Jeff Zucker Is Bullish That AI Can Bring Down Production Costs
Jeff Zucker, the CEO of RedBird IMI and operating partner of RedBird Capital, discussed the outlook for deals, AI and the news media during a Content London 2025 keynote conversation on Wednesday.
“We want to make money,” he said about the firm’s focus. “We are strategic investors who have patience.”
How does his executive experience help make sure portfolio companies run well and smoothly? Zucker said he brings the “ability to bridge the private equity speak with the management speak,” quipping that when he was a unit head or ran the Today show earlier in his career, he also never wanted to hear from the corporate guys.
“News is a difficult investment,” he said. “Not just the business model is troubled or under assault.” There is “also just the entire atmosphere of attacks on journalism. And I think you could argue that journalism has never been more important, whether you’re in the U.K. or the U.S. or anywhere. I think it’s incredibly important.”
Zucker concluded that there “has never been a more important time for news. But also, its business model, and its editorial, are under assault, and it’s really, really difficult.”
His business approach and take is to focus on news operations that “give people something unique” or “an edge” in their profession instead of being “a generalist.” He concluded that “deep, deep, deep information” or “very niche” are the ways to go.
“Owning IP is really important,” he said about RedBird IMI’s broader focus, adding that “quality IP” is the holy grail. In the entertainment space, “recurring, great, appealing IP content” is key, Zucker emphasized, highlighting the success of RedBird IMI’s All3Media and Media Res businesses, among others. “Great, compelling IP content is really what we believe in. And I think that was the thesis behind our investment here in the U.K. in All3Media, which is our largest investment in the world and has a terrific team and a terrific slate of companies that produce incredible programming.”
What about artificial intelligence? “AI is a much bigger deal now than it was even two years ago,” Zucker highlighted, describing AI as “an opportunity.” Said the industry veteran: “We don’t think that it will be able to capture the same drama that Celebrity Traitors did, or the human emotion that’s Hamnet [made by All3Media’s Neal Street Productions], for example. But we think it’ll bring down the production costs tremendously. So, we think it’s an opportunity.”
In news, Zucker added, AI is “not going to meet sources in an underground garage and break stories. But it’s a great tool for news organizations as well. So AI is … a great opportunity to utilize.”
Zucker did not discuss in detail the bidding showdown for Warner Bros. Discovery that Paramount, Netflix and Comcast are involved in, but offered: “There is going to be consolidation. Right now, I think that’s probably necessary. The landscape has changed tremendously in the last five years.”
He added: “I don’t think this will be the last of it. I do think there will be more, and part of that will depend on what happens with what’s going on now [since not all bidders will win out]. … I don’t think it’s the end of legacy media at all. The reality is there’s a lot of interest in the IP that’s owned, and that’s why people are interested in it. And so there’s going to continue to be that interest, but there is going to have to be further consolidation.”
Last year, the former president of CNN and CEO of NBCUniversal had emphasized that the investment company focuses on the core idea that “intellectual property and quality content, whether it’s entertainment or news and information, will succeed in the long run with the proper eventual amount of capital and patience.” So, instead of cost-cutting and “having to just manage decline,” his team is focusing on investing, building, and growing, he said last year.
Among past RedBird IMI deals are the $1.45 billion acquisition of production powerhouse All3Media, the company behind such shows as reality series Squid Game: The Challenge and films like World War I epic 1917, and a stake in Media Res, the studio behind the Apple TV+ shows The Morning Show and Pachinko, among other projects.
Launched in late 2022 with a $1 billion war chest backed by RedBird Capital and Abu Dhabi’s IMI, RedBird IMI has the mandate to pursue investments in the news, entertainment and sports sectors. Led by Zucker, the firm has previously also struck deals to launch the nonfiction studio EverWonder, as well as the sports industry news outlet Front Office Sports. Meanwhile, RedBird Capital has also invested in the likes of Skydance Media, which recently acquired Paramount Global, the YES Network, and Matt Damon and Ben Affleck’s Artists Equity.
He shared that his core team consists of around five people. “It’s not the same day-to-day pace” as his past jobs, he said. “I have a life.” There is also the downside of not being in the middle of the action all the time, he joked.
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