‘Cable Cowboy’ John Malone Sees More Streaming Bundles Ahead

The media mogul also said news channels should do a better job of distinguishing between news and opinion.

Early last year, the longtime media heavyweight John Malone made a prediction about a big change coming in the film and TV industry.

Over lunch with two fellow media moguls, Brian Roberts of Comcast and Barry Diller of IAC, at his winter home in Jupiter Island, Fla., Mr. Malone hypothesized that AT&T — then the owner of media brands like HBO, CNN and the Warner Bros. film studio — would soon spin off or sell those properties.

A short time later, his prognostication came true. Still, he said, he was surprised when David Zaslav, then the chief executive of the reality TV giant Discovery, called him in March seeking his approval, as an influential Discovery shareholder, to combine with WarnerMedia. The deal, forming Warner Bros. Discovery, was announced in May…