• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, July 5, 2005

Warm feelings always curdle my heart this time of year, as my favorite media moguls are chumming around in a blissful state in Sun Valley, Idaho for the annual media mogul retreat put on by longtime investment banker Allen & Co.

Calming satisfaction is brought with the knowledge that Walt Disney's Bob Iger can get a brisk game of tennis with Viacom's Sumner Redstone. That's because a relaxed media mogul can only mean good things for the U.S. media consumer.

Didn't Capital Cities/ABC Chairman Tom Murphy first explore the possibility of selling the company to Walt Disney after a wild rafting ride with Disney chairman Michael Eisner? (Maybe the rafting ride was similar to a vigorous golf game). Look at how well that turned out. We got game show "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire," theatrical film "Treasure Planet," and most importantly, the reality show to end all reality shows, "Are You Hot?"

Most interesting is that Allen & Co. offers these titans of the industry a number of morning seminars - because they seemingly don't know enough. I hear refresher courses in accounting, chemistry, and history are available.

Years ago the worry among U.S. consumers, content providers, and federal regulators, was that media consolidation would only grow - and that these types of meetings would only further that trend.

Yet with the recent break up of big public media companies, taking other big companies private, and spinning off major entertainment assets (see Viacom Inc., Clear Channel, News Corp., and others), a case could be made for the Allen & Co. fest to be more of a bar at the end of the golf course -- a place to tell war stories.

So the new big worry is media de-consolidation. What does one do if there's too much competition among smaller, more nimble media companies? Unfortunately, it yields a depressing side effect: more compelling entertainment choices.

No reporters are allowed to heavily quiz our rested moguls. However, CNBC -- the good financial cable network that they are -- sets up a camera outside the Sun Valley Hotel. Enterprising reporters with goggles and sunscreen in hand can nab ex-Miramax Films' Harvey Weinstein or Time Warner's Dick Parsons as they stroll to the lake for a dip.

Now that's show business.