History Creator / WarnerBrosDiscovery

After a financial scandal involving the parking garages, Ross chose to spinoff those and other non-media businesses as the National Kinney Corporation in 1972, and Kinney National became ''Warner Communications'', adopting the famous "Big W" logo designed by Saul Bass company-wide, including at Warner Bros. itself. The 1970s saw further growth and expansion into all sorts of new areas; Ross saw potential when many others didn't. He invested into cable television, and helped create ''QUBE'', a unique interactive cable experiment in Columbus, OH; American Express joined Warner later on to help finance QUBE's expansion. QUBE wound up spawning three major networks owned by Warner-Amex: Creator/{{Nickelodeon}}, Creator/{{MTV}} and Creator/TheMovieChannel. Ultimately, QUBE's interactive components were too expensive, and combined with data privacy concerns, led to Amex selling out their stake in the venture; all three channels wound up being sold to Creator/{{Viacom}} (which had already partnered with WASEC for their pay-TV network Creator/{{Showtime}} to be part of a joint venture with TMC) to make up the deficit. Another venture that started off well was Warner's acquisition of Creator/{{Atari}}. Purchasing the small company in 1976, Warner reaped the benefits as Atari led the first big video game boom.... and then got burned by UsefulNotes/TheGreatVideoGameCrashOf1983. Warner would sell Atari in 1984.

* Otter Media
** Creator/RoosterTeeth

Since 2022, the company has been headed by Discovery CEO David Zaslav, who has demonstrated that, unlike AT&T's executives, he's [[https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/david-zaslav-warner-bros-discovery-executive-changes-1235129343/ more than willing to cut layers of management]], [[https://deadline.com/2022/04/warner-bros-discovery-town-hall-details-david-zaslav-oprah-winfrey-1235002338/ work with Hollywood veterans and acknowledge the history of Warner Bros. itself]], as well as bringing in Chris Licht, former producer of ''Creator/{{CBS}} This Morning'' and ''Series/TheLateShowWithStephenColbert'', to head up CNN following Zucker's ousting, in hopes of putting it back on track to providing actual journalism rather than opinion programming.[[note]]However, CNN [[https://www.cnn.com/2023/06/07/media/chris-licht-cnn/index.html announced that he departed the company]] a year later.[[/note]] Conversely, Zaslav proved very hostile towards HBO Max's existing streaming strategy, canceling post-production on several nearly-completed Max Originals/WB Streaming Exclusives (three were hopped to theatrical releases) and pulling many cartoons from the service entirely (with only some moving to digital-exclusive retailers and the rest being unavailable anywhere) while ending the 45-days-to-streaming window for theatrical releases (though a shorter window than that has been maintained for VOD for films that underperfom at the box office). This has also led to multiple WB television projects being canceled or not being renewed at all. The bloodbath in the animation catalogue concerned most CN shows such as ''WesternAnimation/UncleGrandpa'', ''WesternAnimation/OKKOLetsBeHeroes'', ''WesternAnimation/MaoMaoHeroesOfPureHeart'', ''WesternAnimation/InfinityTrain'' and many others, which were removed from HBO Max, as well as [=DVDs=], soundtracks, online videos, the show's pages on [=CartoonNetwork.com=] and its international versions, and videos of all said shows on their [=YouTube=] channels being unviewable (at least in the US), with the only surviving releases of those series being purchases from streaming storefronts (such as [=iTunes=] and Creator/PrimeVideo). Some content for HBO Max that was still in production was also dropped by the service and is currently being shopped to other broadcasters. This also affected their acquired content as well. This also meant that Creator/LegendaryPictures might shift to another studio for their major releases as their contract with WB and Legendary is set to expire. In 2023, WBD rebranded HBO Max as simply Max in the US with other countries set to follow.

[[https://wbd.com Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc. (WBD)]] is an American media conglomerate created in April 2022 with the merger of [=WarnerMedia=] and Discovery, Inc. It is headed by former Discovery president and CEO David Zaslav.

[[https://wbd.com Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc. (WBD)]] is an American media conglomerate created in April 2022 with the merger of [=WarnerMedia=] and Discovery, Inc. It is headed by former Discovery CEO David Zaslav.

In the end, it didn't matter. With AT&T continuing to buckle from its high debt load, and HBO Max growth remaining sluggish, the writing was on the wall. In May 2021, AT&T announced that it would merge [=WarnerMedia=] with Discovery, Inc., the parent of the Creator/DiscoveryChannel, Creator/{{TLC}} and Creator/AnimalPlanet among other channels, and spin-off the combined company as an entirely separate, publicly-traded conglomerate to both companies' shareholders, allowing AT&T to fully reinvest in their mobile and internet businesses. The deal, which essentially undoes the AT&T buyout, is worth $43 billion, which, considering AT&T spent $85 billion on [=WarnerMedia=] alone, amounts to [[EpicFail a $42 billion write-down]] on AT&T's part[[note]]And to twist the knife further, CEO John Stankey disclosed that AT&T would cut its dividend by half to help execute the transaction upon closing, causing the stock to fall 2.7% the day the deal was announced[[/note]]. The spin-out came just months after AT&T announced a similar spin-off of [=DirecTV=], though in that case AT&T themselves will retain majority corporate ownership of that division. It was later announced the new entity would be named '''Warner Bros. Discovery''' following the merger's completion. The merger was completed on April 8, 2022; in the leadup, CNN [[https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/jeff-zucker-cnn-resign-affair-cuomo-trump-1319698/ ran into issues]] regarding now-former head Jeff Zucker, who clashed with Jason Kilar over the latter's reorganization and was eventually ousted in early 2022 amid both accusations of a longtime relationship with one of his employees, [[https://www.newyorker.com/news/annals-of-communications/cnns-problems-are-bigger-than-jeff-zucker as well as a clash with]] Discovery stockholder and cable industry veteran John Malone and the underperformance of Zucker's streaming service [=CNN+=] (which wound up being shuttered after ''[[EpicFail only a month]]'').

[[AC:DC Entertainment]]
** Creator/DCComics
*** [[Creator/{{DCUniverse}} DC Universe Infinite]] (formerly just DC Universe)
*** Creator/WildStorm
** Magazine/{{Mad}}