An Electronics Show That Media Companies Dare Not Miss

When the Consumer Electronics Show officially starts on Jan 6, media moguls like Rupert Murdoch and Jeffrey Bewkes will be inspecting new tablets and Internet-connected television sets and meeting with allies and partners like Google and Verizon. They will be discussing new ways to distribute content — always with an eye toward maintaining control over it. The show’s status as a media summit meeting has risen in the last few years, as has the realization that device makers can help their products stand out by cutting deals with content makers.

“So many of our devices rely on the content that’s coming from Hollywood,” said Karen Chupka, a senior vice president for the electronics association. And even the simplest deal to, say, display a 3-D football game on a set at Best Buy requires handshakes and contracts.