Discovery’s David Zaslav Calls US Skinny Bundles ‘Overstuffed Turkeys’

“Skinny bundle in the U.S. is a fiction,” president and CEO tells media analysts

David Zaslav
David Zaslav, Discovery Communications CEO

David Zaslav has seen actual skinny TV bundles in 200 other countries, so the Discovery Communications president and CEO doesn’t want to hear that term being used stateside — at least, not until it rings true.

“Outside of the U.S., there have been very successful skinny bundles — and we’re in all of them,” Zaslav told media analysts Tuesday morning on his company’s first-quarter earnings conference call.

“There is no skinny bundle here,” he said of the industry’s latest small-screen catchphrase, which refers to smaller, relatively inexpensive packages of desirable cable channels. “Skinny bundle in the U.S. is a fiction.”

“The idea that you have a $40 offering filled with regional sports … an incomplete package, really — and then you have to buy broadband on top of it, so the skinny bundle is $60 or $70,” Zaslav added. “It’s really not a skinny bundle — it’s a bundle.”

“Ultimately, there should be a bundle like everywhere else in the world that’s $8, $10, $12 — I think that will happen,” he continued. “I think these overstuffed turkeys are gonna end up being a challenge from a consumer perspective.”

Current cord-cutting trends would tend to agree with the Discovery boss. Read the company’s somewhat disappointing Q1 financials here.

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