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FROM LEFT: ILLUSTRATION BY LIA KANTOWICZ; JON KOPALOFF/WIREIMAGE; COURTESY STARBUCKS; COURTESY GE
Raising the Stakes
In TV’s TalentWars
Warner Bros., which owns DC as well as half of
the CW Television Network, where many of its
shows air. Of the 12 series that will run in prime
time on the CW this fall, Berlanti is an executive
producer of seven.
So with two years before Berlanti’s contract was
set to expire, Roth ofered the 46-year-old a con-
tract worth at least $400 million to stay at Warner
Bros. through 2024. Berlanti and Roth both declined
to comment on the deal, believed to be one of the
most lucrative for a TV producer in the history of
Hollywood, according to interviews with more than
a dozen executives, agents, and producers. It’s also
a sign of how traditional studios, tired of losing their
best people to Netlix, are ighting back. Warner
Bros. bought out Berlanti’s rights to future proits on
all his current shows, what’s known as the back end,
a structure that allowed it to ofer himmore money
up front than he would have otherwise received.
Roth has set a template others have followed.
Lions Gate Entertainment Corp. is nearing an exclu-
sive movie and TV deal with comedy producers Seth
Rogen and Evan Goldberg—outmaneuvering Netlix
and
Amazon.comInc.—using a similar approach.
And Disney, once it concludes its acquisition of Fox,
will turn its attention to securing soon-to-be free
agents such as
Family Guy
producer Seth MacFarlane
and
Modern Family
creator Steven Levitan.
“There is a lot of crazy stuf happening in the
market today, and there is an aggressive dividing
line between what is now considered old media
companies and new media companies,” says Joe
Cohen, a talent representative at Creative Artists
Agency who negotiated Murphy’s deal with Netlix.
Netlix’s Hollywood raid started with Rhimes,
the creator of
Scandal
and
Grey’s Anatomy
. The
company ofered her the biggest deal of her career
to leave ABC and produce programs exclusively
for the streaming service. Rhimes jumped at the
chance to free herself from the limitations of broad-
cast TV—where overt politics, nudity, and swear
words are all prohibited.
THE BOTTOM LINE The Polish government is planning a $19 billion
airport near Warsaw to showcase the country’s growing economic
clout, but skeptics say the project is unnecessary and too expensive.
served by Ryanair. The irst phase of the project
will cost 35 billion zloty, or more than 10 percent of
this year’s national budget. Some part of that would
come from the EU, but the government says it’s also
likely to take on debt.
Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary calls the idea
“stupid” and a “shiny cathedral in the middle of
nowhere.” And the residents of Baranow have
voted against the plan. “I see more megalomani-
acal self-aggrandizement than any realistic analy-
sis in this project,” says Marcin Swiecicki, a former
Warsaw mayor and member of parliament from
Civic Platform, the biggest opposition party.
The government insists the project is sound and
is moving ahead. Oicials say expanding Chopin
makes little sense, because it’s inside Warsaw’s city
limits, with hundreds of thousands of people living
nearby. And for Milczarski and government lead-
ers, building a new facility is the best way to ensure
LOT’s—and Poland’s—role in the global economy.
“We are Polish, and we are proud of that,” Milczarski
says. “But we deine the scope of our activity more
broadly.”
—James M. Gomez and Maciej Martewicz
Peter Roth knew it was time to take out his check-
book. Roth, the head of Warner Bros. Entertainment
Inc.’s TV studio, had just watched Netlix Inc. lure
top producers from several rivals by ofering them
more money than they’d ever made before. Ryan
Murphy, the creator of
American Horror Story
,
left 21st Century Fox Inc. for a deal worth at least
$240 million. Shonda Rhimes, the showrunner of
Grey’s Anatomy
, left Walt Disney Co. for at least
$150 million. Roth was determined not to let Greg
Berlanti, one of his own star producers, do the same.
The proliic Berlanti has 15 shows on the air,
the most of any TV producer in history, includ-
ing several adaptations of DC Comics franchises
such as
Supergirl
and
Arrow
that appeal to tweens
and young women. He’s particularly valuable to
○ Netflix’s high-priced poaching is forcing
Hollywood’s television studios to fight back
○ Rhimes
BUSINESS
Bloomberg Businessweek
October 8, 2018