Home Entertainment Group to Encompass Digital Distribution, Home Video, Online, Wireless, Games, Emerging Technologies and Anti-Piracy

New Business Unit, Warner Bros. Digital Distribution,Formed Within Home Entertainment Group

Warner Bros. Entertainment has realigned its businesses involved in the digital delivery of entertainment content to consumers to create the Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Group and has named Kevin Tsujihara its President. In his new post, Tsujihara will report directly to Barry M. Meyer, Chairman & CEO, Warner Bros. and Alan F. Horn, President & COO, Warner Bros., both of who made these announcements today.

The Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Group includes home video, online, wireless, games and anti-piracy and emerging technologies operations. Its founding is recognition of the ongoing changes in the way consumers view entertainment product and seeks to maximize current and next-generation distribution scenarios to make the Studio’s content available to audiences through as many channels, platforms and devices as possible. The formation of the Home Entertainment Group also furthers the Company’s mandate to harness the benefits of emerging technologies, as well as manage the risks these technologies pose to the economic value of the content. By grouping like business units and streamlining the process of delivering the Studio’s content to consumers in the format of their choice as conveniently as possible, Warner Bros. is well-positioned to maintain its industry-leading role in the rapidly evolving home entertainment marketplace, while moving the consumers’ home entertainment experience into a new era.

Concurrent with the founding of the Home Entertainment Group is the formation of Warner Bros. Digital Distribution, a business unit within the Home Entertainment Group that will include Warner Bros. Online and Wireless, as well as the businesses handling electronic sell-through, VOD, SVOD and pay-per-view. Warner Bros. Digital Distribution will manage the worldwide electronic distribution streams of the Studio’s product over existing, new and emerging digital platforms. Previously, management of these functions was handled by a number of different business units across the Studio.

Also as part of the formation of the Home Entertainment Group, Tsujihara has named Ron Sanders as President, Warner Home Video (see separate release). The head of Warner Bros. Digital Distribution will be announced shortly.

“At the end of the day, content drives our businesses. Our company’s strategic advantage is that we create innovative and unique content on a massive scale, be it television shows, animated characters or films of all sorts, from global blockbusters to small, local-language pictures,” said Meyer. “Warner Bros. operates on a global scale, and to fully realize our content’s potential, we must have the perspective of a global strategy. We must safely exploit our assets across every exhibition outlet available to us today and those developed in the future, while managing windowing structures so as not to cannibalize these assets and with a constant eye toward protecting them from digital theft. Kevin is a visionary executive, well versed in future-based technologies, and the ideal person to help us navigate the uncharted territories we’ll face with emerging and next-generation distribution and exhibition platforms. We’ll look to him and his expertise to help shape and execute the company’s digital strategies and business plans.”

“The way audiences access our content is changing every day, and the formation of the Home Entertainment Group is a strategic move to keep Warner Bros.’ product front, center and easily accessible to consumers,” said Horn. “We know that people aren’t just sitting on the couch and watching TV anymore—they’re into DVD, video games, video-on-demand, the Internet, PDAs and more. As content providers, it is absolutely in our best interest to responsibly meet consumer demand for our product across as many of these exhibition platforms as possible, and in turn to use these platforms to help us extend the entertainment experience and ultimately give the consumer more flexibility.”

The business units comprising the Home Entertainment Group include Warner Bros. Digital Distribution, Warner Home Video, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment (including Warner Bros. Games), Warner Bros. Technical Operations and Warner Bros. Anti-Piracy Operations. Tsujihara will oversee the management of each of these divisions to fully integrate its operations into the overall objectives of the Home Entertainment Group.

Warner Home Video, headed by Sanders, will be the cornerstone of the Home Entertainment Group. In addition to spearheading the Studio’s move into next-generation, high-definition DVD, home video will continue to mine its unmatched library of film and television hits, expanding both its catalog and domestic franchise releases.

In the online and wireless arenas, Jim Noonan, Senior Vice President & General Manager, Warner Bros. Online, will work through Warner Bros. Digital Distribution to fully maximize and exploit the promotion and marketing of the Studio’s entertainment titles across all current and future platforms.

Gaming is an arena in which the Studio plans to increase its production and output levels of both original properties and those based on titles in the vast Warner Bros. library. Under the leadership of Jason Hall, Senior Vice President, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, Warner Bros.’ game business will be integrated into the Home Entertainment Group while continuing to work closely with Warner Bros. Consumer Products on its licensed titles.

The final components of the Home Entertainment Group are rights management, technical operations and anti-piracy technology.

Chris Cookson, President, Warner Bros. Technical Operations; Darcy Antonellis, Senior Vice President, Warner Bros. Anti-Piracy Operations; and Dean Marks, Senior Vice President, Intellectual Property, Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Group, will work closely with Tsujihara and the rest of the Home Entertainment Group team to create, evaluate and best exploit new technologies, digital rights management applications and digital safeguards for securely delivering content across all current emerging distribution platforms. Cookson, Antonellis and Marks will also continue to hone the company’s DRM technologies to provide a greater array of choices, flexibility and price structures to consumers while protecting unauthorized redistribution of the Studio’s content.

“The great promise of digital technology and the development and implementation of digital rights management is that consumers will be able to choose how they want to consume content,” said Tsujihara. “We’re entering an exciting time in the entertainment business when the consumer, empowered by new technologies, has an active role in the process instead of being a passive participant. As exhibition platforms, distribution channels and even technologies in the creative process continue to evolve, it’s our goal as a company to be a leader in offering unique and innovative entertainment options to the public.”

Prior to his promotion, Tsujihara had served at the Studio as Executive Vice President, Corporate Business Development & Strategy for three years and before that as Executive Vice President, New Media. In both of these posts, he was responsible for the oversight of all of Warner Bros.’ new media endeavors and initiatives, including identifying and negotiating equity investments and strategic alliances with companies whose assets could play an integral role in moving the Company forward in both the new and traditional media. He also had corporate oversight of Warner Bros. Online.

Tsujihara joined the Studio in 1994 to assist in the management of the company’s interest in Six Flags. He was then promoted to Vice President, Corporate Projects and later to Senior Vice President, Strategic Planning and Development.

He holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration from University of Southern California and an MBA from Stanford University. In between earning his degrees, he spent four years in Ernst & Young’s entertainment division working in the audit and merger and acquisitions areas. Upon graduating from Stanford, he founded QuickTax, Inc., a company specializing in the electronic filing of tax and financial data.

Contact Info:
Sue Fleishman, Warner Bros.
(818) 954-1919
susan.fleishman@warnerbros.com

Scott Rowe
(818) 954-5806
scott.rowe@warnerbros.com