Walt Disney Co. President-CEO Bob Iger said he disagrees with Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama, who has positioned himself as opposed to relaxing rules on media concentration.
Sen. Obama and fellow presidential hopeful Sen. Hillary Clinton are among sponsors of a bill opposing efforts by Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin J. Martin to loosen ownership restrictions.
Mr. Iger said the old rules to prohibit cross-ownership of TV stations and newspapers in the same market don’t apply to today’s media landscape, where technology makes many platforms available to a more diverse range of voices than in previous eras.
“It’s old-world politics being applied to new-world media,” he declared Tuesday in New York City.
His remarks were made during a wide-ranging and fast-moving “conversation” conducted by New Yorker writer Ken Auletta at a well-attended breakfast at the Newhouse School in New York, part of its series of early-morning conversations with leaders in American media.
On other subjects, Mr. Iger said:
--Disney so far has not been significantly affected by the slowing economy. Advertising accounts for about 20% of the corporation’s revenues—a “somewhat modest” amount for the business sector, he said. He also said that as of the earnings information released in February, Disney theme parks had not been affected by tourist travel cutbacks caused by the rising price of gas.
--He believes network news divisions are “more in control of their destinies than they think they are.” He said the broadcast news operations’ ability to “roll with the punches” as they aim to deliver well-priced and well-timed news and information may be the single greatest factor determining their viability.
Asked for a reaction to a story in Tuesday’s New York Times suggesting CBS News has explored outsourcing some of its reporting to CNN, Mr. Iger first said he didn’t know if the story was true. CBS News had denied any such talks, saying there had been some discussions about sharing off-air resources in Baghdad, but those talks had run into a roadblock.
Mr. Iger wondered aloud whether, if there was any truth to the story, it would signal a “bold move” or a “retreat” by CBS News.
He noted that ABC News in the past had discussed working with CNN, but what got in the way was that “we were not interested in farming out [news responsibilities]. We were interested in a true partnership.”
The Disney leader said the exploration of a relationship with CNN was designed to “take ABC News into the future, not to get out of it. We were not interested in anything like that.”
While he conceded that owning a 24-hour cable news channel, something ABC almost did in the 1990s, would make it easier to promote ABC News, “That doesn’t mean we should go into that space.” He said there are news/information Web sites with no old-media involvement that “do just fine.”
--The ABC network is more of a studio than a distribution platform or a brand, and Disney and ESPN are the real brands in the corporate empire.
--There are going to be “a lot of mistakes made” as companies try to make digital technologies and products pay off. The key will be learning from mistakes, such as the attempt to sell a Disney phone with built-in GPS capacity. “We were completely wrong” on a number of counts, including pricing, understanding that there are limitations to GPS safety applications and the lack of retail sales interaction with consumers, Mr. Iger said.
“We’re not going to repeat the mistakes,” he declared said.
While digital applications, particularly for local TV stations, still are not driving the business, he seemed confident that “we’ll figure it out.”
--Disney, which led the way on making TV content downloadable via the iTunes network, is taking a wait-and-see approach to such digital business ventures as Hulu.com, the NBC Universal-News Corp. partnership for online program distribution.
As for iTunes’ universal pricing practices, which NBC cited as one reason for ending its relationship with Apple’s iTunes, Mr. Iger said: “Keeping it simple for the consumer is unbelievably valuable.