WarnerMedia CEO Jason Kilar announced on Tuesday that he is stepping down ahead of the completion of Discovery’s acquisition of the currently AT&T-owned company, which is expected to occur on April 11.While Kilar’s exit from WarnerMedia upon the completion of the merger had been expected ever since the transaction was first announced by AT&T and Discovery last spring, this marks the exec’s formalization of that plan as Discovery chief David Zaslav prepares to run the combined company, Warner Bros. Discovery.Kilar told Variety following the announcement that he does not have “any grand proclamations” to make about what he plans on doing next year, but he has no intention of retiring.“With the pending transaction with Discovery nearing close, now is the right time to share with each of you that I will be departing this amazing company,” Kilar said in a memo sent to WarnerMedia staff. “There are many feelings one could have in a moment like this, but for me there are none bigger, or more lasting, than the feelings of gratitude and love that I have for this team, this company, and this mission. I’ve never been more fulfilled professionally. I’ve never been happier professionally. This team — and what we’ve built together — are the reasons for that. We’re leading the industry creatively. We’ve elevated technology, product, and design to the highest levels in the company. We’re operating as one team, proudly and successfully going direct to consumers across the globe. It has been deeply gratifying to lean into the future alongside each of you and to do so with conviction.”Kilar was brought on as CEO of WarnerMedia in April 2020, just as it was preparing to launch its streaming service HBO Max. It wasn’t Kilar’s first OTT rodeo, as he was named CEO of Hulu shortly after its 2007 launch, and over the next five years built it into a worthy Netflix competitor.Since coming aboard WarnerMedia, Kilar — who founded YouTube competitor Vessel, which was sold and dissolved into Verizon Communications in October 2016 — rocked the boat with extensive executive shuffling and layoffs as the company tried to reorient itself to fit a more streaming-centric future (with AT&T CEO John Stankey openly praising Kilar’s strategic focus). Then, amid months of struggle for film exhibitors due to pandemic-related theater closures, he unveiled a plan in December 2020 to release every film from Warner Bros.’ 2021 theatrical slate simultaneously on HBO Max, free of charge to subscribers, a move that sent shockwaves across the industry.“I’m sitting here at my office on the lot, and so I’ll be here tomorrow and the next day,” Kilar told Variety Tuesday, just hours after announcing his exit to staff. “So in terms of reflection, I haven’t really given myself the luxury of the time yet to do that. But boy, there’s a lot of pride and there’s a lot of smiles on my end, just because we’ve really tried to make every single minute count in terms of the hard work that this team has done in the last two-plus years. And that means, in changing a company that has been a wholesaling business to really make it a direct-to-consumer global business, that was a real lift.”Kilar also broke down how he tackled the linear vs. streaming tightrope walk during his WarnerMedia tenure, balancing the needs of cable channels like TBS, TNT and truTV and satisfying providers like Cox and Charter with the launching of HBO Max.“I’ve always taken the approach of being as transparent as possible with our business partners because I think you’re able to lead with transparency and also empathy,” Kilar said. “So my conversations with Charter, Comcast and everyone else have been extraordinarily clear with regards to what we were endeavoring to do, which is ultimately we need to serve audiences around the world. And the good news about Cox and Charter and Comcast is that there are still today 74 million households in the U.S. that every month decide to get better change with the pay-TV bundle. That’s a lot of households, that’s more than any streaming service contracts right now in the U.S. So in what is probably counter to the media narrative, I still believe in that business. And I think those people that are in those businesses should still believe in it until the customers are telling you otherwise.”He added: “It’s possible to chew gum and walk straight at the same time. I do believe that we can have a very important linear channel business through CNN and truTV, while at the same time building HBO Max and CNN Plus. I think both are possible. And then you let the customer decide. So it’s been taking a deep breath and focusing on the customer and recognizing that there are a diversity of customers and they like to be served in different ways.”As for what’s next for Kilar, he says, “I’ve got, hopefully, a quarter of a century or ideally three decades more to go here.”“So I think it’s also fair to say that where I’m most fulfilled is at the intersection of storytelling and technology,” he added. “That’s kind of defined my career over the last 20, 25 years. And I suspect it’s going to probably define it over the next several decades. So I don’t have any grand proclamations, but don’t expect me to retire. I’m a builder and I love building.”Discovery has already revealed its long-term plan is to combine its streaming service Discovery Plus and HBO Max into one mega platform. Kilar gave Variety his insights into how he thinks it will be accepted into the marketplace as an offering, and at what price point it could best compete.“There’s a fair bit of unscripted content already inside HBO Max. So we’ve architected the service from the start to be, I’ll call it, a more inclusive and welcoming tent, a bigger tent of sorts in terms of the kinds of stories that we present to audiences,” Kilar said. “We were really, really hard on attracting more females, and we were very, very hard — as you’re about to see later this summer and fall — on attracting preschoolers and kids and family. When I think about bringing a lot more unscripted into that tent, I think HBO Max will be able to absorb it very, very easily. And then it really just comes down to, is there a price change or not? And ultimately, that’s David’s decision. I could easily see a future where there isn’t a price change and and you wake up one day and there is a fair bit of Discovery content inside HBO Max. But obviously, those decisions are David’s to make, and I’m sure he will share his thoughts on it at the appropriate time.”
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