Charging …
-->Barry Diller was interviewed by Poppy Harlow of CNN here at South by Southwest. A few nuggets from the Q&A are below:
On the Internet in general — “The Internet is a miracle…you put stuff together w spit…you push a button & publish to the world.”
Internet valuations are”mathematically insane” but can work if there is a “willing dumb buyer.”
On the iPad — “I have a truly emotional thing about the ipad.”
Charging for Internet usage — 30% of traffic on cable systems is Netflix. There will be charges for Internet usage (like electricity).
On Internet television
“Thirty million households are connected to the Internet but noone knows how to navigate them.”
In 3 years, you’ll have Internet Television be out there and navigated by everyone.
Google TV wasn’t good…not a consumer product really…but they’ll figure it out. They may be run over by the Playstation or xBox or any PVR machine (which are ready today).
Advice for Internet entrepreneurs
“Get as much money as you need to get started. Give away as little as possible. Keep your head down. Don’t listen to anyone. And keep going on your path. It’ll either work fabously or fail miserably, in which case you can do it all over again.”
“And think in longer forms of video (than just short (3 or 4 minutes). ”
“The cable companies want Netflix to succeed as much as they want destruction. They’re going to try to kill Netflix.”
Which is more important: content, context or conversation?
“Sumner Redstone invented ‘Content is King’ because he had content and wanted to be king.”
They are all important.