English Entertainment
Sony picks up telenovela ‘Juana’s Miracle’
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MUMBAI: The telenovelas trend continues to go great guns on Hindi entertainment television. Sony Entertainment TV India has picked up RCTV’s Juana’s Miracle. This telenovela has a total run of 153 episodes (in the original version). |
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The plot revolves around Juana’s journey to adulthood. In an unbelievable turn of events, Juana’s world is shattered causing the 17-year old to be fearful and confused. Medical advances in artificial insemination combine with human error creates a new life, but in the wrong body. Juana is left to accept that she will be a mother without having yet been a woman, and finds herself linked to a man with whom she has nothing in common. Time unveils the truth to a magazine publisher whose disappointment in his wife’s inability to conceive a child is unbearable. His life-threatening illness only increases his obsession with having a child, so once he realizes that the hospital has artificially inseminated Juana by mistake, he desperately searches for her only to find that his wife has hired her to work at the magazine.  Destiny links these lives and each has much to learn, especially about the power of love. By surrendering to great power, fate provides bigger dreams than they ever comprehend. SET officials when contacted, were tightlipped on the same. |
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For RCTV, this is the second big property it has sold in India. Last year Star Plus picked up RCTV’s My Sweet Fat Valentina, its Hindi adaptation being Dekho Magar Pyaar Se. It is worth recalling that it was SET that kicked off the telenovela “wave” with Jassi Jaissi Koi Nahin, the Indian adaptation of the hit Colombian series Yo Soy Betty La Fea (I am Betty the ugly one), which it acquired from RCN Network. |
Juana’s Miracle was the most successful telenovela released in 2002 . It was the top show in Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador , Brazil, Uruguay and Chile, and the story line did well across different cultural markets . Interestingly in Venezuela, the show ranked first place with 27.53 rating points at the 9 pm prime time slot.
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.
