So they are going back to splitting the company up again. Lot of people getting paid a shitload of money to make really bad decisions and then try to fix the decisions they made.
Most of WBD Debt to Go With TV Networks Company
Earlier on Monday, June 9, Warner Bros. Discovery announced a split that most of the industry saw coming. There will be two independently-operated, publicly-traded companies: Streaming & Studios and Global Networks. Those will be renamed at some point (and probably “Warner Bros.” and “Discovery” — again).
It is a very similar move to what NBCUniversal recently did to form Versant. Disney has also toyed with the idea.
Wiedenfels, currently the WBD chief financial officer and Zaslav’s longterm right-hand man, expects his coming company, Global Networks, to “continue to see strong cash generation.” Though cable TV is dying, it still generates cash flow — especially CNN, which heads out with Wiedenfels.
Both Wiedenfels and Zaslav will continue in their present roles at WBD until the separation, which is expected to close in mid-2026.
Zaslav’s Streaming & Studios company will consist of Warner Bros. Television, Warner Bros. Motion Picture Group, DC Studios, HBO and HBO Max, as well as their legendary film and television libraries. The second business, Global Networks, will include entertainment, sports and news television brands around the world as CNN, TNT Sports in the U.S., and Discovery, free-to-air channels across Europe, and digital products such as the profitable Discovery+ streaming service and Bleacher Report (B/R).
In other words, Zaslav gets the cool, creative stuff; Streaming & Studios has all of the prestige and most of the future. Wiedenfels will be in charge of much of what presently makes reliable money, but he also inherits all of the downside based on industry trends. And oh yeah, most of that debt.
“Three years ago, the very foundation of how, when, and where audiences engaged with content was undergoing fundamental change,” Zaslav wrote in a memo to staff, obtained by The Hollywood Reporter, in reference to the 2022 combination of WarnerMedia and Discovery. “As both organizations contemplated their futures, one truth became clear: to successfully adapt, transform, and lead in the entertainment industry of tomorrow, we needed to come together — to draw on each other’s strengths.”