For more than four decades, Barry Diller has played a prominent role in redefining the television industry. Widely regarded as both an Innovative programmer and an expert dealmaker, Diller’s influence on the media industries has been widely felt. Among his impressive list of accomplishments, he has helped develop new television formats, launched the careers of several leading executives including Michael Eisner and Jeffrey Katzenberg, and created a viable fourth network, FOX, which went on to challenge the dominance of American Broadcast Company (ABC) and the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS),  and the National Broadcasting Company (NBC).

Diller began his career in 1961, when he dropped out of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), and began work in the mail room of the William Morris agency. He moved up the ranks quickly, becoming an assistant and then Junior agent for the talent firm. In 1966, he began his first job in the television industry as an assistant to Leonard Goldberg at ABC. At the age of 26, he became head of programming, responsible for negotiating with the major studios for broadcast rights to feature films.

In 1969, Diller inaugurated ABC’s Movie of the Week, a regular series of 90-minute films made exclusively for television. Made-for-television movies (MFTs) had aired sporadically since the mid 1960s; however, it was with Dillard's influence that they became a regular fixture on ABC’s schedule. Under his supervision, MTFs focused increasingly on social issues, such as homosexuality (That Certain Summer, 1972), the Vietnam War ( The Ballad of Andy Crocker, 1969), and drugs (Go Ask Alice, 1973). In addition to providing a huge ratings boost to ABC, MFTs could be produced quickly and cheaply. A typical program was made for approximately 350,000– and often fared better in the Nielsen ratings than a theatrically released film.

      Diller remained at ABC throughout the early 1970s, moving up to become vice president of entertainment. In addition to his supervision of MFTs, Diller also became involved in the development of the network’s miniseries. Prior to his departure from ABC in 1974, he approved the production of the ambitious courtroom drama QB VII. Shortly thereafter,  Diller moved on to become chair of Paramount Pictures, where he'd supervised the studio’s film and television divisions.

During his ten years at the Gulf 1 Western subsidiary Paramount Pictures, Diller managed a studio operating at its peak. Diller and his top-rate executive staff– which included Jeffrey Katzenberg, Don Simpson, and Michael Eisner– generated an impressive list of critical and commercial successes, including  Saturday Night Fever (1977), Grease (1978),  Star Trek (1979),  Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), Reds, (1981),  Terms of Endearment (1983), and  Beverly Hills Cop (1984). The company had an equally remarkable string of television hits; its programming included  Laverne and Shirley (1976-83), Taxi (1978-83), Family Ties (1982-89), and Cheers (1982-93).

Following the death of Gulf 1 Western’s head, Charles Bluhdorn, and the ascension of Martin S. Davis, Diller left Paramount to become chair of 20th Century-Fox. On arriving at FOX, Diller found the studio to be a financial mess. Matters were worsened by the unwillingness of the company's owner, Marvin Davis ( no relation to Martin), to put the necessary funds back into the studio. dealer subsequently turned to Australian newspaper mogul Rupert Murdoch for financial support; Murdoch ultimately assumed full ownership of the studio in 1985. 

With Murdoch's backing, Diller not only put the studio back on solid financial ground but also spearheaded the company's launch of a fourth broadcast network. Whereas Gulf 1 Western had previously blocked Dillard's effort to create a fourth network, Murdoch enthusiastically provided him with the means to buy major Network television stations, recruit experienced executives, and compensate top creative figures. Though the new network’s early years were bumpy, by the time Diller left the company in February 1992, the FOX network had become competitive with the “Big Three.” With younger-skewing hit programs such as In Living Color, Married…with Children, and The Simpsons, Fox had  successfully branded itself as the “alternative” network.

Despite the fact that he was the only executive at the time to oversee both a movie studio and a television network, ultimately Diller wanted more. Shortly after his 50th birthday, he left FOX to become an entrepreneur who owned his “own store.” Diller spent the next several months traveling across the United States, visiting with numerous Executives from computer, cable and high-tech firms. His travels ended with his arrival at home shopping channel QVC, where he invested $25 million and became chair of the company. Tough publicly professing his newfound faith in the future of “transactional” television, his own business transactions were repeatedly aborted during his time at QVC. First,  antitrust concerns haltedHis effort to merge QVC and the Home Shopping Network (HSN),  and then Viacom outbid him for Paramount. Diller’s reign at QVC ended in the summer of 1994 after he was unable to  complete a sale of his new company to CBS because of objections by key QVC investors.

His next venture into home shopping would prove to be much more enduring. In August 1995, Diller started the lengthy process of building his Next Media Company by becoming a 20 percent equity partner– and head– of HSN. In this new position, he also controlled Silver King Communications, a group of UHF and low-power television stations.

Although the initial holdings of HSN were relatively limited, Diller quickly  began acquiring and interest in a variety of media companies, including Savoy Pictures Entertainment, the Internet Shopping Network, and Ticketmaster. A series of relatively minor purchases culminated with a major deal with Seagram's chief executive officer, Edgar Bronfman, in the fall of 1997. Through a series of complicated exchanges of assets and cash, Dillard's company acquired Seagram's television holdings, including the Universal television production arm and the USA and Sci-Fi cable channels. Seagram retained a 45 percent interest in the newly formed operation, which was called USA Networks. In discussing his rationale for making the deal, Bronfman explained that it was “the only way I could be in business with Barry Diller.”

At the Helm of USA Networks,  Diller continued to explore the relationship that could be forged between broadcasting and cable, production and distribution, and new media and old. He repeatedly spoke of the need for a fresh business model for media in which revenue would be generated from a combination of advertisements, subscriptions, and direct sales. Recognizing the increasing fragmentation of the marketplace, he sought to develop brands that could be promoted across a number of different media holdings. In television, his vision was realized with the Universal-produced  Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. Original episodes of the program aired on NBC and then were re-aired less than two weeks later on the USA cable channel.

Dillard's involvement with USA proved profitable. In 2001, Vivendi acquired Universal from Seagram, thereby assuming the 45 percent stake in USA Networks. Then, in December 2001, Diller sold back the Universal assets to Vivendi for $10.3 billion, thereby getting back more than double the amount he had originally paid. Despite Diller’s earlier declarations that he would never work for anyone again, he continued to remain on Vivendi’s payroll, serving as chief executive of the newly formed Vivendi Universal Entertainment. At the same time, he also remained in control of his own company, what was rechristened USA InteractiveAnd focused almost exclusively on accumulating Internet assets.

The relationship between Diller and Vivendi-Universal became more complex as Vivendi faced mounting financial difficulties. Management shake-ups at Vivendi led  Diller to assume the title of interim chief executive officer during late 2002. He retained this position until March 2003, when he resigned to focus on USA Interactive (which was then renamed InterActiveCorp). His involvement with Universal continued indirectly, as InterActive held a 5.4 percent stake in its assetsAnd Diller personally held a 1.5 percent interest.

As of early 2003, Diller has departed from the television industry, only to emerge as a vocal critic of its trade practices. He issued a general call for regulation as a means of combating what he perceived to be excessive media concentration. In addition, Diller argued for the return of the financial interest and syndication rules– the very rules that he had been integral in helping eliminate during his time at FOX in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

With television behind him, Diller attended to building InterActive, which continued to expand its role in information and services, e-commerce, and travel-oriented online properties. By developing such holdings as Expedia, Hotels.com, Match.com, CitySearch, and Lending Tree, InterActive ranked first growth among Fortune 500 companies– surpassing Amazon.com, eBay, and Yahoo! in revenue and standing as one of the few online companies to consistently turn a profit.