Warner Bros Discovery misses revenue estimates on weakness in studio unit
Max posts strongest quarterly subscriber gain on international expansion
Paris Olympics, season 1 of 'The Penguin' draw audiences to Max
Studio business suffers from lack of big releases
Adds bullets, details on Max in paragraph 3, CEO comment in paragraph 6
Nov 7 (Reuters) -Warner Bros Discovery WBD.O reported a surprise quarterly profiton Thursday as cost controls and an Olympics-drivenrecord jump in streaming subscribers helped make up for a lack of major box office hits from its studio.
Shares of the company rose nearly 10% in premarket trading. The stock has lost about a quarter of its value so far this year.
The company's Max streaming platform expanded into Europe weeks before the Olympic Games in Paris withexclusive rights to stream the highly anticipated sporting event, boosting subscribers.
Max also benefited from bundling the platform with Disney+ and Hulu, as well as the strong first season of "The Penguin" - a crimedrama series released in September andbased on a popular DC Comics villain.
WBD's streaming business, home to the Max and Discovery+ services, added 7.2 million direct-to-consumer subscribers in the third quarter, beating estimates for 6.28 million additions, according to data compiled by Visible Alpha.
Max delivered its strongest quarterly subscriber gain since the platform's launch, CEO David Zaslav said, calling it "a meaningful moment" that had capped twoyears of building the service and reversing millions of dollars in losses.
The streaming unit's adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization more than doubled from a year earlier to $289 million, aided by lower content expenses.
WBD also made progress in its efforts to control costs, with expenses falling 5.5% in the quarter ended Sept. 30. That helped it report a surprise profit of 5 cents per share, while analysts had expected a loss of 9 cents, according to data compiled by LSEG.
Revenue at the TV networks division, which includes Discovery Channel, Animal Planet and Food Network, rose 3% to $5.01 billion, driven by sublicensing of Olympic sports rights to regional broadcast networks throughout Europe.
Revenueat WBD's studio segment fell 17%, pulling total revenue of $9.62 billion below estimatesof $9.80 billion.
Withreleases such as "Beetlejuice Beetlejuice" in the July-September quarter, Warner Bros Discovery's studio division has struggled to repeat last year's explosive success of Margot Robbie-starrer "Barbie", the highest grossing film of 2023.
TRUMP SPURS CONSOLIDATION HOPES
Like its rivals, WBD has been grappling with a decline in the cable TV business - a long-time profitengine - as more subscribers shift to streaming. The downturnhas pressuredcompanies to seek alternatives for the business.
Last week, Comcast said it was considering spinning off its cable networks that include CNBC into a separate company.
The industry needs to "meaningfully consolidate", Zaslav said on Thursday, adding that the upcoming administration change with Donald Trump winning the U.S. presidential election could "bring a pace of change and opportunity for consolidation".
Strict antitrust policies under the Biden administration haveweighed on deal-making across industries over the past few years.
Reporting by Harshita Mary Varghese in Bengaluru and Dawn Chmielewski in Los Angeles; Editing by Devika Syamnath
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이 웹사이트에 포함된 모든 의견, 뉴스, 리서치, 분석, 가격, 기타 정보 또는 제3자 사이트에 대한 링크와 같이 XM이 준비하는 콘텐츠 뿐만 아니라, 제3자 콘텐츠는 일반 시장 논평으로서 "현재" 기준으로 제공되며, 투자 조언으로 여겨지지 않습니다. 모든 콘텐츠가 투자 리서치로 해석되는 경우, 투자 리서치의 독립성을 촉진하기 위해 고안된 법적 요건에 따라 콘텐츠가 의도되지 않았으며, 준비되지 않았다는 점을 인지하고 동의해야 합니다. 따라서, 관련 법률 및 규정에 따른 마케팅 커뮤니케이션이라고 간주됩니다. 여기에서 접근할 수 있는 앞서 언급한 정보에 대한 비독립 투자 리서치 및 위험 경고 알림을 읽고, 이해하시기 바랍니다.
