Page 62 - Forbes - Asia (December 2019 - January 2020)

works. Initially designated as inter- SEEKING VALUE
im CEO, he was viewed as keeping the The merger of Viacom and CBS will give the media company more heft and greater spending
seat warm until Moonves would lead power, but it has a long way to go to catch up to its bulked up competitors.
the combined companies. Bakish didn’t $50 Bil 100 150 200 250
wait for that to happen. He shook up
AT&T $276 Bil
the executive ranks, recruited high-pro- (TIME WARNER) $171 Bil
file industry executives to lead the Para-
mount and Nickelodeon units, invested WALT DISNEY $59 Bil $238 Bil
in developing content for social media
and, most critically, acquired the free, COMCAST $95 Bil $210 Bil
ad-supported video service Pluto TV to
give Viacom a foothold in the stream- NETFLIX $16 Bil $115 Bil MARKET CAP
ing world. Pluto TV now boasts 18 mil-
$26 Bil REVENUE
lion regular users. VIACOM
& CBS $27 Bil
“Where have you been?” Redstone
recalls asking Bakish after he present-
ed his plans for the business unit to
the board. She was particularly struck DUELING MOGULS
by his digital strategy, which was more A decade ago, Sumner Redstone used CNBC to warn Rupert Murdoch that his media empire
evolved than in the U.S. business. was “buried in ink.” Last year, Murdoch’s fortune soared when News Corp. announced that it
was selling the bulk of his entertainment assets to Walt Disney for $71 billion.
“I specifically decided that the board
is important, has valuable perspective, $20 Bil
and therefore I want to engage with 19.1
18
them,” Bakish says, adding that Red- NET WORTH
stone “was a clear person that I thought 10 RUPERT MURDOCH
it was important to build a relationship SUMNER REDSTONE 14.2
13.4
with based on transparency, trust and
11.6 12
more.” Bakish’s management style and 10 11.1
the gains at Viacom were rewarded: He 9.4
will lead ViacomCBS as president and
7.4
CEO once the merger is completed. 6 6.2 6.5
5 5.8
Bakish and Redstone are bullish 5 4.7 5.1 4.8
4.1 4.1 4.1
on the future. They argue that the 2.8
combined companies’ global reach 2
and production capacity, massive film 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019
and TV library (140,000 television
episodes, 3,600 film titles) and $13
billion in spending on content (750 She’s now looking to digital-savvy exec- the MTV reality show Jersey Shore?
series on order) put it on a more equal utives like Viacom’s digital studios chief The question led her to fund ventures
footing with rivals. That’s on par with Kelly Day, who’s been developing orig- like Niche, a startup that connected so-
the spending binge Netflix has used to inal programming for YouTube, Face- cial media stars with advertisers and
seize the narrative of the once insular book and Snapchat and, before that, subsequently was acquired by Twitter,
and impenetrable industry, and eclipses shows for Netflix, as a contemporary and Religion of Sports Media, a start-
reported figures for Amazon or Apple. role model for reaching audiences frag- up whose cofounders include Patriots
But even together, ViacomCBS will be mented among multiple screens. “It’s quarterback Tom Brady.
dwarfed in market value by traditional the same vision my dad had in ’99, but “My dad had a line, ‘Little failure,
media rivals like Disney or Warner it’s more true now than ever before,” she little success; big failure, big success.’
Media parent AT&T or Comcast, the says. “When you take a look at these as- You have to take risks,” Shari Redstone
cable giant whose holdings include sets, they’re complementary.” says. “That’s what a venture fund is all
NBC and Universal Pictures. She obsesses about ways to reach au- about. How much risk do you take?
Redstone’s emerging media venture diences beyond a linear broadcast. Her So I say, we take risks, but we take it
investments, from YouTube creator net- interest in emerging media began with conservatively. But you have to take
work MakerStudios to podcast platform a question she posed at a Viacom board risks. You have to be willing to fail in
Wondery, inform how she thinks of meeting to which she never received a order to succeed. And we’ve all failed.
the family’s traditional media business. satisfactory answer: Who’s watching So, thank God there’s a value to it.” F

60 | FORBES ASIA DECEMBER 2019 / JANUARY 2020