Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, radio News. I need to set
Speaker 1: this up for our American audience. Sir Howard Stringer is
Speaker 1: from the low side of Wales called Cardiff. David Blanchflow
Speaker 1: of Dartmouth is from Cardiff as well, and he had
Speaker 1: the most interesting, interesting start to his career. You know
Speaker 1: him of course from Sony. You know him perhaps from CBS.
Speaker 1: Paul Sweni and I can do a three hour discussion.
Speaker 1: We're stringing. He's seventy nine and holding you know, Paul,
Speaker 1: Just so you sure understand. Sir Howard Stringer joins us
Speaker 1: this morning here but specifically on the BBC and what
Speaker 1: it means for his United Kingdom. Sir Howard Stringer, thank
Speaker 1: you so much for joining Bloomberg this morning.
Speaker 2: My pleasure.
Speaker 1: I look, Sir Howard, at the debacle of the BBC
Speaker 1: and let me just get out of the way. The
Speaker 1: arch question may be alluded to by the former Prime
Speaker 1: Minister Johnson, Well, should the BBC leave as a publicly
Speaker 1: funded effort and join private enterprise?
Speaker 3: I would say not. I would say the brilliance of
Speaker 3: the BBC. It was designed as an institution that would
Speaker 3: be fairer and offer truth and fairness to a British
Speaker 3: audience and subsequently to a worldwide audience with a worldwide
Speaker 3: news network, and in many ways American television was built
Speaker 3: on that standard. And so giving that trust up, giving
Speaker 3: that opportunity up, I think would be a mistake.
Speaker 1: How do they restructure emotionally? How do they recapture the
Speaker 1: minds of the United Kingdom to say you can trust us.
Speaker 1: It's been shattered with its debate with the president, the
Speaker 1: President Trump folks suggesting you will sue the BBC for
Speaker 1: many billions of dollars. Howard Stringer, what is the first
Speaker 1: step to rekindle a new trust with the British.
Speaker 3: Well, I think with all great institutions, leadership is critical,
Speaker 3: and presumably there will be discussions about who runs the
Speaker 3: BBC now very quickly and how the board is constructed,
Speaker 3: and lessons will be learned. I think that's been true
Speaker 3: across the board. When I was at CBS News we
Speaker 3: were under attack by the government. I had conversations in
Speaker 3: a lawsuit with General Westmerland, and before that, I had
Speaker 3: conversations with Presidents Nixon and Reagan that news divisions. News
Speaker 3: division is only a part of the BBC, but news
Speaker 3: divisions are always the threat to politicians, and politicians tend
Speaker 3: to dislike you if you suggest they're wrong. BBC has
Speaker 3: always been had a reputation for fanness. Now it's under
Speaker 3: attack now and I think I think lessons will be
Speaker 3: loned regardless of what we feel about it. But the
Speaker 3: BBC is very important to global democracy and I think
Speaker 3: President Trump knows that.
Speaker 1: Howard Stringer with this, Sir Howard Stringer, folks this morning
Speaker 1: here with all of his work with Sony and CBS
Speaker 1: News over the years, we welcome all of you in
Speaker 1: particularly the United Kingdom this morning with the uproar over
Speaker 1: the bb C. Paul Sweeney with Sir.
Speaker 4: Howard Howard, how does the BBC? How is it positioned
Speaker 4: in the UK today in the media overall media landscape?
Speaker 4: Maybe how has that changed over time?
Speaker 2: Well? I think.
Speaker 3: I think it's misunderstood or dimly perceived in the in
Speaker 3: the US. After all, I spent most of my life
Speaker 3: in a matter, I worked thirty years at CBS. But
Speaker 3: today the BBC still has the top rated entertainment broadcasts
Speaker 3: in a way that would be CBS today would be proud,
Speaker 3: or NBC would be proud. I mean before Christmas, the
Speaker 3: top ten programs on television at England were BBC programs.
Speaker 3: But this story is about news. News is always the
Speaker 3: catalyst for politicians who disagree with opinions that they perceive
Speaker 3: to be either unfair or inappropriate. That was true when
Speaker 3: I was at CBS, and it's true it's true in
Speaker 3: England today. So it's a it's a lesson for both sides.
Speaker 3: If you're going to deal with presidents and deal with issues,
Speaker 3: you have got to be fair and you've got to
Speaker 3: have the audience believe in the in the institutions you represent.
Speaker 3: And for many years, the BBC was a byword for
Speaker 3: trust and fairness around the world worldwide news. The BBC
Speaker 3: operation is the most trusted globally, and I've had people
Speaker 3: call me many times in the last few weeks of saying,
Speaker 3: protect us because we watched the BBC, because nothing else
Speaker 3: works for us in wherever country they're calling from. So
Speaker 3: the President of the United States observed a moment that
Speaker 3: is a challenge to the BBC News operation, which I
Speaker 3: think they understand and accept, and apologies should maybe have
Speaker 3: been offered earlier. But I think the BBC knows what
Speaker 3: its responsibilities are.
Speaker 4: Howard, do you believe that the damages being sought by
Speaker 4: President Trump are reasonable or how do you think about
Speaker 4: that side?
Speaker 3: I think it's reasonable. But I also think that the
Speaker 3: President Trump knows Britain very well. I knew him person
Speaker 3: and he was very generous to me. And suing the
Speaker 3: BBC is sending a message that be fair, be true
Speaker 3: to yourself. Whether or not England will play a billion dollars,
Speaker 3: I don't. I doubt that they will, and I doubt
Speaker 3: that President Trump really wants that. I think he wants
Speaker 3: the BBC in a funny kind of a way to behave.
Speaker 1: We welcome all of you worldwide on YouTube, our new
Speaker 1: digital distribution, and of course on radio from our various
Speaker 1: sources ninety nine one FM in Washington, ninety two nine
Speaker 1: FM in Boston, Ploomberg eleven three or New York. Sir
Speaker 1: Howard Stringer with us this morning. With his decades of work.
Speaker 1: You hear heard him speak of General Wes Moreland. There
Speaker 1: what takes us a star back? Just to give you
Speaker 1: a little vignette, Sir Howard Stringer at a very young
Speaker 1: age answering telephones backstage for the Ed Sullivan Show. This
Speaker 1: goes back a few decades, Sir Howard, let me ask
Speaker 1: a delicate question of the United Kingdom. The present beliaguered
Speaker 1: and resigned leader of the BBC is perceived as a
Speaker 1: marketing guy. You were in the New York Times talking
Speaker 1: about this. How does the BBC get back to the
Speaker 1: intensity you're speaking about? Do they have to find a
Speaker 1: world class journalist to drive forward?
Speaker 2: Well?
Speaker 3: I think that the mistakes that were made, which have
Speaker 3: been accumulative presented accumulatively, gives a mistaken impression that there's
Speaker 3: something institutionally wrong with the BBC news. These were mistakes
Speaker 3: that have now been acknowledged and should have been acknowledged earlier.
Speaker 3: But I don't think there's anything about the BBC that
Speaker 3: should be suspect. I think the BBC, like Britain, is
Speaker 3: an astonishing ally of the United States, that an important one,
Speaker 3: and I think the President of the United States know that.
Speaker 3: In my dealings with him, I think he knew it,
Speaker 3: and he was always fair and generous. I think he's
Speaker 3: fired a shot across the brows of the BBC. They
Speaker 3: will pay attention. They are made changes and that will
Speaker 3: be good. But the BBC is an important global institution
Speaker 3: and I don't believe he's not breaking up great institutions
Speaker 3: during a crisis.
Speaker 1: Look sir, just one final question if we could in
Speaker 1: the BBC, and we must turn to so much going
Speaker 1: on in Paul Sweeney's world in New York is well
Speaker 1: in talking to our Eric Larsen off our desk on
Speaker 1: Queen Victoria's Street and looking at the litigation here as well,
Speaker 1: how will that play out in the United Kingdom and
Speaker 1: form our American audience of how a lawsuit in London
Speaker 1: is different than a lawsuit wherever in the United States.
Speaker 2: I'm not sure I really understand that question.
Speaker 1: Well, I mean, the litigation is going to be in
Speaker 1: the United Kingdom, how is it different there? If the
Speaker 1: President sues the BBC, then it would be here.
Speaker 2: Well, I was sued in America, as you remember, over
Speaker 2: the General westbl I think, and it went on for years.
Speaker 3: And I don't think. I don't think President Trump will
Speaker 3: keep at this. I think he is much bigger fish
Speaker 3: to fry. I think he has made sent a very
Speaker 3: important message. I think the BBC will respond accordingly, and
Speaker 3: I hope he doesn't expect the British public to pay
Speaker 3: that kind of money. I think his generosity will will
Speaker 3: save the day.
Speaker 1: Sir heartstringer with a sok thrilled to have them with
Speaker 1: us this morning. Let me migrate, Sir Howard to the
Speaker 1: United States and ask a question that so many will
Speaker 1: resonate with so much of our listeners and viewers. Could
Speaker 1: Dan rather do the news today?
Speaker 2: Does Dan rather?
Speaker 1: What? Could he do the news today? Could Dan rather
Speaker 1: grind out his leadership in news off the desk of
Speaker 1: CBS as he did years ago? Could he do that
Speaker 1: in this environment today?
Speaker 2: Well, he can't do it now.
Speaker 3: I mean he's he's still in good shape the last
Speaker 3: time I spoke to him, and I spoke to him
Speaker 3: quite recently. But no, I don't think he would want
Speaker 3: to become an anchorman in his nineties, and I don't
Speaker 3: want to become a director general in my eighties either.
Speaker 3: But I think so much has changed in America, has
Speaker 3: been fractionalized, and the networks aren't as strong as they
Speaker 3: used to be. When I was running the evening news,
Speaker 3: we had a twenty six share of the news compared
Speaker 3: to ABC twenty and NBC twenty. That combined audience was
Speaker 3: almost seventy percent of the national audience. That isn't possible
Speaker 3: in the United States today because of the fractionalvisation and
Speaker 3: the growth of competitive social media. So you know, another
Speaker 3: Dan rather is likely to be unlikely. But I am
Speaker 3: not watching from a distance all the current ankormen, and
Speaker 3: I don't know who. I don't know anyone will ever
Speaker 3: have the power of Walter and Down again or Tom
Speaker 3: Broke or and Roger mud and so forth. It's just
Speaker 3: the nature of the world. It's changing. But I think
Speaker 3: retaining some of the values, and the values that the
Speaker 3: most important are trust and honesty, and as long as
Speaker 3: we abide by those, and the BBC resurrects itself its
Speaker 3: reputation by concentrating on what it does best, we'll survive this,
Speaker 3: just as CBS did survive.
Speaker 4: General Westmorland, Sir Howard, from your years at Sony Corporation,
Speaker 4: a major global media entertainment company, what do you make
Speaker 4: of the lands now? So much has changed with Netflix
Speaker 4: and streaming and so on and so forth. How do
Speaker 4: you feel like some of these traditional large global media
Speaker 4: companies like Sony, like the Walt Disney Company, like Warner Brothers.
Speaker 4: How do you think that landscape shakes out here?
Speaker 3: That's a billion dollar question. Unfortunately, it is a billion
Speaker 3: dollar question. Money plays a much bigger role than it
Speaker 3: used to. There were three networks and then Rupert Modoch
Speaker 3: built up Fox, so there were four networks, and now
Speaker 3: it's scattered and so forth, and people get what they want.
Speaker 3: But I think keeping keeping solidarity and solidity at the
Speaker 3: center of the core institutions, you will find an audience,
Speaker 3: just as movies do. So I'm not prone to despair.
Speaker 3: I keep myself amused today doing radio dramas, and I
Speaker 3: still reach people in America and England, So I I
Speaker 3: don't think there's plenty of good material. It's just not
Speaker 3: as concentrated as it used to be. But you can't
Speaker 3: look at the past. As somebody once said, the past
Speaker 3: is a foreign country, and they did things differently there.
Speaker 4: Sir Howard. So going forward here, I mean, it's interesting
Speaker 4: the world's changed so much in terms of delivering content
Speaker 4: to consumers. Consumers can now get anything they want, whenever
Speaker 4: they want, wherever they want. Is this a better world
Speaker 4: for consumers and content? Do you believe?
Speaker 1: Well?
Speaker 3: I think it's more complicated because so many choices are
Speaker 3: a bit confusing, and so truth becomes a little more obscure.
Speaker 3: As people listen to whoever they listened to yesterday, they
Speaker 3: switched to somebody else today. So I think our customers
Speaker 3: are maybe a bit confused. But we still have to
Speaker 3: provide great content and people will find it, we'll watch it.
Speaker 3: And I saw the other day a new movie about
Speaker 3: Shakespeare as a young man and his and his family,
Speaker 3: and I thought, well, there's a lot of talent in
Speaker 3: America and it still will attract an audience. So breathe
Speaker 3: a sigh of relief and keep on trying.
Speaker 1: Sir Harard, thank you so much for joining Bloomberg this morning.
Speaker 1: Sir Hard Stringer, of course, with all of his work
Speaker 1: at Sony, I should note that he had a radio
Speaker 1: broadcast earlier this year on the BBC called Central Intelligence,
Speaker 1: which won many different awards in the United Kingdom.