Appeal Case is Over, AT&T has won

[mattpricetime]

I wanted to read a little more before posting it here. The appeal case has been won in favor of AT&T. They are keeping Turner and will be able to do whatever they want with it. Which brings up some of the things i've been mentioning for a while. The current Turner chain of command isn't long for this world.

The gist of what i'm seeing is we might be looking at them consolidating the Turner channels into one roof instead of the tree it is right now. This would probably also mean rearranging which content goes to which channels. This more than likely is also why we've seen minor things being tried out on TBS and CN.

For Scooby, we will need to see how WB and the CW fit into this, which I expect we will see soon. As of right now very little of WB television's series even went to Turner channels. This is something AT&T is probably going to want to change. So a bunch of those roadblocks we used to know, are probably going to be leveled once this gets done.

EDIT: I just read another source that says HBO would also be consolidated here. I would expect WB's portion of the CW would go too there. If this so it would be great news for us. Most of Scooby's erratic scheduling is due to their being Turner vs WB disagreements. If all the channels are consolidated into one roof, they all have to be on the same page. Certain things won't be able to fall in the cracks like we've seen as of late.

[ruben MG]

Feb 27, 2019 9:02:05 GMT -5 mattpricetime said:

I wanted to read a little more before posting it here. The appeal case has been won in favor of AT&T. They are keeping Turner and will be able to do whatever they want with it. Which brings up some of the things i've been mentioning for a while. The current Turner chain of command isn't long for this world.

The gist of what i'm seeing is we might be looking at them consolidating the Turner channels into one roof instead of the tree it is right now. This would probably also mean rearranging which content goes to which channels. This more than likely is also why we've seen minor things being tried out on TBS and CN.

For Scooby, we will need to see how WB and the CW fit into this, which I expect we will see soon. As of right now very little of WB television's series even went to Turner channels. This is something AT&T is probably going to want to change. So a bunch of those roadblocks we used to know, are probably going to be leveled once this gets done.

EDIT: I just read another source that says HBO would also be consolidated here. I would expect WB's portion of the CW would go too there. If this so it would be great news for us. Most of Scooby's erratic scheduling is due to their being Turner vs WB disagreements. If all the channels are consolidated into one roof, they all have to be on the same page. Certain things won't be able to fall in the cracks like we've seen as of late.

good news 🙂

[mattpricetime]

Obviously news is still fresh with lots of ideas being sent out and some will obviously not be taken in that direction. But gist from what I see from a WB Animation fan standpoint, things are looking great for us.

If there's any part of Turner that looks like it needs some serious reorganization it's Cartoon Network. Which currently exists with its main channel divided up half way to a subunit that has some degree of separation but also takes up extra spaces at the table that wouldn't be there without that separation. It's sister channel is barely ran outside of autopilot and reguarly has complaints from the people who provide most of its content, with multiple groups at Warner Bros Animation mentioning how they continue to make shows and have zero idea when and how they'll be aired.

If you are the people at AT&T and want to say "how can we save some money and make all of our sections have a better relationship", how do you not look at the above and think "you know that part could probably do better with some changes". My main questions is how mild or extreme will those changes be? There's a couple different scenarios I could predict here. But none of which means worse for Scooby.

And like I said before at the end of last year Warner Bros did what AT&T wanted, HBO and Turner fell short. If any side is going to be looked at more favorably than the others in this process it's clearly going to be WB.

[mattpricetime]

Well gang, the first domino has already fallen. Richard Plepler, the CEO of HBO  (a position he held for three decades) is leaving the company. Looks like the new organizational setting won't be including him.

The heads of the Turner channels might be sweating bullets right about now. It looks like we're going to have a real new hierarchy. The odds the CN/AS/Boom layout survives this just got even lower than I had it at yesterday. Things are going to be interesting in the next couple of months.

EDIT: Did I say first shoe? Ummm well the second shoe has dropped in the same day. The head of Turner is also exiting the company.

We're probably looking at one company with a president and each channel having a executive in charge of programming that answers to the above president. The major question is will every channel that exists now still exist and will any of those executives have people under them. (I'm sure Mike Lazzo of Adult Swim is watching this second question very closely)

We've seen them dump the top admins of the two previous organizations. Now we watch to see how the channels themselves rearrange and who is in charge of what. It sounds like we're getting a guy who ran NBC Universal for the last several years. So assuming he gets the job he has zero reason to continue the old Turner ways that caused problems for stuff like Scooby and others.

We might have a interesting week rather than months if they keep up the news at this rate.

EDIT: Just in case we need this information i'm putting it here.

As of now the flowchart looked like this:

- HBO had an executive in charge of the HBO and Cinemax channels

- TBS and TNT shared an executive and a head of programming

- CN had an executive in charge of CN and Boomerang, Adult Swim was under her with some autonomy but not all

- CNN had an executive that ran it and HLN

- TCM and Trutv had their own separate executives calling the shots

- The CW is co-owned by CBS and WB. It never answered to HBO or Turner

Again several of that might not still exist in a week.

[ruben MG]

thank you very much for sharing all this

[mattpricetime]

First news of this day so far, Deadline is basically reporting some last minute meetings have gone down at TBS, TNT, Cartoon Network, and Turner Classic Movies (possibly others too). The executives there are all basically worried already, which some of them probably should be. They want everybody to stay the course for now, but I think everybody can tell some of what's on the tap right now isn't guaranteed.

This is the kicker of change the HB, LT and DC fans have been needing for a while at Turner. We'll have new management and the old management that remains will have realized the current way isn't giving them job security anymore.

[velmablake]

Oooh this is getting interesting! *grabs popcorn* While following this whole thing, from initial announcement to now, I'm thinking that execs would be immediately leaving if the gov't won the appeal. I didn't think AT&T winning would lead to that so soon. I know there's restructuring, but I thought the strong retainment of long-term management would also be there. So for there to not be has me wondering the details of what's really happening behind the scenes.

Thanks again for updates!

*still crossing my fingers that WB will get their own channel again*

[mattpricetime]

Our next news isn't confirmed yet but looks to be a shocker. Jeff Zucker, current head of CNN who most expected would have the CNN seat at the table of the new organization, is apparently moving to handle sports for AT&T. Apparently this was a post he held over at NBC Universal before, so the fact the new guy in charge is the guy who ran NBCUniversal probably helped that along.

Next question though is does this means sports programming will be on various channels going forward or might we see a whole new "official" Turner Sports channel? It's also unclear if he'd keep his CNN position or would be replaced there.

I didn't cover this in the other thread before but the guy who was president of TBS and TNT got moved a few weeks ago to be head of the streaming service and he took the lady who was in control of content for TNT with him to that new position. This would be why TBS and TNT have one creative person right now. He's probably a lock to get the seat for TBS, whether he'd also get TNT too, is a dangling question.


Another question i'm reluctant to bring up in case we go down the 2001 rabbit hole again is what happens on the production side? Is AT&T going to want Warner Media to have four independent animation studios? Might we see them have a grouping similar to the television angle? Or would they dare try to merge them into one? Would they dare to close any? In 2001 the field was different, in 2019 anyone can see which side would be most favored in such a fate. (Hint it's the one with Batman, Scooby and Tom and Jerry)

[mattpricetime]

Okay everybody we got news, as Shaggy would say, Like big news! And it's one of the better news we could have gotten.

AT&T has reorganized a new three person leadership group. Bob Greenblatt (the guy from Universal) has taken one of those jobs. He is going to be overseeing HBO, TNT, TBS and Trutv as well as the Warner Media Streaming service.

Jeff Zucker (the guy at the head of CNN) is overseeing Warner Media News and Spots, which inclues CNN, Turner Sports, Bleacher Report and Regional coverage held by them.

Head of Warner Bros (Kevin Tsujihara) is gaining control over all the animation parts reorganized under a new umbrella (Cartoon Network, Boomerang, Adult Swim, Otter Media) as well as Turner Classic Movies.



The days of their being Turner management that can erratically schedule and promote WB made properties is practically all but dead now guys.

Even if we don't always agree or like everything WB does, I think we can all agree the properties's treatment on tv just got one major step in the right direction.

[mattpricetime]

variety.com/2019/biz/news/warner-bros-cartoon-network-hanna-barbera-1203154521/

Variety is reporting that it looks like CN president Christina Miller is out of her post and being reshuffled to another part of the new order. It also is clear they want to revv up both Hanna Barbera and the Looney Tunes.

EDIT: Just to be clear they are reporting she is being eyed for a new position. In business language they put this report out there to show people the old order is not staying. They are basically confirming she won't still be calling shots but they aren't planning on firing her either. She'll be offered a new spot which she could take or not. We can safely assume she's out as head of CN, but what her new position is, we won't know yet.

However I think it is also safe to assume this is a "kick upstairs" moment. She's going to be offered a position over elements she didn't have control of before but it's clearly only a link in the chain instead of the top of the chain she was before.

[Deleted]

That's good, because she was the worst CN president. Previous presidents at least allowed some creativity to be greenlit. Also if HB and Looney Tunes are being considered for updating...why not combine the two worlds into one? Especially since what the general public has long thought appears to be true in the eyes of DC and WB both? The thought being...Scooby-Doo is the bleed in the multiverse.

[mattpricetime]

While I wouldn't mind that in promotion and bumpers there is still some friction between LT fans and HB fans that we might not want to go that far. WB can crossover whoever they want with whoever they want, but keeping those brands separated is seemingly a good idea. But WB should make up their mind once and for all where the MGM properties hitch their wagon too. It seems like it's HB these days but that could change.

But outside of the people who are mostly for CN Studios, the HB fans, LT fans, Dc fans, Adult swim fans and Anime fans are all looking pretty excited about this result.

[vakanai]

Mar 5, 2019 16:16:42 GMT -5 @shaphnesince2002 said:

That's good, because she was the worst CN president. Previous presidents at least allowed some creativity to be greenlit. Also if HB and Looney Tunes are being considered for updating...why not combine the two worlds into one? Especially since what the general public has long thought appears to be true in the eyes of DC and WB both? The thought being...Scooby-Doo is the bleed in the multiverse.

...the heck does "the bleed in the multiverse" mean? Is that some sort of reference?

[Deleted]

Yes. It's a DC Comics reference. The Bleed is what DC calls their dimensional barrier between each Earth, and the fact that Scooby-Doo is the one constant across each Earth and crossing over with everything that DC or WB has available that effectively makes them that bleed. Think of the bleed as a cooler word for "bridge"

[russm]

Mar 8, 2019 8:00:47 GMT -5 @shaphnesince2002 said:

Yes. It's a DC Comics reference. The Bleed is what DC calls their dimensional barrier between each Earth, and the fact that Scooby-Doo is the one constant across each Earth and crossing over with everything that DC or WB has available that effectively makes them that bleed. Think of the bleed as a cooler word for "bridge"

I'm not sure Scooby Doo is really part of the official DC universe except in special cases i.e. when it's funny. Scooby is not a DC property, it's had a brief involvement with the Archie universe in the past but that doesn't make them part of the Archie universe.