AFI BLOG: Media and Technology

Questions for Michael Eisner–The Media Mogul — NY Times Sunday Magazine

As the former C.E.O. of Disney and the founder of a privately held company that invests in the digital future, you were recently speaking at a conference when you used the words “stupid” and “insanity” to describe the Writers Guild strike. Can you explain? What I was driving at was that it was a foolish time to have a strike issue over a business and a marketplace that is not evolved enough to even know if there is a business or a marketplace there.
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Brad Swonetz

But aren’t television networks already making money from programs that appear on the Internet, which is what the striking writers want a piece of? No. The areas in which they are making money, which let’s call the reuse areas — the movies to be downloaded, or television series to be downloaded — are areas in which I believe the producers have agreed to make a deal. The area where they cannot make a deal is original production for the Internet, which is neither profitable nor is it clear in exactly what direction it’s going to go.

But there is a growing revenue pie. Not a profit pie.