March 28, 2024

Former Hulu Boss Will Lead WarnerMedia, Home of HBO and CNN

In his 20 months at the WarnerMedia helm, Mr. Stankey refashioned the division to focus on streaming. He invested heavily in HBO Max and made it his mission to dissolve the borders between WarnerMedia’s separate units.

Tensions between Mr. Stankey and his new charges arose shortly after the merger, at a June 2018 town hall for HBO employees in New York. At the meeting, the new boss sat on a stage with Richard Plepler, a gregarious entertainment executive who had led the cable network to 160 Emmys. Mr. Stankey warned of a “a tough year” ahead that would require significant changes. He also mentioned that HBO did not make enough money. Those were fighting words, given that Mr. Plepler had repeatedly said the best thing for the network home of “The Sopranos” and “Game of Thrones” was to maintain its independence.

People familiar with Mr. Plepler’s thinking said that he found he had less autonomy in his short run as an ATT employee. In January, nearly a year after his departure, Mr. Plepler signed an exclusive, five-year deal to produce films and shows for the Apple TV Plus streaming platform.

On Mr. Stankey’s watch, WarnerMedia also lost David Levy, who resigned as president of Turner Broadcasting, the division that includes TBS and TNT. In addition, Kevin Tsujihara, the former head of Warner Bros. studio, stepped down after accusations that he had tried to arrange TV and film roles for a woman with whom he had a sexual relationship.

The leadership team installed by Mr. Stankey includes Mr. Greenblatt, the former chairman of NBC entertainment. Mr. Zucker, the CNN head, has assumed responsibility for sports programming.

The executive who will replace Mr. Stankey is perhaps best known in Hollywood for a 2011 blog post. To many readers, Mr. Kilar’s piece came across as a blistering critique of Hulu’s corporate ownership, as well as a manifesto on the future of entertainment.

Since removed from Hulu’s corporate site, the post panned traditional TV for running far too many commercials. Mr. Kilar also blasted cable, predicting that viewers would eventually drop expensive packages.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/01/business/media/warner-media-jason-kilar-john-stankey.html

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