Warner Bros. Discovery President and CEO David Zaslav has had another bad week. In a decision-making pattern to save money, Zaslav recently laid off a group of top executives at WB’s Turner Classic Movies channel.
This time, a backlash from name-brand directors like Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, Paul Thomas Anderson, and many others followed. The blowback forced the network to reverse its course. The filmmakers were given power to provide input of film curation at TCM, while the classic film channel’s creative oversight was given to WB film chiefs Michael De Luca and Pamela Abdy.
Is this just another PR fix, or a more fundamental financial problem? Was Zaslav once again caught in a push-pull between the creative community and creditors? Kim Masters and Matt Belloni discuss.
Plus, they look into a Los Angeles Times exposé detailing Netflix's exploitation and abuse of South Korea’s entertainment workers, while the streamer plans to churn out its TV and film catalog amid the WGA strike fighting to get residual compensation for their work. Will this energize other unions to strike? And Will Netflix, as a global player, step up?
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