David Zaslav’s $52M Pay Package Denied By Warner Bros. Discovery Shareholders — But He’s Getting It Anyway

“What would you say you do here?” It’s as quotable a moment from a film classic as ever, but it’s also a fair question to ask Warner Bros. DiscoveryWBD

CEO David Zaslav, who has hailed over an era of tumult at the HBO parent. Still, he asked shareholders to sign off on a $52M pay package. Sending a message to the ailing firm, they said no, with 59% of the non-binding votes rejecting the package — the board followed with a statement saying it “appreciates the views of all its shareholders” but is letting the compensation roll through.

• DespiteWBD
  shares being down 58% since 2022, Zaslav’s proposed compensation exceeds that of rivals like Disney’s Bob Iger ($41M) and Comcast’s Brian Roberts ($34M).
• While WBD slashed its debt burden from $55B at the time of its 2022 merger to $38B in Q1 2025, S&P Global recently downgraded the company to junk status over declining cable TV revenues.

The much-needed breakup: Despite the pay revolt, Bank of America analyst Jessica Reif Ehrlich maintains optimism about a potential spinoff strategy, noting, “We believe the market value for WBD’s Studio and DTC assets standalone could far exceed the market cap of the company today.” She argued that splitting streaming and studio assets from its struggling cable networks could unlock value for shareholders, pointing to recent hits like The Minecraft Movie and streaming successes including White Lotus. With Warner already restructuring into separate divisions and rival NBCUniversal spinning off cable channels into Versant, this corporate breakup could finally give shareholders something to cheer about.