Any time you are in the content creation business, you have to leverage that content in as many ways as possible. DVD is one valuable secondary growth channel for HBO. Maybe the Internet is next. |
Big media companies do generally provide a balance and some diversification that provides greater stability. But they are complex companies and maybe that complexity sort of offsets some of their strong values. |
Both companies seem fairly confident that they can get it done on schedule by the end of fall. |
From the Time Warner and AOL perspective, it's been a plus obviously that they're getting fought over. It says very good things about the importance and the place at the table, if you will, that AOL represents. |
HBO took an early lead and Showtime has had to catch up. You can attempt to be the first choice but, with Showtime, they may want to attempt to be the most interesting second option. |
I feel the management is competent, and it's attacking the one most important potential upside element, which is AOL. |
I think AOL Time Warner is worth a lot more than it's trading for, |
I think sometimes it's difficult to run something by committee; the management of both companies are strong-willed types of individuals. They both have their own way of doing things. That makes it hard to have the flow you need and to create the sixth network. |
In spite of his freewheeling type of image, he was the voice of financial reason. Back when he was running smaller companies, he needed to run a tight ship. |
It's only for two weeks. The Survivor crowd will probably follow Survivor to a new night, ... It's an addicting show. |
It's sort of a temporary lease on the properties. |
It's the end of a chapter in Time Warner's history. Ted Turner is one of the higher profile media icons we have in this industry. |
One of the qualities of independents (channels) is that it allows you to be more creative and more nimble than you can often be within big media companies, |
The big media players will ultimately have higher stock prices but it's getting out from all these challenges both on the advertising side and the content side that is causing some stagnation in the shares. |
The company is already doing some of the things he wants, just not to the extreme he's recommending, |