English Entertainment
AXN welcomes crime fighters this November
MUMBAI: This November, AXN has introduced two popular shows, Blue Bloods and Elementary. The channel is bringing one of America’s top 10 drama series Blue Bloods to India from 24 November at 9 pm from Monday to Thursday and the latest season of Elementary with Sherlock who is promising to thrill viewers with his incredible deduction crime solving techniques every Friday from 7 November at 10 pm which is closer to US airings.
Elementary offers a fresh take on the famous British detective Sherlock Holmes, who is now living in New York after drug rehabilitation played by Jonny Lee Miller, the star from the film Trainspotting. Lucy Liu of Charlie’s Angels fame plays the character of Dr. Watson. After the death of her patient in London, Dr. Watson’s license is revoked and she is forced to accompany Sherlock to New York as a sober companion by detective’s rich father. Elementary season three, promises to bring some fresh twists and turns as Sherlock Holmes gets a new apprentice and Joan Watson has a new boyfriend.
The saying a family that eats together, stays together could not be more accurate for ‘Blue Bloods’ Reagan family. The three legendary generations of Irish American family, has been serving under American judiciary system on different positions as police officers and acclaimed attorney. Though each one of them have a different style of achieving justice, unanimous integrity is what brings them together and also pulls them apart at the same time. The tight-knit family drama has won BMI TV Award 2013 and Prism Award 2014 and will air every Monday to Thursday at 9pm from 24 November.
Commenting on the same, Sony Pix and AXN India executive vice president Saurabh Yagnik said “This season, Elementary will get more gripping than ever before and we hope to get a bigger and better response from our viewers. As for Blue Bloods, it is an entertaining family drama and we hope to expand our viewer base with the innovative content that the show has to offer. Though the show is in its fifth season in US, we are giving our audiences an opportunity to watch Tom Selleck return to TV as the patriarch of a clan where crime fighting is the family business from the very first season”.
Watch Blue Bloods starting 24 November, Monday to Thursday at 9 pm and the latest season of Elementary premiering on 7 November, every Friday at 10 pm
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.
