David Zaslav’s Pay To Be “Substantially” Lowered Ahead Of Split, WBD Says, But CEO Will Still Reap Big Rewards

Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav will have his compensation “substantially” reduced after shepherding the company’s split, but he will also reap a substantial reward for his efforts.

In an SEC filing Monday, the company said it had revised the pay packages of Zaslav and CFO Gunnar Wiedenfels, who is poised to become CEO of the TV networks entity that will result from the split. Zaslav is set to run the studios and streamers unit, with HBO and Warner Bros., after the uncoupling. The split, announced last week, is slated to become official in mid-2026.

Zaslav’s new agreement will “significantly reduce his target annual compensation, including lowering his annual cash compensation opportunity and reorienting the total pay mix toward long-term incentives,” the filing said. The change will “foster a stronger alignment with stockholders and incentivize sustained, long-term value creation.”

The compensation committee of the WBD board initiated the new employment agreements. In adjusting Zaslav’s pay, the committee considered “a range of inputs,” the filing noted, “including stockholder feedback obtained over the last few years, peer group practices and benchmarks, strategic priorities of WBD and the value creation opportunities” inherent in the split.

While the writing has been on the wall for several months about WBD splitting into two companies, the swiftness of the announcement of the planned transaction has stunned Wall Street and industry observers. Zaslav, who has reaped hundreds of millions in compensation over the course of his media career, often ranking near the top of all U.S. corporate execs, recently received a rebuke from WBD shareholders. At the company’s annual meeting, they voted against his pay package, though under company rules the vote was non-binding.

MORE to come …