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Issue link: https://digital.macdirectory.com/i/1481697
slow starting Apple TV + has experienced a 10 percent demand share and Peacock a 2 percent (US only) demand share. While WBD has set 2023/24 as its formal launch date for the new HBO Max/Discovery + services, consumers have already shown signs that they are willing to pay for three to four streaming services in this content rich market. This becomes an area of concern in the fast-growing APAC streaming region where WBD services won’t be available for two years The situation is particularly egregious in the wider Asia region, which is currently the world’s fastest-growing streaming market, but where the new improved WBD-iteration of HBO Max will not be available for another two years. In Europe the company runs the risk of alienating content suppliers where Netflix and Amazon are moving aggressively with local production and rapidly expanding services. While the company has an aggressive goal of 130M subscribers/viewers by 2025, Zaslav must optimize WBD’s under-managed assets, integrate complex organizations into a single unit and aggressively reduce overhead and headcount all without cannibalizing its cash-flow positive businesses. To produce this commercially, technologically and financially viable entity, WBD’s Zaslav has already indicated that WMD will focus on balancing its debt obligations, tightening its content spend belt and making significant executive/staff adjustments to minimize redundancies. In plain English, that means significant layoffs for its executives and staff to minimize redundancies within WBD, HBO/HBO Max and Discovery+ with a harder line separation between the scripted and unscripted content operations. While this is being planned/developed by Zaslav’s new management team, resumes are being updated, agents put on speed dial by the most qualified members of the organizations and headhunters are on the prowl. Because as Dan observed in The Old Man, “Sometimes there are things that you don’t get to know before the curtain comes down.” And added, “Rich folks don’t explain S***”