“Time Warner boss Jeff Bewkes told British media execs that television is entering a second golden age of creativity and reward but warned against the danger of low-cost digital giveaways,” Mimi Turner reports for The Hollywood Reporter.
MacDailyNews Note: As Time Warner CEO, Bewkes oversees Time Inc., HBO, Turner Broadcasting (which includes CNN, TNT, TBS, Cartoon Network), Warner Bros. and New Line Cinema.
Turner reports, “Speaking at the Royal Television Conference in London, Bewkes cautioned against deals with the likes of Apple and Amazon that undersold the value of blue-chip TV fare. ‘How can you justify renting your first-run TV shows individually for 99 cents an episode and thereby jeopardize the sale of the same shows as a series to branded networks that pay hundreds of millions of dollars and make those shows available to loyal viewers for free?’ he said.”
“Bewkes told the audience that, overall, the number of television viewers is growing, paid-television penetration is increasing and advertising and subscription revenues are headed north,” Turner reports.
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: How you get to be a CEO and not be able to do the math – very basic math – is beyond us.
