“I don’t think Amazon got the idea for Amazon from us, but we’re happy about that deal,” he said at a virtual conference hosted by J.P. Morgan. “Look at the value. It’s all about the IP. Bob Iger said that to me eight years ago. Everybody said, ‘What are you doing with Pixar? You’re overpaying. You overpaid for SHe claimed that AT&T’s media portfolio contains “the greatest treasure of global IP that’s loved by everyone in the world.” Given the nearly $8.
Ad-supported streaming, he said, is a strategic pillar of the merger, Zaslav said. Discovery launched streaming service Discovery+ in January and has said its total streaming subscriber base — led by Discovery+ — reached 15 million by April. WarnerMedia’s HBO Max launched a year ago and has hit 44.2 million subscribers in combination with regular HBO.
“We’re going to learn a lot over the next year,” Zaslav said, indicating the expected closing timeframe for the deal. “We have some great plans for what we think we want to do.”