Call it the HBO Max New Year's Massacre.
Warner Bros. Discovery, under David Zaslav, a recent graduate of the Jack Benny School of Economics, has removed more than 50 years worth of Looney Tunes cartoons, and we must assume this includes the 2003 Duck Dodgers series, produced for Cartoon Network. Seasons 4-6 of The Flintstones have been sent packing as well, and the word is, these toons ain't coming back any time soon.
Zaslav, not realizing that Benny's miser persona was just that, an act, continues to cut costs, even licensing fees the studio charges to sister companies like HBO Max. Bugs Bunny said it best.
Some, but not all, of the cartoons from this period (1950-2004) are available online on various outlets, including Dailymotion and YouTube, but often in limited, edited form to keep the copyright department at an arm's length, if you will. It's not that Zaslav doesn't understand the all ages fan base of both franchises, he just doesn't care. He's bottom line first, and his message to Joe Average is, of course, screw you. With Zaslav, as Randy Newman once sang, "it's money that matters".
Oh, it'll matter once HBO Max's subscriber base begins to shrink because of Zaslav taking franchises like Flintstones and Looney Tunes away from the kids.
What I think he's angling for is to goose DVD sales, so that fans can have those classics to own, rather than binge on HBO Max. But, isn't that defeating the purpose of HBO Max? Of course. Before plans to merge with Discovery Networks began taking hold last year, WB enforced their copyrights such that it's impossible to find complete episodes of Flintstones, Jetsons, Scooby-Doo, Super Friends, et al, without being altered to avoid copyright enforcement (i.e. videos being shown with "backward" graphics). And if HBO Max is bleeding money already because of Zaslav's short-sighted approach, maybe it's time to get rid of him and his cheapjack ilk, before things get worse.
6 comments:
Big Daddy Zaslav is strictly money focused. He's removed these Looney Tunes shorts and Flintstones episodes so that Warner Bros. Discovery doesn't have to pay royalties to the estates of Chuck Jones, Friz Freleng, Mel Blanc. etc. Big Z and his team's mode of thinking seems to be "They're just cartoons. Who cares?". When HBO Max starts losing subscribers, they will care.
You know, the current buzz (whether or not it's real or rumor) that NBCUniversal is looking to purchase WarnerMedia is sounding better by the day.
Now that’s what I call a dick move.
@Goldstar: Wasn't it your brother or you that brought up that HBO Max was already bleeding subscribers since Zaslav took over last summer? And as for Zaslav, here's a Daily Planet newsflash. They're cartoons, but many of them are 70 years old, or close to them, and beloved by generations of fans. 2, 3, 4 generations.
If the subscriber bleeding continues, color Zaslav gone before 2023 is over.
They better not take off the Teen Titans.
I’m aware of that.
Zaslav will go if he does remove the Titans cartoons.
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