Earlier today, the sports media business was aflutter with the news that Warner Bros. Discovery had just signed a two-year carriage deal with Comcast that essentially kept its carriage fee for TNT flat. It was a significant achievement for David Zaslav, who was able to essentially reconstitute the deal he struck with Charter three months ago. Indeed, the prevailing wisdom had been that Comcast was preparing to underbid WBD, which just lost its NBA rights package, partly to compensate for the $2.5 billion that NBCU will soon pay each year to air the league’s games. But also, it would do so just because it was an opportunity for Brian Roberts to pounce on a vulnerable competitor. Now, however, Zaz’s herky-jerk capital-optimization plan appears to be aging slightly more gracefully.