Warner Bros Discovery Inc (NASDAQ:WBD) boss David Zaslav has promised not to "overspend" to expand the streaming footprint of the company, just days after it shuttered CNN+, the fledgling streaming service from CNN.
This month, the industry and wider stock market was rocked by streaming pioneer Netflix clocking a decline in subscriber numbers in the past quarter, raising concerns about competition and squeezed consumers.
On Tuesday's earnings call, Zaslav attempted to address investors' fears stating the goal is to maximise shareholder value, not subscribers, saying "We will not overspend to drive subscriber growth."
Streaming subscribers total 100mln for the company.
Zaslav, who heads the newly formed media giant, which operates HBO, Warner Bros Studios and the Discovery Channel, said he will move quickly to bring its main streaming platforms Discovery+ and HBO Max under one umbrella.
This was the company's first investor presentation since the WarnerMedia arm was spun off by AT&T and merged with Discovery earlier this month, in which it said it plans to grow its streaming subscriber base profitably, diversify its revenue streams, and generate free cash flow.
"We will clearly take swift and decisive actions on certain items, as you saw on CNN+ last week," Zaslav said, referring to the decision to close the service a month after it launched.
Zaslav said the US$1bn investment in CNN+ did not justify the paltry growth of subscribers, according to the New York Post.
Zaslav boasted on the call that his company was "out there early" with its advertising efforts, adding it didn't need to "write a check to get the best content because we have the factory."
Having outlined plans to save WBD a minimum of US$3bn from the US$43bn merger, he said the enlarged company would "invest in scale smartly" and was "not trying to win the direct-to-consumer spending war".
He adedd "everything should be monetised," and "every decision will be made through the lens of analysing asset value,” not just subs.