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High winds caused delays and diverted flights, but that didn’t stop moguls from descending on Sun Valley yesterday afternoon for the annual Allen & Co. confab.
The weather forced some commercial planes to land in Boise, Idaho, while private jets waited for their turn to land.
Discovery Communications boss David Zaslav flew his private jet into the tiny Hailey airport with a few friends in tow — Charlie Rose, outgoing NBA chief David Stern and Priceline CEO Jeff Boyd.
Despite the delays, high-flying media execs are happy to be back this year.
After years of being overshadowed by tech players, the media chieftains have regained their swagger and are expected to dominate the deal-making this year.
“Media is back,” said one über-confident mogul.
While a few tech hot shots are back for the schmooze-fest, many have been taken down a peg. Apple stock has been wilting, Facebook’s is anemic and Groupon and Zynga have imploded.
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ESPN President John Skipper says don’t blame the leagues for soaring sports programming — blame competition.
Skipper will be rubbing elbows this week with sports league bosses, as well as the CEOs of DirecTV and Time Warner Cable, as the debate rages over the rising cost of sports rights.
“It’s up to us. We can chose not to buy the rights.” Skipper told the press.
Sports rights fee inflation isn’t new, he said.
“What is a new phenomenon is the breadth of rights and the number of people interested in them,” he said. “There’s more competition.”
Big fees don’t always add up to big ratings, however.
After ESPN paid up for Wimbledon rights, Skipper acknowledged he was disappointed with the ratings for Andy Murray’s win against Novak Djokovic. The final drew a 2 rating, down from 3.1 the year before.
“Nadal and Federer are the players everyone wants to see,” he said.