Clippings: Bear Stearns Media Conference
Murdoch Won't battle Microsoft for Yahoo
San Jose Mercury News
One of Yahoo's potential white knights in its struggle to avoid being taken over by Microsoft just put his charger back in the stable. News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch told a Bear Stearns conference in Palm Beach, Fla., today that he's not going to battle the Redmond software giant for Yahoo.
"It would be fun to beat Microsoft," he said. But "we're not going to get into a fight with Microsoft. They've got a lot more money than us." Murdoch's News Corp. has been touted as a possible savior of Yahoo and there were reports of discussions between the two companies. Apparently they went nowhere.
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Comcast CFO Says Our High-Definition Service Is 'Great'
Dow Jones Newswires
Comcast Corp. Chief Financial Officer Michael Angelakis said Monday the company's high-definition offering is a "great service," but acknowledged that rival DirecTV, a satellite provider, has done a "better job" of marketing its HD channels.
Angelakis, speaking during a discussion at the annual Bear Stearns Media Conference in Palm Beach, Fla., said although Comcast is capable of adding more than 150 HD channels to its lineup, "not every HD channel deserves to be in HD, and there are lots of HD channels that aren't watched very much."
Viacom CEO: Ratings Growth Seen Boosting Advertising Rates
Dow Jones Newswires
Viacom Inc. Chief Executive Philippe Dauman reiterated Monday that ratings growth at the company's cable networks should lead to higher advertising rates this summer, when the channels sell commercial time in advance for the fall season.
Dauman, speaking at the annual Bear Stearns Media Conference in Palm Beach, Fla., said the gap in ad rates between broadcast and cable networks is narrowing, especially as Viacom sells ad packages across several networks to emphasize the audience reach cable now commands.
Google: Paid Click Decline Intentional
ZDNet
Google executives said that concerns about the company’s paid click rate was overblown and added that they planned to “dial up” advertising on YouTube. Google’s Tim Armstrong, president of advertising and commerce in North America, said that the decline in paid click rates were to do a focus on ad quality.
Google shares were whacked on concerns about the most recent data from comScore. However, Armstrong noted that the changes created a better consumer experience because they saw better targeted ads.
Iger: Disney To Reap $1 Billion Online
Associated Press
The Walt Disney Co. expects to collect $1 billion in revenue from online content this fiscal year, a significant rise from estimates for fiscal 2007, CEO Robert Iger said Monday. Iger told analysts the company has been "fairly aggressive" in expanding onto the Internet to extend consumer contact with its most popular franchises and create new revenue streams.
"If we're not there, (people) will just access someone else's content," he said in comments Webcast from Bear Stearns' 21st Annual Media Conference in Palm Beach, Fla. Disney's online revenue came from advertising during its ABC network hits such as "Lost" and "Grey's Anatomy" that are rerun on ABC.com; ads on sites such as ESPN.com; subscriptions to online games; downloads of movies and music; and e-commerce that is not related to its theme parks.
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