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  • The Hollywood Reporter muses on that question, but doesn't actually answer it.

    "How DC Has Weathered Corporate Change Before"

  • Hard to tell.  But if I had to guess, I would be cautiously optimistic. 

    AT&T seemed to have little ability to manage Warner and literally no time for DC Comics. 

    The introduction of Discovery into the mix means that more people with a creative background will have a say and some degree of autonomy.  If nothing else, I expect the new venture to make a serious effort at putting future DC series (mostly live action) under their umbrella and therefore make some competition for The CW.

    AT&T (through Warner) owns half of the CW, but ViacomCBS owns the other half.  That ought to lead to some difficult situations, since CW-produced Arrowverse series end up promoting Warner properties while also earning Viacom money. Not an ideal situation for either media corporation.  

    Odds are that the new venture will have an easier time producing and okaying live action series based on DC properties than CW currently has - and quite possibly better access to creative and financial resources as well, since the tent will not be shared with the competition there.

    It would make sense from AT&T's perspective as well.  They spent considerable money on their media properties and do not seem to have much to show for that. Encouraging cross-polinization between two of those properties increases the odds of better results in the short term.

  • I'm cautiously optimistic as well. But I wouldn't be surprised at another shakeup at DC when all this is settled. Which is a shame -- for the most part I've liked the direction the publisher seems to be going in, and am excusing the Batman-centric output as a defensive crouch so that ATT wouldn't shutter the company completely. Now that they're moving away from them, I'd expect we'll see more diversity of subject matter in the line.

  • I'm lacking some information. Currently, the Discovery Channel is one of the components of Hulu. 

    Does the Discovery company we're discussing own it?

  • Again, I may be mistaken, but I believe that Hulu (which is owned by the Disney group) includes several externally-produced channels on its catalog, including several from Discovery, Inc..

    That is not all that unusual.  Big media corporations are very pragmatic about using distribution channels not their own.

  • The articles I've read that have referred to DC at all do so in terms of "too small to be noticed." That makes sense, except that Disney using Marvel as a cash cow and media horse probably isn't lost on anyone. We do have a Green Lantern prestige series coming to HBO, and for everyone's sake, let's hope it's a hit.

    I have been cautiously optimistic about DC's current output, too, and the more I see of the dregs of 5G I thank what gods there be that Dan DiDio was not allowed to carry that forward. Although several big books seem to be setting up the Future State status quo, which makes me queasy. I mean, raise your hand if you want to see a substitute Batman and Superman a prisoner on Warworld who is killed on a daily basis and resurrected for Mongul's pleasure.

    Aaaaaanyway, another possible merger is Amazon Prime and MGM. Dominoes, I guess.

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