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Welcome back to What I’m Hearing+, live from Manhattan, where I’m on my way to catch George Miller’s Furiosa in Imax, my preferred format. Yes, I tend to go to movies midweek, when prices are lower. But the experience always reminds me of Sony Pictures chairman Tom Rothman’s argument that studios are hastening the destruction of theaters by offering them fewer movies, which forces them to jack up prices to account for the loss in volume. Not great!
On a more positive note, yesterday I exchanged notes with my colleague and sports media prophet John Ourand in his fantastic private email, The Varsity. We talked about Netflix and Amazon streaming ambitions, the under-discussed role of Google, and the fate of Warner Bros. Discovery without the NBA. (If you haven’t already, add John to your media diet here.)
Tonight, I’m offering more thoughts on that final topic. David Zaslav obviously wants the NBA, as my partner Bill Cohan noted yesterday. But, given WBD’s mountainous $39 billion in debt, and rival NBCUniversal and Amazon bids for rights, Zaz must plan for life without the league. Tonight, I put a little structure around that decision architecture and answer related questions, namely: What happens if WBD loses out on those rights, and does Zaslav need the NBA as badly as many think?
But first…
- 💼 A personal WIH+ update: Longtime readers know I also have a day job as head of Parrot IQ and V.P. of strategy at Parrot Analytics. Well, perhaps inevitably, I’m changing things up and will be taking a full-time role at...
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| Zaz’s NBA Silver Lining Playbook |
| So far, Warner Discovery’s sports strategy is having “just enough” content to work with partners, negotiate with cable carriers, demand market share, and pay down debt. So what should David Zaslav do if he loses the NBA and “just enough” becomes “not enough”? |
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| Last week, during an appearance on The Dan Patrick Show, Charles Barkley spoke for all the David Zaslav truthers when he expressed his own vexation that TNT’s beloved Inside the NBA might vaporize because its parent company had lost the league’s broadcast rights. “These people that I work with, they’ve screwed things up,” Barkley said, essentially re-litigating Zaz’s various self-created micro-scandals from the past two years of the Warner Bros. Discovery journey: CNN’s Chris Licht saga, Batgirl, disappeared content, countless layoffs, etcetera. Indeed, Zaz never should have publicly stated two years ago that his company didn’t “have to have” the NBA, a phrase that pissed off... |
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