Jeremy, I want to ask you about AI, but first, the writers strike. What are your clients saying about it? What’s UTA’s position?
Zimmer: UTA’s position is we support the writers. We’ve been representing writers since our beginning 32 years ago. The economics of streaming has changed tremendously to the detriment of writers, for the most part. So we’re very supportive of their position. I think it’s unfortunate that it’s going to take as long as it may take because I think there’s a deal to be made.
How long will it take, do you think?
Zimmer: It will certainly take through the summer. So, we’ve got to see what happens with the actors, that’ll be a big piece of the puzzle.
That leads to the AI piece of this. It’s affecting our industry, the advertising industry on the content production side. What do you hear in Hollywood, about the challenges ahead?
Zimmer: I think some writers have used AI just as a creative tool, some of them are finding it very useful. Some are finding it very concerning like, wait a minute, am I plagiarizing? They don’t even know where the line between their own creativity and the research or the implementation of utilizing the tool is becoming plagiarism. So I think there are a lot of concerns that are very reasonable. I don’t think it’s an existential threat to the uniquely powerful creatives that have always stood above. But I think there’s an existential threat to a lot of working artists.
Kassan: The other side of your question on content production. This is going to be, you know, mana from heaven, in terms of efficiency. And the impact on mar tech and ad tech, it’s a great positive.
Jeremy, what do you see from the studios and all the challenges they are facing?
Zimmer: I think that Disney has a bunch of different challenges The big question is what’s going to happen to Warner Bros. Discovery and Viacom. I imagine that we’ll see some more consolidation, I imagine you’ll see four, maybe five, powerful global streamers. And they’re all going to be buying content from everybody around the world, and hopefully, those ecosystems are powerful enough to really support a great content ecosystem of producers and creators, and things will come back to a sort of a slightly more normalized place. But, what we know is, there’s never an end state.