Posted in: HBO, Opinion, streaming, TV, TV | Tagged: hbo max, opinion, warner bros discovery, wbd

Warner Bros. Discovery: No Need to Double-Down on Creator Disrespect

If you had a chance to check out Warner Bros. Discovery's Q3 earnings call on Thursday, then you know that we learned a whole bunch of things, including how WBD head David Zaslav needs to do his homework when it comes to "franchise math." But that wasn't even close to the good, the bad, and the head-scratching that came out of the company update. If you're a streaming junkie, then you'll be happy to know that HBO Max & Discovery+ will be merging this spring instead of Summer 2023. If you care about human beings, then it sucks to hear that WBD is increasing its cuts by another $500M (now $3.5B) because we've already seen where those cuts are going to come from. If you're DC Studios co-heads James Gunn & Peter Safran, you're happy because Zaslav had nothing but great things to say about your shared "powerful vision and blueprint that will drive a more unified and creative approach." And if you're a fan of "Superman," "The Lord of the Rings," "Harry Potter," or other big-name franchises & IPs like those, then you're definitely happy because Zaslav wants more… more… more! But if you're not a J.K. Rowling fan based on social media posts regarding the trans community & trans women that have resulted in the author being accused of being a transphobe? Well, you're definitely not happy because Zaslav sounded like he was looking to put to rest any rumblings of tension between Rowling and WBD with a public invite to Rowling for more "Harry Potter" films.

But the one thing that stuck out to me the most was Zaslav's comments about the programming that's been canceled or pulled or seen their series orders killed as a way for WBD to clean up a lot of financial mess. "Casey Bloys [HBO Chief Content Officer] was able to look at all the content on HBO, and when 37 series went away… He was able to look over the last year and a half, what are people watching and what are they not watching. Where are people spending time? Where are they being nourished? We have the ability to look at across our cable channels, what are we spending on shows and where are they working, and where are we getting a good return," Zaslav explained. That makes sense, right? And then it went off the rails in such a cliched way that you would expect Zaslav to be twirling a long mustache as he said it and ending it with a "BWA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA!"

"All those write-offs that we took… shows off these platforms… we didn't take one show off a platform that was going to help us in any way. It's going to help us to get it off the platform so that we can now invest, with the knowledge of what is working, and replace those shows with content that has a chance to be more successful, have a larger audience… and we're reallocating the capital," the WBD head added. Look, however true or not true that might be, is it possible to find a hundred other better ways to phrase it than basically, "we got rid of you because you were a waste"? Because getting canceled, getting pulled, or being used as a tax write-off is what every creator truly aspires to. So with that shit already screwing up everyone's Corn Flakes, what's the point of sprinkling on more shit? So Zaslav can show that he's "Mr. No-Nonsense"? So maybe… in the future? How about WBD consider having Zaslav sit on the sidelines for future earnings calls and letting Gunn or Bloys run the show? Because after a week or so of "good tidings" online, Zaslav did nothing to advance WBD's cause. 

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