A top Warner Bros. Discovery executive is pushing back on how the industry handles content exclusivity. Gerhard Zeiler, President of International at Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD), has challenged big players to “get rid of an exclusivity mindset” when it comes to content.
WBD owns some of the best content in the world. Leaning too strongly on exclusivity, he says, means striking a blow against both money and audiences.
In fact, he pointed out that WBD has a six-month exclusivity window on HBO Max for theatrical movies. The platform will always be home to shows like Euphoria, but there are other places to utilize content. That’s a real concession; even the crown jewels have a limit to how long they can be kept exclusive.
He suggested WBD is now going to better utilize the platform, meeting audiences, especially younger audiences, “where they are.” He said, “a lot of the stuff we do is important to give to other platforms and not traditional, whether that’s YouTube with shortform [content].”
The fear has always been cannibalization. Put your content on YouTube, and maybe fewer people will subscribe to your streaming platform. Zeiler doesn’t buy that. “I don’t see people saying that this is cannibalistic,” he said, adding that there is an audience and revenue opportunity on platforms like YouTube. “We can’t afford not to have that.”
Zeiler also had a word to say about the U.S. box office, which is finally trending close to pre-COVID levels. A healthier theatrical market permits more flexibility for studios in what they want to test next, lessening the temptation to cram dollars out of a single window.
The exclusivity debate won’t go away, of course. But Zeiler’s position is clear. The future belongs to studios willing to go where their audience is, not wait for their audience to come to them.
