The big cutbacks at Turner Classic Movies that culminated in major management departures caused such a major kerfuffle in Hollywood in recent days that the leaders of Warner Bros. Discovery are working overtime this week to ensure the public that TCM isn’t going anywhere.
A spokesperson dubbed TCM “a cultural treasure which WBD is fully committed to safeguarding, supporting and investing in for the future.”
Credit: John Nowak/Warner Bros. Discovery
Credit: John Nowak/Warner Bros. Discovery
WBD boss David Zaslav, who has publicly professed his love for TCM, reacted to the backlash by shifting power to more filmmaker-friendly Warner Bros. Pictures bosses Michael De Luca and Pamela Abdy instead of WBD TV networks chief content chief Kathleen Finch. Finch had experience with reality TV, not film, and had to navigate the sizable budget cuts in recent months at TCM, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Zaslav this week also rehired beloved longtime Los Angeles-based TCM programmer Charles Tabesh after ousting him a week ago. (TCM, which was Ted Turner’s brainchild in 1994, is now largely managed out of Los Angeles though hosts such as Ben Mankiewicz and Alicia Malone shoot their intros and outros about films in Midtown Atlanta.)
In addition, heralded directors Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg and Paul Thomas Anderson, who last week met with Zaslav via Zoom to discuss the future of TCM, have been promised some sort of involvement in TCM curation, scheduling and content.
Credit: Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP
Credit: Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP
TCM, in a statement, acknowledged that TCM is not immune “to the very real pressure on the entire linear ecosystem,” meaning the continued shrinkage in cable TV usage in favor of streaming. TCM makes most of its revenues from fees generated from subscribers and that pool of money continues to decrease. (The TCM hub on the Max streaming service is currently not overseen by TCM executives.)
TCM is hoping to create “a more sustainable structure behind the screen, one that benefits from the vast resources and promotional engine of WBD’s formidable networks group, so TCM is set up for long-term success,” the statement noted.
The network said it will continue to hold the annual TCM Film Festival every April and will invest more money into content acquisition despite cuts in staff across the board, including marketing and distribution. Many staff members that were exclusively assigned to TCM are now working for multiple cable stations.
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