Mipcom to honour Discovery’s Zaslav

Discovery Communications president and CEO David Zaslav has been named as the Mipcom 2017 Personality of the Year.

David Zaslav

Zaslav will be honoured during a gala dinner on October 18 and will give a Media Mastermind keynote address at the Cannes market, which takes place from October 16 to 19.

The exec joined Discovery as CEO in 2007 and oversaw its move to trade as a public company in 2008.

More recently, he agreed a deal to acquire Scripps Networks Interactive, which will see Discovery become home to five of the top female-skewing networks in the US. The acquisition will give Discovery a 20% share of women watching primetime in the US, nearly 20% of ad-supported pay TV viewership in the country and more than seven billion streams.

Zaslav also oversees cablenets such as Investigation Discovery and OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network, and is credited with expanding Discovery’s range of content genres and brands through investments including Discovery Kids, the leading preschool network in Latin America.

He spearheaded the acquisition of Eurosport, which has since become home to the Olympic Games in Europe through 2024.

Zaslav’s Media Mastermind address will take place on October 18 at 14.30 in the Palais des Festivals’ Grand Auditorium.

Previous Mipcom personalities of the year include Dana Walden and Gary Newman, Ted Turner, Pierre Lescure, Anne Sweeney and Leslie Moonves.