21st Century Fox

Jim Gianopulos, co-chairman of 20th Century Fox Filmed Entertainment, was at the Reuters Media and Advertising Summit in New York yesterday, and he was talking about the future of the movie business. (I would’ve asked when they’re going to change the studio’s name to 21st Century Fox…or are they for some sentimental reason tied to the last century?)

I’m not sure Gianopulos takes seriously the challenge of competing with pirated movies – he seems to think that “you can never compete with free,” when you probably can compete by making consumption of movies cheap and convenient. But he has some sharp ideas about expanding access to movies:

"If you look out five years there is virtually no place you would not be able to watch a film," Gianopulos said.

In fact, he said, Fox would be open to a deal with Apple Computer iTunes music and video service.