David M. Zaslav is the president and chief executive officer of Discovery Communications, a position he has held since January 2007. He was previously an executive at NBC Universal... (wikipedia)
We've taken a couple of steps forward, but there really isn't a clear business model yet.
We need to be aggressive about being on all of these platforms.
The overwhelming majority of people are still going to watch television in a linear fashion. But there's a growing group of people who aren't looking to see what's the best show on in that time slot, but what's the best show available. We need to stay ahead of that.
I talk to Oprah several times a week, and I see the side of Oprah that's having the time of her life. What she's getting to do with OWN is build a team to create a brand from nothing.
Our unprecedented network and cable coverage this year will provide viewers with a more extensive and interactive Olympics experience including up-to-the-minute updates and medal count.
Our partnership with Time Warner Cable will provide viewers with a robust 2006 Olympic Winter Games experience. NBC is committed to providing our distribution partners with unique digital offerings to help them drive their businesses.
People only watch six to eight to 10 channels, so if you want to be one of those channels, then you have to create content so strong that people have to come not once, not twice but enough that, behaviorally, they start to feel like, 'That's my channel.'
We have one of the best crime and mystery movie and TV libraries. We have great content at a low cost to us.
We're lucky in that channels like Science, Animal Planet and Discovery are essentially universal in terms of their appeal. If you wake up in Moscow and put on the Science channel, it doesn't feel like an American channel, it feels like their channel.
If you wake up in Moscow and put on the Science channel, it doesn't feel like an American channel, it feels like their channel. In fact, Discovery is Vladimir Putin's favorite channel.
Cable is a niche business. If you can own a niche, that can be a very strong business.
One of the hardest things to do when you launch a channel is find a voice.
To this day, I'm a slave to CNBC.
We expect Start Over will help deliver more engaged viewers to our advertisers.
There's momentum in the marketplace with portability. Everyone is getting more comfortable with VOD.
It's really more of a legal issue; we have to look at what the functionality is.
If you look at the heritage of the cable business, if you can own a niche, you have a good chance of succeeding.
If you could position the best platform media company around the world with the best content, we could get explosive growth.