from the incompetent-failsons dept
We’ve mentioned repeatedly how the AT&T–>Time Warner–>Discovery series of media mergers were some of the most destructive and pointless business efforts ever, resulting in tens of thousands of layoffs, the cancellation of endless popular programs, higher prices for consumers, and a shittier overall product.
One of the men at the heart of this dysfunction has been Warner Brothers Discovery CEO Davide Zaslav, whose outsized executive compensation packages keep skyrocketing despite no limit of bumbling. He’s highly representative of a streaming video industry that’s on the fast track to enshittification, where execs think “innovation” means big mergers, price hikes, shittier content, and crackdowns on password sharing.
At the Goldman Sachs Communacopia and Technology Conference last week, Zaslav thought he would give some deep thought into what’s wrong with modern television. Zaslav laments what he calls a “a terrible consumer experience” across television, apparently oblivious to the fact he’s been directly responsible. His big complaint is there are too many choices and too much competition:
“The marketplace is really challenged with too many players in the market,” Zaslav said. “When people turn on — the consumers put on their TV, it’s a terrible consumer experience. In almost every market in the world, there’s just way too many choices. And you’re googling, ‘Where is it? How do I get from one to the other? How do I get into that platform?’”
Zaslav is partially right: streaming has become a fractured and confusing landscape of a myriad of different companies all rushing to the trough. Content licenses and catalogs shift without warning making it difficult to impossible for many consumers to find what they’re looking for on any consistent basis.
But Zaslav’s “solution” to this hasn’t been innovation; it’s generally been more shitty mergers like the terrible ones he’s overseen so far. He’s been an avid Trump supporter because Trump doesn’t believe in things like media consolidation limits or functional regulatory oversight, stuff Zaslav’s been excited about because he thinks it will usher forth a wave of new, unprecedented media consolidation.
Zaslav’s other ingenious solution for the streaming shitshow he helped create? More price hikes:
“The fact that this is quality — and that’s true across our company, motion picture, TV production and and streaming quality — we all we think that gives us a chance to raise price,” he said. “We think we’re way underpriced. We’re going to take our time.”
This is fairly delusional, coming from the guy who shifted HBO from The Sopranos to stuff like Fuckboy Island. It’s not clear he even sees that he’s demanding more money for shittier product, while simultaneously stripping away perks and functionality.
Guys like Zaslav fancy themselves savvy dealmakers but the irony is they’re not even particularly good at predatory capitalism. They’re fail upward overpaid brunchlord types who are engaged in a sort of weird performance for very short lived quarterly gains. Almost always at the cost of longer term company survival and a steady erosion in brand perception and customer loyalty.
The kind of stuff TV consumers actually want: cheaper, easier plans, improved customer service, more features, better designed apps, and better content — don’t sync up with the quest for impossible quarterly growth, which is why Zaslav actively opposes such things. It’s effectively the same sort of thinking that has doomed traditional cable companies.
By the time the check truly comes due for Zaslav’s mismanagement, he’ll be either headed out the door for retirement or jettisoned by yet another pointless merger (like the potential looming CBS/Ellison acquisition of Zaslav’s company, which is what all this seems to be pointed to). More consolidation, worse product, higher prices, all on repeat, with nobody in the extraction class facing accountability or learning a single useful thing from the experience.
Filed Under: competition, consolidation, david zaslav, media, mergers, prices, streaming, tv, video
Companies: warner bros. discovery
