WarnerMedia Studios & Networks

WarnerMedia Studios & Networks is a division of WarnerMedia that focuses on the company's film and television production studios, as well as its US-based entertainment networks. The division was established in August 2020.

The division's main businesses include the Warner Bros. film and television studios, basic-cable networks (Cartoon Network, Boomerang, TBS, TNT, TruTV and Turner Classic Movies), premium-tier cable networks (HBO and Cinemax), the comic book publisher DC Entertainment, and a 50% interest in The CW television network, which it co-owns with ViacomCBS. The division is chaired by Ann Sarnoff.

Background
On March 4, 2019, AT&T announced a major reorganisation of WarnerMedia's assets, dividing WarnerMedia's television properties among three corporate divisions. HBO, along with Turner Broadcasting networks TBS, TNT and TruTV and British cable television company Telewest Group, moved over to WarnerMedia Entertainment, under the leadership of former NBC and Showtime executive Bob Greenblatt.

On May 8, 2019, as part of a broader reorganisation that also brought HBO Enterprises and programming distribution for Turner Entertainment and Telewest under the division, WarnerMedia announced that HBO Home Entertainment would be transferred from WarnerMedia Entertainment to Warner Bros. Home Media and Games.

In May 2019, Kevin Reilly signed a four-year extension of his contract with the company, which additionally made him president of TruTV (alongside the other three WarnerMedia Entertainment basic cable networks), and chief content officer of direct-to-consumer for the new streaming service. On May 31, 2019, Otter Media was transferred from Warner Bros. to WarnerMedia Entertainment, and Otter's COO Andy Forssell became the executive vice president and general manager of the streaming service, while still reporting to Otter CEO Tony Goncalves — who would lead development.

On July 9 of that same year, it was announced that the new streaming service would be known as HBO Max, and launch in early 2020. Casey Bloys, programming president of HBO, continues oversight of the core HBO service including newly-commissioned programming, but has limited involvement in Max Originals programming.

History
On August 7, 2020, as part of a major restructuring within WarnerMedia, Warner Bros. CEO Ann Sarnoff became chairwoman of the company's Studios & Networks division, combining original production (content studios) and programming capabilities currently spread across Warner Bros., HBO, HBO Max (whose business operations unit is a separate division within the wider conglomerate), TNT, TBS and TruTV. Casey Bloys, President of HBO's Programming, will also be taking on original content responsibilities for HBO Max and the domestic linear networks TNT, TBS, and TruTV, reporting directly to Sarnoff. As part of the reorganization, Bob Greenblatt, Chairman of WarnerMedia Entertainment, and Kevin Reilly, Chief Content Officer of HBO Max and WarnerMedia's entertainment brands, both stood down, and Warner Bros. ceased to exist as a wholly-owned company, and has been reduced as a brand used for specific divisions within the wider company.

Units
This is the current structure of the WarnerMedia Content & Networks units based on reporting hierarchy:

Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. is a brand used by WarnerMedia primarily for its film and television studios. Prior to the August 2020 restructuring, Warner Bros. was a wholly owned subsidiary. The Warner Bros. brand is mainly used on the following two divisions:

The Warner Bros. Pictures Group includes the namesake Warner Bros. Pictures banner, in addition to producing its own films, it handles filmmaking operations, theatrical distribution, marketing and promotion for films produced and released by other Warner Bros. labels, including Warner Animation Group, New Line Cinema, DC Films, and Castle Rock Entertainment, as well as various third-party producers. Since January 2018, the group has been led by Chairman Toby Emmerich.

Warner Bros. Television Studios is WarnerMedia's global television production arm. It oversees and grows the entire portfolio of WarnerMedia's television businesses, including worldwide production, traditional and digital distribution, and broadcasting. In addition to the main WBTVS label, the division's production/syndication labels in the United States include Alloy Entertainment, Telepictures and Warner Horizon Television. In November 2019, WBTVS took on its current name upon the subsumption of Telewest Studios, the production/distribution arm of WarnerMedia-owned UK channel Telewest, thus turning WBTV into a multinational production/distribution hub containing 87,000 hours of programming across a wide variety of genres in nearly 20 countries, with a vast variety of international labels across scripted and non-scripted TV. Peter Roth currently oversees WBTVS as Chairman.

WarnerMedia Interactive
WarnerMedia Interactive is a premier worldwide publisher, developer, licensor and distributor of entertainment content for the interactive space across all platforms, including console, handheld, mobile and PC-based gaming for both internal and third-party game titles. Founded in 1995 as Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and officially incorporated in 2004, The company has published numerous video games based on both licensed properties as well as original content. Video games that the company has published include those in the Batman: Arkham, F.E.A.R., Game Party, Mortal Kombat, and Scribblenauts series as well as those based on Warner Bros. films and animations, DC Comics' works, Lego toys, J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle-earth, Harry Potter, and Sesame Street.

DC Entertainment
DC Entertainment, Inc. is a subsidiary of Warner Bros. that manages its comic book units and intellectual property (characters) in other units as they work with other Warner Bros units.

In September 2009, Warner Bros. announced that DC Comics would become a subsidiary of DC Entertainment, Inc., with Diane Nelson, President of Warner Premiere, becoming president of the newly formed holding company and DC Comics President and Publisher Paul Levitz moving to the position of Contributing Editor and Overall Consultant there. Warner Bros. and DC Comics have been owned by the same company since 1969.

On February 18, 2010, DC Entertainment named Jim Lee and Dan DiDio as Co-Publishers of DC Comics, Geoff Johns as Chief Creative Officer, John Rood as EVP (Executive Vice President) of Sales, Marketing and Business Development, and Patrick Caldon as EVP of Finance and Administration.

In October 2013, DC Entertainment announced that the DC Comics offices would be moved from New York City to Warner Bros. Burbank, California, headquarters in 2015. The other units, animation, movie, TV and portfolio planning, had preceded DC Comics by moving there in 2010.

DC Entertainment announced its first franchise, the DC Super Hero Girls universe, in April 2015 with multi-platform content, toys and apparel to start appearing in 2016.

Warner Bros. Pictures reorganized in May 2016 to have genre responsible film executives, thus DC Entertainment franchise films under Warner Bros. were placed under a newly created division, DC Films, created under Warner Bros. executive vice president Jon Berg and DC chief content officer Geoff Johns. This was done in the same vein as Marvel Studios in unifying DC-related filmmaking under a single vision and clarifying the greenlighting process. Johns also kept his existing role at DC Comics. Johns was promoted to DC president & CCO with the addition of his DC Films while still reporting to DCE President Nelson. In August 2016, Amit Desai was promoted from senior vice president, marketing & global franchise management to exec vice president, business and marketing strategy, direct-to-consumer and global franchise management.

DC Entertainment and Warner Bros. Digital Networks announced in April 2017 DC Universe digital service to be launched in 2018 with two original series.

With frustration over DC Films not matching Marvel Studios' results and Berg wanting to step back to being a producer in January 2018, it was announced that Warner Bros. executive Walter Hamada was appointed president of DC film production. After a leave of absence starting in March 2018, Diane Nelson resigned as president of DC Entertainment. The company's executive management were to report to WB Chief Digital Officer Thomas Gewecke until a new president is selected. In June 2018, Johns was also moved out of his position as chief creative officer and DC Entertainment president for a writing and producing deal with the DC and WB companies. Jim Lee added DC Entertainment chief creative officer title to his DC co-publisher post. In September 2018, DC became part of the newly-created Warner Bros. Global Brands and Experiences division overseen by President Pam Lifford.