Barry Meyer, Chairman and CEO of Warner Bros., is in conversation at the Paley Center for Media, Los Angeles."
Bio
Barry Meyer
Barry M. Meyer serves as chairman and chief executive officer of Warner Bros., with oversight of one of the world’s most successful collections of entertainment brands and content. A Time Warner Company, Warner Bros. stands at the forefront of every aspect of the entertainment industry from feature film, television and home entertainment production and worldwide distribution to DVD, Blu-ray, digital distribution, animation, comic books, product and brand licensing, international cinemas and broadcasting.
Under Meyer's leadership, Warner Bros. consistently ranks as one of the strongest, most profitable and best-positioned studios in the industry. As the company embraces new distribution platforms, technologies and opportunities, Meyer leads its efforts to create business models to fit emerging consumer demands. Warner Bros. has an industry-leading position in these new markets and works vigorously with parent company Time Warner's other businesses to leverage the companies' combined strength.
Meyer began his entertainment career in the legal and business affairs departments of the ABC Television Network. He joined Warner Bros. in 1971 as director, business affairs for Warner Bros. Television. Moving up the ranks, he took on the chief operating officer title at Warner Bros. in 1994 and was promoted to chairman and CEO in 1999.
An active leader in the entertainment industry, Meyer often serves as a key advisor on industry-wide production, labor and regulatory issues. He is a member of the Board of Councilors of the USC School of Cinema-Television; a member of the Board of Directors of the Motion Picture Association of America; a member of the Board of the Museum of Television & Radio; a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences; a member and former Governor of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences; and a member and past member of the Board of the Hollywood Radio and Television Society. He also is involved in numerous charitable and civic activities, including serving on the Board of Directors of Human Rights Watch and on the Advisory Board of the National Museum of American History.
Largest media and entertainment conglomerate in the world. The corporation resulted from the merger of media giant Time Warner Inc. and the online company America Online, Inc., in 2001; originally named AOL Time Warner, the corporation dropped AOL from its name in 2003. Major media outlets include the magazines Time, Sports Illustrated, and People and the cable and broadcast television networks HBO, CNN, TBS, and WB. From its start as a bulletin-board system in 1985, AOL grew to become the world's largest Internet service provider by the mid 1990s. The Internet “stock bubble” of the late 1990s enabled it to acquire the much larger Time Warner Inc. See alsoWarner Bros.
U.S. film studio. Beginning in Pennsylvania as movie distributors and theatre owners in 1903, the four Warner brothers started producing their own films in 1913 and moved to Hollywood in 1917. They founded Warner Brothers Pictures Inc. in 1923, with Harry Warner (b. 1881—d. 1958) as president in New York, Albert Warner (b. 1884—d. 1967) as treasurer, and Sam Warner (b. 1888—d. 1927) and Jack Warner (b. 1892—d. 1978) as studio managers in Hollywood. In the mid 1920s they helped develop the important Vitaphone sound process. With the release of The Jazz Singer (1927), the first feature film with synchronized music and dialogue, the studio's success was assured. Warner Brothers went on to produce gangster films starring James Cagney and Edward G. Robinson, adventure movies with Errol Flynn, and mystery dramas with Humphrey Bogart. After his brothers retired, Jack became president (1956–72). See alsoAOL Time Warner Inc.
