Sunday, November 19, 2006

Murdoch's $2B bet on content; more bad news for Umair.

Now why would James Murdoch buck the Web 2.0 fashion started in earnest by his father Rupert by splashing almost $2B on a stodgy old TV broadcaster?

As one banker put it, "'BSkyB is obviously rattled by the idea of an NTL take-over of ITV that could compete with them in a world that is increasingly moving in the direction of broadband and cable, not satellite. Probably they were afraid, too, of a situation developing where ITV's back catalogue would only be available on NTL".

Just look at that last sentence. BSkyB just spent a large chunk of $2B protecting their access to unique resources, the juicy content they stuff down their channels, ensuring it is available for their use in the future, and not locked up by someone else.

It doesn't matter what the network is, how the content is disseminated - that audience-pleasing content is the key to ensuring you get the bums on seats, and hence the big bucks.

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