Warner Bros Discovery shares experienced a drastic decline on Wednesday, November 8, 2023. The decline in shares occurred due to a decrease in advertising revenue, so they experienced quite large losses. The number of subscribers to streaming is decreasing.
Warner Bros Discovery Experiences Losses
Warner Bros Discovery reported a huge loss of $417 million in the third quarter. Their loss per share was 17 cents. Then shares closed with a decline of 19% on Wednesday, November 8, 2023. Companies that compete closely with Disney need to try hard to increase their revenues. Based on the last few quarters, this company has experienced a downward trend. The company’s revenue came from Warner Bros. TV network advertising. Their revenue fell 12% from the previous year, indicating a decline in viewership in the US.
The company has also predicted several challenges that they will have to overcome in 2024. They need to anticipate sluggish revenue from advertising, and there is a possibility that many actors will go on strike. These two challenges are not easy for Warner Bros. Discovery Inc. to overcome.
“Warner Bros Discovery’s streaming service also continues to experience billions of dollars in losses,” said CEO David Zaslav.
This company itself launched its Max streaming service in May. The number of viewers continues to decline from the previous quarter. Even the latest drop shows a figure of 700,000 viewers out of 95.1 million subscribers. Even though the streaming business is still making a profit, The company has successfully paid off a debt load of $2.4 billion out of a total debt of $45.3 billion.
What Is It?
Warner Media is known for its iconic brands such as HBO, Warner Bros., CNN, and DC, while Discovery, Inc. owns a wide range of channels, including Discovery Channel, HGTV, and Food Network. The merger aims to combine the content and resources of both companies to better compete in the rapidly changing media landscape.
The merger was structured in such a way that AT&T would spin off Warner Media and combine it with Discovery, Inc. The resulting company, Warner Bros. Discovery, was expected to be a standalone entity with its own publicly traded stock. David Zaslav, who was the CEO of Discovery, Inc., was named as the CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery, and he was expected to oversee the new company’s operations.