Jason Kilar reflects on his time at WarnerMedia, defends CNN+, and reveals what he's working on

It’s been a little more than two years since Jason Kilar led the company once called WarnerMedia.

Since then, he’s maintained a fairly low profile, evading the headlines as the new Warner Bros. Discovery team, led by David Zaslav, steers the company he once headed.

We caught up with Kilar this week for a wide-ranging conversation about what he’s working on now, whether he has any regrets from his time at WarnerMedia, his thoughts on WBD shuttering CNN+, how he thinks the media landscape will look like in the future, and more. Below is the Q&A, lightly edited for readability.

OLIVER: What have you been up to since the Warner-Discovery deal?

JASON: A number of the early Hulu founding team members and myself are working on a project focused on social video and communities. Additionally, I am serving on the boards of directors at Roblox and Wealthfront.

OLIVER: What don’t observers fully understand about running a massive media company amid the rapidly shifting landscape?

JASON: The importance of creating an environment for creative people to do their life’s best work while at the same time providing a clearly articulated vision — and lots of context — for how a great team will successfully navigate a rapidly changing world. I believe that doing each of those things well requires far more empathy, humility and authenticity than most casual observers might realize.

OLIVER: Which high-profile media executive most impresses you right now?

JASON: Taylor Swift.

OLIVER: Any regrets from your time at WarnerMedia? If you could have a do-over, would you still execute Project Popcorn?

JASON: Thank you for asking, as now there’s the benefit of the passage of time and reflection. On the one hand, I continue to be very grateful for — and take pride in — what we as a team were able to do at Warner across the storytelling and the business. “House of the Dragon,” “Mare of Easttown,” “Ted Lasso,” “Hacks,” “The White Lotus,” “The Batman,” “Dune,” “Wonka,” “Hogwarts Legacy,” record-setting company revenues and an ascendent HBO Max across 61 global markets. Our team also put “Barbie” and “The Last of Us” into production. All of this while in a global pandemic. So the major feeling that persists for me is that of gratitude to Warner’s creative partners, gratitude to the Warner team and gratitude for the opportunity to lead.

Regarding Project Popcorn, there’s so much to dive into there…from the good things that we were able to do in theaters and in living rooms for audiences in the middle of the pandemic to things I certainly could have done differently. I think it best to dive into that one in a podcast setting, as the subject matter deserves it.

OLIVER: What would you recommend Warner Bros. Discovery do differently to succeed in this climate?

JASON: Out of respect to the Discovery executives, I’m going to decline to answer this one.

OLIVER: Before you exited, you spent a lot of time and resources launching CNN+, which WBD immediately shuttered. Do you think they now view that as a mistake? And what one piece of advice would you give to Mark Thompson as he tries to push CNN into the digital future?

JASON: For context, our investment in a paid digital CNN experience back in 2022 was an investment in the future of CNN. It was about serving audiences in ways they increasingly prefer, with a healthy and scalable business model. I felt strongly that CNN and the CNN team deserved that investment and that it was a wise investment. And as so many people steeped in digital know, these things take time, thoughtfulness and conviction. It took Netflix four years to get to 1 million paid subscribers. I do think it is a missed opportunity to have over 2 years go by without material investment or progress on that level.

That said, I don’t think Mark Thompson needs any advice whatsoever, as I believe he fully appreciates the situation and in his career he has successfully navigated such waters. I’m rooting for Mark and the CNN team to achieve great things both journalistically and digitally.

OLIVER: Let me ask you to do the impossible and make a prediction for the future. What do you think the media landscape will look like in five years time?

JASON: The quality of storytelling will continue to improve from its already extremely high levels. Audiences will continue to fragment, and as that happens the hits will matter more. The hits will be bigger. Netflix will earn more cash flow in a year than any Hollywood company has in history. Short form media + interactive will earn more consumer time, unfortunately at the expense of long form media. The companies which earn meaningful engagement from audiences will thrive and those that don’t will struggle. Scale will matter more than ever.

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