The Top 100 of the New Technology Establishment

Of course, cable has never gotten much real credit for paving a way for two old regional Bell Systems to metamorphose into AT&T and Verizon and bring competition to video distribution and the Internet.  Instead, cable got hit with cord cutting (without really cutting or eliminating anything but the video subscription) and a bad reputation for simply and forever raising rates.

About those rising rates: Much of that ties directly to the leverage the programmers ­­-- including those free-over-the-air broadcasters who got Congress to override the Supreme Court’s must carry decisions -- have over the infrastructure providers … otherwise known as MSOs, telcos and satellite companies.

Not quite fair to the infrastructure dudes.  Retransmission consent fees have, according to the American Television Alliance, risen 22,400% since 2005 … and SNL Kagan research projects total payments by subscribers passed along via the provider will hit $10.29 billion, up from $7.21 billion this year.

But, enough about that, what should replace cable as the moniker for the larger industry? And why should we care?

Well, Vanity Fair calls it all technology. As in, “In 2016, everyone is in the technology business.”  Ummm … maybe, but not quite.  I’m not ready to include General Motors along with Amazon among the magazine’s “New Establishment” list.  But I’m ready to agree with them that Silicon Valley and the media mandarins of LA and NYC belong in the same ballgame.

Just take a look at their list:

1) Jeff Bezos/Amazon; 2) Mark Zuckerberg/Facebook; 3) Evan Spiegel/Snap; 4) Bob Iger/Disney; 6/Reed Hastings/Netflix; 8) Rupert Murdoch/News Corp and 21^st Century Fox; 10) Beyonce Knowles/Lemonade; 11) Tim Cook/Apple; 12)LeBron James/Cleveland Cavaliers; 13) Larry Page/Alphabet; 14) Sheryl Sandberg/Facebook; 15) Les Moonves/CBS; 16) Jack Ma/Alibaba; 17) Dr. John Malone/Liberty all; 18) Taylor Swift/Musician; 20) Kevin Feige/Marvel Studios; 22) Lin-Manual Miranda/Hamilton;  25) Steve Burke & Brian Roberts/NBC Universal & Comcast; 27) Richard Pepler/HBO; 28) Jennifer Lawrence/Actress; 30) J. J. Abrams/Director; 31) Ted Sarandos/Netflix; 32) David Benioff & D. B. Weiss/Game of Thrones; 35) Amy Schumer/Comedian; 36) Lowell McAdam/Verizon; 37) Kathleen Kennedy/LucasFilm; 38) Ryan Murphy/Writer-Producer-Director; 40) John Oliver/Last Week Tonighton HBO; 41) Jonah Peritte & Ze Frank/BuzzFeed; 43) Jan Koum/WhatsApp; 44) Marty Baron/The Washington Post; 45) David Zaslav/Discovery; 46) Michael Rapino/Live Nation; 47) Adele/Singer; 48) Wang Jianlin/Wanda Group; 50) Bobby Kotick/Activisio Blizzard; 51) Lachlan and James Murdoch/21^st Century Fox and News Corp; 54) Eddy Cue/Apple; 55) Adam McKay/Director-Writer; 57) Chris Meledandri/Illumination Entertainment; 58) Shona Rhimes/Shondaland; 61) Shane Smith/Vice; 63) Megyn Kelly/Fox News; 66) Susan Wojcicki/YouTube; 67) Chris Pratt/Actor; 68) David Nevins/Showtime; 69) Jack Dorsey/Twitter & Square; 71) Jason Blum/Blumhouse Productions; 72) Steward Butterfield/Slack; 74) Scarlett Johansson/Actress; 75) Bonnie Hammer/NBCUniversal; 76) Kevin Hart/Actor; 77) Palmer Luckey/Oculus VR; 79) Nancy Dubuc/A+E Networks; 80) James Corden/The Late Show; 81) Reid Hoffman/LinkedIn and Greylock; 82) Kevin Systrom/Instagram; 83) Theo Epstein/Chicago Cubs; 85) Snapchat Stars; 86) DeRay McKesson/Activist; 87) Daniel Ek/Spotify; 88) Lei Jun/Xiaomi; 89) Jill Soloway/Transparent; 90) Mary Parent and Thomas Tull/Legendary Entertainment; 95) Ben Silberman/Pinterest; 96) Michael Strahan/Good Morning America; 97) David Gurle/Symphony; 99) Scooter Braun/SB Projects, and 100) Kardashian Nation.

So, what do they all have in common?

Easy. They are all part of the extended communications, entertainment, information, Internet, media and news world.

You can quibble about the list, but not the new reality.

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