The Fate of Top WarnerMedia Execs in Question After Announcement of Discovery Merger

Trey Songz has been accused of sexual assault by an anonymous woman following an alleged incident she claims took place in 2016.According to documents obtained by TMZ, the R&B singer (real name Tremaine Aldon Neverson) has been named in a $20million lawsuit filed by a woman who has claimed he anally raped her.The woman alleges Songz invited her to a house party in Los Angeles, where he invited her upstairs for what she believed would be consensual sex. She says the two of them had engaged in a consensual sexual relationship prior to the alleged incident.She then claims Songz repeatedly asked her if he could “get that ass” on the way upstairs, to which she said she repeatedly told him “no” and to stop asking.The woman claims the singer’s demeanour changed upon entering the bedroom and alleges he threw her to the ground, ripped her pants off, pinned her down face first and forced his penis into her anus without her consent.She claims she screamed in pain and begged Songz to stop, and tried fighting him off but says she was overpowered.In the suit, the woman claims someone entered the room during the alleged incident, which she hoped would put an end to the “brutal rape”, but she claims the person quickly left the room and Songz kept raping her.The accuser said she was only able to flee the scene after Songz was finished and her Uber driver “noticed she was in distress”.

Eurovision Song Contest, the competition has announced.On Saturday (February 12) Pash was announced as the winner of Vidbir, the nationally televised selection show that Ukraine uses to find its Eurovision entry, with her song ‘Тіні забутих предків’ (‘Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors’).Now, however, Ukraine’s national broadcaster UA:PBC has reversed its decision for Pash to be the country’s representative following an investigation into a 2015 trip she made to Crimea, an area Russia seized control of in 2014.In Ukraine there are strict rules in place on how people should travel to the region. Ukrainians and foreigners are only allowed to travel there through official land checkpoints.

“Larry David remembers everything” is the logline to “The Larry David Story,” a two-part documentary from HBO debuting on HBO and HBO Max on Tuesday, March 1. That seems to be a pretty perfect summation.

Zack Sharf Any comic book movie fan hoping Matt Reeves’ “The Batman” would be the first Caped Crusader film with an R rating was surely disappointed when Warner Bros. confirmed Jan.

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Meghan McCain may have left The View months ago, but it’s obvious the bad feelings between her and co-host Joy Behar have NOT subsided with the benefit of time.

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pic.twitter.com/7frfThXGLbMore to come…

AT&T will pay Discovery a $1.77 billion breakup fee if it backs out of its deal to sell off its WarnerMedia segment, according to a Plan of Merger filed on Thursday.If Discovery backs out of the deal, it will owe AT&T a breakup fee of $720 million. The terms were disclosed in a filing on Thursday.

One day prior to its massive merger with WarnerMedia, Discovery gave its CEO David Zaslav nearly 15 million stock options, which are valued at $190 million, according to the Wall Street Journal.A representative for Discovery did not immediately respond to TheWrap’s request for comment.The Journal said the 14.8 million in stock options were part of Zaslav’s new contract, which was announced on Tuesday, one day after the merger announcement. The deal runs through 2027.

Brent Lang Executive Editor of Film and MediaIt pays to pull off a massive media merger.Discovery chief David Zaslav is certainly being handsomely rewarded for his role in pulling off the merger agreement between his company and WarnerMedia. A day before AT&T announced it was spinning off WarnerMedia and combining it with Discovery, Zaslav received 14.8 million stock options on Sunday as part of a contract extension, which the Wall Street Journal reports are worth $190 million.

Discovery awarded CEO David Zaslav nearly 14.8 million stock options on Sunday, the day before the company unveiled plans to merge with AT&T’s WarnerMedia.

Whatever the future hold for Jason Kilar, the current WarnerMedia CEO wasn’t about to let what is surely his last Upfronts pass him by.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorWarnerMedia tried to put its best foot forward on Wednesday by focusing on the future of its own media assets, rather than questions about its looming spinoff from AT&T and merger with Discovery.Executives at the AT&T-owned media conglomerate put a spotlight on the company’s broad array of media outlets and talent during an upfront presentation to advertisers. The showcase, largely pre-taped, featured Leslie Odom Jr.

AT&T CEO John Stankey and CFO Pascal Desroches held a 45-minute WebX town hall for WarnerMedia employees this morning, offering additional information about the entertainment unit’s upcoming merger with Discovery.

Discovery announced Tuesday that it’s extended the employment contract of president and CEO David Zaslav through December 31, 2027. His previous agreement ran through 2023.

Brent Lang Executive Editor of Film and MediaAT&T chief John Stankey and Chief Financial Officer Pascal Desroches were asked tough questions about the implications of the pending merger of WarnerMedia and Discovery during an all-hands meeting of studio employees on Tuesday.Stankey tried to placate worried staffers by assuring them that he was going to advocate on their behalf and also urged them to “stay the course” during the months it will take for the deal to close. Media coverage has largely focused on AT&T’s decision to spin off WarnerMedia as an ignominious retreat by the telecom giant from the content business, one that added unsustainable debt to its balance sheet.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorDiscovery said it had extended the contract of its CEO, David Zaslav, through 2027, ensuring the executive would be in place well after the proposed merger of the company and WarnerMedia is expected to be completed in the middle of next year. Zaslav’s previous contract ran through 2023.The company, which operates Food Network , HGTV and TLC among other outlets, said Zaslav’s contract was extended as part of the agreement between AT&T and Discovery to combine WarnerMedia with the latter.Now most of Wall Street and Hollywood wants to know which executives will form the merged company’s executive team.

Discovery, a day after announcing a landmark, $43 billion merger with AT&T’s WarnerMedia, delivered its first upfront presentation in two years to tout 2021-22 programming.

AT&T would spin off WarnerMedia in a deal that will see it merge with Discovery. If he exits, Kilar will leave WarnerMedia after little more than a year as its CEO.

Cynthia Littleton Business EditorDiscovery’s tie-up with WarnerMedia has stirred up a firestorm of chatter about the impact of the deal that took nearly everyone in Burbank and Hudson Yards by surprise over the weekend.After a day of digesting the news and reading tea leaves, industry insiders were focused on the timing of WarnerMedia CEO Jason Kilar’s departure and the size of his severance package after one year and two weeks on the job.Another surprise that emerged from the fine print on the deal was the changes it signaled for John Malone, the Liberty Media and former TCI baron who is a longtime investor as an individual in Discovery.

As the news sank in about AT&T winding down its Hollywood foray via a $43 billion merger of WarnerMedia and Discovery, one word summed up the film industry’s prevailing reaction.

Jason Kilar expressed his “pride, passion and affection” for the WarnerMedia staff in a memo Monday and stressed “how important I believe it is in this moment for us to continue to keep our focus and to live up to our potential as a team.”

Cynthia Littleton Business EditorThe first swing in the talks that led to the union of Discovery and WarnerMedia was an email sent by David Zaslav to John Stankey on Feb. 13.That was around the time that the Discovery CEO and his AT&T counterpart had planned to meet for a golf date at the storied Pebble Beach Pro-Am golf tournament in central California that is sponsored by the telecom giant, as they did last year.

Discovery chief David Zaslav, whose sizable corner of the media business is getting a lot bigger, said he had previously looked at the idea of creating a “global HBO,” but all the best series were taken.

Makan Delrahim, who as the Justice Department’s antitrust chief during Donald Trump’s administration challenged AT&T’s combination with Time Warner, has a different view of the planned spinoff of WarnerMedia.

Brent Lang Executive Editor of Film and MediaIn the wake of a mega-deal with Discovery that seems primed to shake up the media landscape, AT&T chief John Stankey and WarnerMedia CEO Jason Kilar urged employees to stay focused on their jobs while they wait for the pact to close.“During this period, our direction and mission remain the same,” Stankey wrote in a staff-wide memo obtained by Variety. “The market and product strategies underway across WarnerMedia are consistent with a merged, post-close company.

Todd Spangler NY Digital EditorShares of Discovery and AT&T moved in different directions in the wake of the proposed merger of WarnerMedia and Discovery.Discovery shares opened up 10% Monday — before the stock tumbled into negative territory. The stock was down 0.3% as of 11:01 a.m.

On Friday, people left work, came home and sat down with their friends and/or family, and watched something on TV. But John Stankey, the CEO of AT&T, and David Zaslav, the Discovery CEO, were holed up in the latter’s house hammering out a multi-billion dollar deal that would forever change the face of Hollywood.

Discovery combine into a single media juggernaut was hatched during a series of meetings and calls in the Greenwich Village townhouse of Discovery chief David Zaslav.But it might never have come about were it not for Zaslav and AT&T chief John Stankey’s shared passion for golf. The two men were commiserating via text message about how, due to COVID restrictions, they weren’t going to be able to see each other in person at last winter’s AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am.

calling the network “the elephant in the room” in the administration’s opposition. The deal won approval and was ultimately completed in June 2018.AT&T announced Monday that it was spinning off WarnerMedia into an independent company that will merge with Discovery Inc.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorDavid Zaslav will lead a new combination of WarnerMedia and Discovery, the latest example of consolidation in the media and entertainment industry as the rise of video streaming continues to upend the entire sector.Zaslav was named CEO of the new company Monday, part of a surprising move by AT&T and Discovery to pool their media resources and make a bid to compete more directly with large rivals like Netflix, Walt Disney and NBCUniversal. Under terms of the deal, AT&T shareholders will control 71% of the new company, while Discovery shareholders would own 29%.

AT&T and Discovery Monday announced a definitive agreement to combine WarnerMedia’s  premium entertainment, sports and news assets with Discovery’s leading nonfiction and international entertainment and sports businesses to create a premier, standalone global entertainment company led by Discovery CEO David Zaslav.

Cynthia Littleton Business EditorDiscovery CEO David Zaslav is, by his own definition, a “fighter.”He’s poised to record quite a knockout if he pulls off a merger with AT&T’s WarnerMedia unit in a pact that will leave him as the ultimate keeper of the keys to HBO, HBO Max, Warner Bros., Turner channels and a growing global suite of direct to consumer streaming businesses.News of Discovery’s pursuit of a union with the erstwhile Time Warner assets came on so fast that executives and recent alumni of HBO, Warner Bros. et al were dizzy with surprise as word spread Sunday morning.

WarnerMedia CEO Jason Kilar said the company’s day-and-date movie release strategy has boosted the fortunes of HBO Max but also helped movie theaters eager for new titles during their emergence from Covid-19.

Like many media executives, Discovery CEO David Zaslav is not happy with Nielsen, which admitted Tuesday that it may have undercounted viewers during the pandemic.During a conversation Wednesday at MoffetNathanson’s annual media and communications summit, Zaslav blasted Nielsen’s “antiquated system of measurement,” arguing that its ratings were inaccurate even before this latest snafu.“It’s really unfortunate. We thought that maybe they were gonna get their act together, and then we found out that they think they undercounted for a year,” Zaslav said.