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Rupert Murdoch
Abu Dhabi Media Summit
March 09, 2010 – Thank you, Ed, for those generous words. I am
grateful for the invitation to be with you today.
Each time I visit this part of the world, I experience your fabled
hospitality. Making guests feel at home is a long and honored tradition in
your culture – and you have happily shown that the best traditions are fully
compatible with a modern skyline. Nowhere is this wisdom more clear than in
your plans for Abu Dhabi 2030 – a capital city for the 21st century.
I have looked at your plan, and it is visionary. Your new capital district
will be built on four guiding principles – cultural heritage, economic
development, social cohesion, and the natural environment. You will have
state-of-the-art transportation. Architecture that draws from the past while
pointing to the future. Great new universities, medical research facilities,
museums and the like. And a sense of community that will make this city not
just a showcase for visitors – but a home for your people.
You have set a high bar for your ambitions. Today I hope to use this
conference on the media to share my thoughts about the contributions that a
thriving creative sector might make – to your society, to your economy, and
to your future.
In this I am mindful of the Arab proverb: “if a wind blows, ride it.” As I
speak, there is a powerful wind blowing through this region. This wind is
the creative energies of your people, who are aching to make their own mark
on the world around them. Without this creative spirit, the museums,
universities, and other fabulous buildings you have planned will be empty
shells. But ride this wind and you will raise from these desert sands
something extraordinary: a capital of creativity that is modern … that is
global … and that is fully Arab.
These days our homes and offices are cluttered with the latest electronic
devices. It is easy to be dazzled by this new technology. But the bright and
shiny wonders that technology gives us can be like the desert sun – they can
blind us to what is real and valuable. Amid the digital dazzle, we risk
missing the magic: the creative content that brings these devices to life.
That is the point I wish to discuss with you today. What is a Kindle or an
e-reader worth without books or newspapers or magazines to read on them?
What is a cell phone without the access to e-mail, the photos of your
children or your favorite websites? What is the most advanced
high-definition TV without the dramas and comedies and news and sport to
watch on it?
The answer is this: Without creative content, these electronic devices are
merely expensive playthings.
Your citizens know this, because they are among the earth’s most
sophisticated consumers. They watch films from all parts of the world. And
they own all the best and latest gadgets.
That is a good thing. Your citizens should be free to take full advantage of
human creativity wherever they find it. But they also deserve the
opportunity to add their own creative contributions to our vast and growing
media world.
Left alone, these creative talents remain constrained by arbitrary
boundaries. To make this talent bloom, you need businesses willing to invest
in creativity, to nurture talent, and to build audiences that will buy and
enjoy the fruits of this enterprise. That takes the right incentives. By
unlocking the creativity of your people, you can diversify your economy …
provide millions of jobs for a rising generation … and give the Arab people
a global voice and influence commensurate with your importance.
A few months ago, I spoke in Beijing about the critical importance of having
good copyright laws that protect the value people create. Today I wish to
speak more broadly about values, competition, and incentives.
In particular, I wish to emphasize the incentives that will help money flow
to those who invest in creativity … the need for global competition to help
make local media companies strong … and the reminder that a creative sector
flourishes best in societies where governments intervene with a light hand.
With these incentives in place, you will build a creative sector worthy of
the great capital you have planned.
Let me start with content. Right now the world does not think of the Middle
East when it thinks of creative content. Even your own citizens often look
elsewhere for a film or television show or news site. As a result, many of
your own citizens prefer Hollywood movies or American television shows to
local production.
You can change this. Recently I had dinner with the trade minister from
another Muslim country, Indonesia. We started talking about the economic
value of a creative sector. She told me that the creative sector now
accounts for more than 5.4 million jobs and 6% of the Indonesian economy –
and is the country’s fifth largest source of exports. She also told me her
government set a target that would nearly double the contribution to GDP by
2025. Think of the millions of stimulating new jobs that would mean for the
Indonesian people.
Now think what a growing creative sector would mean here. A recent Arab
Human Development Report suggests that this region must create 50 million
new jobs in the next ten years. A thriving creative industry would
contribute many of these jobs – most of them environmentally friendly, well
paying, and contributing to a better quality of life for all.
The good news is that the geographic borders that once limited your
potential are today largely irrelevant. Let me give you an example that you
might know about. It’s a film called My Name Is Khan … it is the story of a
Muslim boy in San Francisco after the September 11 attacks … and it made its
international debut in this city last month.
In all its aspects, this film speaks to the cross-border soul of the
creative industry. The film is a joint venture between an Indian company and
an American company. It is a story told from the point of view of a Muslim.
It was financed in part from Abu Dhabi. It features Indian stars who are
popular in this region. It is attracting huge audiences here in the Middle
East … in India … in the U.K. … in the United States. The popularity of My
Name Is Khan reminds us that no nation has a monopoly on creative content.
If you tell a good story, people will respond.
Let me give you an example from the business end. One of our company’s
biggest films right now is Avatar. It’s playing all over the world. It’s
already grossed two and a half billion dollars and is on its way to three
billion. Those of you who have seen it – if you have not, ask your children
– know that Avatar has revolutionized 3-D and film animation. What many of
you may not know is that a good part of this remarkable film was produced in
New Zealand.
That’s right. Each night, when the lights went out at the production studios
in Los Angeles, their collaborators in Wellington were starting up a new day
– using their computers to generate the film’s jungle environment. If a
visual-effects company in a faraway island like New Zealand can find its
niche in the most technologically advanced film of our time, you can be sure
that the Arab people are fully capable of making their own contributions to
this fast-growing global industry.
So what do you need to encourage your creative sector? Obviously you need
money. High-quality content is expensive. The simple fact is that if you
want quality content, you need to encourage a marketplace where money flows
to those who invest in and create that content.
Take television. Right now television is still a young market in this part
of the world. The potential, however, is huge. If you want higher-quality
television, you need a transparent market that helps ensure that people
receive a fair price for the value they create.
- A more transparent advertising market
means having effective tools to measure who and
what people are watching. Advertisers and
creators need metrics that tell them who they
are reaching and how effective their message is
– or else they are simply throwing money in the
dark.
- A more transparent advertising market will also encourage media buyers and sellers to compete for business. By contrast, opaque markets tend to be unfairly dominated by one or two players. This can be a cozy arrangement for those players. But a nation pays a very high price for this cozy arrangement – because it takes away the financial engine needed to drive investment in local content.
Advertising is only one part of this financial engine. In
many parts of the world, we are finding that the best way to
finance quality content is by having a balance of advertising
and subscription revenue. So a thriving creative sector also
needs to be open to new business models that allow companies to
know their customers better. The stronger the relationship
between media companies and their customers, the more they will
cater to local tastes – and invest in the technology that makes
for a better experience. That’s exactly what we are doing with
our Sky pay-television businesses in the U.K., Italy, and now
Germany and India.
Some people will say that you cannot build a creative sector
here. I do not believe that for a moment. The beauty of
creativity is that the raw materials are all in the human mind.
With the right economic incentives, you will find creative Arab
enterprises rising higher and faster than your most modern
buildings.
Another critical ingredient for a vibrant creative sector is
global competition. Our company operates in almost every media
market in the world. Everywhere I have been, one thing is clear:
the local companies that are in the best position to challenge
us are those whose home markets are open to foreign competition.
Sometimes nations seek to promote their own creative industries
by limiting foreign participation and protecting local
producers. And sometimes these restrictions and protections do
keep us from entering such a market – or limit us to a tiny
share.
Unfortunately, when that happens you are also making your market
smaller and less competitive. Japan is a good example of a
modern nation with a protected – and limited – creative sector.
As a result, Japanese citizens pay higher prices for more
limited fare. The Japanese economy has fewer jobs for its
workers. And Japanese culture is denied the global voice that a
nation which boasts the world’s second largest economy ought to
have.
In short, creative protectionism is as destructive as other
types of protectionism. It is expensive … it is unfair … and it
guarantees that local companies coddled by protection will never
be strong enough to compete outside their own borders.
By contrast, if you open your creative market up to competition,
your companies can challenge the biggest players. I have seen it
done. Most of you probably think of News Corporation as an
American company, because we are now based in New York. But we
did not start out this way.
We started in a provincial Australian city called Adelaide. When
I brought our company to America, we were still a small
Australian firm. We had a few media properties in Britain – and
a single newspaper in San Antonio, Texas.
We succeeded because the open American economy let us compete on
our talents. So we grew. And as we grew, we expanded our reach
and influence to other parts of the world – and created
thousands of jobs. Today News Corporation has 64,000 people
working for us across the globe – and many thousands more
working for us indirectly.
I have every confidence that Arab companies can do the same –
and more. I also believe that Abu Dhabi can lead the way. In two
decades, your plans will transform this desert city into a
gleaming capital of the future. By welcoming foreign
competition, you will call your people to their best – and
cultivate a world-class industry on par with the finance and oil
giants that now dominate this region.
Finally, I’d like to say a word about freedom and regulation.
This city is the capital of one of the Middle East’s most
cosmopolitan societies. Your people have one of the highest
GDP’s per capita in the world. And every day you continue to
grow – in size, in sophistication, in wealth, and in the
attention of the global press.
With this increased global attention comes the occasional
inconvenient or unwelcome story. Again, I speak from some
personal experience. Throughout my life, I have endured my share
of blistering newspaper attacks … unflattering television
coverage … and books that grossly distort my views or my
businesses or both.
I have learned that this kind of coverage is a fact of life in a
modern media society. I have learned too that it is the price
one pays for success.
For a nation, the stakes are even higher. In face of an
inconvenient story, it can be tempting to resort to censorship
or civil or criminal laws to try to bury it. This is not only a
problem here: In France a criminal defamation law remains in
place. In the long run, this is counterproductive. Markets that
distort their media end up promoting the very panic and distrust
that they had hoped to control.
Certainly each nation and culture has the right to insist that
the people they allow into their countries to do business
respect their national values and traditions. This is best
administered, however, with a gentle touch. Human creativity
flourishes in freedom. By making the decision for greater
openness, you will signal the importance you have assigned to
creativity in your plans for the future – and declare your
confidence in your people.
Now, I’m sure there is no shortage of experts who fly in here
and give you nice words. It’s very easy to chatter on about
talent and creativity. For our company, this is more than talk.
We’ve been here for some time. And we are expanding our presence
at a moment when others are paring back.
Our presence here cuts across many different forms of media.
We’ve had reporters for the Times of London and the Australian
and the Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones Newswires for decades.
We opened up a branch of HarperCollins. We’ve also been
broadcasting some of our Fox International Channels.
More recently, we took another step by investing in a local
media company that also is the world’s largest producer of Arab
music. The company is called Rotana. To be frank, Rotana does
not really need our financing. We are partnering with Rotana for
something more ambitious: To tap into Arab talent and ultimately
produce original Arab content for markets both here and abroad.
Yesterday we further extended our presence by announcing a
strategic partnership between Fox International Channels and Abu
Dhabi’s twofour54. First, we will move some of our satellite
channels from Hong Kong to here. Second, we will establish a
production office here for one of our documentary filmmaking
companies. And third, we will headquarter the Middle Eastern
operations for our global online advertising network business in
Abu Dhabi as well.
I mention these partnerships only to emphasize that my words are
backed up by my investments. With these new partnerships, we are
sending a message. When we look to the future, News Corporation
is betting on the creative potential of the more than 335
million people who make up the Arab world.
Ladies and gentlemen, you know your history better than I do.
You know of your contributions to global knowledge and wealth.
The West rediscovered Aristotle through Arab translations and
Arab commentaries. We owe much of our mathematics, science, and
medicine to discoveries by your scholars. Europe traded with
Asia via routes pioneered and developed by Muslim merchants. And
the leading economies of our world would grind to a halt without
your oil.
While oil is undeniably vital to our world, the untapped
creativity in this region represents a resource infinitely more
precious. In this bright new century, the most advanced
societies will be those that are most creative. Creativity is a
resource that excites the imagination … expands jobs and
opportunity … and improves our quality of life. It is clean, and
it is high-value. Most of all, because it is rooted in the human
mind, creativity is the one economic resource that is truly
inexhaustible.
Your people are eager, talented, and young. They have
aspirations in common with their peers in other parts of the
world – yet they hold fast to the traditions that make them
unique. Give them a society that rewards creativity. When you
do, you will breathe life into your blueprints – and build a
future worthy of your grand boulevards and glistening
skyscrapers.
Thank you for listening.
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