EX-HBO HEAD TO MAKE TV, MOVIES FOR APPLE'S STREAMING SERVICE

The former head of HBO, Richard Plepler, has signed an exclusive production deal with Apple to make TV shows and movies for the iPhone maker’s new streaming service, Apple TV Plus.

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Plepler is well known in the entertainment industry and cultivated HBO’s reputation for “prestige” TV. He left the company after AT&T bought its owner, Time Warner. AT&T began changing Time Warner, now known as WarnerMedia, to fuel the creation of more content for its own streaming service, HBO Max, which is expected to launch this spring. AT&T has kept the HBO name for the service but made it more mass-market than the cable channel, including adding old hit TV shows like “Friends” and “The Big Bang Theory.”