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- [00:01]
Sarah
Hey, this is Sarah. Look, I'm standing out front of a.m. p.m. Right now and well, you're sweet and all, but I found something more fulfilling, even kind of cheesy. But I like it. Sure, you met some of my dietary needs, but they've just got it all. So farewell.
- [00:16]
Imran Khan Supporter
Oatmeal.
- [00:17]
Sarah
So long, you strange soggy.
- [00:19]
Narrator/Host
Break up with bland breakfast and taste AM PM's bacon, egg and cheese biscuit made with K tree eggs, smoked bacon and melty cheese on a buttery biscuit. AMPM Too much good stuff this week.
- [00:32]
Sarah
On the take, we're marking one year.
- [00:34]
Analyst/Reporter
Since a pair of devastating earthquakes hit.
- [00:36]
Narrator/Host
Turkey and Syria with a new digital interactive listen and watch stories of survival.
- [00:43]
Analyst/Reporter
Recovery and coping with the grief@al jazeera.com.
- [00:48]
Creative Industry Commentator
Earthquakes again, that's al jazeera.com forward/earthquakes.
- [00:58]
Narrator/Host
To the highest bidder. Go the cinematic spoils. Netflix is up against Paramount Skydance, both trying to buy Warner Brothers. Will Donald Trump get the ultimate say in who comes out on top? No, not you. You're CNN. You're fake news. If you are 16 years old or under in Australia and watching this on social media, you are now breaking the law. And Pakistan, a jailed politician takes on the military powers in a conflict that is playing out online. For more than a century, Warner Brothers has been one of Hollywood's biggest players. A legacy film studio that helped define the golden age of cinema with iconic blockbuster movies. Now it's at the center of a contentious billion dollar bidding war between Netflix and Paramount, Skydance, both of which want their hands on one of entertainment's richest IPs. One is already the world's leading streaming platform. The other is owned by the Ellison family. Gazillionaires with ties to President Trump and their company could acquire CNN as part of the deal. Whichever way this goes, the outcome isn't looking great. The consolidation will would reshape the industry. The movies and series that are made, who gets to make them, the livelihoods of creatives, the range of choice for consumers. And if movie theaters can even survive in this ever changing landscape, film studios like to entice audiences with simple storylines that are easy to follow. The irony is that this story about the future of Hollywood is so complex. At its heart, Warner Bros, one of the movie industry's crown jewels. A studio with a resume that goes back more than a century, from Casablanca to Batman. It's now up for grabs with competing bids from Netflix and Paramount Skydance, both corporate characters, neither of which has been cast as the good guy. The way the plot line is laid out is more like a case of Alien versus prediction.
- [03:15]
Industry Expert
Regardless of whether Netflix or Paramount ends up owning Warner Brothers, there's going to be cost cutting, there's going to be layoffs, there's going to be one fewer buyer in the marketplace if you're a filmmaker or a TV show showrunner trying to sell your project. And so those effects will apply no matter who the owner is.
- [03:34]
Sarah
This merger, which is illegal on many fronts, should be blocked. Warner Brothers Discovery should remain an independent entity. We don't have to stand by idly and view this as some inevitability. This is not the death of Hollywood if we don't want it to be. But if we are okay with letting Hollywood die by a thousand cuts, then this is certainly a big cut.
- [03:55]
Creative Industry Commentator
Netflix started out as this company that was great for creatives because it was like taking risks that a lot of studios and networks weren't doing. And people were like, wow, this is great. Revolutionary. But then when they got more and more of the market share and pretty much dominated streaming, they could set the rules. So it's not like the lesser of two evils. It's just like evil versus evil.
- [04:19]
Narrator/Host
What complicates the story further is that the bids are not like for like. Warner Brothers has agreed to sell just part of its company to Netflix, its film division and its streaming service, HBO Max. Paramount Skydance then launched a hostile, some might say predatory bid for the entire company. Warner Bros. Discovery, which includes cable channels, CNN among them. Its CEO argues that allowing Netflix to buy a second streaming service would be bad for the entertainment business. Allowing the number one streaming service to combine with the number three streaming service is anti competitive. That's like saying Coke can buy Pepsi. But what if Paramount Skydance wins out? The company is owned by the Ellison family, which has already cozied up to Donald Trump by buying CBS and tilting its news division his way, hiring a new CEO, Bari Weiss, and planning to take a late night host, Trump critic Stephen Colbert, off the air. The Wall Street Journal reports the Ellisons have already told the President they would make sweeping changes at cnn, a network Trump has constantly targeted. No.
- [05:31]
Sarah
No.
- [05:31]
Narrator/Host
I said no.
- [05:32]
Imran Khan Supporter
Not you.
- [05:32]
Narrator/Host
You're cnn. You fake this. So as alien as it might be for Hollywood, the idea that a streaming service can come out of that realm to buy such an iconic film studio, it might prove to be the better of two relatively bad options. And possible plot twist. That's where the regulators might come in.
- [05:52]
Sarah
There's no good buyer for Warner Bros. Discovery, whether it's Netflix or Paramount Skydance. There's no need for this merger to take place.
- [05:59]
Analyst/Reporter
Place.
- [06:00]
Sarah
A few years ago the Justice Department under the Biden administration challenged a similar merger between Penguin Random House and Simon and Schuster in the book publishing industry. And you had authors including Stephen King on the witness stand saying this is going to be bad for authors because we can no longer compete between publishers to see who can buy our content. And the Justice Department blocked the merger and that is what we should hope to see from this.
- [06:26]
Political Commentator
Donald Trump is very close with Larry Ellison and hence David said he loved what they were doing with CBS and the changes they'd made there. CBS, which of course had paid him $16 million to settle a basically meritless lawsuit. That all occurs and Netflix has gone a little bit on the political offensive. Turns out that Netflix co CEO Ted Sarandos had a meeting with President Trump, expressed that they had a lot of mutual admiration. Everybody knows Donald Trump loves flattery and he loves being in the winner's circle. Trump said he probably would have to.
- [06:54]
Narrator/Host
Get get involved if Netflix prevails and acquires part of Warner Brothers. Among the casualties could be tens of thousands of content creators and hundreds of millions of consumers. So much power concentrated in one company would mean fewer buyers and fewer projects, less bargaining power for writers, directors, actors, supporting casts across the board. Netflix has already squeezed its customers, jacking its subscription price over the past decade by 125%. Consumers could face even higher prices and have significantly fewer shows and films to choose from. And a Netflix buyout could accelerate the decline of the theater business, which as a streaming giant, Netflix has never really cared about. Although. Although. When confronted with that this past week, its co CEO Ted Sarandos tried to argue otherwise. The theatrical business, we've not, you know, been talked a lot about in the past about wanting to do it because.
- [07:59]
Political Commentator
We'Ve never been in that business.
- [08:01]
Narrator/Host
When this deal closes, we are in that business and we're going to do it. But if you check his track record, Sarandos has long been a movie critic, dismissing the theatrical experience as some sort of cultural relic. When someone gets up at the Oscars and says we need to make movies for movie theaters, for the communal experience, that's just an outmoded idea. I believe it is an outmoded idea for most people, not for everybody.
- [08:24]
Sarah
Why wouldn't you just stay home and watch a movie on your couch? Well, that is Netflix's business model. They have no interest in keeping the movie theater business alive. That's contrary to what we're seeing in real time just over Thanksgiving weekend, Zootopia 2 set record box office numbers. Young people are going to the movies, families are going to the movies. Movie theaters are part of our local economies. And any notion to the contrary is just propaganda to try to get these mergers to go through.
- [08:52]
Industry Expert
Netflix is seen by a lot in the creative community as kind of a tech interloper. They came in, they were extremely disruptive to the theatrical movie going process, and everyone's serving the almighty algorithm. There has been a lot of big media mergers in the past decade. And from a creative perspective, each time there's consolidation that leads to job loss, redundancies, fewer projects being greenlit, being purchased and released. The consolidation for the Hollywood community has led to the financial pressure that a lot of people are feeling now.
- [09:30]
Creative Industry Commentator
I know I've been really making this like we're in the throes of a death rattle with Netflix and Paramount. Also, we're in a weird AI bubble. We are creative people, so we're nimble. We're gonna find ways to like, figure this out, even if it means a big implosion. Because I'm betting on us, I'm betting on humanity, I'm betting on artists, and I'm betting that this is going to blow back on themselves because we are the very things that they need to survive and exist.
- [10:04]
Narrator/Host
Depending on one's perspective, this is a story about corporate consolidation or creative annihilation. Not as many creatives will get their content made. Consumers will have fewer entertainment options to choose from. It's like we're going back in time to the days before the battle for strike. Dreaming supremacy, the resulting deluge of content that has so spoiled us for choice. Calling it the death of Hollywood, though, would be an overstatement. Not that characterizing it that way should surprise anyone who really knows the place. It's always at a flair for the dramatic.
- [10:42]
Industry Expert
I just think that it is going to continue to evolve and take different shape. There will still be consumer choice around movies and tv. It's just, you know, at the highest level, who owns that content, that will always change. Those chairs will always get shuffled around in Hollywood. But I don't think entertainment's dying just because Netflix or Paramount is buying Warner Brothers.
- [11:02]
Political Commentator
People have been running around screaming that the sky is falling. It's the death of Hollywood. Everything will change. And everything will change because this is an industry that's been changing since the day Hollywood started. It went from black and white and.
- [11:15]
Narrator/Host
Silent to, to talkies, to color, to.
- [11:20]
Political Commentator
Television, to cable networks. Now to streaming. It's called show business.
- [11:28]
Creative Industry Commentator
And I also feel like the day of reckoning, it had to happen, you know what I'm saying? Like we were all leading to this point. It was never going to keep humming along like tech was getting bigger and bigger and bigger and it inevitably needs to burst.
- [11:49]
Narrator/Host
This week, the government in Australia imposed a global first, a social media ban for children under the age of 16. It is being hailed as a potentially life changing measure, but some young people have already figured out how to get around it. Ryan Coles has been tracking this story.
- [12:04]
Ryan Coles
On Wednesday morning, children under the age of 16 in Australia woke up to a message on their social media apps as the country's new Online Safety Amendment act act went into effect. In total, 10 platforms are now banned for young people, including Instagram, TikTok and X. Around a million children across Australia will lose access to their accounts. Some young people have already been finding ways around the ban, though, by setting up fake accounts, using makeup masks or even pictures of dogs to bypass the photo requirement. Children and their parents won't be held responsible or criminalized if they're caught breaking the rules. And instead, social media companies could face fines of up to $33 million if they fail to enforce the ban. Rights groups like Amnesty International have questioned Australia's approach, characterizing it as an ineffective quick fix that doesn't get to the root cause algorithms and instead leaves children in a more vulnerable position. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says his government is just putting in place the kind of child protections that tech companies have faced failed to provide.
- [13:13]
Sarah
This is Australia showing the world that.
- [13:17]
Narrator/Host
Enough is enough and we're taking on.
- [13:19]
Meenakshi Ravi
The big tech giants.
- [13:20]
Sarah
We're putting the interests of young Australians first.
- [13:23]
Ryan Coles
Denmark, Malaysia and New Zealand have all signaled they could follow suit. But youth advocates question if government should prioritize giving children tools to deal with social media rather than just burying their heads in the sand this way. And one of the biggest voices in favor of the ban in Australia has been Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. Which owns multiple news outlets there. Are they really that concerned about harmful content online? Or as some Australians are asking, do they have reason to fear a new generation of politically conscious young people?
- [13:55]
Narrator/Host
Thanks, Ryan. To Pakistan now and the battle for hearts and minds there. On one side is Imran Khan, the charismatic cricket star turned politician elevated to office with the backing of the military, now imprisoned after turning against those men in uniform. On the other, Field Marshal Assam Munir, who, despite never having been elected, is one of the country's most powerful political figures. Khan has been in jail for more than two years now. But out of sight has not meant out of mind. His party social media game is light years ahead of the competition. And even from behind bars, his Presence on X TikTok, YouTube and through AI avatars has not faded. Last month, when the army restricted access to Khan in prison, the backlash on social media was immediate and the pressure mounted. Khan's sisters were eventually allowed to visit him and his fiery social media posts resumed. The listening posts, Meenakshi Ravi. Now on the latest staredown between Imran Khan and Asam Munir and what it reveals about power politics and narrative control in Pakistan.
- [15:08]
Analyst/Reporter
Imran Khan has always been a headline maker.
- [15:16]
Meenakshi Ravi
Tonight, mounting alarm in Pakistan over the.
- [15:18]
Imran Khan Supporter
Fate of the former Prime Minister Imran Khan.
- [15:32]
Analyst/Reporter
For more than two years now, Khan, who leads his party, the Pakistan Tehrik Einsaf, has been largely absent from public view, facing more than 100 charges brought against him by the Pakistani state ranging from corruption to anti state activity. Even though sequestered in a high security prison, he continues to loom large in Pakistan's political imagination. And last month media chatter about him went into overdrive. Some of the most panicked voices were those of his supporters online.
- [16:11]
Meenakshi Ravi
Imran Khan's supporters are increasingly worried. The way things are going, they suspect that both the Pakistani government and the regime generally have a vested interest in getting rid of Imran Khan. This continues to raise apprehensions about Imran Khan's safety.
- [16:39]
Imran Khan Supporter
He was having these weekly meetings with his lawyers, with his family and sometimes with his party members. And it had become like a weekly update from his prison cell. And then suddenly the government cut off these meetings for at least three weeks. And then somewhere these rumors started that either he's been swelling tortured or he's dead. And these rumors came as a shock to the country, not just among his admirers, but people who particularly like him as well. So I think that's why the government then allowed his sisters to meet up with him.
- [17:26]
Journalist
He was very angry and of course.
- [17:28]
Analyst/Reporter
He sent out a message about the chief of army.
- [17:31]
Journalist
He said that, you know, he's, he's mentally not correct in his head. And then suddenly there's this huge press conference with a lot of big prominent journalists have been invited by the spokesman person of the army. And it's a slanging match. It was also a declaration of full on war as well because he declared Imran Khan a national security threat.
- [17:57]
Imran Khan Supporter
You go and meet a convict. Against its own country's armed forces.
- [18:07]
Analyst/Reporter
There is no love lost between Pakistan's military And Imran Khan. What began as a relationship of political convenience in 2018, when Khan won the prime ministerial election, quickly soured, as it so often does in Pakistan, where ties between civilian leaders and the military rarely endure. By 2023, Khan was sent to prison, where he remains. He is the latest in a long line of Pakistani prime ministers jailed while in office or after. But Khan is distinct in the grip he has managed to retain over his base, even from behind bars.
- [18:43]
Imran Khan Supporter
The fact is that every single prime minister in Pakistan's history for at least last 50 years has ended up in jail. So he's not the first one to end up in jail. What the previous ex prime ministers, a powerful politician, first example they do is try to move the courts and they try to move to a hospital on health grounds, which he has not done. And the second thing that he's done is that he's refused to cut any deal with this regime.
- [19:14]
Journalist
Imran Khan is obviously committed to remaining in jail and he has indicated through various sources that he's willing to talk to only one person. And that person is Field Marshal Asim Munir, Field Marshall. A Munir is a natural choice because he's the center of gravity. He is the most powerful man in the country. And that resistance that Imran Khan has demonstrated through his party, through his tweets, by remaining in jail has only meant that his popularity has increased. But at the end of the day, it is really just two egos clashing with the other. It is the popular leader versus the most powerful man in the country. And really, I think what's on going gets left on the side is military supremacy over governance. I don't think that's going to change with this resistance or with this clash of egos.
- [20:02]
Analyst/Reporter
The Khan Munir face off pits popularity against power. In parallel with Khan's growing appeal from behind bars, General Asim Munir's ambition has soared. Following a brief war with India in May, Munir rode a surge of public opinion approval and was elevated to Field Marshal, placing him amongst Pakistan's most powerful military figures and amongst Donald Trump's preferred strongmen.
- [20:26]
Narrator/Host
And also, I have to say, my favorite Field Marshal from Pakistan.
- [20:30]
Analyst/Reporter
Something that has boosted Munir's reputation in some domestic quarters. Then last month came a series of constitutional changes that spanned the military and the judiciary and which dramatically strengthened municipality. Imran Khan has been tracking the changes from the confines of jail and has not held back.
- [20:49]
Meenakshi Ravi
Increasingly, Imran Khan's messages emanating from the jail are extremely critical of General Asim Munir. The Tone and tenor of the messages is this, that Asim Munir is a dictator. This is not even a martial law. This is Asim Law. He identifies and zooms onto General Asim Munir as a culprit responsible for whatever is happening to him.
- [21:13]
Journalist
Social media has added a really interesting dimension to these, this kind of politics because in the past we've seen that many political parties or prime ministers, when they've been persecuted, you know, there's no social media back then. But I think with Pakistan, Tehrik and Sahi, how they've adapted to technologies, how they use technology, including AI as an example, they've created an AI avatar for Imran Khan, you know, leading a rally and his supporters and fans really loved it. But because the Pakistan Tariq itself is so much more sophisticated when it comes to digital media. You know, many of the accounts are operating from outside of the country, which means they can't be captured by authorities within Pakistan. You know, they keep the story alive. Imran Khan's family is also keeping the story alive, not through social media, but through international media. His sons have come forward, spoken to YouTubers, his sisters keep appearing on international media, you know, like for instance, Sky News. He has been in basically solitary confinement for the past seven weeks.
- [22:21]
Analyst/Reporter
Through the years from 2022 to 2024, an escalating crackdown on Khan's Pakistan Tehrik Insaf scattered many of the party's senior figures abroad. Several of them have become prominent voices, posting viral rants, updates, even exaggerations and incitement online. Shahbaz Gill used to be a special assistant to Khan when he was Prime Minister. He now runs a YouTube channel from the US.
- [22:46]
Imran Khan Supporter
Field Marshal Asim Munir's de facto marshall.
- [22:55]
Analyst/Reporter
Shahzad Akbar, was a minister in Khan's cabinet. He is now in the uk. There's a host of other YouTubers who were primarily journalists and often sympathetic voices on mainstream media when PTI was in power. Many have since fled the country. Mohit Pirzada, now based in the us is one of them. We asked for his response to accusations of misinformation and whipping up panic.
- [23:26]
Meenakshi Ravi
I have heard these accusations that, you know, I'm instigating or I have probably said something which is unverified. The cases have been registered against me are not based on facts. For instance, I am actually doing terrorism sitting from here and I'm generally careful in saying things. I rely upon the published information every single day from Pakistani English papers like the dawn, the Tribune, and the statements of the key politicians and newsmakers So I always make it very clear in saying, in my opinion, in my judgment.
- [23:53]
Imran Khan Supporter
In my assessment, current Pakistani government and the military setup, they're very good at controlling the traditional media, which is TV channels, newspapers. But now most of Imran Khan's followers are either on WhatsApp groups, on social media. And they're finding it really frustrating that they can't do anything about them. What happens is when the government, people, ministers, they visit London, Barcelona, New York, they are confronted by Imran Khan's fans, they make their videos and they are very, very frustrated with the fact that they can't do anything about that. So they've been kind of campaigning against YouTubers, vloggers who are outside of Pakistan. They're threatening to, to extradite them to Pakistan. So there seems to be a sustained campaign against Imran Khan fans in an attempt to just shut them up.
- [24:48]
Narrator/Host
And finally this week, Reporters Without Borders has released its annual report on violence against the media. 67 journalists have been killed so far this year. And nearly half of those deaths came at the hands of Israeli forces in Gaza. This network's own findings show that since October 7, 2023, Israel has killed 278 media workers in what is clearly an attempt to control the narrative. We are now more than two months into this latest ceasefire and the Israelis still refuse to give international journalists real access to the story. Their only way into Gaza is to embed with Israeli soldiers. Another Media Watch ngo, the Committee to Protect Journalists, just interviewed three reporters who went in overseen by those soldiers. They all described the restricted movement, the limited access they were given to Palestinians, the pre publication reviews conducted by their Israeli minders. The CPJ also said that another three journalists declined to speak out of fear of retribution. Think about that. War correspondents too scared to go on the record about the Israeli military. Their refusal to comment says it all. AI agents are everywhere, automating tasks and making decisions at machine speed. But agents make mistakes. Just one rogue agent can do big damage before you even notice. Rubrik Agent Cloud is the only platform that helps you monitor agents, set guardrails and rewind mistakes so you can unleash agents, not risk. Accelerate your AI transformation@rubrik.com that's R U B R I K dot com.