Stringer
LONDON -- Sony chairman-CEO Howard Stringer has joined the growing Hollywood chorus in warning entertainment companies to work harder to fight piracy or face a grim future.
Stringer was speaking Wednesday at a Blighty confab where he also quashed the latest round of rumors suggesting he was in the running for the chairmanship of the BBC, a job he interviewed for three years ago.
"Content was the essential element in the age of Sophocles; it is no less essential in the age of Harry Potter. Only the marketing channels have changed," said Stringer, at the FT New Media and Broadcasting conference. "If the rest of us are to crawl out of the analog swamp and walk upright into the digital age, we will have to have better protection of our content."
He was encouraged by Madrid Mayor Jose Maria Alvarez's crackdown on pirates in Spain. "However, we remain dispirited by the lax approach of many other governments to the widespread theft," Stringer said.
Speaking about the BBC position, vacant since Gavyn Davies' resignation in January, he said, "It's a great job but I've signed a three-year contract with Sony and I'm committed to that."
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