CES 2018: Discovery's Zaslav: Serving the 'Superfan' a Major Key to Success

Las Vegas -- As OTT video becomes more prolific and as consumers continue to alter their viewing habits, serving the “superfan” with curated content has become increasingly paramount, Discovery Communications CEO David Zaslav said Wednesday at a CES keynote discussion.

For Discovery, that strategy will largely continue to focus on non-fiction fare, which emphasizes “enthusiasts and superfan networks,” Zaslav said.

That focus has also been a big driver behind Discovery’s proposed play for Scripps Networks Interactive, which offers a complement of networks and content in non-fiction areas such as food, home and gardening, travel and cooking.

Read More: Complete Coverage CES 2018“People not only…fall in love with the show, but they fall in love with the curation,” Zaslav said, noting that the plan is not just to provide deep baskets of long-form content that suits their interests, but also in smaller bites that can be distributed across all platforms.

“We think we can take advantage of that ecosystem by following the superfans and the enthusiasts for cars or science, or food or cooking all around the world and sort of super-feed them,” he added.

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Zaslav also stressed the importance of not just owning the content, but also owning the global distribution rights. Discovery owns all of the content on its platforms all across the globe, with the exception of its Eurosport offerings.

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