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Quest Means Business

Military Finally Reaches Remote Morocco Earthquake Epicenter; EU Downgrades 2023 Growth Forecast; Source: Kim Is Headed To Russia To Meet With Putin; Smucker Buying Twinkies Maker Hostess For $6.5B; Deezer Changes How Artists Get Paid; Spanish Court Admits Complaint Against Rubiales. Aired 3-4p ET

Aired September 11, 2023 - 15:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[15:00:34]

RICHARD QUEST, CNN INTERNATIONAL HOST: There is an hour to trade left on Wall Street and these are the way the markets are looking. A nice gain, but

it has given back much from earlier in the session, just over a hundred points and the markets. I mean, it's still a summer lag if you will.

The events that we are covering tonight for you. Rescue teams are struggling to reach isolated villages devastated by Friday's earthquake in

Morocco. The number of people who have died is now more than 2,600.

Europe's economy is losing momentum as higher interest rates are biting.

And the streaming platform, Deezer wants to pay royalties for real music and not just noise. The chief exec explains the expensive strategy.

We are live from New York. It is Monday, September the 11th. I'm Richard Quest, back from vacation, and I mean business.

We start tonight, of course in Morocco where the military has reached the epicenter of Friday's horrendous earthquake.

State media is now showing trucks bringing in aid and equipment to the high Atlas Mountains southwest of Marrakech. It is three days since the quake

initially struck. It is the most powerful earthquake to hit Morocco in more than a century. And as I said, more than 2,600 people are known to have

died. Thousands of people are injured, many critically.

And of course, help is still being needed and sought. There's still many communities that have not received what they need.

The key roads into the mountains have either been damaged or blocked by debris. And as you can see, now the work is to clear the landslides on the

way to Adassil, a small town close to the epicenter.

Entire villages destroyed, those displaced and are facing more nights sleeping outside.

CNN's Sam Kiley has this report from one of those devastated towns.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SAM KILEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Another victim buried, returned to the earth that killed when it shook.

More than 2,000 people have perished in the worst Moroccan earthquake in over a hundred years. Most of the deaths were in villages in the Atlas

Mountains, where homes cracked and crumbled late on Friday night.

KILEY (on camera): The pancaking of these buildings down a side street here in Moulay Brahim killed 25 people. Three or four are still missing, believe

buried in the rubble.

And this is a pattern that has been repeated throughout this province. And it looks very often like there's been some kind of airstrike, the

collapsing buildings here actually leaving holes as if they have been hit by Russian bombs in Ukraine, but this has been an all-too-natural disaster.

KILEY (voice over): At least three elderly people have been entombed here in the remains of their hotel and a fourth guest is missing. After the

quake, Sami called his parents for a day-and-a-half. It rang out until the battery died, too.

SAMI SENSIS, SON OF EARTHQUAKE VICTIMS: I'm here just because I have lost two of my best things that I have in this life, my parents. My father and

my mother, I have lost them here.

KILEY: His grief turns to anger at the government, as it does for so many here.

SENSIS: They have no planification. Only they have words. It's a balloon of words, only that they have words. That's all.

KILEY: Aid is arriving, but slowly.

In Asni nearby, authorities tell me that 27 people were killed in the quake and 1,200 lost their homes.

KILEY (on camera): So, Fatima and her husband have said that, when they were in the house, she was in the bath, when this series of explosions

broke out. They said there was no shaking of the ground. She's saying that it felt like the blast from a Kalashnikov automatic rifle, that this was

like a sense that the place had been hit by a war.

[15:05:10]

They had no idea that they were suffering from an earthquake. Luckily for them they evacuated their family very rapidly. Nobody in their family was

killed. But, in the village, there was -- 27 people were killed.

KILEY (voice over): The house is now abandoned. But Fatima led a team of local women to find food and shelter for the homeless before any aid

arrived, all the food here the result of private donations.

Many villages here remain isolated, roads cut by landslides. Relief operations will focus on getting to them. Firefighters consider searching

for bodies beneath the hotel. Their conclusion is disappointing.

Amidst shocks and shattered masonry, it's just too dangerous to rescue the dead.

So, for now, Sami's parents will stay buried where they are.

Sam Kiley, CNN, in Moulay Brahim.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

QUEST: International aid is now arriving in the country. The Moroccan King earlier thanked the United Kingdom, Spain, Qatar and the UAE for their

efforts. Businesses are also stepping up. Intrepid Travel is one of the largest tour operators in Morocco, and is now running an emergency appeal

to its foundation to provide relief.

Zina Bencheikh is Intrepid's managing director for Europe, Middle East, and Africa. She's in Marrakech now. Can you can you hear me, Zina?

ZINA BENCHEIKH, MANAGING DIRECTOR EMEA, INTREPID TRAVEL: Absolutely, yes, I can hear you well.

QUEST: So I mean, there are really three stages here, aren't there, in terms of -- from the way you look at it. The first thing is the people who

are on holiday, you know, to make sure their safety, security, and repatriate them to their home countries.

The next, of course, is what you can do to help the rescue effort.

BENCHEIKH: Absolutely, so the people who are -- who have been on holidays here, for us, it was a very large number of them. We had 600 customers on

the ground when the earthquake hit first and we are very blessed that we could account for all of them, and all of them are safe.

As a tour operator, we also have a large operations here in Morocco with 100 guides and more than 70 office staff, which also we have been able to

account for which again, we feel very blessed about.

Now, the areas that the earthquake have hits the most are, as you mentioned, the rural areas of Morocco in the high Atlas Mountains, and

those villages that have been devastated are still kind of localized, and the majority of people who were traveling throughout Morocco were not

there.

So, in fact, not everyone has run into airports when this happened, because they didn't feel it the same way than the ones that were closer to the

epicenter. I am --

QUEST: Let me just come in on that, because now, we move to that second area that we were talking about, how you and your company and your

employees can assist to raise money. What are you doing?

BENCHEIKH: So we've got -- you know, you mentioned earlier that the areas are quite removed and also roads are blocked. So for us, the best way to

support those communities was to partner with local grassroots projects and associations. So we have two of them that we are a long term partner of

that we connected with and they are on the ground and they are delivering blankets and food and clean water and all of the basic needs that people

need, because they're sleeping outside and they need this as first needs as in the meantime, governments and international support are doing their

rescuing effort.

We are raising money for -- we are supporting them.

QUEST: Right. There's one final point, of course that we must just touch on. It's probably too soon to talk about what happens in the future for

tourism while you're still pulling people from the wreckage.

But of course, tourism is the mainstay of the economy, and as we saw with Maui recently. At some point, there has to be, you've got to get back into

business. Not yet, but you have to get back into business, because that's going to be the jobs and the incomes for people living in Marrakech, and in

Morocco.

BENCHEIKH: Absolutely. What worst can happen to the people of Morocco is that tourism stops, it is worse than anything right now. It is high season

and it was a one year that was expected to be a record year for tourism and for the recovery post pandemic.

There is, you know, we're witnessing people and guides telling us that they want to ask to encourage people to come. In fact, travel advisory from the

UK haven't changed, to discourage people to come to Morocco because these areas are very localized and this is what I'm trying to really try to

highlight.

And so out of the 600 people on the ground right now, only 17 decided to stop their holidays and go back home. And in a way, it shows some

reassurance that travel will come back faster than we think and it is very much needed.

QUEST: History shows as you well know that, you know, history well shows us that you have to any form of crisis, disaster, tourism comes back and

provided it is properly fostered.

I'm grateful for you joining us tonight. Thank you.

BENCHEIKH: Absolutely.

[15:10:35]

QUEST: QUEST MEANS BUSINESS: The North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is reportedly on his way to Russia. The Kremlin says he'll meet President

Putin.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

QUEST: The EU is growing more pessimistic about this stage of its economy. The Commission now predicts the Eurozone will grow just 0.8 percent this

year. Weak demand and high inflation are the reasons and the Commission also said extreme weather is threatening the US's economy.

Europe has faced record heat, wildfires and floods this summer and the Travel Commission says, tourism in the Mediterranean countries has fallen

from last year.

Anna Stewart is in London.

When I listened to those reasons, and the travel, I mean, this is sort of, tell us something we didn't -- you know, we knew this, but it doesn't bode

well for the EU to pull itself out.

ANNA STEWART, CNN REPORTER: No, I mean subdued economic growth, I could think of a fair few actually that might beat that one in terms of the

growth outlook for the EU and the Eurozone, particularly the Eurozone.

With 0.8 percent this year, down from 1.1 percent, so we already weren't expecting much growth, but this is pretty gloomy in terms of the outlook

and so many reasons and some of the usual suspects.

So, of course the war in Ukraine is still having an impact. Energy prices have declined, but they are expected actually to go back up again, as a

result of higher oil prices.

You have China's reopening rebound, which was pretty short lived, but I think this climate element was an interesting addition to the outlook

because at this stage, we're not just looking at the impact of climate change, you know, in the sort of longer term forecast and how much it could

cost. We're looking at the cost it is already having, particularly with tourism, given some of those European countries rely on tourism for a fifth

of their GDP. So that was pretty interesting.

And Germany, no surprises there, but Germany expected to contract this year. We have already seen it, Richard, in all of the economic indicators.

[15:15:06]

QUEST: But, Anna, if these countries, if Germany obviously contracts, and if all the others remain sluggish, you may avoid a technical recession or a

second recession or whatever. You may not meet the definition, but you're not going to -- you're not going to get the sort of growth that you need if

you're going to create more jobs, and you're going to put things right from the pandemic.

STEWART: Exactly, and then what do you do? Because if we are already in, and I think you and I have agreed on this in the past, that we're already

in a period of stagflation, how bad is it going to get and how hard will it be to get out of that? And this is the huge question for the ECB this week.

And this one is a really hard one to call. I've actually seen completely different comments now from economists on what to expect, so many think

that we've already hit the peak, three and three-quarter percent is where the rate is right now for the ECB, that is the terminal rate, according to,

I'd say, most banks, but some think there's another to come before the end of the year.

Will it be a pause this week or have we hit the peak or will there be a rate hike? You know, that is still very much an option on the table because

the inflation picture doesn't look good, because wage growth doesn't look good.

QUEST: Anna Stewart in London, I'm grateful.

North Korea's leader Kim Jong-un is apparently on his way to Russia. A South Korean government source has said that Kim has boarded his armored

train, which he used during his last trip.

The Kremlin has confirmed a planned meeting with President Putin in the coming days and it says Mr. Putin invited Kim to make an official visit.

The US says the two countries are working on an arms deal as Russia looks for global allies.

Will Ripley is in Taiwan. Will is with me now.

Now, this is very interesting isn't it's in a sense that who is getting the best part of the deal here?

WILL RIPLEY, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Kim Jong-un, I would argue, only because now, just imagine the humiliation that he felt after President

Trump walked out of the Hanoi Summit and Kim Jong-un had to ride that train, that signature green train all the way back to Pyongyang after state

media previewed the Summit with Trump, said big things were going to happen and then nothing happened.

President Trump walked out; Kim basically came home empty handed and yet, he took that moment to decide, okay, done with the US, let's start building

and creating a bigger stockpile of ballistic missiles. Let's start testing more missiles. Let's grow this nuclear arsenal.

And of course, we know that North Korea already has had a large -- a huge stockpile of ammunition artillery, exactly the kind of thing that now

Vladimir Putin needs on the battlefield. And so the fact that Vladimir Putin, you know, is potentially reaching out to Kim Jong-un, someone that

in the past, he would have met with out of courtesy, yet now he's asking him for a meeting, asking to make a deal.

Basically, you know, standing side by side with North Korea and Russia. Russia was North Korea's original patron. They were the ones that when the

Soviet Union collapsed, North Korea's economy collapsed.

But here they are now, led by Kim Jong-un, essentially, potentially, on the verge, Richard of being the most powerful North Korea that the world has

known in the 70-plus years.

QUEST: Right. But Will, as we look at the grouping that's coming together, if you will. I mean, one doesn't want to sort of make analogies to James

Bond movies or whatever, but you've got the baddies on the one side and the goodies on the other, depending on how you choose to define that. Different

people will have different definitions.

But you do have China, you do have North Korea now, you do Russia. You've got a series of countries for whom democracy in the sense, we would

understand it is a foreign language.

RIPLEY: They essentially act in lockstep, Richard, unlike the West, which, you know, democracies by their nature, there is conflict, it's messy.

Things don't always stay the same.

But when you have dictators running the show, they essentially can lay out a plan and stick with that plan as long as they decide that they want to.

And some might argue that that gives China and Russia and North Korea and Iran an advantage here because they can stick together and stick with each

other despite whatever the rest of the world's opinion, the free world's opinion is. That could be potentially very dangerous, especially because

Russia and China have veto power at the United Nations.

So essentially, they can now buffer North Korea from any sanctions and not enforce sanctions, frankly, because most of the sanctions need to be

enforced by China, which shares a border with North Korea.

So if China looks the other way, vetoes any action against North Korea, Russia does the same. Kim Jong-un is emboldened to grow and realize his

dream of becoming a full-fledged nuclear power and Russia potentially transferring knowledge to Kim in exchange for these weapons that Kim will

provide Putin for his war in Ukraine. You can see very quickly how this trio of authoritarian strongmen is getting stronger and stronger, and the

West certainly will have its work cut out for it.

[15:20:23]

QUEST: Will, you're always informative and eloquent. The fact that you can do it at 3:20 in the morning and stay up late for us tonight is a

remarkable achievement. We are delighted to have you. Thank you.

Will Ripley in Taipei.

Now in the next hour, President Biden is due back in the United States after attending all of those meetings -- the G20, and the Vietnamese

leaders in Hanoi.

During the trip, Vietnam was elevated the US to a comprehensive strategic partner, the same term it uses for China and Russia. The two countries also

reached deals on computer chips and rare earth minerals.

Consensus was harder to find at the G20 in New Delhi. There, the members had to compromise on their description of the war in Ukraine. They

condemned the suffering without blaming Russia directly.

India hailed the joint statement as a diplomatic success as he takes on a more pivotal role in the world. The prime minister, Narendra Modi was at

the BRICS Summit a few weeks ago in South Africa.

I do beg your pardon -- at that meeting, he spoke directly to China's President Xi Jinping, who notably spurned the G20. The bloc agreed this

year to add six new members as it tries to become a forum for developing nations.

So Jim O'Neill is the economist who coined the term BRICS back in 2001. I guess, sometimes you just wish you hadn't, but other times, it's been very

lucrative and, and well worth it. So you take it with one, and you give with the other.

But Jim, two developments that really are. You've got the expansion of the BRICS and you've got, I would argue, the flailing, bordering on failing, of

the G20 at heads of government level, what would you say?

JIM O'NEILL, ECONOMIST: Hey, Richard, nice to speak to you. Long time to speak.

I don't really agree with your assessment of the G20. In fact, I'm just about to write something that will be published in the next few days,

saying that the sort of diplomacy, which I suspect the US played a big role of in here might have resurrected the G20 to a more usefulness than it's

been for a few years.

And while the statement on Ukraine obviously wasn't what Ukraine would have liked, it looks to me like the US probably dragged the Europeans into

agreeing to what the Indians were proposing, partly because of the things that were said. It means Putin can't get away with some of what he thinks

he can get away with, with his BRICS friends, quite as easily going forward. And that in itself is quite an achievement. And obviously, as

we're seeing lots of Western leaders are still saying exactly what they were saying before.

But in the broader context, I think the fact that the US has allowed Modi to seem so successful diplomatically in this G21, which is my next

important point, is the whole idea of bringing in the African Union, which itself undermines the BRICS expansion, because, you know, instead of sort

of randomly asking Ethiopia and Egypt on what criteria why those two countries, now we have the G20 embrace the whole of the African Union.

That's quite a diplomatic coup.

QUEST: What purpose does an enlarged BRICS serve? I've got, Saudi, Iran, Ethiopia, Egypt, Argentina, the UAE, along with the others, I mean, the

different political systems, obviously, the different economic systems in some cases, but I wonder whether the BRICS are shooting themselves in the

foot by trying to make themselves too big.

O'NEILL: I mean, I actually agree with that. I may be a bit struck, given that I created the acronym. I don't really see -- it has not achieved a

great deal anyhow as a political group, and by randomly expanding it to more than double its size of five particularly, given the countries they've

chosen doesn't take a great deal of sense to me.

[15:25:06]

And I have to add that I'm very, very surprised, President Xi, for whatever reason deciding to not attend, because that in itself undermines a G20

hosted by supposedly one of his close BRICS colleagues and it's because we know the Chinese and the Indians don't really agree on much anyhow, so, I

don't get it.

QUEST: A lot of these groupings, though, did coalesce around the idea of trade, and doing more trade and freedom on free trade areas, et cetera. I'm

wondering post pandemic, and the reversal of globalization, even before then, whether the trade argument for such groupings.

I think you've got the Brits joining the old TPP -- or what we used to called the TPP -- which is not exactly around the corner to the Pacific

from the United Kingdom, but they use this argument that it is trade. Is that still a valid argument?

O'NEILL: I actually think, as I was outlining a little bit, I think the G20 is a place to discuss really big global issues, however difficult it is

with different countries having different political beliefs. You know, in this complex world, where some of the BRICS particularly China and India

have become so big. And by the way, as an aside, I don't share the same view as your colleague from Taiwan, whilst China might say nice deployment,

diplomatic things, to not embarrass Russia publicly, I personally don't think China is that enamored at all with many of the things that Putin has

been up to.

But on the core issues of China boost global trade, trying to get fair economic growth, dealing with climate change, fighting infectious diseases,

having all of these guys in the same room, which now includes the African Union is a group that is 85 percent of global GDP. The BRICS+ as you might

call it, as big as it is, because of China, you know, it doesn't have that many other hugely important economies in, and the G7 is a group

increasingly dominated by the US because most of the rest of them are declining economically.

So you've got to have it all there together, or some representation of them all there together, if we want to be really serious about all these truly,

truly global economic issues, and goodness me, there is certainly no shortage of.

QUEST: Jim, you've given us the new pneumonic BRICS+.

Thank you, sir. I'm grateful. You can wait another 20 years for the next one. Thank you, sir.

Jim O'Neill -- Sir Jim O'Neill joining us there.

Coming up, rescuers are getting closer to freeing a sick American who is trapped in a Turkish cave, the mammoth operation. We will update you in a

moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:31:15]

QUEST: Hello, I'm Richard Quest. There's more QUEST MEANS BUSINESS in a moment. The maker of an iconic American treat the Twinkie has a new owner

and we'll discuss what they want to do with the company.

And music streaming service Deezer says it will pay artists with a new model. I will speak to the chief executive. Before that, this is CNN. And

here the news always comes first.

The National Court in Spain has admitted a complaint against the Luis Rubiales. It's in connection with the unwanted kiss he gave the football

star Jenni Hermoso after the women's national team won the World Cup. The admittance of the complaint now allows the court to begin to gather

evidence against Rubiales.

A powerful and deadly storm unleashed devastating floods in eastern Libya. State media's reporting and "an official who says more than 2000 people are

fair to being killed in one city alone." The official didn't give a source for the numbers and the Red Crescent said earlier they estimate 150 to 250

people are dead in the city of Derna.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved updated COVID-19 booster shots from both Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech. The vaccines target the new

variants and are authorized for people 12 years and older, younger children can get the booster if it is considered emergency use.

An update on our top story. The number of people who have died in the catastrophic earthquake in Morocco. Now the authorities say it's 2862

people. The state-run broadcaster 2M says more than 2-1/2,000 people are injured. That number will rise dramatically. Because many are still waiting

for help as rescue teams work to clear roads that are clogged by debris.

Rescue efforts to save an American man trapped in a cave in Turkey could soon be complete. Mark Dickey became severely ill during a cave exploration

in the Morca Sinkhole more than a week ago. Since then, 200 rescuers have been working to free him from a depth of more than 1200 meters. He's now

180 meters below the surface. The crews will start moving him again after he rests.

Jomana Karadsheh has been following the events. She joins me now. This has been the most remarkable operation to -- because obviously the man is ill.

He's debilitated. And it's a very onerous and arduous lift.

JOMANA KARADSHEH, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It really is. And we're talking, Richard, about Turkey's third deepest cave. That is about more

than 1000 meters deep and we're talking about a cave with very narrow and winding passages, making it very difficult for rescuers to get him on a

stretcher and get him out of there. But it's very important to point out that Mark Dickey after that gastrointestinal bleeding that began over 10

days ago, he has since been stabilized.

His condition has been improving. And he's been able to walk. But it's still in ideal conditions, Richard, it would take an experienced caver more

than 15 hours to reach the surface. So you can imagine his condition, they've had to be very careful. They've had to try and figure out how to

get him on a stretcher and get him out of there. And as you mentioned, you have more than 180 rescuers who've been involved in this real multinational

effort.

And as of about an hour ago, Richard, we heard from the Turkish Caving Federation and they're saying that he has reached the 100 meters from the

surface point.

[15:35:06]

This is the final stretch they say and they believe that he could be out of there potentially in the next couple of hours. Of course, it's a very fluid

situation. We'll have to wait and see. But they are hopeful that they are going to get him out of there tonight. This is an operation that began on

Saturday. And what they did is they divided this into seven levels with camps set up at each of these levels where they would stop pressed and move

again.

Right now, this is the final stretch, they say. There's no rusting, they're going to move him out in the next couple of hours, hopefully.

QUEST: And that's his condition. What do we know?

KARADSHEH: Well, his condition we heard from, Richard, from Mark Dickey himself just a couple of days ago in a video statement saying that he was

feeling much better. He's in stable condition right now. We've heard from the Turkish authorities, from the Turkish Caving Federation, the European

Caving Association as well saying that he was stabilized that he is in good condition.

They were able to carry out a blood transfusion, Richard, while he was deep inside that cave, The bleeding has stopped. He's OK and his condition

continues to improve. But as soon as he gets out of there, the plan we understand according to Turkish officials is to get him on a chopper and

get him to Mersin hospital in southern Turkey.

QUEST: Jomana, thank you. You'll come back to us when he's got -- he is out of the cave and on his way to hospital. Thank you.

Now, these are the cakes. They are an American institution. They are the Twinkies, that all sorts, the Zingers. The company that makes them, the

food makers Smucker will now pay $5-1/2 dollars for Hostess that makes these wonderful treats.

Well, I don't think it's got much that nature ever brought to it. But let me see if I can get through the break without opening them. Failed.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. I see that. I host this truck.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So what?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I can use a Twinkie.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

QUEST: A clip from the movie Zombieland and this is what they are talking about. As every American child, every vending machine in university schools

gotten a look at them. That's what it is. It's a delightful little sponge cake that's got a sort of a artificial cream in the middle.

[15:40:02]

And they're made by the company Hostess which makes other treats like Hohos and Zingers. Now it's being bought by the jams and jelly maker Smucker's.

With a name like this, it has to be good, as they always say. And their little cakes are fetching a big price. $5-1/2 billion and it's set to close

next year. Hostess shares soared on the news. The Nathaniel Meyersohn is with me now. And why does Smucker's want Twinkies and Hostess?

NATHANIEL MEYERSOHN, CNN BUSINESS REPORTER: Well, Richard, you're not the only one with a Twinkie right now or a cupcake. But -- so, Smucker's wants

Hostess because more consumers are snacking. That's really the big trend right now. We've moved away from breakfast, lunch and dinner into snacks.

Smucker's says that consumers snack at least twice a day, 70 percent of consumers and so they're gobbling up the snack brands as more people switch

from meals into snacks as you are right now.

Look, it's 3:30 here on the East Coast. You're having a snack.

QUEST: Right, right. Now, you see, now, typical, typical. You're calling it a snack. It's afternoon tea. I got my cup of tea and I got my snack. Natan,

just give me an idea and as a born and bred American, Nathaniel. The role that Twinkies had when you're growing up in school, it's part of the fabric

of youth in a sense.

MEYERSOHN: Yes. Smucker's really tapping into the nostalgia here. Twinkie is a nostalgic brand. It's about 90 years old parents, grandparents, kids.

I think what really stood out to me when I saw this deal was we hear so much talk about people trying to eat healthier, moving away from these

sweets, high-sugary foods. But there's still a place for brands like Twinkies and for the indulgence. I think Smucker's really placing a bet

here that people still want sweets.

QUEST: And is this a deal in your view that fire is a starting gun for other deals or does it stand on its own?

MEYERSOHN: I think that it's part of a larger trend of consolidation right now in the food industry. An interesting deal recently in the past month or

so was Campbells Soup bought Rao's, the tomato sauce. We see these big food brands looking for different avenues of growth, especially, you know, they

boomed during the pandemic when everybody was stuck at home, snacking up, stocking up.

But now growth has slowed down a little bit. And so, they're looking at mergers and acquisitions and other areas of growth right now.

QUEST: All right. I'm going to let you have one. Which one -- if you -- if you could only have one, which one would it be? The Twinkie or the Zinger?

MEYERSOHN: Got to go for the -- for the Twinkie.

QUEST: Nathaniel Meyersohn. Thank you, sir.

MEYERSOHN: I'll try it with you.

QUEST: Too late, mate. I'm ahead of you. I'm ahead of you. Thank you. Disney has struck a carriage deal with a major U.S. cable provider and in

time for Monday Night Football. The dispute nearly blacked out tonight's game between the New York Jets and the Buffalo Bills for some 15 million

cable subscribers. Now Monday Night Football, which is the valuable show ESPN reportedly pays the NFL $2 billion a year for the broadcast rights.

No wonder then that the NFL made an estimated $18 billion in revenue last year which makes it the most valuable sports league in the world.

Coy Wire won't need to cable to watch tonight's contest. He joins me from MetLife Stadium where the game will kick off in a few hours from now. This

is interesting because the deal for -- that they put together is significant when it comes to streaming. It's significant because

everybody's into streaming.

COY WIRE, CNN WORLD SPORT ANCHOR: Yes. And football American football. Richard is just such a huge fabric in the tapestry of American culture. 82

of the most watched television programs out of the top 100 were NFL games. Last season, last year and five more were collegiate football games in the

top 100. So, you can see it's hegemonic and billions of dollars, just billions of dollars that ESPN deal are just one of five other media rights

partners.

Each offering also about $2 billion a year to be able to broadcast and stream as you mentioned, NFL, America's most popular sport. I -- everyone

in America either knows or has heard of someone who won't even schedule their wedding during football season because they can infringe upon their

game days. Both college and the NFL. And there's big money not just in -- for the teams and the playing and the players but also the broadcasters.

[15:45:04]

Tonight's game, Monday Night Football, Joe Buck and Troy Aikman. Troy Hickman gets a reported $18 million a year to call Monday Night Football

games. 18 weeks of the season. That's not too bad. Richard Quest, I think you would make an outstanding American football broadcaster. Name your

price, Richard Quest.

QUEST: I couldn't even. I tried to learn the rules of Cricket and it was -- I failed on that. American Football is one of those weird ones. Now

tonight, you're there, you've been granted access and privilege to access which is really quite cool to be there.

WIRE: Yes, this is the first Monday night of the NFL season. And Monday night is whatever young football player dreams up of playing. When -- if

they're fortunate to play the game someday, I was fortunate to play for two different teams, the Atlanta Falcons and the Buffalo Bills. The Buffalo

Bills tonight have traveled here to MetLife Stadium to take on the New York Jets and they have their new quarterback Aaron Rodgers, four-time league

MVP.

It's going to be light out. I'm a little biased, just a little bias.

QUEST: I was about to say.

WIRE: But I think I'm allowed to be.

QUEST: I was about to say --

(CROSSTALK)

QUEST: -- who is going to win tonight. And then I suddenly thought, well, there's no point in asking him, he'll do, you know, who do you think will

win?

WIRE: Well, it -- there's no doubt it's going to be a great game. I mean, Aaron Rodgers, one of the greatest players to ever throw a football. He's

changed the game in many ways. And he's iconic quarterback playing it for the Jets for the first time ever after 18 seasons. For the Green Bay

Packers, they have a high-powered offense. But that Buffalo Bills defense, they've developed a name for themselves. They are a vaunted defense.

So, we'll see who wins out. I played defense, when I played my nine seasons in the NFL. So I'm a little biased towards that side of the ball. And of

course, to the Buffalo Bills. I'm going to say it's going to be Bills by a million tonight. Bills by a million. That's my call.

QUEST: I'm going to go back to my Twinkies that I was eating from earlier. I'll bet you've had a Twinkie --

(CROSSTALK)

WIRE: You're going to be hungry for Twinkies. I'm mad at you.

QUEST: I know. I know. I think you've eaten a few of those in your time. Thank you. Good to have you, sir. Thank you.

As we continue tonight, the streaming service Deezer is boosting royalties to popular artists. A chief exec is with me next. And it's a question of

whether this move will start a new industry standard. In a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:50:07]

QUEST: The streaming service Deezer is changing the way artists get paid. To understand it all, let's look at the top global songs on Deezer right

now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

QUEST: It's called Dance the Night and before the artists Dua Lipa would have been paid the same as everybody else. Now she'll get twice as much

because she has more than 1000 monthly streams. If someone searches for that song, specifically, it earns four times the normal rate. Deezer it

will help keep tracks like this one from taking artists earnings.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

QUEST: White noise. (INAUDIBLE) tracks like that white noise and those from amateurs and bots. Took in $900 million in royalties last year. Noise,

white noise. I didn't even know that until today. Jeronimo Folgueira is the CEO of Deezer. He joins me now from Paris. Good evening, sir. Thank you.

The number -- the figure that you settle that of 1000 streams. Where did that come from? I'm sure there's a certain amount, lots of research that

went into it. But, you know, why not 800? Why not 1400?

JERONIMO FOLGUEIRA, CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, DEEZER: So, we've been working on the data now for several months to try to get the right thresholds. And

we felt that at the threshold of 1000 streams and 500 monthly listeners, it was the level at which the users on our platforms consider the content to

be valuable for them and drives engagement. And therefore, user --artists that get to that level will get the artist boost.

And additionally, as you rightly pointed out, if someone searches for the song or proactively listens to will get a four times post. And we feel that

at that level, basically, the artists have created valuable content for our platform.

QUEST: The reason for this, of course, is a certain element of equity between artists. Those who are getting the most should get the most paid.

And as you say, the noise bit does that. But is this likely to be followed by -- for want of a better phrase, forgive me, the larger streaming

companies? The hope here from your point of view is that it is.

FOLGUEIRA: So, we believe that the system is a lot better than the pool system we had until now. And after 15 years, plus, it's time to review and

reinvent the model. Obviously, when the model launcher, there was a very small catalog with all the high-quality songs from the top artist. Now we

have 200 million songs in the catalog. And as you also mentioned, there is also a lot of white noise and other lower quality content.

And as in any other industry, there is some content that is more valuable than others. And what we're trying to do is reward those artists that are

creating high valuable content that people love and want to listen to.

QUEST: Right. But from your point of view as a company, as you expand into new markets, and you have to attract people to your streaming service, at

the same time on both sides, those who use it, and the artists who register with you.

FOLGUEIRA: We have a full catalog. So, we clear the rights for all the songs our catalog is exactly the same as our competitors. So, the catalog

is pretty much the same. And what we want is to give a great user experience. So, the users, they want songs that are valuable to them and

what they want to listen to. And having a catalogue that is full is extremely important. But having hundreds and hundreds of songs of which a

big chunk of them are not songs that they are -- that they're valuable to the users.

It's also not great for user experience. And we do expect that with our move, we're showing the way for the rest of the players to follow. Because

we expect that this is a move that is needed for the industry as a whole. It creates a much healthier ecosystem for the artists and for the music

industry as a whole.

QUEST: On that point, is this a -- is this an issue, a problem, if you will, that the other major streamers, Spotify, Apple news, et cetera, et

cetera. They all know it's a problem, but they haven't been prepared to tackle it. And what you've done is putting a workable solution into

practice. Everybody knows, you know, it's the old joke. Everybody knows what needs to be done. They just can't be bothered to do it. Then you've

actually done it.

[15:55:00]

FOLGUEIRA: I think that's one of the benefits of being one of the smaller players in the industry because we can be more challenged, we can take more

risks. So, everybody knew that this needed to be done, that the model needed to be reviewed. But obviously, when you're really large, it's much

harder to make bold moves. And for us, it's very important. We have music at our heart. We consider ourselves a home of music, especially (INAUDIBLE)

music.

And we felt that the model that we came up with is very solid model. It's still not perfect and this is why we will continue to review it. So, we are

getting feedback from different players and so on on how we can make it even better. So, it's something we will continue to review, but the new

model is very solid and so much better than the other model we had. And we felt that if we do the move and we show that this is a workable solution,

then the rest of the players will follow.

We also did the same when it came to (INAUDIBLE) we were the first one to change pricing and move away from the 999. And within a year basically all

of our competitors followed. So, we are the --

(CROSSTALK)

QUEST: My guess is --

(CROSSTALK)

FOLGUEIRA: -- the rules --

QUEST: My guess is that your competitors, everybody who's going to be watching this with unhealthy and indecent interest trying to work out how

successful or otherwise it is. Sir. I'm grateful that you've joined us. Perhaps come back next year and tell us how it's going. I'd love to hear

more about --

(CROSSTALK)

FOLGUEIRA: Absolutely. It will be a pleasure.

QUEST: And we'll have a profitable moment after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

QUEST: Tonight's profitable moment. We talk to you about snacks. Well, the one thing I remember as a junior economics reporter is that snacks,

biscuits and cakes are often widely considered to be recession proof. Even in bad times, we like to go out and buy some things like this. And I think

today's deal with Smucker makes exactly that point. We will continue to spend money particularly at the lower end when it's only $1.00 or two for

something like this.

And that is why the deal makes sense. It's why you'll see more of them. And this whole concept of the recession resistant, recession proof snack gives

it an entirely different area if you will, on the grocery shelf.

One other thought briefly and quickly. I'm back after a two weeks -- two- week holiday, two-week vacation and greatly feeling the benefit from having a full two weeks away from the office.

[16:00:09]

I thoroughly recommend it all for you next year. And that's QUEST MEANS BUSINESS for tonight. I'm Richard Quest back in harness. Whatever you're up

to in the hours ahead, I hope it's profitable. See you tomorrow.

END