• by Tom Siebert , December 5, 2006

Traditional media properties like newspapers "have a long life"--as long as they hold a leadership position in the market they serve, said Peter Chernin, president and COO of News Corp. at a financial conference yesterday.

When these properties are market leaders, they have a brand equity that creates a "meaningful platform to build new opportunities inside a mix of assets," Chernin said, speaking at the UBS Media and Entertainment conference.

Chernin is confident that News Corp. will sustain its double-digit growth over the next several years, provided the company retains its "religious focus" to find the drivers of 2010 and 2015.

However, he was far more circumspect about the likelihood of News Corp. being able to unload its under-performing DirecTV unit, noting that the company "needed some sort of broadband play, some sort of triple play" capability, to match the telecoms' packaging of TV/Internet/phone service.

News Corp.'s purchase of MySpace is on the verge of breaking even or turning a slight profit, and he predicts it will happen by next year. Chernin was more concerned about the site's long-term viability, because "move forward or die" is the watchword of any Internet property's life cycle. If MySpace did not continue to "innovate and expand its functionality," some other destination could possibly supplant it.

Chernin added that the company had slowed its acquisition mode, saying: "There's absolutely nothing cheap out there." Such deals can only be justified "strategically" because they look overpriced on paper. He did, however, applaud the Google-YouTube deal and other such acquisitions. "The consolidation of online video companies bodes well for content providers."

The News Corp. executive believes that On Demand and downloaded video will likely evolve into an ad-supported model, with the exception of films. "TV content more than movies, and the majority of our content is television programming."

Chernin also remains bullish on Fox Television, pointing out that the fourth-place network was in almost the identical position last year at this time--only 1/10th of a rating point lower than 2006. He said the media was writing the same negative stories about Fox last year, only to see the net rebound with the return of "American Idol" and "24." Both start anew in 2007.

Fox Business Channel is just a matter of time, he said. "When we have the appropriate number of subscribers, we will launch."