WarnerMedia CEO Jason Kilar is set to depart from the company after the Discovery merger. In a memo sent out to staff members this week, the executive reflected on his two-year stint with the company. It’s been a wild time as he had to help WarnerMedia navigate uncharted waters in the pandemic. HBO Max managed to soar upon launch and has remained a powerful player in the streaming landscape. However, the next couple of years will be critical as the number of platforms continues to grow by the day. Luckily, Kilar’s successor will have the entire stable of content at WarnerMedia in tow for whatever comes next. CNN’s Oliver Darcy managed to post the memo on Twitter.
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Kilar said, “With the pending transaction with Discovery nearing close, now is the right time to share with each of you that I will be departing this amazing company.”
In a previous conversation, the CEO told Cheddar News that the forecast for the entire entertainment industry was a bit cloudy. He expanded when talking to ReCode this week. “The only thing I can promise you is change. There is no doubt that change is coming, and that’s appropriate because we live in a dynamic time,” Kilar explained. “That’s very, very different than the way the world operated in 2019,” he said. “Ultimately, I do think that as long as you’re thoughtful about it, change could be very, very good for not only the customers but also the people we get to work with.”
When asked what his proudest contribution to WarnerMedia was, Kilar responded with some thoughts about the role of a legacy company in such a new landscape. “Focus on the customer. The 99-year history of the company has been largely one of being a wholesaler,” he opined. “We create motion pictures, TV series, documentaries, and sometimes TV channels, but then we hand those things over to other companies and they interact with the customer, the audience, the fan. And over the last two years, it has been a dramatic change in the company and the strategy and even the culture, to be very focused on the customer and to ultimately serve them directly.”
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