Today, Warner Bros. Discovery announced that “Warner Bros.” and “Discovery Global” are the names of the two new businesses that will exist after it completes its restructuring plan sometime in mid-2026. Warner Bros. will oversee Warner Bros. Television, Warner Bros. Motion Picture Group, DC Studios, HBO, HBO Max, and Warner Bros. Gaming Studios. And Discovery Global will be responsible for CNN, TNT’s sports offerings in the US, Discovery, Discovery Plus, and Bleacher Report.
WBD president and CEO David Zaslav will continue to lead the executive team at Warner Bros., while WBD’s current chief financial officer, Gunnar Wiedenfels, will act as president and CEO for Discovery Global.
In a statement about his new-ish role, Zaslav said that the corporate uncoupling will help put Warner Bros. into “a strong position to launch and continue to meaningfully grow a company worthy of our storied past.”
Wiedenfels echoed Zaslav’s sentiment and insisted that Discovery Global’s leadership team will “ensure strong operational execution to drive strategic investments and deliver compelling content to global audiences.”
WBD says that the new names are meant to honor “the legacy of more than a century of industry-defining storytelling.” But, everything about the company’s restructuring reads very transparently as a move to deal with its massive debt problem.
Technically speaking, Discovery Global’s debt would no longer be attached directly to Warner Bros., which could help boost the company’s flagging stock price. It’s not exactly clear how Discovery Global plans to get itself back in the black, but the company is now looking for a new chief communications and public affairs officer who will probably be tasked with putting a positive spin on this whole situation.
