David Zaslav to Embark on Town Hall Tour of WarnerMedia Offices Following Close of Warner Bros. Discovery Merger

Cynthia Littleton Business EditorAs Endeavor marks the first anniversary today of its debut on the New York Stock Exchange, the company deserves credit for doing a lot of things right.The stock has stayed above its IPO price of $24 for most of the past 12 months. The company has generated enough topline revenue gains amid tough economic conditions to demonstrate that its divisions have room to grow.But in other ways, the company led by Ari Emanuel looks to become harder to sell in the future if Endeavor wants to stay a public entity.

The new Warner Bros. Discovery leadership is starting to unify its policies across the two parts of the company. I hear that Adria Alpert Romm, chief people and culture officer, sent an email this morning to WarnerMedia employees about the implementation of a new hybrid work schedule.

“You’re seeing the newest CEO in the business, after having studied the market for a year, describe the business model perfectly as far as we’re concerned,” Fithian told reporters at a Tuesday press conference. “If you get a movie that works well theatrically and pops, it has a window, it also means it helps that movie do better when it hits the home on streaming.”Last year, Warner Bros. was one of the studios leading experiments with day-and-date releasing, putting all 2021 films on HBO Max and in theaters simultaneously as a way to handle the uncertainty of theaters reopening during the COVID-19 pandemic.

TNT and TBS are moving out of the scripted game under new parent company Warner Bros. Discovery, which under CEO David Zaslav has promised $3 billion in cost savings in the post-WarnerMedia merger era, Variety has learned exclusively.The WarnerMedia-run cable channels will no longer develop new scripted content, two sources close to the matter tell Variety.

the Q1 earnings were released. “As you’ve heard me say, we are not trying to win the direct-to-consumer spending war,” the WBD chief said, instead promising that the newly combined WarnerMedia-Discovery company would “invest in scale smartly.”He already made the first difficult choice within the first week after Discovery closed its $43 billion acquisitor of the larger WarnerMedia: Zaslav, notorious in the industry for being a no-nonsense cost-cutter, decided to close down the much-hyped CNN+.

Jennifer Maas TV Business WriterIn the wake of big spender Netflix’s Q1 shocking subscriber loss news, David Zaslav made a point to say Warner Bros. Discovery “will not overspend to drive subscriber growth” during Discovery’s first-quarter earnings call Tuesday.“As you’ve heard me say, we are not trying to win the direct-to-consumer spending war,” the WBD CEO said, instead promising that the newly combined WarnerMedia-Discovery company would “invest in scale smartly.”Warner Bros.

In Warner Bros Discovery’s first earnings call with Wall Street analysts, CEO David Zaslav re-emphasized his plan to take a prudent approach to streaming as he guides the newly merged company.

Jennifer Maas TV Business WriterWarner Bros. Discovery and AT&T each ended the trading week with their respective shares selling at a 3% increase from where the stocks opened Monday.The newly formed Warner Bros. Discovery, born out of the $43 billion merger of Discovery, Inc.

David Zaslav expressed a lot of excitement for the future of his newly merged company on Thursday during a company town hall with Oprah Winfrey at the Warner Bros. Burbank lot, he was vague on details for some immediate issues, including where $3 billion in planned cuts will come from. When asked by Winfrey about the cuts, Zaslav said that his transition team is still in the process of sifting through assets from both sides of the new company to determine where such cuts could be made.

Warner Bros Discovery CEO David Zaslav and other top execs are meeting with employees in a town hall this morning on the Warner lot in Burbank. It’s the first large-scale staff meeting since last Friday’s close of the $43 billion merger.

Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav brought out the big guns during his address to the new company at its first global town hall for employees Thursday.The newly merged company brought out its most famous employee, Oprah Winfrey, to moderate the event and to help introduce Zaslav to Hollywood.Winfrey is a longtime supporter of the media mogul, who has championed the Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN) — a cable channel jointly jointed by Warner Bros. Discovery and Harpo Studio — alongside her since its launch in 2011.

AT&T’s stock price on Monday jumped 8%, to $19.67, as a probable result of Friday’s closure of the deal. The Warner Bros. Discovery share price dipped to $24.48 in after-hours trading, but the start and finish were close enough that the day could hardly be called a roller coaster.Monday was the first day of public trading for Warner Bros.

Brent Lang Executive Editor of Film and MediaWall Street appears to like what Warner Bros. Discovery is selling.The combined media company started off its first full day of trading Monday in the green. Shares of Warner Bros.

David Zaslav will be pounding the Diet Cokes, his soft drink of choice, this week as he sprints across the country to Warner Bros. Discovery’s various outposts.Monday, the first day the new company begins trading on the Nasdaq under the “WBD” ticker, will kick off with a visit to Hudson Yards for a series of informal meet and greets with WarnerMedia employees before he heads to Washington, D.C. for a meeting with senior executives and CNN anchors at roughly 6 p.m.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorThere’s a new contender in the arena.As Discovery begins its new era of operating Warner Bros., HBO and Turner, all eyes are on how the new company will navigate the media sector’s streaming wars with thousands of hours of content from popular TV brands like TLC, TBS, TNT, CNN and HBO. Behind that effort, however, could look a new sports giant that is poised to add another deep-pocketed player vying for major league negotiations that it previously ignored.Warner Bros.

The final bow has been placed atop the $40 billion merger of WarnerMedia and Discovery, forming one of the largest pure content players in the media business.

Discovery and WarnerMedia have closed their $43 billion merger, creating a top-scale media player and streaming contender and ending an ill-fated foray into entertainment by AT&T.

according to CNN.Discovery stakeholders had approved the deal in mid-March.The merger will place AT&T’s Warner Bros., CNN, Turner and Discovery’s stable of nonfiction networks squarely under one roof — as well as two currently competing streaming services, Discovery+ and HBO Max, possibly giving the combined entity a fighting chance of moving into competition with Netflix and Disney+ among the leading streaming services.The deal also combines WarnerMedia’s U.S. sports rights like the NBA, MLB and March Madness with Discovery international sports giant Eurosport.

Jennifer Maas TV Business WriterWarner Bros. Discovery is not going with the “initial wordmark” revealed last June as its official logo.Variety has obtained a low-res copy of a new logo that is being circulated on internal memos at Discovery and WarnerMedia Friday, ahead of the expected close of the merger transaction later today.Discovery did not immediately respond to request for comment on the Warner Bros.

Among the leadership announcements, Warner Bros. Picture Group chairman Toby Emmerich, HBO/HBO Max chief content officer Casey Bloys, and Warner Television chairman Channing Dungey will continue in their respective roles, reporting to Warner Discovery CEO David Zaslav.