Gerhard Zeiler Talks Max Expansion, “One-Company” Mindset

In a wide-ranging conversation with World Screen’s Anna Carugati in the Grand Auditorium at the Palais today, Warner Bros. Discovery’s Gerhard Zeiler used his MIPCOM keynote to talk about the strengths of the “one-company” mindset and was joined on stage by Leah Hooper Rosa to share the European expansion plans for Max.

Zeiler’s was the first Media Mastermind keynote of this year’s market. In introducing the president of international at Warner Bros. Discovery, Lucy Smith, the director of the market, took a moment to reflect on the crisis in Israel that has resulted in much of that country’s contingent skipping the event. “MIPCOM Cannes is a global market and a global community with delegates from more than 100 countries,” Smith said. “Around 70 delegates from Israel were due to be attending. Due to the devastating conflict in Israel and Gaza, the majority have been unable to join us. Our thoughts and prayers are with them and with all of the innocent victims in Israel and Gaza following last week’s horrific terrorist attacks. RX Global is supporting humanitarian relief across the region. This week, your security is our priority, as always. In light of the recent events and with France elevating its national security levels, we have also elevated all of our security measures. Our aim is always to do so with minimum inconvenience to you. We appreciate your cooperation.”

Addressing the integration of the Warner Bros. and Discovery businesses, Zeiler noted: “We set ourselves three goals 18 months ago. One: What is the mission of Warner Bros. Discovery? The second was to execute this integration as fast and as efficiently as possible. The third goal was to create a new culture of these two distinctive companies.”

As to the company’s mission, Zeiler stressed: “We are a content company. We are storytellers.”

On the success of the integration, the company has achieved $3 billion in synergies. “We’re on our way to $5 billion and who knows where we will end up.”

And, he said, it has reached its goal of a one-company mindset. “Culture eats strategy for breakfast. One culture is really important. This is one company. There aren’t six or seven different siloed units.”

On Warner Bros. Discovery’s successes over the last year, Zeiler highlighted the breakout success of the Barbie theatrical movie, which has reached almost $1.4 billion at the global box office; the Hogwarts Legacy video game; a string of hits at HBO, among them House of the Dragon, The Last of Us and the final season of Succession; and the U.S. launch of Max. “Max is not the 2.0 version of HBO Max; it’s a distinct fusion of HBO, the Warner Bros. feature films and TV series, the DC universe, our kids’ animation slate” and non-scripted content from channel brands like Discovery and TLC.

Zeiler also weighed in on the present and future of linear television. “Linear is declining, but there are significant differences from the U.S. The decline started later in Europe, Asia and Latin America. The incline is much less steep. And free-to-air is still in almost all markets the dominant viewing form; 80 percent of all video minutes viewed in Italy are on free-to-air; in Germany, it’s 74 percent. Streaming is growing, but linear is not something we want to abandon. The consumer still wants it, and we have several markets where we have very strong linear businesses, on free-to-air and pay TV.”

The conversation then moved to what’s at the heart of the company: storytelling, with Zeiler highlighting some of the international successes. “You can’t have global success in the end if you don’t also invest in local content.”

Zeiler then discussed the company’s approach to distribution and monetization. “We are not a one-trick pony. We don’t believe that putting everything into one window is the right business model or good for the consumer. We are committed to theatrical releases. We believe in the transactional ways of distribution. We believe in streaming. We believe in linear. We are not religious about having everything for our own networks. Our goal is to maximize reach and monetization. Our North Star is the consumer.”

Leah Hooper Rosa, head of streaming for EMEA at Warner Bros. Discovery, joined Zeiler and Carugati on stage to discuss the next wave of expansion for Max. The streamer launches in LatAm in Q1 of 2024. Thereafter comes the European expansion, “starting with the first 20 countries of our HBO Max footprint,” she said. That includes the Nordics, Iberia, CEE and the Netherlands, in the spring of 2024. Max is set to be the home of the Olympics coverage in Europe next year, Rosa noted. She also revealed that launches are slated for France and Belgium in 2024.

Linear and streaming are “two sides of the same medal,” Zeiler said. “Streaming is the future of our business, but there’s no reason to abandon linear.” As such, decisions about programming, marketing and windowing are done considering both businesses.

Zeiler identified three KPIs for the company’s streaming business: profitability, engagement and scale. “That era of streaming, the great over-delivery of content, underpriced, is over. There’s a much more rational way of thinking about that. And it’s not just pure SVOD. It’s ad-free, ad-lite, SVOD and AVOD FAST channels.”

The session ended with Carugati asking Zeiler for his predictions of where the media business is heading. “It’s a time of enormous change. The speed of change, I don’t think I’ve ever seen that before. It’s so important to have a goal. We know where we want to be in five years. Nobody knows exactly how this development will be. We are in the phase of experimenting. But we know where we want to go. Our North Star is the consumer and how the consumer behaves. I’m more convinced than ever that with the IP, strategy and culture we have, we will be one of the three to five global leading suppliers, who, together with the local champions, will deliver the content the consumers want to watch.”