MUMBAI: At a recently held investor conference US media conglomerate Time Warner chairman and CEO Richard Parsons says that the firm is looking at acquiring net properties.

Media reports state that Parsons is looking to stregthen its ad position. Warner is said to be looking at firms that offer technology that allow for ad insertion. The etchnology that Warbner is looking for lets companies place ads that are relevant to a particular viewer's tastes.

Parsons acknowleged that 2006 has not been a good year as far as films are concerned. However he is optimistic that things will be different next year with films like Harry Potter And The Order Of the Phoenix, Oceans 13 set for release. He hinted that there may a small reduction in the number of films made.

As far as television is concerned he notes that the challenge is to ride the wave of technology, as opposed to getting too far in front or lagging behind. "Television viewing is still going up. So this business is not going away tomorrow. We want to maintain our strength in that business. We’re realigning so that we have a digital production studio, so to speak, so that things produced for television can find their way to other purely digital platforms."

Parsons also noted that it is unfortunate that a war should be taking place in the HD DVD arena. This he says is leading to confusion. The war is between Sony which is championing the cause of Blu Ray and Toshiba which is fighting for HD DVD.

Parsons was quoted in reports saying that the releases for movies for platforms could be affected if current efforts to allow customers to download movies and then burn them on DVDs gain traction.

At the same time he maintains that the download-to-burn idea, which needs to be worked out carefully with existing distributors of movies such as retailers in order to succeed.