In a recent Newsweek interview Viacom/CBS CEO Les Moonves stated that he will be responsible for taking the old media giant into a new era.
Moonves recognizes the paradigm shift in his customer’s viewing habits and wants to take advantage of it as soon as possible, but with caution. “More and more people want their content when they want it,” he told Newsweek. He admits, however, that he will not take CBS diving head-first, but will be “putting our toe in the water.”
Moonves disclosed that his people were currently in talks with iTunes, the largest legal downloading provider online, stating, “they’re looking for content – we’re a content provider.”
The CBS Chair spoke confidently that he believed there is still room for conventional primetime network programming, citing the 30 million viewers who watch “CSI” each week as an example. And while he thinks things won’t necessarily change overnight, he is setting CBS on the track for the continued growth and popularity of the On-Demand Downloading technology.
Millions of people watch “CSI,” billions of flies crawl around on dogshit. Seems to be about the same difference, to me.
Lots of CBS content is on Google’s new Video search. I found piles of Star Trek Voyager episodes there. You can watch 30 seconds for free, or toss $1.99 to CBS for the entire episode. Dunno what format…
Moonves is a piece of crap.
I’m boycotting all CBS stations, TV shows, and even finding out some of their sponsors and I plan on writing to them as well. I may not make a dent, but hopefully enough of us will hurt CBS financially.
Long live the revolution.