Les Moonves has settled his debts with the City of Los Angeles, at least financially. In a meeting of L.A.’s Ethics Commission Wednesday afternoon, the body voted for a second time on a payout from the multi-millionaire former CBS boss. Unlike the Feb. 21 meeting, this time the proposed settlement passed.
The investigation, which involves a police captain with ties to CBS executives who worked to hush up the allegations, may now result in federal charges.
The LAPD says it is conducting an internal affairs investigation into the former captain in charge of the Hollywood Division of the Los Angeles Police Department, Cory Palka, and the state attorney general is probing any criminal elements after a report said he conspired with CBS to conceal sexual assault allegations against former CBS chief Les Moonves, for whom Palka served as a private bodyguard for years.
CBS shareholders have reached a $14.75 million settlement in their securities lawsuit against Leslie Moonves and the network regarding how it dealt with the sexual misconduct allegations against the disgraced former chairman-CEO and how his previous #MeToo comments affected the company’s financial performance.
The media giant and a law firm hired to probe sexual-misconduct allegations against former CBS chief Les Moonves are said to have paid millions to someone who claimed a breach of confidentiality after The New York Times revealed explosive details from a draft report on the investigation.
CBS shareholders are asking a New York federal judge to certify class action in a securities fraud lawsuit that claims ousted CEO Les Moonves misled investors through statements he made about the #MeToo movement before the misconduct allegations against him became public.
Exclusives
A federal judge in New York has allowed a shareholder lawsuit against CBS Corp. to proceed based on the specificity of statements made by disgraced former chairman-CEO Leslie Moonves at a 2017 Variety conference.
The ousted chief executive of CBS is occupying an office on Hollywood’s Sunset Strip that, per his exit agreement, is being paid for by the network.
Former CBS CEO Leslie Moonves will not receive his $120 million severance package after the company’s board of directors determined he was fired “with cause” over sexual misconduct allegations. The board said Monday it reached its decision after finding that Moonves failed to cooperate fully with investigators looking into the allegations. The board also cited what it called Moonves’ “willful and material misfeasance,” violation of company policies and breach of his contract.
CBS Corp. chairman-CEO Leslie Moonves has hired powerhouse litigator Daniel Petrocelli to represent him in CBS’s internal probe into sexual misconduct allegations reported late last month by the New Yorker. CBS declined to comment.
Shari Redstone, the controlling shareholder of CBS Corp., is quietly looking for a potential replacement for Leslie Moonves, the embattled chief executive of CBS, according to two people close to her.
CBS News stated Tuesday in a story that the law firm of Proskauer Rose — which had been hired by the company in March to probe claims against TV anchor Rose made public in a Washington Post article — would fold its findings “into the efforts of two other law firms hired last week by the CBS board.” The Proskauer Rose report had been expected to be released this month.
Howard Stern castigated Leslie Moonves throughout his radio show Monday, recalling his run-ins with the CBS chief and gloating over the current investigation into him for alleged sexual harassment. “I know his true nature. He’s a shark,” Stern said on his SiriusXM radio show, adding that Moonves “had no humanity behind those shark eyes.”
“When he [Brad Kern] was not fired … it seemed to me that Les must be enabling this kind of behavior.”
CBS board members learned several months ago that the Los Angeles Police Department had investigated an alleged sexual assault by CBS Chairman and Chief Executive Leslie Moonves, according to two people familiar with the matter who were not authorized to speak publicly.
In a second meeting in three days, CBS’s directors hired two separate law firms to investigate claims of sexual harassment against embattled Chairman-CEO Les Moonves but once again stopped short of putting him on leave while the probe takes place.
Los Angeles prosecutors said on Tuesday that they had declined to pursue three accusations of sexual abuse against CBS Corp Chief Executive Les Moonves dating back to the 1980s because the statute of limitations had expired.
The company’s CEO will remain while it conducts an investigation of sexual misconduct charges against him, it said Monday. On Friday a New Yorker article quoted six women who accused Moonves of sexual misconduct over a span of three decades.
CBS said its board of directors is in the process of selecting outside counsel to conduct an independent investigation into the allegations facing Chairman-CEO Les Moonves. The board also postponed the annual shareholder meeting, which had been set for Aug. 10. The meeting had already been pushed back from May amid the legal war between CBS and shareholder National Amusements.
After a weekend of behind-the-scenes discussions, CBS board members on Monday are expected to decide how to respond to allegations that CEO Leslie Moonves sexually harassed women decades ago, according to several people familiar with the matter. The 14-member board already was planning to meet in a previously scheduled telephone conference call. But now, the group must decide how best to investigate explosive allegations that were contained in a story published by The New Yorker on Friday.
Cord-Cutting, OTT Embraced By CBS
On its earnings call, CEO Les Moonves is bullish on viewer choice and new subscription models, explaining that CBS makes more money per sub when the cord is cut. “Not only are we not affected as others are by cord-cutting, it has real measurable upside for us. This is what sets CBS apart from the pack.”
Reports of softening TV scatter pricing are false, CBS Corp. Chairman/CEO Les Moonves said Thursday on CNBC. He says the networks just came off a strong upfront that saw CPMs and volume up across the board.
“When ESPN announces that they’re losing subs, or Comcast announces they’re losing subs — that’s a good thing for CBS,” the CBS chief said Thursday morning at Goldman Sachs Communicopia. “These cord-cutters — they’re not disappearing. They’re not… cutting their cord and going into the woods and avoiding television. They’re just going to other services.” “For CBS, this is positive news,” Moonves explained.
CBS Corp. intends to launch a streaming-video sports outlet that will be more newsy and less focused on commentary programs, the company’s CEO Leslie Moonves said Thursday, while taking pains to demonstrate CBS’s business acumen compared to that of rivals like Walt Disney, Comcast, Netflix and 21st Century Fox.
The current NFL broadcast rights package isn’t due to expire until 2022, but Les Moonves has already resigned himself to the idea that the next bidding war will pit the networks against the likes of Google and Facebook. Speaking yesterday at the Deutsche Bank 2017 Media & Telecom Conference, the CBS Corp. chairman, president and CEO said that while a battle with the cash-rich digital overlords is all but inevitable, the NFL will very much remain a TV staple.
If it does, the CBS CEO tells analysts, the company would be interested in buying more stations to reap still more revenue from retransmission consent and political advertising.
Leslie Moonves holds the keys to the Redstone family’s $40-billion kingdom. The charismatic chairman and chief executive of CBS Corp. has emerged as the choice of controlling shareholders Shari and Sumner Redstone to lead a reunified CBS and Viacom Inc. — should the companies agree to merge.
Les Moonves, chairman and chief executive of CBS Corp., was upbeat about almost everything, as he faced the Goldman Sachs Communacopia conference in New York on Tuesday. Digital services are meeting or beating expectations. The network is solid. Retransmission disputes are put away, at least for the moment. And even political advertising is good.
Over-the-top video is the future of television, CBS Chief Executive Les Moonves said Thursday at the Cannes Lions advertising festival in France. Moonves, who successfully pushed cable TV providers to pay broadcast networks for carriage in the same way they do for cable channels, touted the company’s efforts to grow its own Web-delivered streaming service.
CBS reports that Leslie Moonves, its president, CEO and board chairman, had his 2015 pay dip from the prior year, but only by 0.7%, to $56.8 million. The decline was due to a drop in pension value. The top exec’s bonus declined quite a bit — as did his options — but Moonves’ stock numbers were there to offset those and most of the pension loss.
CBS All Access, the broadcaster’s online-only service that lets subscribers stream its live programming for $5.99 a month, may launch an ad-free option at a higher rate, the company’s CEO Les Moonves said Monday.
CBS Corp. CEO Leslie Moonves would become chairman of the broadcaster upon the death of Sumner Redstone under an agreement with Redstone’s daughter Shari, according to a person familiar with the situation. The arrangement lessens the potential for discord over succession at CBS after the death of Sumner Redstone, the 92-year-old billionaire who controls both CBS and Viacom Inc. and serves as chairman of both media companies.
CBS Corp. chief Leslie Moonves floated the possibility of an advertising-free version of CBS All Access and poured cold water on Apple TV’s plans to launch a cable-like channel package during his appearance Tuesday at the Business Insider conference in New York.
Les Moonves: Broadcast TV Doing Fine
The current TV season represents “a tipping point” for broadcasters with “no grand slam home runs out of the box” — but little to worry about — CBS chief Les Moonves said Monday. The bottom line, he said, is that “network television is still strong and still creates quality content.”
CBS Corp. President-CEO Leslie Moonves will serve as the keynote speaker at Variety‘s Dealmakers breakfast on Dec. 2 in Beverly Hills.
Nothing seems to fluster CBS chief Les Moonves, including New York’s new attack on two of his large sports advertisers: fantasy sports powers FanDuel and DraftKings. He said Wednesday morning that while New York’s attorney general issued a cease-and-desist order yesterday, “they are not out of business … yet.” And they “are not in the top class of advertisers” led by pharmaceutical and auto companies. “We like their money. We like their advertising. We want them to succeed. But this is not a monumental event for us.”
Moonves: CBS Retrans Rev To Pass $1B In ’16
Les Moonves says retrans/reverse comp will exceed $1 billion next year, ahead of schedule. And while declining to make projections on much else, he said CBS is on target to exceed the $2 billion in retrans/reverse comp originally forecast for 2020.
Some senior media executives are at odds about whether selling TV programs to Netflix, Amazon and other digital video platforms is good for business in the long term for content owners.
CBS: ‘Broadcast In Better Shape Than Cable’
CBS CEO Les Moonves tells analysts it will top $1 billion in retrans by 2017 and pass $2 billion by 2020. And if he remains bullish on broadcast, his enthusiasm bubbles over when it comes to digital. “Broadband offerings will continue to drive growth.”
