Discovery is not threatened by SVoD competition, CEO David Zaslav has said.
In a conference call with Wall Street analysts, Zaslav argued that Discovery is unrivalled in the factual space; “Yes, Hulu’s doing a few food shows and Netflix does some stuff, and a little bit of natural history. But all of the BBC content is coming off Netflix.”
This follows the announcement of a 10-year deal between Discovery and the BBC that will include a joint subscription streaming service launching in 2020. Zaslav said the partnership will allow Discovery to create “big, event programming” consistent with its mission.
Zaslav also said that Netflix is ultimately a boost to Discovery; “They created a road and a path where people got used to paying for content.”
“Natural history can be a big business,” he added.
