Audio - CNN: the Couric News Network?

November 30th, 2006, filed by Robert MacMillan

Sirius CEO Mel KarmazinMedia business types love nothing more than working on merger jigsaw puzzles of the companies they watch every day. Google and Time Warner? Time Warner and Cablevision? DirecTV and DISH? The pieces may not always fit so well, but the fun is in the game.

SIRIUS Satellite Radio chief Mel Karmazin thinks there are two pieces that never got together and should have: CBS and CNN.

“I thought CBS News and CNN, to this day should be combined,” Karmazin said at the Reuters Media Summit in New York. “I was hoping that Dick (Parsons, CEO of Time Warner) would buy Cablevision and need the cash, because Cablevision was much more strategic (to Time Warner), and then sell me CNN.”

He added, “I would be candid and say when I was CEO (of CBS), would I have liked to have owned CNN? Yeah.

“You’ve got a reporter sitting there from CBS News. You’ve got a reporter sitting all over the world from CNN. Maybe one reporter, one sound guy, one driver of the van, and that’s just the cost side.

“The value you create from putting these reporters that you’re not putting redundantly, putting these reporters in other parts of the world where you don’t have news bureaus or doing things you don’t have. I think M&A is fun.”

Click play below to hear his comments

Copyright Reuters. This entry was posted on Thursday, November 30th, 2006 at 5:36 pm and is filed under Text, MediaFile. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

2 responses to “Audio - CNN: the Couric News Network?”

Please note that comments should not be regarded as the views of Reuters.
  1. autoinfonow.info » Experts skeptical about most of Krasnoyarsk news agencies says:

    […] CNN: the Couric News Network?Reuters - 13 hours ago… CNN. I thought CBS News and CNN, to this day should be combined, Karmazin said at the Reuters Media Summit in New York. I … […]

  2. Make Them Accountable / Media says:

    […] Sirius to Offer Live TV in Cars Sirius Satellite Radio expects to offer a live television service for the back seat of cars by late 2007, says chief Mel Karmazin. “We have three content deals that are very close to being finalized.” Also: CBS News and CNN should be merged, says Karmazin. […]

Leave a Reply

We are having some issues with spam. If your comment does not get moderated it might be that it was stopped by our spam filters. Try to avoid using words like "ringtone", "viagra", "blackjack" and others that fit this pattern - i.e. common spam. Sorry for this crude censorship, but there is little we can do.
 
When you submit a comment to us we request your name, e-mail address and optionally a link to a website. Please note where you submit a website address, we may link to it via your name. By sending us a comment, you accept that we have the right to show the comment and your name to users. Although we require your email address, this will not be published on the site, and is only required to enable us to check facts with you, e.g. if you are making a claim we can not confirm easily. Additionally, if you would like your comment removed at anytime, you'll have to use this e-mail address when you contact us. To remove a comment at any time please e-mail us at blogs-(at)-reuters-(dot)-com (address obscured to avoid spam) specifying who you are and what you would like removed. We moderate all comments and will publish everything that advances the post directly or with relevant tangential information. We reserve the right to edit comments in order to maintain the quality of the comments, and may not include links to irrelevant material. We try not to publish comments that we think are offensive or appear to pass you off as another person, and we will be conservative if comments may be considered libelous. Reuters will use your data in accordance with Reuters privacy policy. Reuters Limited is primarily responsible for managing your data. As Reuters is a global company your data will be transferred and available internationally, including in countries which do not have privacy laws but Reuters seeks to comply with its privacy policy.