Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav Says “A Love For Working” Is What Will Resolve Ongoing WGA Strike

Matt Donnelly Senior Film Writer The upper deck at France’s Hotel Du-Cap-Eden-Roc offers a stunning coastal view of nearby city Cannes, the kind that Jay Gatsby would covet to peep Daisy Buchanan. On Tuesday, at one of the hottest parties at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, that view belonged to Graydon Carter. Standing alone with a female companion, the creator of the digital publication Air Mail and iconic former editor of Vanity Fair observed not a long-lost love but a cliffside full of movie stars, auteur directors and Hollywood power players. Carter’s Air Mail co-hosted an evening celebrating the 100-year anniversary of Warner Bros. Pictures, the latter represented by Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav and his top content lieutenants. Leonardo DiCaprio, Scarlett Johansson and Colin Jost, Robert De Niro, Martin Scorsese, Lily-Rose Depp, Sam Levinson, Jason Statham and Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Rebel Wilson and more turned up to toast cinema and each other.

John le Carre’s George Smiley would have spotted the tail immediately. He would have noticed the man with an earpiece far to his left move in lockstep with the chap to his right.

three pricing options to consumers: a $9.99 per month Max Ad Lite tier, a $15.99 per month Max Ad Free tier and a $19.99 Ultimate Ad Free tier, while continuing to offer a standalone version of the lower-cost Discovery+.Ahead of the launch, Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav said during the company’s May earning call that the company expects its streaming business in the U.S.

EXCLUSIVE: Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) is reviewing its TV commissioning and editorial strategy in the UK due to the tricky economic headwinds, Deadline understands.

Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav was met with heavy jeering while delivering a commencement speech at Boston University amidst the ongoing Writers Guild of America (WGA) strike in Hollywood.During the graduation ceremony at Boston University – where he received his law degree in 1985 – Zaslav was invited back to receive an honorary degree, as well as to deliver a commencement speech to the graduation cohort.Per reports from The Hollywood Reporter, the jeering began even before Zaslav’s speech, when he was being introduced. Throughout his 20-minute speech, Zaslav was met with loud, angry boos and chants including “pay your writers”, “we don’t want you here” and “shut up, Zaslav” in support of the ongoing strike.Footage of the boos and “pay your writers” chants were captured and shared on Twitter by striking Late Night with Seth Meyers writer Mike Scollins.

Amidst the rising tensions of the current Hollywood writer’s strike, Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav faced a storm of boos and angry chants as he took the stage to accept his honorary degree at the University of Boston’s commencement ceremony.

William Earl Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav felt the effect of the WGA strike while delivering a commencement speech at Boston University, getting jeered and facing chants of “pay your writers” while he was trying to speak. “Late Night with Seth Meyers” writer Mike Scollins posted a video of one moment during the address in which the chant was loud enough to make Zaslav pause in the middle of his speech. Scollins captioned the video “Zaslav getting hit with a Pay Your Writers chant in Boston. This is so good.”Zaslav getting hit with a Pay Your Writers chant in Boston. This is so good. pic.twitter.com/00pL4ahAqZ In a statement after the speech, Zaslav expressed gratitude to the university where he earned his law degree in 1985. He didn’t reference the Writers Guild of America strike at the commencement, but he did afterward.

Jeers and chants of “pay your writers” from picketers and a number of audience members greeted Warner Bros Discovery chief David Zaslav on Sunday as he delivered Boston University’s commencement address.

Warner Bros. CEO David Zaslav thinks consolidation is in the cards for streaming platforms, but not necessarily through traditional M&A. “There should be a consolidation, but it is more likely to happen in the repackaging and marketing of products together. That’s what I think makes sense. We have to, as industry, reach that point,” he said during a Q&A at a media conference today.

“Republicans are back on the air. Republicans weren’t on the air,” on CNN, Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav told a media conference Thursday as he said the storied brand is moving to become less of an “advocacy network” under new leadership.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav said CNN is rebuilding itself to be a news network that presents “both sides” of every issue rather than an “advocacy network” — comments coming as CNN continues to face a backlash over the town hall with Donald Trump last week. Zaslav, speaking at the MoffettNathanson Technology, Media and Telecom Conference in New York, said that previously the overall impression of CNN’s brand was “left-leaning.” That’s now changing, he said, citing a new YouGov poll finding an 11-point improvement in U.S. viewers’ trust in CNN. “Our view is, there’s advocacy networks on either side. We have the best journalists in the world. We need to show both sides of every issue,” he said.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Jeremy O. Harris is best known as the playwright of “Slave Play,” which picked up a record-setting 12 Tony Award nominations in 2021, but he’s also a producer on HBO’s Emmy-winning “Euphoria.” During an interview as part of Variety and Kering’s Women in Motion talks at Cannes, Harris called on Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav “to make a deal” so that the ongoing writers strike can end and “Euphoria” Season 3 can go into production as scheduled. “All I’ll say is Sam Levinson is not a scab,” Harris said about the “Euphoria” creator not crossing picket lines to go into production. “He’s not a scab. David Zaslav, make a deal. That’s what I’ll say about Season 3 of ‘Euphoria.’ Make a deal, David. It’s easy. Just come to that table.”

Fox unveiled its 2023/24 programming slate this morning and the writers strike was front and center.

Students at Boston University will have to cross a Writers Guild picket line to attend their May 21 graduation ceremony, where Warner Bros. Discovery President & CEO David Zaslav, an alumnus of the school, will be making the commencement address.

Stockholders have expressed serious displeasure with 2022 executive compensation at Warner Bros. Discovery led by CEO David Zaslav, according to the result of a vote at the annual meeting Monday that was filed with the SEC today.

Kristin Dolan, who took over earlier this year as CEO of AMC Networks, said the company is “very well positioned” to manage through the WGA strike.

Cynthia Littleton Business Editor David Zaslav and his team could be forgiven for sounding a little stressed on Warner Bros. Discovery’s Q1 earnings call. The company’s numbers were pretty grim for a CEO who prizes his free cash flow. The Warner Bros. Discovery chief was fired up about a number of issues affecting the studio behind the shield, and he fired off verbal volleys, pop culture quotes and metaphors, invoking everything from military terminology to Formula 1 racing to “The Blues Brothers.” But the liveliest moment of the hourlong conference call with Wall Street analysts was Zaslav’s discussion of subscriber churn rates and how they differ between HBO Max and Discovery+, the two streamers that are set to be married and relaunch as a joint product dubbed Max on May 23.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav responded to the writers strike following the release of the company’s Q1 earnings report Friday, shooting down claims that some companies are “glad” that the the Writers Guild of America (WGA) is picketing instead of writing. “We’re not glad,” Zaslav said during an interview on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” on Day 4 of the writers strike. “In order to create great storytelling, we need great writers, and we need the whole industry to work together,” the WBD chief said. “And everybody deserves to be paid fairly. So our number one focus is, let’s try and get this resolved. Let’s do it in a way that that the writers feel that they’re valued, which they are, and they’re compensated fairly. And then off we go. Let’s tell great stories together.”

Warner Bros Discovery CEO David Zaslav has said the company’s U.S. streaming operation is “no longer bleeding” after it posted a $50M profit for Q1 this year. “It’s harder to run a business when you have a big bleeder,” he told investors on an earnings call minutes ago.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Warner Bros. Discovery posted a first-quarter loss, buffeted not only by the dynamics of streaming video that are eroding traditional media-industry economics, but also by charges related to the 2022 merger that created the company out of the former WarnerMedia and Discovery Inc. The owner of HBO, TNT and the Discovery Channel said its loss of $1.069 billion included $1.81 billion of “acquisition-related intangible assets and $95 million of pre-tax restructuring expenses.” The company also indicated that the debt it took on to finance the merger was affecting its financials. Warner Bros. Discovery had $836 million of “semi-annual interest payments largely attributable to merger-related debt that overwhelmed its cash flow.