Sumner Redstone: Age of Media Conglomerate Over

"SUN VALLEY, Idaho - Sumner Redstone, one of the great empire-builders of the media world, on Friday said he had no regrets about his decision to break up Viacom Inc., the massive media company that owns MTV, CBS and the Paramount movie studio.

"The age of the conglomerate is over," Redstone said, addressing a small group of reporters at an annual retreat for media moguls in Sun Valley, a scenic resort tucked into the mountains of Idaho.

"Sometimes divorce is better than marriage," Redstone said. "The world has changed" since Viacom announced in 1999 that it was buying CBS Corp.

"It's time to take a new look and adapt."

Which is precisely what The Antagonist said right here several weeks ago and a good while before that.

On a similar note, a Dutch judge, in keeping with the Dutch national pass-time of adopting incredibly reasonable approaches to everything such as the regulation of nature's plants, has ruled that five major Dutch ISPs must adopt the only reasonable approach to the privacy and rights of their customers in light of corporate bullying from Brein, an organisation which represents 53 media companies looking take some Dutch kids to court rather than adapt their business practices to meet the demands of the market.

Maybe Brein should pay attention to the wise words of Sumner Redstone, empire builder of the media world, if not those of The Antagonist.

Both stories via the excellent Digital Music Weblog.