Discovery Sets March 11 For Shareholder Vote On WarnerMedia Merger

UPDATED, with Allison Gollust comment: Less than two weeks after Jeff Zucker resigned from CNN, the cable newser’s chief marketing exec Allison Gollust is out too.

CNN's chief marketing officer, has resigned from the network following a WarnerMedia investigation into «issues associated with Chris Cuomo and former Governor Andrew Cuomo.»WarnerMedia CEO Jason Kilar announced Gollust's resignation in a memo to CNN staffers Tuesday, following the completion of the company's «comprehensive and definitive» investigation, which WarnerMedia says was performed by «a third-party law firm and led by a former federal judge.»«Based on interviews of more than 40 individuals and a review of over 100,000 texts and emails, the investigation found violations of Company policies, including CNN's News Standards and Practices, by Jeff Zucker, Allison Gollust, and Chris Cuomo,» Kilar said in the memo.«We have the highest standards of journalistic integrity at CNN, and those rules must apply to everyone equally,» he continued.Gollust responded to the statement with one of her own, calling WarnerMedia's statement an attempt to retaliate against her following CNN president, Jeff Zucker's resignation just weeks prior.«WarnerMedia's statement tonight is an attempt to retaliate against me and change the media narrative in the wake of their disastrous handling of the last two weeks,» Gollust said.«It is deeply disappointing that after spending the past nine years defending and upholding CNN's highest standards of journalistic integrity, I would be treated this way as I leave,» Gollust added.

Just under two weeks after Jeff Zucker resigned from CNN, the cable newser’s chief marketing exec Allison Gollust is out too.

Sony will release it’s first movie of 2022, and second Tom Holland title after Spider-Man: No Way Home over the 4-day Presidents Day weekend, Uncharted, in what is expected to be a $70M+ haul worldwide.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorAllison Gollust, the chief marketing officer at CNN, has resigned from the network following a WarnerMedia investigation into “issues associated with Chris Cuomo and former Governor Andrew Cuomo,” according to a memo from Jason Kilar, the company’s CEO.“Performed by a third-party law firm and led by a former federal judge, the investigation was comprehensive and definitive.  It was commissioned in September and concluded this weekend, which now allows me to share additional information with you,” Kilar said.

Todd Spangler NY Digital EditorSnap hired ad-industry veteran Resh Sidhu to lead Arcadia, the Snapchat parent’s global creative studio for branded augmented reality.Sidhu joins Arcadia as global director, based in New York, heading up the AR business and managing the team globally. Most recently, she served as chief creative officer for Barbarian, working with clients including American Express, Samsung, Fenty and Joe Biden’s presidential campaign.Previously, Sidhu served as group creative director for digital agency AKQA, where she executed AR experiences for Volvo and Coca-Cola.

For those who can’t have their fill of the Lord of the Rings in the upcoming Amazon series, there’s The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim anime movie from New Line Cinema and Warner Bros. Animation which the studio has set for release on April 12, 2024 (not April 21 as reported by others; that’s a Sunday). Warners already had the release date RSVPed for a New Line movie on the calendar.

Ed Meza @edmezavarWarnerMedia and RTL Deutschland are partnering for the first time on the six-part co-production “Two Sides of the Abyss.”RTL Deutschland has secured first-run rights to the Warner TV original for Germany, where it will initially stream on its newly renamed RTL Plus platform, as well as free-TV rights thereafter.Warner TV Serie (formerly TNT Serie) will offer the series on pay TV in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, while WarnerMedia streaming platform HBO Max will launch the series as a Max Original in 61 territories across the U.S., Latin America and Europe. WarnerMedia International Television Distribution will handle international distribution outside of these territories.Created and written by Kristin Derfler,  “Two Sides of the Abyss” follows Wuppertal police officer Luise Berg (Anne Ratte-Polle) as she heads for an inevitable catastrophe after her daughter’s murderer is released early from prison.

Todd Spangler NY Digital EditorDiscovery investors will be asked to approve the $43 billion deal to combine with WarnerMedia, which AT&T is spinning off, at a March 11 virtual meeting.Discovery announced the date in a letter to shareholders, which it disclosed in an SEC filing Thursday. On that same day, AT&T has scheduled a virtual investor conference where the company said it will provide “additional insight and expectations for financial and operational performance of AT&T’s Communications segment” following the close of the WarnerMedia transaction.The pact cleared a major hurdle this week after U.S.

EXCLUSIVE: George Clooney’s long-awaited adaptation of The Boys in the Boat looks to be gearing up production as sources tell Deadline, Clooney has rounded out his cast with Joel Edgerton, Jack Mulhern, Sam Strike, Luke Slattery, Thomas Elms, Tom Varey, Bruce Herbelin-Earle, Wil Coban and Hadley Robinson joining Callum Turner, who was previously announced. MGM, Spyglass and Smokehouse are partnering on the production with Clooney directing and Mark L. Smith writing the script.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter“Vengeance,” a darkly comedic thriller starring Issa Rae and Ashton Kutcher, is coming to theaters this summer.Focus Features has scheduled the film to open on July 29. It will hit the big screen on the same day as Dwayne Johnson’s superhero adventure “Black Adam” from Warner Bros.“The Office” alum B.J. Novak wrote and directed “Vengeance” in his feature debut.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorAT&T and Discovery have gained clearance for their much-anticipated deal to spin off WarnerMedia so it can merge with Discovery, a deal that has already been approved in Europe. The approval of Discovery shareholders is the last barrier to the deal moving forward.The companies disclosed the matter in two different filings Wednesday with the U.S.

The merger of AT&T’s WarnerMedia and Discovery has cleared U.S. regulators, the companies announced Wed.,  in the last major hurdle for the $43-billion deal.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorEver since Jeff Zucker seized the reins at CNN in early 2013, the cable-news network has been one of loudest voices in media circles. Now, even though Discovery didn’t push the executive out, there’s a sense the company will, after it buys CNN along with the rest of WarnerMedia, look to turn down the volume.In the Zucker era, CNN became more swashbuckling, more colorful, and indeed, more opinionated than it ever was under the aegis of its founder Ted Turner, or his successors at the former Time Warner. CNN went from delivering headlines to being in the headlines.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorAs CNN’s many journalists tried to get past the ouster of Jeff Zucker, they ran up against one of their biggest professional hurdles: a source who refuses to talk.Some of WarnerMedia’s best-known on-air personalities pressed the company’s CEO Jason Kilar again and again on Monday, asking him to divulge more details around why Zucker resigned after acknowledging a personal relationship with Allison Gollust, CNN’s chief marketing officer. But Kilar would not.The WarnerMedia chief faced questions from Don Lemon, Alisyn Camerota, Brian Stelter, Jim Sciutto, Bill Weir, Richard Quest, John Avlon and Victor Blackwell, as well as longtime producer Jim Murphy, many of them pressing him for more information about whether the parent company felt Zucker was given a harsher punishment than was necessary; about whether WarnerMedia was negotiating with Chris Cuomo, fired by Zucker last year, over severance; and whether the looming merger of WarnerMedia with Discovery forced his hand when it came to deciding what to do about the now former CNN chief.

AT&T CEO John Stankey and Discovery CEO David Zaslav generally sidestepped questions about the exit of CNN boss Jeff Zucker amid dismay among the cable network’s on air talent and staffers over how the situation was handled.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorCNN staffers who spend a lot of time delivering the latest headlines may have something else to give their corporate overseers: a raised middle finger.Executives who run companies like WarnerMedia and Discovery spend much of their time these days trying to keep investors enthused about their prospects, even as the consumers who watch their movies and TV shows keep moving away to new streaming venues. Now they may have to take up some of their hours soothing a roiled staff at CNN, where many employees remain furious about the ouster of Jeff Zucker, the company’s president for the past nine years.

Michael Bass, Amy Entelis and Ken Jautz will serve as interim co-heads of CNN following the resignation of Jeff Zucker.

Todd Spangler NY Digital EditorNow in the home stretch of unloading WarnerMedia, AT&T chief John Stankey appears to be primarily interested in not destroying any more value for shareholders than the telco giant already has with its ill-fated M&A strategy.This week, AT&T announced that the WarnerMedia divestiture will be structured as a spinoff ahead of its combo with Discovery. That will give telco shareholders pro-rata shares in the newly created Warner Bros.

AT&T shares are down in pre-market trading after the telecom giant said it will spin off WarnerMedia as part of the entertainment unit’s pending $43 billion merger with Discovery.

Todd Spangler NY Digital EditorAT&T announced that its board has decided to spin off the telco’s interest in WarnerMedia — rather than structure the media conglom’s divestiture as a split-off.The transaction will spin off 100% of AT&T’s interest in WarnerMedia to AT&T’s existing shareholders in a pro-rata distribution, followed by the merger of WarnerMedia with Discovery to form a new company, “Warner Bros. Discovery.” The deal is expected to close in the second quarter of 2022; previously, AT&T had targeted “mid-2022” for the close.Last week, on AT&T’s Q4 earnings call, CEO John Stankey had left said the board was still on the fence about whether to spin off WarnerMedia (and give AT&T shareholders pro-rata shares in the new Warner Bros.