Discovery CEO David Zaslav chooses his post-merger leadership team

Discovery Inc. has chosen the team that will run its business once it completes the $43 billion merger with WarnerMedia, a deal that will transform CEO David Zaslav into one of the biggest players in Hollywood. 

Jean-Briac Perrette, a long-time lieutenant of Zaslav, will run the company’s streaming businesses while Kathleen Finch will oversee its dozens of cable networks, according to people familiar with the plans. HBO programming chief Casey Bloys will report directly to Zaslav, as will Warner Bros. studio chiefs Channing Dungey and Toby Emmerich. The company may announce the new structure Thursday, said the people, who declined to be identified because the deal hasn’t yet closed. 

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A spokesman for Discovery had no immediate comment. The transaction is set to be completed this week.

Zaslav pursued the purchase to give the combined company the scale to compete with Netflix Inc., Walt Disney Co., Apple Inc. and Amazon.com Inc. in streaming. WarnerMedia’s HBO Max was one of the faster-growing services in the world last year. With more than 70 million subscribers, drawn largely by high-quality HBO programs and Warner Bros. movies, it’s still small relative to some peers.

Zaslav is leaning on his own executives to run the business and operations of the combined company, while relying on WarnerMedia to supply the creative ideas.

Zaslav already said goodbye to WarnerMedia chief Jason Kilar, as well as nine of his 11 direct reports, while eliminating layers of executives between himself and the creative chiefs so he can take a more hands-on role in their work. 

He must still outline a streaming strategy. HBO Max is one of three streaming services WarnerMedia and Discovery operate between them. The combined company will have one of the largest film and television libraries in the world. 

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Zaslav has taken on tens of billions of dollars in debt to complete the deal, and pledged to cut $3 billion. He may eliminate staff duplication across advertising sales and TV distribution, among other areas. Though streaming is the future, the company still makes most of its money from linear cable networks and film distribution. 

The executive spent the last decade-plus running cable networks that air reality TV programs, and has spent the last year meeting with top agents and producers to develop his plans for one of the most famous companies in Hollywood. 

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—Bloomberg News