English Entertainment
Cupid strikes English entertainment channels this Valentine’s Day
MUMBAI: English entertainment channels are cupid struck this Valentine’s Day as they prep to dish out a unique line-up for entertaining the audience on 14 February.
As the week culminates with Valentine’s Day, channels have been enabling their viewers in expressing and showcasing their love with a special line up of shows.
Let’s take a look on what various channels are doing this Valentine’s Day.
9X Media
9X Media began celebrating love by airing a special Valentine’s ident and multiple shows across all the channels starting 10 February. The Switch Off Karo Sab, Switch On Some Love campaign was conceptualised by 9X Jhakaas head of brand innovation and VP of programming Rohan Rane. The lyric of the track is composed by 9XM and 9X Tashan cluster programming head Baljinder Mahant.
In addition to this, 9XO and 9X Jalwa have lined up special programs on 14 February. Popular animated characters Bade – Chote have joined Tinder and will be providing the singles in town a chance to win free gifts and movie tickets through ‘swipe right and win’ surprise on the popular dating app. Other two special shows include Love-a-thon on 9XO Media and Jalwa Pyaar Ka Panchnama on 9X Jalwa.
Jalwa Pyaar Ka Panchnama will feature songs depicting different stages of love on 13 and 14 February. Adding to it, the channel will also showcase romantic songs of Yash Chopra on 13 and 14 February at 7 pm, whereas 9XO’s Love-a-thon will play songs expressing various stages of a relationship.
ZoOm TV
ZoOm TV, taking the celebration a notch higher, will be playing cupid for its viewers by airing special episodes of Request Kiya Hai, where viewers can send messages to their loved ones through song dedications. The show will be high on the celebrity quotient as well featuring celebrities like Aditya Roy Kapoor, Katrina Kaif and Sonam Kapoor.
Adding to it, the channel also aired two other shows namely Cut It and Yaar Mera Superstar to keep viewers entertained. Yaar Mera Superstar featured the cast of Fitoor in conversation with host of the show Garima Kumar. The channel will also play Top 100 romantic songs from 9 to 14 February. On the other hand, the Valentine’s Day special of Planet Bollywood will be aired on 14 February.
FX HD
FX HD will treat its binge watchers by airing season two marathon of Golden Globe winning show The Affair from 10 am on 14 February on FX and FX HD.
Zee Studio
The channel is going to enthral its viewers by introducing Valentine Playbook. The line up will showcase romantic titles such as Pretty Woman, Sweet Home Alabama, When In Rome, How To Loose A Guy In 10 Days, Love Is All You Need, A Little Bit Of Heaven and The Bounty Hunter.
Zee Café
The channel will premiere a marathon of Red Band Society on 13 and 14 February at 12 pm. It will also engage viewers in a unique way by revealing the fun side of fans with a Dubsmash video on the title track of Pretty Little Liars. The most entertaining Dubsmash video will be featured in Zee Café in March.
Romedy Now
For Valentine’s Day, Romedy Now has lined up special movies on 14 February from 9 am to 11 pm. Films like Hitch, Along Came Polly, My Best Friend’s Wedding, Addicted To Love and 50 First Dates are lined up. The line-up also includes the romantic musical comedy Begin Again, which will be aired at 9 pm.
AXN HD
The channel will air season 11 of Supernatural comprising 13 episodes on 14 February from 9 am to 9 pm.
Colors Infinity
The channel will be airing back to back power packed episodes of Arrow season 4 on 14 February from 9 am onwards.
Vh1
Vh1 will celebrate Valentine’s Day with Vh1 Coupling where it will air romantic videos of couples, who dared to celebrate love on screen. The episode will be aired on 14 February at 8 am.
Comedy Central
Comedy Central viewers can gear up to binge on back-to-back rib tickling series namely A-Z, Awkward, Whitney, Guys with Kids and Marry Me on 14 February from 11 am onwards.
SONY PIX
The channel will air 11 movies on 14 February from 6am to 4am. The Pink Panther 2 will be aired at 6am, Horns will be aired at 12:04pm, The Amazing Spider Man will be aired at 12:54am, Friends With Benefits will be on air at 5:37pm, Freaky Friday will be on air at 3:12 am on 15 February.
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.
