Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav said Donald Trump‘s re-election as president and Republican control of Congress bode well for media M&A.
“We have an upcoming new administration,” the exec noted during WBD’s quarterly earnings call Thursday. “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. These are great companies. If the best content is going to win, there needs to be some consolidation in order to have these businesses be stronger and have a better consumer experience.”
Zaslav’s comments came after WBD reported third-quarter results with streaming growth offset by a Barbie-less film slate. He spoke with the fervor of someone who not only commands a major media company but who has also fumbled with a remote control in the living room.
“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.”
Not only, he continued, is the current setup “just not a good consumer experience – it’s not sustainable. There probably should have been more meaningful consolidation. … and you’re starting to see it now. You’re starting to see fairly large players saying, ‘Hey, maybe I should be part of you or maybe I should be a part of somebody else.’”
Against this backdrop of “generational disruption,” in Zaslav’s words, WBD has kept its assets intact, unlike rivals like Comcast and Paramount. The former is exploring a spinoff of its cable network assets and the latter has a pending merger in place with Skydance Media.
Discovery, which Zaslav ran for 15 years before combining it with WarnerMedia in 2022, had earlier acquired Scripps Networks Interactive, bringing unscripted networks like HGTV and Food Network into the fold.
