With TV companies expected to engage in increased merger activity, CEO David Zaslav says Discovery Communications is positioned to grow on its own.
“I know industry consolidation is on everyone’s mind so I want to talk about Discovery’s market position, our overall operating performance and why I am so excited about our growth profile in both the short and long term,” Zaslav said Wednesday while opening the company’s second-quarter earnings call with analysts.
“It’s a great time to be in the content business,” he said, adding that “the key to exploiting this dynamic marketplace and capitalizing on the brand and distribution strength of the company is by following the same strategic formula we have employed since I came to Discovery seven years ago.”
Zaslav said that “with sustained momentum across our global portfolio and a relatively healthy operating environment we are well positioned to deliver additional growth the remainder of the year.”
Over the longer term, Discovery is “uniquely positioned to deliver sustained growth and build long term shareholder value given the brands we have built and the upside our global footprint provides,” he said.
Discovery has been acquiring programming and distribution assets in Europe and Zaslav said that would continue to build scale in key markets. “We do want to get bigger,” Zaslav said in response to a question. “We need to do it on a disciplined basis.”
