MUMBAI: Discovery Communications, in a recent release, has announced plans to relocate its global headquarters from Silver Spring, Maryland, to New York City in 2019. Contingent upon the closing of the company’s acquisition of Scripps Networks Interactive, Discovery also will establish a National Operations Headquarters at Scripps’ current campus in Knoxville, Tennessee.
“The media industry is rapidly evolving, increasingly global, more consumer focused and more multi-platform and Discovery must evolve with it,” said Discovery’s president and CEO David Zaslav, announcing the changes first to employees. “The decision to move our global headquarters from its founding home is one we do not make lightly. We remain unwavering in our support of the Maryland and Greater Washington, DC area and we thank the leadership of the State of Maryland, Montgomery County and, most importantly, our employees for their cooperation and understanding as we make this important next step for the long-term success of Discovery.”
To take advantage of the proximity to business, investment and production partners in New York, the company will bring together all current Discovery and, pending closing of the transaction, Scripps employees currently located across several different facilities in New York in a new global headquarters. Planning for the space and location in New York is underway with an anticipated move to a new building by the second half of 2019.
Following an in-depth financial and operational analysis, and based on the strengths, capabilities and advantages of the current Scripps Knoxville campus, the facility will become Discovery’s National Operations Headquarters pending closure of the transaction. Knoxville is a self-contained campus with many amenities and benefits for a National Operations Headquarters, including a low cost of living, and built-in facilities and operational capabilities. It will continue to house the major Scripps brands and creative digital teams along with corporate functions.
Discovery’s state-of-the-art media distribution facility in Sterling, Virginia, which originates over 80 global feeds, will become a global technology centre.
Founded in Landover, Maryland, in 1985, Discovery moved its global headquarters to Bethesda, Maryland in 1991 and then to its current headquarters building in Silver Spring in 2003. The company employs approximately 1,300 people in the Silver Spring area. Scripps’ Knoxville headquarters houses more than 1,000. The sale and closure of Discovery’s Silver Spring building is expected approximately one year from closing the Scripps transaction.
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