He points out that the AT&T deal that formed Warner Bros. Discovery in the first place helped set the template Zaslav and Wiedenfels are following into the future with Streaming & Studios and Global Networks.

The ongoing back-and-forth over the future of HBO and its parent company Warner Bros. Discovery calls to mind a line from one of the network's great recent series: the business magnate Logan Roy telling his squabbling children "You are not serious people.

He and Gunnar Weidenfels detail the blockbuster unbundling of WBD: Decision "reflects our belief that each company will go further and faster apart than they can together."