Warner Bros. Discovery’s CEO David Zaslav skipped town during a Senate antitrust hearing on his planned sale to Netflix – but the media mogul is said to have angered committee members so much that not only did they take their ire out on those who showed up, he may still get hauled onto Capitol Hill for a grilling, On The Money has learned.
People close to Zaslav tell On The Money that he missed Tuesday’s hearing because he happened to be traveling to Europe for the Winter Olympics, while making a quick a pit stop to meet with European regulators to tout the benefits of his Netflix deal.
That means he left the heavy lifting back home – including fielding some thorny accusations from lawmakers that WBD is both creating a streaming monopoly with Netflix and aiding a left-wing takeover of streaming programming – to his chief operating officer, Bruce Campbell, and his deal partner, Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos.
It didn’t seem to work, with the bi-partisan skepticism portending a tough ride for the deal through the Trump DOJ antitrust division. And Zas, as he is known in media circles, didn’t help things by skipping the hearing, sources said.
“Let’s just say it didn’t go over well with the committee,” according to a person with direct knowledge of the matter. This person, with ties to the GOP members of the subcommittee, said Lee, the Utah Republican, may call for a follow-up meeting so Zas can be grilled.
A spokesman for Zaslav had no immediate comment. A press rep for Lee told Fox Businesses Teuta Dedvukaj: “Chairman Lee was glad we can get representatives from both Netflix and Warner Bros. Discovery for the hearing,” and declined further comment.
No Senate subcommittee can block a merger, but it could make a key recommendation to the Trump Justice Department’s antitrust division, which must approve the transaction. After the tense hearing, Wall Street executives interviewed by On The Money said the reaction, particularly the grilling from GOP senators, foreshadows a tough review from Trump’s DOJ antitrust division and a possible lawsuit to block the deal.
The hearing wasn’t all bad for Sarandos, who managed to argue that the combination of his No. 1 streamer with WBD’s No. 3, HBO Max, will lower prices because of the overlap between the two. The merged entity also would face competition from YouTube, thus eating into its market dominance and ameliorating antitrust concerns, he claimed.
That said, you could at times see Sarandos sweat, literally, particularly under questioning from GOP members over the streamer’s allegedly left-wing bias in programming. The firm’s founder Reed Hastings, one lawmaker noted, is a prominent progressive Democrat donor. Susan Rice, a top official in the lefty Obama administration, sits on its board.
Sarandos was grilled by Republicans Josh Hawley and Eric Schmitt of Missouri, as well as Texas GOP Sen. Ted Cruz who asked whether a progressively biased and “woke” company should be given more market power.
That would include the overwhelming support of its employees and executives for Democrats, its use of trans characters in children’s shows, its alleged anti-conservative messaging; its airing of a movie called “Cuties” which critics say sexualizes underage girls, and its continued support of Diversity Equity and Inclusion in its hiring and programming.
Sarandos, often in halting language, explained that Netflix programming spans the ideological universe. “Cuties,” he said, is a movie for adults, and the company doesn’t engage in politics. That was after Schmitt showed him a posting on Netflix’s social media page that displayed a video supporting “white guilt” during the 2020 George Floyd riots.
Sarandos’ answer: That was an “uncharacteristic post I deeply regretted if that got posted.” He added that it’s his “hope that would never happen again.”
Cruz turned up the heat more when he asked Sarandos if he agreed with some of the talent at the recent Grammy Awards who attacked the country as racist, claiming the deportation of illegal immigrants is wrong because the country is on “stolen ground.”
After Sarandos demurred in his answer, Cruz bashed him for not explicitly stating “Hell no, we’re not on stolen ground.”
Now you know why Zaslav skipped town.
