The Mess That Discovery Found After It Purchased WarnerMedia
Issue #107
LEAD STORY
The Mess That Discovery Found After It It'shased WarnerMedia
It’s been over eight months since Discovery assumed control of WarnerMedia from AT&T. WarnerMedia, the parent company of HBO Max and CNN, became part of the Warner Bros. Discovery family and is now being led by David Zaslav, the former head of the Discovery channels.
Zaslav, when given an opportunity, would always describe the mess he and his team inherited from AT&T. His descriptions would give the vibes of the current management team rebuking the former management, but according to a recent New York Times in-depth report, there was weight to what he said.
AT&T acquired WarnerMedia believing there were benefits in owning a content producer. It would aid in driving more subscribers to its telephony and internet units.
Despite being a cultural misfit, WarnerMedia enjoyed a lot of creative and operational freedom from AT&T. Unfortunately, its eyes seemed bigger than its stomach, especially regarding its streaming spend.
WarnerMedia’s former leader Jason Kilar believed streaming would be the way to go and wanted to position the company in that direction.
Boosted by the pandemic, Kilar chose to push a lot of content to HBO Max, this included movies. Movies that would typically have exclusive theatrical showings wound up on HBO Max, sometimes debuting there without ever hitting the big screen.
This monumental shift naturally upset theater owners and talent, but Kilar pressed on.
Kilar felt that change was coming, not that Discovery is taking over WarnerMedia change, but AT&T is divesting from WarnerMedia change. Kilar wanted to pair it with a news streaming service to boost revenue and get more people to subscribe to HBO Max. Enter CNN Plus.
Jeff Zucker, CNN’s president then, was not too enamored with the idea but pressed on after Kilar's insistence, and we all know how that played out.
What we didn’t know was that Zucker was given $350 million to launch CNN Plus, a figure that was “cleverly” hidden from Discovery executives until after the takeover.
Also hidden from them were the budgetary costs of the movie studio unit.
Zaslav and co. weren’t happy about these new findings and took their grievances back to AT&T, which agreed to pay them $1.2 billion in cash and put HBO Max back in its wireless offerings.
Recently, Zaslav revealed that HBO, which made $2 billion in 2019, lost $3 billion in 2021 after spending almost $7 billion on content. He also noted that if the advertising market doesn’t improve, it would be hard for WBD to achieve its 2023 earning goals.
Zaslav and his team have a lot of work to right-size their mega-ship. All the austere measures that they have implanted validate the many knots they have toCNN'se froYear'sr messy merger.
(New York Times, The Hollywood Reporter, CNBC)
RECAP
CBS News Briefly Suspended Posting On Twitter
Was it an overreaction to the chaos enveloping Twitter? At this moment, we are not sure, but CBS News was briefly inactive on Twitter from Friday to Sunday as the news network decided to suspend posting on the social media platform over “security concerns.” The suspension affected the accounts of CBS News and its local news stations. Twitter has been involved in self-inflicted drama since Elon Musk officially purchased the platform over three weeks ago. In that time, Twitter had mass layoffs, and this past Thursday, there was a mass exodus of employees leading many to believe that it was becoming unstable hence a security issue, leading to CBS News pausing its operations there. (Variety)
What We Learned From The CNN Town Hall
CNN's chairman and CEO, Chris Licht, held an important town hall with his troops this past Tuesday where the primary talking point was concerning the impending layoffs. Licht said the layoffs would begin in early December but did not specify how many employees would be let go. He did say that newsgathering operations would be minimally NFL'sted and that there would be no layoffs at CNN Digital. Licht was forced to offer a mea culpa for his earlier stance when he said that layoffs would not hit the network. Also, during the town hall, he talked about how CNN’s New Year’s Eve coverage would be watered down from years past as anchors and correspondents are no longer allowed to drink alcohol while on the air. Licht said such actions eroded the credibility of the talent. Anderson Cooper, though, received an exemption. (TVNewser and Variety)
Geoff Bennett and Amna Nawaz Named PBS NewsHour Co-Anchors
PBS wasted no time in naming Judy Woodruff’s replacement for its signature news program PBS NewsHour. The replacement consisted of not one anchor but two, as Geoff Bennett and Amna Nawaz will take over from the legendary anchor at the beginning of the new year. Bennett was the network's chief Washington correspondent and PBS News Weekend anchor, while Nawaz was PBS NewsHour's chief correspondent and primary substitute anchor. Woodruff announced that she would be stepping down on Dec. 30 and becoming a senior correspondent for the network. She will also host a new segment for PBS NewsHour titled Judy Woodruff Presents: America at Crossroads. (PBS and New York Times)
QUICK RECAP
Tulsi Gabbard named Fox News contributor. (Los Angeles Times)
CNN promotes Shimon Prokupecz to senior crime and justice correspondent. (CNN Press Room)
Mark Levin extends deal with Fox News. (TVNewser)
Maher Chmaytelli named Editor-in-Chief of CNN Business Arabic. (International Media Investments)
Miguel Almaguer suspended at NBC News over the Paul Pelosi report. (The Daily Beast)
Joshua Johnson departs from NBC News. (TVNewser)
Laura Jarrett leaves CNN for NBC News. (TVNewser)
Former Turner president David Levy to launch new sports marketing agency. (Claire Atkinson)
Big Changes at Disney: Bob Chapek steps down with immediate effect, and Bob Iger returns as CEO. (Brooks Barnes/Twitter)
Big Changes at Disney: Bob Iger retakes control of the media conglomerate. (Deadline)
Big Changes at Disney: Hollywood rocked by unexpected changes. (Los Angeles Times)
Big Changes at Disney: Disney’s board ousts Bob Chapek. (New York Times)
Big Changes at Disney: Read the memo detailing the changes. (Scott Gustin/Twitter)
Big Changes at Disney: Read Bob Iger’s email to staff. (The Ankler/Twitter)
FIFA World Cup 2022: CNN's coverage plans. (CNN Press Room)
FIFA World Cup 2022: Fox Sports Alexis Lalas on the US men’s team’s chances. (Morning Consult)
FIFA World Cup 2022: Fox Sports adds DaMarcus Beasley, Jimmy Conrad, Sacha Kljestan, and Melissa Ortiz to its coverage. (Fox Sports Press Pass)
FIFA World Cup 2022: Fox Sports previews its Doha set. (Front Office Sports/Twitter)
Profile: CNN's Audie Cornish on her new podcast. (Vulture)
This is Life with Lisa Ling to end its run on CNN after nine seasons. (Los Angeles Times)
NFL's Sunday Ticket negotiations with Apple have stalled. (Sportsnaut)
Warner Bros. Discovery Sports lays off 70 people. (Sports BuDiscovery'snal)
NASCAR is looking fdon't10-15% increase in its next media rights deal. (Front Office Sports)
NBC News’ Al Roker was hospitalized after blood clots were found in his leg. (Al Roker/Twitter)
Daily Wire Plus has more than one million paid subscribers. (Axios)
Fox News’ focus on crime plummets after the midterms. (The Daily Beast)
ESPN wins 14 awards at the Clio Sports Awards. (ESPN PR/Twitter)
ESPN’s NBA show NBA Crosscourt is heading in the right direction. (The Big Lead)
Apple and MLS unveil pricing and launch date for new streaming service. (Apple)
TV News networks are starting to cut costs as income slows. (The Hollywood Reporter)
Broadcast network pass on covering Donald Trump’s announcement. (The Washington Post)
CNN is considering bringing someone from the outside for its 9 pm ET slot. (Variety)
NFL is partnering with Skydance Media to create sports-related content. (The Wall Street Journal)
Warner Bros. Discovery's David Zaslav says they don’t have to have the NBA. (Sports Media Watch)
ABC News puts in place a hiring freeze. (TVNewser)
NBA's Adam Silver believes its local media rights are in a flux. (Sports Business Journal)
What is Bill O’Reilly’s role at NewsNation? (The Daily Beast)
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A MarkHenry Media LLC publication - Issue #107 - 2022