Warner Bros. Discovery Chief David Zaslav Vows Not to Overspend to Compete in Streaming Wars
26.04.2022 - 18:50
/ thewrap.com
the Q1 earnings were released. “As you’ve heard me say, we are not trying to win the direct-to-consumer spending war,” the WBD chief said, instead promising that the newly combined WarnerMedia-Discovery company would “invest in scale smartly.”He already made the first difficult choice within the first week after Discovery closed its $43 billion acquisitor of the larger WarnerMedia: Zaslav, notorious in the industry for being a no-nonsense cost-cutter, decided to close down the much-hyped CNN+.
The announcement just three weeks after news streamer’s launch sent shockwaves throughout CNN and the rest of the former Warner businesses about how deep Zaslav will cut. He’s already promising some $3 billion off cost savings that many analysts predict will come from slashing the company’s staff, which consists of 30,000 people.
The company had previously pledged $1 billion into developing CNN+ over the next several years, which represents about a third of WBD’s cost-saving goal.WarnerMedia had already spent some $300 million on the CNN streaming service. However, CNN+ was only able to muster about 150,000 subscribers, a shockingly low number considering the channel’s reach.Streaming investments are expected to exceed $230 billion in 2021 as companies like Disney, Netflix, Comcast’s NBCUniversal and others expand streaming platforms around the world, according to British research firm Ampere Analysis.In the report, Ampere notes that investments increased by 14% compared to 2020, representing an increase of more than $20 billion.
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