Warner Bros. Discovery Considering Running HBO, HBO Max Reruns on TNT, TBS As Low-Cost Programming Option

Warner Bros. Discovery is clearly looking under every stone to try and shake loose a few more dollars to eat into the $3 billion hole that CEO David Zaslav is trying to fill in, and the company is turning to its primary streaming service HBO Max for as much assistance as possible. The company’s latest tactic? Airing streaming and previously premium content on its linear cable channels to attract viewers to as many of its platforms as possible.

According to a new report from Business Insider, Zaslav sees cable channels TNT and TBS as important parts of his strategy to revolutionize WBD’s platforms. The cable channels draw a large audience thanks to their live sports programming, particularly the NBA. If the networks can keep those audiences watching non-sports content, that can help both the linear and streaming brands. So, why not have those networks put some of HBO’s most popular content in front of their eyes?

Second-run programming like “The Sopranos,” “The Flight Attendant,” “Succession,” and other HBO and HBO Max titles could soon become a permanent part of TNT and TBS’s programming schedule. The latter channel has already begun experimenting with one-off presentations called “Front Row on TBS,” which saw the first season of “The Flight Attendant” air ahead of Season 2’s premiere on HBO Max and Season 1 of “Titans” air on cable before the third season began.

This new plan would essentially see — around the valuable sports programming, of course — the Turner networks become a repository of reruns from HBO’s library of premium cable and streaming originals. WBD hopes that this will not only draw more attention to the cablers, but also encourage viewers to sign up for the streamer so that they can watch their favorite HBO programs on demand. While the corporate synergy makes sense, especially as a cheap way to fill cable air time, one unnamed former Warner executive is skeptical of the company essentially going backward when it comes to running the cable channels.

“Samantha Bee is gone, and all of the original programming. It’s reverting back to the old model of 20 years ago and becoming a network that is all reruns,” the former executive said of TBS. “At some point [WBD execs] have to make a decision with all the cable networks: Can they sustain all of them or do they consolidate?”

Warner’s hope for sustaining those channels is the live sports content they offer. TNT’s deal with the NBA runs through the 2024-25 season, and WBD definitely wants to renew that contract. TNT also airs NHL games, and TBS gets some MLB games, while both channels air the NCAA men’s basketball tournament. According to Insider, there is also discussion of making one of the channels a sports-focused network, combining all of WBD’s cable sports rights in one place and supplementing with other sports-themed programming.

While that would be a bigger swing for the company, the movement of HBO shows from being exclusively available via streaming to airing on linear cable channels is a bit of a trend-buster for WBD. More and more networks are choosing to do just the opposite; moving high-profile shows exclusively to streaming in hopes of boosting the profile of their respective streaming services.

That’s what Disney did when it moved “Dancing With The Stars” to Disney+ exclusively. Peacock is doing the same with the long-running soap opera “Days of Our Lives.” But those companies are also increasing their streaming budgets, while WBD is in the midst of a massive cutback.

“Our goal is to compete with the leading streaming services, not to win the spending war,” Zaslav said in the company’s fourth-quarter earnings call last year.

Leaning on established outlets like TNT and TBS as platforms for second-run premium programming may indeed help WBD, but it’s another in a long line of signs that the bottom line is much more important to the company than the customer’s experience.

Eight All Elite Wrestling Wonders To Wrap Up Women’s Month

TNT Africa wraps up Women’s Month in style with All Elite Wrestling’s explosive roster of female talent on the weekly AEW: Dynamite and AEW: Rampage shows. AEW rings in the explosive power of women in wrestling, and these contenders have a bold commitment to inspiring girls and women globally through the world of wrestling.

Exceptional athletes such as Thunder Rosa, Jade Cargill, Dr. Britt Baker, Nyla Rose, Kris Statlander, Tay Conti, Red Velvet, Toni Storm, and many more have been empowering women both inside and outside the ‘squared circle’ since the launch of AEW in 2019.  Here are the stories of some of these inspiring competitors:

Thunder Rosa is the current AEW Women’s World Champion, having defeated Dr. Britt Baker in March 2022 in an epic women’s Steel Cage Match.  Born in Tijuana, Mexico, Thunder Rosa wrestled around the world before signing with AEW in 2020.  Since joining AEW, she has thrilled audiences with her unique in-ring presence and artistry.

Jade Cargill erupted on the professional wrestling scene in early 2020, making an iconic in-ring debut alongside NBA legend Shaquille O’Neal in a mixed tag team match.  Since then, she’s become the inaugural AEW TBS Champion and remains undefeated with a 36-0 record.  An all-around athlete, Jade played Division 1 basketball at Jacksonville University.  She holds multiple degrees, including a master’s in child psychology, and is the first-ever Black woman on the cover of a wrestling video game – AEW: Fight Forever.

Dr. Britt Baker D.M.D. is the only fully licensed and practising dentist in the professional wrestling industry.  She made her in-ring debut in 2015 while enrolled in the University of Pittsburgh’s School of Dental Medicine. She continued to study dentistry while honing her craft in the ring.  The first woman signed to AEW when the company debuted, Britt is a former AEW Women’s World Champion, a title she held for 290 days.

Nyla Rose is a true student of everything professional wrestling, possessing a unique blend of speed, agility, power and precision.  Nicknamed the “Native Beast,” Nyla is a proud Native American of Oneida heritage.  When Nyla officially signed with AEW in February 2019, she became the first out transgender woman to sign a full-time contract with a top U.S.-based wrestling company.  In 2020, she captured the AEW Women’s World Championship to become the first transgender woman to win the world championship title of a major U.S. wrestling promotion.

Kris Statlander found her love of professional wrestling after training to become a stunt woman.  Since graduating from a top wrestling academy, Kris has been featured on multiple Top 100 and Top 10 female wrestler lists.  Kris, who made her AEW debut in 2019, has established herself as a leading force in the women’s division. 

Tay Conti brings a unique set of skills to the AEW roster with her strong background in martial arts – she even competed in the Olympic trials for the 2016 Summer Games in her native country, Brazil.  Since signing with AEW in 2020, she’s made a tremendous impact, blending her expertise in judo and Brazilian jiu-jitsu with traditional wrestling moves.  Recently married to AEW star Sammy Guevara, Tay Conti is a name to watch.

Red Velvet signed with AEW in 2020 and made an immediate impression with several high-profile matches.  She has since aligned herself with “The Baddies” alongside Jade Cargill, Kiera Hogan and Stokely Hathaway.  Red Velvet is also the daughter of the Colombian World Flyweight boxing champion Prudencio Cardona.

Toni Storm found her passion for professional wrestling at the age of 10 and began training at her local gym in Australia. She later moved to Liverpool, UK, to hone her skills further.  She soon started wrestling around the world, making a name for herself and capturing titles.  She made her AEW debut on March 30, 2022, in the Owen Hart Foundation Women’s Tournament with a first-round victory.  She followed that up with a run at the AEW Women’s World Championship and continues to put the women’s roster on notice. 

“A month such as Women's Month provides TNT Africa with an opportunity to celebrate AEW’s resilient and strong women,” said Guillermo Farré, Head of the Warner Bros. Discovery General Entertainment channels across France, Iberia and Africa.  “We are committed to showcasing and promoting women in professional wrestling and across all sporting arenas.”

Catch these AEW HERoes in new episodes of AEW: Dynamite and AEW: Rampage on TNT Africa (DStv Channel 137) every Saturday and Sunday at 10:00 CAT.

Roundups #89: Megan Thee Stallion Joins The Marvel Cinematic Universe, Selena Gomez Enters Negotiations For Working Girl Reboot, Scrapped HBO Max Series Drawing Interest Of Various Streamers

Megan Thee Stallion joins the cast of She-Hulk

Megan Thee Stallion is following up her role on Starz’s P-Valley with a cameo appearance in Marvel’s She-Hulk: Attorney At Law.

In an upcoming episode, she becomes involved in a legal case that is being handled by attorney Augustus “Pug” Pugliese, played by Josh Segarra. Segarra teased what’s ahead while chatting with Deadline on the red carpet of the show’s premiere.

“A gentleman is being catfished by somebody that lives in another universe, let’s say. Another world,” Segarra said before confirming Deadline’s teasing response that the catfisher is pretending to be a certain recording artist.

Selena Gomez might be joining another reboot

Selena Gomez and 20th Century Studios are partnering for a reboot of Working Girl.

Gomez is in talks to produce a remake of the 1988 comedy that starred Melanie Griffith as a Long Island woman who secretly takes over her boss’ job while she recovers from a broken leg. Harrison Ford and Sigourney Weaver also starred in the original film, which was directed by Mike Nichols and was a massive success, earning Oscar nominations and an impressive $100 million box office haul.

It is unclear if Gomez would also star in the project, which is eyeing a release on Hulu.

Batman is gaining traction

While Bruce Timm, Matt Reeves, and J.J. Abrams' Batman: Caped Crusader won't be coming to HBO Max, the animated series is reportedly very much alive and drawing interest from Apple, Hulu, Netflix, and more.

As reported by THR, Batman: Caped Crusader was one of six animated titled that was pulled from HBO Max's upcoming slate and will no longer be produced by the company. It was stated that these shows were not necessarily canceled, but instead would be shopped to other studios.

According to THR's sources, "it is believed that the various Warners divisions making the show and movies will make more money on the titles by selling them to other outlets than having them on Warners’ own streamer."

 

Why Fan-Favourite Sports Channel Is Not Available On Pay Platforms

In 2021, the isolated SABC Sport channel on the DTT platform was made available to Openview consumers as part of a deal made by the public broadcaster and eMedia Investments which included two more channels and 19 radio stations.

Years prior, SABC Sport made its OTT debut on Telkom's streaming service TelkomOne under a similar agreement with the public broadcaster within it included the 19 radio stations, SABC Education and likely any upcoming channel(s).

Since it's availability to free-to-air consumers, SABC Sport has become the top 10 watched channels on Openview and since then sourced several content outside of SABC 1-3 which includes the best of ESPN and Racing240 and all of that just triggered a certain pay-tv brand, SuperSport.

SuperSport is a sports division of M-Net which houses the biggest sports brands like Premier League, La Liga, UEFA Champions League, Moto GP, WWE, Wimbledon, PGA Tour. Point is they are the biggest sports brands in Africa.

Unfortunately, due to all these prestige over the brand only a handful of matches are accessible to lower masses and those excluded rely on the SABC for some of these matches.

In the beginning, consumers no matter the platform would have access to these matches but following the official launch of SABC Sport that all changed as SuperSport exclusive matches would only be screened on the DStv and DTT platform with TelkomOne and Openview blocked from seeing any of these matches.

If you look at the tactic here, they're basically trying to boost the consumer numbers on their platforms as they experience a decline in DStv Premium and Compact consumers and also with streaming taking over they want to level the playing field.

Since then the public broadcaster had filed an application accusing SuperSport of being anti-competitive in a similar stature to eMedia Investments when their channels where pulled from the DStv platform.

Taking that to account, why would MultiChoice want a channel that rebroadcast SuperSport content especially if it means more consumers will likely downgrade if it means paying less for premium content.

Some of the content that was restricted to TelkomOne and Openview were also excluded from SABC Sport imagine if the channel was already on DStv with those restrictions attached when consumers who missed out would hope to catch-up or rehash some past content.

Laid-Off HBO Max Execs Reveal Warner Bros. Discovery Is Killing Off Diversity and Courting ‘Middle America’

Adam Manno

Former HBO Max executives say the streaming service has been left with few people of color to oversee its diverse slate of programming as Warner Bros. Discovery continues its ongoing corporate reshuffling.

The platform reportedly laid off close to 70 people this month. That includes the entire teams overseeing unscripted, kids and family, and international content, according to two former HBO Max execs who asked not to be named.

Those three divisions, responsible for buying shows from production companies and creators and working closely with them during production, are now completely gone.

One former employee says as many as 13 people of color previously in charge of developing shows like The Gordita Chronicles and the Spanish-language docuseries Menudo: Forever Young have been let go, likely influencing the types of shows and movies that are greenlit moving forward. Among those laid off are Jen Kim, an Asian woman who served as the senior vice president of the international team, and Kaela Barnes, a Black woman who worked under Kim.

“I don’t think anyone knows just how white the staff is,” one former executive told The Daily Beast.

Former HBO Max staffers say there are barely any non-white people left in the upper ranks of content, with one naming Joey Chavez, an executive vice president of drama, as one of the few people of color still there. Because HBO Max and the original HBO channel operate somewhat independently, one former executive conceded that “there may be one Black woman on the HBO side. Maybe.”

The layoffs have “amplified the lack of diversity at HBO,” another former executive told The Daily Beast. “HBO is the most homogenous part of this umbrella. Instead of trying to figure out how to integrate some of the [Max] executives into HBO, they just made this sweeping cut of three divisions: kids, family, and international. A lot of Black and brown people lost their jobs.”

Ever since parent company Warner Bros. merged with Discovery earlier this year, employees at Warner have grappled with the changing values of the newly created company. Discovery CEO David Zaslav was charged with helping Warner crawl out of a $50 billion hole. He came in like a wrecking ball, tearing up CNN’s $300 million streaming service CNN+ and vowing to pull the Warner-owned news channel away from “advocacy” journalism.

More changes have come in the past couple of weeks.

Earlier this month, it was announced that Batgirl, the $90 million film planned for HBO Max starring Afro-Latina actress Leslie Grace, would be shelved completely in favor of a tax write-off. Over the weekend, CNN media correspondent and host Brian Stelter, a frequent target of right-wing criticism, was fired from the network.

Former Warner employees believe these changes are just as much about business as they are about reshaping the ideological perception of Warner properties. It all points to the same end, they say: A rejection of left-wing or highly diverse content in favor of more homogenous, Middle America-friendly fare. The lack of diversity in content staff might just make that goal easier.

“HBO is the most homogenous part of this umbrella. Instead of trying to figure out how to integrate some of the [Max] executives into HBO, they just made this sweeping cut of three divisions: kids, family, and international. A lot of Black and brown people lost their jobs.”
In a statement to The Daily Beast, HBO highlighted shows like Euphoria, Rap Sh!t, A Black Lady Sketch Show and Los Espookys, all of which are led by diverse characters.

“HBO and HBO Max have always shown a commitment to diverse programming and storytellers, and always will,” the company said.

An internal graphic comparing the audiences of Discovery+ and HBO Max showed a stark demographic difference between the two streamers. Where HBO Max is popular with diverse groups, single people, and drivers of hybrid cars, Discovery+ is popular with white, married people who drive SUVs, minivans, and “traveling buses.” HBO Max viewers are on TikTok and Instagram, while Discovery+ viewers use social media platforms Facebook and Twitter, with the added caveat, “if any.” HBO Max viewers have no kids. Discovery+ viewers are either “empty nesters” or have grandchildren. Discovery may be trying to pull HBO into its orbit as it focuses on what it does best.

HBO Max’s reality offerings presented an obvious sticking point for the new bosses. Where Discovery properties like TLC and HGTV send camera crews out to film what they can find, HBO Max’s offerings are more carefully crafted. They’re sometimes buoyed by stars like Selena Gomez or Steph Curry, who have the power to command big paychecks, and they’re noticeably sleeker, with smoother edits and more complicated camera set-ups adding to their budgets.

One former exec describes Discovery+ as a “more general audience platform that doesn’t have the specificity that HBO Max was tailored to. I think Discovery is just a very ‘all’ audience, [they] don’t wanna make things that are political, topical, alienate Middle America—more Chip and Joanna,” they said, referring to the home renovation show Fixer Upper: Welcome Home hosted by Chip and Joanna Gaines.

Leslie Grace in Batgirl

HBO Max
“If David Zaslav had his wish, he would just program Chip and Joanna all day long,” the executive said. “There was just a massive, ‘We don’t need you. You’re not offering the things we’re focused on.’”

The change in perspective could also partly explain why so many titles have recently disappeared from HBO Max’s platform. Our sources agree that the removals are mostly related to money. The company can claim a tax break for the costs associated with certain shows as long as it promises to stop profiting off them, which means taking them down altogether.

“They’re canceling a lens of perspective that I don’t think exists when you look at Discovery-branded shows,” one former staffer said.

Speaking of the company’s plans to combine HBO Max and Discovery+ into one giant streaming service in the near future, the laid-off exec said: “Don’t be surprised if there’s a new name for the platform.”

Overall, there’s a sense that HBO Max’s executives of color were just another casualty in the company’s quest to get itself out of debt, content quality be damned.

“In terms of people seeing themselves reflected, whether it’s ethnic or LGBTQ, when you have people who are diverse, the lens with which they evaluate [content] factors in things that I think my white colleagues just don’t think about,” one former executive said.

“It’s deep,” said another. “What are they going to do with this disproportionate amount of people of color that were let go? They need to replace them in some capacity. Or do they not care? That’s what we’ve been told, that they just don’t care.”

Cartoon Network's Multi-Award-Winning Climate Champions Campaign Celebrates 1 Million Challenges Accepted

A whopping 1 million challenges have been accepted by enthusiastic Cartoon Network Climate Champions worldwide. These are everyday heroes who have decided to take action by heeding the call to protect our earth, one challenge at a time!

Launched in June 2021, the Cartoon Network Climate Champions initiative, aimed at giving kids the tools to act and fight against climate change, invited kids across EMEA to take on small and fun challenges that can make a world of difference to help protect their environment – and kids across Africa have been exceptional!

Of the one million accepted challenges, 18% are from Africa, meaning close to 190 000 African kids actively participated in making an environmental difference. From planting trees and saving water to reusing everyday household items to create useful crafts, our young, real-life superheroes are determined to fight against climate change, and the growing numbers across Africa are proof that our future is in safe hands!

This multi-award-winning campaign has taken away a Bronze Award for the Environmental Category and a Silver Award for the Arts and Entertainment Category at the 2022 PRISM Awards, South Africa’s highly sought-after public relations and communications awards. The campaign also won an Africa SABRE Award in the Media, Arts and Entertainment Category. The Africa SABRE Awards recognizes superior achievement in branding, reputation, and engagement and puts a spotlight on the industry’s most compelling work, especially focusing on programs and initiatives that drives real business impact across the continent. The most recent award, announced in July 2022, was the IPRA Golden World Awards, recognizing excellence in public relations on a global platform.  These are all testament to the fact that Cartoon Network’s Climate Champions is making great strides on a local and international front.

Monika Oomen, VP, Brand, Communications and Franchise, Kids EMEA, Warner Bros. Discovery, said: “Climate change is an important issue to the younger generation, and we can see this in their desire to not only talk about saving the planet but to take action too. Cartoon Network’s Climate Champions provides an engaging platform to inspire kids in this mission and to show them that every action, however small, can make a difference. Hitting one million challenges is a huge milestone that reaffirms our pride in this project and the inspirational kids that have taken part. We look forward to celebrating the next million!