Old media turn combative against new media
Leading media executives took a combative tone against internet companies, suggesting that big media increasingly considers new content distributors like Google Inc. to be more foe than friend.At a panel discussion on the second day of the 56th annual...
Leading media executives took a combative tone against internet companies, suggesting that big media increasingly considers new content distributors like Google Inc. to be more foe than friend.
At a panel discussion on the second day of the 56th annual National Cable & Telecommunications Association conference, top executives said talk of the demise of traditional media in the digital age was overblown.
While new distribution technologies like the internet and mobile phones are siphoning television audiences, media companies argued that the web also brings new revenue streams.
But the discussion quickly moved to criticism of the perception that traditional media businesses are dead, and to the rampant copyright offences enabled by new digital technologies.
"The Googles of the world, they are the Custer of the modern world. We are the Sioux nation," Time Warner Inc. chief executive Richard Parsons said, referring to the Civil War American general George Custer who was defeated by Native Americans in a battle dubbed "Custer's Last Stand".
"They will lose this war if they go to war," Mr Parsons added, "The notion that the new kids on the block have taken over is a false notion."
Time Warner defended its discussions on copyright protection with internet search leader Google Inc., which another panel member, Viacom Inc., has sued.
Viacom, owner of the MTV and Comedy Central networks, is seeking more than $1 billion (500 million pounds) from Google and its online video site YouTube, accusing them in a lawsuit of "massive intentional copyright infringement."
At a panel discussion on the second day of the 56th annual National Cable & Telecommunications Association conference, top executives said talk of the demise of traditional media in the digital age was overblown.
While new distribution technologies like the internet and mobile phones are siphoning television audiences, media companies argued that the web also brings new revenue streams.
But the discussion quickly moved to criticism of the perception that traditional media businesses are dead, and to the rampant copyright offences enabled by new digital technologies.
"The Googles of the world, they are the Custer of the modern world. We are the Sioux nation," Time Warner Inc. chief executive Richard Parsons said, referring to the Civil War American general George Custer who was defeated by Native Americans in a battle dubbed "Custer's Last Stand".
"They will lose this war if they go to war," Mr Parsons added, "The notion that the new kids on the block have taken over is a false notion."
Time Warner defended its discussions on copyright protection with internet search leader Google Inc., which another panel member, Viacom Inc., has sued.
Viacom, owner of the MTV and Comedy Central networks, is seeking more than $1 billion (500 million pounds) from Google and its online video site YouTube, accusing them in a lawsuit of "massive intentional copyright infringement."