Time Warner Chief Executive Jeff Bewkes needs a plan.
Having sold off much of the media giant’s assets — AOL, Time Warner Cable, Time Inc. and much of its real estate — and turned aside a takeover bid from 21st Century Fox, the 62-year old executive will now have to convince shareholders he has a plan to spark growth.
And that plan will have to be explained starting Wednesday when the company reports its quarterly results.
“Jeff Bewkes has done a good job restructuring and taking a bunch of companies and saying let me see if [we] can create more financial value,” one source told The Post. “That game is over. The next level is, can he grow market share and is he going to let Netflix clean his clock?”
Netflix has reached 50 million global subscribers while HBO is only now exploring new overseas territories for its broadband-only service HBO Go.
“Jeff really believes he can do it,” a friend of the CEO told The Post.
Indeed, HBO’s renegotiations already show a new effort to retain a greater proportion of revenue from so-called promotional subscribers drawn in by cable operators.
What’s more, Bewkes has the Herculean task of righting the ship at CNN, whose faltering ratings have pared its ability to command premium ad rates.
At other parts of Turner Broadcasting, ratings are off substantially versus a year ago even though it is spending more on marketing to ensure its summer dramas do well. It also is fighting to keep its rights to the NBA, which airs on Turner’s TNT.