Pedestrians pass a street commercial billboard from the Warner Bros and DC comic book character movie Batman, in Madrid.
Miguel Candela | SOPA images | Missile | beautiful pictures
Discovery of Warner Bros. on Thursday announced a massive loss and recorded about $11.1 billion in revenue for the fourth quarter, below analyst estimates, as the media industry faces a soft ad market. .
The company’s TV network segment — which includes cable channels like TNT, TBS and Discovery — fell 6% to about $5.5 billion, as specialty ad revenue fell.
Here’s what the company reported, compared to analyst estimates, according to Refinitiv:
- Revenue: $11.01 billion vs. $11.36 billion expected
- Loss per share: 86 cents vs 21 cents
His company reported a loss of $2.1 billion for the period, or 86 cents per share. Shares of Warner Bros. Discovery dropped after hours.
Warner Bros. executives. Discovery began warning about the deteriorating advertising market last summer, and other media companies, including Paramount Global, have noticed the impact on their earnings.
The company had to face restructuring costs and loss fees stemming from the merger in 2022 by Warner Bros. and Discovery, while trying to drive its streaming business toward profitability.
The company ended the fourth quarter with $45.5 billion in debt on its balance sheet and $3.9 billion in cash on hand. Main focus for Warner Bros. Discovery has been reducing its debt burden and cutting costs.
“With important restructuring decisions behind us, this year our focus is on building and growing,” CEO David Zaslav said in the company’s earnings report on Thursday. its business for the future, and we’re off to a great start.
The company, which owns the HBO Max and Discovery+ streaming services, said its global direct-to-consumer subscription numbers rose 1.1 million to 96.1 million at the end of the quarter.
Revenue for the streaming segment grew 6%, the company said on Thursday, driven by an increase in subscriber growth for ad-supported tiers.
The company said the loss for the streaming segment has narrowed. It posted a loss of $217 million for the period, “a $511 million improvement over the previous year,” it added.
Warner Bros. Discovery reported that the ad market continues to weaken, which has hit its revenue since last summer, when executives first warned of a drop in ad spend. . Last week, global supreme report decrease in quarterly revenue due to lower ad spend.
The company’s network television segment was particularly impacted as major sporting events including college football and the Men’s World Cup took place on other networks in the fourth quarter.
Meanwhile, the company has seen a 23% drop in revenue for its studio segment, noting it has lower TV licensing deals and fewer theatrical releases. DC Comics Movie “Black Adam” has been released in the fourth quarter of last year, compared with many releases including “Dune”, “The Matrix Resurrections”, “King Richard” and “The Many Saints of Newark” in the same period the previous year.
This is an evolving story. Check back for updates.
