Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav believes “this is the strongest HBO has ever been” in its 53-year history, with a pop-culture mojo reminiscent of NBC’s “must-see TV” era.
Speaking to Wall Street analysts on WBD’s first-quarter earnings call, Zaslav saluted HBO and Max content chief Casey Bloys as a “generational talent,” noting his senior leadership team has been together for 15 years. Coming off the success of The White Lotus and the current quarter’s The Last of Us, WBD’s shareholder letter and earnings release prior to the call foregrounded HBO.
When an analyst lobbed a softball over the plate – asking, “how is HBO able to turn out so many standout hits like this?” – Zaslav pounced. “The idea of, it’s not how much, it’s how good is something we identified. We’re not going to flood the zone. We want to be telling the best stories and we want to also be taking advantage of all of the great quality content over the years, like Game of Thrones and come out with House of the Dragon.”
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WBD ended the quarter on March 31 with 122.3 million global streaming subscribers, an increase of 5.3 million over the prior quarter as it rolls out into new markets, recently launching in Australia and Turkey. The streaming growth was offset by notable declines in the traditional business, including an 11% year-over-year drop in linear advertising.
Zaslav, a onetime attorney whose journey up the media industry ladder began at NBC in 1989, said anticipation around each HBO episode drop recalled the “must-see TV” era at his alma mater. “HBO is a different model for storytelling” than Netflix, he said, without identifying the binge-release streamer by name. “We do it very similar to when I was at NBC with must-see TV, whether it’s Sunday night or Thursday night or Monday night, it becomes a cultural happening. … That’s part of a philosophy at this company of great storytelling with a shared experience.”
(For all of Zaslav’s nostalgic revisionism, the tenures of HBO leadership extend back to a very different time. Recent corporate parents, first AT&T and now WBD, differ in notable ways from the old Time Warner. Former Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes came up through HBO and structured the company in a way that protected the network from broader financial ebbs and flows. Even as it was forced to participate in the disastrous AOL merger, HBO was also reinventing TV with The Sopranos, Sex and the City, The Wire and other series.)
The week-by-week release strategy – which Bloys also advocated for this week at an L.A. conference – also “makes stars,” Zaslav said. “People feel that they really get to know people in a way that’s different than just watching eight episodes in eight hours on a Sunday afternoon.”
The exec continued, “More and more, that’s the future of Max, is quality, quality, quality. And that’s why I think we’re seeing a lot of the growth, and that’s why we think we have a great future.”