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Comment by dredmorbius | Hacker News Reader

Though it's often misattributed to Bill Gates, Sumner Redstone popularised the phrase "content is king" which was used in a 1974 book, and pre-dates even that.

https://lgkmarketingcc.com/content-king-said-better/

The book seems to be J. W. Click, Russell N. Baird, Magazine Editing and Production. W. C. Brown Company, 1974, 274 pages

https://www.worldcat.org/title/magazine-editing-and-producti...

https://books.google.com/books?id=lMpHwLnvsvAC&q="content+is...

Earlier appearances in the 1960s refer to educational films:

https://www.worldcat.org/title/toward-improved-learning-a-co...

https://books.google.com/books?id=LiQgAQAAMAAJ&q="content+is...

Aguments over provenance notwithstanding, my view is that the aphorism is a convenient bit of stage distraction attractive to media monopolists themselves aware of the real truth: network control is emperor.

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Good point.

There’s a great book called Cable Cowboy by Mark Robichaux that talks about the Wild West days of early cable television.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/047170637X/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_nx...

The focus is on John Malone but all of the major players make an appearance including Redstone.

The interesting bit is how the guys who controlled the conduit manipulated their way into owning the content as well. They saw what happened to Ma Bell and used it to grow through creating regional monopolies like the Mafia.

- They each carved out their own territory and refused to compete with each other

- They collaborated to fight local government attempts to get better customer service for citizens or even string their own cable

- They famously extorted all of the content guys into giving up pieces of their businesses

Take a look at Liberty Media and how it acquired content assets directly influenced by John Malone’s power in cable.

It’s spooky, sinister yet amazing.

Own the network and charge 30% tax on anyone delivering content.

The vig is of course a huge part, but far from the whole story.

Central control of a network means deciding what that network is. Where it begins, where it ends, what goes in, what comes out, who can receive, who can send, what interactions are possible, speeds and latencies, what messages are heard, what are not, who pays, who gets paid.

It's not just the vig.

Also: factors wholly ignored by contemporary US (Borkian) antitrust doctrine.

In their case, they actually did more than that.

They acquired ownership in the content networks and taxed them as well.

Read: Cable Cowboy - John Malone and the Rise of the Modern Cable Business

https://www.amazon.com/dp/047170637X/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_nx...

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