3 months ago
Warner Bros. Discovery is negotiating to waste astir half of nan storied Warner studio’s movie and TV music-publishing assets for astir $500 million, 3 sources corroborate to Variety. The news was first reported by Hits.
While it is unclear precisely which assets are connected nan table, 1 root says that nan authorities to “slightly little than half” of nan catalog, pinch a value of astir $500 million, are apt to spell to a awesome label, pinch Sony said to beryllium successful nan lead. The catalog is believed to see euphony from specified films arsenic “Purple Rain,” “Evita,” “Sweeney Todd,” “Rent” respective “Batman” films and galore much titles, arsenic good arsenic songs included successful iconic films specified arsenic “As Time Goes By” from “Casablanca.” Top lawyer Allen Grubman is said to beryllium overseeing nan woody for Warner Discovery CEO David Zaslav.
However, immoderate observers formed a skeptical oculus connected nan deal, saying that galore of nan company’s assets are much than a half-century aged and are “declining” successful worth and difficult to exploit. They are said to dwell mostly of movie themes and cues — pinch comparatively fewer accepted songs — that would person small resonance successful nan coming aliases future.
Reps for Warner Discovery, Sony and Universal either declined aliases did not respond to Variety‘s requests for comment.
If reports are accurate, nan woody would beryllium a invited 1 for nan institution and its investors astatine a tumultuous clip that includes a writers onslaught that has crippled Hollywood and 100 layoffs crossed its Discovery and Turner brands (with much expected successful nan coming months), not to mention Zaslav’s caller firing of his personally selected CNN CEO Chris Licht aft conscionable 1 year, and nan network’s arguable municipality hallway pinch erstwhile president Donald Trump.
The windfall from specified a waste — coming astatine nan apical of a booming marketplace for euphony catalogs — would thief nan institution to salary down a $49.5 cardinal debt.
The catalog is presently nether a multi-year management woody pinch Universal Music Publishing.
The study besides comes amid a drastically changing situation for nan tv business arsenic a whole. Domestic cablegram channels — including Discovery, TNT, TBS, TLC, HGTV, Food Network and CNN — were erstwhile nan envy of nan manufacture successful position of viewership and profitability. But nan fast-changing salary TV marketplace and nan emergence of on-demand streaming has upended nan reliable cablegram TV net powerfulness that made nan erstwhile Time Warner a dynamo successful nan 1990s and early 2000s.
