English Entertainment
UK TV content spend highest per head in the world
LONDON: Investment in new, quality programmes on British television is the highest level per head in the world. Overall market investment is also encouraged by strong public funding which benefits audiences as both citizens and consumers.
These findings are contained in independent report, by Mark Oliver of Oliver & Ohlbaum Associates. The report titled UK Television Content in the Digital Age was released yesterday. It concludes that the $75 per head spend in the UK, compares to $65 in the USA, $52 per head in Germany, $43 in France and $26 in Australia.
The current high investment enables the UK’s TV industry to play a prominent role in reflecting and reinforcing UK culture and national identity, says the report, commissioned and published by the BBC.
Despite the significant economies of scale enjoyed by the USA in television production and global exports, three quarters of UK television content is currently home grown. This compares to only 20 per cent in the film industry where the USA dominates 80 per cent of movie consumption in the UK.
But investment in domestic TV production could drop by 60p per pound for every £1 reduction in the BBC’s public funding, hitting high cost drama, documentaries and scripted comedy in particular. Reallocating public funds to other commercial broadcasters is also highly likely to result in a fall in the total amount invested in UK content production, says the report.
The UK’s strength in homegrown television content investment stands at £3 billion per year. This is underpinned by the BBC’s investment which accounts for 40 per cent of this total, says the report. ITV also plays a central role maintaining original production at 20 per cent above the level legally required. ITV, Channels Four and Five combined account for £1.3 billion of programme spend a year 43 per cent of all domestic content spend, while pay TV in the UK recycles only 3 per cent of revenues into new UK productions.
However, the report warns of pressures on the UK’s unique broadcasting model of market intervention and regulation which ensures diversity, range and investment and encourages creative competition across the industry.
Audience fragmentation, increased competition for commercial revenues and possible future pressure on advertising premiums, will threaten investment in original, diverse content by the UK’s main commercial broadcasters. Channels Four and Five may increasingly attempt to compete directly with ITV for mass-market audiences. At the same time ITV may be forced to reduce its originations to the legal minimum, says the report.
New legislation and ownership rules could also mean a single dominant owner of commercial TV networks will place more emphasis on diversity between its networks than on original content investment. “In these circumstances, the nature and structure of public funding will have a pivotal role in underpinning both total content funding and preventing dilution by the commercial networks,” says the report.
“The presence of a well-financed, publicly-funded broadcaster the BBC has helped ensure that each commercial TV channel needs to invest significant amounts in new content to protect its audience share. Far from crowding out investment in domestic programming by commercial TV, the BBC may well encourage such investment.”
“This also increases barriers to entry in the commercial network TV market which prevents revenue fragmentation and further pressure on programme budgets” the report adds.
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.
