Gore Presides at L.A. Summit on Info Age

Vice President Al Gore took a meeting with the corporate elite of the entertainment and telecommunications industries Tuesday in a daylong summit in which he warned that the disadvantaged should not be left stranded on the shoulder of the information superhighway.

Speaking at a UCLA conference in which gray-suited industry titans mingled with Armani-clad deal-makers, Gore said the Clinton Administration is willing to break down regulatory barriers to permit telephone and cable TV companies to compete in offering a broad array of interactive services, but only if the information highway toll is not too steep.

The vice president was accompanied by Lily Tomlin in the guise of her famous telephone operator character, Ernestine, which befit the Hollywood meets Washington meets Ma Bell meets Future Shock tone of the event. “Let me see if I understand,” Tomlin said to Gore. “Is this about billions of Baco-Bits in the cyberspace salad bar?”

More than 2,000 communications industry executives packed into UCLA’s Royce Hall to hear Gore and powerbrokers such as TeleCommunications Inc. Chief Executive John C. Malone, News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch, Sony Corp. of America President Michael P. Schulhof and QVC Network Chief Executive Barry Diller give divergent answers to that question during the daylong “Superhighway Summit” sponsored by the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.

Industry executives generally praised the vice president’s remarks. But there was no broad consensus achieved at the summit, and some worried about too much government interference, especially after Gore noted that the FCC will be involved in policing the highway.

“The devil will be in the details, but basically what we heard was right on,” said Bell Atlantic Chief Executive Raymond Smith, one of the most aggressive proponents of the interactive future.

The conference also offered some unexpected fireworks among the ego-charged panelists, with Time Warner Chairman Gerald R. Levin and Disney leader Michael D. Eisner trading pointed jabs during the final panel discussion of the day. When Levin pointed out that Warner Bros. had the leading domestic movie box office share three years running, Eisner countered that net profit is a more important measurement of success.

And tensions surfaced between companies laying the delivery lines and those committed to producing the programming--which may be a hint of things to come. Among the concerns most commonly voiced: that producers will somehow be relegated to a second-class position.

Outside the conference, the sun-drenched brick patio was transformed into a deal-making, handshaking, sunglass-wearing Hollywood playground as talent agents and studio executives emerged from the dark auditorium to see and be seen.

“This is one of the great schmoozefests of all time,” gushed Peter Black, president of Xiphias, an Los Angeles-based interactive software firm.

In another part of the courtyard, a woman was screaming into her cellular telephone: “I was told it was a done deal! The numbers aren’t negotiable!”

Rumors that Barbra Streisand and Oprah Winfrey might put in appearances ran rampant through the parking lot staff, which included about 20 Secret Service support guards and their explosives-detecting dogs. (“We don’t even pay any attention to the Hollywood types,” averred security officer Scott McLean).

Panelists Quincy Jones and Diller came in through the back door, as did Tomlin. Still, UCLA traffic coordinator Steve Rand said this was not the biggest celebrity event UCLA had seen: “The MTV awards two years ago--we filled the intramural field for that,” he recalled.

Not atypically for Hollywood, the most compelling reason many gave for attending the conference was that everyone else was. For the last year, representatives of the communications and media industries have demonstrated an almost compulsive need to trade information highway metaphors at symposiums and conferences with titles such as “Digital World,” “Multimedia Expo” and “Digital Hollywood.”

Although everyone agreed that the highway is coming--and soon--there was little consensus about how it will evolve, how much it will cost or how quickly people will be able to access it through their computers, telephones or television sets.

Still, some said the summit was a good way for often-adversarial government and industry leaders to hash out their roles in building the nation’s new infrastructure.

“They’re attempting to demystify this so people won’t be scared into creating legislation,” said former junk bond king Michael Milken, who is involved in interactive educational projects.

To many of the cable, phone and computer executives who have been working on the notion of interactivity for some time, Hollywood was just doing what it does best: creating a shared perception of reality that, in an odd cultural process, often becomes reality.

Yet members of the Hollywood crowd seemed unsure of their place in the sparring between phone, cable and computer executives over how digital age entertainment and information will be delivered. “I feel like an English major in an organic chemistry course,” said Disney’s Eisner.

“This isn’t about programming,” whispered HBO chief Michael Fuchs to his neighbor.

Many of the participants said they expect entertainment applications to drive the building of the information superhighway.

“Entertainment is going to be the core of every one of these opportunities,” said Jeffrey Katzenberg, chairman of Walt Disney Studios. “What will drive this into the home is not the ability to get a license plate. The consumer wants ‘Jurassic Park.’ ”

The large turnout reflected the growing importance of the superhighway debate.

Gore said the Clinton Administration’s regulatory packages will contain provisions that encourage private investment, foster competition and provide open and equal access to new networks. The legislation, he said, is designed to “avoid creating a society of information haves and have-nots.”

The vice president, who is spearheading the Administration’s telecommunications policy, urged the media leaders to wire every school, library, hospital and clinic to the information superhighway by the end of the decade.

“We must build a new model of public-private cooperation that, if properly pursued, can obviate many governmental mandates,” Gore said.

Replied Ted Harbert, president of ABC Entertainment: “Schools can’t even afford chalk, and they are talking about putting a personal computer on every desk.”

Others were more receptive.

Time Warner’s Levin said Gore’s call to wire all the schools, libraries and hospitals was in fact largely a reality. “We are much of the way there already,” he said, noting that more than 80% of schools in areas served by Time Warner cable are already hooked up. “We don’t want to see an information aristocracy,” he said.

Added Eisner: “We all knew this was coming. The concept is valid.”

Gore said the Federal Communications Commission will be delegated the responsibility to design the “specific measures” to achieve the goal of universal service.

Nonetheless, Gore appeared to leave a lot of room as to when and how the national information infrastructure develops. For example, Gore said the definition of universal service “will evolve as technology and the infrastructure advance.”

Despite the Clinton Administration’s goal of encouraging telephone and cable TV companies to build a “national information infrastructure,” there were indications that a brutal competition lies ahead.

“The ability to create this electronic highway is the easy part,” assured Richard C. Notebaert, president of Ameritech, a regional phone company. But he predicted there would be a lot of “road kill” as companies struggle to “determine what consumers want.”