time warner
‘Bromance’ Crisis Averted in Viacom, Time Warner Settlement
4:10AM STV | After Viacom went blazingly public Wednesday with its threat of an MTV/Comedy Central/Nickelodeon blackout on Time Warner Cable, an 11th-hour truce settled the matter just in time for 2009. More »
SpongeBob on Strike: Viacom Threatens to Pull 19 Channels From Time Warner
3:14AM STV | Ensnared in a vicious battle over 23 cents per customer, SpongeBob SquarePants, The Daily Show, South Park and the rest of Viacom’s cable offerings may vanish tonight for 13 million Time Warner subscribers. More »
5 Burning Questions We Still Have For ‘Content Kings’ at Warner Bros.
5:15AM STV | We took the better part of two days to process the NYT’s recent recognition of Warner Bros. as the crown jewel at Time Warner, where Jeff Bewkes, Barry Meyer, Alan Horn and Co. are venerated at length for emphasizing “content” (i.e. their film and TV properties) ahead of “distribution” outlets like AOL, DVD and on-demand services. It’s an oddly situational success story; in fact, it opens with WB chairman Meyer literally inhaling the incoming fax telling him The Dark Knight made $66 million on opening day, and namechecks Two and a Half Men among a handful of TV series that are finding lucrative traction internationally. There’s also the HBO factor and the Turner channels’ flourishing as well.
New Line Set To Slash 90% Of Its Workforce
9:45AM Mark Graham | Sad news to report. The rumors that we heard earlier this afternoon about impending layoffs at The House That Freddy Built have come to fruition. Variety is reporting that Time Warner is pinkslipping 450 New Line staffers, a number that equates to nearly 90% of their current payroll, as the newly scaled-down shingle merges into the larger Warner Bros fold. The worst part? Although notifications of the dismissals began earlier this afternoon, they won’t be completed until tomorrow, which means that a number of employees will be spending the evening unsure as to whether or not they’ll even have a job at this time tomorrow. Synergy just ain’t what it used to be. If you hear or see anything else (memos, etc.), please send ‘em our way. [Variety] More »
Is Today the Day For Dreaded New Line Pink Slips?
7:30AM Defamer Hollywood | A tip into Defamer HQ suggests that today may be the last for the majority of remaining employees at New Line Cinema, the Time Warner subsidiary that has spent the last month transitioning from a stand-alone operation to a genre cog in the Warner Bros. machine. The speculation trickled down a little bit ago from a few private industry message boards; it would be the culmination of news expected since co-founders Bob Shaye and Michael Lynne made their own departures public Feb. 28. Production head Toby Emmerich surprised most observers last month by staying on as president and COO, but he’s in the minority likely to stay on as the labels consolidate. Let us know if you’ve heard the same — you know where to find us. More »
