CBS Radio to keep content off Web Need to keep local stations alive, says David Pearlman
Mr. Pearlman, recently rated one of the 40 most powerful people in radio, was speaking about the effect of mega-mergers on the media industry at the Canadian Music Week conference.
The CBS executive, who started off in the radio business with one station of his own and now has 163 under CBS, advised the audience of radio executives to embrace consolidation.
"Remember, content is king and you have content in your country," said Mr. Pearlman, whose parent company, CBS, is being bought by Viacom Inc.
Despite his enthusiasm for the convergence trend, which is the marriage of media and Internet technologies, Mr. Pearlman said his company has made the decision to not put its product, such as the Howard Stern radio show, on the Internet.
Although it is believed radio is threatened by the Internet and should be more adaptable to the technology, Mr. Pearlman said CBS has taken a stand that, until a better business model is invented to keep local stations alive, the company will not broadcast its radio content via the World Wide Web.
"We are by no means hiding under the covers," he said. "We are into localism, it is very important. Somebody is going to figure out how to maintain localism on the Internet. I don't know how to do that today."
Still, Mr. Pearlman pointed to such proposed mergers as America Online's takeover of Time Warner Inc., as well as BCE Inc.'s bid for Canadian broadcaster CTV Inc., as only the beginning of the consolidation movement in the industry.
Despite his enthusiasm for Canadian radio and television content, Mr. Pearlman said his company has no immediate plans to do any deals similar to what competitor, U.S.-based Liberty Media Group announced with Corus Entertainment Inc. last week. Liberty, whose properties include The Discovery Network and several radio stations, has agreed to take a 19.9% stake in Corus, which owns YTV.
"It might make some sense in the future to go north of the border, but I can't promise that. There are so many regulatory hurdles. But I can't imagine at some point in the future if that opportunity existed we wouldn't, particularly given the great relationship between Canada and the U.S."