The most-awaited mega-merger of WarnerMedia and Discovery holds the capability to transform the media grounds drastically. David Zaslav, Discovery CEO, is making news as he is busy setting up the executive suite and has hinted toward layoffs in the new company.
Many WarnerMedia executives, CEO Jason Kilar, CFO Jennifer Biry, chief Ann Sarnoff, and CTO Richard Tom, have departed recently.
From a memo received by The Wall Street Journal, Zaslav mentioned that departures will assist the company in removing the “unnecessary roadblocks.” It would also lead to Zaslav having more power over the company as compared to his counter-partner.
HBO Max, CNN, Warner Bros, and TV Group, including others, will directly work under Zaslav.
Streaming & Measurement:
Bringing in the latest streaming model in a competitive market is a challenge Zaslav is taking up with influential content roles and streaming moves.
He has declared agendas to combine HBO Max and Discovery Plus services into one, unlike other multiple streaming product companies, who offer these as a bundle.
Thanks to WarnerMedia’s film franchise, Discovery now enjoys the perks of profitable films like Batman” and “Harry Potter.” Although “Batman” will soon debut on HBO Max, it was a grand success for WarnerMedia with great earnings at the US Box office.
CNN will also be a part of Discovery’s services. CNN has recently launched CNN+, a streaming service. But the new service has not been able to gather good numbers, and also, Zaslav does not wish to further delay the launch because of upending the organizational structure.
Discovery will soon enjoy the benefits of the merged HBO Max and Discovery Plus and other offerings in the film and streaming division. It now has the advantage of reaching a wide range of audiences to engage advertising agencies.
Along with the ad-support tier in HBO Max, Zaslav has indicated that there could be even more in the company’s streaming choices.
WarnerMedia has declared testing for a few new measurement substitutes that could raise the benchmark for the tv measurement field and make it a giant player.
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Source: Economic Times