Moonves, Zucker, Zaslav, Carey Deliver Annual Updates at UBS Global Media Conference. Where Were Iger and Schmidt? - Simon Applebaum - MediaBizBloggers

There39s no place to witness how key TV executives see their companies as they turn into a new year like UBS39 Annual Global Media Conference running the first full week of December at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in midtown ManhattanA few thousand investors cram throughout the sparkling third floor of the Hyatt to take in the stats plans and opinions from these power players during this threeday affair So do a bunch of journalists who under house rules can39t pop questions during the presentations and scramble for precious afterthoughts from the presenters before they are whisked away for meetings elsewhere at the Hyatt or an airline flight to somewhereTwo notable absences from the UBS 2010 lineup Walt Disney and Google One year ago Disney CEO Bob Iger was the closing lunch keynote Very surprised Disney going AWOL here didn39t draw much buzz Wonder what39s up there As for Google which wowed this crowd a few years ago with a lunch showcase for Google Earth CEO Eric Schmidt missed a golden opportunity to do it again on behalf of Google TV and his firm39s growing New York presence as in buying an office complex near Chelsea Market for nearly 2 billion As for who did show here39s how they39re looking at life turning into 2011CBS CEO Leslie MoonvesSupreme confidence in staying put as the number one broadcast network As big a booster of broadcast TV as always quotThe argument that TV is the old medium has been refuted very wellquot he said quotNetwork TV is still the best game in town and we39ve proven thatquot Looks forward to more retransmission consent fees and a new NCAA men39s basketball tournament contract that makes money despite losing games and ultimately the Final Four every other year to TBSTNTTru TV Looking at all new distribution options from Netflix to Google TVprovided they come up with the dough quotSome people call Netflix the antiChrist and others call it the second comingquot Moonves quippedNBC Universal CEO Jeff ZuckerAt peace with both leaving NBC the only workplace he39s ever known for the last quarter century when the Comcast merger happens and the shape he39s leaving the company in quotNot having success in primetime on NBC is my biggest regretquot he said quotPrimetime is five percent of our revenues and 95 percent of our perception But the company overall is in fantastic shapequot thanks to its assortment of cable networks Also it39s easy to be at peace when you39ve endured colon cancer and other health matters quotI know what pain is and I know what39s important with a tremendous amount of perspectivequot Believes the next two years will see phenomenal changes in TV and the rest of media and he39ll take the necessary time to evaluate his next opportunityNews Corp COO Chase CareyGearing up for a comeback 2011 on American Idol the launch of The X Factor that fall and in between perhaps more skirmishes with multichannel distributors over higher fees for running Fox stations and Fox News Channel quotWe39re pleased with what we39ve gotten from consentwe could get a lot morequot Carey declared quotFox News is about as important a channel as ESPNquot Like Moonves Carey wants News Corp to play with the likes of Netflix Roku Boxee and Google TV if only if they pay up to play quotWe have to be smartif these and other such ventures are another buyer that39s good for us if we get fair valuequotDiscovery Communications CEO David ZaslavGrown kid in a candy store with 13 networks in his sandbox just domestically Discovery and TLC are running on all cylinders Animal Planet close to that state and Investigation Discovery the fastest mover in the bunch If Oprah Winfrey Network labeled quotOprah Chapter Twoquot by Zaslav plays its cards right starting New Year39s Day at noon quotit39s a substantial opportunityto resonate as a major channel here and abroadquot he said Distribution in Canada will launch on day one and there39s major interest already in overseas pickups or customized versions OWN will the second of three networks Discovery will premiere in a sixmonth window The Hub quotalready has significant life to itquot following its midOctober launch and the 3D channel collaboration with Sony and IMAX arrives by March 31 quotOur content looks good in 3D but it39s hard to tell how this will work out We need to know what works and doesn39tquot while seeing how fast the public buys 3D sets Zaslav acknowledgesLionsgate vice chairman Michael BurnsCarl Icahn or no Carl Icahn takeover advances forward ho with cable programming activity at Burns39 company Lots to crow ho about Pay cable net Epix is profitable after just one year in business available in more than 30 million homes quota great home run for allquot Burns said TV Guide Channel continues to ramp up original content and Fearnet keeps drawing the videoondemand crowd in bigger numbers while establishing itself as a linear network The big 2011 goal draw more than a billion in annual revenues from original series production for cable and syndication Series are in development at Mad Menhome AMC TNT Spike TV and Comedy Central adapting the 2005 independent film Waiting and you get the impression that Lionsgate will stick its hands into interactive TV sooner than later quotYour remote control is going to become a big keyboard able to stream movies and other products to youquot concluded BurnsNow let39s follow the next 12 months and find out what we see is what these executives seeOne more observation from this passing parade Amazing that in separate oneonone interviews with Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg and ATampampT senior executive vicepresident Rick Lindler the UBS analyst involved failed to ask a specific question about FiOS TV and Uverse the respective cable overbuild ventures of these companies That39s comparable to not asking a baseball player about the gamewinning home run he just had Please remember not to avoid the subject next December Thanks in advanceUntil the next time stay well and stay tunedSimon Applebaum is hostproducer of Tomorrow Will Be Televised the Internet radiopodcastdistributed program about the TV scene The program runs live MondaysFridays at 3 pm Eastern time noon Pacific time on BlogTalk Radio Replays are available 247 at wwwblogtalkradiocomsimonapple04 on podcast from ITunescom and other Web sites arranged by Sonibyte via TiVo and Cable in the Classroom details at wwwciconlineorgpodcasts Have a question or reaction Send it to simonapple04yahoocomRead all Simonamp8217s MediaBizBloggers commentaries at Tomorrow Will Be TelevisedCheck us out on Facebook at MediaBizBloggerscomFollow our Twitter updates MediaBizBlogger

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Moonves, Zucker, Zaslav, Carey Deliver Annual Updates at UBS Global Media Conference. Where Were Iger and Schmidt? - Simon Applebaum - MediaBizBloggers

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