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Old May 12th, 2003, 01:54 PM   #12
repcisg
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Join Date: Apr 2001
Location: Vancouver, Wa USA
Posts: 1,874

Default I have seen our foe

I have seen the face of our enemy, he is indifferent to us, he sees us as no better a cluster of unwashed children needing his guidance. His name is Brian Diller.

I had the misfortune to watch him do an interview last week for a new interview show, it was barf-able. Well so much for my feelings.

The upshot of the interview was Mr. Diller is a card-carrying member of a small elitist group that inhabits the halls of the entertainment industry from time to time. They dislike the military intensely, most formed this opinion during the Viet Nam era and continue to this day seeing solders as either dumb louts that can’t make it in the civilian world or as evil thugs conspiring to conquer the world.

As a business manager Mr. Diller is known to be a very hands on manager and has directly influenced virtually every scheduling decision made on his channels. But when you really look at his track record the reality is there is nothing outstanding to see. While under his direction his cable channels turned in lackluster profits, far below what they should have done. And when asked what his proudest programming achievements were; he named “Married with Children” and “The Simpson’s”; he felt these set new standards in American programming. He views Science Fiction, the Para-normal and Horror as all part of the same class of film.

Where Mr. Diller really shines, however, is as an opportunist, he neatly setup his friend Mr. Broffman when as head of Seagram, Broffman bought Universal in the early 90’s. In that deal he encouraged Broffman to go too far into debt to buy Universal then “to help his friend” he bought the rights to Universal’s film library (for $5 Billion). This was money Broffman desperately needed to keep from going under. The film library at that time was valued at close to $10 Billion (pre Sonny Bono), so Diller gained control for not much more than half price. Also as part of the deal bought Universal’s proxy on the shares Universal owned in his own USA Network giving him control of 51% of the stock even though he only owned 8%.

When Vivendi Bought Universal he took them to the cleaners as well ($10 Billion), with out access to the USA network Universal was worth only a fraction of what Vivendi had paid for it. Broffman was summarily fired from the Board of Directors, and then CEO Messieurs had to cut a deal with Diller ($10 Billion) to regain control of the Universal film Library and the cable channels he thought Vivendi owned (remember the proxies).

When Diller left Universal he took with him some $10 Billion, most of which the ratepayers in France will have to pay off. But when you look at Diller’s actual businesses nothing rally stands out as a significant success. Yes does make good money in his transaction businesses but nothing like what Universal or one of the other major networks can produce.

In the entertainment industry Brian Diller is considered more of an opportunistic peripheral player than a mainstream player.
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