All the big names in the media industry are participating in a private meeting in Sun Valley, Idaho this week to map out their strategies and ponder the technological changes that are changing movies, TV, and the Internet. Even Bill Gates was there, according to Fox News, but noticeably absent was any mention of Apple.
Every big name in the Internet and entertainment was invited to the annual meeting, hosted by investment banker Herbert Allen. News Corp. chairman Rupert Murdoch, Time Warner CEO Dick Parsons, Walt Disney CEO Robert Iger and CBS CEO Leslie Moonves were there.
Other luminaries in attendance included Googleis Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Intel chairman Craig Barrett, Microsoftis Bill Gates, Janus Friis, the mind behind Kazaa and now Joost, and Slingbox CEO Blake Krikorian.
Some of these players are partners, and some have their differences, such as Sumner Redstone and Viacomis billion dollar lawsuit against Google. On the whole, however, in meetings and on the golf course, these giants in the industry will be figuring out how to manage and deliver their content in an age of tremendous innovation and change engendered by the Internet.
Facebook and Myspace were on the minds of many seeking to engage their customers where they "live" on the Internet. In fact, Rupert Murdoch, who bought MySpace for US$580M two years ago bet that people would be moving from newspapers to MySpace in financially rewarding ways. Heis found out that they havenit abandoned their newspapers as fast as he suspected, but have instead moved to the competition: Facebook.
No mention of anyone from Apple was made in the story, and that has to be troubling for many in terms of the high level politics. The good news is that Robert Iger from Disney was there.