Ted Turner's Beef with Big Media - GoFuckYourself.com

dready · 10-06-2004, 04:47 PM

This was published in July but you may have missed it... very interesting article by Ted Turner....

In the late 1960s, when Turner Communications was a business of billboards and radio stations and I was spending much of my energy ocean racing, a UHF-TV station came up for sale in Atlanta. It was losing $50,000 a month and its programs were viewed by fewer than 5 percent of the market.

I acquired it.

When I moved to buy a second station in Charlotte--this one worse than the first--my accountant quit in protest, and the company's board vetoed the deal. So I mortgaged my house and bought it myself. The Atlanta purchase turned into the Superstation; the Charlotte purchase--when I sold it 10 years later--gave me the capital to launch CNN.

Both purchases played a role in revolutionizing television. Both required a streak of independence and a taste for risk. And neither could happen today. In the current climate of consolidation, independent broadcasters simply don't survive for long. That's why we haven't seen a new generation of people like me or even Rupert Murdoch--independent television upstarts who challenge the big boys and force the whole industry to compete and change.

Read the full article here

FlyingIguana · 10-06-2004, 05:20 PM

he is big media, so maybe he should change to take advantage of the situation. if others are ignoring independant stations, he should get some talent together and start some as a subsidiary.

10-06-2004, 04:47 PM	#1
dready Confirmed User Industry Role: Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Toronto, ON Posts: 5,247	Ted Turner's Beef with Big Media This was published in July but you may have missed it... very interesting article by Ted Turner.... In the late 1960s, when Turner Communications was a business of billboards and radio stations and I was spending much of my energy ocean racing, a UHF-TV station came up for sale in Atlanta. It was losing $50,000 a month and its programs were viewed by fewer than 5 percent of the market. I acquired it. When I moved to buy a second station in Charlotte--this one worse than the first--my accountant quit in protest, and the company's board vetoed the deal. So I mortgaged my house and bought it myself. The Atlanta purchase turned into the Superstation; the Charlotte purchase--when I sold it 10 years later--gave me the capital to launch CNN. Both purchases played a role in revolutionizing television. Both required a streak of independence and a taste for risk. And neither could happen today. In the current climate of consolidation, independent broadcasters simply don't survive for long. That's why we haven't seen a new generation of people like me or even Rupert Murdoch--independent television upstarts who challenge the big boys and force the whole industry to compete and change. Read the full article here __________________ ICQ: 91139591

10-06-2004, 05:20 PM	#2
FlyingIguana aspiring banker Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: toronto Posts: 10,870	he is big media, so maybe he should change to take advantage of the situation. if others are ignoring independant stations, he should get some talent together and start some as a subsidiary.