Murdoch Musings: Mogul Cites Triple Play As Reason for DirecTV Sale

With stocks soaring, cable has taken comfort in its triple play push. But the industry on Thurs got even more confirmation that its strategy is working—and inflicting pain on the DBS industry. Speaking at the Media Summit NY, News Corp chmn Rupert Murdoch said his decision to unload DirecTV to Liberty Media‘s John Malone had a lot to do with satellite’s inability to match competitors on data and VoIP. "The problem is broadband; I don’t think the answer is WiMax," he said. "The appeal of the triple play is going to be very hard to compete with." Murdoch did, however, forecast "2 to 3 good years ahead" for DirecTV, with its HD capacity expansion a likely boon as falling HD set-top prices spur decreasing churn. On the channel front, Murdoch said the Big Ten Network, scheduled to launch in Aug, is a property that cable MSOs "will absolutely have to have." He said Fox’s proposed business channel launching this fall will provide a more business-friendly environment than CNBC, which he said dwells on the negative and scandals [see "All Business" item below]. News Corp’s Internet properties will likely provide 10% of overall revenues within 5 years, Murdoch predicted, up from 1% currently. He said one key driver is MySpace, noting that News Corp is spending roughly $2mln/week on tech upgrades to keep pace with surging traffic while netting $25mln in ads each month. In the 6-7 week period after Cingular began offering mobile MySpace access for $3/month, 200K customers have signed up, said Murdoch. Are additional marriages between Web and mobile properties likely? "It’s the next great platform coming," he said. Murdoch also expects further moves from Fox Nets and others into India, Eastern Europe and Indonesia. — Media Summit Notebook: Charter is using tech from Navic Nets in its L.A. market to overlay 30-sec spots with interactive elements such as viewer polling questions. The MSO is combining some data gleaned from these elements with its database and info from 3rd parties to "deliver specific, relevant ads to individual households," said Charter Media dir, business development, West/Midwest Div Dean Scheu. — YES Network COO Ray Hopkins said all YES programming will be delivered in HD by Apr.