WarnerMedia

Background

WarnerMedia (formerly known as Time Warner from 1990 to 2001 and again from 2003 to 2018; from 2001 to 2003, AOL Time Warner; 1972 to 1990, Warner Communications and from 1966 to 1972, Kinney National Company) was an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate corporation owned by AT&T and headquartered at the 30 Hudson Yards complex in New York City, United States. It was originally established in 1966 as Kinney National Company by Steve Ross, then reincorporated in 1972 as Warner Communications, and Time Warner was created in 1990, following a merger between Time Inc. and the original Warner Communications. On October 10, 1996, Time Warner acquired Turner Broadcasting System, which was established by Ted Turner in 1965. Not only did this result in the company (in a way) re-entering the basic cable television industry (in regards to nationally available channels), but Warner Bros. also regained the rights to their pre-1950 film library, which by then had been owned by Turner (the films are still technically held by Turner, but WB is responsible for sales and distribution), while Turner gained access to WB's post-1950 library, as well as other WB-owned properties. The Turner deal also brought two separate film companies, New Line Cinema and Castle Rock Entertainment, into the Time Warner fold. Despite spinning off Time Inc. in 2014, the company retained the Time Warner name until AT&T's acquisition in 2018, after which it became WarnerMedia.

On October 22, 2016, AT&T officially announced that they intended on acquiring Time Warner for $85.4 billion (including assumed Time Warner debt), valuing the company at $107.50 per share. The proposed merger was confirmed on June 12, 2018, after AT&T won an antitrust lawsuit that the U.S. Justice Department filed in 2017 to attempt to block the acquisition. The merger closed two days later, with the company becoming a subsidiary of AT&T. The company's current name was adopted a day later. Under AT&T, the company moved to launch a streaming service built around the company's content, known as HBO Max two years later.

On March 4, 2019, AT&T announced a major reorganization of its broadcasting assets to effectively dissolve Turner Broadcasting. Its assets were dispersed across two of the new divisions, WarnerMedia Entertainment and WarnerMedia News & Sports. WarnerMedia Entertainment would consist of HBO, TBS, TNT, TruTV, and the direct-to-consumer video service HBO Max. WarnerMedia News & Sports would have CNN Worldwide, Turner Sports, and the AT&T SportsNet regional networks led by CNN president Jeff Zucker. Cartoon Network, Adult Swim, Boomerang, Turner Classic Movies, and Otter Media would be moved under Warner Bros. Gerhard Zeiler moved from being president of Turner International to chief revenue officer of WarnerMedia, and will oversee the consolidated advertising and affiliation sales. David Levy and HBO chief Richard Plepler stepped down as part of the reorganization, which was described by The Wall Street Journal as being intended to end "fiefdoms". Turner Podcast Network, formed within Turner Content Distribution in 2017, became WarnerMedia Podcast Network by May 2019. WarnerMedia later refolded Turner's entertainment-based networks under a singular umbrella unit on August 10, 2020, through a consolidation of the WarnerMedia Entertainment and Warner Bros. Entertainment assets into a new unit, WarnerMedia Studios & Networks Group.

In May 2021, nearly three years after the acquisition, AT&T announced that it had proposed to spin-off WarnerMedia and merge it with Discovery, Inc. to form a single company Warner Bros. Discovery, under Discovery Inc.'s CEO David Zaslav.

Time Warner

(August 25, 1991-1992?)

Logo: On a dark red (later black) background, we see the text "A TIME WARNER COMPANY" (later "A TIME WARNER ENTERTAINMENT COMPANY" in white.

Technique: None.

Music/Sounds: None.

Availability: Seen on some early shows made by HBO Independent Productions, such as the pilot episode of Roc.

AOL Time Warner

(2003)

Logo: On a blocky blue background, we see various clips of AOL Time Warner's films and TV shows. Then they all move to the left and "AOL Time Warner" in Times New Roman surrounded by lines zooming out.

Technique: 2D animation.

Music/Sounds: The closing theme of the corporate reel.

Availability: Only seen on a corporate reel by AOL Time Warner.

WarnerMedia

1st Logo (2019)

Logo: On a space background, the AT&T logo in gold materializes, and zooms out as the WB shield, Turner and HBO also materialize in the same color. Then "WarnerMedia" in a modified AT&T Aleck Sans also materializes. We then fade to a gold screen to start the reel.

Technique: CGI.

Music/Sounds: The opening theme and Morgan Freeman's voice-over of the reel.

Availability: Only seen on a 2019 opening reel from WarnerMedia.

2nd Logo (August 7, 2020-2022)

Logo: On a black background, we see a gold clapperboard-like shape closing. Then on a gold background, two black "V"-like shapes collide on the middle of the screen. Then, we see the white words "WarnerMedia", slightly apart from each other, moving a bit so that they are together, on a grey background.

Variants:

On the "We Are WarnerMedia" video on YouTube, the logo was extended. Here, the clapperboard closes slower and moves up, there's an extra scene where we see a close up of the black Vs on a gold background, but the colors are inverted, the two Vs collide slower and the text merges slower.
On the Telefe iteraion to Pasapalabra, a in-credit version was used.
On Bunker, a still version on a black background was used.
- The same variant appears on The Cut, but with the words "LATIN AMERICA" is used above the logo.

Technique: 2D animation by Wolff Olins.

Music/Sounds: A snapping sound similar to the one heard on the Nintendo Switch start-up.

Music/Sounds Variants:

"We Are WarnerMedia" uses part of the reel's theme.
The in-credit variant uses the ending theme.
For the still version, None or the ending theme.

Availability: Unknown.