David Zaslav attends the world premiere of “The Flash”, in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, United States, June 12, 2023. Reuters / Mike Blake
Mike Blake | Reuters
Earlier this year, Discovery Warner Bros. The Chief Executive Officer David Zaslav put an end to the long relations of his company with the National Basketball Association. Now he may prepare the field to put an end to his relationship with us, in American sports.
WBD announced on Monday that it was divided into two companies – a concept that CNBC said it has taken steam in April. A company, temporarily called streaming and studios, will be made up of Warner Bros. Television, Warner Bros. Motion Picture Group, DC Studios, HBO and HBO Max. The other, currently nicknamed Global Networks, will be the rest of the company's assets: inherited cable networks, TNT sports, digital products and free channels in Europe.
Zaslav will be the CEO of streaming and studios. Gunnar Wiedenfels, the current financial director of Warner Bros. Discovery, will become the CEO of Global Networks.
Divorce raises the question of where the live sports held by TNT will land without the Warner Bros Discovery streaming portfolio as part of the same company.
During a conference on Monday, Zaslav said it would be in Wiedenfels and his team to decide where they would like to concede to the TNT sports programs to the streaming and studios company – or anyone else – in the future.
Currently, all TNT sports appear on HBO Max, Warner Bros.'s flagship streaming service. Discovery. Zaslav said that American sports had not been a major engine of HBO Max inscriptions, which suggests that it may be logical that TNT Sports consciously decomposes with the road streaming service.
“In the United States, sports were less critical,” Zaslav said in an appeal with investors on Monday. “It is seen, but it is not a real engine for us. It will therefore continue to be on HBO Max, but the global activity of networks will assess as the best place for this is.”
HBO Max will continue to concede Sports license for existing offers. However, Wiedenfels will have options on how to monetize future streaming and digital sport of TNT. He could conclude a license agreement with another media company for live sports that appear on the Turner networks (TNT, TBS and TRUTV), such as the NCAA March Madness, the French Open, the NASCAR, the major baseball league and the National Hockey League.
“American sports rights will reside in global networks, and its management team will determine the best way to monetize streaming and digital rights over time,” said Wiedenfels. “International, sports will largely coexist, both linear and streaming, as they do today.”
Or, he could decide to merge TNT sports with another entity, such as the next Comcast Spinout, slope. Mark Lazarus, CEO of side, said last month at CNBC Sport that he was interested in tending to sports rights to obtain a distribution HEFT with paid television operators. The acquisition of TNT Sports could be a major step in this direction.
If Wiedenfels opts for consolidation, he will have to weigh the tax effects of the sale of assets after separation. While Warner Bros. Discovery noted that the split was in tax franchise, Wiedenfels underlined the Monday call according to which the transactions could start as soon as the separation occurs, which is expected by mid-2026.
“On the tax side, I said it earlier, I want to be absolutely clear: once this agreement is ending, the two companies will be free and clear,” said Wiedenfels. “There is no minimum time.”
A slope spokesperson did not immediately return the request for comments.
Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of CNBC. Square will become the parent company of CNBC when the spinout is finished.