Consumers benefit from bundling of pay TV: Bewkes

MUMBAI: Consumers without bundling will pay more for less. "I don?t think it?s desirable for consumers to break the bundle. You end up paying more for less," said Time Warner chairman, CEO Jeff Bewkes at the UBS Media and Communications Conference in New York.

There isn?t much opportunity for the cable operators to unbundle networks or create more tiers. The issue, however, is about sports where the content costs dor distribution platforms is shooting up. "The escalation of sports rights, I don?t know what will happen with that. That may be an issue. Other than the concentrated viewing and cost of sports, the rest of the bundle is a better value than ever," said Bewkes.

He also spoke about CNN saying, "It is true, to criticize ourselves, that we have not programmed it to keep it interesting if you wanted to stay for hours".

CNN gets high ratings during breaking news but has fallen off during slower times. "We need to do a better job of producing the full 24 hours. It doesn?t all have to be politics, although that is a part of it. We?re going to be a little bit more vigorous and broad," said Bewkes.

Asked about the movie business, Bewkes said business is decent in the US and strong overseas, but warned of the trend toward lower-margin rentals vs. buying in the home video market. The studios are trying to combat this trend with the cloud-based UltraViolet venture that promotes home video ownership.