- What's up you beautiful bastards?
Hope you got a fantastic Tuesday.
Welcome back to the Philip Defranco show.
Buckle up, hit that like button
and let's just jump into it.
And the first thing we're gonna talk about today,
let's start today off on a slightly less intense vibe
than the past few weeks.
We've got some interesting entertainment business news
we should talk about.
Starting with a podcast world,
which of course has been now around a while,
but has gotten really interesting these past few years.
Where you have things recently like
that huge Joe Rogan deal.
Also deals struck with people
like Kim Kardashian, Michelle Obama.
Entire companies being bought like The Ringer,
Gimlet media and others.
And if you're not aware of all those deals,
I just mentioned involved one single company
and that is Spotify.
And they've been such an incredibly interesting
and important company to watch over these past few years,
because they are buying every part of the ecosystem.
Yes, we've been talking about deals
that involved content, right?
Have face and name value.
Well, we've all seen them in the past,
buying companies like Anchor, fantastic and easy way
to create, distribute and monetize your podcast.
And on that last note, right?
Monetize, today we saw big news
with Spotify buying
a podcast hosting company called Megaphone.
Buying the company for a reported
$235 million.
And among the reasons
because the company offers technology
for podcast publishers
and advertisers seeking targeted slots on podcasts.
Also now megaphone hosted podcasts for publishers like ESPN,
The Wall Street Journal
and others, will have access to Spotify's proprietary
ad-insertion technology called Streaming Ad Insertion.
And that system, very interesting,
it makes real time decisions
about which ads a specific listener
should hear based on their data
and also based on the goals of various ad deals Spotify
is currently running.
And that's what makes us deal so interesting.
They've now built out
this fully rounded out podcasting ecosystem.
A network of exclusive shows, a podcast player,
a podcast creation software,
a hosting company and its own ad sales team.
And they may also be the reason
we're seeing reports this week,
that they might be considering launching
a separate paid subscription just for podcasts.
Which I mean, would be incredibly notable
because I mean as of right now,
you can listen to podcasts on Spotify
for free with ads or without ads
if you're one of the 150 million people who pay for
its music streaming membership.
And of course with this,
there would be the question of, you know,
would this impact all podcasts, only Spotify originals,
only select from the Spotify original?
But also of note,
it's not just Spotify.
In fact, this week we saw reports
that at Apple and Sony
are reportedly eyeing
a $300 to $400 million acquisition
of the podcast network, Wondery.
According to reports,
there have been at least two other companies
that have joined them in negotiations.
Though, they have not been identified
and nothing has been finalized.
But a key thing here is that it's being reported
that Spotify is not one of the bidders.
So in addition to this,
if it goes through being one of
the priciest agreements in the industry,
it also I think shows the escalation
of the arms race in the podcast world.
Well, I do get excited with a number of these stories
because we see big money being thrown around
or where systems being put into place
that can help creators.
The big question mark
and kind of the concern is,
at what point does that turn into
something where we wall off content for money?
Especially in a world and an entertainment medium
that I believe has primarily succeeded
because it is so accessible
thanks to its free, but ad supported format.
So I guess with this story,
if there is something I can kind of tag onto the end of it,
is there a singular or a batch of five or 10 podcasts,
that if they got put behind a paywall, you'd be like fine,
that's enough of a reason for me to go Spotify premium
or whatever service?
Or especially because where we're talking about
a not newly launched podcast
you would resent it and not pay for it.
Or I guess maybe even more practically
just don't want another paid subscription service.
And then in a different kind of business news,
we should talk about the European Union hitting Amazon
with anti-trust charges.
Specifically those charges being filed today in relation
to France and Germany,
which are Amazon's biggest markets in the EU.
And there, we're seeing
the European Commission accusing Amazon
of abusing its dual role
as both a retailer and a merchant.
So essentially Amazon hosts vendors on its website,
allowing them a place to sell their products
while at the same time,
selling their own products on that same site.
Now, that by itself has been a frequent target
of controversy surrounding Amazon.
Especially since many small businesses
will sell their products on Amazon,
simply because it's such a dominant force in online retail.
You know shopper is a lot more likely
to find your business on Amazon
than they are to find, and then go to your website.
But also, a thing that Amazon tends to do
is if they notice a product is becoming popular,
they will then start making
their own version of that product
and sell it at a cheaper price.
A move that unsurprisingly
can really damage small businesses
that do not have the same level
of resources Amazon does.
Which I mean, it's Amazon, no one does.
So a lot of small businesses are essentially like,
hey, I'm in a damned if I do, damned if I don't situation.
And that, is where the EU charges are coming in.
Because according to the Commission,
Amazon has fed non-public seller data, right?
Things like the number of products sold
or how much a seller has made
into its own retail algorithms.
This, in order to decide which new products
to launch and what the price of each item should be.
And that accusation is based on a review of data,
of more than 80 million transactions
and 100 million products.
With the top antitrust official
from the European Commission saying,
"we do not take issue with the success
of Amazon or its size.
Our concern is the very specific business conduct
that appears to distort competition."
And adding "data on the activity
of third party sellers, should not be used
to the benefit of Amazon
when it acts as a competitor to the sellers."
Also alongside those charges,
the Commission has now announced that it has started
a separate investigation
to Amazon's policies around its Buy Box.
The sidebars that make it incredibly quick
and easy to add items to your cart.
And as that Commission official explains,
"the Buy Box is essential.
It prominently shows you offers for one single seller
of a chosen product with the possibility
for the consumer to purchase it directly.
So winning the Buy Box is crucial
for the marketplace sellers,
as it seems that more than 80% of all transactions
on Amazon, are channeled through it."
And there, the commission is specifically looking
into whether Amazon preferentially lists
their own products in the Buy Box.
As well as products from sellers,
that pay to use Amazon's logistics service.
With that Commission official saying,
"our concern is that Amazon may artificially push retails,
to use its own related services,
which may potentially lock them deeper
into Amazon's own ecosystem."
And as far as Amazon here,
they have pushed back against these findings saying
"no company cares more about small businesses
or has done more to support them,
over the past two decades than Amazon."
And as far as where we go from here, I mean that's unclear,
but what we do know, is it will likely be very slow.
For one, these charges are just preliminary.
The Commission actually needing
to finish this investigation first.
So I mean, this could take months
or more likely years before a fine
or other penalties are announced.
It's also possible that these charges could be dropped
if the commission reaches a settlement with Amazon.
But if the commission does agree
that Amazon violated EU competition law,
I mean, then you're talking about a situation
where Amazon could face fines up to 10%
of its annual worldwide turnover.
Which I mean, that's $37 billion
which also, wow 10% doesn't sound like much
until you say 10% is $37 billion.
Now with all that said, another big thing next month,
European Commission is expected to unveil a new package
of laws and what could be
one of the world's most sweeping set
of regulations on the tech industry.
Notably, that could include
rules prohibiting self-preferential treatment
and requiring massive companies like Amazon
to share data with smaller rivals.
And I mean, this is an important topic worldwide.
It is not just Europe.
At the same time, We're also seeing that India
has opened an antitrust case against Google.
This over allegations that
it unfairly promotes Google Pay on Google Play.
And I mean, just last month here in the States,
we saw officials taking aim at big tech companies.
With the House Judiciary Committee
accusing Apple, Amazon Facebook and Google
of engaging in anti-competitive monopoly tactics.
With that report, hitting on a very similar note
to what we're seeing from the European Commission saying
"by controlling access to markets,
these giants can pick winners
and losers throughout our economy.
They only wield tremendous power,
but they also abuse it by charging exorbitant fees
and posing oppressive contract terms
and extracting valuable data from the people
and businesses that rely on them."
But with all of that said,
it ultimately comes down to a question
that I'm gonna pass off to you. Is Amazon the devil?
Now we believe based off the allegations that we are seeing,
there does need to be a crackdown on Amazon.
Or for that matter,
a number of the big players we just talked about.
But from that, let's pay some bills
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And then let's talk about
the Affordable Care Act, AKA Obamacare.
And the Supreme Court.
And that is because as I'm recording this video,
the Supreme Court is hearing
the latest challenge to the ACA.
Notably, this is the third time
the issue has been brought
to the Supreme Court
with the first two attempts
being shut down back in 2012 and then 2015.
But what we're seeing today with this challenge,
which is being brought by Texas and other GOP led States
is a focus on the individual mandate.
Which is the part of the ACA that requires all Americans
to either have some kind of health insurance
or pay a penalty.
It's easily been one of
the most controversial parts of the law.
And when it was brought
before the Supreme Court
back in 2012,
the court upheld the mandate five to four.
But then what we saw in 2017,
was a Republican held Congress,
passing a sweeping tax bill,
that tweaks the individual mandate
by setting the penalty
for not having healthcare to zero.
And so now you have these GOP led States arguing that,
because the mandate is now zeroed out
and no longer raises revenues,
it is no longer a tax and thus, is unconstitutional.
And incredibly notable, this is the key part here.
They are also arguing that the individual mandate
is so ingrained in the ACA,
that it cannot be separated
from the law without scrapping the entire thing.
Which is a massive argument with massive consequences.
First and foremost, if the Supreme Court scrapped Obamacare,
overnight, more than 20 million Americans,
including roughly 12 million low income Americans
would lose their healthcare.
Which is a horrifying prospect in general,
without even considering the fact that
this is happening during a pandemic
where we're seeing hospitalizations going up right now.
Then on top of that,
you have to think of preexisting conditions.
If the entirety of Obamacare was rolled back,
health insurers could start denying coverage
to an estimated 54 million Americans, right?
Almost one out of every four
who have pre-existing conditions.
And what's more, because everything
of course comes back to the pandemic.
It is very possible
that COVID-19 could become a pre-existing condition.
Additionally, if you're a young adult,
you could be impacted because one of the parts of the ACA
is that you can stay on your parents' health care
until the age of 26.
And then of course you'd have older Americans being forced
to pay more for prescriptions.
All while once again,
you have a president Trump who is,
I guess, just for the past four years,
been several days away
from having this amazing healthcare plan.
Like this best
and beautiful healthcare plan
that he constantly talks about just hasn't materialized.
And so you know, with all of that said
and this specific challenge is when the question of well,
what could happen?
Because you do have a new Supreme Court make-up.
Trump has appointed three Supreme Court justices,
now including Amy Coney Barrett.
Who notably has openly criticized
the Supreme Court's previous rulings of the ACA in the past.
But what we're seeing today,
from some of the initial reports regarding
the oral arguments,
what the Supreme court justices are saying
is that the Affordable Care Act, may actually survive.
This because while the States
are arguing that the individual mandate
should be cut out and thus
it should invalidate the rest of the ACA.
Today, we heard from justice Kavanaugh,
who said "it does seem fairly clear that the proper remedy,
would be to sever the mandate
and leave the rest of the law in place."
With justice Roberts also saying
"here, Congress left the rest of the law intact.
That seems to be compelling evidence
that Congress did not intend to repeal the rest of the law."
One of those words
do not let us know definitively how they will rule.
It seems like a telling sign.
Because if you have two conservative justices
that want to save the rest of the thing,
then the other three liberal justices
would likely join them.
Additionally, as Axios explains.
"The justices' questioning
also pointed toward another potential Avenue
to rule against Texas and leave the ACA intact.
Several justices, including Roberts,
questioned whether Texas had the legal standing
to bring this case to begin with."
This because Texas doesn't have to pay
the individual mandate, right?
The entry point into this argument,
but also saying it's burdened by other parts of the law.
But that theory, justice Kagan said,
"allowing challengers to invalidate a whole law
by challenging a specific provision that doesn't harm them,
it could kind of explode the court's approach to standing."
But for now we have to do that very fun thing.
We get to just wait and see what happens.
And then finally today,
and this story is actually somewhat connected.
Let's talk about Georgia.
I think mentioned briefly yesterday,
there are two Senate races in Georgia
that are officially headed
for runoff elections on January 5th.
This, after all four leading candidates in both races failed
to secure more than 50% of the vote,
as is required under Georgia law.
But having two Senate races
in the same state at the same time is odd.
Normally some of elections are staggered,
but Georgia was also having a special election.
So what you had in the normally scheduled race
was Republican Senator David Perdue running
to be reelected for the seat
that he won back in 2014.
Facing off against Democrat Jon Ossof,
who's an investigative journalist
and former House candidate.
And then a special election,
we have Republican Kelly Loeffler
who was appointed last year
by Georgia Governor, Brian Kemp.
Filling the seat of long serving Republican Senator,
Johnny Isakson who retired before his term was up,
due to health reasons.
She is facing off against the Reverend, Dr. Raphael Warnock,
who is a Democrat and the senior pastor
of Atlanta's Ebenezer Baptist Church,
which was actually formerly
Martin Luther King jr's congregation.
These two runoffs are incredibly important because they will
almost certainly determine control of the Senate.
Currently the Senate is split 48 Democrats to 49 Republicans
with three seats, including the two in Georgia
not yet called though, notably the other uncalled seat,
which is an Alaska is held
by a Republican who is expected to win.
So we're in this situation
where the Republicans only really need
to win one seat to maintain control.
For Democrats, both seats
are must wins if they want control, right?
It would get to 50, 50 in the Senate.
Come January 20th with a then president Biden,
a vice president Kamala Harris.
Harris, will become a tie breaker vote in any 50, 50 tie.
Which of course would be incredibly notable
because Democrats would then have control
of the presidency as well as both houses of Congress.
But really, no matter the outcome,
it will have a massive impact on things like,
to bring it back around, the Affordable Care Act.
Especially because healthcare and healthcare access,
is a massively important issue
for Georgia voters for a number of reasons.
First of all, it is one of the few States
that did not expand Medicaid
to low income adults under the ACA.
And secondly, the coronavirus
has been especially bad in Georgia
in part due to a lack of access to healthcare.
Which I think is why
we're already seeing Democrats setting up
these runoffs as a referendum
on the state of healthcare in America.
But on the other side of this,
we're seeing Republicans saying
that this is the last opportunity
to stop the Democrats left-wing agenda.
Yeah, ultimately these two seats
will decide what will and won't be done in the coming years.
Which is probably not great news for the Democrats.
I mean, historically in the state, they've lost runoffs.
Since the 1990s, Democrats have only won one
of the seven runoffs there.
Though if 2020 has shown us anything,
you can't really predict anything.
Though I will say based
on what's already been going down,
That we can expect this race
and just the whole situation to be very messy.
Right, as mentioned in the last show,
yesterday both senators made
the incredibly unprecedented move
of asking Georgia's Republican secretary of state, right?
A guy in their own party to step down.
Both senators making vague claims
about election transparency.
Though, not including a shred of evidence.
But it's also not just those two.
According to reports, Republican leaders
are worried that they risk alienating key Trump voters,
that they need to win these seats as well
as elections in the future.
If they stray from this Trump narrative
that he and his key allies have been pushing.
And it doesn't seem like they're gonna stop pushing
this alternate reality anytime soon.
And I mean today, for example,
we saw this absolutely ridiculous and terrifying response
from secretary of state, Mike Pompeo.
- [Narrator] Is the States Department currently preparing
to engage with the Biden transition team?
And if not, at what point does
a delay hamper a smooth transition,
or pose a risk to national security?
- There will be a smooth transition
to a second Trump administration.
- In this situation, you obviously have a lot of confusion.
Misinformation, outright lies surrounding all of this.
And with the Senate at play here,
all of this is getting amplified.
But ultimately,
if there is a place that I can close out on,
is if you live in Georgia
and especially if you do not agree
with what Trump and his goons are doing.
You can vote in this January 5th primary.
If you're already registered,
you can also even request your mail in ballot now.
And if you're not already registered,
you can actually still register
as long as you do it by December 7th.
And actually in the very specific circumstance,
if you are 17 now, but you will be 18 by January 5th,
you can actually register to vote in the runoff.
But that is where we are with this one as of now,
we have to wait to see what happens next and I am exhausted.
And that is where I'm going to end today's show.
As always, thank you for being a part
of my daily dimes into the news,
being a part of this family.
Which by the way, if you'd like to be adopted,
feel free to hit that subscribe button.
Of course, ring that bell.
And Hey, maybe even text me at 813-213-4423.
But that said of course as always
my name's Philip Defranco,
you've just been filled in.
I love yo faces and I'll see you tomorrow.