Pedestrians walk past a street commercial advertisement billboard from Warner Bros and DC comics character, The Batman, movie in Madrid.
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Warner Bros. Discovery on Thursday posted a large loss and recorded about $11.1 billion in fourth quarter revenue, missing analysts’ estimates, as the media industry contends with a soft advertising market.
The company’s TV networks segment – which includes cable-TV channels like TNT, TBS and Discovery – decreased 6% to roughly $5.5 billion, as advertising revenue took a drop in particular.
Here’s what the company reported, vs. what analysts’ estimates, according to Refinitiv:
- Revenue: $11.01 billion vs. $11.36 billion expected
- Loss per share: 86 cents vs. 21 cents
he company reported a loss of $2.1 billion for the period, or 86 cents per share. Warner Bros. Discovery shares fell after hours.
Warner Bros. Discovery executives began warning of a worsening advertising market last summer, and other media companies, including Paramount Global, have seen it weigh on their earnings.
The company has been contending with restructuring costs and impairment charges stemming from the 2022 merger of Warner Bros. and Discovery, while trying to push its streaming business toward profitability.
The company ended the fourth quarter with $45.5 billion in debt on its balance sheet, and $3.9 billion in cash on hand. A major focus for Warner Bros. Discovery has been reducing its hefty debt load and cutting costs.
“With the major restructuring decisions behind us, this year we are focused on building and growing our businesses for the future, and we’re off to a great start,” CEO David Zaslav said in the company’s earnings release Thursday.
The company, which owns streaming services HBO Max and Discovery+, said its global direct-to-consumer streaming subscriber base increased by 1.1 million to 96.1 million by the end of the quarter.
Revenue for the streaming segment was up 6%, the company…
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