English Entertainment
Ex-Nine Network chief Pallister to head TWI’s Australia operations
MUMBAI: Television production firm TWI has secured the services of the Nine Network’s former head of entertainment Glenn Pallister to grow its production business in Australia and New Zealand.
Pallister joins TWI Australia on 24 October as director of programmes and content creation. He comes with a wealth of experience and relationships in content production, both in the entertainment and sports fields, gleaned after 22 years at Nine.
He was a cameraman before switching to a production career that encompassed several of Australia’s lynchpin entertainment shows and specials including executive producing the series The Footy Show. Pallister will be based in Sydney where he will be responsible for expanding TWI’s production output in the region across all genres and platforms, at a time when TWI is already busy making preparations as host broadcaster for the Melbourne 2006 Commonwealth Games.
TWI senior VP, production and business development Alastair Waddington said, “I am delighted to welcome someone of Glenn’s calibre and reputation to TWI. He really does understand and have a passion for content production from every angle, having worked his way up through the ranks at Nine. I know he will make a great contribution to TWI’s business aspirations for the future as we continue to develop our activities across the world.”
Pallister said: “I was lucky enough to receive offers from several other companies but I am thrilled to be joining TWI whom I’ve long admired for their professionalism and expertise. I spent many happy years at Nine, working on some fabulous programmes but this is a great opportunity to create something new in a very fertile and exciting environment.”
Pallister joined Channel Nine straight from school where he enrolled as a trainee cameraman, working on numerous cricket series, MTV concerts and eight seasons of Ray Martin’s midday show, where he won a Penguin Award for excellence. He then moved into production including Wide World of Sports, and The Footy Show from its 1995 debut until 2004 when he was appointed Nine’s Network Head of Entertainment. He was responsible for a portfolio which also included This is Your Life, Australia’s Funniest Home Video Show, Comedy Inc and special outside broadcasts like the Logies. He also co-created and developed Celebrity Circus and Skating on Thin Ice, and was responsible for Nine Network’s participation in the Tsunami Relief Concert and Telethon.
TWI is the television, broadcast and new media arm of sports marketing agency IMG, which was acquired last year by Forstmann Little. It claims to be the world’s largest independent producer, packager and distributor of sports programming, producing more than 6,000 hours and distributing nearly 9,000 hours of live events and original programming each year, across 200 countries and covering more than 240 sports.
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.
