Allen & Co.’s annual Sun Valley mogul gathering kicked off today, and early reports have focused on arrivals — there’s Bob Iger! There’s Jim Wiatt! …and an executive carjacking.
Sort of.
The Los Angeles Times reports that NBC Universal’s Ron Meyer got into the wrong car — one belonging to Black Entertainment Television founder Robert Johnson — before driving off, only then realizing he had made a mistake.
This kind of thing is bound to happen when rich moguls get together without their assistants.
But so is a growing concern about the media business, especially since traditional revenue streams — mainly advertising — are evaporating.
And this year, the changing landscape of media is more pronounced than ever since regular invitees like Warren Buffett, Bill Gates and Barry Diller are being joined by Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Twitter CEO Evan Williams.
One thing on the agenda — and on everyone’s list — is paid content, which is what old-guard media honchos now have to figure out in order to survive.
The Wall Street journal has Iger saying, “People are going to pay for content. We are not worried about that.”
It also had Blake Krikorian, former CEO of Sling Media, blaming the TV networks for digging themselves into a hole. Krikorian said the television industry has been digging its own grave by placing shows on the Web for free.
