Productions Studios Clash Over Lawsuit
A former executive at a division of Warner Bros. is suing the company over allegations that it recently terminated all of its Asian-American executives who worked for DramaFever, a since-shuttered streaming-video service, while keeping all of its white executives.
The discrimination suit, filed in federal court in Manhattan on Wednesday Mar. 7, accuses Warner Bros. of “systematically” removing Asian Americans from leadership roles in Digital Labs, “because it viewed those Asian American executives as fundamentally ‘foreign’ and incapable of engaging with Warner Bros.’ primarily White executive class.”
Chung H. Chang, 46 and Korean American, former vice president of finance for Digital Labs, said that Warner Bros. retaliated against him after he hired an attorney and informed the company of his discrimination claim.
He alleges that Warner Bros. tried to falsely blame him for “potentially significant legal liabilities which Warner Bros. now faces given the Company’s failure to properly license music contained within television shows and movies.”
DramaFever — a streaming-video service founded in 2009 and specializing in Korean dramas and other Asian programming — was acquired by Warner Bros. in 2016. However, Warner Bros. announced in October that it was closing down DramaFever because of “business reasons” and a “rapidly changing marketplace for K-drama content.”
By: Maytinee Kramer
