Discovery CEO Zaslav: Discovery Won’t Offer a Direct-To-Consumer Bundle, But Keeping Options Open

For the last few years, there has been speculation that Discovery may launch their own skinny bundle of channels like Discovery, Food Network, and HGTV. In an interview with CNBC, Discovery CEO David Zaslav put a temper on those plans, at least for now.

When asked about the possibility of a bundle, Zaslav said, “Look, I think everything is on the table. The interesting moment for us is that everybody on the entertainment side needs more content. So, we’re talking to each of the major players about — they’ve been talking to us whether we want to provide more or some content to them. And for now, we’ve decided not to.”

By deciding to not create or license content to other services, it at least opens the possibility to build their own streaming service. Zaslav feels that the company is differentiated from other players in the direct-to-consumer space because they own almost all of their content globally. “For now, what we’re doing is we’re watching the seven or eight great media companies that are fighting over entertainment, whether that’s HBO or Showtime or Disney Plus or Netflix, they’re all doing entertainment scripted and movies. So, we see ourselves as differentiated.”

At last for the foreseeable future, they will focus on creating niche SVOD services, like their recently launched Food Network Kitchen, in the food or home categories. “We think we can either go individually, with food and home and Oprah and Chip and Jo and Crime. Or we could aggregate here in the U.S. And we’ll look over the next year and determine what we want to do,” said Zaslav.