Warner Bros Discovery Abandons Plan To Merge HBO Max With Discovery+ – Report

Seven months after landing the highly coveted top jobs at Warner Bros. Motion Picture studios, Co-Chairpersons Michael De Luca and Pamela Abdy were bestowed with the PGA Milestone award tonight and paid respect for their mega industry mentors, remembered emotionally their cinematic NYC and New Jersey youths, and gave a huge shoutout to their new boss, Warner Discovery CEO David Zaslav.

Warner Bros. Discovery Inc. is suing Paramount Global, saying its competitor aired new episodes of the popular animated comedy series “South Park” after Warner paid for exclusive rights.

“Screw you guys, we’re going to sue,” a Cartman paraphrasing Warner Bros Discovery essentially said to Paramount Global and the series creators today in a scathing lawsuit over South Park streaming rights.

,” HBO Max said in a statement to TheWrap.Warner Bros. Discovery claims that Paramount’s priorities “changed drastically” upon the launch of Paramount+ in 2021, resulting in a “multi-year scheme to unfairly take advantage” of the former conglomerate by breaching its agreement and “stealing its content.”Per the 2019 agreement, where Warner/HBO outbid others in a competitive situation to garner the exclusive rights to the series, the company acquired the series’ entire catalog (23 seasons at the time) in addition to three new installments, totaling more than 300 episodes.

Gene Maddaus Senior Media Writer HBO Max’s parent company has filed a lawsuit that accuses Paramount Global of reneging on parts of the $500 million licensing deal set in 2019 for the streaming rights to episodes of “South Park.” The suit, filed Friday in New York state Supreme Court, asserts that Paramount breached the contract by steering “South Park” specials and other content to its own Paramount+ platform. The suit alleges that Paramount “blatantly intended to prop up Paramount+ at the expense of Warner/HBO,” and that Paramount engaged in “multiple and flagrant duplicitous contortions of fact and breaches of contract.”

The Wrap.“But for all the scope and detail lovingly packed into the two trilogies, the vast, complex and dazzling universe dreamed up by J.R.R. Tolkien remains largely unexplored on film. The opportunity to invite fans deeper into the cinematic world of Middle-earth is an honor, and we are excited to partner with Middle-Earth Enterprises and Embracer on this adventure.”The cost of the deal made between Warner Bros., New Line Cinema and Embracer Group — the current rights holders to Tolkien’s novels — has yet to be released.

The motivation for continuing to offer Discovery+ as a stand-alone streaming service after a combined offering with HBO Max debuts later this spring, is largely financial, Warner Bros Discovery CEO David Zaslav says.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor David Zaslav sounds tired of taking lumps. After months of cost cutting, write-downs, and getting pilloried among Hollywood natives for killing projects, the Warner Bros. Discovery chief showed off some new truculence, making the case that while his newly-merged company has been having a tough time, so too were others. “‘Last year was a year of restructuring,” said Zaslav, during a call with investors Thursday. “This year will be a year of building.” Over the course of an hour, Zasalv and Gunnar Wiedenfels, Warner’s chief financial officer, made the case that their company was just as well-equipped as any of its rivals — perhaps even more so — to withstand a stormy era during which media companies are pressed to grow their streaming operations but maintain profitability. Zaslav elbowed Netflix for releasing all of the episodes for a program’s cycle all at once; suggested that a move to launch new “Lord of the Rings” movies would take away some of the momentum that Amazon had enjoyed from its launch of a series based on the novels; and told listeners Warner Bros. Discovery could launch an ad-supported streaming service without having to buy an outside asset, as Fox Corp. and Paramount Global had. “We can create a Tubi or a Pluto without having to buy anybody,” he boasted.

Call “2023 will be a year of building,” Warner Bros Discovery boss David Zaslav made a point today on the company’s latest earnings call to sing the praises of CNN’s “more inclusive range of voices and viewpoints.”

Warner Bros Discovery revenue fell 11% to $11 billion (or a drop of 9% when foreign exchange fluctuations are excluded), mostly due to advertising softness and tough studio comparisons.

Warner Bros. Discovery CFO Gunnar Wiedenfels today predicted the company will hit $4 billion in total cost savings from the merger of Discovery and Warner Media – up from a previous commitment to hit $3.5 billion.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Warner Bros. Discovery continued to work on making all its various pieces, merged together last year, into a cohesive whole. The New York owner of the TNT and TBS cable networks, the HBO Max streaming service and the Warner Bros. production studio reported a net loss of $2.1 billion for its fiscal fourth quarter after the company wrote down $1.85 billion in assets and faced nearly $1.2 billion in restructuring expenses. Revenue fell 9%, excluding the results of foreign exchange, and the company saw ad sales decrease 14% as its TV networks, even as it worked to add subscribers to its HBO Max and Discovery+ streaming outlets.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer HBO, HBO Max and Discovery+ added 1.1 million subscribers in Q4 to end 2022 with a total of 96.1 million worldwide. That’s up from the 95 million combined global streaming customers Warner Bros. Discovery hit from July 1-Sept. 30, the quarter during which the highly anticipated “Game of Thrones” prequel “House of the Dragon” debuted. During the Oct. 1-Dec. 31 quarter, “House of the Dragon” concluded its first season the second season of HBO’s hot Mike White drama “White Lotus” premiered. Details about the upcoming combined HBO Max-Discovery+ streamer — which does not yet have a name, launch date or pricing details — will be revealed at an April 12 press day.

increasing by $1 to $15.99 per month, a change not reflected in the just-reported quarterly results. The hike came as Warner plans to launch a combined, ad-supported offering of HBO Max and Discovery+ later this year at a lower price point.

Cynthia Littleton Business Editor As the fourth-quarter earnings cycle for Big Media closes today with Warner Bros. Discovery results after the market close, Wall Street will be eagerly looking for green shoots to confirm that the worst is truly over for the newly minted conglomerate. Warner Bros. Discovery shares have been gaining slowly but steadily since the beginning of this year as Team Zaslav hammers the point to investors that the worst of its integration and restructuring pain is behind them. WBD CEO David Zaslav has been ahead of the curve in preaching a return to the business fundamentals that have powered Hollywood for more than a half-century. Disney and Paramount Global delivered results earlier this month that came with sober warnings about streaming losses hitting a peak this year. Zaslav and WBD chief financial officer Gunnar Wiedenfels have promised analysts that the heaviest gusher of investment in HBO Max came in 2022 and that they are now on the path to taking the streamer to the promised land — profitablity — next year.

The incoming Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD)/ BT Group UK sports streaming JV will be named TNT Sports, the U.S. media giant has revealed.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Warner Bros. Discovery programming execs are trying a new experiment: Airing some iconic modern-day HBO programming on basic cable, beginning with comedy “Silicon Valley” on TBS and drama “True Blood” on TNT this Saturday. As this is TV — not HBO — the shows will be edited both for content (receiving a TV-MA rating) and ad breaks. While this is not the first time HBO content has been refashioned for cable — think “Sex and the City” or “The Sopranos,” both of which were sold into syndication — it does mark a first for programming produced and aired on HBO in more recent years. (“True Blood” ended in 2014, “Silicon Valley” concluded in 2019.)

Once upon a time, you’ll remember that filmmaker J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot productions signed a massive deal with Warner Media, reportedly worth over $500 million (though later reports said closer to $200 million) to create content for Warner Media, HBO, and HBO Max.

Akiva Goldsman and his Weed Road production banner have signed a multi-year first look deal with Warner Bros. Discovery, according to an insider with knowledge.Weed Road had previously had their film and television at MGM, and rejoin Warner Bros.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Warner Bros. Discovery has extended its rights to show the U.S. Open in 45 markets across Europe, including exclusive access in 42 territories, after reaching a new five-year agreement with the United States Tennis Association (USTA). Territories excluded from the deal are Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the U.K. and Ireland. The deal includes live and highlights rights with every match on every court available to stream on discovery+ and the Eurosport app in addition to live television coverage during the tournament on Eurosport 1 and 2. Markets including the Nordics will also have the option to showcase the best matches on Warner Bros. Discovery’s free-to-air channels.