English Entertainment
AXN gets set for a new season of the ‘The Amazing Race’
Action channel AXN has announced the second season of the reality show ‘The Amazing Race’. AXN will broadcast the first two episodes of ‘Amazing Race 2’ this Friday, 15 March back to back, from 8-9 PM and 9-10 PM
Subsequent episodes will air every Friday at 9 PM, with rebroadcasts on Sundays at 1pm and 5pm, and on Mondays at 10 PM
Commenting on the first performance of the first installment, Rohit Bhandari, senior marketing manager, AXN, said it did reasonably well with an average share of 20 per cent among the international channels. Ratings were no doubt helped by the fact that participants had come to India for a couple of days, Bhandari said.
The format is the same as the first season. Eleven new couples with a pre-existing relationship race around the world to win $1 million.
‘AXN HAS CORNERED 9 PM SLOT’: Referring to the channel’s viewer base, Bhandari said AXN had seen a shift in its demographic profile. When the channel started operating in 1998 the male female ratio was 70:30. Now it is a more balanced 57:43. He said that the two reality shows which recently commenced on the channel ‘Fear Factor’ and ‘Scariest Places On Earth’, have cornered the most share in the crucial 9 PM prime time slot as opposed to movie based programs on rivals like HBO and Star Movies.
Referring to other programming initiatives, Bhandari said eight episodes of the new season of ‘Who Dares Wins’ will be shot in India. This will basically comprise of street dares. The more adventurous will be flown to Australia to compete in the main dares. Bhandari said that the main dares need to take place in Australia as the tasks are complex and require technical expertise to ensure safety of participants.
People can nominate those whom they want to see on the tube. An on air campaigns will be conducted telling people to send in entries and then a lucky draw will be held.
As for the upcoming attractions the channel has on offer, April will see the launch of the second season of Crime Scene Investigation. Besides this ‘The Agency’, about the manoeuverings of the CIA will enthrall viewers.
May will witness the airing a stunt awards show which will take place in Los Angeles. The aim is to honour people behind action scenes. The channel will organise a marketing initiative around the event. Watch this space for further details.
As far as film-based programming is concerned AXN claims a viewership of 2.33 million for ‘Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon’ which had its premiere on the channel in December. Films that will air later on in the year on AXN include the Kevin Bacon scare fest ‘Hollow Man’, the chick action flick ‘Charlies Angels’, and ‘6th Day’ with Arnold Schwarzenneger getting cloned.
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.
