David Zaslav, president, and CEO of Discovery Communication
David Zaslav, president, and CEO of Discovery Communication has been named Personality of the Year at MIPCOM. During the dinner gala, the CEO highlighted that Latin America is their most robust market, where they have been present for more than 20 years.
“In Brazil, we have Home & Health, we have Discovery Kids, Discovery, TLC, the same in Mexico, Argentina, and Colombia. I spend 20% of my time there because I believe a great part of the growth will come from Latin America. Pay TV penetration is still relatively low and the LatAm audience loves excellent content. We are betting on that and investing heavily” he pointed out.
He highlighted markets that are working well and are steady, such as Argentina, Colombia, and Mexico, and mentioned that although Brazil has tipped a bit, it is going to recover because it is a very vibrant country that likes good content.
Zaslav also spoke about Henry Martínez, who is leaving the company at the end of the year, and whom he said is a great friend of his. “His legacy is that he built the company out of zero. He is a fantastic entrepreneur, a great man, and he developed great people and has great integrity. It will be hard for someone to top his legacy.”
He described Luis Silberwasser, who worked at Discovery for a long time, first in Latin America and then in London, where he was in charge of international content, as a brilliant person, very heartfelt and kind. “He is a great fighter for construction of values. It was a great loss for us that he left the company,” he expressed.
