pockets

Ben says he’s reached an agreement to pause the interest on most of it, but he is still incurring charges on around £2,000 of credit card debt and is worried about his repayments going up.

“With all that’s going on, rising interest rates is another cost to deal with,” he tells the BBC.

As well as overall debt repayments of around £300 a month, he and his wife pay £760 on their mortgage. They have also struggled with higher food and energy bills.

Simon Trevethick is head of communications at StepChange, which has been helping Ben manage his debt. He says the debt charity has seen a 20% increase in people asking for support this year and warned of tougher times ahead.

“If higher borrowing costs feed through into household budgets over the coming months, we could see further pressure on people seeking support.”

Oct. 9, 2026 11:08 AM PT

David Zaslav, the longtime TV executive who created Warner Bros. Discovery Inc. but ultimately failed to keep it going as an independent company, made about $600 million on the sale of the business to Paramount Skydance Corp. this week.

Much of Zaslav’s compensation came in the form of stock options. Warner Bros. stockholders received $31 a share in cash in the sale, a nearly 25% increase from when the stock first began trading in April of 2022. The Standard & Poor’s 500 rose 76% over that period.

Many other Warner executives received large paydays, including streaming boss JB Perrette and strategy chief Bruce Campbell. A spokesperson said Zaslav doubled the number of employees overall who received stock awards.

The new company, now called Skydance Corp. and led by technology scion David Ellison, is one of the largest media businesses in the world, comprising the century-old Paramount and Warner Bros. movie studios, dozens of TV networks, like CBS and CNN, as well as the Paramount+ and HBO Max streaming services.

Christopher Palmeri and Dylan Sloan report for Bloomberg.