How Could HBO Max Be Worse than It Is Under David Zaslav? This Is How

We’ve spent the last several years complaining about the disastrous management of HBO under CEO David Zaslav. I don’t want to rehash the entire list, but the man bungled things in just about every way imaginable—including merging HBO with Discovery only to split them apart again a couple of years later. For a brief moment, it almost felt like HBO Max was returning to its old self, largely because Zaslav simply rolled back his own boneheaded decisions.

I have a sneaking suspicion, though, that we may end up looking back on the Zaslav years with a strange sense of nostalgia. Why? Because according to the Wall Street Journal, Paramount/Skydance is preparing a cash bid for Warner Bros. Discovery. The whole thing.

Paramount/Skydance, of course, is the freshly merged company helmed by David Ellison, son of Larry Ellison—who recently surpassed Elon Musk as the richest man in the world. David Ellison is also the guy currently setting CBS News on fire by putting Bari Weiss in charge. He was likely instrumental in canceling The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, one of the few remaining anchors of network late-night.

Ellison’s track record doesn’t exactly inspire confidence. He’s a legacy billionaire with a taste for consolidation and disruption, the kind of executive who sees prestige institutions as toys for experimentation. I wouldn’t want him anywhere near HBO, and yet here we are. The cycle of mergers continues, and HBO/Paramount/Skydance/Discovery may soon all be rolled into one, under the control of the same man: David Ellison.