CBS is the first network to jump into cable
John Backe may be gone, but his ideas —or at least some of them—are still alive at CBS. Just a week after he resigned as president, the corporation announced that it was going forward with one of his fondest projects: a new cable unit. “Cable is a new development,” explained CBS Chairman William Paley, the man who showed Backe the way to the door marked EXIT. “And there is no reason in the world why we shouldn’t be in it.”
Though the details are still sketchy, CBS plans an aggressive campaign to capture part of the rapidly growing cable market. It will not compete with pay TV networks like Time Inc.’s Home Box Office, but will make its profit by selling the new CBS channel to cable systems around the country and to advertisers.
As befits the “Tiffany network,” programming—which will probably not begin for at least a year—will emphasize quality, or what one insider calls popularized culture: music, drama, public affairs. An example of the kind of show CBS Cable might offer is Joseph Papp’s upcoming production of The Pirates of Penzance in Central Park, starring Linda Ronstadt. Surprisingly, the new cable unit will carry neither sports nor news but may attempt children’s programming. Backe, 47, said earlier this month that CBS will soon be “a complete, total communications corporation.” His prediction is apparently accurate. CBS is the first network to venture into cable, an act that frightens some network affiliates, who tend to feel threatened by the growth of cable television.
As the aftershocks of Backe’s surprise departure reverberated along Network Row in Manhattan, one thing became clear: Paley, 78, had been having doubts about his successor for some time. Backe was a fine administrator, Paley believes, but he did not have the vision needed by the head of CBS, which is not just a corporation in the chairman’s view, but a company with a mission to educate. Many others believed the objections to Backe had a more personal foundation. Paley, who also got rid of Backe’s predecessor, cannot tolerate the idea of anybody taking his place —ever.
Paley makes the decision seem simple. “An assessment was being made of the quality of top leadership, bearing in mind that we had a long and important future and that I was going to pull away in time,” he explains. “It is something done by large corporations at all times. Mr. Backe heard about it and wanted to know what had been going on. When he was told, he took a very positive position. That led to a sort of showdown situation.”
Translation: Backe got word that he was under scrutiny and demanded an explanation from Paley. The showdown situation turned into an executive shootout on the 35th floor of the CBS Building. Says one industry source: “It wasn’t even gentlemanly. It was a real showdown.”
Whatever was said, Backe demanded that the board of directors choose between him and the chairman. The board, almost all Paley people, announced its decision on May 8, the day Backe returned from an affiliates meeting in Los Angeles. “The result,” Paley concludes, “was that Mr. Backe tendered his resignation.”
CBS is first in the ratings again, partly as a result of the team Backe put in. A new president will be hired, at least for a few years. Paley thought too much had been made of this particular Backe case. Said he with Olympian detachment: “It was just a reassessment of what’s happening and who’s going to be here. It wasn’t anything at all.”
More Must-Reads from TIME
- L.A. Fires Show Reality of 1.5°C of Warming
- How Canada Fell Out of Love With Trudeau
- Trump Is Treating the Globe Like a Monopoly Board
- Bad Bunny On Heartbreak and New Album
- 10 Boundaries Therapists Want You to Set in the New Year
- The Motivational Trick That Makes You Exercise Harder
- Nicole Kidman Is a Pure Pleasure to Watch in Babygirl
- Column: Jimmy Carter’s Global Legacy Was Moral Clarity
Contact us at letters@time.com