Greenblatt confirmed as WarnerMedia boss

Former NBC Entertainment chairman Bob Greenblatt has been confirmed as the head of WarnerMedia Entertainment amid a major company reorganisation following AT&T’s takeover of parent firm Time Warner.

Robert Greenblatt

Greenblatt was first linked with WarnerMedia last week and has now been revealed as the chairman of WarnerMedia Entertainment and direct to consumer.

Last week also saw an appeals court reject the US Justice Department’s attempts to derail telco AT&T’s takeover of Time Warner, which has given it control of HBO, Warner Bros and Turner cablenets.

That has paved the way for a rejig that has already seen long-serving HBO CEO Richard Plepler standing down after three decades with the premium US cablenet, and David Levy leaving the same position at the head of the Turner cablenets on Thursday.

AT&T plans to roll HBO and the Turner nets – TNT, TBS and TruTV – together into one television unit along with its forthcoming WarnerMedia streaming service, which will launch later this year. Greenblatt will oversee this operation.

Another division is being formed containing the newly merged firm’s news and sport operations, which include news cablenet CNN, a host of AT&T regional sports channels, Turner’s sports network and sports website The Bleacher Report. Jeff Zucker, currently president of CNN Worldwide Media, will head this group.

Finally, Kevin Tsujihara will lead the Warner Bros film studio as CEO and will also add global kids and young adults to his remit.

Greenblatt stood down as chairman of NBC Entertainment in September after eight years in the job, being replaced by Paul Telegdy and George Cheeks. He had also been linked with top jobs at Apple and CBS, among others.