English Entertainment
ABC News’ Barbara Walters to open Promax&BDA 2004
MUMBAI: Promax&BDA has announced that ABC News’ Barbara Walters will open the organisation’s 49th annual conference with an address and her career spanning perspective on the changing role of promotion on television.
Additionally, organisers this week announced that the cast from last Sunday night’s Tony Award winning Best Musical Avenue Q will appear at Promax to reprise their show-stopping number performed during the Tony ceremony at Radio City.
Chief executive officer Promax&BDA Jim Chabin said, “Our theme this year is “Whatever it Takes”, a mantra that has been demonstrated by both Barbara Walters and the cast of Avenue Q. I am thrilled that Ms Walters, a respected journalist and producer, wants to share her opinions on the power of promotion with our membership. She has a stellar track record of going the extra mile in pursuit of her subjects as well as asking tough questions and we are all anxious to hear her thoughts. Likewise, the cast of Avenue Q surprised many in the theatre community with its three Tony wins this year and we are pleased they have accepted our invitation to be part of our program. And these two major attractions are just the highlights of what promises to be our most exciting conference to date.”
In addition to Walters’ extended presence, this year’s Promax&BDA has drawn participation from the top names in the television and media world including NBC’s Brian Williams, MTV’s Judy McGrath, Oxygen Media’s Gerry Laybourne and Viacom’s Dennis Swanson, as well as entrepreneur Russell Simmons, The New York Times’ Stuart Elliott and Vanity Fair / Court TV contributor Dominick Dunne among others.
Initially Walters was slated to be honored as one of the winners of the Television Century Award. In her discussions with Promax&BDA organisers however, Walters wanted to take the opportunity to offer a speech on the importance of promotion in today’s fragmented entertainment world. Launched originally in May 2003, the Promax&BDA Television Century Awards were created as an annual award to honor television’s elite for their contributions to building brands.
In addition to Walters, the ABC News correspondent, correspondent and anchor of ABC News 20/20 and The Barbara Walters Specials; and co-host and executive producer of ABC Daytime’s The View, Dennis Swanson EVP, chief operating officer, Viacom Television Stations Group and Judy McGrath, MTV Networks group president, will also receive the award.
Avenue Q – the hip, low-tech, puppet populated musical, surprised the world when it won the Tony Award for Best Musical defeating the heavily favored Oz fantasy Wicked. Avenue Q also won Best Original Score (Robert Lopez and Jeff Marx) as well as Best Book of a Musical (Jeff Whitty).
Called “the most fun on the stage this year” by The New Yorker, Avenue Q opened off-Broadway at the Vineyard Theatre in March 2003 where it gained rave reviews and was extended four times. It won the 2003 Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding New Musical as well as a nomination for the 2003 Outer Critics Circle Outstanding Off-Broadway Musical award.
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.
