The Hollywood Reporter interviewed Sumner Redstone today on the dramatic changes underway at Viacom of late. The dismissal, first, of Tom Cruise and now of CEO Tom Freston points to an aggressive and creative effort of Redstone to respond to changing technology in the industry. In the interview Redstone sidesteps, smartly, questions about Cruise and, of course, sheds tears about losing Freston. But business pressures won out and those clearly dictate a shift away from star dominated product to new forms of digital delivery.

The connection may not be immediately clear, but the fact that Viacom lost out on the battle to purchase MySpace (which went to the Aussie who dominates American entertainment) clearly lies behind the change. MySpace is emblematic of the potential of new digital consumer driven platforms for entertainement and media products. Those products are likely to be shorter than today’s feature films and may not be simply the vehicles for a handful of stars like Tom Cruise or Tom Hanks as many films have been of late.

Of course, getting this right is no easy task and the new dual leadership has something to prove to Wall Street which rewarded the announcement by dumping Viacom stock. This is ironic since the new leaders, Dauman and Dooley, have been running an investment firm for the last few years.