Warner Bros. Discovery, the media big created by the fusion of the house owners of HBO and “90 Day Fiancé,” stated Thursday that it had picked an government to handle its billions of {dollars} of sports activities rights, one of many cornerstones of the corporate. The corporate now has the rights to video games from the Nationwide Basketball Affiliation and the Nationwide Hockey League.
The manager, Luis Silberwasser, will probably be accountable for ushering the corporate’s sports activities programming — which incorporates “Contained in the NBA,” the N.C.A.A. March Insanity males’s basketball match and playoff baseball — additional into the streaming period.
Mr. Silberwasser has been one of the senior executives at Univision, which closed a $4.8 billion take care of the Mexican media big Televisa this yr to create a Spanish-language media colossus. He’s president of TelevisaUnivision Inc. U.S. Networks Group, reporting to Wade Davis, Univision’s chief government.
Mr. Silberwasser has a longstanding relationship with David Zaslav, the chief government of Warner Bros. Discovery, who oversaw Discovery earlier than it merged with WarnerMedia this yr. Mr. Silberwasser was an government vp at Discovery, accountable for content material at Discovery Networks Worldwide, throughout a tenure on the firm that ran greater than a decade. His title will probably be chairman and chief government of Warner Bros. Discovery Sports activities.
Mr. Silberwasser, who’s Latino, is one of some executives of shade on Mr. Zaslav’s administration crew. He joins Savalle Sims, the corporate’s common counsel, and Channing Dungey, the chairman of Warner Brothers Tv Group, who’re Black. Warner Bros. Discovery has taken steps to diversify its board of administrators, and Mr. Silberwasser’s appointment makes him one of the highly effective Latino executives within the U.S. media trade.
Mr. Silberwasser might want to maintain programming prices beneath management whereas the value of reside sports activities rights soars. Mr. Zaslav has advised Wall Road that the corporate will probably be disciplined about its spending on content material, however he additionally needs the corporate to stay a significant participant within the sports-media enviornment. These two targets could possibly be at odds.
One distinguished instance: the N.B.A. Warner Bros. Discovery pays an average of about $1.2 billion per yr for the rights to point out N.B.A. video games nationally, a part of a nine-year settlement signed in 2014. That settlement is up after the 2024-25 season, and the N.B.A. is anticipating its payment to sharply enhance throughout the subsequent spherical of negotiations given the league’s rising international reputation, an individual aware of the settlement stated.
There may be little doubt that Warner Bros. Discovery must pay extra to proceed exhibiting the N.B.A., which is a prime draw for its cable channel TNT and sports activities web site Bleacher Report. The N.F.L. almost doubled its media income from rights agreements signed final yr, and the N.H.L., the Southeastern Convention and different sports activities leagues have seen enormous will increase in lately accomplished offers.
Mr. Silberwasser will probably be accountable for managing Warner Bros. Discovery’s U.S. sports activities portfolio and setting the corporate’s international sports activities technique. The corporate’s worldwide sports activities portfolio, together with the Olympics, will probably be managed by Andrew Georgiou, the president and managing director of WBD Sports activities Europe. Lenny Daniels, the president of Turner Sports activities, and Patrick Crumb, the president of regional sports activities networks, will report back to Mr. Silberwasser.
