Chernin of Fox/News Corp. realistic on PVRs impact

MediaDailyNews has an interesting piece on Fox/News Corp Pres./CEO Peter Chernin who, speaking at the Goldman Sachs Communicopia XII Conference in New York City on Tuesday, sounded very realistic about the impact of PVRs on his business and how they are working to find ways to benefit from

"I don't think what it's challenged is advertising. I think what's challenged is the three-minute pod of sort of bland 30-second commercials. I think it behooves all of us to work aggressively to think of different ways to get different messages out," Chernin said.
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"The challenge is how do you manage the transition in a way that you don't give up your main business. So we're going to be focused, on the broadcast advertising side, in making sure we maintain those revenues and grow those revenues and look at the targeted PVR ads as gravy on top of that for certainly the next three to five or six years," Chernin said.

"It's a pretty easy thing to come to grips with in that we're not going to stop it," Chernin said. "If one side of the company said that we'd prefer to live without PVRs. Well, you know what, too bad. You're not going to live in a life without PVRs."

I'm happy to see executives at this level who understand the demand and the impact of PVR technology on TV viewers. If it means that the advertisers have to work harder to get their messages out, then too bad for them. Advertisers have had it far too easy for far too long, in my opinion. Will it really take "3-5" years for interactive advertising (via PVRs or other 2-way media) to become more than just "gravy on top?"

Chernin: News Corp. Embraces PVRs, Tests And Integrates Ad Strategies

Comments

[Todd Lokken]

It's not long before DVR type setups start eliminating trips to video stores (for on-demand type setups).