Major TV deal involving HBO and Warner Bros.
A new heavyweight is emerging in the U.S. media industry, comprising the Hollywood studio Warner Bros. and TV networks such as HBO, CNN, and Eurosport. To this end, telecommunications giant AT&T is spinning off its WarnerMedia division and merging it with the Discovery television group.
AT&T is to benefit from this with 43 billion dollars - currently 35.4 billion euros - in cash, shares and in the form of debt takeovers, as the companies announced on Monday. AT&T shareholders are also to receive a 71 percent majority stake in the new company.
With the deal, AT&T is largely abandoning its ambitions to be a major player in the media business after spending billions of dollars on it in recent years. AT&T paid more than 80 billion dollars for WarnerMedia in 2018 - and took on huge debts to do so.
The new company is to be led by Discovery boss David Zaslav. This had already been announced by the Wall Street Journal reported - and emphasized that it was unclear whether the head of WarnerMedia, Jason Kilar, would remain on board. Kilar's name did not appear in Monday's announcement.
WarnerMedia includes HBO, CNN and Warner Bros. as well as other channels such as TNT. Discovery has so far focused on documentary formats with channels such as Animal Planet and Food Network.
The TV and film business is currently undergoing a profound change with the advance of streaming services, which has been accelerated once again by the coronavirus pandemic. WarnerMedia is currently trying to jump on the bandwagon with its streaming service HBO Max, which also features Warner films. Rivals Netflix and Disney are currently particularly strong in the streaming business.
In the US, streaming is also eroding revenues in the long-lucrative cable TV business. The Warner news channel CNN, which can be seen on cable TV in the US, experienced an upswing last year with the election campaign for the White House. Recently, however, viewer numbers have fallen again. (SDA)
