Warner Bros. Discovery

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Warner Bros. Discovery
WBD logo.png
"I feel something inside. It's like... the OPPOSITE OF HAPPINESS!!!!!" - Unikitty when she found out about WBD's horrible decisions
Founded: April 8, 2022
Headquarters: 230 Park Avenue South, New York City, New York, U.S.
Predecessor: WarnerMedia
Discovery, Inc.
Divisions: Warner Bros. Discovery Networks
Warner Bros. Discovery Sports
Warner Bros. Discovery Global Streaming & Interactive Entertainment
Warner Bros. Discovery Global Brands and Experiences
Warner Bros. Discovery International
Subsidiaries: Warner Bros.
HBO Networks
CNN Worldwide
DC Entertainment


Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate. It formed after the spin-off of WarnerMedia by AT&T and its merger with Discovery, Inc. on April 8, 2022.

Why They're The Opposite Of Happiness Now

  1. The new company has a horrible start. In four months, the Discovery side has destroyed the WarnerMedia side of the company, the reasons are below.
  2. They along with its parent company Warner Bros. and Cartoon Network, support NFTs which used to be hazardous for the environment, even then, it's still not safe due to them being prone to scams.
  3. The merger caused WBD's stock to crash by 50 percent in its first five months, falling from $60 billion to $30 billion. This left the company with over $53 billion in debt.
    • For reference, AT&T acquired WarnerMedia in 2018 for $85 billion and received half of that total ($43 billion) from the merger with Discovery.
    • They have canceled most Warner Bros. projects and ended several shows, including their films, such as Batgirl, Scoob! Holiday Haunt, and Coyote vs Acme, even though these films were already finished and ready for release. The reason, at least for the latter was done for a tax write-off. It got so severe that even The United States Congress called it a stupid idea, calling it "burning down a building for insurance money."
    • To make things worse, recently, reports emerged that they want to merge with Paramount Global, which could possibly get more Nickelodeon, Comedy Central, and Paramount films cancelled before release or potentially more employees has been layoffs. Thankfully, this did not happen.[1]
  4. They have been removing shows from HBO Max (now known simply as Max in the US, which makes no sense) in international countries and official YouTube channels before this practice moved on to the United States too.
  5. HBO Max collapsed thanks to this company. A long list of shows were removed from the service, and the service was eventually shut down in 2023, although it was relaunched as Max. (To be fair, the response is that HBO Max and Discovery+ merged into one platform, but still.)
    • Recently, just like Netflix, they plan to cut costs on the children's content from HBO Max, including their animated shows that were still in development, proving that they’re now treating animation like garbage.
      • To make matters worse, the company has recently removed 30 animation titles from HBO Max in the U.S, including content from Cartoon Network, Sesame Workshop, and Cartoonito. Even some shows that are still in production were also removed, which could be a sign that the shows are canceled.
      • Other animation projects had moved from HBO Max in favor of other streaming services and networks. But thankfully, they are at least saved from cancellation.
    • On May 9th, 2023, they removed Clarence on HBO Max, reasons remain unknown.[3]
    • In May 2023, Adult Swim series Space Ghost Coast to Coast was removed from HBO Max upon its relaunch as Max for reasons unknown. However, it is still available on iTunes (save for the last six episodes).
  6. The merger has resulted in the biased cancellation of shows that follow serialization and incorporate drama, including Final Space and Infinity Train. Even the executives from there insulted the fans who were infuriated by the cancellation of Final Space by making an unfunny joke about it on an Adult Swim bump while it was running, showing that they do not care about the fans of the show.
    • David Zaslav, the key figure behind the Warner Bros. and Discovery merger, has expressed his dislike for scripted dramas in a 2015 interview with Time Magazine, comparing them to watching a children's soccer game where everyone wants to be involved, leading to excessive costs. It is puzzling how he connected Final Space, a specific show, to a children's soccer game. The relationship between the two seems unrelated.
      • Ironically, despite his aversion to scripted dramas, Zaslav highly praised the Game of Thrones spin-off prequel show House of the Dragon, emphasizing its massive viewership of up to 130 million people in the U.S. This inconsistency in his preferences suggests a hypocrisy regarding his stance on show formats.
  7. This merger had been overshadowing the 30th anniversary of Cartoon Network. While they were actually trying to put effort into celebrating it right, and this corporate merger has been ruining it & making their plans seem underwhelming. Just ask Michael Ouweleen.
  8. They have closed down Cartoon Network Studios' headquarters in Burbank.
  9. Under Discovery's management, CNN is shifting its bias to be more favorable to the Republican Party (in the US). Under the new CEO Chris Licht, the network canceled Reliable Sources and fired host Brian Stelter, instructed that Former US President Donald Trump's 2020 election conspiracies no longer be referred to as "the big lie", and secretly fired correspondent John Harwood for speaking too favorably of liberal issues, with him leaving shortly after praising a speech from Biden where he called Republicans "semi-fascists".
    • They also worked with China's CGTN on a documentary about Xinjiang, which is an infamous event that China as a whole is extremely infamous for, which shows how far Warner Bros have fallen from grace.
  10. While speaking to attendees of the Aspen Institute of Business and PolicyLink’s February 20, 2024 The Future of DEI in Corporate America webinar, Warner Bros. Discovery Chief DEI Officer Dr. Asif Sadiq promoted not working with, ignoring, and discriminating against employees who do not support the DEI agenda.
  11. They treat the IP catalogue of Warner Bros terribly and completely disregard the legacy of the company, such as the Looney Tunes which they've started to neglect very recently, and the majority of shows from Cartoon Network, which they refuse to do anything with as of now.
    • Ironically, they're still using the Scooby-Doo IP despite the negative reception of Velma (2023) and the franchise already being ran into the ground due to them milking for far too long and refusing to take break from it in general, which was something the original Warner Bros Studio was infamous for.
      • In fact, they're treatment of the series is awful since they greenlight Velma (2023), which was hated by many fans for it's lack of loyalty to the source material and overall being a desperate attempt at modernizing the series.
  12. On November of 2023, David confirmed that the company's gaming division, Warner Bros. Games, will double down on making live-service online-only games filled with predatory monetization practices whilst moving away from single-player experiences, which has led to the critical and commercial failure of Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League as well as concerns from gamers regarding the upcoming Wonder Woman game by Monolith Production which could potentially fall under this category.
    • Despite the failure of Kill The Justice League, the company is still committed to making live-service games, which shows how stubborn and egotisical the company is and that this continuation of the live-service commitment could lead to massive layoffs at their studios or even possible closures of said studios.
    • Even worse for Adult Swim Games, now retiring to publish Adult Swim related including Indie games, it will be delisted due to WBD will be doubling down in favor for Live-service games, and will be delisting for all platforms.
  13. As stated in WTTOOHN#3B, they've decided to reject the idea of attempting to sell "Coyote vs. Acme" to other studios which included Netflix, Amazon, and Paramount and instead return to their original plan of shelving the movie.
    • And to make it worse, David Zaslav himself never actually saw the movie, which shows how hypocritical this choice was.
    • And you know what's more insulting? They deleted this movie to reduce taxes and thus, the film was cancelled. This tactic is known as Wiping, which is pretty bad, as there's a real possibility the film is lost.
  14. The company is known to be extremely egotistical, since they've claimed that they're the only pure storytelling company in the world, despite many of their recent films receiving mixed reviews from critics and many other studios such as Universal Studios, A24, Paramount Pictures, Disney, Sony, Lionsgate, and even Netflix can have great stories in their media too.
  15. They treat their fans with zero respect and refuse to listen to negative feedback whenever they do another bad business decision that upsets them, and this has happened with the Coyote vs Acme controversy where they took the situation very badly and didn't care about how they hurt the feelings of many fans alike, who were one of the main reasons why they were so beloved during the 1940s and the rest of their history with their respect and care for the company and how they helped them become one of the most beloved movie studios of all time. In fact, Warner Bros Discovery never acknowledge their passionate fandom and only care about money, which is made even worse by the poor treatment of their IPs and bad business decisions that caused them to become so hated in the 2020s and why many fans have stopped supporting the company since then, In other words, They pretend they don't exist.
    • In fact, many of the actors behind the Looney Tunes are more kind and supportive of fans than Warner Bros Discovery themselves, and are mad at the company for cancelling Coyote vs ACME in the first place, considering that many of the executives have never seen the movie during production and just decided to cancel for no reason other than corporate greed, thus disrespecting the legacy of the iconic characters and their impact on animation in general.

Redeeming Qualities

  1. Cartoon Network and Adult Swim have stood up to the merger and warned them not to remove their shows from HBO Max. The Coyote vs Acme film crew were also not fond of the film's cancellation, calling Warner Bros Discovery "anti-art.".
  2. Several creators of animated shows have shown to be very unhappy about the merger, including its consequences. For example, Owen Dennis, the creator of Infinity Train criticized the executives for their decision to pull multiple shows from HBO Max. Meanwhile, Final Space creator Olan Rogers has stated that he refuses to give up on the show and revealed that he is making an animated short called Godspeed, which is heavily influenced by Final Space to try to convince the executives to bring the show back on the air. Godspeed is successfully funded on Kickstarter with over 460,000 dollars raised. Eventually, on April 24, 2023, Rodgers announced that he would finish Final Space in the form of a graphic novel known as Final Space: The Final Chapter. However, each copy will cost 125 dollars.
  3. Speaking of Cartoon Network's 30th anniversary, this hasn't stopped them from having a good schedule. As they're starting to air reruns of their classic shows for their big anniversary.
  4. Some good films have been released during this period like Barbie (2023), Blue Beetle, and Wonka.
  5. The logo and its WB shield symbol are very good to look at, despite it becoming extremely oversimplified in 2019. Luckily, the logo received a better overhaul since 2023 and it looks better than the 2019-2022 one.
  6. David Zaslav saved WB's physical media division from getting laid off in favor of more HBO Max content, which was what AT&T planned to do.

Trivia

  • Because of the actions of Warner Bros. Discovery, two of the shows they have canceled and pulled from their streaming services made it onto WatchMojo’s video on "Top 10 Cartoon Cancellations That Made Fans Rage Quit" with Final Space ranking 4th and Infinity Train included in the honorable mentions.

Videos

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