HBO Max EMEA content chief Root to leave

HBO Max EMEA content chief Antony Root is to step down from his role at Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) at the end of March, after more than a decade with the company.

Antony Root

Root took on his current EVP & head of original production position in 2021, having joined HBO in 2011 to lead original programming and production for its HBO Europe arm.

DTVE sister title TBI understands that while the exec is retiring from corporate life, he plans to pursue new TV production endeavours, details of which are yet to be announced.

Root’s departure comes six months after TBI exclusively revealed that his team was to be disbanded, with WBD now commissioning European originals and acquiring through regional teams for both streaming and TV channels, rather than exclusively for HBO Max.

He was asked to stay on by EMEA president & MD, Priya Dogra, as HBO Max’s originals slate was wrapped. This has included delivering completed originals and overseeing the recent deal with SkyShowtime that saw the streamer acquire 21 former HBO Max European originals that he had originally commissioned.

WBD is yet to confirm whether Root will be replaced and to whom executives under his purview will now report. These include HBO Max originals execs Vera Pelketian (France), Miguel Salvat (Iberia) and Hanka Kastelicová (documentaries).

During his time at HBO and then WBD, Root has commissioned and overseen more than 1,000 episodes of original programming across scripted, documentaries and unscripted. Titles include The Pack and Blinded By The Lights in Poland; Burning Bush and Wasteland in Czechia; Golden Life in Hungary; Collective in Romania; Patria and 30 Coins in Spain; and Beartown, Beforeigners and Kamikaze in the Nordics.