Les Moonves sees the television landscape evolving, and believes CBS is fully prepared for the new ecosystem — whether or not it’s the oldest skewing broadcast channel on the traditional TV dial.
“Clearly, the bundle is changing,” Moonves said Wednesday at the Deutsche Bank 2015 Media, Internet & Telecom Conference, citing Charlie Ergen’s new Sling TV as an example of things to come.
“The days of the 500-channel universe are over,” the network’s president and chief executive officer continued. “People are going to be slicing it and dicing it.”
But he’s plenty confident going forward, and compared CBS to the New England Patriots, while promising advertisers they’ll win a Super Bowl together.
“We’re number one,” Moonves simply stated. “So in any bundle, we have to be there.”
“You can’t live without CBS,” he concluded on the matter — though Moonves admitted that having the National Football League on both Sundays and Thursdays sure helps.
CBS also has the Super Bowl for this coming season, so readers can imagine their sports-metaphor-happy leader’s enthusiasm on the matter.
Moonves, who applauded the “showmanship” behind HBO’s and Apple’s joint announcement, promised Showtime’s over-the-top service is coming in the “not-too-distant future.” He said his premium cable’s streaming option is in “terrific shape,” while touting the revenue potential of the new concept’s “open field.”
In terms of his broadcast channel, while Moonves wouldn’t give away CBS All Access subscriptions, the executive promised that they’re both bigger than Sling’s touted 100,000 number and are besting his own internal projections.
All of these individual options will not only shrink the bundle, they’ll retire another technology, Moonves said.
“As we go down the line, the DVR will get smaller,” he claimed, as he once again publicly predicted the days of 30 and even 60-day delayed viewing numbers would become the advertising standard.
Moonves only spoke briefly about consolidation, a topic Viacom President Philippe Dauman had more to say about during his podium time on Monday.
“The need to get bigger, we don’t feel that pressure,” Moonves said, reiterating how cable carriers need his product in its current industry-leading state.
Viacom and CBS Corporation split in the mid 2000s, though both remain under parent company National Amusements, Inc., chaired by Sumner Redstone.
Also linking Redstone’s top executives together, during Dauman’s Deutsche Bank discussion earlier this week, he insisted his company is not interested in acquiring Moonves’.
“We have no intention of buying CBS or buying any other big company out there,” Dauman stated at the time. “We have a lot to do to grow organically.”
Moonves did not comment on the matter on Wednesday, nor was he asked to directly.