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    Back to Press Play with Madeleine Brand

    Press Play with Madeleine Brand

    WarnerMedia-Discovery merger: What’s behind it, how it may affect TV streaming

    AT&T will spin off WarnerMedia (the parent company of HBO, CNN, and Warner Brothers film studio) and merge it with Discovery (which owns HGTV, TLC, and Animal Planet) to create a new company.

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    By Madeleine Brand • May 18, 2021 • 50m Listen

    AT&T will spin off WarnerMedia (the parent company of HBO, CNN, and Warner Brothers film studio) and merge it with Discovery (which owns HGTV, TLC, and Animal Planet) to create a new company.

    This is a $100 billion deal that might lead to new programming and a restructuring of current content libraries. That’s according to Alejandro Rojas, director of applied analytics at Parrot Analytics.

    “Everybody's trying to get people's attention, and everybody's trying to become that first destination. To kind of figure out who's gonna win, I mean, I think probably there's room for everybody. … But at the end of the day … if you create good content, people are gonna flock to that. Great storytelling always wins,” he tells KCRW.

    In this episode

    5 stories
    1. 0:00

      AT&T has owned WarnerMedia for 5 years and now wants to merge it with Discovery instead. Why?

      AT&T will spin off WarnerMedia (the parent company of HBO, CNN, and Warner Brothers film studio) and merge it with Discovery (which owns HGTV, TLC, and Animal Planet) to create a new company.

      Read the story
      8 min
    2. 8:11

      Amid WarnerMedia-Discovery merger and streaming wars, ‘great storytelling always wins’

      This week, AT&T announced that it plans to spin off WarnerMedia, which it bought five years ago, and merge it with Discovery, which owns HGTV, TLC, and Animal Planet.

      Read the story
      9 min
    3. 17:12

      Apple prides itself on privacy protection — but not in China

      "We found that Apple had made serious compromises in how it was storing that [iCloud] data, including a decision to essentially allow Chinese government employees to physically manage the computer servers that have the data on them," says reporter Jack Nicas.

      Read the story
      10 min
    4. 27:33

      Netflix’s ‘Coded Bias’: Algorithms are not impartial and can affect civil liberties

      Society assumes computers are unbiased, based on algorithms and machine learning. Algorithms are rules for how computers process data, and they dictate what social media users see daily.

      Read the story
      14 min
    5. 41:57

      As California mulls making to-go cocktails permanent, the pre-mixed drink’s popularity endures

      To help bars and restaurants stay afloat during the pandemic, California allowed them to sell to-go cocktails and other alcoholic beverages. Now the rule change may become permanent, thanks to a bill the State Senate passed last week.

      Read the story
      8 min
    • https://images.ctfassets.net/2658fe8gbo8o/AvYox6VuEgcxpd20Xo9d3/769bca4fbf97bf022190f4813812c1e2/new-default.jpg?h=250

      Madeleine Brand

      Host, 'Press Play'

    • KCRW placeholder

      Sarah Sweeney

      Vice President of Talk Programming, KCRW

    • KCRW placeholder

      Angie Perrin

      Producer, Press Play

    • KCRW placeholder

      Michell Eloy

      Former Producer/Line Editor, Press Play

      CultureEntertainment

    In this episode

    5 stories
    1. 0:008 min

      AT&T has owned WarnerMedia for 5 years and now wants to merge it with Discovery instead. Why?

    2. 8:119 min

      Amid WarnerMedia-Discovery merger and streaming wars, ‘great storytelling always wins’

    3. 17:1210 min

      Apple prides itself on privacy protection — but not in China

    4. 27:3314 min

      Netflix’s ‘Coded Bias’: Algorithms are not impartial and can affect civil liberties

    5. 41:578 min

      As California mulls making to-go cocktails permanent, the pre-mixed drink’s popularity endures

    Back to Press Play with Madeleine Brand