Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) has named former BBC and New York Times executive Mark Thompson as its CEO. It comes at a time of great change for the media industry. Traditional media companies like Disney (DIS), Paramount (PARA), and Warner Bros. Discovery are seeing their cable businesses decline while they are investing a lot of money in their streaming businesses. Activate CEO Michael Wolf says all of these companies are trying to position themselves for the "direct-to-consumer" future and, as a result, they will increase their spending on content. Several of the big streamers have started raising prices. Wolf says thinks that, in the future, viewers are going to "churn in and out among these services, price might not be the reason that determines it. It's just more about the availability of programming on those networks and streaming services," Wolf tells Yahoo Finance Live. When it comes to the Hollywood strikes, Wolf calls the timing of the strikes "inopportune," saying the "profit pools for programming production are drying up" and that the "revenue streams for these shows aren't necessarily settled."
