As well the rest of Warner Brothers.
AT&T recently detailed a roughly $830 million hit to second-quarter earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization from the novel coronavirus pandemic and a roughly $2.8 billion revenue impact after in the first quarter having mentioned a $433 million earnings and a $600 million revenue hit.
This is barely a quarter of Disney’s loses and Ma Bell still has income streams whereas Disney has none. The exterminations at the hand of Mickey the Great and Terrible will be legendary.
Warner is trying to focus their efforts on HBOMax which has proven to be very, very difficult. It’s not on Roku or Amazon Fire.
WarnerMedia CEO Jason Kilar hasn’t shied away from sharing his thoughts on Amazon’s refusal to add HBO Max to its Fire devices.
Addressing the importance of putting consumers first, Kilar explained to Bloomberg how, with a society that is so technologically driven, “what tends to happen is concentration of successful companies unlike anything history has seen. We have fewer companies but larger companies.”
Kilar argued how some companies, however, conflate their interests with statements pertaining to consumer focus. Kilar noted how this leads to a lot of decision-making that favors the company, not the consumer. When pressed for an example, he pointed directly at Amazon, saying, “If Amazon were truly focused just on the consumers with Fire devices, HBO Max would be on Fire devices. The consumer wants it.” He then joked how people should “call the Seattle folks” for answers as to why HBO Max is currently unavailable on Amazon Fire devices.
Honestly, it wouldn’t shock me if an “interested third party, made arrangements” with Roku and Amazon to keep HBOmax off their platforms for as long as legally possible.
Regardless, with no theatrical release dates in sight. HBOGo consigned to the scrap heap. And no way to release their future catalog on VOD, like Sony and Disney. Anybody who isn’t performing, isn’t going to be working at Warner.
Which brings us to DC
Editor-in-Chief Bob Harris. Senior Vice President of Publishing Strategy and Support Services Hank Kanalz, Vice President of Marketing and Creative Services Jonah Weiland, Vice President Global Publishing Initiatives and Digital Strategy Bobbie Chase, Senior Story Editor Brian Cunningham and Executive Editor Mark Doyle have been all axed.
This isn’t the rank and file taking a bullet for the bosses. These are the bosses.
Or rather were the bosses.
What comes next is almost certainly, the shuttering DC Comics and distributing the characters license to other comics companies.
UPDATE:
“…insiders also say the majority of the staff of the streaming service DC Universe has been laid off, a move that had been widely expected as WarnerMedia shifts its focus to new streaming service HBO Max.”
Not a shock. In fact, I’m rather surprised they didn’t roll DC Universe streaming into HBOmax before it launched. That is where all of the DC’s good content (Batman the Animated Series, Nolan’s Batman movies, Justice League Animated, etc.) is located.
It made no sense to have multiple streaming services when everyone else is moving towards aggragation.
The Dark Herald 