In 2021, Hollywood was rocked by a big merger between Warner Bros. — owners of HBO, the DC Universe, and TCM — and Discovery, owners of HGTV the Discovery Channel, and TLC. Suddenly, you could stream Milf Manor on the same site as Zack Snyder’s Justice League and 90 Day Fiancé on the same site as The Sopranos.
It seemed like this would be a new era for both companies, but slowly the cracks started to show, especially as fully finished projects started getting canceled for tax breaks. Now, the mega-corporation is splitting back into two, but the division reveals something interesting about the ever-shifting Hollywood landscape.
According to Variety, Warner Bros. Discovery will split into two different companies. One company, still run by current CEO David Zaslav, will focus on streaming and content production, while the other, run by CFO Gunnar Wiedenfels, will focus on traditional television. Interestingly, the TV section of the company will be burdened with the majority of WBD’s debt, which is almost $38 billion.
This means that the company is confident that traditional television has the legs to overcome even this massive debt. It’s quite the testament to traditional network television, but it’s not the first sign that streaming is no longer the way forward for media.
Tony Gilroy, showrunner of Andor, said at ATX Television Festival that while Season 1 was a smash hit on Disney+, executives at the streamer raised an issue with Season 2. “In Season 2, they said, ‘Streaming is dead, we don’t have the money we had before,’” he said, according to IndieWire, so we fought hard about money.”
With the newfound success of traditional TV shows like Tracker and 911, we may see WBD in its new split form reviving linear programming like it was 2010 again. WBD may not own a major TV channel like NBC or CBS, but it can still bring back old-fashioned TV all the same. Who knows, we may be on the edge of a CW renaissance.
