Latest / Bloomberg Intelligence / Porter Bibb Says CBS' David Rhodes Could Succeed Ailes (Audio)

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Porter Bibb Says CBS' David Rhodes Could Succeed Ailes (Audio) · Bloomberg Intelligence

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  Speaker 1: four percent. I'm Charlie Pellott. That's the Bloomberg Business flash
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  Speaker 1: you're listening to. Taking stuff with Kathleen Hayes and Pim
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  Speaker 1: Fox on Bloomberg Radio. Twenty one century Fox is the
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  Speaker 1: parent company of of Fox News and Rupert Murdoch, the
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  Speaker 1: eighty five year old media mogul who started Fox News,
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  Speaker 1: stunned employees at Fox News Midtown Manhattan headquarters by announcing
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  Speaker 1: that Roger Ales, the twenty year tenured head of Fox
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  Speaker 1: News and Fox Business News, was out as the chairman
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  Speaker 1: and chief executive. Mr Murdoch himself taking over Fox News
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  Speaker 1: in the interim here to tell us more about the
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  Speaker 1: news business and the challenges facing modern media, is Porter
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  Speaker 1: bib of Media Tech Capital Partners. Porter, thank you very
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  Speaker 1: much for being with us. First of all, your reaction
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  Speaker 1: and your thoughts about the departure of Roger Ales. Well,
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  Speaker 1: this was a shock that had happened so quick day,
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  Speaker 1: but Roger was in. He has another eighteen months to
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  Speaker 1: go on his latest contract with twenty one century Fox,
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  Speaker 1: and at seventies six uh, Roger has told me and
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  Speaker 1: other people he deals with that he's pretty much ready
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  Speaker 1: to retire anyway. So I think that the big shock
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  Speaker 1: was the fact that Gretchen Carlson's litigation against Roger personally
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  Speaker 1: accelerated things to a fairly will, and no one including
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  Speaker 1: me expected this to happen as quickly as it has. Well,
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  Speaker 1: it really just took fifteen days. It all began one
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  Speaker 1: on July the sixth. Gretchen Carlson, the former Fox anchor,
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  Speaker 1: followed the lawsuit accusing Roger Ales of sexual harassment, and
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  Speaker 1: that led to an internal investigation by twenty one century Fox.
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  Speaker 1: What happens next? Who can fill Roger Ayles' role? Well,
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  Speaker 1: James Murdoch, who essentially is the CEO of the company,
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  Speaker 1: even though his brother Lackland is co chairman and his
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  Speaker 1: father Rupert those executive chairman. They have all had some
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  Speaker 1: misgivings about the lack of Fox UH to begin to
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  Speaker 1: prepare for the transition to digital. UH. It's still basically
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  Speaker 1: an old media linear television network. It's very strong, it's
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  Speaker 1: enormously profitable. It's having a record year this year, probably
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  Speaker 1: when when fiscal is finished, Fox News is going to
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  Speaker 1: be up about eighteen over any previous earnings year. So
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  Speaker 1: it's a very very important integral part of twenty first
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  Speaker 1: centuries uh entire profit picture and the fact that every
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  Speaker 1: everybody ever in the linear tell Vision network is concerned
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  Speaker 1: about the erosion of audiences. Um and when you look
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  Speaker 1: at the rise at Fox News is enjoyed. Yes, it's significant,
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  Speaker 1: but it's minuscule compared to what CBS, ABC or NBC
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  Speaker 1: News draws on a nightly basis so wonderful part if
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  Speaker 1: you could speak more specifically about what the challenges are
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  Speaker 1: for the division of Century Fox, well, thanks to Roger Ales, uh,
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  Speaker 1: they have a premier position as as both a very
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  Speaker 1: biased political news network on on the right hand side.
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  Speaker 1: But Rogers brilliant stroke of genius was calling Fox News
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  Speaker 1: fair and balanced. The He put CNN and MSNBC the
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  Speaker 1: to our genemies of Fox News on the defensive and
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  Speaker 1: forced MSNBC and to a certain extent, CNN uh and
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  Speaker 1: to be I mean left liberal, uh politically oriented news
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  Speaker 1: networks and the competit offering the other side of the
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  Speaker 1: coin to Fox News. Fox Fox is going to continue
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  Speaker 1: exactly as it is, but probably with much greater uh
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  Speaker 1: omission of sexism of very uh good looking blond anchors
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  Speaker 1: and certainly Roger ales innovative leg cam is going to
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  Speaker 1: disappear very quickly. James Murdoch UH is known to have
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  Speaker 1: a very different political perspective from his father. Uh he's
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  Speaker 1: a lot more open minded and centrist than Rupert and
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  Speaker 1: certainly more than Roger Ales. So I think you're going
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  Speaker 1: to see not a lot of substantive change. They will
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  Speaker 1: take their time. My guess is that they will choose
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  Speaker 1: somebody to run Fox News, like David Rhodes who's the
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  Speaker 1: head of CBS News, or some other major uh experience
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  Speaker 1: qualified and highly regarded news director, and they will continue
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  Speaker 1: to do what they do because even with the political
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  Speaker 1: bias uh and and and the social bias that Fox
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  Speaker 1: News has, it's a terrifically competent and very very strong
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  Speaker 1: competing news service uh and and holds its own with anybody,
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  Speaker 1: even the major broadcast network news businesses. Can you give
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  Speaker 1: us your thoughts on some of the some of the
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  Speaker 1: stars at at Fox, Megan Kelly, uh Billa Riley and
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  Speaker 1: so on. Well, Bill Bill O'Reilly who had his own
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  Speaker 1: problems with sexual molestation a couple of years ago and
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  Speaker 1: was able to settle it in arbitration out of court,
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  Speaker 1: So it didn't get the kind of publicity that Gretchen
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  Speaker 1: Carlson's cases is uh lie to to end up becoming
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  Speaker 1: a major news story in the public courts. But O'Reilly's
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  Speaker 1: got the option of retiring now. Uh and several other
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  Speaker 1: major players at Fox News have the similar option to
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  Speaker 1: If Roger Rails is no longer running the network, they
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  Speaker 1: can leave anytime they want. But but I think o'reiley
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  Speaker 1: is probably going to retire and maybe follow Glenn Beck
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  Speaker 1: into his own screening O'Reilly network. Thanks very much, Porter bib,
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  Speaker 1: managing partner Media Tech Capital Partners. Follow him on Twitter
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  Speaker 1: at Porter three. This is taking Stock. Coming up on Bloomberg,
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  Speaker 1: we're gonna be speaking with Tuna Amobi equity analyst SMP
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  Speaker 1: Capital i Q and to talk about the shifts in
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  Speaker 1: the overall US pay television industry. That's next