Warner Bros. Discovery misses first-quarter estimates despite streaming growth

by | May 9, 2024 | Business

In this articleWBDFollow your favorite stocksCREATE FREE ACCOUNTIn this photo illustration, the Warner Bros. Discovery logo is displayed on a smartphone screen.Rafael Henrique | SOPA Images | Lightrocket | Getty ImagesWarner Bros. Discovery reported first-quarter results on Thursday, missing analyst expectations on both the top and bottom lines despite strength in its streaming unit. The company’s stock fell 4% in premarket trading.Here is how Warner Bros. Discovery performed, compared with estimates from analysts surveyed by LSEG:Loss per share: 40 cents vs. 24 cents loss expectedRevenue: $9.96 billion vs. $10.231 billion expectedWarner Bros. Discovery — which owns streaming service Max, a portfolio of cable TV networks including TNT and Discovery, and a film studio — said revenue fell 7% to $9.96 billion compared to the same quarter last year.Warner Bros. Discovery posted a net loss attributable to the company of $966 million, or 40 cents per share, an improvement from the year-ago quarter when it reported a loss of $1.07 billion, or 44 cents per share.The company said total adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization were down roughly 20% during the first quarter to $2.1 billion, noting its “Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League” video game generated significantly lower revenues.Streaming growthWarner Bros. Discovery’s earning release follows the announcement this week that it would bundle its streaming services with those of Disney — tying together Max, Disney+ and Hulu — and offer it to consumers this summer, a callback to the traditional pay-TV package. Pricing has yet to be disclosed, but it will be offered at a discount, CNBC reported.It marks the first time two media giants are joining forces to offer a streaming bundle as the push to make streaming profitable continues. While TV networks have long been a cash cow for media companies, the bundle continues to bleed subscribers.The entertainment streaming bundle marks the second partnership with Warner Bros. Discovery and Disney in recent months. The companies, along with Fox Corp., previously announced a sports streaming joint venture that will launch this fall.Warner Bros. Discovery said Thursday it added 2 million direct-to-consumer streaming subscribers during the quarter, bringing its total to 99.6 million.That segment earned an adjusted $86 million during the quarter, an improvement of $36 million from the prior-year quarter, the company said. It also saw revenue increase “modestly” to $2.46 billion from the prior-year quarter.Advertising revenue for streaming proved to be a bright spot, increasing 70%, boosted by higher engagement on Max in the U.S. due in part to subscriber growth in the streaming service’s ad-lite tier and the launch of sports on the app.Other resultsHowever, advertising revenue remained weak for Warner Bros. Discovery’s TV networks, as did the segment as a whole.TV networks revenue was down 8% to $5.13 billion, with advertising revenue down 11%. While the ad market has been soft for some time now, recent quarterly earnings show there has been improvement for digital and streaming while traditional TV lags behind.Meanwhile, Warner Bros. …

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[mwai_chat context=”Let’s have a discussion about this article:nnIn this articleWBDFollow your favorite stocksCREATE FREE ACCOUNTIn this photo illustration, the Warner Bros. Discovery logo is displayed on a smartphone screen.Rafael Henrique | SOPA Images | Lightrocket | Getty ImagesWarner Bros. Discovery reported first-quarter results on Thursday, missing analyst expectations on both the top and bottom lines despite strength in its streaming unit. The company’s stock fell 4% in premarket trading.Here is how Warner Bros. Discovery performed, compared with estimates from analysts surveyed by LSEG:Loss per share: 40 cents vs. 24 cents loss expectedRevenue: $9.96 billion vs. $10.231 billion expectedWarner Bros. Discovery — which owns streaming service Max, a portfolio of cable TV networks including TNT and Discovery, and a film studio — said revenue fell 7% to $9.96 billion compared to the same quarter last year.Warner Bros. Discovery posted a net loss attributable to the company of $966 million, or 40 cents per share, an improvement from the year-ago quarter when it reported a loss of $1.07 billion, or 44 cents per share.The company said total adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization were down roughly 20% during the first quarter to $2.1 billion, noting its “Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League” video game generated significantly lower revenues.Streaming growthWarner Bros. Discovery’s earning release follows the announcement this week that it would bundle its streaming services with those of Disney — tying together Max, Disney+ and Hulu — and offer it to consumers this summer, a callback to the traditional pay-TV package. Pricing has yet to be disclosed, but it will be offered at a discount, CNBC reported.It marks the first time two media giants are joining forces to offer a streaming bundle as the push to make streaming profitable continues. While TV networks have long been a cash cow for media companies, the bundle continues to bleed subscribers.The entertainment streaming bundle marks the second partnership with Warner Bros. Discovery and Disney in recent months. The companies, along with Fox Corp., previously announced a sports streaming joint venture that will launch this fall.Warner Bros. Discovery said Thursday it added 2 million direct-to-consumer streaming subscribers during the quarter, bringing its total to 99.6 million.That segment earned an adjusted $86 million during the quarter, an improvement of $36 million from the prior-year quarter, the company said. It also saw revenue increase “modestly” to $2.46 billion from the prior-year quarter.Advertising revenue for streaming proved to be a bright spot, increasing 70%, boosted by higher engagement on Max in the U.S. due in part to subscriber growth in the streaming service’s ad-lite tier and the launch of sports on the app.Other resultsHowever, advertising revenue remained weak for Warner Bros. Discovery’s TV networks, as did the segment as a whole.TV networks revenue was down 8% to $5.13 billion, with advertising revenue down 11%. While the ad market has been soft for some time now, recent quarterly earnings show there has been improvement for digital and streaming while traditional TV lags behind.Meanwhile, Warner Bros. …nnDiscussion:nn” ai_name=”RocketNews AI: ” start_sentence=”Can I tell you more about this article?” text_input_placeholder=”Type ‘Yes'”]
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