Jonathan

Miller of NewsCorp is Documented@Davos Transcript Documented@Davos 2012 RANDI ZUCKERBERG: Thanks for tuning into our Documented@Davos coverage from the World Economic Forum. My name is Randi Zuckerberg and I'm excited to be sitting here with Jonathan Miller of News Corp. Jonathan, thanks for being here. JONATHAN MILLER: My pleasure. Hi, Randi. RANDI ZUCKERBERG: We are Westchester, New York, buddies, but had to come all the way to Switzerland to hang out. Now, is this your first World Economic Forum? JONATHAN MILLER: No, it's my third. This is the third time here. Three in a row. RANDI ZUCKERBERG: Do you have a fun Davos moment or funny story? JONATHAN MILLER: No. No, all I'm thinking about is slipping in the snow once again. RANDI ZUCKERBERG: Someone yesterday showed us an ice pick on the bottom of their shoe. I thought that was pretty clutch. JONATHAN MILLER: Yeah, they were handing those out. And you can literally strap them on your shoes, and I guess you don't slip. RANDI ZUCKERBERG: But no big wipes outs? JONATHAN MILLER: No, not this year. Not yet. Last year I wiped out. RANDI ZUCKERBERG: Still three days left this week. JONATHAN MILLER: Exactly. It's early. RANDI ZUCKERBERG: So what does success look like for you this week? What are you hoping to accomplish? JONATHAN MILLER: I think one of the biggest things is, as I think everybody knows, like the world comes to Davos for a few days each year. And you can kind of gauge things at a global level. So one of the things I try to do in talking to a number of the marketing services companies here at the highest levels, is the kinds of projections they have for their advertising budgets and where they're going to spend money by sector, by

geography. We're an important company in the advertising world. At least we think we are. A seller of advertising. And so we want to really make sure we're abreast of those kinds of trends. It's very important. Also, some of the general economic conditions that matter pertain to, will people be able to buy our products? RANDI ZUCKERBERG: And you mentioned that you went to a sort of depressing session yesterday. JONATHAN MILLER: I did go to a depressing session yesterday where a Harvard economist spoke about the coming second recession. And I found that depressing. RANDI ZUCKERBERG: Do you think there's kind of a doom and gloom feel here? JONATHAN MILLER: I didn't think so until I went there. Because I thought actually, it was more upbeat than the last couple of years, which were really digging out of the great recession, so-called. But that sort of put a pall on it a little bit. Though, if you know Larry Summers, he came up at the end and he took a contrary, more optimistic view. So hopefully-- RANDI ZUCKERBERG: We'll keep our fingers crossed for that. But I think one thing that is a huge trend on the rise that you mentioned is the age of video. That's something that is really in your wheelhouse and something that we're excited about, being that we're doing a video series here. Really curious to hear your thoughts. JONATHAN MILLER: Well, I think this actually is very much an example. I think that the ability now to create high-quality video is now widespread. The equipment is cheaper. The infrastructure exists. And to get that to people, the bandwidth exists. The devices now to carry around with you and consume video portably are there. And it's a great experience. So I think it's everything from the user-generated end to high-quality premium video is exploding. Many people think like video already happened. I think we're actually just seeing the explosion now. And it's important because, in our business, the media business generally, it's the most-- I'll use dollars instead of euros. It's where most of the dollars are. And it's also an area where with so much happening, you have to re- figure your place in it. And for the big media companies, it's a very central issue. RANDI ZUCKERBERG: And Hulu is, obviously, a very successful company in your portfolio. What do you think about original content and kind of what the network of the future looks like? JONATHAN MILLER: Two big and very good questions. So let me try to do both. So first, I think that for the large media companies, both the opportunity and what you have to do is not just sit on your asset base and say, OK, I have these assets. I have

these channels. And I'm just going to make sure I distribute those channels or those programs in new places. You need to do that. But I think if that's all that you do, I think you'll be disadvantaged. So one of the things that we've done. For example, we announced channels with YouTube. Two weeks ago at CBS we announced new channels with Xbox and Microsoft. So both some existing things under the Fox brand. And some new things, one of which being Wall Street Journal and moving them into the video area. So I think that's an example of both preserving some of what we have and extending it, and creating new stuff. So I think you have to do that. And then, and you said the network of the future. It's a terrific question. By the way, people are really trying to figure that out. I'm not sure anybody has the perfect answer or knows that answer. But you can tell some of the things. And some of the things are you have to figure out how to keep promoting and cross promoting shows in an environment where people may view-- will view-- much more on demand. So they just pick a show at a time. And if you think about how networks work, you see a show, then it promotes the next show or the next day's show. How do you keep doing that in a different environment? I also think networks of the future will have libraries of products. So it's not just the current thing that you're watching. It might be that whole season of television, let's say. Or the previous seasons of television. So I think a network is going to be a much richer experience. RANDI ZUCKERBERG: I think what you guys have been able to show too, is there's a lot of talk about how people will only watch 30 seconds, or a minute of video. But I think you guys have really been able to show that if it's quality, great content that people will watch hours of footage online. JONATHAN MILLER: You're exactly right. A few years ago, the thing that people said is, yeah, if it's more than two minutes, no one's going to watch it. And it's certainly no longer true if it ever was. I think in particular Netflix and Hulu have shown that people will watch quality television on any screen. Which by the way, means television is not a box. Television is a concept, a programming concept that you can get through any device or any appropriate screen. RANDI ZUCKERBERG: I'm also curious, you manage all of these digital assets. I'm curious, in your personal life, what websites do you visit every day? What are some of your favorite things to watch online?

JONATHAN MILLER: I have about a dozen that I visit very early in the morning to sort of catch up on news, which are a combination of larger sites-- some of our own and some of the blogs that I follow. And that just gets me set for the day. And then you get into a variety of other things. Of course, Facebook. And now, if you're following our chairman, Rupert Murdoch has become a very active tweeter. So now Twitter has moved up in the pecking order for my day to check. So I always try to see what-- RANDI ZUCKERBERG: Very popular on Twitter these days. JONATHAN MILLER: He's actually gaining quite a bit of followers. And that's really him in case anybody's wondering. That's really him doing that @rupertmurdoch. RANDI ZUCKERBERG: Nice plug. JONATHAN MILLER: And so I love to follow those. So I need news in the morning. I need to set my day and feel like I understood what happened while I was asleep. And so it's a combination of random new sites, like some of our own, and aggregators, like Techmeme, for example, in the tech area. And then, I'd say throughout the day, I try to check various sites. I'm, as you can guess, a news junkie on one hand. But also I think things like Hulu and apps. My favorite sort of app just to check is astronomy picture of the day, APOD. RANDI ZUCKERBERG: Cool, I'll have to check that out. JONATHAN MILLER: There's wild, usually NASA-supplied pictures of the galaxy. If you want a 30 second break to get your mind out of whatever you're doing, go see something 1,000 light-years away. RANDI ZUCKERBERG: That's awesome. JONATHAN MILLER: So it's a wide variety. And also, I think that the music apps now have gotten so good, the music services. And certainly, Spotify. But Pandora and Rdio and many of them. So music has become just such a great consumption experience. Needs a business model for the industry. Different question. We're not in that business, so don't need to comment. But I think as a consumer, the experience has become terrific. RANDI ZUCKERBERG: And finally, what do you think people at home would be surprised to learn about what goes on at the World Economic Forum?

JONATHAN MILLER: They'd be surprise to learn? I think they'd be-- I'm not sure they'd be surprised. But I think they maybe would be surprised at how late it goes into the evening. RANDI ZUCKERBERG: That you can get all of these people to stay out till 2:00, 3:00 AM. JONATHAN MILLER: The actual program maybe ends around 6:00 PM, and then the events start. And they typically go to 2:00 in the morning or beyond. And then people are back in for breakfast. So it really is, if not quite 24 hours, a 20 hour day here. RANDI ZUCKERBERG: You guys should feel really sorry for us. JONATHAN MILLER: I'm not saying that. But just it's really this whirlwind because there's so many people you want to talk to that you really do try to use all the time. RANDI ZUCKERBERG: Exactly. Well, thank you so much for joining us. You guys are doing really great work and it will be exciting to follow all the progress. JONATHAN MILLER: Thank you. RANDI ZUCKERBERG: Thanks so much. For everyone who wants to stay tuned into all of our other videos, you can visit scribd.com/documentedatdavos or follower our hashtag on Twitter #DavosDocs. Thank you.