Reinventing Television with Larry Namer

Now, I know a lot of what you're doing now is kind of key to my next question.

Obviously, media and television, it's evolved over the years.

And as you said, when you got into this, there were how many networks? And then when you got involved, there were this many networks.

And now between streaming and TV and cable, there are this many networks, you know, Talk to me about how the approach has changed.

Because if you think about it now, I look through my channels all the time.

I see you showing a lot of movies, you know, not new movies, but like, you know, popular movies from back in the day.

How are networks now trying to be profitable, be competitive, but also fill 24 hours of programming, 365 days a year?

Well, you know, to me, the days of linear TV networks are gone forever.

You know, and I try to explain to people and, you know, everybody gets caught.

You know, most of these companies are big public companies.

So in order to make a big change, they have to do tremendous write-offs of infrastructure and overhead.

And they're not willing to do that because, you know, they want to explain to the shareholders.

Yeah.

Took a $10 billion write-down on, you know, on production equipment.

But, you know, and I've been trying to explain this to people for years and years, and they look at me like, you know, I've got two heads.

The equation is really simple.

Do you want to watch what he wants you to watch on Thursday night at 8 o'clock? Or do you want to watch what you want to watch whenever you want to watch it on whatever device you want to watch it on? We all know the answer to the question.

You know, the consumer, the audience wins at the end of the day.

And we're moving to the point where every single person on the planet is going to have their own network because they're going to be able to, with AI, they're going to be able to program it to whatever their tastes are from wherever those programs come from in the world and stuff.

And you're going to have just this great personalization, which is fine, which is why I think it's wonderful.

How do you see, let's go back to where you began.

So Cable TV, let's start there for a second.

What do you think is the future of Cable TV? When I say future, two years, five years, 10 years?

Well, I think they need to adapt to the new world, which is nonlinear.

Again, nobody wants to watch things in a linear fashion or for the most part in a linear fashion.

Now, I know a lot of what you're doing now is kind of key to my next question.

Obviously, media and television, it's evolved over the years.

And as you said, when you got into this, there were how many networks? And then when you got involved, there were this many networks.

And now between streaming and TV and cable, there are this many networks, you know, Talk to me about how the approach has changed.

Because if you think about it now, I look through my channels all the time.

I see you showing a lot of movies, you know, not new movies, but like, you know, popular movies from back in the day.

How are networks now trying to be profitable, be competitive, but also fill 24 hours of programming, 365 days a year?

Well, you know, to me, the days of linear TV networks are gone forever.

You know, and I try to explain to people and, you know, everybody gets caught.

You know, most of these companies are big public companies.

So in order to make a big change, they have to do tremendous write-offs of infrastructure and overhead.

And they're not willing to do that because, you know, they want to explain to the shareholders.

Yeah.

Took a $10 billion write-down on, you know, on production equipment.

But, you know, and I've been trying to explain this to people for years and years, and they look at me like, you know, I've got two heads.

The equation is really simple.

Do you want to watch what he wants you to watch on Thursday night at 8 o'clock? Or do you want to watch what you want to watch whenever you want to watch it on whatever device you want to watch it on? We all know the answer to the question.

You know, the consumer, the audience wins at the end of the day.

And we're moving to the point where every single person on the planet is going to have their own network because they're going to be able to, with AI, they're going to be able to program it to whatever their tastes are from wherever those programs come from in the world and stuff.

And you're going to have just this great personalization, which is fine, which is why I think it's wonderful.

How do you see, let's go back to where you began.

So Cable TV, let's start there for a second.

What do you think is the future of Cable TV? When I say future, two years, five years, 10 years?

Well, I think they need to adapt to the new world, which is nonlinear.

Again, nobody wants to watch things in a linear fashion or for the most part in a linear fashion.