Warnermedia

Rooster Teeth, a unit of WarnerMedia, has promoted Doreen Copeland to VP, Head of Production and Joe Clary and Sean Hinz to co-heads of animation. Copeland will now oversee all physical production at Rooster Teeth. Clary and Hinz will co-lead day to day operations across all of Rooster Teeth’s animated productions including but not limited to RWBY, gen:LOCK, RTAA, Death Battle and Red vs Blue. Clary and Hinz will report to Copeland. Margaret M. Dean, Head of Ellation Studios and president of Women in Animation, will continue to consult on animation productions. The moves follow the arrival of Jordan Levin as GM of Rooster Teeth in September. Former CEO Matt Hullum shifted to Chief Content Officer as part of that transition. Rooster Teeth is part of Otter Media, which WarnerMedia parent AT&T launched in partnership with Peter Chernin in 2014. AT&T took full control of Otter in 2018 and has tapped its units, which also include popular anime brand Crunchyroll, as it … [Read more...] about WarnerMedia’s Rooster Teeth Promotes Trio To New Production And Animation Roles

In the latest round of belt-tightening to hit WarnerMedia, subsidiary Otter Media’s online video network Rooster Teeth has laid off 13% of its total workforce, or about 50 employees. CEO Matt Hullum relayed the news to the staff Thursday, calling it “a tough day … unlike any moment of organizational change we have experienced together.” (Read the full memo below.) Founded in 2003, Rooster Teeth has amassed a content portfolio spanning podcasts, animation, live events and web series like the mainstay Red vs. Blue. As it has entered the larger media arena, the Austin-based company has faced stiff challenges in a digital ad landscape dominated by Google and Facebook as well as WarnerMedia parent AT&T’s intense drive to cut costs. Related Story Otter Media Moves Under WarnerMedia Purview Of Entertainment Chief Bob Greenblatt “Our industry is evolving rapidly, and we have to evolve with it if we want to succeed,” Hullum wrote. … [Read more...] about WarnerMedia’s Rooster Teeth Trims 13% Of Workforce: “We Have To Evolve”

AT&T has acquired the remainder of The Chernin Group’s controlling stake in Otter Media, with the plan to fold the subscription, advertising and content company the two formed in 2014 into AT&T’s WarnerMedia, the new content company created after the telco giant’s acquisition of Time Warner. Tony Goncalves, who was appointed Otter CEO this year, will continue to run the company. He will report to WarnerMedia CEO John Stankey. No financial terms of the deal were announced. Otter Media’s holdings include Ellation, an online subscription video service provider, with offerings under the Crunchyroll and VRV brands; and Fullscreen, a full-service digital media company that includes its Rooster Teeth brand. Otter also has stakes in global content studio Gunpowder & Sky and Reese Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine. Related Story WarnerMedia Chief John Stankey Repeats Vow To Hike HBO Spending, Dismisses Town Hall Talk But Gives No Numbers … [Read more...] about AT&T Acquires Rest Of Otter Media To Fold Into New WarnerMedia

AT&T’s WarnerMedia has shifted oversight of Otter Media to Bob Greenblatt, head of the media company’s entertainment and direct-to-consumer operations. The motivation for the realignment, the company said, is to unite Otter’s digital properties (among them Fullscreen, Rooster Teeth and Crunchyroll) with the full portfolio of TV and film content brands ahead of the launch of WarnerMedia’s streaming service. The streaming offering is slated to roll out in beta before year-end and more fully in early 2020. AT&T was an original investor in Otter, which was launched by Peter Chernin after his tenure ended at 21st Century Fox and he embarked on an entrepreneurial career chapter focused on digital media. Last summer, AT&T acquired Chernin’s controlling stake in Otter and then put it in the portfolio of former Warner Bros. chief Kevin Tsujihara, who left the company in March. Related Story WarnerMedia's Rooster Teeth Promotes Trio To New … [Read more...] about Otter Media Moves Under WarnerMedia Purview Of Entertainment Chief Bob Greenblatt

In his first AT&T earnings call after the closing of the Time Warner acquisition, WarnerMedia chief John Stankey dismissed reports about his tough-love greeting to HBO employees at a town hall meeting. “I would tell you I don’t think it fairly characterized what we are about,” he said of reports in the New York Times and Recode that quoted him saying 2018 would be a “tough year” of grueling work that he likened to childbirth. Asked by Wall Street analysts to offer guidance on HBO content spending, he declined to name a number but said levels of investment would definitely rise. “What we know about this space is it requires scale,” he said. “We’ve got to get the formula right.” While HBO would not match the $8 billion and up being spent by Netflix, he said it would come up from its current level, which is less than one-third of that mark. Related Story AT&T Beats Wall Street Estimates In First Quarter With … [Read more...] about WarnerMedia Chief John Stankey Repeats Vow To Hike HBO Spending, Dismisses Town Hall Talk But Gives No Numbers