A new reporting line
Warner Bros. International TV Production, the division that runs roughly 20 production companies and adapts formats like The Bachelor for local markets, now reports through Skydance TV Studios. Warner Bros. Television Group chief Channing Dungey will oversee the unit, while President Ronald Goes continues to run it day to day.
The change was outlined in an internal note from JB Perette, Co-Chair and Chief Business Officer of Skydance TV and Skydance Direct-to-Consumer, seen by Deadline.
Why the shift matters
Before Skydance acquired Warner Bros. Discovery, WBITVP had a different trajectory. It was slated to join the Discovery side under a planned Discovery Global structure led by Gunnar Wiedenfels, rather than sit with the studio. That plan evaporated when the company itself became an acquisition target.
Goes previously reported to Gerhard Zeiler, President, International at Warner Bros. Discovery — not to Dungey. The new structure gives Dungey a direct line into a format network spanning Europe, Australia and New Zealand.
The footprint
- Twenty Twenty: Castle Impossible for HGTV and Love Con Revenge for Netflix
- Wall to Wall: Back to the Frontier for Magnolia
- Ricochet: The Repair Shop for the BBC
- Eyeworks in Belgium and BlazHoffski in the Netherlands, plus divisions in France, Germany, Switzerland, Spain, Italy, Finland, Sweden, Denmark, New Zealand and Australia
The group adapts formats including The Bachelor, First Dates, FBoy Island, Unacceptable, 100 Cooks and Harry Potter: Wizards of Baking.
What it means for the format business
Formats are a margins-and-volume business: a proven idea is licensed and localised repeatedly, lowering development risk for broadcasters and streamers. Placing WBITVP inside the same studio group as Dungey’s television operations makes it easier to coordinate development, sales and local adaptation with the US catalogue.
For media planners and entertainment marketers, the signal is a consolidated international format pipeline. The next test will be speed: whether a closer studio link shortens the time between a format’s success in one market and its rollout in others.
Dungey’s remit already includes the Paramount cable networks, so international formats now report into a leader with a view across both US linear and studio operations. That broad portfolio could make format packaging more attractive to ad-supported and subscription platforms alike.
The senior team stays in place, including Andy Zein, EVP Creative Format Development & Sales, and Alex Ogilvie, Group SVP Finance & Operations — continuity that matters because local relationships and format expertise sit with the production companies more than with the corporate parent.
Source: Deadline
