Hyderabad: In just four months after announcing its Hyderabad plans, Warner Bros. Discovery opened its Capability Centre in the State capital on Wednesday.
Inaugurating the Centre, IT and Industries Minister KT Rama Rao said it was a privilege that the Hyderabad office for Warner Bros. Discovery was its first Greenfield office in Asia after the merger of Warner Media and Discovery. Thanking the multimedia conglomerate for choosing Hyderabad, he said this was a decision they would not regret.
Pointing out that Warner Bros. Discovery, the world’s leading media and entertainment company with many iconic brands across television, films, and streaming, brought diversity and added to the wide range of companies that were present in Hyderabad, the Minister recalled that the Hyderabad Capability Centre had taken shape within four months of its announcement.
“As part of our delegation to the USA, we met with Alexandra Carter in New York earlier during May of this year, and were glad to announce the entry of Warner Bros. Discovery’s Global Capability Centre in Hyderabad,” he said.
When Telangana was formed, its IT employment was over 3,23,000 and today, the number had almost risen to a million, despite of the Covid situation, he said, adding Telangana’s employment and exports had tripled and quadrupled since the formation of the State.
Highlighting that Hyderabad city had contributed to 33 percent of the net new IT jobs in the financial year 2022 and 44 percent of the net new jobs in FY 2023, which was unprecedented, Rama Rao said that in the first half of 2023, the city had overtaken Bengaluru as the top destination for global capability centres.
Talking about the several marquee companies that have a presence in Hyderabad, he said Apple, Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Meta, Salesforce, Uber, Novartis, Qualcomm, Wells Fargo, Micron etc. had also set up their second largest campuses in the world outside of their headquarters in Hyderabad.
Gunnar Wiedenfels, CFO, Warner Bros. Discovery, Alexandra Carter, Senior Vice President (Finance) Warner Bros. Discovery, Jaideep Agarwal, Leader, Hyderabad Capability Centre, Warner Bros. Discovery were present along with Jennifer Larson, U.S Consul General in Hyderabad, Dr. Vishnuvardhan Reddy, Special Secretary, Investment Promotions, and Amarnath Reddy, Chief Relations Officer, ITE&C Department.
Warner Bros. Discovery brings with it iconic brands and channels available in 220 countries and 50 languages which include Discovery Channel, Max, Discovery, CNN, DC, Eurosport, HBO, HGTV, Food Network, OWN, Investigation Discovery, TLC, Magnolia Network, TNT, TBS, truTV, Travel Channel, MotorTrend, Animal Planet, Science Channel, Warner Bros. Film Group, Warner Bros. Television Group, Warner Bros. Games, New Line Cinema, Cartoon Network, Turner Classic Movies and so on.
The Hyderabad Centre will serve as a strategic hub for Warner Bros. Discovery’s operations in India. In its first year of operation, the Centre is expected to employ 1,200 professionals, further expanding its workforce as business grows.
