Warner Bros Discovery Board Member John Malone Says David Zaslav‘s Streaming Strategy Will Succeed “If He Makes Good Stuff”

deadline.com:

John Malone, billionaire Liberty Media chairman and architect of the Warner Bros Discovery merger, believes WBD’s mix of ad-free and ad-supported streaming under CEO David Zaslav will succeed “if he makes good stuff.” Speaking to Liberty Global chief Mike Fries in a virtual session beamed into the Paley Center for Media in New York, Malone expressed reservations about the potential for new entrants to the streaming ad sector.

But when Fries noted Zaslav’s comments last week on WBD’s earnings call about a reluctance to chase subscribers on HBO Max, but to instead focus on profitability, Malone said streaming programming at WBD will work if is made “efficiently” and in areas “that the broad public wants to consume. “He’ll do fine,” he said of Zaslav, “and how he ultimately monetizes that content, I think, will evolve over time.” Beyond WBD’s operations, the overall appetite for the public to both pay a subscription fee and also watch advertising on a general-entertainment streaming service is “yet to be figured out,” Malone said. “I’m questioning in my own mind, in my own habits, watching my wife’s consumption of entertainment television, it seems to me that subscription plus advertising for entertainment programming is a narrow choice.” For decades, dating back to linear TV, delivering premium, ad-free entertainment programming and delivering it at no cost but with advertising “both work.” But combining the two is less certain in the streaming era, in Malone’s view.

Fries posed a related question he has asked Malone over the past two years in their annual Paley chats: Is Netflix overvalued? “I tend to think it is,” Malone replied, “because competition will limit profitability in the future.” Even though “the public