HBO Max is embracing vertical video as part of its efforts to make it easier to discover new content and improve the user experience on mobile devices with the launch of two new features that provide U.S. subscribers with new ways to browse, sample, and explore its premium library of programming.

“HBO Max Shorts” is designed to help users discover something to watch by highlighting iconic and memorable scenes from the HBO Max library in a vertical, scrollable feed.

Users can tap the “Shorts” icon on the bottom navigation menu to browse trailers, clips, and bonus content, making it easier to discover a new favorite series or film. Content within a user’s feed is customized to individual tastes and preferences based on watch history. If a title sparks a user’s interest, they can start watching immediately or add it to “My List” directly from the feed.

This feature is initially being tested with select iOS users in the U.S. and then will be rolled out across more devices and markets.

The clips for this feature are powered by an AI tool built in-house, which helps human editors select and verticalize content by using machine learning algorithms that utilize scene-level metadata to comb through thousands of hours of titles and suggests the most compelling, high-impact scenes for discovery.

Once the tool has suggested these clips, HBO Max editors decide which best represent the stories viewers love and capture jaw dropping moments, pivotal plot twists, and visually stunning sequences. These clips are then rendered in a new vertical video experience to ensure seamless playback.

Looking ahead, "HBO Max Shorts” will expand to include additional devices and markets, incorporate sports content, and refine as users interact with the feature.

"We're thrilled to launch this application of AI to accelerate the creation of these clips and look forward to quickly expanding to make even more of our amazing content offering discoverable through this new feature,” explained Deepna Devkar, senior vice president of machine learning engineering at HBO Max.

Along with the new vertical shorts feed, HBO Max also announced an experimental conversational search experience.

Initially available for adult users in the U.S., on Android mobile and accessible from the search page under “Ask HBO Max,” this experience uses natural language understanding and semantic search to interpret the intent behind a query and recommend relevant videos, even when the exact search terms aren't present in the metadata.

Select subscribers can now search for terms such as “in the mood for a comedy” or "dysfunctional family drama" or "best movie for a girls night in,” to find relevant content. Availability of this feature will also eventually be rolled out to more devices and markets.

“These new mobile features build on intuitive, familiar behaviors subscribers use every day. Both ‘HBO Max Shorts’ and ‘conversational search’ translate those behaviors into new ways to discover programming across the HBO Max service, making it easier and more seamless for subscribers to find something to watch," said Liesel Kipp, executive vice president, product management, Warner Bros. Discovery.

In a call with Wall Street analysts, David Ellison, chairman and CEO of Paramount Skydance laid out some of his plans for the merger with Warner Bros. Discovery and said that they planned to combine the HBO Max and Paramount+ streaming services.

Ellison did not discuss branding for the merged streamers. Nor did he offer a specific timeline other than saying it would happen in "the coming years".

He did stress that “HBO is a crown jewel in this business, having brought to life some of the most powerful stories told over generations. And under our ownership, they will continue to have the resources and independence to do what it does best.”

“DTC growth will be essential to the success of the combined company,” he told analysts. “To enhance competition and deliver viewers a truly compelling offering, we will combine the streaming portfolios of the 2 companies into one stronger platform over the coming years. Across the 2 platforms, there are over 200 million DTC subscribers today in more than 100 countries and territories worldwide, positioning us to compete effectively with the leading streaming services in today's marketplace. Our offering is powered by a complementary portfolio of fan favorite series and franchises, premium sports and trusted news brands. We are confident that by coupling these offerings, along with significant investment in technology and innovation, we can provide consumers significant value in a compelling and engaging platform.”

A revised $111 billion bid for Warner Bros. Discovery by Paramount convinced Netflix not to raise its previously accepted bid to acquire some of WBD’s assets and allow Paramount to acquire the company.

“By uniting our iconic studios, complementary streaming platforms with a global footprint, our cable and linear networks and our world-class IP, we have the opportunity to help shape the future and build a next-generation media and entertainment company,” Ellison said. “This has been our goal since day one. This is not about consolidation. It's about reinventing the business. We want to expand our reach and enhance our ability to create the world's most compelling stories and experiences, and we're incredibly excited about this transaction, and it will accelerate that ambition.”

“The combined DTC platforms is basically 200 million subscribers at close,” Ellison added later in the call. “To contextualize, it's roughly the size of Disney, right? Obviously, competitive with Amazon, competitive with Netflix. So we really do think that really positions us to be one of the leading competitors in the DTC space and really accelerates our growth there and achieving scale in DTC. We've talked about it since the beginning of the new Paramount Skydance as one of our primary goals for the business.”

During the call Andrew Gordon, chief strategy officer, COO and director at Paramount Skydance said that “on the closing timeline, we expect to close in the third quarter of 2026. In the event this is delayed, Warner Bros. Discovery shareholders will receive $0.25 per share ticking fee for each quarter until closing, starting after September 30, 2026.”

Ellison also said that they had no plans for divestitures at the moment and that the majority of cost savings would not come from layoffs.

He was not asked about the possibility of merging CBS News and CNN or his plans for the broadcast stations.

MUNICH and MILAN—Warner Bros. Discovery said HBO Max is expanding into Germany, Italy, Austria, Switzerland, Luxembourg and Liechtenstein on Jan. 13, 2026, and that the service will launch in the U.K. and Ireland in early 2026.

The plans mark a major expansion of the service into key European countries, bringing HBO Max to millions of new viewers.

“We are thrilled to bring HBO Max and the stories that stick with you to new countries across Europe this January,” JB Perrette, CEO and president of global streaming and games at Warner Bros. Discovery, said. “With our strongest lineup of U.S. and local HBO series yet, blockbuster local and international movies and the Olympic Winter Games, it is the perfect time to make HBO Max available directly to subscribers. It has never been easier to enjoy the most talked-about series, hit movies, unmissable live sports and extraordinary real-life stories.”

HBO Max launched first in the U.S. in 2020 and has since expanded across Latin America, Europe, Central Asia and Asia Pacific. The service is set to launch in the U.K. and Ireland in early 2026, completing its European roll-out. For Q3 2025, Warner Bros. Discovery reported 128 million streaming subscribers.

As part of the expansion, the company also announced a vibrant slate of local HBO original programming from Germany and Italy.

In addition, subscribers can add the sports add-on to unlock Eurosport’s acclaimed coverage and premium sports programming. This includes every tennis match from the Australian Open and Roland-Garros, as well as more than 300 days of live cycling including every stage in full of cycling’s iconic Tour de France. In Germany and Italy, viewers will have access to the winter sports season, including World Championships and World Cup events, and viewers in Italy will benefit from FA Cup and UFC coverage,

NEW YORK—Warner Bros. Discovery announced during its upfront presentation that Max, the company’s streaming platform, will be rebranded as HBO Max this summer.

The rebrand marks the fourth name change for the service in the last decade, and the fifth name since HBO Go was launched in 2008. The service was called HBO Max from 2020 to 2023, when the name was changed to just Max.

In making the change, WBD cited the importance of HBO’s programming to the service's subscriber growth, with 22 million subs added in the last year. WBD is projecting that the service has “a clear path to over 150 million-plus by the end of 2026.”

“The powerful growth we have seen in our global streaming service is built around the quality of our programming. Today, we are bringing back HBO, the brand that represents the highest quality in media, to further accelerate that growth in the years ahead,” Warner Bros. Discovery President and CEO David Zaslav said.

WBD attributed the subscriber growth, which pushed Max to 122.3 million subs in Q1, to its strategy of focusing on programming that is working best like HBO, recent box-office movies, docuseries, certain reality series, and Max and local originals, and de-prioritizing other genres that drive less engagement or acquisition.

The company also said the name change was guided by the fact that “no consumer today is saying they want more content, but most consumers are saying they want better content. With other services filling the more basic needs with volume, WBD has clearly distinguished itself through its quality and distinct stories, and no brand has done that better and more consistently over 50-plus years than HBO … Returning the HBO brand into HBO Max will further drive the service forward and amplify the uniqueness that subscribers can expect from the offering.”

NEW YORK—Warner Bros. Discovery captured the largest monthly viewership increase among media distributors in March, according to Nielsen’s latest Media Distributor Gauge report, which breaks down the total TV viewing of content distributed by major media companies.

In the March report, WBD exhibited 3% growth in television viewing compared with February, primarily driven by March Madness coverage on TBS, TNT and truTV. Tournament games were also available to stream on Max, which allowed for additional reach to notably younger consumers.

Max notched the largest month-over-month growth among streaming services in March (up 6%), further contributing to Warner Bros. Discovery’s significant monthly gains, the report explained.

Max’s increased viewing was due in large part to HBO megahit ‘The White Lotus,’ which was No. 4 among most-streamed titles in March with 4.5 billion viewing minutes. The debut season of Max original series ‘The Pitt’ also contributed, generating 2.3 billion viewing minutes across the month and charting in Nielsen’s Streaming Top 10 for the first time during the week of March 17.

YouTube captured 12.0% of overall TV viewing in March to secure a second consecutive month as the top reported media distributor, eclipsing its previous company best share of TV of 11.6%, which it set last month, the researchers noted.

Disney gained half a share point over February to account for 10.5% of TV watch-time in March. Disney benefited from its successful cross-platform simulcast of “The Oscars,” which drew 20.3 million viewers across ABC and Hulu, in addition to the return of “American Idol” and the continued strength of “ABC World News Tonight With David Muir.”

Paramount advanced to No. 3 in the Media Distributor Gauge rankings in March (up from fifth in February) with an 8.5% share of TV (up 0.3 share points). Paramount rode the success of March Madness coverage on CBS, coupled with a robust drama lineup on the network, including “Tracker” and “Matlock,” which drew 10.7 million viewers and 9.2 million viewers, respectively, across the month. “Tracker” episodes represented five of the top 10 broadcast telecasts in March, averaging over 10 million viewers each (on a live-plus-7-day basis).

Despite a 0.1 point decline in viewing share versus February, NBCU climbed from No. 6 to No. 4 in the distributor rankings and finished with 8% of TV viewing in March. Although it did not change from a ranking perspective, The Roku Channel also set a platform record with 2.2% of television viewing, per Nielsen data.

The March interval ran from Feb. 24 to March 30. Nielsen reporting follows the broadcast calendar with measurement weeks that run Monday through Sunday.

HBO has announced that its high profile original drama series "House of the Dragon" has been renewed for a third season. 

The announcement came in the runup to the launch of the second season debuting Sunday June 16 (9:00-10:00 p.m. ET/PT) on HBO and streaming on Max.

Based on George R.R. Martin’s “Fire & Blood,” the series is set 200 years before the events of HBO's “Game of Thrones,” and tells the story of House Targaryen. 

The budget for the first season of the high profile drama has been pegged as around $20 million per episode.

“George, Ryan, and the rest of our incredible executive producers, cast, and crew, have reached new heights with the phenomenal second season of `House of the Dragon’,” Francesca Orsi, executive vice president, HBO Programming, head of HBO Drama Series and Films said. “We are in awe of the dragon-sized effort the entire team has put into the creation of a spectacular season two, with a scope and scale that is only rivaled by its heart. We could not be more thrilled to continue the story of House Targaryen and watch this team burn bright again for season three.”

Season two cast: Matt Smith, Emma D’Arcy, Olivia Cooke, Rhys Ifans, Steve Toussaint, Eve Best, Fabien Frankel, Matthew Needham, Sonoya Mizuno, Tom Glynn-Carney, Ewan Mitchell, Harry Collett, Bethany Antonia, Phoebe Campbell, Phia Saban and Jefferson Hall. Additional season two cast: Abubakar Salim, Gayle Rankin, Freddie Fox, Simon Russell Beale, Clinton Liberty, Jamie Kenna, Kieran Bew, Tom Bennett, Tom Taylor, and Vincent Regan.

Season two credits: Co-Creator/Executive Producer, George R.R. Martin; Co-Creator/Showrunner/Executive Producer, Ryan Condal; Executive Producers Sara Hess, Alan Taylor, Melissa Bernstein, Kevin de la Noy, Loni Peristere, Vince Gerardis. Based on George R.R. Martin’s “Fire & Blood.”

In the race to grow the biggest subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) customer base before the start of the next decade, Netflix is the odds-on favorite, according to a newly released forecast from Digital TV Research.

The forecast, part of the research organization’s “SVOD Forecasts Update” report estimates Netflix will maintain its top spot among SVOD services by adding 44 million subscribers between 2023 and 2029, taking its total to 298 million.

Amazon will see its Amazon Prime subscriber base grow to 269 million, and Disney+ will garner 192 million subscribers in 2029 as a result of less investment and uptake in the Asia-Pacific region, assuming that Hotstar will continue as part of the Disney stable, the researcher said.  

They will be followed by Paramount+ at 89 million, HBO at 68 million and Apple TV+ at 30 million, according to the forecast. Together the six U.S.-based SVOD platforms will have 946 million subscribers by 2029, up from 751 million this year. Collectively, they will increase their subscriber numbers by 196 million, it said.

The increase reflects the forecasted strength in SVOD growth around the world during the period with total subscriptions growing 321 million by 2029 to 1.79 billion, it said.

In the United States, SVOD subscribers will climb by 30 million to 148 million in 2029, and China will nearly reach the 400 million subscriber level, it found. 

The report is available online from Digital TV Research. 

NEW YORK—HBO is reporting that the `Succession’ series finale entitled “With Open Eyes” delivered nearly 3 million viewers (2.928 million) across Max and linear telecasts Sunday night for a series high performance. 

This is a 68% improvement over the season three finale of 1.7 million viewers. Prior to the finale, the Sunday night high for Succession was episode six of this year with 2.75 million viewers (4/30/23).

The Emmy-award series is currently averaging 8.7 million viewers across the fourth season episodes, a jump of 1.5 million viewers when compared to season three, HBO said. 

Created by Jesse Armstrong, the ten-episode fourth and final season of the Emmy-winning HBO original drama series debuted March 26, with new episodes debuting Sundays at 9:00 p.m. ET/PT.  

HBO also reported that the series finale of “Barry” on Sunday night attracted 700,000 viewers across Max and linear telecasts, a 13% improvement from the season three finale (620K on 6/12/22). Due to the extended runtime of the “Succession” finale, Barry had a delayed start time which resulted in approximately a 20% increase over typical viewing on a Monday and nearly doubling the audience to 1.35 million. Barry is currently averaging 3.4 million viewers for the season. 

Craig Mazin, co-creator/executive producer/writer/director on “The Last of Us,” played up the teamwork aspect on the hit HBO drama on the Main Stage last week at the 2023 NAB Show in Las Vegas. The panel “American Cinema Editors Presents HBO’s ‘The Last of Us’ ” saw Mazin speak about seeing film credits where the director gets essentially the lone credit for making the feature.

Mazin said, “There’s no way for a film to be by one person. There’s hundreds of people … in our case, thousands of people,” adding that he thought of “The Last of Us” producers, cast and crew as “a big family.”

Carolyn Giardina, tech editor at “The Hollywood Reporter,” moderated the panel during the SRO session. 

Mazin spoke of the “luck” involved in gathering the right producers to work on the show and how listening to them in interviews and chats tells him a lot more than their credits do. “I like talking to people,” he said, “and hearing their passion for things.”

Season one was shot in Alberta, Canada. The producers discussed the challenges of adapting the popular video game to series.  

Alex Wang, VFX supervisor, described the game’s look as “so beautiful and so immersive. How do we use that as inspiration?”

Cinematographer Ksenia Sereda said the producers aimed for a balance between borrowing from the game and giving viewers something fresh. “We wanted to preserve the most iconic parts,” Sereda said, “but at the same time, we did not want to exactly copy the look.”

She spoke of the “massive” variety of choices for cameras and lenses, and said the ARRI ALEXA Mini gave the shots a realistic feel and helped the viewers get closer to the characters. 

Mazin quipped: “I don’t understand any of that. I’m glad you do.”

“The Last of Us” is set in a post-apocalyptic America, 20 years after a fungal infection has turned much of the population into zombies. Neil Druckmann created the show alongside Mazin. It premiered on HBO in January. 

Editor Timothy Good said he’d never played the video game before. Editor Emily Mendez, on the other hand, was a big fan. The two brought together their different perspectives to give the show a distinctive feel. 

The editors spoke of the key moments in season one. Pedro Pascal’s Joel lost his teenage daughter in the pilot, and is reluctant to open himself up to another teen girl as he gets to know Bella Ramsey’s Ellie. Ellie’s book of puns makes him smile for the first time in eons. “You can see the transformation between the two characters and how they sort of come together,” Good said. 

Mendez mentioned Ellie stitching up Joel’s stomach later in the season, and the effort the producers went through to give the scene extra impact. “You’re with her in that moment,” she said. 

Michael J. Benavente, sound supervisor, spoke of “a quiet world” in the show with no freeways, no kids on playgrounds, no airplanes. The viewer hears snowfall in one episode. “It really helps the story of the people,” Benavente said of the hushed vibe. “When you hear what they’re hearing, when you feel what they’re feeling.”

Mazin said sound is a vital “helper” in terms of delivering emotions and plot. He mentioned frequently writing sounds into his scripts. “I don’t understand what spherical lenses do,” Mazin said. “But I definitely understand sound.”

Season two will shoot in British Columbia.

“This is what I do — I do ‘The Last of Us,’ ” said Mazin with a smile. “I couldn’t be happier.” 

© NAB 2023

NEW YORK—A special restoration team was assembled for the remastering of the six seasons—94 episodes in all—of “Sex and the City” (SATC), which was completed in UHD HDR Dolby and Dolby Atmos.

The remastered series is now available on HBO Max in Dolby Surround, a direct render from the Dolby Atmos mix.

Not only did the restoration team go back to the original Kodak Super 16mm film and two-inch analog tape to rebuild the series from scratch, but it also had to do so amid the COVID-19 pandemic. HBO decided to remaster the series in 2019.

When the audio team started the project, members were together in the HBO offices. However, once the pandemic began, team members worked from home, making the project a bit trickier. 

The audio team needed support to capture the true essence of the original audio recordings while also enhancing them for a Dolby Atmos experience. The team persevered, creating new workflows with the help of Nugen Audio’s Halo Upmix software, which allowed them to convert the old SATC stereo mixes into an immersive format.

“The mono and stereo stems from the original tapes of the series provided reasonable mix group separation, but at the same time presented some challenges for an immersive environment,” said Glen Schricker, HBO director of post-production sound.

“Despite the age of the show and what we had to work with, we were able to make legitimate Dolby Atmos mixes from those stems with Halo Upmix in our toolkit,” said Schricker.

“I’m a huge fan of presets, and Nugen knocked it out of the park with the hard center preset in Halo Upmix,” he said. “It became our go-to background starting point.

“We ‘surgically’ extracted as many hard effects as possible from the original BG/FX stereo stems, yielding new FX objects for Atmos panning and cleaner stereo backgrounds for 7.1.2 upmixing," he continued. "Occasionally, we would leave behind certain hard effects in stereo stems knowing Halo Upmix would appropriately direct those sounds to the center channel, which would leave the upmixed ambience intact and immersive.”

Halo Upmix assisted in deciding when and how to go from stereo to surround and helped in making the decision about what to put in the height, he said.

“A huge part of what I love about Halo Upmix is that when you bring something from stereo to 7.1.2, it doesn’t do crazy things. It behaves in a very natural sort of way,” said Schricker. “Depending on how you’re adjusting parameters and what preset you start with, it’s not just making things obnoxiously immersive―and with backgrounds in particular, that’s very important.”

Re-recording mixer Ryan McCambridge, who freelanced on the project, agreed, adding that Halo Unmix is a helpful tool, especially when there needs to be an awareness of the downmixing.

“Halo Upmix helped us keep control of how things translate when you are going to downmix,” said McCambridge. “It was just as important for us to hear it in stereo as in Atmos because not everyone has Dolby Atmos speakers at home and will ultimately listen in stereo. Halo Upmix creates an upmix that can be folded down to stereo without losing any sonic integrity.”

Re-recording mixer Aiden Ramos appreciated how Halo Upmix transformed the older audio that he organized and premixed. 

“I was basically taking the stems and lining up all the audio to picture, organizing everything properly,” he said. “I was the one separating things into the correct environments―such as the background noises in Carrie’s apartment or in a bar scene. New York City background noise itself is basically like another character, so there were a lot of stems to go through and organize. Using Halo Upmix was super useful for all the backgrounds, just to get things to sit in the right place and feel immersive.”

More information is available on the Nugen Audio website.

NEW YORK—After a record breaking premiere, HBO has renewed “House of the Dragon” for a second season even before the second episode of the series has aired. 

The first episode airing on August 21 attracted nearly 10 million viewers on the day of its premiere and HBO reported on August 26 that the episode had been seen by over 20 million viewers across linear TV, on demand and HBO Max platforms in the U.S. based on Nielsen and its own data.

Samba TV, meanwhile, reported on August 25 that within the Live +3 day window, 4.8 million U.S. households watched the “House of the Dragon” premiere on HBO and HBO Max. 

For context, 2.6 million U.S. households watched the premiere in its first 6 hours, meaning that the majority of viewership (54%) occurred during that time, Samba TV said. 

By comparison, 2.9 million U.S. households watched the “Stranger Things 4” premiere on Netflix in the L+3 window. 42% of its L+3 viewership occurred within the day it was released, indicating that more households were interested in watching “House of the Dragon” immediately, Samba Tv reported. 

“We are beyond proud of what the entire `House of Dragon’ team has accomplished with season one,” Francesca Orsi, executive vice president HBO Programming. "Our phenomenal cast and crew undertook a massive challenge and exceeded all expectations, delivering a show that has already established itself as must-see-TV. A huge thank you to George, Ryan, and Miguel for leading us on this journey. We couldn’t be more excited to continue bringing to life the epic saga of House Targaryen with season two.”

DALLAS—While Netflix reported sub losses this week, AT&T reported healthy growth for HBO and HBO Max, with HBO and HBO Max hitting 76.8 million global subs in Q1 2022.

That was up 12.8 million year from Q1 2021 and up 3.0 million from Q4, 2021. At the end of the quarter, there were 48.6 million domestic HBO Max and HBO subscribers versus 44.2 million in the year-ago quarter, up 4.4 million year over year. 

With the recent completion of the Warner Bros. Discovery merger, this is the last quarter that AT&T will be reporting. 

Revenues for WarnerMedia under AT&T for the first quarter were $8.7 billion, up 2.5% versus the year-ago quarter, driven by higher subscription revenues and higher content and other revenues, partially offset by lower advertising revenues. 

Subscription revenues were $4.0 billion, up 4.4%, primarily reflecting growth of HBO Max. 

Content and Other revenues were $3.1 billion, up 3.4%, driven by higher theatrical revenues, higher HBO Max licensing, and partially offset by lower TV licensing. 

Advertising revenues were $1.7 billion, down 3.0% year over year due to lower linear audiences and tough comparisons to the prior-year political environment, partially offset by higher sports.

But operating expenses totaled $7.4 billion, up 13.0% year over year and operating income was $1.3 billion, down 32.7% year over year, as a result of continued investments in HBO Max as well as in the launch of CNN+ at the end of the quarter. Operating income margin was 15.1%, compared to 23.0% in the year-ago quarter.

Warner Bros. Discovery is carrying about $58 billion in debt and the company will be taking a close look at ongoing costs and investments as it works to pay that debt down while funding investments needed to remain competitive in the streaming wars. 

DALLAS, Texas—AT&T has reported new subscriber numbers for HBO Max and HBO, with the two services hitting 69.4 million subs around the world in Q3, 2021, a 12.5 million bounce from a year earlier, and 1.9 million higher than Q2, 2021. 

AT&T said the streaming service will reach the higher end of its forecast for 70 million to 73 million global subscribers by the end of 2021.

In the U.S. the two services had 45.2 million subs in Q3, 2021, up 7.1 million in the past year. 

But domestic subscriber counts were down from 47.0 million in Q2 2021 because the company removed HBO from the Amazon wholesale platform, a decision that also slowed global sub growth in Q3, the company said. 

Domestic ARPU was $11.82 for the services.

AT&T also reported that operating revenue in the direct-to-consumer segment hit $2.04 billion in Q3, 2021, up from $1.62 billion a year earlier, while direct costs hit $2.04 billion, up from $1.55 billion in Q3, 2020.  

More on the results for other divisions can be found here and here. 

DALLAS, Texas—AT&T’s second quarter results showed faster than expected growth for HBO Max and HBO subscribers, with U.S. subs jumping by 10.7 million over the last year and global subs climbing by 12 million to 67.5 million at the end of the second quarter. 

In announcing the results John Stankey, AT&T CEO noted that “HBO Max had another strong quarter and is ahead of plan to be a leading direct-to-consumer streaming platform, with both subscriber- and ad-supported choices. As a result, we’re raising our global HBO Max year-end forecast to 70 million to 73 million subscribers.”

AT&T is in the process of selling WarnerMedia to Discovery, creating a combined company that will be called Warner Bros. Discovery when the deal closes.  

In the earnings call, AT&T also noted that HBO Max and HBO were pulling in ARPUs of $11.90 and that total direct to consumer subscriptions at WarnerMedia were up nearly 40%. 

 NEW YORK—The Women’s Weekend Film Challenge’s (WWFC) has launched a new pilot accelerator program that will allow six to eight emerging TV writers to pitch ideas to a number of studios and production companies.

HBO, HBO Max, Warner Horizon Television, Jax Media, Berlanti Productions, Broadway Video, Element Pictures, Fabel Entertainment, Tornante and others will be hearing the pitches in October 2021.

WWFC will be accepting applications for the accelerator from June 17 to July 21, 2021. 

WWFC was founded by Katrina Medoff and Tracy Sayre in 2017 to address the lack of women’s representation behind the camera and on screen. The organization, best known for a film challenge that has produced 30 short films, also launched a popular virtual workshop series as a response to COVID-19.

The pilot accelerator designed both to help emerging writers advance their careers and to increase the representation of women and non-binary people in television. This program is geared toward writers with strong, completed pilot scripts who lack the industry connections to sell their series or break into the writers room.

“So many members of our community have pilot scripts ready to go but no one to pitch to,” WWFC co-founder Tracy Sayre said. “This gap became especially apparent over the last year as we’ve hosted weekly virtual workshops; far and away, the most popular events have centered around how to pitch and how to break into the writers room. This accelerator is a natural response to the career goals of our community.”

After the applications are received, six to eight selected fellows will be vetted by a panel of prestigious judges including Nicole Mirante-Matthews (co-executive producer, “The Walking Dead”), Elle Johnson (co-showrunner of Netflix’s “Self-Made”), Charise Castro Smith (screenwriter of Disney’s upcoming “Encanto”), Obehi Janice (staff writer for Hulu’s “Castle Rock”) and Kristina Thomas (staff writer for the upcoming Bad Robot/HBO “Demimonde”).

Fellows will attend a three-week intensive training on pitching, where they’ll learn directly from industry insiders, including public speaking coach Samara Bay, best known for dialect work with clients Gal Gadot and Rachel McAdams; Elle Johnson, co-showrunner of Netflix’s “Self Made”; and entertainment lawyer Anuj Gupta. The program will culminate with a week of pitching to studios, production companies and producers who are looking for new material and/or new writers.

On board to hear pitches are HBO, HBO Max, Warner Horizon Television (“Queen Sugar,” “Pretty Little Liars,” “You”), Jax Media (“Younger,” “Broad City,” “Russian Doll,” “Emily in Paris,” “A Black Lady Sketch Show,” “Search Party”), Element Pictures (“Normal People”), Berlanti Productions (“Riverdale,” “The Flash”), Broadway Video (“Shrill,” “30 Rock,” “Portlandia”), Fabel Entertainment (“Bosch”), Tornante (“NOS4A2”), Kevin Fox (co-EP, “Law & Order: SVU”; supervising producer, “Lie to Me”), and Clifton Campbell (EP, “Sleepy Hollow,” “The Glades”).

WWFC co-founder Katrina Medoff noted, “we have seen firsthand how much talent is out there, but many underrepresented writers lack the opportunity to get their work in front of industry decision-makers. Without programs like our new pilot accelerator, audiences will continue to miss out on so many amazing stories and voices. That’s what WWFC is all about — breaking down the barriers to women and non-binary people progressing in the industry.”

The program will take place entirely online. Interested writers can apply on FilmFreeway. Applications open on June 17. The regular deadline is July 1, and the late deadline is July 21, 2021. For more information, visit their website. 

DALLAS—HBO Max is finding its footing in the streaming marketplace, as the streaming platform had 44.2 million domestic subscribers at the end of the first quarter of 2021, up from 41.5 million to end 2020, according to AT&T’s latest financial report.

The total subscription numbers for HBO Max include subscribers who have just signed up for the SVOD service and HBO, whose subscribers get HBO Max included. In Q1 2021, AT&T reports that there were 2.7 million subscriber net adds.

These numbers are prior to HBO Max rolling out internationally and its announced launch of an ad-supported version of the streaming platform, both of which are expected in June. Globally, HBO now has nearly 64 million subscribers, per AT&T.

AT&T says that domestic HBO Max and HBO subscribers have increased by more than 11 million year-over-year, primarily driven by HBO Max.

In financial terms, HBO Max and HBO had an average return per user (ARPU) of $11.72. Direct-to-consumer subscription revenues were up about 35%. WarnerMedia, which operates HBO Max, saw its total revenues rise 9.8% to $8.5 billion.

After a slower start, HBO Max is gaining its footing in the streaming market. Kantar has reported that HBO Max has netted the most subscribers among the major streaming platforms the last two quarters, in large part because of its pandemic strategy to release Warner Bros. movies on the streaming service the same day as theaters.

AT&T also reported that it lost 620,000 subscribers for its pay-TV business, as DirecTV is being spun off into its own standalone company. AT&T has 15,885 of what it is calling "premium TV connections."

The full AT&T Q1 2012 financial report is available online.

NEW YORK—HBO’s “Sex and the City” has gotten a make-over, with a newly remastered HD version of the series starring Sarah Jessica Parker debuting on HBO Max as of Friday, Feb. 12.

For the first time, “Sex and the City” will be available in 16:9 full frame aspect ratio, displaying the show in an extended frame for wide-screen viewing. The higher resolution also offers enhanced and richer color and additional depth not available in standard definition, WarnerMedia said.

“Sex and the City,” which aired from 1998-2004, was shot on film and mastered in standard definition. WarnerMedia says that over the past year the film negatives for the series were scanned 4K to create HD masters.

This upgrade comes ahead of the upcoming mini-series “And Just Like That …,” which reunites Sarah Jessica Parker, Kristin Davis and Cynthia Nixon as their iconic “Sex and the City” characters in the latest chapter of their lives. Production on “And Just Like That …” begins in New York this spring.

Here is a trailer highlighting the newly remastered “Sex and the City”:

DALLAS—HBO Max ended 2020 on a high note, as AT&T shares that the streaming service doubled its activations between the end of the third quarter and fourth quarter of 2020 to a total of 17.2 million. However, that was not enough to prevent AT&T from experiencing a loss in total revenue for the final quarter of 2020, per the company’s full Q4 financial report.

HBO Max, which launched in May of 2020, has been struggling to make a dent in the streaming market, particularly compared to the rapid growth of Disney+. In an effort to boost subscriber numbers, WarnerMedia announced that it would release the anticipated “Wonder Woman 1984” on HBO Max the same day as in theaters, Dec. 25, 2020. It was later announced that all of Warner Bros. 2021 movies would follow the same strategy.

This announcement helped fuel a fourth quarter surge in active subscribers, totaling 17.2 million for HBO Max. At the end of 2020, total domestic HBO Max and HBO subscribers were at 41 million, a level that AT&T CEO John Stankey said was two years ahead of schedule.

However, those 17.2 million active subscribers to HBO Max still trail the major streaming players, including Netflix, which hit 203 million subscribers at the end of 2020, and Disney+, which in little more than a year has surpassed 86 million subscribers.

TV Tech's sister publication Next|TV reported that Stankey said that a reduced price, AVOD version of HBO Max is being eyed for a second quarter 2021 launch.

Elsewhere in AT&T’s video offerings, the company reports that it lost 617,000 TV subscribers, but that AT&T TV gains helped mitigate the loss.

In terms of dollars and cents, AT&T has reported a net loss of $13.9 billion. It’s overall revenue dropped 2.4% from $46.8 billion in Q4 2019 to $45.7 billion in Q4 2020.

Looking closely at individual sectors, HBO revenue rose 11.7% to $1.9 billion, but expenses were also up $18 billion (48.6%). HBO’s operating income fell to $86 billion from $481 million year-over-year, as the company invested in HBO Max.

Turner’s revenue for Q4 2020 was flat, with subscription revenue rising but advertising dropping, in large part because of the delayed start to the NBA season. In addition, lower ad revenue on TNT and TBS were partially offset by higher ratings on CNN, due in large part to the election.

Video subscribers revenue was down 11.2%, totaling $7.2 billion. 

Warner Bros. operating income fell 17% to $791 million, with revenue also dipping to $3.2 billion (down 21.2%). This was a result of delayed theatrical releases and lack of a box office, as well as delayed TV productions because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The full AT&T Q4 2020 financial results are available online. 

Early on in the Emmys telecast, host Jimmy Kimmel noted how every mention of Pop TV comedy "Schitt’s Creek" would involve the show’s title appearing on screen in an effort to appease the profanity police. 

"Schitt’s Creek" would appear on screen quite a few times. So would Eugene Levy and Daniel Levy and Catherine O’Hara as they claimed various Emmy awards. 

"Schitt’s Creek" grabbed the first seven Emmy trophies: lead actress in a comedy, lead actor in a comedy, writing for a comedy, directing for a comedy, supporting actor in a comedy, supporting actress in a comedy and, finally, outstanding comedy. 

Eugene Levy credited son Daniel, “who took our fish-out-of-water story and transformed it into a celebration of inclusivity, a castigation of homophobia and a declaration of the power of love.”

No other show was honored in the Emmys’ first hour. 

The 2020 Emmys was unlike the 71 Emmys before it, Jimmy Kimmel hosting in an empty room, for the most part, and no one having audible laughs after their quips. But the telecast moved relatively quickly, remote laughs hit home and the big-winner shows all felt timely. The serious challenge of having over a hundred cameras at nominees' remote locations worked as well as one might have hoped for. 

On the drama side, HBO’s superhero drama "Watchmen" had a terrific night, racking up outstanding limited series, along with outstanding writing for a limited series, outstanding lead actress in a limited series and supporting actor in a limited series.

But HBO drama "Succession," about the battles within a family of media moguls, burned even brighter, its honors including lead actor in a drama, outstanding writing, outstanding directing and, ultimately, outstanding drama. 

Creator Jesse Armstrong called it “such a very nice moment” for all involved, and lamented the group not being together to share it. Armstrong gave out a series of “un-thank you’s” to COVID, President Trump, Boris Johnson, nationalist governments that get in the way of combating the virus and “the media moguls who keep them in power,” said Armstrong—not unlike the moguls portrayed on the series. 

Netflix came in with 160 nominations, while HBO had 107. Netflix got wins with "Unorthodox" and "Ozark," and gets an assist as the streaming platform for "Schitt’s Creek." 

HBO has felt the pressure from Netflix at awards time in recent years, but had the upper hand in 2020. HBO picked up 11 Emmys Sunday. Besides the big nights for "Succession" and "Watchmen," "Last Week Tonight with John Oliver," "I Know This Much is True" and "Euphoria" also brought home trophies. 

Pop TV won seven for "Schitt's Creek" and Netflix won two. VH1, FX and Apple TV+ all got one. 

When "Watchmen" was named outstanding limited series, creator Damon Lindelof thanked HBO, and Warner Bros., “for their unblinking support” of a daring show.

DALLAS—The launch of HBO Max appears to be helping with total HBO subscription numbers, according to AT&T. One of the few positives highlighted in the company’s second quarter financial report, as the COVID-19 pandemic impacted its button line.

In its first official report since the launch of HBO Max in May, AT&T says that it had 36.3 million U.S. subscribers total for HBO Max and HBO as of June 30. This is up from 34.6 million on Dec. 31, 2019. Specifically, HBO Max attracted 4.1 million overall subscribers, according to AT&T CEO John Stankey.

The rise is in contrast to AT&T’s overall premium TV subscribers, which fell 886,000 to 17.7 million; the company says that 91,000 of that was attributed to Keep America Connected programs.

In addition, while the company added 225,000 AT&T Fiber broadband subscribers, it still had an overall loss of 102,000 broadband subscribers.

Overall, the Q2 net income for AT&T was $1.2 billion, down from $3.7 billion in Q2 2019. Revenues fell $8.9 to $41 billion.

During a conference call on its report, AT&T said that it expects COVID-19 to continue to adversely impact its operating results and cash flows for as long as it is present.

“We expect our third-quarter results to be impacted by the shift in timing of advertising revenues from the postponement, restarting or cancellation of sporting events and the related timing of the sports costs,” AT&T said; “lower revenues from the closure of movie theaters and postponement of theatrical releases, partially offset by lower production and other programming expenses; higher expenses to protect front-line employees, contractors and customers; and the continued transition of customers to our fiber broadband services and the acceleration of the disconnection of linear TV services due to the pandemic.”

For more information, visit AT&T’s investor website. 

BURBANK, Calif.—HBO Max, the anticipated streaming service from WarnerMedia, will be available for consumers in May 2020 at a monthly subscription price of $14.99. This is one of four new streaming services set to enter the market, joining Disney+ and Apple TV+, which are both launching in November of this year, and NBCU's Peacock in April 2020.

WarnerMedia made the launch date and pricing announcement during what it called WarnerMedia Day on the Warner Bros. Studio lot in Burbank, Calif.

At launch, AT&T will be offering HBO Max to its roughly 10 million HBO subscribers on AT&T distribution platforms for free. Other AT&T customers on premium video, mobile and broadband services will be offered bundles with HBO Max included at no additional charge. HBO Now direct-billed users who subscribe through HBONow.com will also be given access to HBO Max. WarnerMedia said it is in active discussions with other distributors to provide the HBO Max platform.

The goal for HBO Max, according to WarnerMedia, is 50 million domestic subscribers and 75 to 90 million premium subscribers by the end of 2025 throughout the U.S., Latin America and Europe; though it was revealed that international markets aren't expected to have access to HBO Max until 2021.

HBO Max plans to try and attract these subscribers through its content, including what it says is 10,000 hours of premium content that combines popular archival shows and movies, as well as original programming.

The library content is led by HBO’s popular titles of TV shows and movies, including “Game of Thrones” and the newly announced prequel series “House of the Dragon.” Other popular shows that will be featured on the service include “South Park,” “Rick and Morty,” “The Bachelor,” “The West Wing,” “Friends,” “Impractical Jokers,” “Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown” and the libraries of The Looney Tunes, Merrie Melodies and Hannah Barbara.

Some of the original content includes a Green Lantern TV series, sci-fi show “Raised by Wolves” executive produced and directed by Ridley Scott, original shows from Mindy Kaling and Issa Rae, stand-up specials presented by Conan O’Brien and more. For its original programming, HBO Max has announced that like Disney+ and Apple TV+ it will rollout the shows every week rather than the bingeable launches of Netflix shows.

There are also plans to eventually schedule live, interactive and special event programming. The complete list of what will be available on HBO Max at launch can be seen here.

WarnerMedia also highlighted some of the features of the HBO Max service. These will include recommendations from talent and influencers, shared homepages that are designed for co-viewing habits, personalized profiles and homepages, kids’ profiles and parental PIN usage, content hubs and downloads for offline viewing.

WarnerMedia also announced that it expects to launch an AVOD option within its first year to offer flexible pricing packages.

Watch the promo video for HBO Max below:

ENGLEWOOD, CO--DISH has announced that AT&T has pulled HBO and Cinemax from its satellite pay TV and Sling TV services due to what DISH calls “untenable demands designed specifically to harm customers, particularly those in rural areas, as well as damage competing pay-tv providers.”

DISH is using the dispute to further its claims that when AT&T acquired HBO/Cinemax parent company Time Warner earlier this year after winning an antitrust suit filed by the DOJ, there were no guidelines set in place to ensure that AT&T would treat subscribers to its channels fairly.

"Plain and simple, the merger created for AT&T immense power over consumers," said Andy LeCuyer, DISH senior vice president of Programming. "It seems AT&T is implementing a new strategy to shut off its recently acquired content from other distributors. This may be the first of many HBO blackouts for consumers across the country. AT&T no longer has incentive to come to an agreement on behalf of consumer choice; instead, it's been given the power to grab more money or steal away customers.

The move constitutes the first time in its 40+ year history that HBO is going black on a major pay-TV provider. For its part, AT&T defended itself, decrying DISH’s past negotiation tactics.

“During our 40 plus years of operation, HBO has always been able to reach agreement with our valued distributors and our services have never been taken down or made unavailable to subscribers due to an inability to conclude a deal,” HBO said in a statement. “Unfortunately, DISH is making it extremely difficult, responding to our good faith attempts with unreasonable terms. Past behavior shows that removing services from their customers is becoming all too common a negotiating tactic for them. We hope the situation with DISH changes soon but, in the meantime, our valued customers should take advantage of the other ways to access an HBO subscription so they can continue to enjoy our acclaimed programming.

DISH says the majority of its HBO subscribers are based in rural areas where they are less likely to have access to high speed broadband, which would allow them to substitute AT&T’s “HBO Now” streaming service.

"AT&T's actions are a deliberate slap in the face to rural Americans," said LeCuyer. "And furthermore, they are anticompetitive. AT&T, a company worth more than $200 billion, is intentionally punishing those who don't have big-city broadband access, in an attempt to push customers to the only other satellite provider, its own DirecTV."

DISH says the market for HBO has changed since DISH last signed a carriage deal in 2015: HBO set the market price at $15 per month with its launch of the direct-to-consumer HBO Now service; and AT&T has announced plans to launch a new direct-to-consumer HBO service next year.

"Usually when there is a programming dispute, we don't see eye to eye on rates; but HBO has already set the going rate, so now they're seeking to extract money a different way," said LeCuyer.

DISH says AT&T is demanding it pay for a guaranteed number of subscribers, regardless of how many consumers actually want to subscribe to HBO.

"AT&T is stacking the deck with free-for-life offerings to wireless customers and slashed prices on streaming services, effectively trying to force DISH to subsidize HBO on AT&T's platforms," said LeCuyer. "This is the exact anticompetitive behavior that critics of the AT&T-Time Warner merger warned us about. Every pay-TV company should be concerned."

DISH said it would welcome “binding, baseball-style arbitration” to determine the fair market value of HBO and Cinemax but that during the arbitration process, AT&T would be required to restore its channels to DISH customers.

"Rather than trying to force consumers onto their platforms, we suggest that AT&T try to achieve its financial goals through simple economics: if consumers want your product, they'll pay for it. We hope AT&T will reconsider its demands and help us reach a swift, fair resolution," added LeCuyer.

DISH said it would credit eligible Sling TV customers for time they do not receive HBO or Cinemax.

OpenSignal, a U.K.-based researcher that measures video networking performance, has released a new report that cites Verizon as having the best mobile video streaming experience among the four major U.S. telcos, narrowly beating out T-Mobile, with Sprint following and AT&T at #4.

Out of a possible score of 100, all of the carriers rated “fair,” which means that they couldn’t handle high-resolution video without some hiccups, but were able to handle standard definition video with few problems.

The report notes that each carrier is placing increasing emphasis on video. AT&T’s recent acquisition of Time Warner was done partly with the goal of launching its own streaming service based around  its flagship network HBO next year. Likewise, Verizon, with its recent content acquisitions of AOL and Yahoo, as well as Sprint’s bundling of the Hulu OTT network and T-Mobile’s complementary Netflix subscriptions to new subscribers all illustrate the importance U.S. telcos are placing on streaming video.

Last month, OpenSignal reported that all four telcos support mobile streaming rates of an average 14 Mbps, with Verizon and T-Mobile both offering up to 20 Mpbs streaming, which is enough to support ultra high definition resolution. 

Prognosticators have been forecasting a rapid acceleration of corporate mergers and acquisitions in 2018, both in terms of the number and size of the deals. Now at more than halfway through the year, it looks like they are spot on.

Fresh off its $85 billion Time Warner deal, telecom giant AT&T has made yet another big move to acquire AppNexus, giving the company control of one of the largest Internet advertising exchanges. We’ve finally seen how the Disney-Comcast battle to acquire Fox played out, while Gray Television and Raycom Media agreed to a $3.6 billion merger to create the third largest TV station group reaching 24 percent of U.S. television households. And you can bet more deals are coming. The announced Sinclair-Tribune deal has unraveled, and it’s still not clear how the Comcast-Fox battle for Sky is going to play out.

Anyone who has lived through negotiations and regulatory battles will tell you that closing a deal is tough work. But even tougher work remains once the deal is done – integrating the companies. And the focus on culture is critical. Companies with strong cultures outperform those without by a factor of three, while companies with meaningful employee engagement are more profitable. Also, companies that focus on culture operate with lower risk.

Integration has many angles – integrating business strategy, technology, human resources systems, office space and the like. But perhaps one of the most challenging integration angles that often is glossed over is integrating corporate cultures. In fact, more than one-third of mergers and acquisitions fail due to culture clash between the two companies according to the Society for Human Resources Executives.

Most likely, executives will develop an overarching architecture for an integrated mission, core values and culture. But that’s the easy part – integration across the entire “new” company is difficult work. Eagle Hill Consulting research indicates that nearly half (47 percent) of American workers don’t know their employer’s core values – and that’s for all companies not just those merging. Equally striking is that among those who do know their corporate values, a whopping 89 percent say it steers their decisions and behavior at work. That said, a merger can be a real opportunity to really align on culture and values to drive peak performance for the new company.

But this culture and values integration is perhaps one of the most complex tasks following a deal because it requires continuous and deep employee engagement at all levels of the company. It’s not something that the human resources department just magically makes happen like integrating payroll systems. And when culture integration isn’t handled properly, cultures can collide and ultimately result in negative impacts on the business and the bottom line. Why? Because culture and core values drive employee behavior and organizational performance. In fact, research comparing stock market performance shows that companies with strong cultures perform three times better.

As technologists, we know that companies have technical cultures, too – and we need to focus on the implications of the differences in technical culture when organizations are combined. For example, some companies have a CapEx-based infrastructure technical culture while others have a service-based technical culture. Some like to partner with vendors while others like to develop and operate almost everything in-house. Some organizations promote and encourage a risk-taking technical culture while others strive to have their people avoid risk at all cost.

Already, we’re seeing a potential culture clash with AT&T’s acquisition of HBO. AT&T executives had pledged to take a hands-off approach in managing HBO. But reports are emerging that there will be pressure on HBO to increase quantity of content, which could run afoul of HBO’s culture known for preferring quality over quantity. HBO’s work often takes years to develop and can cost millions per episode, but their strategy has resulted in enviable awards and billions in profits. Will the technical organization also be directed to change their technical culture to align with their telecom parent?

So once the deal is done, it’s a must that company leaders pay as much attention to integrating culture as they do to integrating technology and business processes. The companies that effectively manage corporate culture along with people, processes and technology integration – encompassing both technical operations and technical culture – will emerge the winners as the mergers and acquisitions mania plays out.

Here are some steps leaders can take to help implement successful culture integration.

1. Conduct a Culture Reboot

• Conduct a pre-assessment of culture & core values between the two companies

• Listen to employees and foster conversations

• Develop and implement a Culture & Core Values Strategy

• Develop a Culture Change Management & Communications Strategy

2. Marry Strategy and Culture

• Make integrity—and your company’s priority cultural values—a strategic priority

• Clearly define what values are for your organization

• Tackle both strategy and culture simultaneously

If you aren’t intentional about building the desired culture for your organization, it will morph on its own and may not become what you want it to be.

3. Make it Visible

• Determine what integrity looks like in practice for your organization

• Drive culture from the top down

• Focus on empowering leaders and making them your cultural ambassadors

When employees see leaders living your company’s culture and values, everyone else will follow suit.

4. Measure it and Talk About It

• Evaluate, act, repeat

• Maintain a consistent pulse on your organization’s culture and address shortcomings

• Don’t assume addressing a cultural challenge once will fix the issue for the long term

One last word of caution. Culture integration doesn’t happen overnight or even over the first year of an integration. It takes time and trust among employees, and constant care and feeding. But, it is essential to business success. Since the pace of technological change continues to accelerate, getting the integration of technical cultures right requires significant attention, and is one of the most important and challenging facets of culture integration.

John McCoskey is an Industry Executive – Technology, Media and Entertainment for Eagle Hill Consulting. Follow him on Twitter at @John_McCoskey. 

The following obituary was provided by Dan Marshall, Senior Vice President, Worldwide Field Operations, for AWS Elemental: 

Manuel C. De Peña, Sr. Field Operations Director Eastern Region for AWS Elemental, died from injuries sustained in an auto accident on May 9, 2018. He was 58 and a resident of San Antonio, Texas and Ridgway, Co.

Manuel was a huge presence in the lives of all he touched. A devoted family man, he was extremely proud of his two sons: David De Peña, who graduated from Virginia Tech in 2014 with a degree in Chemical Engineering, and Jonathan De Peña, who graduated from Virginia Tech in 2018 with a degree in Finance. He and his wife of 28 years, Pam, met in Austin, Texas. The family lived in Austin, Texas, Meridian, Idaho, Tokyo, Alexandria, Va., Sterling, Va., Ridgway, Col., and Bulverde, Texas.

Manuel was born in Brownsville, Texas. He attended high school at St. Joseph Academy in Brownsville and college at the University of Texas at Austin.

In business, Manuel was impeccably straightforward and a supreme example of a person who truly cared about his customers. He was a voracious learner, always reading and studying. . Manuel seemed to be able to find a connection with anyone he met, and enjoyed staying in touch with friends and colleagues over the years.

Grant Nodine, senior vice president, technology, NHL, knew De Peña for 15 years and considered him a good friend.

“Manuel and I were fortunate to get to spend some great times together during his tenure at AWS/Elemental,” he said. “Whether it was together at NHL All-Star weekend, dinners, trade shows, or industry conferences whenever I saw Manuel he always lit up and I can say that one of his true talents was his ability to take joy in mundane things and to never take anything for granted. He was truly passionate about what he did and the people, myself included, who were lucky enough to work closely with him over the years are better for having done so. I was devastated to hear of his passing and will miss him terribly and sincerely hope that the memory of his professionalism, compassion, and joyfulness keeps his spirit alive in our hearts and minds for many years to come.”

Joe Inzerillo, Executive Vice President & CTO at BAMTECH Media, said: "You can tell a lot about people you meet in the industry by the fact you work with them through multiple companies. Manuel was a fixture in the encoding space and someone I respected greatly. He had integrity, grit and was a person I enjoyed working with to move this industry forward. He will be missed.  

Brian Angioletti, Vice President, Media Delivery at BAMTECH Media said, "I knew Manuel for more years then I can count, and over those years I found Manuel to be a thoughtful and honest individual. I trusted his opinions and always trusted that he was doing what was in our best interests. I genuinely looked forward to his visits and considered him a true friend and I will miss him dearly.

Pi Waller, Vice President, Video Operations at HBO described Manuel as "a good friend to HBO." "His thoughtful attention to detail and his vast knowledge of the encoding space was a huge value to us over the years. He was professional, courteous and always well prepared. Manuel was also a pleasure to work with – a great person and a great work ethic. He will be missed. 

A Celebration of Life ceremony will be held in Manuel’s honor from 1:00 pm to 4:00 pm on May 26, 2018 at the San Antonio Marriott Northwest.

The family requests that in lieu of flowers, memorial contributions be made for a scholarship to Virginia Tech. Donations are tax deductible and may be made on-line by visitinghttp://www.givingto.vt.edu.

Donations are tax deductible and Checks should be made payable to The Virginia Tech Foundation, Inc. and may be mailed to:

Virginia Tech Advancement (0336)

Office of Gift Accounting

902 Prices Fork Road

Blacksburg, VA 24061

Donations may also be made on-line by visiting http://www.givingto.vt.edu.

Please note on your check or correspondence that this gift is for a “scholarship in memory of Manuel De Peña” when mailing tributes or include this note in the Honorary/Memorial Gifts section when making gifts on-line.

Donations in Manuel’s name may also be made to the mikeroweWorks Foundation atmikeroweworks.org - Giving Options. This group provides scholarships to people who want to learn a skill or a trade.

DENVER—Wazee Digital won’t be needing to borrow a friend’s password to have access to HBO as the company is now working with the premium cable network to archive its sports content.

The Wazee Digital Core platform is being implemented to digitize and archive HBO sports content that is currently stored on videotape formats. The conversion will allow HBO to preserve this deteriorating content while also providing access to the archive for stakeholders that need the content.

Core is a software-as-a-service platform built for the cloud. Core can manage complex tasks of video acquisition, workflow, universal access, metadata management and automated delivery. In addition, Core provides cloud storage that can scale with the size of a digital library.

[Wazee Digital Finds Spot in College Football Playoff]

To ensure the digital preservation of HBO’s analog and digital videotape formats, Core is using AS-02 MXF versioning. HBO’s MXF-wrapped assets serve as master files that can accommodate input and output formats, while flexible metadata support aids in search and discovery.

Credentialed internal HBO users and other stakeholders now have access to Core to search, explore and download content from the archive.

NEW YORK and EL SEGUNDO, CALIF. – AT&T and Home Box Office announced that they have reached a multi-year, strategic agreement that will extend HBO’s content across all AT&T products.

The agreement renews HBO’s existing contract with the AT&T DirecTV and U-verse services, and will also make all HBO and Cinemax content available on DirecTV Now. AT&T expects the new streaming service to roll out by the end of the year.

AT&T and HBO are not disclosing financial and other details of the new agreement.

In addition to bringing shows like HBO’s multiple Emmy-nominated “Game of Thrones” and “Veep” to the DirecTV Now platform, HBO and Cinemax content will also be part of AT&T mobile video bundle offers. Details about those will be available at a later date.

As part of the agreement, DirecTV and U-verse customers will continue to have access to HBO and Cinemax content on linear TV, online and TV Everywhere apps.

LOS ANGELES—It was a good night for HBO last Thursday at the 10th Annual Hollywood Post Alliance Awards gala, where the network took three of four awards for TV. The HPA Awards recognize companies and individuals for contributions to the creation of films, TV and commercials.

Here are the list of TV winners:
Outstanding Color Grading: “Boardwalk Empire - Golden Days for Boys and Girls” - John Crowley; Technicolor PostWorks, N.Y.

Outstanding Editing: “Foo Fighters: Sonic Highways – Nashville” – Kristin McCasey; Therapy Studios

Outstanding Sound: “Homeland – Redux” – Nello Torri, Alan Decker, NBCUniversal Studio Post; Craig Dellinger, Sony Sound Services

Outstanding Visual Effects: “Game of Thrones – Dance of Dragons” – Joe Bauer, Steve Kullback, Derek Spears, Eric Carney, Jabbar Raisani; Fire and Blood Productions

HPA also handed out Engineering Excellence Awards to Canon, Dolby, Panasonic, Quantel, and Sony Electronics. The HPA Judges Award for Creativity and Innovation went to ESPN for the ESPN Digital Center 2. Finally, the HPA Lifetime Achievement Award went to Leon D. Silverman.

For a full list of winners and nominees, click here.

LOS ANGELES—Brian Merken, A.C.E., received the Emmy statuette on Sept. 12 for “Outstanding Single-Camera Picture Editing For A Comedy Series” for the episode “Two Days of the Condor” for HBO’s hit “Silicon Valley.” He recalled it as the payoff for the greatest gamble he ever took.

“Don’t tell my daughter,” Merken laughed, “but I quit college halfway through. I left Santa Monica City College just as I was beginning their film school track when I landed a production assistant gig. My film school turned out to be all the editors and production people I would meet on the job.”

Merken actually got the editing bug from a fourth grade teacher whose husband, Herbert Neil Travis, won an Oscar for cutting “Dances with Wolves.” A neighbor down the street, Barry Gold, who was editing “Pacific Blue” for the USA Network, introduced Merken to the Avid Media composer during off hours, got him on board as a production assistant, and helped him get into the Editors’ Guild.

Merken’s first assistant editor’s spot was on “Malcolm in the Middle,” working under Steve Welch. “A lot of my own editing style was learned from Steve,” he said. “He was one of the fastest guys on the Avid I’ve ever seen. It was very fortunate that I was able to work continuously for the first 12 years of my career moving from ‘Pacific Blue’ to ‘Malcolm.’”

(L TO R): Kumail Nanjiani, Zach Woods, TJ Miller and Thomas Middleditch in the “Silicon Valley” episode “Two Days of the Condor”GOING SOLO
Merken got his first solo editor’s credit on the short-lived “In the Motherhood,” and went on to work on a few other primetime footnotes, but it’s the geek-hip HBO comedy “Silicon Valley” that has given him the chance to really let his editing chops shine.

Merken gave us a glimpse of his work schedule on the “Two Days of the Condor” episode that won him the golden statuette. It was written and directed by Alec Berg.

“I like to watch all the dailies myself,” Merken began, “but it is handy for troubleshooting that my excellent assistant, Brian Bautista, logs everything into the Avid’s ScriptSync (aka Scriptor) function. We have three to four days to complete our editor’s cut, then another three or four to work with the director. Fortunately, during the whole last season of ‘Silicon Valley’ directors Alec Berg and Mike Judge were our show runners so they were in town and always busy on the set. Once an episode wrapped, we’d hit the ground running to lock the final version.”

As Merken described it, the plot was more linear than most of the shows, so “everything had to work as one. That meant I didn’t have the usual B plot that I could cut to when I needed to re-orient the structure.”

Essentially, the “Condor” episode’s storyline has to do with a bunch of young and eager code writers living in a startup incubator of a crash pad run by entrepreneur Erlich Bachman (T. J. Miller). One of them, Richard Hendricks (Thomas Middleditch) who works at a large Internet company called Hooli, developed a rad app named Pied Piper that contains a killer data compression algorithm. Hooli wants it, and has taken Hendricks before binding arbitration claiming he wrote Pied Piper using their equipment.

At first the judge seems to rule against Hendricks and the upstart coders, so Hendricks covertly texts his compadres to delete Pied Piper from their servers to keep it out of Hooli’s greedy mitts. But then the judge unexpectedly reverses himself on a technicality, and Hendricks has to scramble to save his software.

(What does all this have to do with a Condor? You’ll have to watch the episode on iTunes to find out.)

Matt McCoy (L), and Thomas Middleditch from the “Silicon Valley” episode “Two Days of the Condor”ONE CALAMITY AFTER ANOTHER
It’s that scramble to prevent the erasure of Pied Piper that builds the climax of the episode. Right after Hendricks hears the judge’s reversal, he knows he has to stop his friends from wiping Pied Piper from the servers, and what follows could be called “throwback” comedy. Just as the Steampunk movement mocks modern technology with a centuries-old aesthetic, the writing, editing and acting in this sequence brings Mack Sennett-style film construction into the digital age.

First Hendricks’ cellphone battery dies. Out of contact, he races for his car. But he drops his car keys and accidently kicks them down a sewer drain. No problem— he grabs the phone in a nearby coffee boutique only to remember that the number of the incubator pad exists only on speed dial on his dead phone. Then he dashes onto a city bus, grabs the driver’s cellphone and emails an urgent “Don’t Delete” message— but its unrecognized sender address promptly gets the message dumped into a spam folder.

Still, all is not lost because the goofballs back at the house have decided to have one last beer before deleting Pied Piper. But it’s a wheat beer, which of course necessitates finding a lemon before they can properly consume it. The problem is the lemon has to be cut from their neighbor’s tree. And then… you get the point. One calamity after another delays sending the “Don’t Delete” message while its intended recipients stumble over themselves until just as Hendricks gets to the front door, they hit the “Erase” button.

Fortunately for them, and the future of the series, the software deletion routine they had written fails and Pied Piper is preserved. But the accelerating energy of the intercut travails between Hendricks desperately trying to prevent the deletion and his buddies being incapable of actually pulling it off produces an energy epitomizing the dynamism of high bandwidth editing.

“The only segment we moved around in the edit bay is the second time the guys go outside to pick a lemon from their neighbor’s tree,” Merken said. “We needed one more jump to extend the checkerboard between Hendricks trying to get home and his friends dallying over sending their beloved Pied Piper into ‘cyber eternity,’ so we worked the sequence into having them go for a second lemon to improve the comedic timing.”

As is often the case, a lot of Merken’s editing comes from instincts gained from years sitting at an edit console. But I noticed a continuity in his cutaways where each time he spliced in a reaction shot, the person was seen to be responding directly to the character addressing him.

“I like to keep the flow of energy circling around the room,” Merken said. “I’m sure I learned a lot of this from the editor who was my most appreciated mentor, Steve Welch.”

It looks like that gamble to drop out of school paid off pretty well for Merken. Just don’t tell his daughter.

Jay Ankeney is a freelance editor and post-production consultant based in Los Angeles. Write him atJayAnkeney@mac.com.