HBO boss Richard Plepler is exiting because AT&T wants to combine Turner and HBO to better compete in TV's changing landscape

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It was expected that HBO CEO and chairman Plepler -- who helped transform the pay cable channel into a Golden Age of TV standard bearer over the past 27 years -- would clash with his new AT&T bosses, says Peter Kafka. But it was also reasonable to assume that AT&T, with no programming experience, would want to keep Plepler around. However, as a WarnerMedia insider put it, AT&T executives have "a plug and play mindset - that you can put the best athlete in any position and they can win." The biggest issue that led to Plepler's departure, according to Kafka, was that HBO would no longer be a standalone unit, especially with former NBC Entertainment chairman Robert Greenblatt poised to run both HBO and Turner. AT&T, says Kafka, "has now made it clear that it doesn’t think of Turner and HBO as separate businesses...It’s going to run them together under Greenblatt, and ultimately it wants to sell them together, to consumers: You’ll get your HBO, and maybe your CNN, and TNT (if you like NBA basketball) and you’ll pay AT&T directly for it. Just like Netflix, or Spotify, or the Disney service launching later this year...For example: In an AT&T world, it would make perfect sense for early seasons of Game of Thrones to be running right now on TNT or TBS, to stoke interest — and subscriptions — for the series finale airing on HBO in April. In Plepler’s not-for-very-much-longer version of HBO, that’s a non-starter: You watch HBO shows on HBO, because you paid for HBO."

ALSO:

• Plepler's exit has been “in the works for some time" -- long before reports that former NBC Entertainment chairman Robert Greenblatt might become his new boss
• There was an initial feeling AT&T would be respectful of HBO's unique culture, but as one insider put it to Vulture: “You don’t pay $85 billion for a company and not try to put your stamp on it"
• Plepler reportedly wanted more autonomy at HBO, but his new WarnerMedia boss John Stankey was "effectively" running HBO and had a different vision for its future
• Robert Greenblatt is expected to "bridge the gap" between the two cultures of Turner and HBO, serving like an air traffic controller on new shows