Allen & Co’s 27th Sun Valley media and technology conference starts on July 7 and ends on July 12. In the meantime, expect media writers to breathlessly report, blog, tweet, photograph and record the event. Why the fuss? There are literally hundreds of people coming who are known to do nothing else than run the universe when it comes to TV shows, movies, telecoms, the Internet and all sorts of other electronic communications. We have lists of all the people who bankroll them as well, along with a list of other interesting people you will find there.

Here, meanwhile, are the big men and women of media and technology who justify the travel budgets that increasingly hard-up news organizations have to put out for your favorite folks in the press corps to hide behind the hedges and hope for a handout that will break news, move markets and excite our editors. Keep in mind: this list is not a guarantee that these people are showing up; it’s just an invitation list (arranged alphabetically by company). We’ll update it as we learn more. (Our boldface names indicate some general viewpoint that they’re the stars of the stars.)

• James McCann, CEO, 1-800-flowers.com.
• Bobby Kotick, CEO, Activision Blizzard Inc. Also Brian Kelly, co-chairman.
• Jeff Bezos, CEO, Amazon.com Inc.
• Tim Armstrong, chairman and CEO, AOL
• Michael Ovitz, AMSEF LLC, former uber-talent agent at Creative Artists Agency and former Walt Disney Co executive.
• Gerhard Zeiler, CEO, RTL Group, Bertelsmann AG.
• Bill and Melinda Gates, of the foundation of the same name. Bill, of course, co-founded Microsoft Corp.
• Mark Vadon, executive chairman, Blue Nile Inc.
• James Dolan, president, CEO, Cablevision Systems Corp.
• Leslie Moonves, president, CEO, CBS Corp. Also Neil Ashe, president, CBS Interactive. Also Quincy Smith, CEO, CBS Interactive. (And a former Allen & Co man.)
• Charlie Rose, interviewer and anchor on the Charlie Rose Show
• Anthony Bloom, Cineworld plc
• Richard Parsons, chairman, Citigroup Inc. Former CEO, Time Warner Inc.
• Lowry Mays, chairman, Clear Channel Communications Inc.
• Ralph Roberts, founder, chairman emeritus, Comcast Corp. Also Stephen Burke, president and COO, Comcast Cable.
• Patrick Condo, president, CEO, Convera Corp.
• Jimmy Hayes, CEO, Cox Enterprises Inc.
• Richard Lovett, president, Creative Artists Agency Inc. Also Bryan Lourd, managing partner.
• Michael Dell, chairman and CEO, Dell Inc.
• Richard Rosenblatt, chairman and CEO, Demand Media. He used to work at MySpace’s parent company before News Corp bought it.
• Chase Carey, former DirecTV CEO and Rupert Murdoch’s new No. 2 man at News Corp.
• John Hendricks, founder and chairman, Discovery Communications. Also president and CEO David Zaslav.
• Jeffrey Katzenberg, CEO, DreamWorks Animation SKG.
• John Donahoe, president and CEO, eBay Inc.
• Dara Khosrowshahi, president and CEO, Expedia Inc.
• Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. (We’ve heard conflicting reports about whether he’ll show. Either way, he’s still on our list.)
• Tom Freston, principal, Firefly3 LLC. Former Viacom executive.
• Martin Varsavsky, CEO, FON
• Jeff Immelt, chairman and CEO, General Electric Co.
• Jeff Zucker, CEO, NBC Universal. (GE)
• Ronald Meyer, president and COO, Universal Studios. (GE)
• Eric Schmidt, chairman and CEO, Google. Also co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page.
• Juan Luis Cebrian, CEO, Grupo Prisa. Also Ignacio Polanco, chairman.
• Emilio Azcarraga, chairman and president, Grupo Televisa. Also Alfonso de Angoitia, executive vp.
• Christopher Schroeder, CEO, HealthCentral. Also former CEO of Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive.
• Cathleen Black, president, Hearst Magazines.
• R. Todd Bradley, executive vp, personal systems group, Hewlett-Packard Co. Also CEO Mark Hurd.
• Barry Diller, chairman, CEO, IAC/InterActiveCorp. Also chairman, Expedia Inc. Also Victor Kaufman, vice chairman, IAC/InterActiveCorp.
• Lachlan Murdoch, executive chairman, Illyria Pty Ltd. Son of News Corp CEO Rupert Murdoch.
• Craig Barrett, former CEO, chairman, Intel Corp. Also Sean Maloney, executive vp, chief sales and marketing officer.
• Jeffrey Berg, chairman and CEO, International Creative Management. Also president Christopher Silbermann.
• Michael Volpi, formerly of Cisco Systems Inc and Joost.
• Eric Eisner, L+E Pictures. Son of former Walt Disney Co. CEO Michael Eisner.
• Kevin Reilly, CEO, Lamar Advertising Co.
• Michael Fries, president and CEO, Liberty Global Inc.
• John Malone, chairman, Liberty Media Corp. Also Greg Maffei, president and CEO.
• Reid Hoffman, chairman, president of products, LinkedIn Corp.
• Sam Altman, co-founder and CEO, Loopt Inc.
• Craig Mundie, chief research and strategy officer, advanced strategies and policy, Microsoft Corp. Also Robbie Bach, president of the entertainment and devices division, and Henry Vigil, senior vp, strategy and partnership.
• Rupert Murdoch, CEO, News Corp. Also with him is his second son, James Murdoch, chairman and CEO of News Corp’s Europe and Asia operations. Also Jonathan Miller, News Corp’s chairman and CEO for its digital media group. Former president and COO Peter Chernin, whose last day was June 30, is coming along too, in tow with CFO David DeVoe and new MySpace CEO Owen Van Natta.
• Gina Bianchini, CEO, Ning Inc.
• Jorma Ollila, chairman, Nokia Corp.
• Greg Wyler, founder, O3B Networks Ltd.
• Jeffrey Jordan, president and CEO, OpenTable Inc.
• Jeffery Boyd, president and CEO, priceline.com Inc.
• Maurice Levy, chairman and CEO, Publicis Groupe.
• Paul Jacobs, chairman and CEO, Qualcomm Inc.
• Robert Johnson, founder and chairman, the RLJ Companies.
• Jay Y. Lee, Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Kenneth Lowe, chairman, president and CEO. Scripps Networks Interactive.
• Mel Karmazin, CEO, Sirius XM Radio Inc.
• Max Levchin, CEO, Slide Inc.
• Sir Howard Stringer, chairman and CEO, Sony Corp. Also Kazuo Hirai, president of networked products and services group; Robert Wiesenthal, executive vp and CFO, Sony Corporation of America; Michael Lynton, chairman and CEO, Sony Pictures Entertainment; Hiroshi Yoshioka, executive deputy president, president of consumer products and devices group; and Nicole Seligman, top lawyer.
• Nick Grouf, CEO, Spot Runner Inc.
• Thomas Glocer, CEO, Thomson Reuters Corp, along with Niall FitzGerald, deputy chairman.
• Michael Eisner, the Tornante Company LLC. Former Walt Disney Co CEO.
• Lars Buttler, CEO, Trion World Network Inc.
• Evan Williams, co-founder and chairman, Twitter Inc.
• David Levin, CEO, United Business Media plc.
• James Berkus, chairman, United Talent Agency.
• Brad Grey, chairman and CEO, Paramount Pictures Corp (Viacom).
• Sumner Redstone, chairman, Viacom. Also Philippe Dauman, president and CEO.
• Jean-Bernard Levy, CEO, Vivendi.
• Robert Iger, president and CEO, Walt Disney Co. Also Thomas Staggs, CFO.
• Edgar Bronfman Jr, chairman and CEO, Warner Music Group.
• Donald Graham, chairman, CEO, The Washington Post Co.
• Casey Wasserman, chairman and CEO, Wasserman Media Group LLC.
• Harvey Weinstein, co-chairman, The Weinstein Co.
• Shelby Bonnie, CEO, Whiskey Media LLC.
• Jim Wiatt, William Morris Endeavor.
• Terry Semel, chairman and CEO, Windsor Media. Former Yahoo CEO.
• Martin Sorrell, CEO, WPP.
• Anne Mulcahy, chairman, Xerox Corp.
• Jerry Yang, chief Yahoo.
• Mark Pincus, founder, CEO, Zynga Inc.

As we previously noted in MediaFile the main takeway from Viacom’s earnings call was that advertising is awful, but it’s not getting worse. But there were a few other highlights, too, so here’s a time-saving rundown:

Sumner Redstone is still a gigantic fan of Philippe Dauman. Even after 12-months in which Viacom’s stock price has dropped 50 percent, Redstone introduced Dauman as “my great friend” and “the greatest CEO of all” while crediting him “capable and insightful leadership.”

National Amusement’s movie theaters are a hot ticket. Redstone said the sale of theaters in the United Kingdom and United States has attracted “substantial preliminary interest” from buyers. “”We are very encouraged by both the number of interested bidders and particularly the prices being discussed.”

Dauman isn’t sweating Epix. Asked what happens to the bottom line, worst case, if the movie network isn’t launched on the terms that Viacom wants, Dauman responded that, “There is not a worst case here. We are quite engaged in discussions. You will see the affiliate agreements being announced as we get closer to launch. So we are in good shape and furthermore, in addition to covering the movie costs on the Paramount side, we are creating a great new asset for Viacom and as well as our partners.

(Photo: Reuters)

Media mogul Sumner Redstone credits fish, Grey Goose vodka and plain hard work for giving him “the health of a 20-year-old.” 

The octogenarian head of CBS Corp and Viacom Inc told CNN talk show host Larry King at the Milken Institute Global Conference that he made a “miracle recovery” from prostate cancer due to his “highly disciplined” consumption of “every antioxidant known to man” even when he doesn’t feel like it.

“My doctor says that he’s seen a lot of men slow down the aging process but I am the only man who has reversed it,” Redstone crowed at the hour-long interview that packed two conference rooms at the Milken Institute Global Conference on Wednesday in Beverly Hills.

Sumner, also repeatedly insisted, to King’s annoyance, that he is 65 years old.
   

“Suddenly you don’t look so amazing,” King retorted.

Sumner is 85.

That robust health and need for a challenge extends to every aspect of his life: “The most attractive women are married,” the recently divorced Redstone told King. “Sometimes a husband doesn’t count.”

In between tales of business, baseball and the Massachusetts General Hospital burn unit, which helped him make a miracle recovery from severe burns suffered in a hotel fire, Redstone said he keeps healthy by eating fish most days, exercising for 15 minutes and downing a shot or so of vodka and a half glass of wine each day.

He has “no intention of retiring or of dying.”

– Blog post written by Gina Keating.

Deal-making in the U.S. media and entertainment sectors is going to be down this year, says a new PricewaterhouseCoopers survey (request a copy here). Now, that’s not a new or startling conclusion given the state of the economy, but it’s just another piece of evidence that when consumers and advertisers get thrifty, deal makers can end up become benchwarmers as companies struggle with cost cuts and other exigencies.

Here are some industry trends for 2009 from the PWC survey:

• Declining consumer spending is hitting many media and entertainment companies. What’s more, these declines were exacerbated by technological convergence, as these firms adapt to and look for ways to make money off new Internet technologies.
• Overall U.S. advertising market is going to shrink as sponsors cut ad budgets across retail, consumer goods, automotive, financial and other sectors.
• Companies will continue to divest their non-core assets, but those that don’t get a good price will prefer to hold on rather than sell at bargain prices.
• Bolt-on deals will likely be popular for risk-averse companies, so deals below $1 billion — mostly small and mid-market companies — will be a rising trend.
• Private equity will remain quiet since the debt markets aren’t really healthy yet.
• Deal structures will change this year, given the difficulty of getting debt financing. The strategic rationale for doing a deal will be more important than getting a favorable capital structure.

But all hope is not lost, according to PWC’s Transaction Services Entertainment & Media Leader Thomas Rooney:

With M&A activity ingrained in the DNA of so many companies and the ever growing presence of private equity, E&M deal activity might not be as quiet as many expect in 2009… History has shown the E&M industry to be one of the more active M&A sectors irrespective of market and economic conditions.

And there have been a couple of deals already this year, although no mega-transactions, as the PWC report suggests. Live Nation wants Ticketmaster and Sumner Redstone’s National Amusements theater chain is being shopped to potential buyers. Could Lions Gate be next?

(Photo: Viacom chairman Sumner Redstone/REUTERS)

Here’s the latest on Sumner Redstone: On CBS’s earnings call he reiterated that negotiations with lenders regarding National Amusements’ debt situation were moving forward.

“We are making very good progress with our creditors, and as I have also said before, we have not, since our original sale, sold a single share of CBS or Viacom, and our lenders are not urging us to do so,” he said.

He also told investors that the CBS dividend cut — they slashed it by 82 percent to 5 cents — wouldn’t mean a thing as far as National Amusements’ debt talks go (How the dividend cut will impact Redstone himself is another matter. Last year, he took home more than $80 million in dividend payments).

“Now with respect to the CBS dividend, I can tell you that the topic has been discussed with the lenders, and it will not impact the successful conclusion of the discussions. So that’s the update, and again, because of the ongoing nature of the discussions, I must decline to further comment,” he said.

Redstone may not be commenting further, but there is certainly some chatter about what’s happening with National Amusements. People familiar with the matter tell us that National Amusements is close to putting several hundred movie theaters up for sale.

Here’s the upshot:

An official sales prospectus on the theater chain is expected to go out any day now and bankers are reaching out to potential buyers to get them to sign confidentiality agreements, the sources said.

All U.S. theaters except those in the New England region are expected to go on sale, along with theaters in Latin America and possibly those in the United Kingdom. The theaters in Russia will be excluded from the sale, the sources said.

National Amusements operates more than 1,500 movie screens in these countries. The New England region and Russia account for roughly 300 screens. Citigroup Inc will handle the sale, the people said.

A sale could help National Amusements pay off the $800 million in bank loans it has due — or at least part of the payment. Analysts figure the theater chain could fetch up to $500-700 million. It’ll be up to Redstone to figure out how to make those numbers work.

Keep an eye on:

• Walt Disney Co will streamline some behind-the-scenes operations, including menu planning and ride design, at its two U.S. theme parks to try to offset the effects of the global economic downturn (Reuters)
• Entertainment industry jobs in the Los Angeles area will fall further in 2009 after an annual decline in 2008, according to a research report (Reuters)
• The New York Post faced widespread criticism for a cartoon it published that some say compares President Barack Obama to a chimpanzee (WSJ.com).

How bad is the advertising market? Pretty bad, says Viacom Chief Executive Philippe Dauman. And it’s only going to get uglier.

“It is clear that while as cable network owners we are in a more favorable media segment than most, advertising comps are likely to get worse before they get better,” he said on a conference call today.

This comment may seem dry, but we’re totally ready to cut him some slack since it came shortly after this poetic gem: “And despite the orgy of pessimism prevalent of the late, the economic tide in our economy and our industry will rise again.”

Dauman, whose job means he oversees MTV, VH-1, Comedy Central and so on, assessed the situation this way: Advertisers who committed dollars during the upfront for the first quarter are holding solid, but are getting shaky for the second quarter.

Viacom finance whiz Tom Dooley expanded on that. “In terms of second-quarter option exercises, many of the moves have been shifting dollars from quarter-to-quarter. Some advertisers have done so but come back later in the quarter to make smaller buys in the scatter market. It is this activity combined with the overall economic trends which leads us to believe that ad market will get worse before it gets better.”

Not exactly an orgy of optimism, guys.

(Photo: Reuters)

CBS has made a big deal about its dividend. Just three months ago, Chief Executive Les Moonves made clear his commitment to the quarterly payout to shareholders, who, by the way, have seen the stock fall nearly 75 percent in the last 12 months. Yep, 75 percent.

“The dividend is front and center in our strategy to return value to our shareholders” Moonves said on a late October conference call.

Lately, though, doubts about CBS’s ability to keep up the dividend appear to be spreading (to be fair, a number on Wall Street have questioned the payouts for quite some time).  First, on Monday, Sanford Bernstein  analyst Michael Nathanson cut his rating to “underperform” and warned that CBS might have to “drastically” reduce the dividend.

Now we get the following from Barrington Research’s Jim Goss, who cut his rating on the stock as well as 2009 earnings estimates. Here are some highlights:

Our new estimate progression suggests that it will likely take several years to restore the earnings level we estimate CBS achieved in 2008. Consequently, while we felt the board might be successful in maintaining its $1.06 annual dividend rate through a temporary shortfall in profitability, we now feel the rough patch will be longer, and the high level of dividend payment will become more difficult to justify. The arguments have created a tug of war between an exceptional return of cash to shareholders, versus a more prudent posture that could conserve cash to repay debt. The latter strategy would strengthen CBS’ financial position and reduce risk to its investment grade credit rating.

The weight of these arguments seem to now be stacking up in favor of a reduction, but not elimination, in the dividend rate to a level that provides a still meaningful and above average yield. It is conceivable that the initial market reaction to a cut could be positive. However, since our positive investment thesis was based on the attractive and seemingly sustainable yield that offset a stagnant stock in a depressed ad environment, a reduced yield would undercut our OUTPERFORM rating. We will be more comfortable supporting the stock at a lower yield level as we become more confident that an ad spending recovery is materializing. For now, given our revised view that the dividend is threatened, we feel a MARKET PERFORM rating is more appropriate.

At least the Mentalist is doing well.

(Reuters photo of Simon Baker, star of CBS show ”The Mentalist”)

Viacom and Time Warner Cable are doing their best to make sure that television addicts around the country get a chance to go outside and stretch their legs come New Year’s Day. Of course, the reason they’re doing their part for physical fitness has little to do with ensuring the health of their viewers.

As Reuters reports, Viacom — the company run by financially challenged media mogul Sumner Redstone — provides programming to cable networks like Time Warner Cable for a fee. Now we’re at a time when Viacom and Time Warner Cable are renegotiating the fee, a regular occurrence. Equally regular are the disputes that arise as the negotiators try to determine what a fair price is.

The ultimate loser turns out to be you, the faithful TV watcher, because the last resort of companies like Viacom is to pull their programs off the air. The idea is that sends watchers into paroxysms of rage, usually directed at the cable company that they give all their money to every month. Eventually, the idea goes, the cable company cries Uncle! and agrees to pay more money to bring you the programming. Yes, your bill goes up too, as it always does.

Here’s a sample of what will stop being broadcast on Jan. 1: Dora the Explorer, SpongeBob SquarePants, The Colbert Report, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and The Hills.

And here’s a sample of the pre-packaged righteous indignation that you hear at times like this from the companies:

Viacom: Time Warner Cable has dismissed our efforts at a fair compromise… As a result, we are sorry to say that for Time Warner Cable customers our networks will go dark as of 12:01 on January 1st.

Time Warner Cable, via spokesman Alex Dudley: “It just smacks of desperation from a company that is trying to make up for a failing business model on our subscribers’ backs, and we’re not going to take it.”

Don’t worry C-SPAN will continue uninterrupted.

Keep an eye on

• Speaking of cable, the 24-hour news channels got record ratings this year, though it looks like they would have made Obama race against McCain for another year, if just to keep them relevant until the financial crisis is expected to ease. (Los Angeles Times)
• The Village Voice continues to shed the names that made its name so famous. The latest axe casualty is Nat Hentoff, the influential jazz critic who started there in 1958. Sketches of Pain, anyone? (The New York Times)
• Vicki Iseman, intentionally or not, was kind enough to wait until after John McCain lost his 2008 presidential bid to sue The New York Times over its February 2008 article that the lobbyist said suggested that she and the Arizona senator were carrying on inappropriately in more ways than one. (Reuters)

Media mogul Sumner Redstone appears to be sticking with his decision to not sell more shares in Viacom and CBS. Here’s the Financial Times:

Media mogul Sumner Redstone has reached agreement with his daughter, Shari, to put some of National Amusement’s 1,500 cinemas on the block rather than the entire division, as part of debt-restructuring discussions to avoid selling more shares of Viacom and CBS, according to people familiar with the matter.

If lenders agree, the plan would clear the way to sell a part of the US group and 19 theatres in the UK. A prospectus is not expected to be released until early January, one person familiar with the discussions said.

It was not immediately clear how much the proposed partial sale would fetch. The entire chain is valued at $500m to $700m by analysts and at about $1billion by Mr Redstone.

This comes after National Amusements sold its stake in video game company Midway for $100,000 and a big tax writeoff.

As you’ve read here before, Redstone is trying to restructure about $1.6 billion in debt. Half of that, as the FT notes, is due December 19 (only 15 more shopping days until debt day!). Redstone is in this position after he blew a debt covenant that was tied to Viacom’s and CBS’s market value. Both stocks took a dive, which forced Redstone into selling $233 million in non-voting shares of both companies, the FT reported.

Meanwhile, we asked Regal Entertainment CEO Mike Campbell if he would be interested in buying National Amusements’ theater chain If Redstone does put it on the block. Cambell said their domestic theaters would be a good fit — but noted that the credit crunch could hinder financing.

Keep an eye on:

Our Reuters Media Summit: We’re heading into the last day, but have a look at our interviews with Sirius XM CEO Mel Karmazin, Microsoft videogame executive Shane Kim, Professional Golfers Association Commissioner Tim Finchem and more. We’ve been running Summit blog entries here on Mediafile, but they’re all in one convenient place at the Summit Notebook site too.

You can’t have too much Michael Wolff. Here’s Wolff in a video interview with me.,

Former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer, who resigned earlier this year after patronizing a prostitute, is entering the journalism world with a column at Slate.com, the online magazine owned by The Washington Post Co. Reported by Reuters, but broken by the New York Observer’s John Koblin.

(Photo: Reuters)

Sorting out what the economic downturn means for the sports world has become something of a sport itself.

Will consumers’ need to escape with some old-fashioned football trump their anxiety about shelling out hard-earned money for tickets, parking and hotdogs at the game?

Will TV broadcasters cash in on higher ratings, as consumers skip more expensive entertainment to spend time at home watching baseball or basketball on television? Or has devastation across the financial services and auto industries — two big advertisers in sports — doomed TV broadcasters regardless of audience size?

We already know what happened with GM and Tiger Woods.

“If you just look at the numbers, straight at the numbers, on the broadcast side in sports, anywhere — and especially when you look at football or anywhere — between 6 percent to 8 percent of their revenue is automotive and then you take out the financial picture there and now maybe you’re up to 9 percent or 10 percent,” MPG North America Chief Operating Officer Steve Lanzano told the Reuters Media Summit. “That’s a ton of money that’s moving out of the marketplace. That is very scary.”

NFL Executive Vice president Eric Grubman acknowledged that the economy is hurting the league on several fronts: it makes financing tougher; it crimps advertising revenue for its partners; and it undercuts consumer spending on everything from tickets to jerseys.

But, says Grubman, it’s not all gloom and doom.

“There is a part of the National Football League that is I believe very countercyclical and very recession resistant. And that is that when people are experiencing tough times… economic or otherwise… they go back to things that they love and they go back to things that they enjoy. And sports is one of them,” he said.

Hmmmm.

NASCAR and Major League Baseball drop into the Reuters Media Summit later today.

Keep an eye on:

• National Amusements Inc’s negotiations to restructure its debt are moving slowly — that means a deal may not happen this year (WSJ.com)
• Blockbuster will sell tickets for top U.S. concert producer Live Nation (Reuters)
• Publicis Groupe is building its Asian assets with a deal to buy W&K Communications, a full-service agency in China (Adweek)

(Photo: Reuters)