- Following his company's earnings report and on the cusp of key upfront negotiations with advertisers, CBS CEO Les Moonves told CNBC today what he's been saying one way or another in various places this week: Ad dollars are still best spent on broadcast TV.
- "Once again, we think broadcast is the only safe bet out there," he says. With digital, "there's so much available ... there are millions of websites and millions of places to put your money, and it's an unending supply of inventory. Network, there's scarcity, there's specific numbers attached to it and you know what you're getting. And no major product can ever be launched without the use of network television."
- In the company's earnings call, Moonves pointed to ratings successes that CBS could monetize in finishing the year as the most-watched broadcast net. On CNBC, he said it gave him confidence with digital: "The most exciting thing for us ... right now, with our current programs that are on the air at CBS, with DVRs, with online watching, with catch-up, there are more people watching our current season of shows than watched 11 years ago. So the thoughts of the demise of network television have been greatly exaggerated."
- He weighed in on the "skinny bundles" trend as well, saying CBS is one of the few players to feel good about it because they didn't have a ton of small channels: "We're CBS and Showtime. In a smaller bundle ... we will be a more important part of it. In a 20-channel universe or a 500-channel universe, you have to have CBS. You can't live without us ... and in a smaller bundle, we're gonna get a bigger piece of that pie."