Bloomberg Surveillance · Tuesday, June 30, 2026
David Weston expresses concern about the business model of traditional network news, stating he doesn't understand how it will be profitable in the current media landscape. He attributes the erosion of business plans to continuous technological innovation, starting from cable's inception, and argues that without scarcity, it's difficult to charge for content, comparing the situation to AM radio.
“So do you want an answer for my heart or for my head?”
“For head, I don't understand the business plan. I just don't get it. And we've seen this, by the way, this goes all the way back to cable. I mean when I went to run ABC News, is Fox News had not yet started, MSNBC had just started, and so they came over, but there's been one innovation after the other that just eroded the business plan. So there's no motor around the businesswere you can't charge unless they're scarcity.”