HBO Max Europe will be cutting jobs following a major strategic review. This will result in the halting of development of local originals in Central and Nordic Europe.
Warner Bros. is making this move. Discovery merger gathers pace and the outfit seeks £3B worth of savings within two years, with HBO Max set to be combined with Discovery+.
Deadline reports that HBO Max Europe jobs are in danger following the review. The review will also see the halting of nascent Turkish and Dutch development activities after less than one year. Details regarding possible redundancies are still being worked out.
Reviewing shows in production or postproduction in the Nordics and Central Europe are currently underway. Hits to have already emerged from the region include the likes of Denmark’sKamikaze(pictured) and Sweden’sLust.
The review does not affect Spain or France, which are the only territories in which HBO Max is present.
“As we continue to work on combining HBO Max and discovery+ into one global streaming service showcasing the breadth of content across Warner Bros. Discovery, we are reviewing our current content proposition on the existing services,”An HBO Max statement.
“Our commitment to these markets has not changed. We will continue to commission local content for Warner Bros. Discovery’s linear networks in these regions and we remain substantial acquirers of local third-party content for use on our streaming services.”
This review comes three months after HBO Max Europe’s commissioning team was announced at Series Mania. In that time, each commissioner spoke out publicly about what content they want.
Since then, WarnerMedia’s Priya Dogra has been promoted to President & MD EMEA (exc. Poland, while Antony Root continues to oversee original production for HBO Max across EMEA. Christina Sulebakk has moved to Warner Bros. Discovery General Manager Nordics.
Under Root is Iberia Commissioning Editor of Original Programming Miguel Salvat; Nordics Commissioning Editing Editor and Vice President Original Programming Christian Wikander; France VP, commissioning Editor and VP Original Production Vera Peltekian; Central Europe Commissioning Secretary Johnathan Young and Turkey Executive director of Content Acquisition Mia Edde. Annelies Sitvast, Hanka Kastelicová and Steve Matthews work in pan-European roles.
Variety broke the news about the restructure of HBO Max Europe.