Oxygen Founder Gerry Laybourne: Kevin Martin "Would Like To Go Back To The 1950s"

Oxygen Founder Gerry Laybourne: Kevin Martin "Would Like To Go Back To The 1950s"

For the first time in her life, Geraldine Laybourne is unemployed. Last month, she left Oxygen Media, the women-centric cable television and internet operation she co-founded nine years ago with Oprah Winfrey and Microsoft billionaire Paul Allen, the major investor who forced Oxygen's sale last fall to NBC Universal for $925 million. At the moment, Laybourne and her husband, Kit, are traveling abroad, recharging their batteries, and figuring out the future.

Laybourne--who started her career teaching at a progressive private school and eventually reinvented the Nickelodeon TV network--gave Portfolio.com a guided tour of the changing media landscape in an exclusive interview. The new world of media, it turns out, is a very scary place.

L.G.: And the regulatory environment? You have [chairman] Kevin Martin over there at the F.C.C.

G.L.: I've spent a good deal of time with Kevin Martin and the F.C.C. Kevin Martin just plain does not like cable. I don't know what it is exactly. He came in, and he had this idea to have a family tier. And we basically told him, "A family tier won't work. We've been offering families the ability to lock out objectionable programming. We make it available for free. We make it available easily. And we don't think a family tier will work." "That doesn't matter. We still want you to do the family tier." Okay, we did the family tier. And guess what? It didn't work. Then he was annoyed. In some ways, he would like to go back to the 1950s. He would like to have three networks that have Leave It to Beaver on it, but that's not where our country is. That's not what people want to watch. I don't know how much I want to say here.

Popular in the Community

Close

What's Hot