A New Media Landscape in Sun Valley

Investment bank Allen & Co.'s annual gathering of media and technology executives kicks off July 8 in Sun Valley, Idaho, against the same mountainous backdrop that has framed hobnobbing moguls since 1983. But the business landscape they will be discussing has shifted radically since last year's conference.

Two monster deals -- cable company Comcast’s proposed acquisition of Time Warner Cable and AT&T 's proposed purchase of DirecTV -- would significantly consolidate pay-television distribution in the US if approved by regulators. Now, the titans of entertainment companies who sit across the negotiating table from those distributors are wondering: Do we need to get bigger, too? The conference offers as good a venue as any for moguls who own TV channels and studios to float big transactions and even have substantive talks.