3 Huge Mistakes CBS Chief Les Moonves Is Making About The Future Of The Internet

CBS is interested in buying the next big phenomenon in user-generated Internet programming, but not buying market leader YouTube, Chief Executive Leslie Moonves said on Thursday.

“It is obviously phenomenally successful,” Moonves said of YouTube. “I doubt we would buy it at this point. Maybe we would look for the next YouTube, the next great idea that’s not spread across the world.”

Moonves also told a gathering of TV executives in London that while CBS is in the market to buy new media ventures, none of the social networking sites is in its sights.

He said Rupert Murdoch‘s News Corp has done well with its acquisition of MySpace, but that others have not fared as well, without naming names. He’s wrong.

Les Moonves Is Making Huge Mistakes Now That Will Cripple CBS In The Future

We think CBS is making several huge mistakes. Here are some predictions of what will happen in the future and why Les Moonves is a massive idiot making huge mistakes that will hurt CBS in ways they won’t realize for years to come.

YouTube Will Become The King Of Online Video: With the resources of Google, YouTube is likely to evolve into the default platform for online video content. We expect nothing less with YouTube than what Google has done to already dominate the search industry. Google’s strategy is to own the Internet experience, and they keep snapping up market share all the time. Google’s email product, Gmail, is only a couple of years old and users are already ditching their Hotmail, Yahoo, and AOL accounts for Gmail. If this continues, in the future, Google will likely dominate search, video, chat, email, and social media.
News Corp Will Ruin MySpace: We disagree with Les Moonves and think News Corp’s acquisition of MySpace is a mistake. Facebook is growing fast and is being run by a group of young innovative programmers. It won’t take them long to out-innovate a big slow organization like News Corp the same way a young Apple Computer beat a big organization like IBM in the 1980s.
Social Media Is The Future Of Media: The decision by Les Moonves to stay out of social media is another huge mistake. Social Media has the potential to become the media. When people want real-time information, are they going to rush home to watch TV, reload a web page waiting for a reporter to write a story, or go to a social media site and see what people at the scene of the news event are talking about? A micro-blogging company called Twitter was the talk of SXSW a few months ago. CBS should absolutely be looking at buying or partnering with social media sites like Twitter. If CBS is going to survive into the future, Les Moonves needs to shift his mindset to be Internet first, TV second.

Bottom line, Les Moonves is making mistakes now that will severely cripple CBS in the future. When NBC president Bob Wright bought CNBC and MSNBC in the 1990s, his colleges thought he was crazy. They didn’t think cable TV would grow to the levels it has today. Like what’s happening now with CBS staying away from social media, CBS never acquired a cable TV station. Today CBS is the only broadcast network with a cable property. With stupid leadership stuck in the past, CBS will never be a market leader or industry innovator.