English Entertainment
Nat Geo savours local flavour
MUMBAI: The National Geographic Channel has received 125 entries from Indian documentary producers at NGCIdeas.com, the interactive website launched in January 2004 to act as an interface between the channel and producers.
The overwhelming domestic response to the international initiative launched by the NGC earlier this year, also underlines the channel’s increasing tendency towards local flavour. After 2003’s opus Mission Everest, the channel has this year roped in Bollywood star and martial arts exponent Akshay Kumar, to host a seven part series entitled The Seven Deadly Arts. NGC India’s senior VP, content and communications Dilshad Master, insists that it is not an attempt to woo the masses to the niche infotainment channel, but acknowledges that the Kumar-anchored specials will bring in a wider viewer base.
Shot over 40 days, mostly in Manali (Himachal Pradesh) and occasionally in Mumbai, the bi-lingual (Hindi-English) TSDA has Kumar profiling each art, uncovering the myths, legends and spirituality behind each and their impact on day to day lives. The seven arts Kumar will introduce to viewers include karate and muay thai, which he practises, as well as aikido, kung fu, the Indian kalaripayattu, capoeira and taekwondo.
Master says a sequel to TSDA, another instance of localised programming, has already been planned for October – November this year, but is loath to reveal details. Leo Burnett, the agency which won a multi agency pitch to create a multi-media campaign for Everest last year, has again been engaged to formulate a similar advertising strategy for TSDA.
The series, to be telecast at 10 pm on Sundays, is aimed at the 6 to 60 demographic, asserts Master. Mission Mars, NGC India’s last big series, that completes its 12 episode run this month, has already established the channel as a viewer friendly one and roping in Akshay Kumar gives NGC a ‘familiar as well as credible’ spokesperson, she says.
The NGCIdeas.com site was launched to keep a track of the hundreds of treatments, tapes and proposals that are received by the channel each week. The only way to submit a proposal to NGC is via the website.
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.
