WarnerMedia will be discontinuing HBO, WB Channels soon in South Asia.
“After 20 years of successes for the HBO linear movie channel in South Asia and more than a decade with the WB linear movie channel, this was a difficult decision to make,” Siddharth Jain, SVP and MD, Warner Media South Asia, said. “The pay-TV industry landscape and the market dynamics have shifted dramatically, and the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the need for further change.”
“We would like to express our heartfelt appreciation to all our partners and fans who have made HBO and WB household names,” Jain added. “We also owe a debt of gratitude to all our employees who have worked so passionately on these well-loved brands. WarnerMedia has a strong interest in India and is committed to assessing optimal opportunities to serve valued customers here.”
The services of Cartoon Network and POGO will stay and the employees based in Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru to handle its kids’ channel operations, sales and marketing, and also the distribution of CNN International.
This move comes a few weeks after their Summit chat where the Network spoke about the Indian market.
In India, we don’t have the scale that we want and where we have to be,” Gerhard Zeiler, head of international, WarnerMedia had said in a fireside chat at the APOS Summit 2020 in early September. “We have our work cut out in the market. But you will hear more about HBO Max in the next months or next year. It’s going to be our workhorse going forward.”
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