English Entertainment
Fox looks to score in the reality genre with Virgin’s Branson
MUMBAI: Fox’s musical reality show American Idol is going from strength to strength in the US. Looking to expand the reality genre the Murdoch network is said to be planning a show of a different sort using airline billionaire Virgin’s Sir Richard Branson.
A report in the Daily Variety stated that Branson would be looking to emulate the success of Donald Trump’s show The Apprentice. That NBC programme made reality television look attractive again after a string of shows failed to impress viewers in the US. However Fox will have to contend with the fact that audiences need and want to see what they haven’t seen before.
Another report has indicated that in the US a new breed of what’s being called hybrid shows blending sitcom and reality are beginning a rise to prominence. With BBC enjoying success with The Office documentary-style sitcoms, which mixes script with improvisation are just beginning to be noticed by television audiences.
According to USA Today the four broadcast networks each spend over $1.5 billion every year on programming. With advertisers spending over $9.3 billion in commitments, the onus is upon ABC. NBC, CBS and Fox to deliver viewers. Yet ratings have declined 25 per cent thanks to increasing fragmentation in the US television landscape. Hybrid shows could just be the innovation that the networks are looking for.
Coming back to Braqnson the show has been tentatively titled Branson’s Big Adventure. The tycoon will check out the mettle of hopeful tycoons around the world. Every week one person will be eliminated as is also the case with another show Survivor which airs on CBS. Expectedly Fox has however maintained that the show is not going to be a carbon copy the Trump show. The selected person will follow in Branson’s footsteps in a manner of speaking.
NBC meanwhile is continuing to innovate further.. It recently launched Significant Others to test on Bravo, much like the network did with Queer Eye For Straight Guy. According to The Oregonian Times, the show is constructed like HBO’s Curb Your Enthusiasm and BBC’s The Office from dialogues improvised to fit a written outline. In India the HBO show airs on Zee English.
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.
