In a significant change to Warner Bros. Discovery‘s C-suite, Channing Dungey will take over management of the corporate’s U.S. TV networks later this yr, as present chairman and CEO of U.S. Networks Kathleen Finch will retire.
Dungey at present serves as CEO of the Warner Bros. TV Group, and can add oversight of the networks when Finch retires on the finish of the yr.
WBD’s U.S. networks group consists of TNT, TBS, Meals Community, HGTV, Discovery Channel, TruTV, and Investigation Discovery, amongst many others. Finch is a 25-year veteran of the corporate (together with her time spent at Discovery and Scripps), becoming a member of in 1999 as a Meals Community government. She added oversight of the previous Turner networks in 2022 when Discovery and WarnerMedia merged to create Warner Bros. Discovery.
Finch talked to The Hollywood Reporter about her plans for TNT and TBS, together with scripted and sports activities content material, in 2022.
Her retirement and Dungey’s elevation comes amid a second of transition for WBD’s linear TV enterprise. The corporate earlier this month took a $9.1 billion impairment cost on its linear networks, noting the modified economics and tough panorama.
And WBD is in litigation with the NBA after the spots league opted to promote rights packages to Disney, NBC Sports activities and Amazon, rejecting WBD’s bid to match the Amazon package deal. NBA programming is a spine of TNT, with further protection additionally set to come back to TruTV (TNT Sports activities has one season left on its NBA deal).
“There isn’t a one higher at creating charming content material, compelling expertise, and significant way of life manufacturers than Kathleen, who has been my accomplice as we constructed our premier leisure networks at Discovery and created Warner Bros. Discovery as an unscripted powerhouse,” mentioned WBD CEO David Zaslav in an announcement. “Whereas I perceive her long-standing choice to retire, I’ll actually miss her, as will the whole firm, which has benefitted from her unmatched collaboration and distinctive understanding of what our audiences crave.”
“Channing is an unparalleled inventive government who has shepherded numerous award-winning hit reveals. She has the perfect experience and expertise – as a content material developer, platform programmer, and community government – to steer the US Networks,” he added.
“It has been an honor to spend the previous 25 years at Scripps, Discovery, and now Warner Bros. Discovery. I started my journey on the fledgling Meals Community and am so proud to have helped flip it right into a cable powerhouse, after which to steer the crew creating a number of the most addictive unscripted franchises throughout HGTV and TLC, creating family names out of cooks and home flippers, and capturing the cultural dialog with real-life tales,” added Finch. “The best pleasure, and the half I’ll miss essentially the most, is the unimaginable individuals with whom I get to work day-after-day. Beginning with David and all through the group and naturally all of the wonderful on-air expertise, this is without doubt one of the smartest and most inventive teams possible. I’m so happy with what the US Networks group has achieved collectively, and I do know below Channing’s management there are numerous successes to come back.”
