The head of Warner Bros Discovery’s (WBD) television studio business is set to oversee the company’s cable TV networks in the coming months.
Channing Dungey, the Chairperson and CEO of Warner Bros Television Group, will incorporate oversight of cable networks like CNN, TBS, TNT, Tru TV, Animal Planet, Discovery Channel and TLC as part of her job duties when current U.S. networks head Kathleen Finch retires at the end of the year, the company affirmed on Friday.
The retirement has been in the works for months, the Wall Street Journal said, and was unrelated to a recent $9 billion write-down that WBD associated with its cable networks business. The charge was largely attributed to WBD losing telecast rights to NBA games to Amazon’s Prime Video and Comcast’s Peacock next year.
“Channing is an unparalleled creative executive who has shepherded countless award-winning hit shows,” David Zaslav, the CEO of WBD, said in a statement on Friday. “She has the ideal expertise and experience — as a content developer, platform programmer, and network executive — to lead the U.S. Networks.”
The shift comes at a time when WBD has pared down scripted original content for its cable networks in favor of live sports programming, reruns and lower-cost reality series. Live sports is considered appointment viewing television, the type of programming that is most-attractive to cable advertisers, while sitcom and drama repeats are relatively cheaper to acquire than developing original series.
