Warner Bros. Discovery lost $3.1B in 2023

Warner Bros. Discovery trimmed its losses in the fourth quarter of 2024, though it wasn’t quite enough for Wall Street.

The company managed to get its direct-to-consumer losses to $55 million compared to $217 million quarter over quarter.

Its revenue from this sector grew 4% to $2.5 billion, while distribution revenue was up the same percentage to $2.2 billion.

Advertising revenue increased 51% too $186 million, though some of that is because of the ad-supported version of Max launching.

Overall subscriber counts for its DTC businesses went from 95.9 million to 97.7 million, though 1.3 million of those included subscribers brought in by WBD’s acquisition of BluTV in Turkey. 

Disregarding the acquisition figures and TNT Sports Chile, growth was at about 500,000.

Max and Discovery+ subscriptions were down slightly, however, as the company lost 400,000 accounts, landing at 52 million.

It was able to increase average revenue per subscriber on Max and Discovery+ to $7.94 per month over $7.88 per month in the third quarter. That figure was $7.42 the year before.

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$7.94 per month from $7.88 in the third quarter and $7.42 a year ago.

While streaming numbers remained positive, WBD’s linear channel division didn’t fare as well. Earnings were down 11% to $2.2 billion, with advertising revenue down 12% to $1.9 billion.

Those loses are being attributed to a softening ad market, viewership declines and shedding AT&T SportsNet channels.

Advertising revenue was down 12% to $1.9 billion. The company blamed audience declines, a soft ad market and the decision to exit the AT&T SportsNet business, which accounted for 1 percentage point of the decline.

Distribution revenue was off $2.8 billion, or about 4%, thanks to subscriber losses and the SportsNet exit.

In the studio business, earnings were down 29%, settling at $543 million and revenue dipped 17% to $3.2 billion. Revenue from television studios were significantly hit by the lack of new productions during the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes.

All told, Warner Bros. Discovery posted a net loss of $3.1 billion against revenues of $41.3 billion, which sent the stock down shortly after the financials were announced. 

The results of WBD reflect broader trends of a tightening ad market, cord-cutting and users migrating to digital and social media. Also like many media companies, WBD has attempted to stave off some of that by boosting its DTC businesses, especially streaming, but it’s also proven expensive to acquire and keep subscribers amidst a cluttered market of streamers.

WBD has also reportedly had some early talks about merging with Paramount Global, a move that could help it realize operational savings.