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Mediatech's Bibb: Moonves Best Option to Run CBS-Viacom (Audio) · Bloomberg Intelligence

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  Speaker 1: host Kathleen Hayes. Uh, let's think the Walking Dead, n
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  Speaker 1: c I S and the Big Bang Theory to my
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  Speaker 1: next guest. I put the question if Viacomm and CBS
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  Speaker 1: we're going to be a television program, what would it
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  Speaker 1: be closest to? Porter bib is managing partner Media Tech
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  Speaker 1: Capital Partners, and he can be followed on Twitter at
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  Speaker 1: quarter three quarter go ahead, Well, let's keep it within
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  Speaker 1: the network. The Walking Dead works best for vehicle from
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  Speaker 1: the Big Bang theory, I think for CBS, tell Us
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  Speaker 1: walk Well LESMNVS is probably the most capable manager in
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  Speaker 1: the media business right now, and he's since he's been
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  Speaker 1: a standalone company for the last ten years. He's doubled
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  Speaker 1: the market value of CBS. And he's the only real
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  Speaker 1: linear television network executive who has figured out how to
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  Speaker 1: transition to digital effectively and profitably. For these kind of stories,
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  Speaker 1: just they make my head hurt. My dot com what's
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  Speaker 1: spun off from CBS ten years ago? Yes, six, Sherry
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  Speaker 1: Redstone's daughter is in favor of recombining the two under
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  Speaker 1: the leadership of CBS CEO Less Moon. Does I mean
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  Speaker 1: does it? How much difference does it make? How important
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  Speaker 1: is this to to whom? To the shareholders? The shareholders,
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  Speaker 1: I guess first and foremost because ultimately the company, but
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  Speaker 1: that's what the share of the shareholders are going to benefit.
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  Speaker 1: How much it means a lot to both CBS shareholders
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  Speaker 1: and to Vehicom shareholders. Vehicom has lost sixty seven percent
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  Speaker 1: of its market value in the last couple of years. CBS,
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  Speaker 1: on the other hand, is going through the roof under
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  Speaker 1: Less Moon does so there's a lot of tension. Less
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  Speaker 1: is not particularly enthusiastic about taking the reigns of a
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  Speaker 1: failed company. What's wrong with why they fail well badly?
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  Speaker 1: Leadership under under Dolman and Dooley. Dooley is going at
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  Speaker 1: the end of November, and they've been looking around everywhere
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  Speaker 1: for somebody to come in. They tried to get Tom
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  Speaker 1: Freston to come back. He refused, And it's a leaderless
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  Speaker 1: ship right now. But it's got terrific assets and a
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  Speaker 1: lot of development potential. And I say that they will
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  Speaker 1: end up coming together. When Redstone split them, he thought
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  Speaker 1: one and one could equal four or five. What he
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  Speaker 1: got was one in one equal one and a half.
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  Speaker 1: And he's he's the real key factor. Sherry Bradstone does
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  Speaker 1: not want to run either company. She wants to protect
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  Speaker 1: the value of the estate and the assets that the
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  Speaker 1: National Amusement has and she'll do everything she can to
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  Speaker 1: increase the value. So the only way you can really
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  Speaker 1: do that in a recognizable way has put less monos
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  Speaker 1: in charge and let him do his thing this, which
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  Speaker 1: I think he will. You know, it's interesting that you
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  Speaker 1: described less moons and a digital transformation because I think
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  Speaker 1: that leads into something that is coming up in Washington.
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  Speaker 1: This has to do with a vote by the FCC,
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  Speaker 1: the Federal Communications Commission, and it has to do with
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  Speaker 1: just that very thing about who's got access to your house,
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  Speaker 1: how much they charge you for access, or how much
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  Speaker 1: they're charging for entertainment and programming, and who supplies all
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  Speaker 1: these bits and pieces, not just the software, not just
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  Speaker 1: the programming, but the actual box. It's the it's the
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  Speaker 1: decoding box that that translates the digital signal into your
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  Speaker 1: TV set. And the f SEC, in all likelihood, is
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  Speaker 1: going to make the cable industry stop forcing cable subscribers
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  Speaker 1: to rent for anywhere from six to eleven dollars a
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  Speaker 1: month the set top box that they provide and give
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  Speaker 1: you free access. And you don't really need one now
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  Speaker 1: because the television set industry is making it uh sets
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  Speaker 1: that have all of this the ingredients of a set
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  Speaker 1: top box built in including streaming capability on the Internet.
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  Speaker 1: So if it is the SEC probably will they will. Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: So then in terms I'm a shareholder, I'm an investor.
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  Speaker 1: What is as for me? Well, it's going to be
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  Speaker 1: a twenty billion dollar loss of business to the cable industry.
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  Speaker 1: So Comcast, Time, Warner Cable or Charter Are and other
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  Speaker 1: cable operators are going to suffer a little bit, not
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  Speaker 1: too much, because they probably will get it back by
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  Speaker 1: raising the rates in the broad pan distribution that they
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  Speaker 1: give you cart off, that's correct. But the other losers
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  Speaker 1: are going to be the set top box manufacturers and
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  Speaker 1: basically Toshiba's Scientific Atlantic and the two or three others,
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  Speaker 1: and they are going to be out of business right
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  Speaker 1: now because we don't need set top box anymore. Apple
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  Speaker 1: is in a sense a set top box, you bet well,
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  Speaker 1: so is Roku. So as Amazon. Wait wait till you
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  Speaker 1: put your your Amazon Echo uh in your living room
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  Speaker 1: and you voice activate what you want to watch on
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  Speaker 1: the internet or on television. That's a half step away
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  Speaker 1: right now. So when I get all this fancy stuff
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  Speaker 1: set up, and I'm going to be um tweeting as
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  Speaker 1: I watch things are streaming Thing Live and is it
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  Speaker 1: gonna is I'm gonna be as a shareholders saying I'm
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  Speaker 1: so happy that Disney bought Twitter. Is that going to
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  Speaker 1: go through? I'm not sure it will. I don't I
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  Speaker 1: don't see the logic of it um And the problem
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  Speaker 1: that Disney has if they, if they ever did own Twitter,
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  Speaker 1: is that their their media company, and ABC and ESPN
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  Speaker 1: and the other broadcast entities that they have are going
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  Speaker 1: to scare away all of the competition. And that's what
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  Speaker 1: Twitter needs more than anything else. So I think it
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  Speaker 1: might be a non deal, non non deal it would
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  Speaker 1: be a good fit for Twitter. I think bankruptcy really.
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  Speaker 1: I think that they have failed to construct a monetization
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  Speaker 1: plan and the only people who are going to buy
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  Speaker 1: it are somebody who has no concern about profit and
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  Speaker 1: loss and wants wants to see if they can roll
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  Speaker 1: the dice and create a platform. Could Mark Zuckerberg turn
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  Speaker 1: it around without question, without question? But he's he's got
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  Speaker 1: his hands ball right now. I wouldn't be surprised. But
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  Speaker 1: I think you might consider as as I mentioned Amazon
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  Speaker 1: a minute ago, their their voice activated echo U is
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  Speaker 1: it terrific medium for Twitter? Very interesting Porter Bib, you
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  Speaker 1: always make us think when you're on the show. We
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  Speaker 1: appreciate you joining us so much. Managing Partner Media Tech
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