• by Wayne Friedman , January 7, 2016

“We are leaning into where consumers are going,” he said, speaking with CNBC at the Consumer Electronics Show on Wednesday.

“Yes, our traditional cable, satellite telco providers are incredibly important,” he added. “[But] we are also striking deals with new non-traditional distributors and thinking about ways about reaching consumers directly -- if and when it becomes viable.”

Martin said that for some consumers, traditional pay TV packages may be too expensive. “There is a view there is not enough value,” he said. “Consumers are being ask to pay for cable networks they don’t care about.”

But he says Turner is in good shape, controlling “the most concentrated portfolio of must-have networks in the country.”

Turner executives are at CES, he says, to engage with as many marketers as possible. “Our idea is to experiment with different types of advertising messages.”

Long-term, he believes “there is going to be more of a blend for consumers between what is content and what is the marketing message.”

One important move by Turner -- cutting back on commercials on some of its networks. For example, it will be halving the number of commercial messages truTV by the end of 2016. All that should “make the commercials more relevant.”