Donna Langley Preaches The Power Of Optimism & Meeting Consumers Where They Really Are To Ken Ziffren & UCLA

deadline.com:

“Everyone is talking about the doom and gloom of our industrym but we have to get over that and be optimists,” said Donna Langley today. “I really do believe that.” “As much as things change, they stay the same,” the Chairman of NBCU Studio Group and Chief Content Officer also declared of the media industry. “It’s an inevitability.” “The pocketbook is being impacted by how many streaming subscriptions they have,” Langley added of the growing move towards the old cable mode of bundling in the digital environment.

Moving from matters of bundling, the big and small screens, the state of Peacock, AI, protecting IP and the unsteady media landscape, the seasoned exec was speaking Friday with uber-attorney Ken Ziffren onstage in the marquee event of the 48th Annual UCLA Entertainment Symposium. “Consumer behavior has shifted, but it’s probably not coming back anytime soon,” Langley admitted of the post-pandemic business realities the industry is grappling with.

However, as cinema fans now are seeing just one movie on average a year as opposed to four movies a  year pre-pandemic, Langley says her rule is to push back with an increased focus on creativity and pinpoint choices. “We’re meeting the consumer where they are,” Langley said in the developing multi-prong NBCU strategy.

Especially  when it comes to attracting the Gen Z audience. “It’s not back to the 1990s ..it’s appointment viewing, and it has to have a lot of social energy around it,” the exec detailed of getting the bums of the generation born in the Clinton Era in seats.