David Zaslav was paid $51.9 million last year. - ThreadSky | a Reddit-style client for Bluesky

markharris.bsky.social • 21 days ago

David Zaslav was paid $51.9 million last year.

Reposted from TVMoJoe

BOOM! Max is becoming...HBO Max. Again. No, really. www.vulture.com/article/hbo-...

Comments

markharris.bsky.social•21 days ago

We're all making fun of this name change--as we should because it is objectively hilarious--but what's behind it is the total failure of Zaslav's biggest bet, which is that all of his Discovery stuff would be as attractive to Max subscribers as HBO-branded programming. It was not. Nobody watched it.

mtc111.bsky.social•21 days ago

‘Man, The Wire was great, makes me want to check out MILF Island’

cavaliercatdad.bsky.social•21 days ago

Hahahahaha

unchi.org•21 days ago

Now that COYOTE VS. ACME is headed for a full release, dare we hope that David Zaslav will finally be out of a job soon?

elisa515.bsky.social•21 days ago

I'd like to suggest that plenty of people (like me) watch both HBO stuff and Discovery stuff on that service, plus movies.

However, losing the Discovery stuff, for me, won't matter, because I use a cable replacement (YouTube TV), which has Discovery.

I'll miss ad-free Discovery shows.

bruiserchgo.bsky.social•21 days ago

I watch plenty of HGTV and Food Network programming on Max. But that’s not why we have it.

elisa515.bsky.social•21 days ago

Thanks. You said it better than I did.

I was just objecting to people suggesting there's no Venn Diagram overlap between Discovery and HBO watchers. I'm a movie snob who enjoys trash TV, too.

bruiserchgo.bsky.social•21 days ago

Yes, for us that content is mostly for when we’re half watching, like while making dinner or cleaning up.

bunnyjenkins.bsky.social•21 days ago

Who ever is getting paid to rebrand MAX should be fired.

Hire me - pay me that salary

Day One - LOWER the fucking price of the subscription, and let me share my account with my children.

DONE!

knollcoward.bsky.social•21 days ago

Hey, so have you guys thought of calling yourselves just…Garfunkel?”

#GREATMOMENTSINZASLAV

sudeepla.bsky.social•21 days ago

It was his one big idea! "Listen up you pretentious morons, people will watch any slop!"

anxiouslee.bsky.social•21 days ago

It also has barely any Discovery stuff! I tried to find a recently aired episode of Diners Drive Ins & Dives, and they don't even have the current season!

electriceden92.bsky.social•21 days ago

I feel like this might be an early sign that he's giving up and looking to sell the whole thing, which...could go several ways

crocusinthespring.bsky.social•21 days ago

There has been some chatter he wants to sell off parts Warner Brothers.

jonreilly1313.bsky.social•21 days ago

HBO Gulf of America Max!

sharonblueaf.bsky.social•21 days ago

This is a follow.

kristinbartus.bsky.social•21 days ago

I don’t even know what the hell Discovery is and I watch HBO Max all the time 😅

lfillingham.bsky.social•21 days ago

If I could just hide all the Discovery slop, and not see it at all, ever, it would be a way better app, and way more easy to use.

thegreatduggo.bsky.social•21 days ago

Every time I saw it, I was like "Wut's that? Ohhhh - HBO"

And this is why CEOs are soooo important.

saraharneson.bsky.social•21 days ago

We could have had more of this:

https://bsky.app/profile/saraharneson.bsky.social/post/3lp5aulhvbc2s

twoandseven.bsky.social•21 days ago

Spend 50+ years building a brand known for quality and originality. Then toss it because you have a library of mediocre reality TV and cooking shows. Brilliant.

ccbosley.bsky.social•21 days ago

running it back just to slap the 90s quality brand on an endless stream of warmed over IP piss

beaglebets.bsky.social•21 days ago

if we still lived in a world where facts mattered there would be business school classes specifically about how bad zaslav is at everything in the same way there were classes about how well people thought jack welch and lee iacocca ran things.

elisa515.bsky.social•21 days ago

You can expect there to be case studies for business students involving the HBO mismanagement.

whiskeymittens.bsky.social•21 days ago

I’ll have you know i occasionally watched 90 day fiancé between binging prestige HBO content.

expatpgh.bsky.social•21 days ago

It's a muddled mess. They have a decent selection from their TCM library, but you really need to hunt to find it.

televisedanarchy.bsky.social•21 days ago

Good...sell Cycling coverage back to GCN.

rockom.bsky.social•21 days ago

C-suite jobs are failure proof. If you lose, you win. If you win, you win bigger.

kinnabeck.bsky.social•21 days ago

I mean, I could re-re-name that channel for $26MM. What gives?!

dennisdoubleday.bsky.social•21 days ago

But what's *truly* funny about it is that everybody who wasn't making $51 million a year knew at the time that it was a stupid bet.

helenkennedy.bsky.social•21 days ago

Literally everyone.

winniethewitch.bsky.social•21 days ago

Seriously I'm confused as to how he still has a job.

brendonbouzard.bsky.social•21 days ago

Turns out no one cares about 39 seasons of Guy's Grocery Games.

keikiokaaina.bsky.social•21 days ago

The level of narcissism required to come in to a new company and rebrand the most famous brand in America after maybe Coke and Kleenex was breathtaking.

bigbeaks.com•21 days ago

I think there are a lot of brands more famous than HBO, probably including Warner Bros, but the real mistake was removing a brand that is largely synonymous with quality and prestige.

yankeebravobravo.bsky.social•21 days ago

I think he was referring to Warner Bros

helenkennedy.bsky.social•21 days ago

Even those two, popular as they are, are not synonymous with "quality." Let's rename it for late night soft core.

andrewyakgator.bsky.social•21 days ago

It’s a hell of a thing to find out the thing you bought is more beloved and respected than the thing you already owned.

The schlockmeister couldn’t handle it.

bchadhill.bsky.social•21 days ago

I would love some reporting on the inside story. I am guessing:

(1) the rebrand was Zaslav's brainchild that he forced on the HBO execs, who had no choice to comply; and

(2) the rebrand (and re-rebrand) cost the company untold millions of dollars without delivering any benefits.

timothydiamond.bsky.social•21 days ago

Why didn't anyone think of this before!? Sigh

ggard4.bsky.social•21 days ago

Waste, fraud and abuse.

casporleder.bsky.social•21 days ago

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mattgoldberg.bsky.social•21 days ago

I can fuck up WBD for half that. Think of the savings!

roosefella.bsky.social•21 days ago

"They should just call it HBO"

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gollyzilla.bsky.social•21 days ago

I never stopped!

thestonecoldnuts.bsky.social•21 days ago

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worldcitizen1994.bsky.social•20 days ago

Good grief. What a waste of money.

johndettling.bsky.social•21 days ago

Max is such a user design mess right now. Lower quality. Excess average content. What Zaslav doesn't get is some of us want curated, not all we can eat, on-demand TV and films. That is what HBO offered.

pammystarr.bsky.social•21 days ago

The MAX rebranding was idiotic. Maybe they should consider firing all the sycophants.

dallen15.bsky.social•21 days ago

The Godzilla of destroying shareholder value. Rich, arrogant & stupid.

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tagood1.bsky.social•21 days ago

😂😂

blessmanja.bsky.social•21 days ago

I mean, I know there are a lot of contenders, but he might just be the dumbest person on the planet.

shorepatrol.bsky.social•21 days ago

If New Coke™ was a network?

webczarina.bsky.social•21 days ago

When the background returned from blue back to black, I had a feeling this would happen next.

itsmrfungible.bsky.social•21 days ago

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ludmillaart.bsky.social•20 days ago

😳

lorlolauren.bsky.social•21 days ago

Hate him.

brachinus.bsky.social•21 days ago

make it make sense

villagegrouch.bsky.social•21 days ago

Guillotine

chris923.bsky.social•21 days ago

HBO Maxer? Da Max? 🐻⬇️💯

kekeolivia.bsky.social•20 days ago

I hope you’re doing well! I’m Olivia I've been trying to follow you , but it doesn’t seem to be going through. If you don’t mind,could you follow me instead ? It would be great to connect again. Also, if you could drop me a direct message, that would be fantastic

wearyandangry.bsky.social•21 days ago

To change a stupid name, twice, and hack two episodes off of HOTD, so that the Season ended on a meandering midnight conversation.

bgnewhouse.bsky.social•21 days ago

That's why they pay him the big bucks.

cinemavsdave.bsky.social•21 days ago

I've been taking the wrong approach on resumes. I'm going to start listing failures instead of accomplishments. I'll be an executive in no time!

davidfox2116.bsky.social•21 days ago

Remember the “will Netflix become HBO before HBO becomes Netflix” debate? Netflix won handily. I canceled my Max subscription long ago.