An indication exterior of the Warner Brothers Discovery Techwood Turner Broadcasting campus is seen on June 26, 2024 in Atlanta, Georgia.
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Warner Bros. Discovery‘s inventory dropped Wednesday after it reported a $9.1 billion write-down on its TV networks and missed analyst estimates on income.
Right here is how Warner Bros. Discovery carried out, primarily based on a survey of analysts by LSEG:
- Loss per share: 36 cents vs. a lack of 22 cents anticipated
- Income: $9.7 billion vs. $10.07 billion anticipated
The corporate’s shares had been down roughly 9% in aftermarket buying and selling.
Warner Bros. Discovery on Wednesday reported the non-cash goodwill impairment cost, which was triggered by the reevaluation of the ebook worth of the TV networks phase. The ebook worth was larger than the market worth as conventional TV networks proceed to see prospects flee and advertisers are opting to spend on digital and streaming as an alternative.
“Whereas I’m definitely not dismissive of the magnitude of this impairment, I consider it is equally essential to acknowledge that the flip aspect of this displays the worth shift throughout enterprise fashions,” mentioned CFO Gunnar Wiedenfels on Wednesday’s earnings name, including that the corporate is specializing in development within the studios and streaming models.
He mentioned Warner Bros. Discovery’s stability sheet carries a big quantity of goodwill stemming from mergers and acquisitions, particularly the mixture of Warner Bros. and Discovery in 2022.
“It is truthful to say that even two years in the past market valuations and prevailing circumstances for legacy media corporations had been fairly completely different than they’re as we speak, and this impairment acknowledges this and higher aligns our carrying values with our future outlook,” CEO David Zaslav mentioned on Wednesday’s name.
Executives highlighted Warner Bros. Discovery’s continued mission of paying down debt, a lot of which stems from the 2022 merger. Through the second quarter the corporate paid down $1.8 billion in debt. As of June 30, it had $41.4 billion in gross debt and $3.6 billion money available.
The corporate additionally famous uncertainty surrounding future sports activities rights renewals, together with the NBA. Warner Bros. Discovery sued the NBA in July, seeking to forcibly invoke its matching rights on a package deal of video games earmarked for Amazon‘s Prime Video as a part of the league’s new media rights deal.
Income for Warner Bros. Discovery’s TV networks — a portfolio that features TBS, TNT, Discovery and TLC — was down 8% to $5.27 billion in the course of the second quarter, with each distribution and promoting income down within the phase.
Nonetheless, the corporate’s streaming enterprise, centered across the platform Max, was a shiny spot.
The corporate mentioned Wednesday it added 3.6 million subscribers in the course of the quarter ended June 30, bringing its whole variety of world streaming prospects to 103.3 million.
The worldwide enlargement lifting subscriber development, in addition to elevated advert spending on streaming, is propelling its streaming enterprise towards profitability, executives mentioned Wednesday, with the expectation that it might proceed.
Zaslav additionally touted the streaming bundles Warner Bros. Discovery is forming — an leisure pairing with Disney’s Disney+ and Hulu — and a sports activities bundle with Disney’s ESPN and Fox set to launch this fall.
Nonetheless, direct-to-consumer streaming income decreased 5% to $2.57 billion, pushed by content material income dropping 70% resulting from a decrease quantity of third-party licensing offers. But promoting income for streaming was up 99%, the corporate mentioned, pushed by larger home engagement on Max, and ad-supported subscriber development. International income additionally elevated 4% pushed by the advert tier.
Complete income for the quarter was down 6% to $9.7 billion. Complete adjusted earnings earlier than curiosity, taxes, depreciation and amortization decreased 15% to $1.8 billion.
Correction: This text has been up to date to mirror that Warner Bros. Discovery’s income was $9.7 billion for the quarter.
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