TCA 2013: CBS' Moonves Says Amazon Deal is a "Great New Model" - Ed Martin

Beverly Hills CA CBS Corp president and chief executive officer Leslie Moonves whose sessions with the press beginning in the midNineties were always among the most eagerly anticipated events at Winter and Summer Television Critics Association tours and who hasn39t appeared on a TCA stage in years brought the Summer 2013 tour excitingly to life yesterday morning when he filled in at the last minute for CBS Entertainment president Nina Tassler who had been called away on a personal matterMoonves began by announcing a second season renewal for CBS39 summer success quotUnder the Domequot adding that Stephen King on whose novel the series is based will write its first episode Moonves declared that quotDomequot has quotchanged the face of summer televisionquotquotDomequot is in many ways shaping up to be one of the summer39s most interesting television stories and one that is representative of how the financial model for primetime programming continues to change quotObviously the whole model for putting on a big summer show is hardquot Moonves said quotHow do you figure out financially how to put on a show of that size and that scale It came down to two components really The network license fee by definition in the summer has to be smallquot he explained adding that quothugequot international sales of the show and an arrangement with Amazon made it happenquotWe had to make a deal unlike any we39ve ever made where Amazon got episodes of the show four days after they premiered on CBSquot Moonves explained quotThey have not revealed what their numbers are All I can tell you is when I ran into Amazon founder and chief executive officer Jeff Bezos in Sun Valley he literally sought me out to tell me how proud he was of 39Under the Dome39 and what a great show it was So it was really nice to hear from him directly on that I know they39re very pleased with the results and we expect to hopefully continue on with them in the future It39s been a great new model and they39ve been a great partnerquotquotDomequot and CBS39 new fall limited series quotHostagesquot are very much at the center of all the talk at this tour about the resurgence of miniseries shorter seasons of ongoing series broadcast39s adaptation of basic cable models and such Even if it all feels somewhat familiar at least to those of us who remember television in the Seventies and Eighties when miniseries were huge it all represents a new willingness by the broadcasters to try different things whether out of desperation or simply as an acknowledgement of what may be working elsewhere quot39Hostages39 wouldn39t have gone on our network three years agoquot Moonves asserted quotBut by the same token I don39t want five 39Hostages39 Well talk to me in January Maybe we will want more depending on the ratings But you know it39s stepping out for us It39s doing something different When it achieves the level of the 39NCIS39s39 or more of our traditional shows then the world will have changedquotquotDomequot may not have reached the quotNCISquot level but has attracted more viewers than mere Nielsen ratings might suggest The premiere episode was watched by 137 million people Moonves said quotBetween DVR video on demand and streaming this is not including Amazon that number increased to over 20 million viewers That is drastically different than it ever was before So when you look at the totality of it you39re saying okay the numbers can be as big They39re just coming from different places Everything is not quite being counted yet although Nielsen is trying to get therequotSince I39ve been in the network television business which is over 30 years people have been saying 39Oh the model is dead39 The model has never been dead It39s just evolvingquotAsked about the controversy swirling around the racist and sexist comments made by some of the houseguests in this summer39s edition of quotBig Brotherquot Moonves noted that the network has always referred to it as a quotsocial experimentquot a description that has never been more on point during the series39 14 previous cycles as it is right now quotClearly that39s what39s happening this yearquot he said quotI find some of the behavior absolutely appalling personally What you see there I think it unfortunately is reflective of how certain people feel in America It39s what our show is I think we39ve handled it properly A lot of it makes us uncomfortablequotI39ve watched every episode of the showquot Moonves continued quotObviously my wife quotBig Brotherquot host Julie Chen would kill me if I didn39t So I do know what39s going on there We do discuss it quite a bit I think we are handling it appropriately We did not comment on some of the racial things being said until it really affected what was going on in the householdquotAsked to reveal the details of his conversations with Chen Moonves replied quotI39m not going to tell you what goes on in my homequot That was the sort of nonresponse to a legitimate question that might have aggravated TCA members coming from a different executive but not from Moonves Instead polite laughter filled the roomInterestingly as busy as he is running CBS Corp Moonves still gets involved in the casting of his network39s reality series if not in the early stages quotI sort of have the final look at who39s going in and choosing the right combinationquot he said Might everyone involved in the casting of those shows be trying a little too hard to find quotout therequot personalities he was asked resulting in the kind of offensive content darkening quotBig Brotherquot this summerquotObviously you don39t want wallflowers on reality showsquot Moonves replied quotYou39re going to take people that are interesting You know sometimes that leads to controversy Look I remember quotSurvivorquot in year one Richard Hatch the first winner of 39Survivor39 was openly gay and onto the island comes Rudy the 70yearold Marine who wasn39t used to dealing with homosexuals at all We said 39What an interesting thing39 Now these two guys became good friends on the island and so they are social experiments Trying too hard I don39t think there39s any such thingquotIf you are receiving this report you are a registered member to Jack Myers Media Business Network or are receiving it as part of a registered corporate membership As a member Jack responds personally to your emails requests and comments He is available to speak at your company events In addition to Jack Myers Media Business Reports your membership underwrites MediaBizBloggerscom Women in Media Mentoring Initiative Jack Myers Wall St Report Jack Myers Video Media Report plus our exclusive industry economic forecasts trend forecasts and corporate performance research Redistribution in any form except among approved individuals within your company is prohibited As a member you have full access to all archives and reports at wwwjackmyerscom If you require your ID and password contact 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TCA 2013: CBS' Moonves Says Amazon Deal is a "Great New Model" - Ed Martin

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