Warner Bros still eyeing Endemol acquisition

Hollywood studio Warner Bros would still consider an possible acquisition of production company Endemol depending on what the latter’s owners decide to do about the future of the company, according to Bruce Rosenblum, president of Warner Bros Television Group.

Speaking at the NAB show in Las Vegas yesterday, Rosenblum said: “We very publicly made an offer for Endemol, which was not accepted and Endemol is going through a process to decide what to do. We are sitting on the sidelines now while the current owners work out what the ownership structure will be. It’s on our radar, but we are on the sidelines right now.”

Rosenblum also said that the development of new digital distribution opportunities meant that Warner Bros’ back catalogue was becoming more valuable. “Our library is becoming more valuable because there are more opportunities to develop subscription video-on-demand,” he said. However, he stressed that the only business model that made sense was an ongoing partnership with existing distributors. “Warner Bros is not a consumer brand for TV,” he said.

He said that the company was dependent on the activities of national US network providers including NBC and CBS to market its shows, and the latter bore the risk of marketing the shows to the public. “The decisions on what primetime shows to put on are made by the networks and not by us and they pay the marketing costs for those shows,” he said.