Media changes bring a new harvest of leaders at stake

The inherited media are at a time of tumult. And this highlights a new harvest of decision -makers.

In an industry that has long been managed by Hollywood leaders, generally with curriculum vitae in content and programming, those who have financial history and competition history are increasingly remodeling the landscape.

Many of these leaders – some of whom Recently attended by the Annual Conference of Allen & Co. in Sun Valley, in Idaho, known as “summer camp for billionaires” – will be presented during telephone conferences in the coming weeks, while the media industry will bring back quarterly profits. Netflix will launch media results season Thursday.

Analysts and industry experts say that the elevation of these media leaders before less heard comes while industry focuses on cable television bleeding, streaming and reintegration of content expenditure budgets. It is also a signal that these companies are in a moment of transformation, and it is necessary to recruit leaders who have a different state of mind from the old guard.

“This is probably a sign that these companies are in perpetual decrease and that the only way to survive is to direct you towards any kind of modest growth, or simply less decline than what would be otherwise typical,” said Brandon Nispel, analyst at Keybanc.

The most recent example came last month when Discovery Warner Bros. announced its intention to divide into two public companies next year. The current CEO David Zaslav will direct the streaming and studios company, while the director Gunnar Wiedenfels will enter the first job in the world network of networks.

Before being head of WBD finance, Wiedenfels held the same post at Discovery before his merger with Warner Media in 2022. And before that, he was CFO to the German media company Prosiebensat.1 Media SE.

Its past contrasts with the CEOs of the typical media such as Disney Chef Bob Iger, who held various entertainment positions before taking the first job, including at ABC Entertainment where he was in charge of the green lighting television series. Iger’s predecessor, Michael Eisner, had a base that included stays in the best media companies. The Barry Diller media tycoon noted the ranks of entertainment – from the mail hall of the William Morris agency to finally the best roles to Primordial And Fox.

Even the counterpart of Wiedenfels, Zaslav, was on the side of television programming for a large part of his career before taking over as CEO.

This trend towards finance and operations leaders was propelled by Netflix’s upheavals in the media media industry, said Jonathan Miller, CEO of Integrated Media, specializing in digital media investments. Miller is a long -standing executive in the media industry that has held the best positions News Corp. and AOL. He is also a former member of the board of directors of Hulu.

While Netflix courted consumers on his streaming platform, he “has just exceeded everyone” to increase his library, said Miller.

“In my opinion, this has decreased the role of creative programmers who would have most generally been those who direct this type of business,” said Miller. “Managing money is now at least as important, if not more, as the creative side. I don’t know if it should be true, but I think that is where we are in industry.”

In 2023, disruptor of the industry Netflix Released from the beaten track when he promoted Greg Peters, previously the company’s COO chief, as CO-PDG with Ted Sarandos after Reed Hastings announced that he would take a step back.

While Sarandos has long been in charge of content, Peters had concentrated on the growth of the company beyond DVD and streaming, by expanding partnerships and increasing the international footprint – any key to the growth of the media giant.

In Hastings note announcing the change in leadership, he called the instrumental history of Peters “in the conduct of our partnerships, the construction and launch of advertising, pushing us to personalize more in -depth, by reconstructing our organization of talents and by helping to train our culture.”

Bringing a framework like Peters to the foreground of decision -making and leadership turned out to be another sign of the disturbing nature of Netflix – on the interior and industry scale.

Hastings had long been against the Institute of an advertising model which would offer a cheaper option to subscribers, and the company had ignored the sharing of passwords between its customers for years. But when the growth of subscribers blocked, the company has changed speed, and it turned out to be fruitful, as evidenced by the growth of the company through income, profitability and the basis of subscribers. In response, Netflix’s actions have skyrocketed.

“Ted is the content there, right? He lives just for cinema and television and art.” It allows Ted to do what he likes to do, and content is the key to the growth of this business. Although Greg, it seems to be more of the commercial training of nuts and bolts. “

There is also the promotion of Mike Cavanagh to the president of Comcast In 2022, after having previously been as a financial director of the cable giant since 2015. Cavanagh’s presentation expanded months later when Jeff Shell left his role as CEO at NBCUNIVERSAL DE COMCAST, and CAVANAGH resumed the direct management of television, cinema and theme of the company.

Under the direction of Cavanagh, Nbcuniversal made a variety of strategic movements. Shortly after having assumed the management of Nbcuniversal, the unit was restructured. About a year later in Sun Valley, Cavanagh began to lay the foundations of Nbcuniversal to remove most of its cable television networks.

Comcast CEO Brian Roberts publicly said that The Cable Spinout, one of the most important movements in comcast in years, was Cavanagh’s idea.

Cavanagh, who was previously co-PDG of Jpmorgan Business and investment bank, is frequently presented by initiates of the industry as the apparent heir to the main role of Comcast, and its surveillance of NBCUNIVERSAL gives it the opportunity to integrate into the sporting and entertainment side of the company after having a lot of concentration on the parent company of cable and wide strip.

An evolution towards financial expertise has also been true in cable and broadband. Charter communications’ The current leader, Chris Winfrey, took the post of CEO after having been a financial director and COO under the long -time cable director Tom Rutledge. Since taking control, Winfrey has orchestrated various changes in the company, more recently the proposed acquisition of Cox Communications.

It is even extended to the catering industry in recent months, where financial directors have been exploited for the role of CEO in companies such as Panera Brands, Jack in the Box and, more recently, Yum! Marks.

And that could play a role in selecting the Disney successor to CEO Iger.

The Disney Board of Directors has reduced potential successors to Iger, with an announcement scheduled for next year. The four presidents of Disney – Disney Entertainment Dana Walden and Alan Bergman’s co -presidents, the president of Disney Josh’s experiences of Amaro and the president of ESPN Jimmy Pitaro – were questioned for the best job.

Walden’s deep story in entertainment programming puts it in a favorable position, but CNBC reported earlier than the criticism of its business sense could affect its chances, despite that it supervises the streaming unit when it has reached its profitability. Financial director Hugh Johnston was supposed to be part of the conversation, but he is not part of the official planning of the succession, said a person familiar with the question that refused to be named speaking of internal questions.

However, it is very undecided to know who will be the next CEO of Disney and the process is at the start of the stadiums, said the person. The IGER contract was extended until the end of 2026, giving the Commission for more time for the reasonable diligence process, previously reported CNBC.

A Disney representative refused to comment.

– Amelia Lucas de CNBC and Alex Sherman contributed to this article.

Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of CNBC. Square would be the parent company of CNBC as part of the proposed cable spin-out. Comcast is an owner of Hulu.