AT&T, the parent company of WarnerMedia, is leaving the entertainment industry to concentrate on telecommunications. The telecom company entered the entertainment industry less than three years ago when it paid $108 billion for AOL Time Warner.
WarnerMedia used to control TMZ, but AT&T began selling off assets in 2022. In a deal that was anticipated to be completed in 2021, WarnerMedia is also splitting off to merge with Discovery. AT&T also agreed to sell Crunchyroll Inc. in 2021 to The Funimation Global Group LLC, a subsidiary of Sony, which will now oversee the anime industry.
In early 2022, AT&T announced that HBO, CNN, Warner Bros., and other prestigious media companies would be combined with Discovery’s cable operations in a new entity that will be created by the merger of WarnerMedia and Discovery Inc. Additionally, AT&T has sold its operations in Europe and Latin America, as well as its DirecTV and Uverse businesses, as well as its Crunchyroll anime streaming subsidiary for $1.2 billion. In 2019, it also sold Sony its 42% stake in the Game Show Network.
Details of the agreement
With the late Warner Bros. TV executive Jim Paratore, Levin, an attorney and former legal TV correspondent created the company in 2005. He will continue in his role as managing editor of TMZ under the new management. Rob Wade, the president of alternative entertainment and specials at Fox Entertainment, will be his immediate supervisor.
Fox Corp. FOX, -2.21% announced that it had acquired the celebrity news website TMZ from the WarnerMedia division of AT&T Inc. T, -2.33% as part of its strategy to diversify into digital media and unscripted production.
The deal’s financial details were not disclosed, but according to persons familiar with the situation, TMZ is valued at less than $50 million. According to a Wall Street Journal report from last month, the firms were reportedly contemplating arrangements that would have valued TMZ between $100 million and $125 million.
Fox Television Studios
Fox Television Studios already airs the television shows TMZ on TV and TMZ Live on network affiliates, and TMZ Sports is carried on the cable channel Fox Sports 1. The purchase is a component of Fox Corporation’s plan to concentrate on live or same-day viewing shows at a time when more people are using streaming services to watch television at their convenience.
Fox Corp. operates a number of television networks, such as Fox News, Fox Sports, and Fox Business, in addition to a gaming section called Fox Bet. It was established after 21st Century was sold to Fox and is the sister business of News Corporation, which publishes tabloids like The New York Post, The Sun, and The Daily Telegraph in Australia and newspapers like The Wall Street Journal, The Times, and The Australian.
TMZ empire falls in perfectly with Fox Studios
TMZ has been known for its brash, tabloid approach and has landed some of the entertainment industry’s biggest scoops, including the death of Michael Jackson. By breaking tales like Mel Gibson’s anti-Semitic outburst in 2006, Alec Baldwin’s irate and abusive voicemail to his daughter in 2007, and Christian Bale’s profanity-laced outburst on the “Terminator Salvation” set in 2009, TMZ has dominated the Hollywood news cycle.
Additionally, TMZ has connections within the Los Angeles emergency services sector, enabling the organisation to break major celebrity deaths first. The passing of pop icon Michael Jackson and former Los Angeles Lakers star Kobe Bryant are among its scoops.
The entertainment business has been fundamentally altered by the distinctive and potent brand Harvey has built with TMZ. The property is a good fit for the Murdoch empire, which runs one of Britain’s largest newspapers, The Sun. The New York Post, with its widely read Page Six section, formerly a rich source of celebrity rumors and an eager participant in Hollywood feuds, is another publication owned by the family.