English Entertainment
Smile TV to launch 3 interactive channels for Asia
MUMBAI: Three interactive channels are poised to make their debut into Asian homes from 1 January 2004.
To be launched on the AsiaSat 3S platform, the three channels – Malibu TV, Platinum TV, and Casino TV, promise to offer ‘strong, highly targeted programming’, and offer to bring value to both cable broadcasters and advertisers.
The three channels will initially be transmitted in English, with additional languages introduced over time. Malibu TV is an active sports channel with a focus on the California and Pacific board sport and beach culture; Platinum TV is a luxury lifestyle channel; Casino TV explores the lifestyle of some of the greatest casino destinations in the world, alongside the best in sophisticated interactive entertainment.
According to Smile TV managing director Manivel Malone, “We know from our experience in the UK and Europe that the fastest growing area of interest among television viewers is programme participation through using the mobile phone and the Internet. The viewer wants to interact and already has the technology in hand to do so.Recent research forecasts that TV generated SMS messaging will have a global value of over US$9 billion in 2004. “
Consequently, all three channels will employ innovative formats to enable viewers to participate in a wide range of interactive programming – join live games via their mobile handset, and download the games to play when they are not viewing; enter quizzes and competitions; compete in for-fun casino games ; vote for TV favourites via a video juke box; post messages live on screen and send greetings to friends or comment on current programming; interact live via SMS with the programme hosts and other viewers simultaneously and communicate via multi-party voice chat forums. New applications will be unveiled in the months following the launch.
Interactive services for the channels are to be provided by Cellcast Interactive, which is among the world’s leading developers of interactive TV solutions facilitated through real time viewer interaction via mobile and fixed line telephony, Internet and wireless data devices, claims Smile TV. Via AsiaSat 3S, Smile TV hopes to reach the satellite’s estimated hold over 80 million homes via cable and DTH, and exploit its footprint that extends from Japan and China to India and the Middle East.
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.
