As the specter of a potential writers’ strike looms over Hollywood, David Zaslav is saying that he is hopeful for a solution that would be “fair to all parties.”
The president and CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery said on Wednesday that he was “hopeful” that current negotiations between the Writers Guild of America and the group representing the studios and streamers, the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), will end in a fair resolution. “A strike would be a challenge for the whole industry,” he added. The executive made the remarks in a question-and-answer portion of a presentation about the combination of his companies’ two streamers, HBO Max and Discovery+.
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Zaslav also nodded to preparations that his company has been making in case a work stoppage does occur. While saying that while his company is “optimistic we can get through this in a way that’s fair to all parties,” he added that “we’re assuming the worst from a biz perspective.” The company’s combined streamer, named Max, will launch May 23 and be “ready to go with guns blazing on product and platforms.”
The WGA has prioritized higher compensation in its 2023 negotiations with companies like Warner Bros. Discovery: The union’s priorities include instituting contract minimums for comedy-variety writers who work on streaming projects, regulating so-called “mini-rooms” and raising wage floors. Amid this push, WGA members have singled out the industry’s sky-high executive pay as proof that their employers can shell out for writers, including and especially Zaslav’s pay. In 2022, Zaslav’s pay package reached $39.3 million. In 2021, his pay was $246.6 million, making him the second-highest-paid executive in the industry (behind Endeavor’s Ari Emanuel) among the leaders that The Hollywood Reporter tracks.
Zaslav acknowledged the writers’ complaints in his remarks on Wednesday: “For this industry to succeed, everybody needs to feel fully valued.” He added, “Our objective would be that everybody gets fairly compensated for work they do.”
WGA members began voting to authorize a potential strike on Tuesday night. Though the strike authorization vote — which will conclude on Monday — does not guarantee a work stoppage will happen, it allows the union to call one if talks break down. The writers’ contract expires May 1, after which point their union could potentially call a strike, provided its members authorize one.
As THR has previously reported, networks and streamers have been preparing for that worst-case scenario by offering more early renewals than usual, stockpiling unscripted series, emphasizing more animated shows (many of which are not WGA-affiliated) and looking to their own libraries to fill airtime. In February, Warner Bros. Discovery began airing HBO shows True Blood and Silicon Valley on TBS in an experiment that could presage how companies might respond to a strike.
