>Warner Bros Discovery said it would split into two publicly traded companies, separating its studios and streaming business from its fading cable television networks as the parent of HBO and CNN looks to compete better in the streaming era.

>Brian Wieser, CEO of Madison and Wall, an advisory firm for media, technology and other companies, said the split will not fix underlying WBD's weakness.

>"If anything, (it) could make them worse off by favoring financial engineering over focusing on improving existing operations or pursuing new opportunities for growth...a deal like this can hamstring both sides of the company until the transactions are closed," said Wieser.

Well... that didn't last long. They're also getting a new CEO, it's someone who has very little experience with the entertainment industry.

Not surprising WBD has been in a death spiral for years.

i really dont understand how warner bros went from making billion dollar franchises like ben 10 and the batman trilogy to uhh whatever the fuck they're doing now
are they stupid? do they hate money?

>>149300403
There was a major shift in finances and boards around the mid-2000s. Basically stock groups came in and went
>"You're making $10B a year on average for the last decade. That's TERRIBLE! YOUR COMPANY IS TERRIBLE!"
>Company publishes op-ed: "Movie Studio Makes ONLY $10B like a FUCKING CHUMP!"
>Board rumbles
>Company returns: "You need to make TECH MONEY. Look at APPLE every year people fall over themselves to get phone laptop computer. Stop thinking like a studio, start thinking like TECH!"

That's when you started having tech firms, who in reality were fucking hemorrhaging money and in a terrible place, merging with studios/cable channels and after they arrived the non-tech companies found out they were fucked over. That led to the new thinking of splitting assets up, selling them off and then we're back where we started where "streaming" sites will be split from "cable." But it means jack shit for now because now cable providers are kind of looking around wondering what the fuck is happening and being assured people will surely pay for cable AND streaming services. Why wouldn't they?

LATE!!!!!!!

>>149300455
I realize I wronged Apple there. Think more Yahoo!, AOL and later BuzzFeeds, NowThis and Facebook.

>>149300271 (OP)
>They're also getting a new CEO, it's someone who has very little experience with the entertainment industry.
I also hear rumors that the sun is going to be replaced by this thing called the moon this evening.

With competition like this you don't even have to try.

>>149300455
>But it means jack shit for now because now cable providers are kind of looking around wondering what the fuck is happening and being assured people will surely pay for cable AND streaming services. Why wouldn't they?
That's the craziest part of all this. They STILL assume that streaming has a future after witnessing revenues going down for nearly half a decade. How long will it take for them to stop doing all this retarded shit and return to cable already?

>>149300629
Streaming does have a future. Just not for most companies unless somebody comes up with a new business model. There's just too many fucking players in the market. Nobody is getting enough customers to justify their upkeep costs because everyone is trying to outlast everyone else.

If the CEOs behind this shit were acting rationally, then a lot of companies would bow out tomorrow and just license their shit to whoever stays in, but since the profits from that would be smaller than winning the arms race, CEOs just lead their shareholders on with promises of the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow if they just stay in the game. It's not like they're playing with their own money and the people paying them would rather hear about possible giant profits than probable small profits.

Honestly it might be healthy for the industry for Congress to pass a law like that one that says movie studios can't own theaters to nuke all the studio streaming services. The biggest ones would get spun off if they would be viable and all the smaller ones that only exist to drain money would close since there wouldn't be a giant pocketbook behind them keeping them afloat anymore. Save the companies from themselves.

>>149300271 (OP)
It's mostly about reshuffling liabilities the better to leverage tax credits and such, one would assume.

>>149300832
Streaming doesn't work because it pretty much invalidates all other on-demand sources (rental, cable, etc),. This means that only one company (which used to be Netflix) gets to enjoy all the money and everyone else has to sit by and watch.
>a lot of companies would bow out tomorrow and just license their shit to whoever stays in
It would require an insane amount of cooperation, which isn't feasaible. Blockbuster and cable worked because the companies could compete in an even playing field.
If a channel you didn't have on your cable program had a movie or show you really wanted to watch, you could just rent it for about three fiddy. Now you're forced to either buy the physical copy or like $20 or get another fucking subscription.

Even if you have the money to subscribe to all the streaming services available, it's far less time consuming to just pirate everything. Compare that to Steam's model and you'll see how utterly retarded it is.

>>149300271 (OP)
Until they bring back Pepe proper, I will feel no sympathy for whatever happens to Warner Bros.

>>149300455
The tech boom ruined fucking everything

>>149301385
wasnt he in the looney tunes show?

>>149301503
That was over a DECADE ago. Pepe's last official appearance was five years ago in the Wabbit/New Looney Tunes shorts. Other than that, other shows (Tiny Toons Loo for instance) try to sneak in references where they can.

Point is, some faggot at Warner Bros is cockblocking him and until that shitstain gets gone, I could care less about what happens to WBD.

>>149300271 (OP)
I merely want to hear that Warner and also DC has died. And I want to hear Batman much like James Bond got bought by Amazon. In turn I want Amazon to annunce that they are making a race swapped Batman exactly like how they said they want to race swap James Bond. We need this. More bad ideas and more failure. The thing is that Amazon is a trillion dollar corporation so they can afford to make HORRIBLE ideas for centuries.

Making shit never ends.

>>149300403
Ben Ten fizzled out because sales of action figures died. Seriously Ben Ten was the last hurrah for an original toy franchise before dying out. When Thundercats 2011 got made the toy sales were awful.

And Warner has always had a lack of creativity. This is why they relied on Batman so much to the point it got stagnant. Another issue is Warner tries blatantly bad ideas like the incoming race swapped Harry Potter despite having years to see fans do NOT like race swapped shit. Just because fans tolerated race swapped Catwoman in Batmna's recent film doesn't mean they will tolerate that shit in Harry Potter, different fandoms. I hope it kills them.

>>149300455
>>149300403
>>149300271 (OP)
AT&T purchased time-warner in 2018 hoping to capitalize on vertical integration to compete in the "streaming wars"
When it became clear they had fucked up hard and this was a money pit that started 85 billion in the red they split off the company and sold it to Zaslav's Discovery in 2022. AT&T was paid 43 billion and Discovery-WB took on 43 billion of AT&T's debt.
Now Zaslav is dumping that debt on the Discovery and Network TV end of the business and running off debt-free with all the WB properties and production capabilities.

>>149300832
There are supposed to already be laws against monopolies and heavy vertical/horizontal integration
We just don't enforce them

>>149302118
There is competition, just none of them are doing very well profitwise or really trying to stand out with competence.
And that's good enough for the letter of the law.

>>149302085
>Now Zaslav is dumping that debt on the Discovery and Network TV end of the business and running off debt-free with all the WB properties and production capabilities.
Which is kind of based honestly. It might not work because it requires the Don's approval, but for some reason Zaslav said he's confident he'll do it.
>>149301829
I'd love another Looney Tunes Show, but the original wasn't well received by journos and fans alike. We'll probably never get more unhinged Daffy.

>>149302180
My brother in christ AT&T was literally just Bell System (a company previously split up over being a monopoly) re-formed even before it bought Time-Warner
Everything surrounding phone, tv, and Internet in this country is run like a cartel.

>>149300478
This is why I've always said that competition is important. I prefer Marvel, but I root for DC, because without competition to challenge them, Marvel movies kind of suck. Plus, I'm sympathetic towards DC fans... they deserve a win once and a while. It elevates both of us.

>>149302248
I preferred the 2000's era when Marvel was a rotting corpse and DC was winning left and right. Now the reverse is happening and what do we get out of it? Garbage!

>>149302189
>I'd love another Looney Tunes Show
They did make another one. It's called "Tiny Toons Looniversity".
>More unhinged Daffy
In what world is Daffy not "unhinged"?

>>149302364
Daffy in the Looney Tunes Show was genuinely psychotic.
>Tiny Toons
Why would you ever watch that?

>>149302462
Daffy in every iteration is genuinely psychotic. That's just what he is, DAFFY.
>Tiny Toons
Hey you asked. They made a Tiny Toons version of the LTS.

>>149302511
>Daffy in every iteration is genuinely psychotic
Yeah but does he ever get to act out on his desires in a somewhat believable urban setting?

>>149300403
>billion dollar franchises like Ben 10
The Ben 10 rehabilitation over the last two years or so has been absolutely insane, do people really think this shit was on top of the world or something?

>>149301246
>Streaming doesn't work because it pretty much invalidates all other on-demand sources (rental, cable, etc),. This means that only one company (which used to be Netflix) gets to enjoy all the money and everyone else has to sit by and watch.
That sounds like a them problem.
>It would require an insane amount of cooperation, which isn't feasaible.
It wouldn't even require cooperation. It would just require honest cost benefit analysis. We're gonna end up there eventually once these shitty streaming services eventually run out of money or bankrupt their parent companies. Nobody's going to outlast Netflix and maybe 2 or 3 other survivors. We'll end up there either way, it's just a matter of whether or not companies spend years losing money and artificially dividing the market to everyone's loss to get there.

>>149302643
people just miss action cartoons anon

>>149300271 (OP)
Who is taking ownership of the big IPs? That’s all I care about.

>>149300271 (OP)
What does this madam for DCComics? Cartoon Network? All the good IPs like Harry Potter? Mortal Kombat? The Conjuring?

>>149302695
>>149302712
Warner Bros. gets to keep everything except for the Discovery shit.

>>149302771
So it’s as it was before the merger. What a waste of time and resources.

>>149300271 (OP)
they said this in like May OP where the fuck have you been

>>149302359
>Marvel delivers garbage no matter if it's winning
Grim.

>>149302836
Yep, just like all of WB's mergers and buyouts.

>>149300403
Haha this nigga snuck ben 10 in over Harry Potter

>>149302998
Is Harry Potter a cartoon?

>>149300403
What >>149300455 and >>149302085 said

But also there was extremely bad decisions made by WB during the 2010s. Zack Snyder deserves some blame for his decisions on the DCEU but most of the blame should go to WB for making bad decisions while Snyder was in control, AND while Snyder was no longer in control.

>>149303157
I'm still mad.