Warner Bros Discovery Inc (NASDAQ:WBD) CEO David Zaslav said he does not regret the concessions made by the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers to end the Writers Guild of America’s (WGA's) almost 150-day strike but implied that the writers were being paid too much for their work.
“They are right about almost everything,” the CEO told The New York Times Magazine in a profile published online on Wednesday.
“So what if we overpay? I’ve never regretted overpaying for great talent or a great asset.”
The WGA deal was valued by the union at about $700 million over three years and included gains in artificial intelligence-related protections, residuals, staffing levels, employment duration, data transparency, and health and pension contributions.
The WGA said in a chart sent out to members it would cost Warner Bros. Discovery $47 million per year, compared to Zaslav’s realized compensation in 2022 of $27.2 million.
Zaslav, along with other top Hollywood studio chiefs Disney’s Bob Iger, Netflix’s Ted Sarandos and Universal’s Donna Langley, directly took part in negotiations with the WGA when talks resumed in September.
He also helped negotiate a deal with the actors’ union SAG-AFTRA which saw its strike end on November 8. Zaslav did not comment on the SAG-AFTRA negotiations in the profile.
Shares of Warner Bros. Discovery traded 5.4% lower at US$10 on Thursday morning.
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