Japan’s U-Next Renews HBO Content Deal With Warner Bros Discovery

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Warner Bros. Discovery is giving a league of would-be providers of TV-audience measurement its own appraisal. After tapping Comscore, iSpot.TV and VideoAmp last year to help build a new suite of technologies that will help count viewers across linear, digital and connected television, the big entertainment company is paring down its provider list. Comscore and VideoAmp will serve as partners during Warner Bros. Discovery’s efforts during the industry’s next “upfront” sales session. “Our methodology was quite rigorous,” says Andrea Zapata, the company’s executive vice president and head of ad sales research, measurement and insights, in an interview.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Warner Bros. Discovery received stock upgrades from two media analyst firms Friday for, among other things, making the decision to tie bonuses for CEO David Zaslav and his team to free cash flow performance. “We threw everything and the kitchen sink at a Downside Case scenario for WBD, and it still delevers to 3x by ’25E,” Wells Fargo analysts wrote in a research note published Friday, in which they upgraded WBD’s stock to “overweight” with a price target increase from $13 to $20 per share. “We now have conviction in FCF to limit downside, while the stock has asymmetric upside.” Meanwhile, Wolfe Research moved WBD from its “peer perform” rating to “outperform” and also upped the price target to $20. (At time of publication Friday, WBD stock was trading at $14.51 per share.)

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Warner Bros. Discovery and Amazon Prime Video have set the launch date and pricing for their ‘Warner Pass’ offer in France to March 16. Priced at €9.99 per month, the offer will be available exclusively on Amazon Prime Video Channels in France, and will boast all of HBO programs, along with 12 channels, including Warner TV, Eurosport, Discovery Channel, Cartoon Network and CNN, as well as their associated on-demand services. Subscribers will benefit from a 30-day free trial until April 3. “The launch of Warner Pass exclusively as a Prime Video channel in France is the next step in our journey to become the destination for customers in France to find the best in storytelling, premium entertainment and sports,” said Brigitte Ricou-Bellan, Prime Video French Country Director.

Bloomberg reported on Thursday and TheWrap independently confirmed.The name change is meant to signal that the service will not just be HBO Max with Discovery content, nor will HBO Max be ported over to Discovery+. “Max” is the leading contender, though Warner Bros.

Warner Bros. Discovery is continuing its directors program after all.

Charna Flam After the recent decision to reshape its directors’ training program, Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) announced its new Access Directors Program. WBD has rebranded and expanded the directors’ program to assist and nurture television directors through workshops and shadowing, led by WBD’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) team. Participants will receive the opportunity to direct a full WBD television episode. In addition to workshops, directors will have the chance to work on WBD shows and participate in a virtual curriculum focused on best practices and equity mindset sessions, with the ability to shadow directors on up to two television episodes (during which participants may receive a small childcare stipend).

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Never fear, genre fans: Warner Bros. Discovery is intent on mining as much of its tentpole Warner Bros. IP as possible in the near future, whether that be through its upcoming revamped DC Universe, the newly announced “The Lord of the Rings” movies, or more projects based on J.K. Rowling’s “Harry Potter” franchise amid the success of video game “Hogwarts Legacy.” “DC is an enormous opportunity and two important building blocks are in place now with the leadership team, Peter [Safran] and James [Gunn], and James has been breathing comics for as long as he’s been alive, essentially,” Warner Bros. Discovery CFO Gunnar Wiedenfels said during a panel at Morgan Stanley’s investor conference Wednesday. “A great creative leader here. And the second building block that is in place is the one-company approach, because I think you can only manage a franchise if everything is coordinated and the team is working together extremely well. There’s an enormous level of collaboration and joint decision making around what should work hand in hand across the franchise.”

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Middle East satellite and streaming platform OSN Group has extended its relationship with Warner Bros. Discovery forging a new multi-year licensing deal under which it will become the exclusive home for HBO content in the region. In addition to HBO shows, such as “Succession,” the renewed agreement has been expanded to cover additional content and channel offerings from Warner Bros. giving OSN premium access to recent blockbuster movie hits such as “The Batman,” “Dune,” “The Matrix Resurrections,” and “The Suicide Squad.” The deal was announced in Dubai with “Succession” star Brian Cox on hand.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Warner Bros. Discovery and Japan’s U-Next have announced an extension of their relationship with a renewed deal to supply content to the SVOD platform. The agreement sees U-Next continue as the streaming home of HBO in Japan. Featuring exclusive content rights for HBO, HBO Original and HBO Max Original series, the strengthened agreement includes: current and future seasons of HBO’s “House of the Dragon,” “The Last of Us” and “Succession” as well as returning HBO Original and HBO Max Original series “True Detective: Night Country,” “Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty” and “And Just Like That…”

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Warner Bros. Discovery, which is struggling with billions of dollars in debt, is willing to pay more money to executives who might be able to help reduce it. The owner of HBO, Discovery Channel and Food Network said Monday in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that it would pay out new rewards to CEO David Zaslav, six senior staffers and an unspecified group of others if they could meet certain goals of new generation of free cash flow. “The changes to the Warner Bros. Discovery executive compensation program are designed to further incentivize Company employees, including members of its leadership team and others whose efforts are critical to achieving the key near-term financial objectives of increased free cash flow and reduced leverage,” said WBD board chairman Samuel A. Di Piazza, Jr. in a prepared statement.“The WBD board is confident that these additional incentives offer a more competitive package against the backdrop of ongoing industry-wide transformation and economic headwinds, and better position the company to advance core drivers of shareholder value.”

Foxtel Group and Warner Bros Discovery have renewed their multi-year content agreement, under which the Australian pay-TV operator and streamer will remain the home of HBO, Max Originals, Warner Bros and Discovery programming in Australia.

Katherine Tulich Australian pay-TV Foxtel Group has held on to its top HBO programming hits, “House of the Dragon,” “The Last of Us,” “Succession” and “The White Lotus” with the Wednesday announcement of a renewed content supply deal. Foxtel will remain the Australian home of HBO, Max Originals, Warner Bros. and Discovery content. The pact between Foxtel and Warner Bros. Discovery is touted as “a multi-year, multi-faceted content and platform agreement” that reflects the evolution of Foxtel from legacy pay-TV operator into a streaming player. It also allows further wiggle room as circumstances continue to change.

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.”

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 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.

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.