English Entertainment
Star Movies celebrates Children’s Day on November 14th
Mumbai, November 10, 2005: It’s the only day when children get all the freedom to freak out and have fun because it’s their day. And Star Movies gives them a good reason to stay at home and tune-in to some of their all time favorite Hollywood movies like Home Alone, Three Men and a Baby, X2- X Men United, Good Boy, 3 Ninjas, Shrek 2, Sindbad: Legend of Seven Seas, this ‘Children’s day‘, on November 14th 2005 from 11 am onwards.
The schedule is as follows
| Movie | Time |
| Home Alone | 7:15 am |
| Three Men & A Baby | 9 am |
| X2: X Men United | 11 am |
| Good Boy | 1:35 pm |
| 3 Ninjas | 3:20 pm |
| Sinbad: Legend of Seven Seas | 5:15 pm |
| Shrek 2 | 7 pm |
At 5.15 pm, watch ‘Sinbad: Legend of Seven Seas’, the most daring and notorious rogue ever to sail the seven seas, has spent his life asking for trouble, and trouble has finally answered in a big way. Framed for stealing one of the worlds most priceless and powerful treasures, the Book of Peace, Sinbad has one chance to find and return the precious book, or his best friend Proteus will die. Sinbad decides not to take that chance and instead sets a course for the fun and sun of the Fiji Islands. However, Proteus’ beautiful betrothed, Marina, has stowed away on Sinbad’s ship, determined to make sure that Sinbad fulfills his mission and saves Proteus’ life. Now the man who put the “bad” in Sinbad is about to find out how bad bad can be.
Meet Samuel, Jeffrey and Michael Douglas in the most adorable movie 3 Ninjas at 3.20 pm! Their grandfather, Mori Tanaka, is highly skilled in the fields of Martial Arts and Ninjitsu. And for years he’s been training these boys this technique. But one day, an old “friend” of Grandpa’s, Hugo Snyder, reappears. He’s being hassled by the FBI, and the boys’ father happens to be an FBI officer. So Snyder figures if he kidnaps the father’s kids, it will ease the tension, none of his own men are suitable for the task, so he hires three dim and incredibly incompetent surfers to do the deed.
So make sure this Children’s Day, all you kids grab the TV remote, get your popcorn ready and make your space on the couch for an entire day of hilarious, adventurous, swashbuckling blockbusters only on Star Movies from 11:00 am onwards.
Star, a wholly-owned subsidiary of News Corporation, is Asia’s leading multi-platform content and service provider. Star’s over 40 distributed services in seven languages reach more than 300 million viewers across 53 Asian countries. Star television channels include Star Chinese Channel, Star Plus, Star World, Xing Kong, Vijay, Phoenix Chinese Channel, Channel [V], ESPN, Star Sports, Star Chinese Movies, Star Gold, Star Mandarin Movies, Star Movies, Phoenix Movies Channel, Star News, Phoenix InfoNews Channel, in addition to distributed channels National Geographic Channel, A1, The History Channel, Fox News and Sky News. Star has interests in cable systems in India and Taiwan. It also powers the launch of Total TV in Taiwan, Asia’s first interactive digital cable TV services. In addition, it provides advertising sales and marketing services and is a key source of programming expertise for Radio City, the first FM radio network to launch in India.
For further information please contact:
In Mumbai
Zeenat Khan
Communications Department
STAR (India) Ltd
Tel No. 91-22-56305555
Shiraz Bhavnani / Nivedita Kamat
Vaishnavi Corporate Communications
Tel: 91-22-5656 8787
Fax: 91-22-5656 8788
Email: sbhavnani@vccpl.com / nkamat@vccpl.com
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.
