Shari Redstone is “all in.”
About year ago, Redstone meant Israeli media entrepreneur Emilio Schenker when he was seeking partners for his Oct. 7 documentary “We Will Dance Again.” This week, the former Paramount Global chair announced that she has made an investment in his Sipur production banner and will join its board of directors as chair.
On the latest episode of the “Daily Variety” podcast, Redstone explains why she was so attracted to the opportunity at Sipur.
“The more I got to know [Schenker], the more I got to meet his team and understand what it was that he was doing, the more excited I got about this opportunity,” Redstone says. “To be honest, I was not looking to get involved in another business. I was really looking to focus on my foundation and the work that I’m doing. But the reality is there’s a real consistency between the work that he is doing in the work that I am doing in my foundation. They create great content. They have a phenomenal team, they have a differentiated business model, and they have a vision to be the first international production studio out of Israel.”
Asked about the scope of her involvement in the management of the company, Redstone is clear: “I am very much all in.”
Redstone is well aware how difficult the social and business climate is for Israel given the devastation in Gaza that has been waged by the government of Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s controversial Prime Minister. The war sparked by the Hamas terrorist attack of Oct. 7, 2023, and the humanitarian crisis that has ensued is why more needs to be done to address the centuries-old hatred that drives the current strife.
“The reason why I think it’s so important to be in Israel, and why I think they have done a great job, is that in Israel and frankly, in other international markets, there’s a lot of incredible creative talent, both on the screen and off the screen. There are a lot of people there who know how to tell great stories, and you can tap into that creative talent with a very different financial model than what you have here in the United States,” Redstone says. “Because of some of the challenges that exist in Israel, we work even harder to find the right people to work with. I’m super excited about what we’re going to be able to bring to the entertainment world.”
As for the geopolitical forces buffetting Israel and the Middle East, Redstone sees the need for media to work in concert with philanthropy and civic efforts to encourage peace and inclusion.
“We’re seeing the boycotts [against Israeli firms] that are taking place, just like, we’ve seen on college campuses and everywhere else. But that’s exactly why I’m so excited to work with Sipur to address these issues and to create content that we might have to fight for distribution. We might have to be aggressive in how we look at it, but that’s the opportunity,” Redstone says. “I’ve always said we have a responsibility and an obligation to use our voices and to use our platforms to make a difference. And I see working with Sipur and helping them achieve their success as an opportunity. I don’t want to double down on the challenges. I really want to embrace the opportunity to present a different Israel and to achieve the success I know we can achieve.”
Redstone also addresses her long-running venture fund Advancit Capital and its focus.
“Our latest fund is more around crypto and AI. To be honest, if you want to be involved in crypto and AI, it’s something you really need to do full time. You can’t dip your feet in,” she says. “So I’m still very involved with some of our portfolio companies that continue to exist. But my son-in-law [Jason Ostheimer] has really taken the lead on a lot of what we’re doing going forward.”
Also in today’s episode, Variety‘s business editor Todd Spangler and TV news editor Joe Otterson discuss the state of the play at Paramount, the shop that Redstone just sold to Skydance Media’s David Ellison and RedBird Capital. Otterson discusses his recent reporting on the mood at CBS after the network found itself in the crossfire of the Paramount-Skydance merger process.
Rumors of Paramount’s interest in Warner Bros. Discovery have circulated for some time but the decision to move sooner rather than later caught the industry by surprise. WBD is in the process of divesting most of its linear cable channels, which will leave HBO and Warner Bros. together in a much smaller company. But Ellison is poised to field an offer soonfor the entire company.
“The street interprets this as they want to preempt a bidding war for HBO and the streaming assets and the studio side of the business. By moving now, they get in front of other potential bidders who would want to cherry pick, in the words of one of the analysts, just the most attractive assets and not and by the way, a lot of the debt,” Spangler says. “Warner Bros. has a tremendous amount of debt. So the standalone Warner Bros. would be not as highly leveraged and make it a more attractive acquisition target. That would mean a bidding process that might include Netflix. It might include Apple, it might include Comcast or Amazon.”