In the wake of Kevin Tsujihara’s departure, WarnerMedia’s John Stankey promises to appoint interim leaders while he searches for a permanent replacement.
As WarnerMedia’s John Stankey searches for a new studio chief following Kevin Tsujihara’s Monday exit as Warner Bros. chairman-CEO, he has put studio execs Toby Emmerich, Peter Roth and Kim Williams in charge.
As Warner Bros. chairman and chief executive officer at one of Hollywood’s most powerful and prestigious studios, Kevin Tsujihara is one of the highest ranking executives to be felled by sexual misconduct allegations.
The streaming service landscape is growing. The industry, once dominated by a few companies, is now more than a dozen strong, and more players keep entering the game. Comcast, Warner Bros. and Disney are the latest entries, signifying a major shift in strategy for traditional cable television companies. And that could be bad news for Netflix, in particular.
Warner Bros. said it had investigated prior accusations against Extra host A.J. Calloway and found no suggestion of workplace misconduct. But he was suspended after the syndicator became aware of additional allegations that will be published in an upcoming article in The Hollywood Reporter.
Exclusives
BURBANK, Calif. (AP) — Champagne briefly replaced scripts Thursday for a ceremony renaming the nondescript Stage 25 on the sprawling Warner Bros. production lot after the sitcom “The Big Bang […]
Warner Bros. has promoted Jay Levine to a newly created corporate post as EVP television business strategy and digital services. Levine will report directly to Warner Bros. Chairman-CEO Kevin Tsujihara on all matters related to television, and to the studio’s chief digital officer and executive vp strategy and business development, Thomas Gewecke, for the digital side of things.
Wendy Aylsworth — who spend more than two decades in tech roles as Warner Bros., most recently as SVP technology, and was the first woman president of the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers — will receive the Charles F. Jenkins Lifetime Achievement Award at the Television Academy’s Engineering Emmy Awards on Oct. 24.
AT&T is developing a new streaming video service that will use the Warner Bros. catalog of TV shows and movies. “There is an amazing library of media and entertainment content that is really not being put to work, that’s available for direct-to-consumer distribution,” AT&T Chairman Randall Stephenson said Wednesday.
AT&T owns a significant SVOD product in HBO Now, with its $15-per-month price point and more than 5 million subscribers. But the company may be looking at bundling it with other direct-to-consumer products.
Producer Gavin Polone sued Warner Bros. on Thursday, accusing the network of using creative accounting practices to deprive him of residuals for the Netflix revival of Gilmore Girls. The lawsuit, filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, represents the fourth dispute between Polone and the studio over Gilmore Girls residuals in the last 16 years.
Time Warner’s Turner and Warner Bros. are focusing their movie-streaming firepower on one service for film buffs: FilmStruck. The corporate cousins reached a deal to stock Turner’s FilmStruck with more than 600 classic Hollywood films each month from the Warner Bros. library.
VidAngel, the self-touted family-friendly technology service that burst onto the Hollywood scene with a plan to clean up filthy language, nudity and violence from films and television shows, has suffered yet another blow. On Thursday, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed an injunction in a copyright lawsuit brought by Disney, Fox and Warner Bros.
Movie studios are considering whether to ignore the objections of cinema chains and forge ahead with a plan to offer digital rentals of films mere weeks after they appear in theaters, according to people familiar with the matter. Some of the biggest proponents, including Warner Bros. and Universal Pictures, are pressing on in talks with Apple Inc. and Comcast Corp. on ways to push ahead with the project even without theater chains, the people said. After months of negotiations, the two sides have been unable to arrive at a mutually beneficial way to create a $30 to $50 premium movie-download product.
UPFRONTS 2017
Warner, CBS Lead Studios In 2017-18 Shows
Among TV studios, Warner Bros. and CBS have the most new and returning shows for the 2017-18 season. Many networks are opting to renew shows made by their sister studios.
Time Warner’s Turner and Warner Bros. will test the subscription VOD waters for ‘toon fans with the launch of Boomerang, a service starting at $5 per month that will include more than 1,000 episodes of classic and current series.
VidAngel has turned to the Court of Appeals in its legal battle with Disney, Warner Bros., 20th Century Fox and Lucasfilm, requesting an emergency stay that would let it get back in the business of allowlng users to filter language, nudity, violence and other content from movies and TV shows.
Disney, Warner Bros., 20th Century Fox and Lucasfilm have successfully blocked VidAngel, a TVOD service that edits out adult content, from showing their films. A California Federal Judge has granted Disney’s request for a preliminary injunction against VidAngel pending trial.
Warner Bros. has agreed on a deal to acquire embattled gaming-centric multi-channel network Machinima. Terms were not disclosed.
The movie studio has entered advanced talks to buy the gaming-focused YouTube network. The deal would value the company, which is projected to make $75 million in revenue this year, at just under $100 million.
In an effort to better predict and capitalize on the dramatic shifts in content consumption and audience behavior, Warner Bros. Media Research & Insights is expanding its operations to include a vertical […]
There are rumblings that the actress has been discussing a talk show development deal with Warner Bros. and Ellen DeGeneres’ A Very Good Production banner.
TVN FOCUS ON SYNDICATION
Connick Show Heads 2016 Development Slate
A variety-talk show with American Idol judge Harry Connick Jr. from NBCUniversal tops the shows being developed for first-run syndication for fall 2016, according to sources. Warner Bros. is prepping the return of Love Connection and a talk show with personal finance wiz Suze Orman. Fox will be testing two or three show this summer, while Debmar-Mercury and partner Gannett work on an interactive show.
Warner Bros. is developing a remake of the dating game show Love Connection for 2016 with comedian Loni Love, who co-hosts the syndicator’s daytime panel talk show The Real, according to several sources at NATPE this week. A spokesperson for Warner Bros. could not be reached for comment. The original Love Connection with Chuck Woolery ran from 1983 to 1994. Meantime, Loni Love’s other show, The Real, is in its first season in broadcast syndication and is expected to return this fall.
Warner Bros.’ film and television studio, which had an uncharacteristically poor summer at the box office, will cut its annual overheard by $200 million, Chief Executive Kevin Tsujihara said today at a Time Warner investors meeting in New York. Burbank-based Warner Bros., a unit of Time Warner Inc., is set to embark on a round of layoffs by early November. Although there is no set number of job cuts, the reductions are expected to be significant, affecting all divisions of the studio
Warner Bros. Entertainment is expected to cut as many as 900 to 1,000 jobs worldwide as part of a studio-wide cost-cutting move, according to people familiar with the company’s plans. The estimated reductions would amount to more than 10% of the studio’s 9,000-person workforce. Inside sources said that the movie and TV production units will be least impacted as Warner Bros. plans to continue its priority of investing in content and in fact wants to increase the studio’s output.
Time Warner Inc.’s Warner Bros. unit plans to offer buyouts to an unspecified number of workers as part of a drive to increase profit, according to two people with knowledge of the situation. The Burbank, Calif.-based studio, led by CEO Kevin Tsujihara, may fire staff if too few employees take the offer, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the matter is private. Cost cuts at the film, television and home-entertainment businesses will go beyond personnel, the people said, without being more specific.
Warner Bros has hired former White House press secretary and longtime political strategist/analyst Dee Dee Myers as EVP worldwide corporate communications and public affairs replacing nine-year veteran Sue Fleishman.
For long-running series, time is usually not on the side of the cast when they have to negotiate new deals because ratings inevitably erode as shows get older. But that will not be the case with CBS’s The Big Bang Theory, which, in Season 7, is still at its peak.
