Changes are afoot at WarnerMedia.
Last week, Richard Pleper announced that he was leaving the CEO role at HBO, following reports that WarnerMedia and its new corporate parent AT&T were pushing for network to get bigger and broader. Turner President David Levy is also departing.
Today, WarnerMedia announced that former NBC Entertainment Chairman Bob Greenblatt (who The Hollywood Reporter had previously said was a likely hire) has joined as chairman of of WarnerMedia Entertainment and Direct-to-Consumer. That means Greenblatt will be in charge of HBO, TBS, truTV and the forthcoming WarnerMedia streaming service.
The company announced other leadership changes at the same time: CNN head Jeff Zucker will become the chairman of WarnerMedia News and Sports (which includes Turner Sports, Bleacher Report and AT&T’s sports networks, as well as CNN) and president of CNN. Warner Bros. CEO Kevin Tsujihara is taking charge of a new kids and young adults business that will include Cartoon Network, Adult Swim and Boomerang . (He’ll also be leading Otter Media and Turner Classic Movies.) And Turner International President Gerhard Zeiler is becoming WarnerMedia’s chief revenue officer.
“Adding Bob Greenblatt to the WarnerMedia family and expanding the leadership scope and responsibilities of Jeff, Kevin and Gerhard – who collectively have more than 80 years of global media experience and success – gives us the right management team to strategically position our leading portfolio of brands, world-class talent and rich library of intellectual property for future growth,” WarnerMedia CEO John Stankey said in a statement.
In addition to tinkering with its leadership structure, WarnerMedia has also been culling its existing streaming services in advance of its big direct-to-consumer launch.