New York--CBS is in a good enough position elsewhere in the company that it no longer needs to spend on sports properties that are loss leaders, according to president and CEO Leslie Moonves.
"We are no longer going to bid for loss leaders, we don't need to do that," he said. "We don't need to invest in something we will lose money on to help [other parts of the business]."
Moonves made the comments at the 2010 Broadcasting & Cable/Multichannel News OnScreen Media Summit at the Marriott Marquis in New York Thursday.
He also said that at the prices NBC Universal spent in its last deal, CBS will have little interest in acquiring the next round of Olympics.
"Not at the prices they seem to be going for," he said.
Moonves noted that the recent partnership with Turner Sports to split the NCAA basketball package pushed the division into the black.
"When we had the NCAA tournament [the sports division was not profitable], but now the CBS sports division is profitable because of that deal. We were looking at sizeable loss [on the NCAA deal], which is why we reached out. It sort of saves our bacon for the NCAA. But our other sports are doing fine. We wish Tiger Woods would come back, that's very helpful for us. We wish the U.S. Open [tennis championships] wouldn't rain out every year."
