Discovery, Inc.’s public discussions about a new streaming service that pulls together content from all its brands could soon become a reality for consumers.
CEO David Zaslav, speaking this week at a Goldman Sachs investor conference, said Discovery’s new streaming service will be “coming to the market very soon” and he said his company is “aggressively driving” new original content for the platform.
He suggested that Discovery will take an approach similar to Disney+ and use its brands – like Discovery, Oprah, Food Network and Chip and Joanna Gaines, who are launching their own Magnolia Network – as “curation portals.”
“You’ll hear from us soon. I think one of the keys is getting partners to help. So, we’ve very quietly over the last year working aggressively in getting all of our stuff together and we’re quite close,” Zaslav said, who added that consumers are becoming more acclimated to subscribing to multiple streaming services.
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Zaslav said that Discovery’s only challenge currently is that it’s not on every device, but he said the company’s streaming apps will be very soon.
“I think this is probably the most important thing we’ll do as a company since I’ve been at Discovery. We’ve been getting ready for it for years. It’s one of the reasons why we got into local sports. It’s the reason that we did [the Scripps acquisition] because we own all that content globally,” said Zaslav. “We really feel like we have a moment and it’s critically important that we reach everybody everywhere in the world.”
Discovery is moving ahead on its big streaming plans without Peter Faricy, CEO of the company’s direct-to-consumer business, who left the company this summer. Avi Saxena, Karen Leever and Lisa Holme will take over Faricy’s responsibilities with Discovery’s DTC and digital segment and all three will report directly to Zaslav.
“I remain very confident about the power of our brands, appeal of our authentic talent, passion and loyalty of our fans, and our ability to transform the company to be successful in the new streaming ecosystem that is taking hold around the world,” wrote Zaslav in a memo obtained by the Hollywood Reporter.