Warner Bros. Discovery comes of age: star of Italian TV - Video
Warner Bros. Discovery is poised to become a major player in the Italian television landscape, thanks to the acquisition of Fabio Fazio and the continued growth of its flagship channel, Nove. The company's diverse portfolio, which includes Warner Bros. Studios, HBO, CNN and Eurosport, gives it a solid base to compete with Rai and Mediaset
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The third pole of TV. The most effective joke, from a few days ago, is undoubtedly attributed to Maurizio Crozza (video) : 'Fazio, Amadeus... we started out as the closet of Italian TV and now the Nine seems like Lampedusa, where they all arrive'. For Warner Bros. Discovery is now truly moving into the adult phase. In which also in terms of the balance of the television system, the company led in Italy by Alessandro Araimo will inevitably make its weight felt. To the detriment of Rai , which loses another thoroughbred from its stable, but also of Mediaset, which will have one more fearsome competitor to watch out for (or at least more than it does now).
After all, in an interview last 10 December with Sole 24 Ore, the CEO Alessandro Araimo - who heads the Southern Europe area for Warner Bros Discovery - was certainly clear on the strategic objectives: 'The arrival of Fabio Fazio is a starting point for us. Not a goal', explaining that 'in our view in Italy we are facing an interesting market development for linear TV. It is time to push on the accelerator'.
US media giant
.Size is not lacking. The group born from Discovery's purchase of Warner Media from AT&T has led to a colossus that, to begin with, has in its belly at global level the Warner Bros Studios: the production studios of Batman, Superman, Harry Potter, but in the last year also Barbie or Aquaman 2. But it is also the home of Hbo with the big series, from 'House of Dragon' to 'Succession', which had 127 Emmy Awards nominations out of 181 nominations for the whole group. And it is the home of CNN or Eurosport with its offer including the TV rights for the Olympics. In short, a group with revenues of 41.3 billion dollars in 2023, listed on Wall Street and that for the next television season in Italy is playing another ace, after having brought in, just a year ago, Fabio Fazio who joined Maurizio Crozzaz, who joined the then Discovery in 2017.
Warner Bros. Discovery in Italy
Warner Bros. Discovery in Italy today has a portfolio of 15 multiplatform channels: 1 free (Real Time, Nove, Dmax, Giallo, Motor Trend, Food Network, Warner Tv, Hgtv - Home & Garden TV, K2 and Frisbee); 5 pay channels (Discovery Channel, Eurosport 1, Eurosport 2, Cartoon Network and Boomerang) and the Ott discovery+ service. The other Ott service, at a global level, will only arrive in Italy at the end of 2025, when the agreements with Sky on Hbo products expire.
As for the most popular programmes there are 'Che Tempo Che Fa', 'Fratelli di Crozza', 'Don't Forget The Lyrics', 'Marriage at First Sight', as well as sports competitions in tennis, cycling and winter sports. Warner Bros. Discovery also holds the rights to broadcast the Olympics until 2032 (including the next event in Paris 2024) and recently announced an agreement with Sky that will allow subscribers to the Comcast media company to have an offer of 10 Eurosport channels (including one in 4K) for the Olympic Games included in their subscription.
