David Zaslav Concedes the Writers Were "Right About Almost Everything"

Warner Bros. Discovery's CEO David Zaslav says he agrees with the WGA on almost all its demands and doesn't mind paying for the writers' services.


Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav recently conceded that the Writers Guild of America (WGA) was right regarding almost all the demands they made of the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP).


Per Variety, Zaslav revealed in a profile published by The New York Times that he did not regret the concessions made to the WGA, stating, "They are right about almost everything. So what if we overpay? I've never regretted overpaying for great talent or a great asset." The Warner Bros. Discovery boss was among a small group of top Hollywood studio chiefs, including Disney's Bob Iger, Netflix's Ted Sarandos, and NBCUniversal's Donna Langley, that attended the WGA-AMPTP negotiations in August to show their commitment to concluding talks and agreeing a deal with the writers, with the SAG-AFTRA strike was in full steam.


Zaslav reportedly sped up the process of meeting the WGA at the negotiating table by calling the association's negotiating committee co-chairman, Chris Keyser. A conversation with media banker Aryeh Bourkoff motivated Zaslav. Bourkoff said that Zaslav could have a "Les Wasserman" moment after Disney muddled negotiations by commenting that the WGA and SAG-AFTRA were making unrealistic demands. The Hollywood vet Wasserman is iconically credited with smoothing relations in past studio v union standoffs.


Warner Bros. Discovery's CEO appeared more sympathetic to the writers' plight in May, viewing their demands more positively than his major studio peers. Zaslav, in an interview with CNBC at the time, stated, "We're not glad. We're a pure storytelling company, and we've been fighting to get the greatest creatives to come work at Warner Bros. In order to create great storytelling, we need great writers, and we need the whole industry to work together, and everybody deserves to be paid fairly."


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