Two members of Warner Bros. Discovery’s (WBD) board have resigned amid an investigation from the Department of Justice into whether their presence on the body violated antitrust law.
Steven Miron and Steven Newhouse, both independent company directors, resigned from WBD’s board of directors Monday, the company said, after the DOJ made them aware they were under investigation.
Miron and Newhouse informed WBD that “without admitting any violation, and in light of the changing dynamics of competition in the entertainment industry, they elected to resign rather than to contest the matter.”
Miron is the chief executive of Charter Communications, and Newhouse is president of Advance, two of the largest media conglomerates in the country.
The DOJ had alleged the two executives’ presence on the board violated Section 8 of the Clayton Act, which prohibits the same person or company from serving simultaneously on the boards of competitors, subject to limited exceptions.
“Charter, through its Spectrum cable service, and WBD, including through its Max streaming subscription services, both provide video distribution services to customers,” the department said in a statement on Monday. “Representatives of the privately-held media company Advance Publications Inc. had designees on both Charter’s and WBD’s boards of directors.”
Miron and Newhouse were each appointed to the WBD board effective upon the closing of the merger between Discovery Inc. and WarnerMedia in 2022, and both were originally named by Discovery Inc. as two of its six designees to the WBD board, the company noted.
“Both Steve and Steven have been a great source of wise counsel and tremendous industry insight over the years, and they played an integral role in getting this new company up and running and on a path to long-term growth,” said David Zaslav, chief executive officer of Warner Bros. Discovery.