New York Post, Monday, August 19, 2019nypost.com25By ALEXANDRA STEIGRADPlans by HBO’s new parent
company to launch a Netflix ri-
val is coming under fire from
insiders — many of whom are
pointing the finger at their
new boss, John Stankey.
Critics told The Post that
AT&T’s plans to launch a new
streaming service to compete
with the likes of Netflix and
Amazon are off to a rocky start
— and has led to clashes be-
tween HBO staffers and Stan-
key, who heads AT&T’s new
entertainment division, War-
nerMedia.
“He thinks he knows a lot
more about the business than
he does,” one former HBO
executive said of Stankey. “He
is not a pleasant person to
work around.”
Shortly after AT&T execu-
tives revealed plans were in
the works for a new stream-
ing service last November,
HBO execs started peppering
Stankey with questions, one
former employee said.
“We’d say: ‘We don’t under-
stand the plan. Tell us what
you’re doing,’ ” a former HBO
employee said, adding that
HBO’s culture before AT&T
acquired it was one of ques-
tioning.
Fed up with the questions,
Stankey called in senior man-
agement and reamed them
out, yelling: “I am sick of
hearing this! I know more
about television than any of
you! Stop questioning me,”
the employee said.
“He’s a screamer,” said an-
other source who works with
HBO. “He doesn’t have a good
sense of what made the com-
pany so valuable.”
WarnerMedia went public
with its new streaming plans
in July, boasting that the ser-
vice — called HBO Max —
will come with 10,000 hours
of premium content when it
launches in 2020. Shows will
include The CW’s “The
Fresh Prince of Bel Air,”
Freeform’s “Pretty Little Li-
ars,” and “Friends,” which
AT&T bought the rights to
for $425 million — outbid-
ding Netflix.HBO staffers say the prob-
lems started when they got
their first whiff of the
streaming plan back in No-
vember at a meeting for
AT&T execs to roll out their
vision for WarnerMedia to
analysts and media.
According to an insider
with knowledge of the meet-
ing, WarnerMedia execs, in-
cluding HBO, were “blind-
sided” by the streaming
plans, which included a
three-tiered pricing system
that insiders then panned as
overly complicated.
Months later, AT&T said it
would have two price tiers,
and most recently, in July, it
moved to one flat price.
Stankey, a longtime tele-
com exec who has been with
AT&T since 2005, defended
critics of his management
style in a recent interview
with Variety by describing
himself as a “fairly direct”
person. “I’m not one who
minces a lot of words.”
A source close to Stankeyadded that he has been hold-
ing meetings and taking ques-
tions from senior WarnerMe-
dia executives in order to clar-
ify his streaming strategy.
But critics say his harsh tac-
tics have prompted talent —
especially female staffers —
to start looking for work else-
where.
“He doesn’t understand that
the value of HBO is linked to
its people,” a former em-
ployee noted, citing an inter-
nal meeting in March in
which the exec offended the
division’s women staffers.
The March meeting came
one month after AT&T’s $85
billion deal to acquire Time
Warner, announced in 2017,
was OK’d by the courts, allow-
ing AT&T and Stankey to
make major management
changes.
HBO employees were
gathered to meet the new
management team, including
Bob Greenblatt, the former
NBCUniversal chair who
was tapped to head HBO,TNT, TBS and HBO Max.
One staffer asked if she
could ask two questions, to
which Stankey snapped back:
“You get one!,” the source
said. The staffer then pro-
ceeded to ask why none of the
top execs under Stankey’s
WarnerMedia were women.
Stankey replied that there
were no women on his team
because there is “no bench
strength” at WarnerMedia,
this person said. The “dismis-
sive answer” did not take into
account top execs, including
Bernadette Aulestia, the global
distribution chief; Eve Kon-
stan, the general counsel; and
Marisa Famulare, the chief fi-
nancial officer, the source said.
It also didn’t account for
Turner ad sales veteran Donna
Speciale, who left the com-
pany earlier this month — and
who was “frustrated” by the
male-dominated culture there,
sources told The Post.
Days after his remarks, one
of Stankey’s chiefs, Warner
Bros. Chief Executive KevinTsujihara, stepped down over
texts showing he had an inap-
propriate relationship with an
actress.
Stankey supporters note
that he replaced Tsujihara
with Ann Sarnoff, a former
president of BBC Studios
America, who is now the first
woman to run Warner Bros.
They also point to other fe-
male execs who report to
Stankey, including Priya
Dogra, whom he promoted to
executive vice president of
strategy and corporate devel-
opment, and Christy
Haubegger, whom he hired as
chief enterprise inclusion of-
ficer.
“Regarding women in lead-
ership positions, we’ve made
significant progress in the
last 12 months across the
company and we’re commit-
ted to continuing to do so,” a
WarnerMedia spokesperson
said.
The company declined to
comment otherwise for this
story. [email protected]Top flop flapTopflopflap
WarnerMedia chief John
Stankey (right) is facing
a growing chorus of boo
birds, ThePost has learned,
amid concerns theAT &T-
owned brand, which
includes “Pretty Little Liars”
(above) and “Friends”
(left), isn’t up to competing
against streaming giants
Netflix and Amazon.SCREEN VILLAIN
Exec’s style puts HBO stream plan in peril: critics
Getty ImagesApple crisp
President Trump said
Sunday he has spoken
with Apple head Tim
Cook about the impact
of US tariffs on Chinese
imports as well as com-
petition from South Ko-
rean company Samsung.
Trump said Cook “made
a good case” that tariffs
could hurt Apple, given
that Samsung’s products
would not be subject to
those same tariffs.Last resort
All eyes will be on a
small resort in Wyo-
ming, where Federal Re-
serve boss Jerome Pow-
ell will speak for the first
time since bond markets
hit recession alarm bells.
His words at the Kansas
Fed’s annual gathering
will be closely watched
for clues.Blinking red
A deadline is set to
lapse Monday that could
lead to permanent tariffs
on Mexican tomato ex-
ports, with costs poten-
tially hitting American
consumers when the
weather turns cold.Of interest
The world’s headlong
dash to zero or negative
interest rates just passed
another milestone, with
a bank in Denmark pay-
ing homebuyers to take
out mortgages.Soothing voice
JPMorgan Chase plans
to host a conference
call Tuesday to help
clients make sense of
markets after a wild
week of swings for
stocks and bonds.Sources: AP, Dow Jones,
Reuters and Post wiresBUSINESS
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