WarnerMedia Sticks to Upfront Script Despite Looming Discovery Tie-Up

Cynthia Littleton Business EditorCasey Bloys has had a long stretch of happy Mondays.The steady growth of viewership and buzz for “Mare of Easttown” over its seven-week run on Sunday nights has been welcome news for the chief content officer of HBO and HBO Max.

A-Lister Jamie Lee Curtis has secured the screen rights to one of the most popular crime book series of all time, Patricia Cornwell’s Kay Scarpetta mysteries.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorNews and sports will definitely have a place in the world of streaming, but may require new formats and programming concepts to make them fit the needs of modern audiences, according to the executive who oversees WarnerMedia’s HBO Max.News and sports programming are a significant factor in keeping consumers tethered to cable and satellite subscriptions in an era rife with cord-cutting, said Andy Forssell, general manager of HBO Max, while speaking Thursday at an

Mónica Marie Zorrilla Jamie Lee Curtis’ production banner Comet Pictures and Blumhouse Television are developing a one-hour series based on Patricia Cornwell’s Kay Scarpetta character, a forensic pathologist at the center of 24 crime thrillers, with Cornwell, Curtis, Jason Blum, Blumhouse Television president Chris McCumber and Jeremy Gold serving as executive producers.Comet Pictures and Blumhouse have secured the rights to Cornwell’s “Kay Scarpetta” literary franchise, the companies said, and

Patricia Cornwell’s Kay Scarpetta novel series is headed to television.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorAt least three of the nation’s big media companies are writing deals in an upfront ad-sales market that is moving more rapidly than in years past.Disney, NBCUniversal and Fox have all begun to sell advance advertising commitments as part of TV’s annual upfront market, according to five people familiar with the pace of negotiations.

announced on May 17 it was spinning off WarnerMedia into an independent company that will merge with Discovery, Inc. The full valuation of the newly combined company is estimated to be $130 billion, TheWrap has learned.Zaslav will lead the new company as its CEO after the deal closes, which is expected to occur in mid-2022.

Discovery CEO David Zaslav, a week after announcing a $43 billion deal to merge with WarnerMedia in a spinoff from AT&T, sees validation in today’s news that Amazon is swallowing MGM.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorHockey great Wayne Gretzky was made an analyst for Turner Sports’ new NHL coverage, part of a quick ramp-up in talent as the WarnerMedia unit prepares to handle a new seven-year deal with the league it hopes will expand its professional-sports presence and draw new viewers to cable outlets like TNT and TBS.Gretzky is slated to offer studio analysis during key moments of the NHL regular season and throughout the Stanley Cup Playoffs, under terms of a new contract.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorDiscovery’s CEO feels a combination of WarnerMedia and his company will create a new media company that is “uniquely competitive with Netflix and Disney,” and articulated the need to have a global footprint in the future in order to compete in the entertainment industry’s streaming wars.Discovery last week stuck a pact with AT&T to take over WarnerMedia operations in a deal that executives hope will pass regulatory muster by mid 2022.

The CW Mark Pedowitz got out in front of any questions about how the WarnerMedia/Discoevry mega-deal would impact the youth-skewing network.

Joe Otterson TV ReporterMark Pedowitz, chairman and CEO of The CW, spoke about the upcoming Discovery-WarnerMedia merger during a programming conference call on Tuesday.Asked how the deal would affect The CW, which is owned in part by Warner Bros., Pedowitz said “At the moment, it does not.

The WarnerMedia/Discovery merger should have no effect on Disney’s business strategies, a bullish Disney CEO Bob Chapek said during a virtual question-and-answer session at the J.P. Morgan Global Technology, Media and Communications Conference on Monday.Chapek said Disney is enjoying a competitive position as pandemic restrictions begin to soften, and allow the reopening of both movie theaters and theme parks hit hard in the last year.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorTV ratings are down. But the networks aren’t letting that get in the way of demanding big price hikes in their annual negotiations with Madison Avenue.Even as advertisers express concern about declines in the live audiences tuning in for TV staples like “Young Sheldon,” “This Is Us” and “Grey’s Anatomy,” they appear to be on the verge of capitulating to marketplace pressure.

Brent Lang Executive Editor of Film and MediaIt pays to pull off a massive media merger.Discovery chief David Zaslav is certainly being handsomely rewarded for his role in pulling off the merger agreement between his company and WarnerMedia. A day before AT&T announced it was spinning off WarnerMedia and combining it with Discovery, Zaslav received 14.8 million stock options on Sunday as part of a contract extension, which the Wall Street Journal reports are worth $190 million.

Discovery awarded CEO David Zaslav nearly 14.8 million stock options on Sunday, the day before the company unveiled plans to merge with AT&T’s WarnerMedia.

it was announced he’ll take over a new company formed from a merger with WarnerMedia.“Mr. Zaslav’s resignation is not the result of any disagreement with the Company on any matter relating to its operations, policies or practices,” Lionsgate said in an SEC filing Wednesday announcing the move.

AT&T and Discovery rocked Hollywood with the combination that will see WarnerMedia and Discovery rolled together into a new standalone public entertainment company led by Zaslav — as AT&T exits the sector and Discovery doubles down.

Unshackling itself from years of streaming and premium cable restraints, WarnerMedia offered a comprehensive upfront pitch commingling HBO and Warner Bros with the company’s linear TV networks.