Warner Bros. Realigns to Create Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Group

October 25, 2005--Warner Bros. Entertainment has realigned its businesses involved in the digital delivery of entertainment content to consumers to create the Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Group and has named Kevin Tsujihara its President.

The Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Group includes home video, online, wireless, games and anti-piracy and emerging technologies operations. Its founding is recognition of the ongoing changes in the way consumers view entertainment product and seeks to maximize current and next-generation distribution scenarios to make the Studio’s content available to audiences through as many channels, platforms and devices as possible. The formation of the Home Entertainment Group also furthers the Company’s mandate to harness the benefits of emerging technologies, as well as manage the risks these technologies pose to the economic value of the content.

Concurrent with the founding of the Home Entertainment Group is the formation of Warner Bros. Digital Distribution, a business unit within the Home Entertainment Group that will include Warner Bros. Online and Wireless, as well as the businesses handling electronic sell-through, VOD, SVOD and pay-per-view. Warner Bros. Digital Distribution will manage the worldwide electronic distribution streams of the Studio’s product over existing, new and emerging digital platforms. Previously, management of these functions was handled by a number of different business units across the Studio.

“At the end of the day, content drives our businesses. Our company’s strategic advantage is that we create innovative and unique content on a massive scale, be it television shows, animated characters or films of all sorts, from global blockbusters to small, local-language pictures,” said Meyer. “Warner Bros. operates on a global scale, and to fully realize our content’s potential, we must have the perspective of a global strategy. We must safely exploit our assets across every exhibition outlet available to us today and those developed in the future, while managing windowing structures so as not to cannibalize these assets and with a constant eye toward protecting them from digital theft. Kevin is a visionary executive, well versed in future-based technologies, and the ideal person to help us navigate the uncharted territories we’ll face with emerging and next-generation distribution and exhibition platforms. We’ll look to him and his expertise to help shape and execute the company’s digital strategies and business plans.”

“The way audiences access our content is changing every day, and the formation of the Home Entertainment Group is a strategic move to keep Warner Bros.’ product front, center and easily accessible to consumers,” said Horn. “We know that people aren’t just sitting on the couch and watching TV anymore—they’re into DVD, video games, video-on-demand, the Internet, PDAs and more. As content providers, it is absolutely in our best interest to responsibly meet consumer demand for our product across as many of these exhibition platforms as possible, and in turn to use these platforms to help us extend the entertainment experience and ultimately give the consumer more flexibility.”

The business units comprising the Home Entertainment Group include Warner Bros. Digital Distribution, Warner Home Video, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment (including Warner Bros. Games), Warner Bros. Technical Operations and Warner Bros. Anti-Piracy Operations. Tsujihara will oversee the management of each of these divisions to fully integrate its operations into the overall objectives of the Home Entertainment Group.

Warner Home Video, headed by Sanders, will be the cornerstone of the Home Entertainment Group. In addition to spearheading the Studio’s move into next-generation, high-definition DVD, home video will continue to mine its unmatched library of film and television hits, expanding both its catalog and domestic franchise releases.

In the online and wireless arenas, Jim Noonan, Senior Vice President & General Manager, Warner Bros. Online, will work through Warner Bros. Digital Distribution to fully maximize and exploit the promotion and marketing of the Studio’s entertainment titles across all current and future platforms.

Gaming is an arena in which the Studio plans to increase its production and output levels of both original properties and those based on titles in the vast Warner Bros. library. Under the leadership of Jason Hall, Senior Vice President, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, Warner Bros.’ game business will be integrated into the Home Entertainment Group while continuing to work closely with Warner Bros. Consumer Products on its licensed titles.

The final components of the Home Entertainment Group are rights management, technical operations and anti-piracy technology.

For more information please visit http://www.warnerbros.com