Warner Bros splits operations to face the challenge of digital future

Hollywood's identity crisis continues apace - and US TV is in trouble.

- Stephen Armstrong

The CEO of Warner Bros Discovery, David Zaslav, has announced he is hiving off the company’s sluggish but profitable linear TV and cable business into a separate publicly traded company Global Networks and keeping the glamorous Streaming & Studios operation for himself.

It's part of a trend in the US: Comcast, which owns NBC, spun off its cable networks CNBC, MSNBC, USA and E! last November, and Paramount is expected to do the same, assuming it can sort out the legal challenges it is facing from Donald Trump over CBS’ election coverage. Global Networks will own CNN, TNT Sports and Discovery, with the split prompting fears that an underfunded and underperforming CNN will struggle to survive.