Sun Valley Media Moguls Gain Footing With Emerging Web-TV Models

Media moguls gathered at the annual Allen & Co. conference have spent recent years contemplating how to cope with technology drawing audiences away from TV and movies. This time, film and TV executives like Walt Disney's Jay Rasulo know just where their businesses are headed.

Once threatened by Internet players such as Netflix, traditional entertainment companies now view online outlets as a rich new vein for viewers who'll pay $8 a month for mostly older films and TV shows. Fresher programs, such as NBC Universal's webcast of Olympic events, are reserved for cable and satellite subscribers who already pay much more. The strategies of established media companies tackling online video have evolved over the past two years, according to Blake Krikorian, a conference attendee and director of Amazon, one of the emerging players in film and TV services on the internet. Initially, media companies such as Time Warner and Disney put shows up for free on websites such as Hulu.com. Then they awoke to the decline of the newspaper industry. Today, media companies are requiring usernames and passwords, making sure everyone pays for movies and TV shows, and reserving their newest and best material for the highest-paying customers. Even newspapers are starting to charge for more than limited access to their websites.