English Entertainment
HK’s NOW snares HBO, Star in exclusive deal
NEW DELHI: Hong Kong-based PCCW’s IPTV platform NOW Broadband TV (NOW) has secured exclusive long term agreements with HBO and Star Group, comprising 14 channels that includes five movie channels.
The agreement with HBO expires in 2014 and includes HBO, HBO Signature and Cinemax, while the agreement with Star expires in 2011 and comprises 11 channels (including Star Chinese Movies, Star Movies, Star World, Fox News and Hindi-language Star News and Star Plus), according to Hong Kong-based media analyst firm Media Partners Asia (MPA).
In addition, to ESPN-Star Sports, which NOW secured exclusive access to last year, NOW also reported an exclusive distribution agreement with Mei Ah TV (Chinese-language movies) and distribution agreements with Time Warner’s Turner Broadcasting (CNN Headline News and Boomerang); Eastern Broadcasting in Taiwan (ETTV news and entertainment channels) EuroNews and the Asian Food Channel.
The news further reinforces NOW’s position as the platform of choice for major international channels and foreign residents in Hong Kong.
The agreement with HBO expires in 2014 and includes HBO, HBO Signature and Cinemax, while the agreement with Star expires in 2011 and comprises 11 channels (including Star Chinese Movies, Star Movies, Star World, Fox News and Hindi-language Star News and Star Plus), according to Hong Kong-based media analyst firm Media Partners Asia (MPA).
In addition, to ESPN-Star Sports, which NOW secured exclusive access to last year, NOW also reported an exclusive distribution agreement with Mei Ah TV (Chinese-language movies) and distribution agreements with Time Warner’s Turner Broadcasting (CNN Headline News and Boomerang); Eastern Broadcasting in Taiwan (ETTV news and entertainment channels) EuroNews and the Asian Food Channel.
The news further reinforces NOW’s position as the platform of choice for major international channels and foreign residents in Hong Kong.
Prior to July, HBO’s one-year carriage on NOW had produced far higher take-up when compared with its premium distribution on the i-CABLE platform, where its numbers have stagnated for the past five years, MPA said.
Both HBO and STAR have also been drawn to attractive minimum-guarantee agreements with NOW and its significant marketing capabilities.
NOW’s distribution of HBO and Star movie channels and Galaxy’s (SuperSun)continued carriage of Celestial Movies will also exert greater pressure on i-CABLE in Hong Kong to programme a successful movie channel of its own.
Management at i-CABLE indicate that the company will remain focused on the local demographic by investing further in its news and entertainment channels (and, in the future, movies) and maintaining its sports franchise (EPL Soccer, World Cup soccer and more).
However, PCCW is also gradually building up its own localized franchise (ATV news channel already on board; local financial news channel to be next) and is likely to bid against i-CABLE (along with ESPN-Star Sports) when EPL Soccer comes up for renewal in 2006.
Along with i-CABLE, Galaxy will also lose the distribution of HBO channels, another impediment to the long term growth of its fledgling service.
As of year ended December 2004, NOW had signed up 416,000 homes with an installed STB base of 361,000. About 53 per cent of the installed base or 192,000 customers subscribed to NOW’s a-la-carte pay channels and/or mini packs with monthly average return per user (ARPU)at HK$105 or US$13, MPA stated.
Going forward, MPA quoted PCCW as saying that it plans to drive STB installs to approximately 500,000 and, at the same time, increase its pay TV conversion rate from Y/E December 2004 levels of 53 per cent.
English Entertainment
Warner Bros. Discovery shareholders approve Paramount deal
Investors wave through a $111 billion megamerger but deliver a stinging, if toothless, rebuke over half-a-billion-dollar goodbye packages
NEW YORK: The shareholders said yes to the deal. They said no to the cheque. At a virtual special meeting on Thursday that lasted barely ten minutes, Warner Bros. Discovery investors voted overwhelmingly to approve Paramount Skydance’s $111 billion acquisition of the company — and then turned around and voted against the lavish exit pay packages lined up for chief executive David Zaslav and his fellow outgoing executives.
Not that it will make much difference. The compensation vote is purely advisory and non-binding. The Warner Bros. Discovery board can, and almost certainly will, pay out as planned.
But the symbolism stings. It is the second consecutive year that WBD shareholders have voted against the executive compensation packages, and this time they had good reason. Zaslav’s exit deal is, by any measure, extraordinary. Under the terms filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, he is set to receive $34.2 million in cash severance, $517.2 million in equity in the combined company, and $44,195 in continued health coverage — a total of at least $550 million. On top of that, Warner Bros. Discovery has agreed to reimburse Zaslav up to $335 million for taxes assessed by the Internal Revenue Service on his accelerated stock vesting, though the company says that figure will decline depending on when the deal closes. As of March 11, Zaslav also held $115.85 million in vested WBD stock awards — and last month sold a further $114 million worth of WBD shares.
Shareholder advisory firm ISS recommended voting against the compensation measure, citing “problematic” tax reimbursements to Zaslav and the full vesting of his stock awards.
Zaslav will be bound by a two-year non-competition covenant and a two-year non-solicitation of customers and employees after the deal closes.
His lieutenants are not walking away empty-handed either. J.B. Perrette, chief executive and president of global streaming and games, is in line for $142 million, comprising $18.2 million in cash severance and $123.9 million in equity. Bruce Campbell, chief revenue and strategy officer, will receive an estimated $121.5 million, including $18.8 million in severance and $102.7 million in equity. Chief financial officer Gunnar Wiedenfels is set for $120 million, made up of $6.6 million in cash severance and $113.1 million in equity. Gerhard Zeiler, president of international, will get $82.6 million, including $11.9 million in severance and $70.7 million in equity.
The deal itself, clinched in February after Netflix declined to raise its bid for Warner Bros., still needs regulatory clearance from the Justice Department and European authorities. Several state attorneys general are also weighing legal action to block it.
Senator Elizabeth Warren, Democrat of Massachusetts, was unsparing. “The Paramount-Warner Bros. merger isn’t a done deal,” she said after the shareholder vote. “State attorneys general across the country are stepping up to stop this antitrust disaster. We need to keep up this fight.”
If it does go through, the combined entity would be a formidable beast, bringing together Paramount Skydance’s stable — CBS, CBS News, Paramount Pictures, Paramount+, BET, MTV and Nickelodeon — with WBD’s portfolio of HBO, Max, Warner Bros. film and TV studios, DC, CNN, TBS, TNT, HGTV and Discovery+. Paramount has said it expects $6 billion in cost savings from the merger, which is Wall Street shorthand for mass layoffs on a significant scale.
The ten-minute meeting was presided over by chairman Samuel Di Piazza Jr., with Zaslav, Campbell, Wiedenfels and chief communications officer Robert Gibbs in virtual attendance. Di Piazza was bullish. “We appreciate the support and confidence our stockholders have placed in us to unlock the full value of our world-class entertainment portfolio,” he said. “With Paramount, we look forward to creating an exceptional combined company that will expand consumer choice and benefit the global creative talent community.”
Zaslav echoed the sentiment. “Over the past four years, our teams have transformed Warner Bros. Discovery and returned the company to industry leadership,” he said. “Today’s stockholder approval is another key milestone toward completing this historic transaction that will deliver exceptional value to our stockholders.”
Paramount Skydance struck a similar note. “Shareholder approval marks another important milestone towards completing our acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery,” it said in a statement, adding that it looked forward to “closing the transaction in the coming months.”
The shareholders have spoken on the merger. On the pay, they were ignored before the vote was even counted.
