Here are a couple articles that shed some light on the topic:
'Batgirl' was among films that don’t fit WB’s new focus on maximizing their financial returns.
collider.com
"It’s very similar to the structure that Alan Horne and Bob Iger put together very effectively with Kevin Feige at Disney."
collider.com
He's already starting off on a BAD foot and bad footing. He's already deviated from the set path Feige set forth...which is...KEEP GOOD WILL WITH THE FANS.
I think he's made more people upset with cancelling Batgirl than he understands, and his statements about Snyder probably has gotten him some even MORE ill will.
With such mis-steps right off the bat, I think he has a massive PR problem of his own causing right now. Sometimes keeping that 100 million (yes, 90 million to make so far, but it will take a few more million to be ready I imagine) is better for LONG term profit and PR than a short term tax break.
It's like 4e. Setting forth that new plan and new way to do things, but they started off on the wrong foot right off the bat.
Anecdotal, but I know I have gotten all the DC stuff in streaming, dvd, blu ray, gone to see it in theaters, gotten the merch. He's made ME skeptical...and when you upset those who are the bigger supporters, sometimes that's a very bad move.
That's why with 5e, it didn't matter what they actually were doing or did, with PR they ALWAYS tried to appeal to the hardcore fans and older fans, because many times where they lead, others will follow.
Quality movies are good. Creating BAD PR about things is NEVER a good move.
The next step is to build off the niche. Fiege was a fan already, and saw areas from Marvel that no one else wanted and built them up to be things that everyone desired. DC still has it's biggest properties, so in theory, it should be even easier for DC to pull of a Marvel...but not when you are telling old DC fans that you don't want their stuff, and by default, don't want them.
Thoughts are that he's going to cancel the ONLY GOOD part of DC that was actually being rather successful (We'll see, but thoughts are blazing right now that they only have another season...if that) which is the arrow verse and it's extensions...which right now would be the Superman and Lois show and Stargirl.
Edit: Reading someone who reported on the earnings call today. The CEO is also planning on following in Netflix's steps (yes, the steps Netflix has taken which seem to be losing subscribers and gained a lot of ill will towards it recently) in putting ads into HBO's services...and similarly to Netflix, have different levels of how many ads you get depending on how much you pay them.
He thinks this move will gain Discovery+ 40 million more subs (We'll see, I think in a pig's eye...but we'll see).
Only thing I think he was right on was the overspending on the stream vs. what the income they were getting back was. But, there are many things I don't like about this plan.
One other item, that it sounds like. Beyond the cost of what they paid for the merger, it seems like they have 53 Billion in long term debt. Leveraged to or around 500%? I see why AT&T offloaded it. Discovery better make some money or this will be like a slow sinking titanic.
Then again, I'm not the core group he's trying to appeal to there. I'm not a stock holder, I don't have any monetary investments with them, soooo....
