Young, Wikander out as new wave of lay-offs hits Warner Bros Discovery in Europe

Warner Bros Discovery (WBD) made 29 new lay-offs at HBO Max Europe today, including commissioning, programming and acquisitions executives, as its restructuring continues.

Christian Wikander

Executives leaving the company include Johnathan Young, VP of original programming HBO Max EMEA and production in CEE; Christian Wikander, VP and commissioning editor of original programming for the Nordics; and Annelies Sitvast, head of unscripted original production.

The rest of the dismissals affect the teams of these executives. All 29 will leave WBD over the next 15 months.

The shake-up, however, does not affect Miguel Salvat, who maintains his position as HBO Max’s original content commissioner in Iberia.

The news was first revealed by Deadline and later confirmed to C21’s Spanish-language sister website Cveintiuno by a WBD representative, who said: “HBO Max in Spain will not be affected by these changes.”

In addition to Salvat, Antony Root, head of original programming at HBO Max EMEA; Hanka Kastelicová, VP of documentaries; Steve Matthews, VP of scripted development; and Vera Peltekian, VP and commissioning editor at HBO Max France remain in place.

Spain is therefore confirmed as one of the key territories for HBO Max and the future unification with Discovery+ into a single streaming service.

WBD had already announced that it would continue with the strategy of originals in Iberia, unlike almost the rest of Europe, and this week the decision led to the ordering of Playing Dirty, a new original series from Pokeepsie Films (Banijay Iberia).