David Zaslav Warns Creating Content material At “Any Price Is Over” However Says “Golden Age” Is Nonetheless Alive & Kicking – Deadline

“The grand experiment of making one thing at any value is over,” warned David Zaslav.

However the President and CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery believes that the “golden age of content material” is “completely not over”.

This comes as Zaslav revealed plans to boost its financial savings goal to $3.5B, up $500M over its preliminary goal.

The brand new homeowners of HBO et al. have been chopping content material prices throughout the corporate, killing quite a lot of high-profile collection resembling J.J. Abrams’ HBO drama collection Demimonde, which was reported to have a finances of mid-$200M, in addition to slashing collection resembling The Massive D, Chad and others on the Turner networks aspect.

It has additionally acquired HBO Max out of the fact enterprise and killed its youngsters and younger adults content material on the streamer.

“I used to be lately requested if I assumed the golden age of content material was over. I mentioned completely not. There’s nothing extra vital than content material, individuals consuming extra content material than they ever have. Nevertheless it needs to be nice content material. It’s now not about how a lot,” he mentioned.  

He highlighted collection and films resembling Home of the Dragon, Euphoria, The Batman, Harry Potter, Pals and The Massive Bang Concept.

He additionally mentioned that the “technique to collapse all home windows, begin linear and theatrical and spend cash with abandon, whereas making a fraction in return… is deeply flawed”.

Zaslav reiterated plans to spend greater than its ever accomplished and addressed the write-downs and removals of quite a lot of collection from HBO Max together with scripted collection resembling Camping, Mrs. Fletcher, Run and Vinyl and actuality collection resembling Ellen’s Subsequent Nice Designer and Technology Hustle in addition to a slew of animated collection.

“All these write offs… we didn’t take one showcase a platform that’s going to assist us in any approach,” he mentioned.