English Entertainment
Vh1 India goes over the rainbow, with love and Pride
Commemorating the unconditional spirit of love, June signifies Global Pride Month, a worldwide tribute to the LGBTQIA+ community celebrating the spirit of equality and freedom of choice. Along with resilience at the core of the celebrations worldwide, comes an alluring sparkle, in the form of rainbow flags, parades, parties and more. And while we are all staying indoors this year, Vh1 understands that just like music, love has no boundaries. So this year, as the lockdown continues to distance us from one another, Vh1 India brings you closer, virtually, with a slew of reasons for you to soak into the festivities.
Vh1 India is all about music and pop culture, and music is the soul of every celebration. Riding on the Pride Month festivities, in its musical style, Vh1 India has curated a new block – Vh1 Pride, that features an exquisite line-up of tracks by LGBTQIA+ artists, who have always been at the forefront of music, across genres and eras. Vh1 Pride airs Monday nights at 8pm. But it doesn’t stop there! Fans don’t have to keep their rainbow spirits on hold, as Vh1 India invites everyone to dress up in their parade avatars and share their Pride on Instagram stories tagging @Vh1India using #VirtualPrideParade. The most vibrant stories will be part of a Pride film showcasing the celebratory spirit of fans. As part of the celebrations, the followers will get up close and personal with prominent faces of the LGBTQIA+ community such as Maya the Drag Queen, Betta Naan Stop, Zeeshan Ali, Ma Faiza, amongst others. With fun interviews with them on the Vh1 social media pages, fans will be able to catch them at their candid best, talking about their life journey, music playing an integral part in their life, loving unabashedly and much more. Click HERE to watch the first interview from the series.
Commenting on Vh1 India soaking in the festivities of the Pride Month, Navin Shenoy – Head of Marketing, Youth, Music and English Entertainment, Viacom18 said, “Vh1 India has been known for celebrating the greatest music of all times and offering the best of pop culture; whether it’s through exclusively airing prominent musical extravaganzas around the world or featuring renowned artists across multiple genres. Since Pride is a time to celebrate love in all forms, we have curated multicultural programming that breaks all borders and celebrates the voice of prominent LGBTQIA+ artists who, through music and lyrics of their songs, have owned and celebrated their queerness. We also have a lot of other activities planned so that everyone, from their homes, can join us in this celebration of love, acceptance and diversity, with Pride.”
While Pride is loud and fierce, it is also quiet and reflective. It is about individual voices. Hence Vh1 India will curate the voice of the youth using #Vh1ForPride, in the form of new age slogans, and add a twist of musical lyrics, while drenching them in the colors of Pride. Make these vivacious slogan creatives your voice, use them as your next desktop wallpaper or video call background or wear them on your sleeves, literally, and celebrate love, with aplomb, this month of Pride.
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.
