LES MOONVES

April 5, 2000
		Media correspondent Terence Smith talks about the future of television with Les Moonves, president and CEO, CBS Television. The NewsHour Media Unit is funded by a grant from the Pew Charitable Trusts.

Online Special Transforming television Jan. 19, 2000: Media allies Jan. 19, 2000: The new age of journalism Dec. 29. 1999: Technology in the 21st century July 12, 1999: Vying for cable viewers Nov. 6, 1998: New News Part 1: Changes in print and Internet journalism Nov. 13, 1998: New News Part 2: Cable and broadcast television. Aug. 11, 1998: Transforming TV April 10, 1997: Going wireless April 3, 1997: TV goes digital Browse the NewsHour's coverage of the media and cyberspace   CBS.com TiVo WebTV	TERENCE SMITH: As you look down the road five, 10 years, and you look at all the technology at a show like this -- LES MOONVES: Right. TERENCE SMITH: How different do you think television is going to be?
	Some things change, others stay the same
	LES MOONVES: I think in certain ways, it's going to be very different, and in certain ways, it's going to be the same. I think our delivery systems are going to change fairly drastically. I think right now we all get our signals either through broadcast television or through cable. There's a big new world out there. It's called Internet, and I think that's going to be a new source of television coming into your home. By the same token, with the advent of the Replays and the TiVos and things like that, people are basically going to be able to put it on their own schedule. They are going to be able to take the 8 o'clock show from CBS and put the 8:30 show on NBC and then the 9 o'clock show on ABC and sort of program what they want to watch, when they want to watch it. So we as programmers will have a little less say in what people watch when they watch it. TERENCE SMITH: Right. I mean, that sounds as though it's a big change in the world as you know it. LES MOONVES: No question about it. It's happening very rapidly, and it has some very interesting effects on the advertising marketplace. TERENCE SMITH: Namely? LES MOONVES: Well, a lot of these services have devices whereby you can program it to take the commercials out. TERENCE SMITH: Press the button. LES MOONVES: Press the button. You can watch your show straight through without seeing commercials. Obviously, that will change the business model quite a bit. In certain instances, you will see commercials sort of put on the programming, throughout the programming, on the side, almost like a race car where you see this motor oil there, this designer there, all sorts of different ways of putting advertising into your home. TERENCE SMITH: Really? Well, I mean, that would be a big change. LES MOONVES: That is going to be a big change. TERENCE SMITH: So instead -- are you going so far as to say that instead of having 30-second breaks - - LES MOONVES: Right. TERENCE SMITH: -- or longer breaks -- LES MOONVES: Right. TERENCE SMITH: -- commercial breaks as we know it, the commercials will in effect stream through the product? LES MOONVES: That -- in certain product, absolutely. I mean, obviously, it's a lot easier to do that in a sporting event, let's say, than with "Everybody Loves Raymond" or "Touched by an Angel." The other thing I think you'll see is potential product placement within it, whereby there will be obvious signs of a product within the body of the show, which will in essence replace the commercial.
	But change is coming quickly
	TERENCE SMITH: Your programming executives spend a lot of time and put a lot of effort into placing shows in order with each other in order to best possible audience. LES MOONVES: That's correct. TERENCE SMITH: Does that become less relevant? LES MOONVES: It will become less relevant. How much so, we don't know. That's going to be very interesting to see. Did the VCR change patterns? Not really. Will these new systems change watching patterns? To a certain extent, how much, I don't know. There -- you know, we do. We spend a lot of time saying OK, you can put -- we got a good show at 8 o'clock and a good show at 9 o'clock, let's put a new show and hammock it at 8:30. TERENCE SMITH: Right. LES MOONVES: Will that change somewhat? Possibly. I still think a lot of people will rely on the network and there still will be a certain amount of staying with the network on a certain night, and if you watch -- you have a block of shows that sort of go together, I think the audience will tend to stay with you. By the same token, if you're more adventurous, you'll be able to change that. TERENCE SMITH: You're talking about the future. How far away is the future? LES MOONVES: Some of these things are a year away, even sooner than that. You know, Replay and TiVo are out there right now, right now as we speak. You see it out on the floor. It's in certain homes. It will be in more homes in the future. Certain of these things will be down the road. I think we've all seen that with Internet and technology. It's amazing how fast it's coming at us.

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