93-469: WBD may refer to: Warner Bros. Discovery , an American mass media conglomerate Whitley Bridge railway station , North Yorkshire, England (National Rail station code) Wimm-Bill-Dann Foods , large Russian yogurt and juice maker Witches' Broom Disease, caused by the fungus Moniliophthora perniciosa WMDT-DT2 , a television station (channel 47 digital) licensed to Salisbury, Maryland, United States, using
186-481: A 15.4% stake in the company for $ 2.6 billion. Nexstar announced on August 15 that it would acquire a 75% majority share in The CW; the remaining 25% would be shared equally by Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery. As the deal did not require any regulatory approvals (unlike the "Big Four" networks, which includes CBS, The CW does not directly own any of its stations), Nexstar immediately took operational control of
279-632: A 45-day window to shop for matching or superior offers from other bidders. Redstone will receive $ 2.4 billion for her share in National Amusements. If Paramount were to find a better offer, Skydance would be entitled to a $ 400 million breakup fee payout from the company. Skydance's executive team supported the potential sale of several Paramount assets which were deemed "not strategic" to their plans, including BET and others. In August 2024, Paramount announced it would lay off 15% of its U.S. workforce, amounting to about 2,000 employees. The cuts came as
372-416: A 49% minority stake in film studio Miramax from beIN Media Group for $ 379 million. As part of the purchase, Paramount Pictures reached a long-term deal for exclusive distribution rights to its library, and first-look agreements to co-develop new film and television projects based on Miramax-owned properties. On March 2, 2020, executive vice president Dana McClintock announced that he would depart
465-420: A 75% controlling interest in The CW; WBD and Paramount would each retain a 12.5% ownership interest in the network. Nexstar stated that Mark Pedowitz would remain chairman and CEO of the network. WBD and Paramount would still produce content for The CW as the network's main content suppliers, but Nexstar stated that the arrangement would be for the 2022–23 broadcast season , and it was given "the option to extend
558-567: A broader array of content. It was reported that the company had also suspended scripted development at TBS and TNT , to evaluate their strategies moving forward. The following day, Zaslav purchased approximately $ 1 million worth of WBD stock. On May 11, 2022, Warner Bros. Discovery eliminated several executive positions carried over from WarnerMedia, including Kids, Young Adults and Classics head Tom Ascheim , and general manager of TBS, TNT, and TruTV head Brett Weitz. These networks would be overseen by Finch as head of U.S. Networks, while
651-473: A consultant. WBD delivered its second-quarter earnings report on August 4, 2022. Ahead of the report, the company performed multiple cuts to HBO Max throughout July and early-August, including cutting new programming development in much of Europe, live-action children's programming development, and direct-to-streaming films—leading to the notable August 3 cancellations of the nearly-completed films Batgirl and Scoob! Holiday Haunt as tax write-offs , and
744-408: A contractual commitment that would require any new owner to buy new programming from those companies, allowing them to reap some continual revenue through the network. The CW's then-president-and-CEO Mark Pedowitz confirmed talks of a potential sale in a memo to CW staffers, but added that "It's too early to speculate what might happen." On January 26, 2022, AT&T CEO John Stankey stated that
837-440: A culture of internal competition between WarnerMedia's businesses. He also expected that "investment avoidance" via the consolidation of redundant business units (such as streaming) and staff would be one of the main ways that the company would achieve its promised $ 3 billion in cost savings. On April 21, 2022, Licht and Perrette announced the shutdown of CNN's streaming service CNN+ , which had only launched two weeks prior to
930-519: A history of being associated with one another through a series of various corporate mergers and splits. Paramount Pictures was founded in 1912 as the Famous Players Film Company . CBS was founded in 1927, which Paramount Pictures held a 49 percent ownership stake in from 1929 to 1932. In 1952, CBS formed CBS Television Film Sales, a division which handled syndication rights for CBS's library of network-owned television series. This division
1023-425: A new publicly traded company. AT&T and Discovery officially confirmed the agreement the next day; the merger would be structured as a Reverse Morris Trust , with AT&T shareholders holding a 71% interest in the new company's stock and appointing seven board members, and Discovery shareholders holding a 29% interest and appointing six board members. AT&T would receive US$ 43 billion in cash and debt from
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#17328490505211116-634: A new studio, which will be funded by and have an exclusive, five-year distribution deal with Warner Bros. Pictures. Warner Bros. Pictures was then divided into three business units with their own leadership: former MGM executives Michael De Luca and Pamela Abdy became the co-chairs of Warner Bros. Pictures and New Line Cinema , and temporarily oversaw the DC Films and Warner Animation Group units. Eight days later, WBD named former Discovery and Univision executive Luis Silberwasser as chairman of Sports. In July 2022, Alan Horn rejoined Warner Bros. as
1209-535: A partnership with local media company Stuff , which launched an evening newscast under the ThreeNews banner using its resources and former Newshub staff. In July 2024, CNN CEO Mark Thompson announced 100 employees would be laid off as part of a larger strategy to consolidate and integrate its television and digital operations. A week later, a smaller number of WBD employees at Max and in production, business affairs, and finance were also let go. On July 18, 2024, it
1302-438: A presentation to investors, ViacomCBS announced that it would change its name to Paramount Global beginning the following day; in a memo to staff announcing the change, it was stated that the rebranding was intended to leverage the "iconic global name", and would "reflect who we are, what we aspire to be, and all that we stand for". The company primarily does business as simply "Paramount". In May 2022, Berkshire Hathaway acquired
1395-409: A quarterly loss in subscribers), describing Warner Bros. Discovery as being a "far more balanced and competitive company" that would "invest at scale smartly" and not "overspend" on growth and that its streaming businesses would complement its linear television. He stated that HBO Max had "meaningful subscriber churn ", and that the planned merger of it with Discovery+ would help to reduce it by offering
1488-422: A result of a $ 6 billion write-down on its cable TV networks. This included the shutdown of Paramount Television Studios . The following month, Paramount sold Vidcon to UK firm Informa . In November 2024, it was reported that Shari Redstone would leave Paramount Global after the company completed its planned merger with Skydance Media. The merged entity will see David Ellison, founder of Skydance Media, assume
1581-520: A sale of the BET Media Group to buyers led by BET CEO Scott Mills for $ 1.6-$ 1.7 billion. On July 7, 2024, Paramount's board approved the deal to merge with Skydance. Under the final deal, which has an enterprise value of $ 28 billion, Ellison would be appointed as Chairman and CEO of what is currently being called "New Paramount" and former NBCUniversal CEO Jeff Shell would become company president. Before finalization, Paramount Global would retain
1674-482: A single platform with a mixture of both companies' technologies. He also noted that WBD may prioritize launching Discovery+ and HBO Max as a unified platform in markets where Discovery+ has yet to launch, such as another parts of the Asia-Pacific. On March 14, 2022, Discovery CFO Gunnar Wiedenfels—who would assume the same position post-merger—confirmed that such a transition was a long-term goal. On December 22, 2021,
1767-538: A substantial loss. By May 17, Sony and Apollo signed non-disclosure agreements allowing them to investigate Paramount's private financial information, further progressing their bid. However, at that time, the companies were reportedly backing away from their all-cash offer and were re-thinking their approach to a deal for the company's assets. In late May, Skydance would revise its offer to acquire National Amusements, paying $ 2.25 billion and stipulating that Paramount's shareholders would receive $ 4.5 billion in cash, with
1860-518: A three-way transaction between the companies. On April 18, it was reported that Sony Pictures was interested in acquiring Paramount Global through a joint buyout with Apollo. On April 29, 2024, Bob Bakish stepped down from his role as President and CEO. He was replaced by an office of the CEO, led by Brian Robbins , George Cheeks, and Chris McCarthy . The Los Angeles Times characterized this as an ouster by Redstone due to Bakish's reported opposition of
1953-563: Is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered in New York City . It was formed from WarnerMedia 's spin-off by AT&T and merger with Discovery, Inc. on April 8, 2022. The company's properties are divided into nine business units, consisting of the flagship Warner Bros. film and television studios, comic book publisher DC Comics , Home Box Office, Inc. (including HBO , Cinemax and Magnolia Network ), U.S. Networks Group (including
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#17328490505212046-552: Is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate controlled by National Amusements and headquartered at One Astor Plaza in Times Square , Midtown Manhattan . The company was formed on December 4, 2019, as ViacomCBS through the merger of the second incarnations of CBS Corporation and Viacom (which were split from the original Viacom on December 31, 2005). The company took its current name on February 16, 2022. Paramount's main properties include
2139-459: The CBS Studio Center to Hackman Capital Partners and Square Mile Capital Management for $ 1.85 billion. On January 5, 2022, The Wall Street Journal reported that ViacomCBS and WarnerMedia (whose then-owner AT&T was selling it to Discovery to form Warner Bros. Discovery ) were exploring a possible sale of either a majority stake or all of The CW , and that Nexstar Media Group
2232-593: The Federal Trade Commission (FTC). On October 28, 2019, the merger was approved by National Amusements, which then announced the deal would close in early December; the recombined company trades its shares on Nasdaq under the symbols "VIAC" and "VIACA" after CBS Corporation delisted its shares on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). On November 25, 2019, Viacom and CBS announced the merger would close on December 4 and begin trading on NASDAQ on
2325-482: The United States Department of Justice on February 9. On March 11, 2022, the merger was approved by Discovery's shareholders. Due to the structure of the merger, it did not require separate approval from AT&T shareholders. In an SEC filing on March 25, 2022, AT&T stated that two-way trading of WBD stock with that of AT&T would begin on April 4, 2022, and that a special dividend would be issued
2418-446: The 2025–26 season, ending a nearly 36-year association between the NBA and TNT. WBD had attempted to invoke a condition in its contract allowing it to match offers made by competitors (with the company, in particular, targeting the package sold to Amazon), but the league argued that it did not sufficiently match Amazon's offer. WBD threatened to take legal action over the agreement, claiming that
2511-992: The Middle East, Greece, and Turkey. On August 4, 2020, ViacomCBS announced that the company's connected video advertising platform, EyeQ, is set to launch in fall 2020. On September 14, 2020, ViacomCBS announced an agreement to sell the CBSi-owned CNET Media Group to Red Ventures for $ 500 million. The deal included the eponymous CNET tech site, as well as ZDNet , GameSpot , the TV Guide digital assets, Metacritic , and Chowhound . The deal closed on October 30, 2020. On November 17, 2020, various news outlets reported that companies such as Vivendi , Bertelsmann 's Penguin Random House and News Corp 's HarperCollins had considered acquiring Simon & Schuster for as much as $ 1.7 billion. ViacomCBS had expected
2604-551: The NBA had "grossly misinterpreted our contractual rights". In August 2024, WBD reported that it had lost $ 10 billion in the second quarter of 2024, relating to continued losses from its direct-to-consumer segment and the devaluation of its linear TV assets. In November 2024, WBD agreed to a legal settlement with the NBA. The settlement included access to NBA highlights at no additional cost for Bleacher Report and House of Highlights and allowed for WBD, under its TNT Sports division, to continue operating NBA TV and NBA.com for
2697-499: The NBA. The agreement also included live game rights for select international territories, but none domestically. In a separate agreement with Disney , WBD agreed to sublicense its NBA studio show Inside the NBA to ESPN and ABC in exchange for ESPN sublicensing Big 12 college football and basketball games to TNT Sports. Warner Bros. Discovery consists of eight primary business divisions: Paramount Global Paramount Global (also known simply as Paramount )
2790-476: The Skydance deal. McCarthy was legally designated the company's "interim principal executive officer" in order to comply with SEC regulations stipulating that one person must conduct "the normal course of business". On May 2, Sony and Apollo submitted a non-binding offer to Paramount for a $ 26 billion all-cash offer, with terms unclear at that point. Skydance's exclusive negotiation window ended on May 3, 2024 and
2883-564: The Time Warner name in 2003. Time Warner spun off its cable division (later known as Spectrum owned by Charter Communications ) and AOL (now owned by Yahoo! Inc. ) in 2009 and Time Inc. was spun out in 2013, which was later acquired by Meredith Corporation and is now known as Dotdash Meredith . In 2018, Discovery Communications and AT&T acquired Scripps Networks Interactive and Time Warner, and were renamed to Discovery, Inc. and WarnerMedia respectively. In 2019, AT&T dissolved
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2976-511: The Turner Broadcasting System as part of its reorganization of its media assets. On May 16, 2021, Bloomberg News reported that AT&T was considering an offer to divest equity interest in their media subsidiary WarnerMedia (the former Time Warner, which AT&T acquired in 2018 for just over $ 85 billion in an attempt to become a vertically integrated media conglomerate ), and have it merge with Discovery, Inc. to form
3069-621: The United Kingdom's Channel 5 , and Australia's Network 10 . From 2011 to 2023, the division also owned a 30% stake in the Italian Rainbow S.p.A. studio. As of 2019, the company operates over 170 networks and reaches approximately 700 million subscribers in 180 countries. In 2024, National Amusements held talks for a potential merger or acquisition of Paramount Global, with Warner Bros. Discovery , Sony Pictures , Apollo Global Management , and Skydance Media all considering acquiring
3162-479: The Viacom deal, such as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), Lionsgate, or Sony Pictures . Moonves also considered Bakish a threat because he did not want an ally of Shari Redstone as a board member of the combined company. On September 9, 2018, Les Moonves exited CBS Corporation following multiple accusations of sexual assault. National Amusements agreed to not propose a CBS Corporation-Viacom merger for at least two years after
3255-417: The auspices of Investigation Discovery and abandoning its remaining original live news programming. In January 2023, WBD announced licensing agreements with the free ad-supported streaming television (FAST) services The Roku Channel and Fox Corporation 's Tubi , featuring library content from Discovery, TLC, HGTV, Food Network, Warner Bros. Pictures, Warner Bros. Television, and HBO (including some of
3348-489: The bids to be placed before November 26. On November 25, 2020, Penguin Random House agreed to purchase Simon & Schuster for $ 2.175 billion; however, the deal was blocked two years later by U.S. federal judge Florence Y. Pan . On August 16, 2021, ViacomCBS announced that they had agreed to sell the CBS Building to the real estate investment and management firm Harbor Group International for $ 760 million, leasing
3441-483: The change of plans during an earnings call, saying that Discovery+ has "profitable subscribers that are very happy with the product offering". In early-June 2023, Chris Licht was fired from CNN. On June 20, 2023, WBD underwent a round of layoffs affecting around 100 employees in the U.S. Networks division, most notably including multiple Turner Classic Movies (TCM) executives such as Pola Changnon (who had been with Turner for over 25 years). WBD announced plans to place
3534-551: The channel under Cartoon Network head Michael Ouweleen . It was also reported that WBD was preparing a deal to sell half of the published music catalog of Warner Bros. Entertainment (which consists primarily of music composed for its films and TV series, and is currently being administered by Universal Music Publishing Group ) for around $ 500 million. Amid concerns over the future of TCM, Martin Scorsese , Steven Spielberg , and Paul Thomas Anderson met with Zaslav, and on June 23 it
3627-516: The company after 27 years in CBS Communications. On March 4, the company announced plans to potentially sell its Simon & Schuster publishing unit, with Bakish arguing that it lacked a "significant connection for our broader business". On June 19, 2020, Jaime Ondarza, formerly the senior vice president of Turner Broadcasting South Europe and Africa, became the new head of ViacomCBS Networks International for France, Spain, Portugal, Italy,
3720-516: The company aimed to be the "most innovative, exciting and fun place to tell stories in the world", and would combine Warner Bros.' "fabled hundred-year legacy of creative, authentic storytelling and taking bold risks to bring the most amazing stories to life" with Discovery's "integrity, innovation and inspiration." In an SEC Filing on November 18, 2021, Discovery revealed that talks with AT&T had fallen through, in April 2021, due to disagreements over
3813-472: The company and forcing a merger that was not supported by it or Viacom . CBS Corporation also accused Redstone of discouraging Verizon Communications from acquiring it, which could have been beneficial to its shareholders. On May 23, 2018, Les Moonves explained that he considered the Viacom channels to be an " albatross ," and while he favored more content for CBS All Access (now Paramount+), he believed that there were better deals for CBS Corporation than
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3906-475: The company made a number of further acquisitions. In 1979, Warner Communications formed a joint venture with credit card company American Express called Warner-Amex Satellite Entertainment . American Express acquired a 50% stake in Warner Communications' cable television holdings for $ 175 million. This company owned such cable channels as MTV , Nickelodeon , The Movie Channel , and VH1 (which
3999-407: The company taking $ 1.5 billion in debt reduction funds, which The Wall Street Journal reported an independent committee representing Paramount had ultimately recommended. By June 3, Paramount and Skydance had agreed to terms of a merger. A final deal was expected to be announced in the coming days. However, at that point, Redstone's National Amusements had not formally approved the deal. Redstone
4092-410: The company's top executive roles are filled by their Discovery counterparts, including Gunnar Wiedenfels as Warner Bros. Discovery's chief financial officer (CFO), JB Perrette as president and CEO of global streaming and interactive, and Discovery's chief lifestyle brands officer Kathleen Finch —whose role has been expanded to cover most of the combined company's U.S. linear networks, besides CNN (which
4185-467: The company. By June 3, Paramount reportedly agreed to merger terms with Skydance. However, by June 11, merger talks between Paramount and Skydance had fallen apart, resulting in the proposed merger being called off. The companies would later re-negotiate the deal, and on July 2, 2024, Skydance reached a preliminary agreement to acquire National Amusements and merge with Paramount to create "New Paramount". Paramount Pictures , CBS , and Viacom each had
4278-402: The completion of the merger; the new leadership considered it to be incompatible with their goal of a unified streaming service for all WBD properties. In an investors' call on April 26 (concurrent with the first quarter earnings reports for Discovery Inc., its last prior to the merger), Zaslav contrasted the company's streaming businesses with those of Netflix (whose stock saw a decline after
4371-444: The consolidation of Cartoon Network Studios ' and Warner Bros. Animation 's development and production teams (with the two studios remaining separate labels with their own distinct output). On October 3, 2022, Nexstar closed its deal to acquire a controlling interest in The CW. Mark Pedowitz resigned from his position as the network's chairman and CEO, with Dennis Miller stepping in as the president of The CW. In October 2022, it
4464-559: The date of the settlement. On May 30, 2019, CNBC reported that CBS Corporation and Viacom would explore merger discussions in mid-June 2019. CBS Corporation's board of directors was revamped with people who were open to merging; the re-merger was made possible with the resignation of Moonves, who had opposed all merger attempts. The talks had started following rumors of CBS Corporation acquiring Starz from Lionsgate. Reports said that CBS Corporation and Viacom reportedly set August 8 as an informal deadline for reaching an agreement to recombine
4557-401: The deal was called off. On January 12, 2018, CNBC reported that Viacom had re-entered talks to merge back into CBS Corporation, after the merger of AT&T and Time Warner and Disney 's proposed acquisition of most of 21st Century Fox 's assets were announced. Viacom and CBS Corporation also faced heavy competition from companies such as Netflix and Amazon . Shortly afterward, it
4650-489: The divestment. The merger was expected to be completed in mid-2022. The new company would be led by Discovery's current CEO, David Zaslav ; WarnerMedia's CEO Jason Kilar 's position in the new company was uncertain. Zaslav stated that the two companies would spend a combined US$ 20 billion annually on content (outpacing even Netflix ). The company will aim to expand their streaming services, which includes WarnerMedia's Max , to reach 400 million global subscribers. It
4743-481: The fictional call sign WBD-TV World Book Day , an annual event organized by UNESCO to promote reading, publishing, and copyright WBD, UCI team code for the Bingoal WB Devo Team , a Belgian UCI continental racing team Topics referred to by the same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title WBD . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change
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#17328490505214836-454: The link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=WBD&oldid=1233959257 " Categories : Disambiguation pages Broadcast call sign disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Warner Bros. Discovery Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc. ( WBD )
4929-469: The majority of the advertisement-supported cable channels of its predecessors, namely Discovery, Scripps Networks , Turner Broadcasting , and Warner), CNN Worldwide (which includes CNN and CNN International ), TNT Sports (including Motor Trend Group , TNT Sports UK , and Eurosport ), Global Streaming & Interactive Entertainment (which includes the Discovery+ and Max streaming services, as well as
5022-456: The merger was expected to close sometime during the second quarter of 2022. On February 1, 2022, it was reported that AT&T had finalized the structure of the merger: WarnerMedia would be spun off pro rata to AT&T's shareholders, and then merge into Discovery Inc. to form the new company. The transaction was approved by the Brazilian antitrust regulator Cade on February 7, followed by
5115-870: The namesake Paramount Pictures film and television studio, the CBS Entertainment (consisting of the CBS and partially owned The CW television networks and television stations , BET Media Group (which oversees the BET and VH1 channels, among others), and other CBS-branded assets), CBS Media Networks (consisting of U.S.-based cable television networks including MTV , Nickelodeon , Comedy Central , CMT , Paramount Network , and Showtime ) and Paramount Streaming (including Paramount+ and Pluto TV ). It also has an international division that manages international versions of its pay TV networks, as well as region-specific assets including Argentina's Telefe , Chile's Chilevisión ,
5208-530: The network on the same day. The deal was closed on October 3, with CEO Mark Pedowitz stepping down and Dennis Miller taking Pedowitz's role as president of The CW. Paramount's CBS News and Stations unit announced on May 5, 2023, that its eight CW stations would become independent on September 1, per the Nexstar buyout deal. On August 7, Paramount announced that it had agreed to sell Simon & Schuster to private equity firm KKR for $ 1.6 billion in cash. The sale
5301-705: The next day to give AT&T shareholders a 0.24 share in WBD for each share of AT&T common stock they hold. The merger was officially completed on April 8, 2022, with trading beginning on the Nasdaq on April 11. At this time the company unveiled its final logo, designed by Chermayeff & Geismar & Haviv , which features a rendition of Warner Bros.' long-time shield logo. The combined company retained several top executives from WarnerMedia, including film and television heads Toby Emmerich and Channing Dungey , and HBO and HBO Max chief content officer (CCO) Casey Bloys. Most of
5394-482: The next day. On December 4, 2019, Bakish confirmed that the ViacomCBS merger had closed. On December 10, 2019, days after the merger, Bakish announced that ViacomCBS would look to divest Black Rock , the building that held CBS's headquarters since 1964. He stated, "Black Rock is not an asset we need to own and we believe that money would be put to better use elsewhere." On December 20, 2019, ViacomCBS agreed to acquire
5487-463: The number of HBO Max subscribers by at least 10 million by counting inactivated subscriptions bundled with AT&T services—thus misleading investors in violation of the Securities Act . It also alleged that Discovery executives failed to warn investors that WarnerMedia's prospectus contained misleading statements. On September 28 during a company town hall, Zaslav addressed speculation that WBD
5580-437: The ownership of the new company between AT&T and Discovery shareholders, and the amount of debt transferred to Discovery when they merged with WarnerMedia, before talks resumed on May 17, 2021. In November 2021, during an earnings call, Discovery Streaming CEO JB Perrette discussed possible options for its Discovery+ streaming service post-merger, including bundling the service with HBO Max and eventually merging them under
5673-456: The partnership." As the transaction did not need any regulatory approval (unlike the "Big Four" networks , The CW does not own any of its stations), Nexstar immediately took over the network's operations. In September 2022, WBD became the subject of a proposed class-action lawsuit by one of its shareholders, alleging that WarnerMedia was overinvesting in streaming content "without sufficient concern for return on investments", and had overstated
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#17328490505215766-873: The planned merger of Discovery+ and HBO Max would occur by summer 2023 in the United States, with other markets to follow. HBO subsequently faced a reorganization on August 15 to dismantle most of HBO Max's autonomous units, with HBO Max's head of comedy Suzanna Makkos now reporting to HBO's head of comedy Amy Gravitt, and layoffs within HBO Max's non-scripted, live-action family entertainment, international originals, and casting units, as well as HBO's acquisitions unit. HBO Max also continued to remove and cancel some of its lesser-viewed original programming, particularly family-oriented and animated series. On August 15, 2022, Nexstar confirmed to another report by WSJ in June that it would buy
5859-426: The production of direct-to-streaming films for HBO Max—with Zaslav arguing that they lacked economic value and impact in comparison to theatrical releases. WBD renewed its contracts with Bloys and other key HBO executives, with Zaslav praising his performance as chief content officer. Zaslav stated that a "10-year plan" was in development for DC Films, modeled after those of Marvel Studios , while Perrette stated that
5952-448: The quiet removals of multiple HBO Max original films from the platform and its upcoming releases. In the second quarter of 2022, WBD took $ 9.8 billion in revenue and a net loss of $ 2.2 billion pro forma , primarily from integration and restructuring expenses. The company took $ 825 million in write-offs on "content impairments and development". The company confirmed cuts to children's programming development, and abandoned
6045-401: The running. On June 11, National Amusements announced they had failed to reach an agreement with Skydance to acquire Paramount. By July 2, 2024, Skydance renegotiated the deal and reached a preliminary agreement to acquire National Amusements and merge with Paramount. The deal was referred by National Amusements to Paramount's special committee. Also, Paramount reportedly entered talks for
6138-463: The series that were pulled from HBO Max earlier). On February 8, 2023, The Wall Street Journal reported that WBD had amended its plans to merge Discovery+ with HBO Max, with HBO Max's successor slated to include "most" Discovery content, and Discovery+ remaining operational to retain its subscriber base, and provide an alternative option for customers not interested in the higher-priced unified service. On February 24, WBD CEO David Zaslav confirmed
6231-459: The space back under a short-term lease. On September 28, 2021, ViacomCBS announced that they had agreed to partner with software and data firm VideoAmp. On October 28, 2021, ViacomCBS announced that they had agreed to acquire a majority stake in the Spanish-language content producer TeleColombia & Estudios TeleMexico. On November 30, 2021, ViacomCBS announced that they had agreed to sell
6324-651: The studio. On March 30, 2018, CBS Corporation made an all-stock offer slightly below Viacom's market value, insisting that its existing leadership, including long-time chairman and CEO Les Moonves , oversee the re-combined company. Viacom rejected the offer as too low, requesting a $ 2.8 billion increase and that Bob Bakish be maintained as president and COO under Moonves. These conflicts had resulted from Shari Redstone seeking more control over CBS Corporation and its leadership. Eventually, on May 14, 2018, CBS Corporation sued its and Viacom's parent company National Amusements and accused Redstone of abusing her voting power in
6417-493: The studio. Gunn will oversee creative development on DC projects, while Safran will oversee the business aspect. During an earnings report in November 2022, it was announced that the launch of WBD's streaming service had been moved up to spring 2023. Max was unveiled April 12, 2023. In December 2022, CNN announced cutbacks and a reorganization to prioritize its "core" operations, resulting in sister channel HLN being brought under
6510-556: The studios under the Kids, Young Adults and Classics division ( Warner Bros. Animation , Cartoon Network Studios and Williams Street ) was moved under Warner Bros. Television . The same day, it announced an agreement with British telecom company BT Group for it to contribute its BT Sport channels into a 50/50 joint venture with its UK Eurosport channels, and eventually merge them. On June 1, 2022, Warner Bros. Pictures head Toby Emmerich announced that he would step down and establish
6603-404: The talks about the re-merger continued. On August 13, 2019, CBS and Viacom officially announced their merger; the combined company was to be named ViacomCBS, with Shari Redstone serving as chair. Upon the merger agreement, Viacom and CBS jointly announced that the transaction is expected to close by the end of 2019, pending regulatory and shareholder approvals. The merger required approval by
6696-463: The transaction was approved by the European Commission . On January 5, 2022, The Wall Street Journal reported that WarnerMedia and Paramount Global (at the time named ViacomCBS) were exploring a possible sale of either a majority stake or all of The CW , and that Nexstar Media Group was considered a leading bidder. The reports also indicated that WarnerMedia and ViacomCBS could include
6789-570: The two media companies. CBS Corporation announced its plans to acquire Viacom as part of the re-merger deal for up to $ 15.4 billion. On August 2, 2019, it was reported that CBS Corporation and Viacom agreed to merge back into one entity, with both companies agreeing on the management team for the merger. Bob Bakish would serve as CEO of the combined company with the president and acting CEO of CBS Corporation, Joseph Ianniello , overseeing CBS Corporation-branded assets. On August 7, 2019, CBS and Viacom separately reported their quarterly earnings as
6882-581: The video game publisher Warner Bros. Games ), and International Networks. It also holds a one-eighth stake in The CW (with Paramount Global also owning a one-eighth stake), and a majority stake in Television Food Network, G.P. (comprising Food Network and Cooking Channel ), which are co-owned by Nexstar Media Group . Warner Bros. , Turner Broadcasting System , Scripps Networks Interactive and Discovery, Inc. have conjoined histories. Warner Bros.
6975-496: Was acquired by theater operator company National Amusements . Meanwhile, Paramount Pictures was acquired by Gulf and Western Industries in 1966, which then re-branded itself as Paramount Communications in 1989. Viacom then purchased Paramount Communications in 1994. In 1999, Viacom made its biggest acquisition to date by announcing plans to merge with its former parent CBS Corporation (the renamed Westinghouse Electric Corporation , which had merged with CBS in 1995). The merger
7068-449: Was announced that filmmaker James Gunn and producer Peter Safran would serve as the co-CEO and co-chairmen of DC Films which rebranded as DC Studios moving forward. The duo has signed a four-year deal that will oversee the production of films, television, and animation under the DC label. The pair will report directly to Zaslav, while also working alongside but independently with other members of
7161-663: Was announced that the channel would be placed under Warner Bros. Pictures Group heads Michael De Luca and Pamela Abdy—who both affirmed the cultural significance of TCM and pledged to keep its programming "untouched and protected". In December 2023, Warner Bros. Discovery announced the purchase of Turkish streaming platform BluTV , with operations in the MENA region. On February 16, 2024, RedBird Capital Partners (via its United Arab Emirates -backed partnership RedBird IMI) announced its intent to acquire All3Media —a WBD joint venture with Liberty Global —for £1.15 billion. The acquisition
7254-494: Was completed in 2000, resulting in CBS reuniting with its former syndication division. On December 31, 2005, Viacom was split into two companies: CBS Corporation , the former's corporate successor, and the spun-off Viacom company. On September 29, 2016, National Amusements , the parent company of CBS Corporation and Viacom, wrote to Viacom and CBS Corporation encouraging the two companies to merge back into one company. On December 12,
7347-485: Was completed on May 16, 2024. WBD had previously announced an intent to sell its stake in the company to British broadcaster ITV plc , but the company declined. In April 2024, Warner Bros. Discovery New Zealand announced that it would shut down its news department Newshub (which produced bulletins for its free-to-air channel Three ) in July 2024, citing declining local advertising revenue. Newshub would be supplanted by
7440-459: Was completed on October 30. On December 20, 2023, it was reported by Axios and The New York Times that David Zaslav , CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery, had met with Bob Bakish and had discussed a possible merger. Spokespeople for the two companies stated that the talks were preliminary and may not resulted in a deal, while Fox Business reported via internal sources that Zaslav was "not in deal mode". On January 10, 2024, National Amusements
7533-469: Was considered a leading bidder. Reports indicated that ViacomCBS and WarnerMedia could include a contractual commitment that would require any new owner to buy new programming from those companies, allowing them to reap some continual revenue through the network. Then-network president/CEO Mark Pedowitz confirmed talks of a potential sale in a memo to CW staffers, but added that "It's too early to speculate what might happen." On February 15, 2022, during
7626-843: Was founded on April 4, 1923, by four brothers, Harry , Albert , Sam , and Jack Warner . The company established itself as a leader in the American film industry before diversifying into animation , television , and video games and is one of the "Big Five" American film studios , as well as a member of the Motion Picture Association (MPA). In 1965, Turner Broadcasting System was founded by Ted Turner and based in Atlanta , Georgia. A year later, Kinney National Company came into existence and its media division became Warner Communications before merging with Time Inc. in 1990 to become Time Warner. During its time as Warner Communications,
7719-408: Was founded, launching The Discovery Channel three years later and was renamed to Discovery Communications in 1994. Scripps Networks Interactive was founded in 2008 spun off from E. W. Scripps Company 's cable division. In 1996, Time Warner Entertainment acquired the Turner Broadcasting System; but the company later merged with America Online (AOL) to form AOL Time Warner in 2001 and reverted to
7812-431: Was launched in 1985 on the channel space left by Turner's Cable Music Channel ). Warner Communications bought out American Express's half in 1984 and sold the venture a year later to the original iteration of Viacom , which renamed it MTV Networks (now known as Paramount Media Networks). In 1982, Warner Communications purchased Popular Library from CBS Publications . Meanwhile in the same year, Cable Education Network
7905-520: Was not renewed, although the company was still interested in buying Paramount. The following day, Paramount's board members met, considering a "go-shop" approach for other such offers; it was ultimately decided that they would begin negotiations regarding Sony and Apollo's offer while still holding non-exclusive talks with Skydance. That same day, Berkshire Hathaway's Warren Buffett stated in an annual meeting that he had sold all of his shares in Paramount at
7998-439: Was pursuing a possible sale as early as 2024, stating that they were "absolutely not for sale", and "have everything we need to be successful." On October 11, Warner Bros. Television Group laid off 82 employees and eliminated 43 vacant positions as part of a restructuring that primarily impacts their unscripted and animation units. The restructuring saw the consolidation of Warner Horizon and Telepictures ' creative operations, and
8091-560: Was renamed CBS Films in 1958, again renamed CBS Enterprises in January 1968, and finally renamed Viacom (an acronym of Video and Audio Communications) in 1970. In 1971, this syndication division was spun off amid new FCC rules forbidding television networks from owning syndication companies (these rules were eventually abolished completely in 1993). In 1986, Viacom purchased MTV Networks and Showtime/The Movie Channel Inc. from Warner Communications and American Express . In 1987, Viacom
8184-560: Was reported by the Financial Times that Zaslav and WBD executives had been discussing the possibility of breaking up the company, so that WBD's unprofitable linear television networks could be separated from the more profitable Warner Bros. studio business and Max. On July 24, 2024, the NBA officially announced new media rights agreements with Disney ( ESPN and ABC ), NBCUniversal ( NBC and Peacock ), and Amazon Prime Video beginning in
8277-592: Was reported that the combined company could be a suitor for acquiring the film studio Lionsgate . Viacom and Lionsgate were both interested in acquiring The Weinstein Company (TWC). Following the Weinstein effect , Viacom was listed as one of 22 potential buyers that were interested in acquiring TWC. They lost the bid, and on March 1, 2018, it was announced that Maria Contreras-Sweet would acquire all of TWC's assets for $ 500 million. Lantern Capital would later acquire
8370-513: Was reported to be considering a deal or merger regarding Paramount Global, with Skydance Media considering an all-cash bid of $ 2.5 billion for the earlier company. During this time, Paramount announced it would be laying off 800 employees. On February 27, 2024, CNBC reported that Warner Bros. Discovery halted the merger talks with Paramount. On April 2, 2024, Paramount and National Amusements approached Skydance for an exclusive acquisition window agreement. Shari Redstone and David Ellison sought
8463-508: Was reportedly displeased with the revised terms, as she would now received less money for her shares and Skydance wanted Redstone to assume legal liabilities in the case of shareholders lawsuits unhappy with the deal. She considered a sale of her company to another bidder, with such names as writer and producer Steven Paul , businessman Edgar Bronfman Jr. , Bain Capital , Patrón Tequila founder John Paul DeJoria and businessman Barry Diller in
8556-444: Was stated that the company would aim to achieve $ 3 billion in cost savings via synergies within two years. On June 1, 2021, it was announced that the merged company would be known as Warner Bros. Discovery, and an interim wordmark was unveiled with the tagline "The stuff that dreams are made of"—a quote from the 1941 Warner Bros. film The Maltese Falcon , itself paraphrasing Shakespeare's The Tempest . Zaslav explained that
8649-609: Was taken over by Chris Licht , replacing the outgoing Jeff Zucker ), Magnolia Network (which reports to Bloys, after having previously reported directly to Zaslav under Discovery), and the Turner Sports unit (which would be overseen by the newly-formed Warner Bros. Discovery Sports division). In an introductory town hall featuring Oprah Winfrey as host, Zaslav stated that the combined company would need to have "one culture" that "starts with people feeling safe, people feeling valued for who they are", as opposed what he described as
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