'Westworld' Could Be Another 'Game of Thrones'-Type Hit, Time Warner Boss Says

“Westworld” already ranks among HBO’s biggest-ever hits, possibly even giving “Game of Thrones” a run for its money, according to Time Warner chief Jeff Bewkes.

“Westworld” is “a big success,” Bewkes said Tuesday at the UBS Global Media and Communications Conference in New York.

Bewkes alluded to Sunday’s Season 1 finale of the sci-fi series about an amusement park populated with robots, saying the show “actually just finished, and had the biggest first year of any series, including ‘Game of Thrones.'”

Also Read: Jeff Bewkes on Time Warner's Future Under AT&T: 'I'm Not Going Anywhere'

Sunday’s 90-minute closer for “Westworld” drew 2.2 million total viewers for the live telecast on the linear premium cable network, although live viewing in an on-demand world is a small piece of the puzzle. HBO estimates that across all platforms, “Westworld” is averaging 12 million total viewers.

“Westworld” still has a ways to go before matching “GoT,” which across all platforms and showings has reached 23 million total viewers. But with “GoT” set to end after its eighth season — and with Netflix and Amazon pouring millions of dollars into program development — it’s become crucial for HBO, a Time Warner unit, to find its next tentpole drama series.

Meanwhile, Bewkes was upbeat about the pending merger between Time Warner and AT&T, which he predicted would close by the end of 2017, “if not sooner.”

Also Read: AT&T-Time Warner Deal: Jeff Bewkes Stays For Now, Peter Chernin Not Expected to Replace Him

Bewkes turned aside skepticism from some critics that the combination would bring more benefits for AT&T than for his company.

“I think it’s good for both companies, and I’m not sure it’s that easy to predict whether it would be more for one or another,” he said.

The move would ultimately benefit consumers, Bewkes said, arguing that it would allow them to receive more of the content Time Warner makes under its various brands — including HBO and CNN — over more devices.

“What we wanted, and we’ve been saying this for a long time, is we’ve been working on a lot of things to make the explosion and the number of and the increase in quality of TV programming relevant and available in all the different ways that consumers are wanting to get to this stuff,” Bewkes added.

14 Billion-Dollar Acquisitions Before AT&T-Time Warner (Photos)

Think $85 billion is a lot of cash? Take a tour through the lurid amounts of money dropped on American media and content machines over the years.
1999: Disney Buys ABC
The alliance is such a potent brand that it's hard to imagine them as solo entities, but the $19.5 billion sale gave the Disney company an iconic TV brand to call its own.
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1999: Clear Channel buys AMFM Inc
The radio giant paid $20.6 billion for its rival AMFM, their 830 radio stations, 425,000 billboards and 19 TV stations per Forbes.
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1999: Viacom Buys CBS
Fifteen years ago, the media giant acquired the TV network for $34.1 billion. While the companies would split in 2006, always remember -- history repeats itself.
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2000: Time Warner and AOL Merge
It's often referred to as one of the most disastrous mergers in history. The $186.2 billion price tag seemed visionary at the time, but quickly devolved into a corporate culture way... and the of the dot-com collapse.
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2006: Disney Buys Pixar
In the first of a series of key moves from Disney CEO Bob Iger -- ones that would ensure long-term health and eventually see the company take record-breaking market share -- Steve Jobs was convinced to entrust the animation studio to them for a reported $7.4 billion.
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2009: Disney Buys Marvel
Iger's $4 billion purchase of the comic book studio changed the industry, secured Robert Downey Jr. as the highest paid actor in Hollywood and made a new constellation of stars and film franchises.
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2012: Disney Buys Lucasfilm
Bob Iger's hat trick was completed with a major coup in landing the "Star Wars" universe for $4 billion, which resulted in the No. 3 all-time top grossing film, "Star Wars: The Force Awakens."
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2013: Comcast Buys Remaining Stake in NBC
After purchasing a majority stake in 2011 for $30 billion, Comcast paid another $16.7 billion to wholly own the TV brand, film studio Universal and its California and Florida theme parks.
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2013: Yahoo Buys Tumblr
It's a relatively small price for a media acquisition, but spend-happy Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer raised a lot of eyebrows by paying $1 billion for the blogging platform Tumblr.
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2014: Facebook Buys WhatApp
While this is a straight-up tech acquisition, it's interesting to note that Facebook paid a staggering $22 billion for the European-based WhatsApp, a mobile application that lets users text for free over WiFi, to bolster their own messaging app. The company has repeatedly said it doesn't care to acquire content engines, but this signals a strong urge to level competition if they ever change their minds.
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2015: Activision Blizzard Buys King Mobile
The video game company literally spent $5.9 billion on fun and games. Mobile game company King counts the most successful app of all time, Candy Crush, and legacy social games like Bubble Witch in its stable. Now Activision gets to develop properties like a just-sold CBS game show based on Candy Crush.
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2016: Comcast Buys Dreamworks
After years of trying to offload his baby, Jeffrey Katzenberg fetched $3.8 billion for DWA and its respective franchises, like "Kung Fu Panda."
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2015: Dalian Wanda Buys Legendary Entertainment
A production company fetching $3.5 billion in a sale was not just jaw-dropping, it was an airhorn that the Chinese invasion into Hollywood had begun. It's also currently the benchmark for what many call inflated valuation... but Wanda's pockets are as deep as their patience is long.
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2016: Verizon Buys Yahoo
In a major deal that’s yet to formally close, Verizon is ponying up $4.83 billion for Yahoo’s core business, which includes advertising, content, search and mobile division.
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