Cannes: Media distributors are moving to differing models and pushing different content, News Corporation's Jonathan Miller said at a keynote speech at the MIPTV trade fair in Cannes.
Miller, chief digital officer, News Corp, and Chairman and CEO of News Corporation's Digital Media Group (NDM), said on Tuesday that Google was in the free camp while Apple was focused on charging for content.
He said to some these models were co-existing while others saw them fighting for supremacy. "Our policy has been one of tremendous engagement," he said.
News Corp wanted to work with all these digital operations, particularly with Apple for the iPad.
The Wall Street Journal's iPad application was a good example of News Corp's engagement, he said.
NDM was also a launch partner for the iPad's e-book store, although the deal was signed at the last minute as company made the "philosophical decision" on whether to sign for Apple's agency model.
Miller said all the different content forms — TV shows, e-books, music — are channelling into the same distribution stores — a big change from the past.
He said he thought that 2010 was the year when terms of trade were determined for digital content.
This covered everything from how TV shows were funded to how they were distributed.
"At the end we'll have much more of a paid side to it than it does today. It has to… but we're going to figure out all the details."
He was asked about News Corp's plans for a pay wall around its websites such the Times and Sunday Times in the UK.
"We're pretty committed to it," he says. "You can always change something if you need to change something, but we believe in the model."
It was vital to put in place "sustainable models… and it has to have a component that's paid".
He also argued that web-connected mobiles were not an extension of the PC-based web, just as TV turned out to not be an extension of radio. Mobiles were focused on apps, not websites.
Cannes Media groups had to nurture content and value it, leading television executive Jeremy Darroch told a digital media conference.
Darroch, chief executive of pay-TV group Sky in the UK, said value could go up as well as down.
"We need to think hard and more importantly take action to nurture the value of our product," he said on Wednesday in a keynote speech at MIPTV, the entertainment content market and conference.
He said the industry had to be aware of the huge risks from the likes of piracy, cannibalization and excessive regulation.
Piracy was to easily seen as a "few geeks" on the net but it was now much more widespread and for many now "seen as normal practice". People had to realize it was not a victimless crime. It was theft - "pure and simple".
Sky was ready to battle these attitudes and threats because it was "a long-term believer and investor in content".
"Next year we want to invest even more than before," he said.
"We want not only to satisfy existing customers, but to reach out to more and more new customers over time."
It was vital to have a durable economic model to support content investment.
"Content creators should be able to secure a fair and profitable return."
Darroch said there was optimism because of audience enthusiasm for quality content for which they were willing to pay.
There was also the desire to innovate via the likes of 3D.
Its success on the big screen had cut scepticism that it could work for TV too. HD had already proved consumers responded to an increase in quality.
The third element for optimism was the emergence of new platforms, such as mobiles, the internet, games consoles and broadband TV.
"They're helping us to make our content investments work even harder," he said. "It's about ensuring customers can access our content on their terms."
