WarnerMedia CEO steps down ahead of Discovery merger

Per a report in Variety, WarnerMedia’s CEO Jason Kilar has announced he will step down ahead of the company’s planned merger with DiscoveryPlus. Kilar’s departure has been a widely-anticipated move ever since the announcement of the $43 billion deal, with Discovery CEO David Zaslav having announced in 2021 that he will take over the role in the newly-created company Warner Bros. Discovery.  

This comes on the heels of February’s announcement from Discovery Inc. that the company appointed Late Show with Stephen Colbert executive producer Chris Licht to step in as president of CNN following network boss Jeff Zucker’s resignation. Zucker stepped down after admitting to a consensual relationship with a woman who worked with him.

Jason Kilar began his career as a senior vice president at Amazon in Worldwide Application Software before co-founding and acting as CEO of Hulu. At Warner, Kilar made himself one of the most controversial executives in film history with his 2021 HBOMax day-of-release streaming policy for Warner Bros. films. This followed depressed box office numbers for 2020 and 2021, as most movie theaters closed during the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic.

While the move certainly solidified subscriber numbers, with blockbusters like Dune and Tenet dropping on the streaming service the same day they were released in theaters, it also angered those films’ talent and directors. Dune director Denis Villeneuve wrote in Variety:

“Warner Bros.’ decision means Dune won’t have the chance to perform financially in order to be viable and piracy will ultimately triumph. Warner Bros. might just have killed the Dune franchise. This one is for the fans. AT&T’s John Stankey said that the streaming horse left the barn. In truth, the horse left the barn for the slaughterhouse.”

The Dune franchise lives on; it was nominated for Best Picture at the 2022 Academy Awards and took home six Oscars. A sequel is already in production.

Discovery’s acquisition of Warner Brothers is expected to be completed April 11, 2022.