“Thursday is the day when Warner Bros. Discovery will receive formal bids from potential acquirers. One of those bids is all but certain to come from Paramount, which under CEO David Ellison mostly replaced the creative executives running that company in favor of his own team. It’s the sort of news that could consume many”, — write: www.hollywoodreporter.com
It’s the sort of news that could consume many an entertainment executive concerned for the future of their careers, and their team’s future.
HBO Max chief Casey Bloys, however, isn’t spending much time thinking about it.
“I had a town hall a couple weeks ago, and I said, the the only thing you can do in this process, and the best thing you can do, is just focus on your job, which is making the most impactful programming in whatever genre,” Bloys said at a media event in New York Thursday, when asked about the likely looming acquisition, noting that for now it remains “theoretical.”
“It’s kind of a waste of energy, because I don’t know what’s going to happen,” Bloys added.
“Now, that being said, I’m obviously very proud of what we’ve done at HBO and HBO Max. I would like to see that continue,” Bloys continued. “We’ve all worked at HBO for a long time. I’m proud of our track record, but, you have to go into these processes with an open mind. And a lot of it is out of our hands.”
Bloys and his team have helped HBO Max propel itself into the upper echelons of streaming, but a likely deal (be it from Paramount, Comcast or Netflix) would all but certainly change its course. That said, as he noted Thursday, the HBO team has a long tenure and a long track record, underscoring that any deal that sees HBO Max change hands would benefit from keeping that team and their approach to programming intact, even if it becomes part of yet another larger corporate strategy or play.