NEW ORLEANS – On the surface, it was business as usual for Disney, Sony, Warner Bros, Paramount, and other media giants at the TV industry's annual programming convention.
International program buyers at the National Association of Television Programming Executives show were lavishly entertained at exclusive parties in house-sized booths.
But in back room panel discussions at the New Orleans Convention Center, TV executives wondered aloud how much longer they'd be around.
NATPE's convention-floor parties feel "like the first-class passenger cabin in the Titanic," remarked Jason Calacanis, editor of the Silicon Alley Reporter, in one wrap-up panel. "We know we're going down, so we might as well enjoy the champagne."
TV executives on the panel weren't entirely ready to swallow the comment ("I noticed you were at our booth drinking the champagne," said Sony's Columbia TriStar interactive chief Lynda Keeler).
But no one was prepared to say that traditional Hollywood's supremacy isn't seriously threatened, especially in light of the AOL-Time Warner merger.
"I put down [in panel notes] to talk about acquisition of new media businesses," said Catherine Mackay, president of Pearson Television Enterprises, the British media giant that owns properties like Baywatch and The Price is Right. "Maybe it should be acquired by new media companies."
Hollywood's entertainment dominance is so complete that even the notion of forming new media alliances – the life-blood of the Internet economy – is foreign to many executives, Keeler said.
"In Hollywood, partnership means weakness," she said. "AOL [and Time Warner agreeing to merge] took everyone by surprise. Not that it was happening. But that AOL took the lead."
Keeler said Sony has a raft of new media projects, including a Dawson's Creek virtual desktop on the Web, tests of programming delivered over cellular phones and PalmPilots, and the forthcoming release of a Sony MP3 player. So she thinks the company is well positioned in the emerging media universe.
"I've said it before: Do not underestimate the power of Sony," Keeler said.
Mackay seemed less sure of her company's place in the new world, calling Pearson an "old media company trying to navigate between old and new."
At the outset, she remarked plaintively, "We'll see if I'm left standing at the end of the panel." On some issues, Mackay remained solidly Old World, for example, asserting that "interactive television will never be a mass medium."
For the record, Pearson does have a new media strategy.
Mackay threw up on the screen a mock-up for an online version of The Price is Right that attempts to bring some of the "Do you want to bet it all?" mentality to e-commerce. For example, shoppers for a stylish handbag on the site might be awarded a discount, then "spin the wheel" for an even greater discount, or possibly a smaller one.
"It's one of those rare TV applications that will transfer to the Internet," Mackay said.
Calacanis disagreed.
"Why would I go to that site when I can go to mysimon.com and find the best price from among hundreds of sites?" he asked. "It's slowing people down on the Net, and it's not going to work."
