Warner Bros. Discovery shocked the sports world in 2022 when CEO David Zaslav said the company didn’t “have to have” a deal with the NBA. Now the company is telling investors it may not want to link up with other leagues as well.
“We don’t need any more sports anywhere in the world to support our own business,” said Zaslav during a call with investors Thursday morning, noting he felt it was more important for Warner to develop signature film and TV properties that it “could own” rather than trying to build a longer-term business based on sports deals that eventually lapse and require increased investment.
“It’s going to get more difficult, some of the prices being paid,” Zaslav noted.
The remarks come as Warner Bros. Discovery enters the last few months of a decades-long alliance with the National Basketball Association. The league’s exit is expected to bring with it the dissipation of tens of millions of dollars in advertising deals, but will also lower Warner’s costs.
The executive’s thoughts on sports came after one analyst asked whether the company might be interested in striking rights deals with some leagues that were breaking up with Disney’s ESPN. That company has paid high fees in recent years for new deals with the NBA and NFL, and recently decided to opt-out of a longstanding association with Major League Baseball. Rights tied to Formula 1 racing and the UFC are also expected to go to market.
“We like sports,” said Zaslav, but the company sees a need to be disciplined in the deals it makes for them.
Indeed, Warner has seemed to pull back on its sports ambitions in recent weeks. After the NBA loss became finalized, and a plan to launch a streaming joint venture with Disney and Fox failed, Warner said it would no longer seek to establish a separate, premium sports tier for its Max streaming service.
And yet, the company has in recent months snapped up rights to a handful of sports properties, including the French Open and some CFP games.
But the deals need to make money, Zaslav said. “We’re money good on almost all of our sports in this company, and we work very hard to build our our cash flow,” he said, and pay down debt.
