In an internal memo, Jason Kilar, the CEO of WarnerMedia, announced to staff that he would be stepping down from his role this Friday ahead of his company’s merger with Discovery, which will become official this Friday. Kilar, who has been in this position for nearly two years, oversees a vast media empire, including CNN, HLN and Turner Sports.
The sudden exit of Cable News Network President Jeff Zucker highlights his tensions with WarnerMedia’s chief, leaves talent frustrated.
WarnerMedia CEO Jason Kilar continued to be on the receiving end of pushback from CNN staffers on Monday over last week’s unexpected resignation of longtime network president Jeff Zucker. According to tweets from Washington Post reporter Jeremy Barr citing CNN staffers who attended a staff meeting with Kilar, the WarnerMedia CEO sidestepped pointed questions about why Zucker’s exit was described as a “resignation” when reports suggest that Zucker would face firing if he did not agree.
The Probe, The Relationship, The Lawyer’s Letter & The Phone Call That Led To Zucker’s Shocking Exit
Jeff Zucker’s surprise resignation from CNN on Wednesday quickly triggered puzzled questions over just what led to his ouster after revelations of his relationship with Allison Gollust, EVP and chief marketing officer for CNN Worldwide. But the relationship itself is not what triggered WarnerMedia CEO Jason Kilar’s call to Zucker in recent days informing him that he had to exit or face termination. Rather, it was Zucker’s failure to disclose the relationship, in violation of WarnerMedia policy.
HBO and its streaming service, HBO Max, have attracted 67.5 million customers, and the company expects to reach 73 million by year end.
With speculation swirling about Jason Kilar’s potential exit from WarnerMedia — given its looming combo with Discovery — the CEO told staffers at a town hall meeting Thursday that he plans to stay with the company through next year. “My plan and my focus is to remain here in my CEO role at WarnerMedia,” Kilar said, according to a source who was in attendance. “I am not thinking right now about post-merger. There will be a time to consider that topic in 2022.”
Exclusives
Jason Kilar was named chief executive of WarnerMedia just last year, but now he is negotiating his departure after being sidelined by David Zaslav, the longtime leader of Discovery.
Jason Kilar, who has served as CEO of WarnerMedia since May 2020, has a compensation package worth about $17 million per year in cash and stock, according to a regulatory filing. Kilar’s base annual salary is $2.5 million, plus $2.5 million in short-term target bonus and $12 million in vested stock grants per year, according to AT&T’s proxy filing Thursday. The exec’s total realized compensation in 2020 was $2.92 million.
New WarnerMedia CEO Jason Kilar is putting his stamp on the company with a big reorganization. Leaving WarnerMedia are Bob Greenblatt, chairman, WarnerMedia Entertainment and Direct-to-Consumer, and Kevin Reilly, chief content officer, HBO Max and president, TNT, TBS, and truTV, as well as Keith Cocozza, SVP communications. The move comes four months after Kilar took over the top WarnerMedia post and two months after the launch of HBO Max.
Jason Kilar takes the reins of one of Hollywood’s largest film and television factories, putting in him charge of the Warner Bros. movie and TV studio, HBO, CNN and other cable networks. The appointment comes just as WarnerMedia, which is owned by AT&T, is preparing the launch of its own streaming service, HBO Max.
Instead of free-for-all distribution supported solely by advertising, new service Vessel will charge $3 per month for exclusive early access to clips of musicians, sporting events, comedians and many other forms of entertainment not available on YouTube or any other digital video service for at least three days.
Former Hulu CEO Jason Kilar launched a new startup, Vessel. The project was formerly known as The Fremont Project. Vessel will focus on content, mainly video. It’s backed by Benchmark, Greylock and Bezos Expeditions. The last is Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos’s personal investment arm.
Hulu CEO Jason Kilar announced in a blog post today that he will leave in the first quarter.
Big changes may be on the horizon for Hulu. According to an internal memo leaked to Variety (subscribers can read that story here), CEO Jason Kilar’s time at the online video service may be up.
Online video service Hulu, which has been put up for sale by its joint owners, now has more than 1 million paying subscribers, CEO Jason Kilar said on Wednesday.
Internet video company Hulu is on track to nearly double its revenue to $500 million and bring its subscriber count to more than 1 million this year, its top executive wrote in a blog post.
Two of the most influential executives in Hollywood may be stepping off the Hulu board, which would give the chief executive of the popular online video website, Jason Kilar, more latitude to run the business.
Hulu is on pace to haul in half a billion dollars in ad revenue in 2011, according to CEO Jason Kilar. That would represent nearly a 100% increase from the $263 million the company — a joint venture between NBC Universal, Disney and News Corp. — made last year.
Hulu wants to expand its online video service internationally and would be willing to take on new investors to help it do so, Jason Kilar, its chief executive, said Wednesday. Kilar said there is an “unmet need” for an online television service in markets around the world, but he declined to specify what countries Hulu is targeting or its time frame.
