10 Things You Didn't Know about Liberty Media CEO Greg Maffei

Greg Maffei is the American businessman who is responsible for running Liberty Media’s routine operations. This is but one of his numerous roles in the business world, so it should come as no surprise to learn that he possesses enormous expertise and experience when it comes to his chosen field

1. Lives in Colorado

Currently, Greg Maffei lives in the state of Colorado. This makes perfect sense because he is responsible for running Liberty Media, which has its headquarters situated in Colorado’s Douglas County. It is interesting to note that Douglas County is situated between Denver and Colorado Springs with the result that it is the state’s single richest region.

2. Has Set Up the Maffei Family Foundation

It is interesting to note that Maffei has set up the Maffei Family Foundation, which is responsible for overseeing he and the rest of his family’s philanthropic efforts. Primarily, the Maffei Family Foundation seems to be interested in the field of education, meaning support for schools as well as other educational organizations. However, the Maffei Family Foundation offers support for health-related causes and Denver-focused organizations as well.

3. Seems to Focus on K-12 Education When It Comes to Philanthropic Efforts

In particular, it is worth mentioning that the Maffei Family Foundation’s support for educational causes seems to be focused on K-12 education rather than higher education. Some examples of this support can be seen in financial grants for various schools as well as scholarships for students from poorer backgrounds.

4. Has to Take a Broader View Than Most

On the whole, Maffei has a take a broader view than most. This is because Liberty Media has ownership stakes in numerous companies, with the result that it is involved in everything from cable systems to both the music industry and the sports industry. As a result, Maffei can’t focus on a single media sector but instead needs to consider a number of them at the same time, which makes for a very different set of challenges compared to those of CEOs who are running companies that either fall into a single field of specialization or are so concentrated in nature that they might as well as be.

5. Not Super-Enthused About Content Creation At the Moment

Maffei has voiced sentiments in recent times that make it clear that he isn’t super-enthused about content creation at the moment, according to NBC News. Essentially, the issue is that content creators have to invest enormous sums of money into their projects in order to get good results out of them. Unfortunately, most of their revenues come from a combination of advertising and affiliate fees on cable TV, which has been hammered by Netflix as well as other sources of disruption.

6. Suspects that Netflix Could Come Out on Top Anyways

Naturally, Maffei has commented on the struggle between Netflix and the new entrants into the streaming market as well. For those who are unfamiliar, a number of media companies have chosen to launch streaming services of their own rather than continue their partnerships with existing streaming services. Since Netflix leads the pack, Netflix is the target to beat. In Maffei’s opinion, Netflix is going up against bigger and better-established companies, but it can still call on a better monetization scheme, which is a huge advantage to say the least. As such, while it isn’t a sure thing, he thinks that Netflix has a reasonable chance of coming out on top in the end.

7. Believes that Streaming Services Will Become Bidders For Sports Rights

Speaking of which, Maffei has said that he believes that the biggest streaming services will become bidders for sports rights in the future. This is relevant to his responsibilities because a fair amount of Liberty Media’s value is sunk into sports organizations, meaning that Maffei could very well wind up working with streaming services should his prediction prove to be true. With that said, considering the way that streaming services are prospering as well as how the nature of streaming services lets interested individuals watch whatever they want whenever they want, there are excellent reasons to believe that Maffei will be proven right sooner rather than later.

8. Expects a Bidding War For Sports Rights

With that said, Maffei isn’t expecting streaming services to enter the competition for sports rights in a peaceful manner. Instead, he fully expects there to be ferocious competition between traditional platforms and their not so traditional counterparts, particularly since the traditional platforms are going to want the sports rights for their other platforms as well. Of course, this is a good thing for the people who can sell sports rights to interested parties because more competition tends to mean higher prices.

9. Predicted that Disney Wanted Hulu

In May of 2018, Maffei expressed the opinion that Disney wanted to buy out Fox because it was going for Hulu, which was co-owned by Disney, Fox, and Comcast. As it turns out, Maffei’s prediction seems to have been on-target, seeing as how Disney and Comcast made a deal in very recent times that gives Disney full control over Hulu in exchange for relatively minor concessions. As such, it seems safe to say that Hulu does indeed have an important role to play in Disney’s overall streaming ambitions

10. Hasn’t Hesitated About Buying Into Troubled Brands

Curiously, Liberty Media under Maffei hasn’t hesitated to buy into troubled brands, as shown by its ownership stakes in the music industry. To a considerable extent, this seems to have been motivated by Maffei’s belief that the music industry is going through a restructuring, which presumably means that these troubled brands won’t always remain troubled brands.

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