Latest news with #Versant
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
NBCU Veteran Jessica Kurdali is Versant's New SVP, Talent Strategy
Jessica Kurdali, who has supervised news talent relations for years for NBCUniversal's news properties, will jump to Versant, the cable-networks operations that parent Comcast is spinning off, where she will oversee talent strategy across all platforms, including news, entertainment and sports. More to come… More from Variety NBC Plans 'Today' Fan Festival With Events Scheduled for Fall Trump Military Parade May Not Get Much Coverage on CBS, NBC, ABC Welcome, Tom Llamas, to TV's Never-Ending Evening-News Battle Best of Variety New Movies Out Now in Theaters: What to See This Week 'Harry Potter' TV Show Cast Guide: Who's Who in Hogwarts? 25 Hollywood Legends Who Deserve an Honorary Oscar
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
RichCo vs. PoorCo: Not All Spinoffs Are Created Equal
The creation of Warner Bros. Discovery began with the corporate equivalent of sunshine and rainbows. In February 2021, David Zaslav, then the CEO of Discovery Inc., sent AT&T CEO John Stankey an amiable text. The message, which was adorned with both a golf and sunglasses emoji, sparked a series of talks (including secret meetings in a lower Manhattan townhouse) that led to the creation of WBD in 2022. Just three years later, the sunshine and golf has been replaced by cloudy skies, as the company prepares to split itself up. One current employee who works in what will become Gunnar Wiedenfels' global networks company expressed frustration at the news, lamenting that by the time this deal closes next year, the company will have spent an entire decade shuffling ownership from one entity to the next, from AT&T's deal for Time Warner, to the Discovery deal, to now — all while the stock price and cash flow have steadily declined as the cable iceberg melts, and with layoffs and cuts never ending but executive pay rising. More from The Hollywood Reporter HBO Max to Launch in 12 Countries in July as WBD Streamer Closes in on 100 Markets (Exclusive) It's Not You, It's WB: A Brief History of Warners' 21st Century Mergers and Breakups David Zaslav's SpinCo: Warner Bros. Discovery CEO Outlines "Bold Choice" to Split Company Superficially, at least, WBD's maneuver bears a striking resemblance to Comcast's decision to spin off its cable TV channels into Versant, but it is in the details where the two plans diverge. The biggest difference may be reflected in the very first question that Wall Street analysts asked Zaslav on a conference call on the morning of June 9: the debt. Wiedenfels' global networks company will hold a 'majority' of WBD's more than $30 billion in debt, utilizing its cash-flow-rich but slowly melting assets to service that debt. Versant, by contrast, is expected to have minimal debt, so that it can be an opportunistic acquirer (Versant CEO Mark Lazarus has told fellow media execs that he wants his company to be aggressive and expects to be a buyer rather than a seller). 'If you have a portfolio of what's called linear channels, one of the things you're thinking about is, 'Do they have successors in the streaming world?' And if so, how do I get from here to there?' says Integrated Media CEO Jon Miller, who adds that a high debt load could also make the company less attractive as an acquisition target. 'Not every linear channel is going to make it to the streaming world and thrive in the streaming world. So you're going to have to determine what you believe can thrive in the streaming world and make some choices and investments. If you have a lot of debt on top of that, your ability to invest is more limited. And so by necessity, you have to make even fewer choices in terms of what you invest in going forward.' At Zaslav's studios and HBO business, meanwhile, a solid balance sheet and creative portfolio are offset by losing the cash flow from cable TV. While NBCUniversal holds on to cash-flow-rich businesses like NBC and the Universal theme parks in its spinout, WBD is essentially divesting itself of its cash-flow machine in the name of creating a growth business. Comcast noted that Versant will have about $7 billion in cash flow, while what remains of NBCU will have nearly $40 billion in revenue. While WBD has not yet broken down its financials post-transaction, the linear networks comprise a majority of its revenue, giving it a very different economic profile. Zaslav's business, however, could make for a ripe acquisition target, as Wolfe Research's Peter Supino notes. As for Wiedenfels' side of things, 'Global Networks will not be positioned to die, in our view, but will still shrink materially,' Morningstar analyst Matthew Dolgin dryly wrote June 9. 'Some attractive assets, such as U.S. sports rights, the CNN and Discovery streaming properties, and digital assets like Bleacher Report, can mitigate the linear television networks' decline.' And while Versant has a tight bundle of seven cable TV channels and some digital brands like Fandango, the new WBD networks business will have a larger collection of channels, perhaps giving it more runway to operate but also giving it less ability to focus. And while NBCU spent years trimming down its roster of cable channels to only those it thought mattered, WBD has tried to prop up its channels in the service of survival, with a pivot at TruTV into a sports channel just the latest example. 'NBC, they've been really good and active the past couple of years skinny-ing down their program offerings so we don't have to re-up with networks that are of low value,' says Keith Bowen, president of news, programming and business services for the cable company Optimum. And Lazarus, at Versant, has made it a priority to get employees hyped up about being at what he frames as a well-capitalized startup rather than a holding company for a dying industry. In addition to acquiring companies, Lazarus has talked openly about acquiring new sports rights, about building out a programming team to develop and acquire entertainment, about staffing up in news at MSNBC and CNBC, and about a new temporary midtown Manhattan headquarters (located in the building that used to be the home of The New York Times) that he is dubbing 'summer camp.' While the messaging may change, WBD's initial public pitch remained focused on efficiency, rather than opportunity. But there is opportunity in that efficiency, as Bank of America analyst Jessica Reif Ehrlich wrote shortly after the split was announced. 'With Streaming & Studios separated as a standalone public company unburdened by the substantial debt burden, we expect significant investor interest (both public and private) in these highly valuable assets,' she wrote. 'Similarly, as a standalone entity, Global Networks has optionality including asset sales or the potential to become a 'roll up' for other similar assets, likely at attractive valuations and subsequently extract several cost synergies (corporate, advertising sales, etc.) to extend the runway of FCF these assets would yield to service debt over the next several years.' One company that will excite investors, and another that will extract cost synergies to service debt, with any deal a ways away. 'While we view the split of Networks and Streaming & Studios as just the first step to unlock value, a second step may require patience,' Supino writes. The two SpinCos also tell a tale about the future. The first media mogul to broach the idea of spinning off their linear channels was Disney CEO Bob Iger, shortly after rejoining the company in 2022. Disney ultimately opted not to do so, but one wonders whether the company reconsiders in light of what rivals are pursuing. Similar questions are sure to arise as Paramount Global sits in limbo waiting for the Skydance deal to close. The past 30 years of the entertainment business were funded by cable TV cash, but it seems that era is finally coming to an end. The tastemakers gave way to the number crunchers, and now the number crunchers are sending the TV channels off to the vultures. Or, as mogul and dealmaker Barry Diller told THR in a May interview: 'We've gone from a town to a spreadsheet.' The propagators of those spreadsheets are running the show, and have decided that ripping up the businesses they helped forge is the pathway to success. This story appeared in the June 11 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe. Best of The Hollywood Reporter How the Warner Brothers Got Their Film Business Started Meet the World Builders: Hollywood's Top Physical Production Executives of 2023 Men in Blazers, Hollywood's Favorite Soccer Podcast, Aims for a Global Empire
Fast Company
12-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Fast Company
Bravo's top exec shares why they don't film ‘Housewives' while a new season is airing
Bravo, the network that houses franchises like The Real Housewives, Vanderpump Rules, and Top Chef, has become a reality TV juggernaut. Started as an arts and culture cable channel, unscripted television was always at the network's heart, but after a little show called Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, the network leaned into reality, with a focus on surfacing its own talent. Now it's a strong asset for NBCUniversal, which is hanging onto the network as parent company Comcast spins off properties like E!, Oxygen True Crime, Syfy, CNBC, and MSNBC into a new company, Versant. Despite a period in 2023 when The Real Housewives of New York City (RHONY) star Bethenny Frankel suggested Bravo talent unionize for better treatment—and two ongoing lawsuits from other cast members about their treatment on set—Bravo is booming. As NBCUniversal spins out Versant, Bravo will play a big role in the company's streaming strategy with Peacock, where Bravo fans constitute a low-churn, high-volume audience. Frances Berwick, chair of Bravo and Peacock Unscripted, appeared on Fast Company 's Most Innovative Companies podcast to talk about about creating franchises audiences love, keeping them fresh, and why the network waits until a new Housewives season ends before picking up the cameras again. What led you to identify unscripted reality TV as the key to Bravo's kind of transformation from a niche arts network to the juggernaut it is today? When I first joined the network, we didn't have any ads. We had largely acquired movies and arts programming. We realized that the way to get into the commercial environment would be to produce original content. Unscripted was the way to go. We started doing series with people like Michael Moore who [did a show called] The Awful Truth. It was funny and provocative. From there we segued into other types of documentaries. We did a very intense interview show with Errol Morris. Then from there, the producers of the Errol Morris show pitched us this fabulous concept called Queer Eye for the Straight Guy. It was food, fashion, beauty, design, and pop culture. We felt like this was the modern representation of the arts. Because of the success of Queer Eye —it really was a hit right out of the gate—it allowed us to then invest in doing more. We rapidly started to grow. [Our programming] in those days still had to appeal to our very educated audience and be culturally grounded and in the zeitgeist. We picked up Project Greenlight when it was canceled by HBO, we picked up Project Runway, we came up with Top Chef. We did a bit of celebrity poker along the way which was really fun, too. We morphed from there into shows like Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List. So we dabbled a bit in celebrity. But more than anything, we found that we actually did better if we found our own personalities, if we found interesting people with interesting stories. Then came The Real Housewives of Orange County and it snowballed. I love that you traced a line from Errol Morris to Queer Eye. What were some of the early risks or bets that paid off? Project Runway was one of them. When we launched it was a very tiny show. We took some really big bets with that. We had aired about three episodes and it was not really hitting. [But] we knew that there was a bigger audience for it because we had seen the explosion that we'd had when Queer Eye was at its height. So we took the holiday period and we just blasted the entire network. I think we had a marathon of the three episodes of Project Runway almost incessantly for about 10 days around Christmas and New Year. Viewership doubled the next week. [We succeeded through] word of mouth and sheer grit. Then it just kept growing. We knew we had something that was really good and we believed in it. I will say the same with Queer Eye. We put the entire marketing budget for the year on that one show. We loved the pilot and it tested very well. and We didn't have much in the way of resources, and so it was go big or go home and it worked. How do you approach building franchises, like the Real Housewives series? It happened by accident. We didn't launch Real Housewives of Orange County and think 'let's franchise this.' We actually were developing a show called Manhattan Moms and that's what we were pitched and during production we saw how successful Real Housewives of Orange County was. We had a whole internal debate about whether it was going to tarnish Orange County if we named Manhattan Moms Real Housewives of New York instead. We then had to persuade some of the cast that it was okay to be called Real Housewives because they weren't all married. So that became the Real Housewives of New York. Then we were pitched another ensemble female cast in Atlanta that we really liked. It all started with organic groups of friends. It became franchised in a small period of time because we were doing all this casting around female ensembles. How do you keep long-running shows fresh? There are lessons that we've learned from the past where [we did] too much. Two or three years ago, we had five different Below Deck casts. We've scaled that back to three at any one time. That's the right number. Then we are very careful about curating at what moment we should replace or bring in new cast members. That's the beauty of a show like Real Housewives —we can keep refreshing the cast. In some cases we'll replace the whole cast, but that's riskier. Then we're constantly looking at different ways to tell stories. You'll notice at some point we started doing much more flashbacks and flash forwards. What makes a good cast member? They have to be authentic and vulnerable and really be prepared to share their whole lives with people. Our fans are really passionate, and if they don't feel that authenticity or if they feel that the cast members are holding things back, they'll be quite vocal about it. Usually when we start taping a show, we throw away the first few days anyway, because you can then weed out anyone who's playing for the camera. You want people's real personalities to come through or the audience isn't going to connect with them and buy into them. If we are not seeing that, we tend to minimize that person's storyline. Andy [Cohen] pointed out recently that often on season two people will get the glow up. They'll get botox after seeing themselves on screen. Social media is almost an extra cast member in these shows. How do you think about bringing it in? We now know we can't tape an ongoing show while the current cycle is on the air. We have tried that and it gets confusing because the cast members start reacting to things that they see [online] and it becomes very meta. Often that can be a very tedious storyline. Bravo has a remarkable hit rate when it comes to finding and casting criminals. Why do you think that is? It really defies all logic that if you are engaged in criminal activity, you would want to go on television because you're probably going to get worse ramifications and be made an example of. That is really the furthest thing that we want. It's always a surprise and a disappointment. There's a lot of instances that are controversial but not necessarily criminal. When do you know something is so controversial that a cast member needs to be let go? It really varies and there's lots of gray area. If we've got a whole cast who won't film with somebody, right, then you can't bring them back. I will say people redeem themselves. We put people on television who are flawed, as we all are. But those flaws aren't criminal. We want to give people a bit of grace in terms of getting some forgiveness and being able to move on. There is talent that we've had on the shows where they'll have a bad season where they didn't get on well with their cast members. Then, without changing their personality, they may then redeem themselves by other actions. There have been times when we've said to cast members we're not going to film with them. We're also much more careful on our productions with alcohol consumption than we were a few years ago. But often it will be their [fellow] cast members who will hold them accountable.
Yahoo
10-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Why Fans Think Ari Melber Is Leaving MSNBC
The ongoing rumors have made fans wonder whether award-winning journalist Ari Melber might be leaving MSNBC. He began his career with the network in 2015 as their legal correspondent and had previously been tapped to step in as a guest host. Since then, he has been a prominent part of MSNBC. Currently, he hosts his well-known show, The Beat with Ari Melber. However, his latest departure news has sparked concerns among his devoted viewers. So, is Melber leaving MSNBC? There are no confirmed reports that suggest Melber is leaving MSNBC. So, the ongoing rumors are probably false. The rumors began when an exclusive report by Breaker Media circulated online. It claimed that Melber has plans to move on from MSNBC and has conducted meetings with 'rival networks.' His alleged decision to leave comes in the wake of NBCUniversal's announcement to move most of its cable networks, including MSNBC, into a new company. This new company would be controlled by Comcast shareholders and would be officially known as Versant. The report also claimed that Melber is considering establishing his own media company. It acknowledged how Melber plays a vital role in the network. He has developed a devoted following on YouTube and brought in immense viewership over the years. His departure could likely become a big hit to the network's ratings and audience numbers. However, neither Melber nor the network has confirmed the exit rumors. So, it remains mere speculation for now. Earlier, President Donald Trump made a shocking remark about MSNBC. He claimed that the network is 'close to death.' However, Melber refuted the claim in a conversation with Forbes. He promptly defended the network and stated that it is performing well in terms of audience and ratings. He said, 'MSNBC is doing great. We're reaching more people than ever. We're beating ESPN and CNN in total audience TV ratings. Last year, we beat Fox on YouTube, which is a big part of the future.' The post Why Fans Think Ari Melber Is Leaving MSNBC – Rumors Explained appeared first on - Movie Trailers, TV & Streaming News, and More.
Yahoo
09-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Bank of America Still Sees Upside In a Warner Bros. Discovery Split
Bank of America's securities research team sees the spinoff drama at Warner Bros. Discovery over its linear TV, studios and streaming businesses worth viewing for outsized investor returns. 'We believe the market value for WBD's Studio and DTC (direct-to-consumer) assets standalone could far exceed the market cap of the company today,' BofA Securities analyst Jessica Reif Ehrlich said in a June 2 investor note. A break up of Warner Bros. Discovery since its 2022 merger has long been weighed as a possibility among Wall Street analysts, and Ehrlich sees a potential spinoff of WBD's linear TV assets doing the job of strategically unlocking unrealized shareholder value. More from The Hollywood Reporter Warner Bros. Discovery Credit Rating Cut to Junk Bond Status on Linear TV's Decline John Oliver Slams the "Genius" Who Keeps Changing HBO Max's Name, Admonishes Parent Company Exec for Anticipating His "Hot Take" Behind Warner Bros.' $125 Million Arbitration Win Against Village Roadshow Over 'Matrix Resurrections' A possible scenario would see Warner Bros. studios paired with Max, leaving the Discovery linear cable channels to be carved off and left to operate standalone — a potential model NBCUniversal is doing with Versant. 'Further, as a standalone linear asset, we believe there is an opportunity to consolidate a long tail of linear assets (e.g. Versant) that are currently housed within other media organizations,' Ehrlich argued. While the cable business used to be a cash driver for studios, the TV channels lately have become a drag on earnings, and investors have dinged companies that have been weighed down by channels tied to bundles that have fast fallen out of out of favor with consumers who've spent instead on individual streaming services. NBCU is spinning off most of its cable assets — minus Bravo and including CNBC — into a new company called Versant. No potential split of WBD has been formally announced. But the major studio has already begun to reorganize the company with an eye to a possible spinoff of its legacy TV assets. In Dec. 2024, the studio said it had reworked its corporate structure into a global linear TV division, separate from its streaming and studios division. WBD added it had begun the early steps leading toward the new corporate reorganization, with a completion set for mid-2025. Ehrlich said the new corporate structure was designed to 'enhance strategic flexibility and create potential opportunities to unlock shareholder value', as WBD operates in two divisions. The Wall Street analyst also addressed WBD recently being downgraded to BB+, or junk bond status, for 2025 and 2026 by S&P Global over linear TV weakness as the Hollywood studio continues to pivot to the streaming space. 'Ironically, we view this as a positive development,' Ehrlich wrote as the downgrade potentially contributes to WBD's balance sheet flexibility. Gunnar Wiedenfels, CFO of WBD, on May 15 during an investors conference appearance put no timing on possible 'strategic action' at the company to better reveal the underlying value of studio assets. 'I can't give a specific timeline, and there is no specific timeline. But we definitely share the view that our current share price is not reflecting the underlying the value of our company,' he said. The BofA Global Research analyst maintained a buy rating and a price target of $14.00 for shares in WBD. The studio's stock was trading up 5 cents to $9.98 in early afternoon trading on Monday. Best of The Hollywood Reporter How the Warner Brothers Got Their Film Business Started Meet the World Builders: Hollywood's Top Physical Production Executives of 2023 Men in Blazers, Hollywood's Favorite Soccer Podcast, Aims for a Global Empire
