Moonves Dismisses Consolidation Concerns

CBS CEO Blesses Internet-Content Progress

By Gary Arlen -- Multichannel News, 5/30/2007 3:39:00 PM

Carlsbad, Calif. -- “Media concentration is not hurting consumers one iota,” CBS CEO Les Moonves declared here Wednesday, adding, “I think it’s a lie” that media is getting worse because of consolidation.

Moonves’ comments at The Wall Street Journal’s D5: All Things Digital came amid his enthusiastic support for new-media developments. Singling out CBS’ recent investment in Wallstrip, an Internet-program channel, and his company’s encouragement of short-form video production for the Web, Moonves said, “It’s important to do original content.”

“There will be a day when millions and millions of people will be watching these shows,” he added.

He also cited ways in which CBS is using Web video to enhance new and existing broadcast series. For example, new CBS program Gossip Girl has already begun as an Internet site to “plant seeds” via the Web and encourage viewership..

Moonves described CBS’ Interactive Audience Network: “We have a band of kids in Los Angeles who are working full-time [to create Web shows] for $50,000 apiece,” a fraction of the cost of primetime shows.

“They are creating a series of shorts,” he added. “The wave of the future is getting as much distribution as we can.”

Moonves noted that CBS has set up partnership with 25 companies, including AOL, Google, Joost, Bebo and other emerging Internet-distribution circuits.

He described this “second generation” of network-TV involvement with Internet content (after the earlier use as a promotional vehicle) as a way to further change the way TV is used. Some of the shows may eventually emerge as broadcast-network shows and, for now, the shows “are reaching audiences that we would never reach” on broadcasting, he said.