David Zaslav warned, “The grand experiment of making something at any cost is over.”;
But the President and CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery believes that the “Golden Age of Materials” is “not quite over”.
It comes as Zaslav revealed plans to increase its savings target to $3.5B, $500M more than its initial target.
The new owners of HBO et al. is cutting content costs across the company, killing off a number of high-profile series like JJ Abrams’ HBO drama series demimondewhich was reported to have a budget of between $200M, as well as a reduction in series such as The Big D, Chado and others on the Turner Network side.
It has also kicked HBO Max out of the reality business and killed its children’s and young adults’ content on the streamer.
“I was asked recently if I thought the golden age of content was over. I said not at all. Nothing is more important than content, people are consuming more content than ever before. But it must be very good material. How much is it not now,” he said.
He highlighted series and films such as House of the Dragon, Euphoria, The Batman, Harry Potter, Friends And Big Bang Theory.
He also stated that “the strategy of spending money by demolishing all the windows, starting linear and dramatic, and making a fraction of the turn … is deeply flawed”.
Zaslav reiterated his earlier spending plan and addressed the write-downs and removals of several series from HBO Max, including scripted series like C.amping, mrs fletcher, run And vinyl and reality series like Elance Next Great Designer And generation bustle As well as a bunch of animated series.
“Written them all off… we didn’t do a show from one stage that’s going to help us in any way,” he said.