English Entertainment
Star World brings Weekend Brunch – a line-up of reality shows, blockbuster movies and sitcoms, all for some family bonding!
MUMBAI: Quality time with our family is paramount in building stronger relationships with each other. With the hustle and bustle of a busy life, this is not always possible. In understanding this, Star World, India’s leading English entertainment channel curates a special line up ‘The Weekend Brunch’ this new year so viewers can start the year 2020 sit together with their family and enjoy a good afternoon.
Starting this 11th January, the Weekend Brunch will comprise a mix of some of the most exciting family friendly movies and TV shows that will air from 12 PM to 4 PM every weekend. From the most loved culinary reality TV show to compelling dramas and rib-tickling comedy, there is something for every family here.
The longest running reality cooking series in the world, MasterChef Australia has been instrumental in bringing about a culture shift in culinary India. In fact, research suggests and it has been evident how MasterChef Australia is much more than a food show – one that also inspires home chefs into becoming culinary masters. So sit together and watch the trio of judges – Matt Preston, Gary Mehigan, and George Calombaris appearing together on the screen for the last time, bid them farewell and watch MasterChef Australia’s Season 11 airing on Star World every weekend at 12PM!
Next up is a series of light-hearted family comedy movies that will air on the channel at 1 PM! Ranging from all the comic mayhem in Home Alone – Home Alone 3 to animated comedy trilogy – Toy Story 3, the movies are all handpicked to give viewers the ultimate viewing experience with families. Baby’s Day Out, yet another famous children’s movie that exhibits Hughes’s popular comic style is part of the line-up that boasts of good-natured comedy. That’s not it! Adventurous comedy series The Boss Baby and renowned Ben Stiller, Owen Wilson, Robin Williams starrer fantasy comedy movie – Night at the Museum also make their way to Star World for families to sit together for a compelling watch and some good laughs!
Following suit is cultural sitcom Fresh Off the Boat that is set in the 1990s and depicts the life of a Taiwanese-American family. The series stars Golden Globe nominee Constance Wu, and Critics Choice TV Awards nominee Randall Park. For Indian viewers, a great entertaining storm is brewing as the series recently announced to star Indian film actors – Preity Zinta and Vir Das. Watch this humorously charming family sitcom airing on Star World every weekend starting 11th January at 3PM!
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.
