PASADENA, Calif.--Disney CEO Robert Iger said he appreciates the fact that his company helped pioneer user-generated video with "America's Funniest Home Videos," but acknowledges he missed a big opportunity.
"Unfortunately, I didn't come up with YouTube," Iger said Wednesday during the opening interview at Fortune's Brainstorm: Tech conference here. Although it has yet to be profitable, he noted that those who created the site did sell it for a "chunk of change."
Fortune's Richard Siklos interviews Disney CEO Robert Iger as the Brainstorm:Tech conference kicks off in Pasadena, Calif., Wednesday.
(Credit: Ina Fried/CNET)But, Iger insisted that free content isn't going to be the only game in town.
"People are willing to pay for quality," he said. "They are willing to pay for choice. They are willing to pay for convenience."
He noted that people still pay $5 an hour to go to the movies, 75 cents an hour to read books and magazines, 50 cents an hour to watch cable, but just 25 cents an hour to use the Internet, in terms of the amount they pay their Internet service provider.
"There's plenty of room for people to spend more money on for things they are doing online," Iger said. "I think it is wrong to assume that because there is a lot on the Internet that is free that it is going to be impossible to monetize" content.
Iger acknowledged that the company still makes far less online than it does from traditional broadcast means.
"We're not monetizing as much as we do in our traditional business," he said. "It's very early in the timeline. I think there is going to be ample opportunity to improve monetization from advertising online."
When moderator Richard Siklos pointed out that he had a fairly optimistic take on things, Iger noted that's part of his job.
"If you are trying to lead anybody, you better be an optimist," he said. "Not too many people follow pessimists."
He said his job as CEO is to make sure everyone at his company has one hand in the present and one hand in the future--essentially aware of where his bread is buttered but also with an eye toward where that next meal is coming from.
As for privacy concerns, he notes that most of the issues come from "older people," saying that when he talks to his daughters they show little concern for those issues.
"I've learned more about my daughters on Facebook than I did when I was raising them," Iger said.
The Olympic Games in Beijing is proving to be a hit in the workplace.
Traffic to Olympics-related Web sites soared Monday, the first full workday after the official opening of the games Friday, according to numbers released Wednesday by Nielsen Online (see chart below). More than 2 million people visited the video section of NBCOlympics.com, up nearly 140 percent from Sunday when the site had about 858,000 visitors, according to Nielsen. Overall visits to the site increased 40 percent to 4.6 million compared with Sunday's 3.3 million.
Traffic to Yahoo's Olympics site also skyrocketed, up 86 percent to 5.2 million visitors compared with Sunday's 2.8 million.
(Credit:
Nielsen Online)
Mobile usage also saw a significant boost, increasing from 210,000 on Friday to 476,062 on Monday. NBC, which said it polled users, said it was "stunned" at the number of users who were using mobile video download for the first time.
Meanwhile, Nielsen Media Research reported that NBC's TV coverage averaged more than 30 million viewers for the first three days of the games, a 26 percent increase compared with the same period during the Athens Games in 2004. The opening ceremony was last week's most-watched program, attracting nearly 35 million viewers.
As well as NBC is doing both on TV and on online, it begs the question of whether NBC's policy of delaying popular events online until they have run on TV in prime time was a wise move or overly restrictive.
Click here for more stories on tech and the Beijing Olympics.
Allowing journalists access to an uncensored Internet apparently isn't on the International Olympic Committee's list of things to do before the Beijing games begin next week.
A day after journalists learned their Internet activities would be limited, a senior IOC official admitted to Reuters on Wednesday that committee members had cut a deal to let the Chinese government block sensitive Web sites, despite promises of unrestricted access.
"I regret that it now appears BOCOG has announced that there will be limitations on Web site access during games time," IOC press chief Kevan Gosper told Reuters, referring to Beijing's Olympic organizers. "I also now understand that some IOC officials negotiated with the Chinese that some sensitive sites would be blocked on the basis they were not considered games related."
The revelation came a day after journalists learned that organizers had backtracked on earlier guarantees that journalists would have access to an uncensored Internet at the Main Press Center and athletic venues. The announcement meant that thousands of reporters working in Beijing during the next several weeks won't have access to a multitude of sites deemed embarrassing to the Chinese government, such as Amnesty International or any sites related to the crackdown in Tibet or the banned spiritual group Falun Gong.
When Chinese officials were bidding for the right to hold the games seven years ago, they assured international organizers that there would be ''complete freedom to report.'' In April, Chinese organizers told International Olympic Committee members that Internet censorship, which is routine for China's citizens, would be lifted for journalists during the games.
However, IOC members issued a clarification Tuesday, saying that Internet freedom applied only to Web sites related to ''Olympic competitions.'' Some journalists expressed frustration at the slow download rates and even voiced suspicion that it was deliberate and intended to discourage use.
Media watchdog Reporters without Borders said it was increasingly concerned that journalists would face many cases of censorship during the Olympics.
"We condemn the IOC's failure to do anything about this, and we are more skeptical about its ability to ensure that the media are able to report freely," the group said in a statement.
With the opening of the Beijing Olympic Games a mere 10 days away, members of the media have learned that there is at least one thing they can expect not to be open: the Internet.
Despite earlier assurances that journalists would have unfettered access to the Internet at the Main Press Center and athletic venues, organizers are now backtracking, meaning that the some 5,000 reporters working in Beijing during the next several weeks won't have access to a multitude of sites such as Amnesty International or any site with Tibet in the address, according to an Associated Press report.
When Chinese officials were bidding for the right to hold the games seven years ago, they assured international organizers that there would be ''complete freedom to report.'' In April, Chinese organizers told International Olympic Committee members that Internet censorship, which is routine for China's citizens, would be lifted for journalists during the games.
However, IOC members issued a clarification Tuesday, saying that Internet freedom applied only to Web sites related to ''Olympic competitions.'' Some journalists expressed frustration at the slow download rates and even voiced suspicion that it was deliberate and intended to discourage use.
''This type of censorship would have been unthinkable in Athens, but China seems to have more formalities,'' Mihai Mironica, a journalist with ProTV in Romania, told the AP. ''If journalists cannot fully access the Internet here, it will definitely be a problem.''
This development is only the latest in a long string of headaches the media have suffered in China while preparing to cover the games.
When a senior vice president for NBC Sports, which paid about $900 million to broadcast the games, asked organizers last month to lift broadcast and interview restrictions at Tiananmen Square, the response was reportedly clear: "Don't push the issue."
Having the Chinese government telling you where you can and can't go on the Internet is not only frustrating but a bit unnerving as well. You can bet they are also watching journalists very carefully. Considering the way China dealt with YouTube during the Tibet crackdown earlier this year, what kind of "journalism freedoms" will reporters have if their stories offend Chinese officials?
- prev
- 1
- next
