CNN

"I could see what was coming: once Warner got everyone hooked on free content with MTV, it was going to increase the price down the road. So I needed to throw a monkey wrench into their IPO plans for MTV. So I wrote a letter to Warner that stipulated that, absent a mutually acceptable agreement, we were dropping MTV from all of our systems. I knew this would interrupt the MTV prospectus (the offering document for the IPO), because it would be considered a material change if the largest distributor planned to discontinue carriage. Drew, whom I liked, was on the plane and sitting in my office the next day, and Warner and TCI struck a long-term deal that protected us against the increase in rates. Quality content would become much more valuable. Already cable was outgrowing its amateur-hour status compared with the broadcast networks. CNN was now in 26 million homes, with a George Peabody Award in journalism. HBO would win its first Emmy in 1988 with a documentary."

"Over the years, Ted had grown more passionate about liberal causes, such as the environment, global warming, and overpopulation. This was especially true during the decade he spent married to actress Jane Fonda (1991–2001), before they divorced. As his politics were swinging more to the left, I think Ted allowed CNN to drift to the left, which he regarded as key to the salvation of the planet. To Ted, the right was just a bunch of Neanderthals. That was his judgment, and he was entitled to it, just as CNN was his property to manage."

"The combination of the Warner Bros. studio, Time’s magazines (including *Time, People*, and *Sports Illustrated*), HBO, and Ted’s networks, including CNN, TBS, and TNT, was an impressive medley of assets, but it offered little true synergy beyond financial machinations, in my opinion. Time had barely proven the validity of its merger with Warner Communications, five years earlier, in 1990. Jerry was scrambling to get the stock price up, even as he was trying to quash the internal infighting that would become a hallmark of Time Warner’s corporate structure."

"But Ted, who had joined the TCI board a year earlier in 1994, told me when I mentioned the idea of a merger, “I love you guys, but you’re too far right-wing for me. I think if CNN is going to be controlled by anybody or fit with anybody, it needs to fit with somebody who’s in the news business—and Time Inc. is probably the most logical choice.” In truth, I’m a libertarian, believing in minimal government intervention, free markets, and personal freedom—but I could not argue the nuances to Ted. Few can."

"I don’t think Ted was or is anti-Semitic at his core. He was a stranger in a strange land, with instinctive southern prejudices. He was also a loudmouth who would say anything to make his point. Deep down he was really a humanist, and over the years I gained great respect for Ted as one of the media world’s great characters and visionaries. He was funny, sizzle smart, and somewhat crazy, and with his solid journalistic values he built CNN into the first international twenty-four-hour news service. If only his good, humanist, and bombastic self were running it today."

"Establishing themselves was not easy or cheap. Jarvis and Heatley, sometimes together, sometimes separately, spent months on planes—flying economy class to Britain or the US, getting off the plane, attending a meeting and sometimes heading back home the same night. For more than a year the fledgling Sky negotiated with CNN and the main stumbling block was not money, although that was challenging enough, but persuading CNN that Sky would one day exist as a credible and responsible network and a worthy host of CNN coverage. Heatley is persuasive and a natural salesman, but media companies take seriously their reputations and no matter how much cash went with the deal, the New Zealanders were asking the mostly American companies they were meeting to take a leap of faith. CNN was ambitious for worldwide coverage but was hedging its bets by also talking to TVNZ. The state broadcaster wanted a news feed from CNN that would allow TVNZ to put CNN segments in its own news bulletins or to cross live to CNN reporters when required. But Sky wanted CNN exclusively, and for a good chunk of 24 hours a day. Sky was offering a few hundred thousand dollars a year but so was TVNZ, and it was asking for a lot less."

"⁠The one thing all Sky’s deals had in common were that they were tough to negotiate. That was partly because the network was not yet on air, partly because its people were new, and also because TV rights are notoriously brutally expensive. Heatley initially could not persuade CNN to do an exclusive deal. The US network accepted both offers—Sky got CNN news for the bulk of its 24-hour news channel, supplemented by the BBC, but TVNZ got the news feeds and access to CNN reporters it was after.⁠"

"Since banks loaned at a multiple of cash flow, every new dollar of cash flow expanded a cable company's borrowing power. At first the multiple was 4.5, so a bank would lend $450,000 on cash flow of $100,000 a year. The multiples grew, eventually reaching eight times cash flow. An operator could increase his cash flow, and thus his borrowing ability, by consolidating costs such as billing offices and maintenance crews and obtaining volume discounts from HBO, CNN, and other providers. A company with 500,000 customers paid CNN 7 c" a household per month, while a company with 2 million paid 5#, for example. In other words, the bigger you got, the bigger you could get. At McCaw, "we understood we had to grow or leave the business," says Perry."