Finance Business Partner, Warner Bros Discovery
Office located in Old Street, London
Entertainment company
Open for applications
Entertainment company
1001+ employees
Open for applications
Office located in Old Street, London
1001+ employees
Company mission
To take the world’s greatest possibilities and make them a reality - creating impact, inspiring imagination, and building connections.
Role
Who you are
- Experience of working in the international TV production and/or format business, ideally in a multinational, multicurrency environment
- Graduate / graduate calibre
- Qualified Accountant (ACA/ACCA/CIMA)
- Proven ability to work as a business partner to senior management, with a variety of functional responsibilities & ability to interact effectively and influence across all levels of management
What the job involves
- As directed by VP, FP&A, the Finance Business Partner is the primary point of day-to-day contact between Group and the Business Director of a defined number of local Opcos, working closely with the Controllership & Accounting teams (supporting corporate accounting & compliance); and with Business Management & Operations team (in relation to operational issues)
- The Finance Business Partner is responsible for ensuring that the Opcos provide financial planning and actual information to Group on a timely basis; and for collating regular financial reporting and analysis for the Management Team, together with appropriate variance analysis, KPI’s and commentary
- By maintaining day-to-day contact with the Opco Business Directors & Production Finance heads, the Finance Business Partner should understand the business rationale and commercial circumstances behind the Opco’s financials; and should provide both the Opco and Group management with relevant financial information including business background, recommendations, and conclusions
- Ensure that the Opco Business Director fully understands and complies with Group reporting timetables for all relevant Finance deliverables
- Ensure timely delivery of monthly US GAAP financial management reporting pack, with appropriate & consistent explanation of significant variations from budget / latest re-forecast
- Ensure that subsequent re-forecasts reflect impact of highlighted variations (including monthly full-year forecasts and programme slates), with appropriate explanation
- Ensure financial planning and reporting highlights are shared with the ITVP Management & Operations management teams in a timely manner; and relevant information shared with Senior Manager FP&A to enable consistent inclusion in Group financial planning and reporting
- Ensure that the financial elements of annual budget and quarterly re-forecast review materials are prepared and circulated ahead of review meetings
- In conjunction with the rest of the FP&A team, review accuracy and consistency of budget and re-forecast dataloads into SAP and assist with Cause of Change analysis
- Understand and validate assumptions used in programme slates, including per episode revenues & cost production ultimates during relevant financial planning and reporting cycles
- Understand and validate assumptions used for overhead expenses, overhead allocations to cost of sales, amortization and depreciation charges, interest expense and other income and costs as appropriate
- Track Opco capital expenditure budgets, re-forecasts and annual spend, ensuring costs/benefit analysis is provided for all proposed investments
- Ensure an accurate and timely cash-flow forecasting and reporting process, including analysis of related assumptions and variations
- In conjunction with Senior Manager FP&A, ensure that adequate management and financial review procedures and associated controls operate as required by the Group SOX framework (as applicable)
- Build day-to-day relationships with the Opco Management Team, including the relevant Managing Director
- Support the local Opco Management Team, addressing any issues with financial systems or procedures that might impede the successful operation or development of the business
- Ensure clear understanding and ongoing implementation of delegation of authorities, administrative organization, and internal controls within the local Opco (based on WBITVP Group Policies)
- Where operational decisions are taken within the local Opco, ensure that the financial impact of such decisions are communicated to FP&A & Operations teams on a timely basis
- Build and follow up on ongoing action lists applicable to each Opco and track/assign responsibilities
- Attend each assigned Opco’s forecast review meeting (4-6 times a year) with the corresponding Opco Management Team, VP Business Management and SVP Finance; and follow-up on action points, as applicable
- Attend Balance Sheet Review & Balance Sheet KPI calls with Opco’s & Controllership, monitoring all judgemental balance sheet positions, and tracking risks & opportunities
- Aim to meet with each Opco approximately quarterly to review ongoing commercial & financial issues and follow action status
- Based on day-to-day liaison with Opco Management Team, immediately update VP, FP&A & Operations teams on any significant local operational activities, claims, litigation, developments, decision-making, etc
Salary benchmarks
Our take
Warner Bros Discovery (WBD) is an entertainment company formed from the 2022 merger of Warner Bros and Discovery. It is a leader in the creation, production, distribution, licensing, and marketing of content, with Warner Bros alone boasting a huge library – more than 100,000 hours of programming – before the companies were joined. WBD’s portfolio includes Discovery Channel, Warner Bros. Entertainment, Discovery+, HBO Max, and franchises like “Batman” and “Harry Potter”.
Both of the company’s previous businesses have operated throughout the digitisation of the media space. David Zaslav, CEO of WBD, headed Discovery during its expansion into digital media, to make it a “content company” over a “cable company”. The recent focus for Warner Bros has been on next-gen distribution efforts, expanding the availability of its content across platforms and devices to reach the modern viewer. The new company has plans to migrate to one tech stack, which will require extensive retooling, as well as exploring cost-saving automation opportunities for its operations.
Since the merger, the new giant that is Warner Bros Discovery has had a shaky start, forcing the company to wind down operations and cut back on content, which included the very public scrapping of the “Batgirl” movie. However, it now seems the company may have been ahead of the curve, as a wider trend of cutbacks has been seen from peers in the space. This early move, combined with a hyper-focus on cash generation, seeks to establish WBD as an outperformer in an industry on the downturn.
Kirsty
Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle
Insights
Company
Company values
- Act as One Team: Trust each other, succeed together, and growth together
- Create What's Next: Be curious, innovate, and focus on the future
- Empower Storytelling: Put creators, consumers and partners at the center, and share extraordinary stories
- Champion Inclusion: Empower others, have courage, and pursue equity
- Dream It & Own It: Advocate the mission, ove with speed, and drive results
Company HQ
Midtown Manhattan, New York, NY
Articles
Leadership
David Zaslav
(CEO, not founder)Spent 17 years at NBCUniversal including as President of NBC Cable LLC and NBC Media LLC.
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