HBO Max EMEA Original Programs Chief Antony Root Retiring From Warner Bros. Discovery
18.01.2023 - 14:27
/ deadline.com
Antony Root, the long-serving HBO Max EMEA original programming chief, is to exit his role at Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) and retire from the industry.
Root will leave his post at the end of March ahead of the launch of the merged HBO Max and Discovery+ streaming service.
Root has spent 11 years as Executive Vice President of HBO Europe and later HBO Max EMEA after joining from Sony Pictures Television.
Last year, his originals team were halted in their tracks when WBD decided HBO Max would stop ordering shows in most of Europe – a decision one source last year called “the end of an era.”
Most of Root’s European commissioning and production team were later let go, as Deadline revealed in August, but he stayed on. Deadline hears he has been travelling extensively in recent months to visit the remaining local staff.
Long Career At HBO
Root commissioned more than 1,000 episodes of scripted, documentaries and unscripted shows in total for HBO brands.
Notable credits included The Pack and Blinded by the Lights in Poland; Burning Bush and Wasteland in Czechia; Golden Life in Hungary; Oscar-nominated doc Collective in Romania; Patria and 30 Coins in Spain; and Beartown, Beforeigners and Kamikaze in the Nordics.
Several of his newer series, including Norway’s Beforeigners and Denmark’s Kamikaze, were pulled from HBO Max last year after the commissioning freeze. Many have now be licensed to SkyShowtime in 21 territories.
Priya Dogra, President and Manging Director EMEA said: “Antony is a true giant of the European TV industry, and during his career at HBO, he has commissioned and executive produced some of the most iconic series of recent years across the Nordics, Central Eastern Europe and Spain.
“Antony built and managed