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HBO Max to lay off 70% of staff and end scripted content (UP: Actually, no to both)

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Anya7890

Anya7890

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Oct 25, 2017
5,283
In between apocalyptic dystopian hellscapes.
Kinsei

Kinsei

Avenger
Oct 25, 2017
20,627
Hopefully they don't can the new Tiny Toons before it launches for a tax write off so that we get at least 1 season of it.
 
Smokey_Run

Smokey_Run

The Fallen
Oct 25, 2017
4,634
The_Iceman2288 said:
Warners saying they won't do HBO Max exclusive movies out of quality concerns is a stark contrast when we are 9 hours away from Disney debuting it's most acclaimed movie of the year AND a big franchise entry on Hulu/Disney+.
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I'd argue at the same time they are burying said film because they don't want to adhere to prior deals -- if you're talking about Prey. So it's not like Disney is really doing right by that film either IMO.
 
ExtremelyBitter

ExtremelyBitter

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Oct 25, 2017
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Guessing this is going to be what leads to stuff dropping off as rumored if it happens; pulling the low-performance stuff to shop it elsewhere. Maybe they'll try for non-exclusive licensing? But who knows.
 

Deleted member 43

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Anya7890 said:
Oh. So, they are saying women are stupid and are too dumb to pay attention to scripted dramas! fucking wonderful! The marketing for the last of us should be interesting too…
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I mean, you can read into that that way if you want to, but no. Discovery+ being women-skewing is a demographic fact. That's not a value judgment.
 

Raigor

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May 14, 2020
15,179
All this drama for fucking nothing.

They are going to focus on quality for both theatrical and streaming and kill the low performance stuff.

Movie industry ""insiders"" are just as bad as the one for gaming.
 
Tobor

Tobor

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Oct 25, 2017
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Zaslav just said the data on the "HBO MAX" brand is better than it was a year ago, or even 6 months ago. Sounds like keeping the name is at least on the table.
 

Raigor

Member
May 14, 2020
15,179
Anya7890 said:
Oh. So, they are saying women are stupid and are too dumb to pay attention to scripted dramas! fucking wonderful! The marketing for the last of us should be interesting too…
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No? They have the data and they are saying that their stuff on D+ is loved/liked/watched by women more than men and the opposite is for HBO.

That's basic english.
 
firehawk12

firehawk12

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Oct 25, 2017
24,311
Matt said:
I mean, you can read into that that way if you want to, but no. Discovery+ being women-skewing is a demographic fact. That's not a value judgment.
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I assume it's more of an accident than by design. HBO Max being like the DC-Synder channel in the beginning probably made it skew heavily male... but the program is probably more diverse. Like I would assume something like Station Eleven probably has a more female or at least balanced audience, but that's probably a minority of their streams.

The Discovery+ stuff... yeah. All the dating/reality shows that creates "genredoms" (bleh lol) likely skews female.
 
Finaj

Finaj

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Oct 25, 2017
5,377
Animation is my favorite medium for television and film, so this is a tad depressing for me.
 
greatgeek

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Oct 25, 2017
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ExtremelyBitter said:


Guessing this is going to be what leads to stuff dropping off as rumored if it happens; pulling the low-performance stuff to shop it elsewhere. Maybe they'll try for non-exclusive licensing? But who knows.
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So HBO Max shrinks to become HBO overflow production, and the service relies more on the cheap reality stuff to fill out its content library?
 
ExtremelyBitter

ExtremelyBitter

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Oct 25, 2017
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PanSexual_Peacock said:
Right? I still don't understand what people are so upset about.
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A company announcing they're going all-in on AAA and killing off their 'indie' productions is no big deal if all you care about is AAA.

If you're there for the 'indie' shit, though? It's a bummer. And since there's been weird shit happening around it (mostly completed stuff being killed; actually completed and released things disappearing; a TV show getting cancelled the day of its season premeire; licensed stuff vanishing), 'nothing' feels safe if your interest was primarily in the stuff they actively do not want to deal with anymore.

Edited to add quotes around Indie because it's more of a gaming comparison than a direct thing
 
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DanGo

DanGo

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Oct 25, 2017
6,759
ExtremelyBitter said:
A company announcing they're going all-in on AAA and killing off their indie productions is no big deal if all you care about is AAA.

If you're there for the indie shit, though? It's a bummer. And since there's been weird shit happening around it (mostly completed stuff being killed; actually completed and released things disappearing; a TV show getting cancelled the day of its season premeire; licensed stuff vanishing), 'nothing' feels safe if your interest was primarily in the stuff they actively do not want to deal with anymore.
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*ding ding ding*

Subscription services can't survive on only the big, broad stuff. You need the 'lower performers' that satisfy highly passionate fanbases. There's a reason there's been so much grumbling about Netflix and some backsliding in subs for them. They cut all kinds of shows off early while throwing nine figure budgets at bland shit that is forgotten within two weeks.
 
mreddie

mreddie

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Oct 26, 2017
44,522
RolandGunner said:
Not even shutting down Max's scripted division. Sounds like the rumors of Max being gutted were wildly overstated.


View: https://twitter.com/AndyBehbakht/status/1555308561202388992
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The animation division has been said they might get hit. At this point, it's all about data.

Chaos Legion said:
You say this as the CEO and CFO just said the opposite.

Anyway, hilarious that Zaslav kind of just said eventually DTC will turn into cable and eventually be packaged with significant price increases. 😂
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DTC?
 
Serene

Serene

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Oct 25, 2017
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Chaos Legion said:
You say this as the CEO and CFO just said the opposite.

Anyway, hilarious that Zaslav kind of just said eventually DTC will turn into cable and eventually be packaged with significant price increases. 😂
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He said they aren't ending it. They aren't. Cutting down on it doesn't make him a liar. And the comment about spend is true. They Will spend more on fewer things. More high budget.
 
Threadmark: CEO Zaslav says to embrace and support the scripted series on HBO Max
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    • RolandGunner

    RolandGunner

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    Oct 30, 2017
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    Yesterday was non-stop rumors about Max being gutted or rolled into Discovery+ and today Zaslav commits to increase spending and showers praise on the product. Seriously, read this and tell me Max is turning into reality tv + a handful of prestige projects.

    "There was some buzz today about HBO Max [that] we're going to start doing less series and our strategy is to embrace and support and then drive the incredible success that HBO Max is having. It's really to the culture and the taste of Casey and the team and the fact that they not only read the scripts, but they fight with all the creatives to make the content and storytelling as strong as possible. It's at a very unique moment. We think it's an extraordinary asset, an extraordinary advantage," he added.
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    deadline.com

    Warner Bros. Discovery To “Spend Dramatically More” On HBO/HBO Max & “Lock Up” Majority Of Casey Bloys’ Top Team

    Warner Bros. Discovery is doubling down on HBO and HBO Max.
    deadline.com deadline.com
     
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    • PanSexual_Peacock

    PanSexual_Peacock

    Member
    Oct 27, 2017
    4,754
    RolandGunner said:
    Yesterday was non-stop rumors about Max being gutted or rolled into Discovery+ and today Zaslav commits to increase spending and showers praise on the product. Seriously, read this and tell me Max is turning into reality tv + a handful of prestige projects.



    deadline.com

    Warner Bros. Discovery To “Spend Dramatically More” On HBO/HBO Max & “Lock Up” Majority Of Casey Bloys’ Top Team

    Warner Bros. Discovery is doubling down on HBO and HBO Max.
    deadline.com deadline.com
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    I was just about to post this lol

    This rumor was dumb to begin with.
     
    ZeoVGM

    ZeoVGM

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    Oct 25, 2017
    76,251
    Providence, RI
    RolandGunner said:
    Yesterday was non-stop rumors about Max being gutted or rolled into Discovery+ and today Zaslav commits to increase spending and showers praise on the product. Seriously, read this and tell me Max is turning into reality tv + a handful of prestige projects.



    deadline.com

    Warner Bros. Discovery To “Spend Dramatically More” On HBO/HBO Max & “Lock Up” Majority Of Casey Bloys’ Top Team

    Warner Bros. Discovery is doubling down on HBO and HBO Max.
    deadline.com deadline.com
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    Sounds like CEO spin to me.
     
    El Toporo

    El Toporo

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    Oct 25, 2017
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    Starphanluke said:
    They are pretty severly cutting back HBOMax content. Some of the budget from that will go towards HBO programming, but scripted Max is undoubtedly being scaled back.
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    Let's also not forget that they cut most of their international output.
    That's something that's not going to be picked up or compensated anywhere else in the company.
     
    Chaos Legion

    Chaos Legion

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    Oct 30, 2017
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    mreddie said:
    DTC?
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    Direct-to-consumer. He was asked that the DTC market and economics doesn't seem to be as attractive as cable and if this is a permanent or transitory thing and why. His response was that prices are to low for DTC and eventually the top services will be packaged or bundled by Roku or Apple for consumers driving further adoption. Love he's upfront about the end goal, it's a flat circle haha
     
    Starphanluke

    Starphanluke

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    Nov 15, 2017
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    Serene said:
    lol you might as well save the effort. People are hearing what they want and denying everything else.
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    Yeah, I guess in a year when Max is overrun with reality shows about sister wives and home renovations and ancient aliens-esque documentaries with a sprinkling of HBO content, people will start to get the idea.
     
    Exposure

    Exposure

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    Oct 25, 2017
    1,673
    Yeah after they announced their cutting back on animation content it seems very obvious they're going for the netflix strategy that any content they make either has to fit into "this is a major show or blockbuster-equivalent" content bin or the "this is pretty cheap and doesn't cost too much to make " bin.

    it's literally just the whole deal with the gaming industry's retience towards mid budget games again, complete with the group of posters who are acting insufferably smug because they too think that either you go AAA or go home and are either confused by the idea that some people may want something in between or outright mocking of it, even.
     
    Darknight

    Darknight

    "I'd buy that for a dollar!"
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    Oct 25, 2017
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    Starphanluke said:
    They are pretty severly cutting back HBOMax content. Some of the budget from that will go towards HBO programming, but scripted Max is undoubtedly being scaled back.
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    Well this is an improvement from yesterday then when people were reacting to the notion that they were getting rid of all HBO Max content all together.
     
    RolandGunner

    RolandGunner

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    Oct 30, 2017
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    ZeoVGM said:
    Sounds like CEO spin to me.
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    OMG, that was an investor call. If WB was going to massively restructure the org by doing something like folding Max under HBO it would have been announced here so the people who own stock in the company could clarify the strategy. There may be reductions in specific areas like animation or international but Max is continuing and the development pipeline will still be broad. There was nothing to suggest otherwise
     
    ZeoVGM

    ZeoVGM

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    Oct 25, 2017
    76,251
    Providence, RI
    RolandGunner said:
    OMG, that was an investor call. If WB was going to massively restructure the org by doing something like folding Max under HBO it would have been announced here so the people who own stock in the company could clarify the strategy. There may be reductions in specific areas like animation or international but Max is continuing and the development pipeline will still be broad. There was nothing to suggest otherwise
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    We shall see what happens over the coming months.
     
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