An indication exterior of the Warner Brothers Discovery Techwood Turner Broadcasting campus is seen on June 26, 2024 in Atlanta, Georgia.
Kevin Dietsch | Getty Photographs
Warner Bros. Discovery stated Thursday it added 6.4 million international streaming subscribers within the fourth quarter for a complete of 116.9 million subscribers.
Fourth-quarter income for the streaming phase, which is anchored by flagship service Max, totaled $2.65 billion, up 5% from $2.53 billion in the identical quarter final 12 months. Adjusted earnings earlier than curiosity, taxes, depreciation and amortization for the unit got here in at $409 million, in contrast with an adjusted EBITDA lack of $55 million within the fourth quarter of 2023.
In a shareholder letter, the media and leisure firm forecast adjusted EBITDA of $1.3 billion for its streaming enterprise for the 12 months — roughly double the $677 million adjusted EBITDA it reported for 2024 — and stated it has a “clear path” to hit 150 million international subscribers by the tip of 2026. Max is about to launch on tv service Sky in the UK and Eire by the second quarter of 2026, and can debut in Germany and Italy within the first quarter of that 12 months.
“On this generational media disruption, solely the worldwide streamers will survive and prosper, and Max is simply that,” CEO David Zaslav stated on the corporate’s earnings name Thursday.
WBD announced Wednesday that Max would hold its B/R Sports activities and CNN content material out there at no extra price to subscribers in its normal and premium tiers. Initially WBD deliberate to cost an additional cost for sports.
Nonetheless, it would pull each verticals from its fundamental, ad-supported tier starting March 30.
On the earnings name, JB Perrette, CEO and president of worldwide streaming and video games, stated the corporate would proceed to experiment with its information and sports activities enterprise fashions.
Whereas sports activities have elevated their presence on streaming companies lately, with platforms like Netflix including to their reside sports activities portfolios, Zaslav stated the corporate is extra targeted on maximizing its returns than buying extra sports activities content material.
Warner Bros. Discovery is losing U.S. distribution rights to Nationwide Basketball Affiliation video games beginning subsequent season. It nonetheless has a U.S. sports activities portfolio that features the French Open, Main League Baseball, faculty soccer and the Nationwide Hockey League.
“We do not want any extra sports activities anyplace on this planet with the intention to help our enterprise,” Zaslav stated, including that he expects it would grow to be tougher to acquire sports activities rights with rising costs and competitors.
On the information entrance, Zaslav stated Warner Bros. Discovery anticipated CNN to see extra profit from the 2024 presidential election that finally didn’t materialize. CNN, together with MSNBC, noticed its ratings fall drastically after the election, whereas Fox Information loved sturdy scores in that interval.
Shares of WBD rose practically 5% Thursday.
Here is how Warner Bros. Discovery carried out within the fourth quarter of 2024 in contrast with what Wall Road was anticipating, based mostly on a survey of analysts by LSEG:
- Loss per share: 20 cents vs. earnings per share of 1 cent anticipated
- Income: $10.03 billion vs. $10.19 billion anticipated
WBD’s general fourth-quarter income fell 2% to $10.03 billion from $10.28 billion throughout the identical quarter in 2023. Full-year 2024 income got here in at $39.32 billion, down 5% from $41.32 billion in 2023.
Warner Bros. Discovery reported a web lack of $494 million for the fourth quarter of 2024, or a lack of 20 cents per share, in contrast with a web lack of $400 million, or a lack of 16 cents per share, in the course of the fourth quarter of 2023.
TV networks income got here in at $4.77 billion, in contrast with $5.04 billion within the year-earlier interval. The corporate beforehand wrote down $9.1 billion for its networks enterprise in its 2024 second-quarter earnings report. In its shareholder letter, Warner Bros. Discovery famous that it expects additional declines in cable subscribers and that the promoting marketplace for U.S. linear tv is shrinking sooner than anticipated.
For the studios enterprise, fourth-quarter income totaled $3.66 billion, a rise of 15% from $3.17 billion within the fourth quarter of 2023.
“We’re laser-focused on getting our studios again to a spot of trade management,” Zaslav stated.
Disclosure: MSNBC and CNBC are divisions of NBCUniversal.
