Gephyrophillia | Watch This Space #44

Originally Posted on 03/11/2003 by Jeff Harris

Day two of the Kent era of Turner Broadcasting has come and gone, and already, we have a change in the programming down in Atlanta!

Today, he actually did some restructuring that made sense and didn't favor one network than another, unlike the previous restructuring at the company courtesy of the former boss, old whats-his-face. Turner Broadcasting has divided the company into three divergent units:

Entertainment

News

Animation

Yeah, apparently, the new guy has a fondness of animation that he decided that since it was such a significant unit in the original entertainment unit of Turner, it deserved to be it's own individual division of the new Turner Broadcasting.

The head of each individual unit will be responsible for programming and production, marketing, ad sales, and other duties dedicated to each unit. In other words, the higher ups for Cartoon Network will report to the animation unit of Turner Broadcasting, not the same guy that decides to put on a double repeat of Drew Carey on TBS. It also means that they'll have a lot more money to play with since they don't have to share with TNT and the Superstation.

I knew there was a reason I liked the new guy!

To do this, Kent had to remove a pair of Brads from the management; Bradley Siegel, former head of the general entertainment networks (i.e. the guy who Cartoon Network HAD to report to), and Brad Turrell, a Kellner acolyte who was an exec in public relations have left the company.

The individual animation unit is probably the best thing to happen to Turner Broadcasting in a long time, and it should have happened long ago. Now, we're left to ask one thing.

What's next?

*begin transmission*

(GREETINGS FROM THE FUTURE: Yeah, this little bit of news was a lame smoke-screen that never truly materialized. Yes, there is an animation unit at Turner Broadcasting, but the head of that just happens to be the head of the Entetainment unit of Turner, which is basically what they've been doing prior to this announcement. In other words, Cartoon Network has to answer to the same guy who schedules double episodes of Drew Carey on TBS. Very funny.

At least, that was the case until the spring of 2007, just after Jim Samples quit over the Boston incident, when Stuart Snyder became the head of an autonomous, self-contained, animation unit of Turner Broadcasting, putting him in charge of Cartoon Network Worldwide, Adult Swim, Boomerang, Toonami Jetstream, and Super Deluxe. it took four years, but the animation division finally did become a reality. Of course, they wanted to go beyond animation, but that's a whole other story - JH, 7/10/09)

*end transmission*

Until we are one, later.
Jeff Harris
CNX Creator/Webmaster
March 11, 2003