English Entertainment
Nominations announced for Banff World Television Awards
MUMBAI: With the largest number of entries submitted over the past five years, the Banff World Television Festival has announced its 2006 Banff World Television Award nominees.
This year’s festival boasts 101 nominated programmes across 18 categories, from more than 1,000 entries submitted. The Banff World Television Festival takes place from 11to 14 June 2006 in Banff, Alberta, Canada.
TThe program nominees represent 24 countries including Australia, France, Germany, the UK, and the US.
The nominees, as well as the 18 “Best-of” category winners, are chosen by the Banff selection jury. The jury meets for several days prior the Festival to screen the 18 category winners and ultimately decide the Grand Prize winner for the best overall program of the 2006 Banff World Television Awards.
Banff selection jury chairman Jerry Ezekiel says, “This year’s volume signals a resurgence for the Banff competition. Moreover, we believe this year’s programme makers have set a new standard for quality. The cream of this year’s crop is an outstanding line-up from major content-creators in television and related media.”
The jury also decides the winners of the $25,000 NHK President’s Prize, for the best HDTV program, and two Special Jury Prizes, awarded to the producers of two programs chosen from a shortlist of nominees designated by the Selection Jury. A separate all-Canadian jury will select the winner of the Best Canadian Programme in this year’s competition.
Winners will be presented the coveted “Rockie” statuette at the Global Television Banff World Television Awards show on 12 June. Prior to the awards show, the nominees will be featured in Best of Banff World Television Award Tours and in the Best of Interactive Television From Around the World panel.
In the animation category the nominees are Charlie & Lola: I Am Not Sleepy And I Will Not Go To Bed, HBO’s Classical Baby, UTV’s Jane and the Dragon: Shall We Dance, PBS’ John and Michael and Film Australia’s The Safe House. Comedies
The comedy show nominees are ABC’s hit Desperate Housewives: That’s Good, That’s Bad,, BBC and HBO’s Extras: Kate Winslet, Channel 4’s IT Crowd, CBC’s The Rick Mercer Report III and Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s We Can Be Heroes. The interactive television nominees are Interactive Television BBC’s How to Sleep Better, Comedy Network’s Odd Job Jack: Odd Job Jack, Worldwide Web’s ReGenesis II: Extended Reality Game, BBC’s Shakespeare : Shakespeare’s Stories and Teletoon’s Zimmer Twins.
The mini series nominees are BBC’s Bleak House, France 2’s De Gaulle, The Laser Man, HBO’s Rome and BBC’s Twenty Thousand Streets Under The Sky. Competing for the best unscripted entertainment programme are The Apprentice: Home Shopping Channel, Dragons’ Den, Paradise Lost, Setting Sail To The New World: Departure and Young Black Farmers.
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.
