If AT&T and Discovery’s shock announcement underlines any learnings in recent years, it’s that legacy media is fighting back. And for this particular deal, a key battleground could be overseas.
The new combination of WarnerMedia and Discovery, a closely guarded manoeuvre relegated to C-suite executives, has come as a surprise to the vast majority of staff in both companies’ international camps, who hope a town hall quickly scheduled for Tuesday will clear up confusion around what’s to come — one of the most urgent matters, by most accounts, being what lies ahead for each company’s much-ballyhooed streaming offering.
“My first reaction was, ‘Wow!’” says Mathew Horsman, director of London-based consultancy Mediatique, who describes the WarnerMedia and Discovery spin-off as “sensible” but rife with “all sorts of ramifications.”
The pact — which is expected to close in mid-2022, subject to approval by regulators and Discovery shareholders — sees AT&T...
The new combination of WarnerMedia and Discovery, a closely guarded manoeuvre relegated to C-suite executives, has come as a surprise to the vast majority of staff in both companies’ international camps, who hope a town hall quickly scheduled for Tuesday will clear up confusion around what’s to come — one of the most urgent matters, by most accounts, being what lies ahead for each company’s much-ballyhooed streaming offering.
“My first reaction was, ‘Wow!’” says Mathew Horsman, director of London-based consultancy Mediatique, who describes the WarnerMedia and Discovery spin-off as “sensible” but rife with “all sorts of ramifications.”
The pact — which is expected to close in mid-2022, subject to approval by regulators and Discovery shareholders — sees AT&T...
- 5/17/2021
- by Manori Ravindran
- Variety Film + TV
Few media watchers in the U.K. were surprised that Jeremy Darroch, CEO of Sky these past 13 years, is finally quitting two years after Comcast acquired the U.K.-based pay-tv giant.
There’s been a steady exodus of senior execs from Sky since the U.S. cable group became its owner — and just weeks ago, Sky Studios CEO Gary Davey, who helped Rupert Murdoch launch Sky back in 1989, announced his retirement.
Darroch, a direct and straight-talking executive who joined Sky after a career in retail, helped transform the company into a European media powerhouse — a complex business spanning TV and telecoms — and tripled its size. Sky now has 24 million customers across Europe.
He oversaw the takeover of sister companies Sky Italia and Sky Deutschland and the construction of Sky Elstree Studios just outside London, likely to generate up to an additional £3 billion ($3.79 million) of production investment in the U.
There’s been a steady exodus of senior execs from Sky since the U.S. cable group became its owner — and just weeks ago, Sky Studios CEO Gary Davey, who helped Rupert Murdoch launch Sky back in 1989, announced his retirement.
Darroch, a direct and straight-talking executive who joined Sky after a career in retail, helped transform the company into a European media powerhouse — a complex business spanning TV and telecoms — and tripled its size. Sky now has 24 million customers across Europe.
He oversaw the takeover of sister companies Sky Italia and Sky Deutschland and the construction of Sky Elstree Studios just outside London, likely to generate up to an additional £3 billion ($3.79 million) of production investment in the U.
- 1/8/2021
- by Steve Clarke
- Variety Film + TV
Tim Davie is the right person at the right time to take over as director general of the BBC.
That seems to be the U.K. industry’s general view on the day that former PepsiCo and Proctor & Gamble marketing executive and long-time BBC staffer Davie won what is considered the most prized job in British media. His appointment came despite some sentiments that the job ought to have gone to the other internal candidate, BBC director of content Charlotte Moore, who would have been the first female director general.
When current boss Tony Hall announced earlier this year he was leaving, many thought the BBC would break with years of tradition and look to appoint somebody other than a white, male, Oxford or Cambridge University-educated leader. (Davie went to Cambridge.)
However, Davie, who has run the BBC’s production and distribution arm BBC Studios since 2018, quickly emerged as the front-runner,...
That seems to be the U.K. industry’s general view on the day that former PepsiCo and Proctor & Gamble marketing executive and long-time BBC staffer Davie won what is considered the most prized job in British media. His appointment came despite some sentiments that the job ought to have gone to the other internal candidate, BBC director of content Charlotte Moore, who would have been the first female director general.
When current boss Tony Hall announced earlier this year he was leaving, many thought the BBC would break with years of tradition and look to appoint somebody other than a white, male, Oxford or Cambridge University-educated leader. (Davie went to Cambridge.)
However, Davie, who has run the BBC’s production and distribution arm BBC Studios since 2018, quickly emerged as the front-runner,...
- 6/5/2020
- by Tim Dams
- Variety Film + TV
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