WBD’s David Zaslav Optimistic About Industry Consolidation After Trump Election
Zaslav has been banging the consolidation drum for some time, and thinks the election results could allow for more.
While the reactions to the election of Donald Trump as the next president of the United States have varied across the country, they have been far more positive from media executives. While many are looking forward to the loosening of regulatory restrictions and oversight, Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav is cautiously optimistic about the impact that Trump’s second term could have on the industry. Zaslav had the chance to speak during the company’s conference call regarding its third-quarter earnings report on Thursday and shared his thoughts on how the election of Trump could aid in the furthering of one of his most cherished goals: the consolidation of big media and entertainment companies.
Key Details:
- Zaslav says the results of the election could create a “pace of change” for media consolidation.
- The executive pointed to a consumer experience packed with different apps and services.
- WBD pursued an acquisition of Paramount earlier this year, though nothing came of it in the end.
Zaslav went into great detail regarding his thoughts on media consolidation on Thursday, echoing previous statements he's made about the need for media companies to merge their streaming offerings and other entertainment efforts in order to make the experience less confusing for customers.
“I’ve been saying for a long time that this is an industry that really needs to meaningfully consolidate,” he said. “It’s really driven by the consumer experience. Consumers put on their TV set and they see 16 apps and each of those is doing different pricing, you’re sitting there with your phone and Googling where a show is or where a sport is. You’re going from one to another, and there are so many.”
The pro-business philosophy espoused by Trump could lead to fewer protests from the Department of Justice at merger and acquisition attempts across the entertainment industry, in Zaslav’s eyes.
“We have an upcoming new administration,” Zaslav said. “It’s too early to tell, but it may offer a pace of change and an opportunity for consolidation that may be quite different, that would provide a real positive and accelerated impact on this industry that’s needed.”
Zaslav has tried to put his money where his mouth is in recent years, to varying degrees of success. The merger of WarnerMedia and Zaslav’s Discovery in 2022 was a big win, but more recently WBD's efforts to combine with Paramount came to naught earlier this year.
WBD is also one of three companies that lent its cable sports channels to the Venu Sports joint venture, along with Disney and Fox. That service was aimed at delivering customers a skinny channel bundle focused only on popular sports networks like ESPN, FS1 and TNT. That service is currently bound by a preliminary injunction as part of an antitrust lawsuit brought by Fubo, but perhaps Trump’s Department of Justice will be less supportive of Fubo’s arguments than the Biden administration’s has been.
Even Zaslav doesn’t have a crystal ball to peer into, but he may be correct in his assumption that the oncoming administration will allow for more media consolidation than has been seen in recent years. That could create a simplified consumer experience, but it may also lead to customers having fewer entertainment choices.
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