Why AT&T's HBO shakeup might be a huge mistake

Vulture

Outgoing CEO and chairman Richard Plepler was part of the DNA at HBO and is uniquely qualified to help guide the pay cable channel through such a momentous transition as it scales up, says Josef Adalian. He points out that HBO viewers won't notice a difference in HBO for years since many of the future programming Plepler oversaw is already in development. "HBO’s reputation and ability to nurture shows (and showrunners) obviously doesn’t disappear with Plepler," says Adalian. "But it will change. A producer who sells a pitch to (HBO programming chief Casey) Bloys might now reasonably worry that (new HBO and TNT boss) Greenblatt could decide at some point during the development process that her idea really ought to be on TBS or even streaming only. That was never on the table when HBO was a separate entity."