comcast. They're buying ITV. We'll talk about why that matters too. Dylan, good to see you. Dylan's joining me from Sun Valley, of course, where media moguls are gathering with their ascots in their private jets.
Dylan, jealous of your trip there annually as always. Great sourcing, hardship pay.
I'm sure Puck is paying. Let's talk about Versant. Why Full Swing? I know they've got some other golf properties. How does this fit into Mark Lazarus' strategy for a cable company?

**Dylan Byers** (2:58)
I got to say, Peter, when Brian Roberts and Comcast first spun off Versant, one, I didn't really know how to pronounce it. I kept calling it Versant. Two, I was incredibly bearish on its future, almost sure, still am, that it would eventually pass to private equity, and really thought that Mark Lazarus had been handed the shittiest job in television.
I haven't changed my thinking about the broad trajectory of the business, but I actually think Mark, who's a very smart guy, has a far more exciting mandate than I had originally appreciated, which is this, he inherited a cable company, yes, MS Now, CNBC, Golf Channel, etc., but he had a mandate to basically use the cable money, and then go off and start a number of other businesses that would ostensibly sort of furnish those brands, and obviously the most fertile ground for doing something like that, is golf. So they've got the Golf Channel. They have this teatime app called Golf Now, which is where apparently like tens of millions of people go to register their teatimes at courses all over the country. And then now, for about half a billion dollars, they have acquired this golf simulator. And I suppose anyone in the media space over the last 10, 20, 30 years would look at this and say like, that's not media, that's something else. And the truth is like, yes, but media is becoming something else. Media is increasingly becoming about platforms and services.
And in many ways, that's sort of the way it's been. You look at like the theme parks business, right? Whether you're talking about Disney or Universal. You look at the New York Times, which is the playbook that so many want to emulate. And of course, getting into games and product recommendations and everything else.
Mark's like, why not Versant? So why don't we go after golf as a lifestyle? Golf is the culture of golf. And say like, as a media company, we don't have to be limited to showing you, the latest, I don't know, out of Augusta or wherever else. We can also show you, we can help you improve your swing. We can help you book your course. And when you think about media as that way, and when you think about diversifying the business that way, I'm not saying it's not still an uphill climb for Versant, but it is a far more intriguing story than simply managing decline. And so it's gonna be really interesting to see how he does that. And then especially interesting from where I'm sitting to see how he does it with brands like CNBC and MS Now.