 Hey everybody, this is Ross Miller with The Verge and I am sitting here with Keith Valerie, the CEO of Plex. Keith, thank you so much for joining us this week. Thanks for having me. I appreciate being here. So I want to get into a lot of stuff, but let's start top level. I don't want to assume the viewer knows anything. What is Plex? So Plex is a media app that helps people manage all of their media collections. So video collections, photo collections, music collections. We add a lot of metadata and other related content to that and give you kind of powerful organizational tools. And then allows you to stream that to virtually all of your devices. All of our big screen apps are free. And honestly, that's been the goal over time is to make sure as many people can use this as a product as possible. So we want to make it free and kind of open up the funnel. With so many different media player apps, you're like juggling a number of code bases. What is the support staff behind that now? How much of a hurdle is it to keep all these different apps supported? Because it's what? Smart TVs? You basically have as many almost as Netflix at this point. Because with, I don't know what that is, seven or eight languages, we're able to cover a lot, hundreds and hundreds of devices. And the big one, of course, that just came out, the big problem was the Apple TV one. You guys famously had this post about it took five weeks to develop. We got this up just like I think a week after the Apple TV launched. What was the reaction to that in terms of like, not just like online. People really loved it online. But like how much of a subscriber boost did you get from the Apple TV? We absolutely got a subscriber boost. What was interesting as well is that a lot of our current users switched over to it very quickly. That's still, in a short period of time, it's not in the top apps that we have right now. But it's climbing very, very quickly. What is the top one? I would say probably the Roku is probably the most used streaming device. The web app is actually probably the most used device. And the iOS and Android are pretty kind of neck and neck as well. So you never got any issues in terms of the content itself. And I want to kind of get into this because Plex TV, you started open source, you become a for-profit company. And a lot of the content that people use, it's their own personal media library. But we're not really talking about where that kind of comes from. I think it's fair to say piracy is a big part of that. I think it makes Plex really nice, no matter what the content is. You don't discriminate. You do clean it up and make it nice and almost make it user friendly. What is your personal opinion on piracy? We certainly don't condone piracy at all. And there is lots of ways to get lots of great, legitimate content into the system. We have music and photos. And a lot of people use, a lot of guys on our team use kind of DVR content to get it into the system. Importantly, one of the important aspects of Plex is that you have this very secure, private content collection. Because we are managing people's photo libraries and their home video libraries, we don't have any view into the content that people have. And by our terms of service, we make sure that people have rights to that content. Part of Plex Pass now is you've actually somewhat become a content provider because Vivo is a part of that deal. It makes it much easier to get that. Something that was interesting that Netflix said yesterday, the claim they make is whenever Netflix launches in a country, the piracy rate goes down. Now obviously, very clearly, you don't condone any piracy and you don't know what people are using. But do you feel that there's an interest as you're going forward to kind of become a content provider in any way, shape, or form? In a sense that might more legitimize even the libraries and the content. Do you feel responsibility for that? The way I'll answer that is kind of thinking big picture. This is not something that we're about to release in the next three or four months. But I think the way we view the world is will we be a content provider? Will we own content or license content? I don't know if that's the direction we'll go. What we do want to make sure is that people can always come to one beautiful, consistent app on whichever device they're on. That app knows who they are, knows what their preferences are. The organization is the same whether they're on their iPhone or their Xbox or their Roku or Apple TV. I should be able to get you to the content you want. You should not have to go to all these different silos and try and figure out, like, I want to see this movie but I don't know where I can find it. We should be able to do that. I think over time, whether it's us linking you, deep linking you into services like Netflix or Hulu or HBO or us having some content deal, we want to make sure that you can come to one place and get all that content. Great. Well, Keith, thank you so much for sitting down with us. Yeah. I really appreciate it. And thank you, everyone, for watching. If you want any more CES news, any more gadget coverage, anything related to arts, culture, science, technology, you know the drill, you can check us out on theverge.com or subscribe to our YouTube channel. A lot more videos like this and even ones with, like, robots. We'll get robots next time, I promise. And as a subscription at youtube.com slash the verge.
 Hey everybody, this is Ross Miller with The Verge and I am sitting here with Keith Valerie,
 the CEO of Plex.
 Keith, thank you so much for joining us this week.
 Thanks for having me.
 I appreciate being here.
 So I want to get into a lot of stuff, but let's start top level.
 I don't want to assume the viewer knows anything.
 What is Plex?
 So Plex is a media app that helps people manage all of their media collections.
 So video collections, photo collections, music collections.
 We add a lot of metadata and other related content to that and give you kind of powerful
 organizational tools.
 And then allows you to stream that to virtually all of your devices.
 All of our big screen apps are free.
 And honestly, that's been the goal over time is to make sure as many people can use this
 as a product as possible.
 So we want to make it free and kind of open up the funnel.
 With so many different media player apps, you're like juggling a number of code bases.
 What is the support staff behind that now?
 How much of a hurdle is it to keep all these different apps supported?
 Because it's what?
 Smart TVs?
 You basically have as many almost as Netflix at this point.
 Because with, I don't know what that is, seven or eight languages, we're able to cover a
 lot, hundreds and hundreds of devices.
 And the big one, of course, that just came out, the big problem was the Apple TV one.
 You guys famously had this post about it took five weeks to develop.
 We got this up just like I think a week after the Apple TV launched.
 What was the reaction to that in terms of like, not just like online.
 People really loved it online.
 But like how much of a subscriber boost did you get from the Apple TV?
 We absolutely got a subscriber boost.
 What was interesting as well is that a lot of our current users switched over to it very
 quickly.
 That's still, in a short period of time, it's not in the top apps that we have right now.
 But it's climbing very, very quickly.
 What is the top one?
 I would say probably the Roku is probably the most used streaming device.
 The web app is actually probably the most used device.
 And the iOS and Android are pretty kind of neck and neck as well.
 So you never got any issues in terms of the content itself.
 And I want to kind of get into this because Plex TV, you started open source, you become
 a for-profit company.
 And a lot of the content that people use, it's their own personal media library.
 But we're not really talking about where that kind of comes from.
 I think it's fair to say piracy is a big part of that.
 I think it makes Plex really nice, no matter what the content is.
 You don't discriminate.
 You do clean it up and make it nice and almost make it user friendly.
 What is your personal opinion on piracy?
 We certainly don't condone piracy at all.
 And there is lots of ways to get lots of great, legitimate content into the system.
 We have music and photos.
 And a lot of people use, a lot of guys on our team use kind of DVR content to get it
 into the system.
 Importantly, one of the important aspects of Plex is that you have this very secure,
 private content collection.
 Because we are managing people's photo libraries and their home video libraries, we don't have
 any view into the content that people have.
 And by our terms of service, we make sure that people have rights to that content.
 Part of Plex Pass now is you've actually somewhat become a content provider because Vivo is
 a part of that deal.
 It makes it much easier to get that.
 Something that was interesting that Netflix said yesterday, the claim they make is whenever
 Netflix launches in a country, the piracy rate goes down.
 Now obviously, very clearly, you don't condone any piracy and you don't know what people
 are using.
 But do you feel that there's an interest as you're going forward to kind of become a content
 provider in any way, shape, or form?
 In a sense that might more legitimize even the libraries and the content.
 Do you feel responsibility for that?
 The way I'll answer that is kind of thinking big picture.
 This is not something that we're about to release in the next three or four months.
 But I think the way we view the world is will we be a content provider?
 Will we own content or license content?
 I don't know if that's the direction we'll go.
 What we do want to make sure is that people can always come to one beautiful, consistent
 app on whichever device they're on.
 That app knows who they are, knows what their preferences are.
 The organization is the same whether they're on their iPhone or their Xbox or their Roku
 or Apple TV.
 I should be able to get you to the content you want.
 You should not have to go to all these different silos and try and figure out, like, I want
 to see this movie but I don't know where I can find it.
 We should be able to do that.
 I think over time, whether it's us linking you, deep linking you into services like Netflix
 or Hulu or HBO or us having some content deal, we want to make sure that you can come to
 one place and get all that content.
 Great.
 Well, Keith, thank you so much for sitting down with us.
 Yeah.
 I really appreciate it.
 And thank you, everyone, for watching.
 If you want any more CES news, any more gadget coverage, anything related to arts, culture,
 science, technology, you know the drill, you can check us out on theverge.com or subscribe
 to our YouTube channel.
 A lot more videos like this and even ones with, like, robots.
 We'll get robots next time, I promise.
 And as a subscription at youtube.com slash the verge.