Warner Bros. Discoveryand its besieged CEODavid Zaslavfinally have reason to celebrate in 2024.
Unlike asimilar deal between Charter and Disneya year ago, no WBD networks were left without carriage.
Deals are often called win-win.
Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David ZaslavJamie McCarthy/Getty Images
This one might be.
The combined payout for all channels rose versus the current deal, he said.
And all of our channels are carried.
Darius Morris of the Los Angeles Lakers blocks shot by Monta Ellis of Milwaukee Bucks in 2024 NBA gameHarry How/Getty Images
There were no channels that were dropped.
The loss of the NBA in part prompteda massive $9 billion write-downof linear television assets.
Speculation swirled that an activist investor, a la Nelson Peltz, would pounce.
Well, Malone is on both sides of the equation here, noted Rich Greenfield of Lightshed Partners.
The cable pioneer is a big investor in both Charter and WBD.
Zaslavs compensation packages, occasional tone-deafness and penchant foraxing creative projectshavent endeared him to Hollywood rank and file.
I have tried to tell him.
Pols have piped up as well.
There doesnt seem to have been any action on that.
Most of the financial indicators coming out of Warner Bros.
Discovery have been negative, Castro tells Deadline.
The stock price … they have laid off thousands of employees.
Theyve dumped content for tax purposes.
They have shuttered different platforms.
The only thing that has flourished is the CEOs pay.
Yes, Wall Street has been less than thrilled with Zaslav and WBD of late.
Would affiliate fees drop dramatically at TNT and Turner more broadly?
Could there even be a loss of carriage?
So far so good.
Turner/TNT has had rights to broadcast NBA games since 1989 and started streaming them on Max last year.
Warner sued the NBA.
No one really sees a victory.
WBD will contribute Max with ads, and Discovery+ expands the Max footprint.
Here, only the first is guaranteed to have the NBA.
The Charter agreement takes that uncertainty into account.
The terms were better than investors were expecting, said Greenfield.
Another question lingering after the Thursday renewal is whether it provided a template for WBDs upcoming negotiations.
Wall Street thinks it does.
But, as per the currentbattle between DirecTV and Disney, nothing is sure.
These deals are never easy, WBD chief financial officer Gunnar Wiedenfels noted at a media conference last week.
Anthony DAlessandro contributed to this report.
