Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes must decide how to replace Barry Meyer and Alan Horn, who have jointly presided over the studio and are to step down in 2011.
With the heads of Warner Bros. signing only two-year contract extensions, Time Warner Inc. Chief Executive Jeff Bewkes will focus on succession and how the movie and television studio should be managed in the face of tectonic shifts in the entertainment industry and a harsh economic environment.
The performance of the legendary Hollywood studio, with its rich legacy of producing cultural touchstones such as Looney Tunes and the “Harry Potter" series, will receive closer scrutiny as it becomes more important to the bottom line of parent Time Warner in the wake of its spinning off its cable TV systems.
At the same time, Time Warner must grapple with a movie and TV business that, after years of double-digit growth and spending, confronts mature markets being undercut by technology and the Internet.
For the last decade, studio Chairman Barry Meyer, 65, and President Alan Horn, 66, have jointly presided over Warner Bros. They have continued a tradition of dual management at the studio that has spanned more than three decades and four executive regimes.
Their tenure has been defined by placing bets on big-budget “franchise" movies such as “The Matrix" and costly TV dramas such as “E.R." and sitcoms such as “Two and a Half Men," all aimed at broad audiences and blockbuster status to reap huge rewards.
Bewkes said Tuesday that the stage for Meyer and Horn's planned exit in 2011 -- he doesn't rule out another contract extension, but most think it is highly unlikely -- was set last year during talks about their future. He said they agreed that the time was coming to step aside in favor of younger executives, but no definite end date had been set until recently.
“Together we decided we should extend their contracts to cover the time period," Bewkes said.
The relatively short contracts, which are linked to each other, means that Bewkes has only about 12 months to line up possible successors at Warner Bros. Since becoming chief executive of Time Warner 14 months ago, Bewkes has moved swiftly to restructure the biggest media company in the world, which has been pounded by investors unhappy with its welter of unconnected assets.
So far, however, the onetime HBO executive has largely left the management of Warner Bros. in the hands of Meyer and Horn.
