Hello, I'm Kirstie Young, and this is a podcast from the Desert Island Discs archive.

For rights reasons, we've had to shorten the music.

The program was originally broadcast in 1999, and the presenter was Sue Lolly. My castaway this week is a businessman, he's one of the moguls of British television,

chairman of a company that operates several ITV franchises, owns production and facilities companies,

and has extensive interests abroad.

He left school with three O-levels,

went into business with his brother,

and bit by bit built up the network

that has made him a powerful force in the media.

The digital age has brought him his greatest challenge yet and he

staked much of his reputation and quite a lot of money on its future

development. But one facet of his personality may turn out to be his secret weapon.

Only the paranoid survive in business, he says.

The other guy is going to come up and eat you unless you run fast.

He is the chairman of Cult and Communications, Michael Green. So are you paranoid enough to survive, Michael?

Yes.

Can you stop Rupert Murdoch running up and eating you up digitally?

I don't think you can stop Rupert Murdoch or people like Rupert Murdoch and I have huge admiration

for what he's achieved as a businessman. We are entering a completely new world where there is going to be

more choice for everybody in television. I believe that's a good thing. I believe

that there will be more than one supplier

I think what people are doing now is it's a bit like a land rush they're trying to

...