Three months ago, former Hulu executive Jason Kilar was named CEO of WarnerMedia. Today he swiftly instituted his new regime which has seen a serious shake-up of the top executive ranks and a new prioritisation of HBO Max.
The sweeping re-organization sees the company losing two of its top programming chiefs: WarnerMedia Entertainment chairman Bob Greenblatt and HBO Max chief content officer Kevin Reilly.
Instead, Warner Bros. CEO Ann Sarnoff will lead an expanded content group dubbed the Studios and Networks Group which encompasses WarnerMedia’s entire portfolio – effectively uniting the three distinct Turner, HBO and Warner Brothers businesses under one roof.
Also, HBO programming president Casey Bloys will extend his purview to HBO Max and WarnerMedia’s linear cable networks such as TBS, TNT and TruTV, which were previously overseen by Reilly. Bloys will report directly to Sarnoff.
Sarah Aubrey, who previously oversaw original content for HBO Max and reported to Reilly, will now report directly to Bloys. Finally HBO Max’s general manager Andy Forssell will now head a newly created HBO Max operating business unit that will report directly to Kilar and will spearhead the service’s global rollout.
The changes aim to “help us operate more effectively and efficiently” and emphasize the importance of HBO Max to the future of WarnerMedia. The service has had something of a disastrous launch so far – converting only 1.1 million of its existing 30 million HBO customers to the new service, still not being available via Amazon or Roku, and scoring criticism for a lack of top-tier content, original series and a cluttered interface even as it has scored praise for its library of classic films.
Source: Variety
