Transcript
BROOKE GLADSTONE: From WNYC in New York this is NPR's On the Media. I'm Brooke Gladstone.
BOB GARFIELD: And I'm Bob Garfield. For Rupert Murdoch, April's been the coolest month. The U.S. won the war he championed. Fox News Channel has been winning the cable news ratings race, and Murdoch's News Corporation won a long-coveted asset for its global media empire -- the DirecTV satellite broadcasting business. General Motor's, DirectTV's previous owner, sold its share to Murdoch for 6.6 billion dollars. If approved by federal regulators, the deal would give Murdoch 11 million more viewers and make News Corp. the largest media group in the world. Joining us to discuss the ramifications of this deal is Alicia Mundy, senior editor for Cable World magazine. Alicia, welcome back to the show.
ALICIA MUNDY: Thank you for having me.
BOB GARFIELD: All right, give us some background here. This was not the first time Murdoch made a bid for DirecTV -- he's had his eye on this property for some time, right?
ALICIA MUNDY: He's had his eye on getting a satellite in the United States for at least 10 years, and about 1995 or 6 he began nosing around with DirecTV which is part of the Hughes Corporation which is part of General Motors. Hughes put up a big fight, and he decided he would sit back and let somebody else go after it, and that somebody else was Charlie Urkin [sp?] who owns Echo Star [sp?]. And when it fell through, he would go in and basically pick up DirecTV on the rebound for fire sale prices.
BOB GARFIELD:Well what about satellite broadcasting to begin with? In the United States where this property resides, it's really marginal relative to cable. Does he know something about the future that we don't know?
ALICIA MUNDY: Right now satellite's biggest problem is, one, there are areas in the country where you cannot get satellite. Also, satellite isn't good for interactive TV, and it doesn't work for broadband. But that technology is changing, and when that technology changes some more, Rupert's going to be in a great position! I mean do you know anybody who's happy with their cable operator these days? People look for an excuse to change!
BOB GARFIELD: Well why is the deal so important? Is this the last jigsaw puzzle piece for Rupert Murdoch? Is his empire now complete?
ALICIA MUNDY:No, I don't think his empire is complete at all, but in terms of his broadcast ability I think this is probably the last big piece for him, and this is what he needs for it. If you recall, it was only a few years ago he was begging Time Warner and New York City to pick up the Fox News Channel! He'll never have to go through that again. He's got his own little way to distribute now. Plus, this really puts him in a position to -- how do I put this politely? -- to hold up his competitors in a very nasty way, because he owns content that they want, sports programming and the Fox News Channel. He can use his new acquisition to leverage his dealings with them! This is a wonderful deal! This is the one time I've seen the word "synergy" used where it actually mattered.
BOB GARFIELD:Does this mean we can look forward to the "Foxification" of the world via his 500 channels? Are 483 of them going to be Fox-Something or Other?
ALICIA MUNDY: I don't know if it'll be 483; my guess'll be about 350. I mean look what he's got right now. He's got Fox. He's got FX, The Fox News Channel, he's picked up National Geographic. There are a lot of fringe cable stations that have solid subscriber lists. He can pick them up for a song and add them to the Fox empire. I think we'll see Fox sort of 24/7, everyplace you look.
BOB GARFIELD:What will that mean to the media environment worldwide? Let me see if I can put this delicately. Rupert Murdoch's genius over the years has been to be -- well, let's just say populist. To reach the lowest common denominator with the kind of content that the lowest common denominator desires.
ALICIA MUNDY: I think we'll see, as Barry Diller said a few weeks ago in a speech, we're going to see more shows about rejection -- things like more American Idol where, you know, everybody gets to turn in and watch people being thrown off the game. Populist is probably a, a nice word for it. As one of the reviewers wrote, it's like watching a car accident; you know, you know it's dreadful, but you can't take your eyes off it. And-- Murdoch really knows how to work that!
BOB GARFIELD:What about politics. Is there any reason to fear that this latest element in his empire will be used to propound a certain political point of view -- not just in the United States, but worldwide.
ALICIA MUNDY: I think that is something that has to be considered and reckoned with. He could probably get a lot of cable operators wanting to pick up a second Fox news station in light of the success of the current one, and yeah, that would be stamped with his viewpoint! Some people have connected him to Citizen Kane, you know, the monolithic mythic figure based on William Randolph Hearst who imprinted everything he owned with his viewpoint and personality. I don't think that's such a bad comparison. The other media moguls out there aren't really that heavily involved in their empire and you don't see their properties being stamped with their viewpoint. I mean does anybody know what Richard Parsons actually believes in, and he's, he's in charge of AOL Time Warner. Rupert isn't just head of a board. He owns this baby, and Rupert has strong opinions! He has fired people who disagreed with his viewpoints! I think we've got our Citizen Kane!
BOB GARFIELD:Now the DirecTV deal remains to be approved by federal regulators who have, in all fairness, not been especially regulation-minded in the last number of years.
ALICIA MUNDY: That's true.
BOB GARFIELD: What's the outlook for this deal in Washington?
ALICIA MUNDY: I think at this point there will be a lot of opposition from consumer groups -- we call them "The Corduroy Crew" here in Washington. But in the past there has been pressure on the regulators to let Rupert have his loopholes wherever he wanted them, whether it was getting a waiver to own the New York Post--that's certainly the first one that comes to mind, but there have been a number of other issues where regulators have just caved in to Rupert in the past. People don't want to tick him off! He owns too much!
BOB GARFIELD: Alicia, as always, thank you very much!
ALICIA MUNDY: Thank you.
BOB GARFIELD: Alicia Mundy is senior editor at Cable World magazine. She spoke to us from her home in Alexandria, Virginia.