[opendtv] Rupert Murdoch urges media firms to unite to fight Amazon and Netflix | Media | The Guardian
- From: Craig Birkmaier <craig@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: OpenDTV Mail List <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 30 Oct 2014 23:35:21 -0400
http://www.theguardian.com/media/2014/oct/29/rupert-murdoch-media-firms-unite-streaming-rivals-netflix-amazon
Rupert Murdoch urges media firms to unite to fight Amazon and Netflix
The media industry needs its own competitor to online streaming giants Amazon
and Netflix, Rupert Murdoch told a technology conference on Wednesday.
“As an industry, we need a competitor - a serious competitor - to Netflix and
Amazon,” Murdoch told the Wall Street Journal’s WSJ.D conference in Laguna
Beach, California.
21st Century Fox, which he chairs, is one of the partners in Hulu, a Netflix
rival to Netflix, alongside Disney and NBCUniversal. The relationship has been
a fraught one. Jason Kilar, Hulu’s CEO, left abruptly last year. His new video
startup, Vessel, is backed by Amazon’s Jeff Bezos.
But Murdoch said the companies were now working together. “I think we’re all on
the same page,” Murdoch said.
His comments come after Time Warner announced it would launch an internet-only
version of HBO, the popular cable channel that is home to Game of Thrones,
Girls and True Detective. The move has shaken up the cable industry, where HBO
is one of the primary drivers of new subscriptions.
Murdoch said it would be difficult for HBO to launch a standalone service while
negotiating with cable companies. “They don’t want to get into conflict with
them, so they’re really only aiming at the moment at the 10 million people who
don’t get cable,” he said.
In a panel titled “Bets Won and Lost”, Murdoch also briefly addressed his
high-profile, and ultimately unsuccessful, bid to takeover HBO’s parent, Time
Warner. “We felt that we needed more critical mass and content and this was a
wonderful marriage and fit,” he said.
The media mogul again admitted he had “messed up” MySpace, the social media
website News Corp bought for $580m in July 2005. At that point MySpace was
“growing like crazy”, Murdoch said. Six years later News Corp sold MySpace for
just $35m after it became clear it was unable to compete with Facebook.
Murdoch told the conference MySpace was developing a video service, launched
three month’s before YouTube. Google bought YouTube in 2006 for $1.65bn.
MySpace failed to take off because of management mistakes after the purchase,
said Murdoch. “It was a series of expensive, lost opportunities,” he told the
conference.
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