WB vet Bruce Rosenblum has been named president of the newly formed Warner Bros.Television Group, to oversee and grow the entire Warner Bros. portfolio of television businesses, including worldwide production and distribution as well as broadcasting.
Bruce is one of the most talented and forward-thinking executives working in television today, said Barry M. Meyer, chairman/ceo, Warner Bros., to whom Rosenblum will continue to report. Were going to rely on his intelligence, instincts and unparalleled experience to create dynamic new business models under the banner of the Warner Bros. Television Group. With Bruce at its helm, Im confident our Television Group will continue its legacy of success and remain the dominant supplier of high quality content to the worldwide television marketplace.
Bruce and his entire Television Group team represent an unrivaled television operation that is head and shoulders above its competition, said Alan Horn, president/coo, Warner Bros. The Television Group is both a significant contributor to the overall profitability of our company and an invaluable strategic partner for the other Warner Bros. divisions.
EVP at the studio since 1999, Rosenblum played a vital role as one of founders of The WB Network and was an architect of record-setting license fee negotiations for some of the studios hits, including FRIENDS, ER and THE WEST WING. Rosenblum has also been committed to developing new revenue streams for television content in emerging media platforms.
For the 2005-2006 season, the Warner Bros. Television Group has a wide breadth of production across multiple platforms. It will produce an unprecedented 51 primetime, first-run, cable and animated series. Warner Bros. Television supplies 33 series to the six broadcast networks plus two series to cable. WBTV has been one of the most prolific producers of primetime series for 16 of the last 19 television seasons.
In addition to WBTV, Rosenblum also oversees the other two television production arms at Warner Bros. Telepictures Prods., which specializes in programming for the first-run marketplace and produces the Emmy Award-winning THE ELLEN DEGENERES SHOW, and Warner Bros. Animation, a major supplier to Kids WB! and to Cartoon Network.
Warner Bros. Domestic Television Dist. is a leading distributor of first-run and off-network programming, supplying content to the basic cable marketplace, as well as theatrical films to pay and basic cable and the broadcast networks. Together, they distribute a content library in excess of 48,000 television episodes and more than 600 television movies and miniseries. Warner Bros. International Television Dist. distributes the studios theatrical films and television programs to the international television marketplace. With 10 overseas offices, WBITV licenses programming, dubbed or subtitled in more than 40 languages, to more than 175 countries.
Rosenblum will also oversee The WB Television Network. Launched with Rosenblums hands-on involvement in January 1995, The WB is one of the leading young adult brand creations of the past decade and has successfully evolved into an important strategic partner for the other television group divisions. This fall the networks 7TH HEAVEN (from Spelling Television) enters its 10th season to become the longest running family drama of all time.
Our tremendous scale, both from current production and our library, provides us with a material competitive advantage and positions us well to take full advantage of the enhanced value of content as new and improved distribution channels, such as DVD, video-on-demand, broadband and wireless platforms are developed and mature throughout the world. We are well positioned for future growth, Rosenblum said.
In 1994, Rosenblum became svp, television business management until being named evp in 1999. Rosenblum first came to Warner Bros. as vp, business affairs as part of Warner Communications 1989 acquisition of Lorimar Telepictures. He joined Lorimar in 1986 from Dern, Mason & Floum (now Del, Shaw, Moonves, Tanaka & Finkelstein), where he began his career as an entertainment attorney in 1982.
