Moonves moves movie plan forward
CBS to hire more executives
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What has so far been a mostly hypothetical theatrical division took another step toward fruition Monday as the company said it would soon begin interviewing prospective execs.
CBS topper said the company would soon "hire some people" in exec positions at the studio. "We're beginning those explorations right now," he told the Bear Stearns investor confab in Palm Beach, Fla.
Company is talking to executives about positions at the nascent division but had no timetable for making those hires.
Studio's goal is to produce and distribute between four and six movies per year in the $10 million-$40 million range. Moonves again emphasized output deals as providing the economic logic for the effort.
"Instead of renting the movies, we're going to own them," he said, referring to Showtime's pacts with MGM, Par and Lionsgate, which are due up in the next few years.
Moonves believes Showtime's movie slate could be better filled internally, cutting down on output-deal costs and allowing the movie division to pocket the revenue on rights fees. He did emphasize that any theatrical arm would function in a "very low overhead" way, suggesting large-scale hires were unlikely.
Exec also offered unusually candid comments about CBS' position toward Web content, which amounted to a middle ground between the free-for-all some Web distributors are pushing for and the caution of other congloms.
While talks over a broader deal with Google for CBS clips on YouTube broke down, Moonves said he remained more enthusiastic than his counterparts about signing such pacts.
CBS already has a limited deal with YouTube for late-night clips and other content. "It's a huge promotional advantage and people are using our content in different ways," he said.
Moonves said he differed from execs at other congloms, which have more openly shunned Google-YouTube and even talked about starting their own site. "Some of my colleagues (at other companies) disagree. They think this is the beginning of what happened to the music business. I don't agree with that. I think it's better for us to be inside the tent," exec said.
While he didn't specify which colleagues he was referring to, former CBS corporate sibling Viacom has been a notable example of a more tentative player on the video-sharing front.
At the same time, Moonves cautioned against rushing forward without the proper safeguards against piracy and lost revenue.
"(We're conducting) short-term deals, and for a limited amount of content," he said. "To plan to do anything for more than a few years is probably a mistake."
Timing was reportedly a crimp in the CBS-Google negotiations, though like all new media negotiations, it's difficult to know how much such issues are simply bids for negotiating leverage.
Moonves also implied that disagreements over fees and deal terms with new media companies may be generational. "The reason there's a bit of a struggle is that people who grew up with technology don't value the content enough," he said.
And the longtime network exec said the company was handling its digital strategy on the assumption that television auds wouldn't be migrating elsewhere any time soon.
"Five years from now people will still be watching television the way they did," exec said. "They're going to sit down in front of 'American Idol' or the Super Bowl and it's going to be a passive experience."
