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AT & T's pruning of WarnerMedia continues: Turner announced that it is killing off Super Deluxe, its edgy digital and TV studio.
"Turner is proud of the unique brand Super Deluxe has built over the past three years, and the cutting-edge content and innovations this incredible group of very talented people has made," the cable programmer said in a statement. "However, there are now massive changes in the social and mobile-first ecosystem and duplication with other business units in our new WarnerMedia portfolio. Super Deluxe Founding Inspiring Ways of Connecting with a New Generation and Their Future Practices.
Turner revived Super Deluxe in 2015, bringing back the short-form comedy brand in its earlier incarnation lasted for about 18 months in the late 2000s. L.A.-based Super Deluxe was set up as an independent unit within Turner, which hired to form CBS Films co-president Wolfgang Hammer as president.
With Super Deluxe winding down, Hammer will depart the company. Super Deluxe currently has 54 full-time employees. According to a source, no decisions have been made yet. Staffers will be encouraged to apply for open positions in other Turner divisions; those who do not find a placement will receive severance.
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"Super Deluxe is the future of entertainment for creative youth," the studio says on its website. It claimed to reach 52 million monthly consumers 18-34, with an average of 165 million monthly views across Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and Instagram.
Super Deluxe was overseen by Kevin Reilly, Chief Creative Officer for Turner Entertainment and President of TBS and TNT. In describing Super Deluxe in 2016, Reilly said, "Our belief in the value proposition of 'premium plus personalization' now extends to the emerging ecosystem of mobile-centric consumers and next-generation creators in this space."
The Super Deluxe team produced a steady stream of short-form, irreverent and weird comedy segments, while also pursuing a strategy of developing longer-form TV shows.
Among those is Netflix's "Chambers," a supernatural drama starring Uma Thurman executive produced by Stephen Gaghan ("Traffic"), currently in production in the Albuquerque, N.M., area. Super Deluxe will continue its production commitment on "Chambers." The studio also produced "This Close" for SundanceNow, produced by deaf people.
In addition, Super Deluxe has set a Nov. 2 release for "The Passage," a modern-day silent movie starring theatrical clown Philip Burgers, on iTunes and Turner's FilmStruck SVOD service. "The Passage," which Super Deluxe has an Oscar Contender, may also be released on TBS's digital channels. The studio's projects in development included "Silver Foxes," a gay senior-citizen sitcom from the creators of "The Golden Girls."
In another move evidently related to AT & T's restructuring of WarnerMedia operations, on Oct. 16 Warner Bros. abruptly shut down DramaFever, the drama and Asian programming streaming service, citing changes in the market dynamics for K-drama. WB had acquired DramaFever, founded in 2009, almost three years ago.
AT & T closed the Time Warner deal in June, winning WarnerMedia and putting telecom exec John Stankey in charge as CEO.
After AT & T first announced its bid for Time Warner in October 2016, Turner and Super Deluxe executives were optimistic about lobbying the telco to invest in the digital studio the "first screen." Obviously, that did not pan out.
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