Global media giant Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) has published its fourth quarter (Q4) and year-end financial results, revealing a huge net loss of almost $500 million for the final three months of 2024.
The company suffered a 2% year-on-year (YOY) drop in quarterly revenue to $10 billion from $10.28 billion during the same quarter in 2023, and a 4% YoY annual revenue decrease to $39.3 billion, down 5% from $41.32 billion in 2023.
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The results are the first since the company decided in December to separate its cable TV businesses from streaming and studio operations, laying the groundwork for a potential sale or spinoff of its TV business.
In Q4, WBD reported a net loss of $494 million, compared with a net loss of $400 million, during the same prior period last year.
WBD reported a full-year 2024 loss of $11.3 billion, primarily driven by $6.9 billion of asset acquisition costs and restructuring expenses and a $9.1 billion non-cash goodwill impairment charge in the networks segment.
The media heavyweight did, however, deliver a profit in its streaming business and added 6.4 million subscribers to its Max service, pushing the total figure to 116.9 million.
Q4 revenue for the streaming segment, including Discovery+, Max, and Eurosport+, came to $2.7 billion, up 5% from $2.53 billion in the same quarter last year. WBD’s quarterly profit for its direct-to-consumer (DTC) business stood at $409 million compared with a loss of $55 million in 2023.
For the full year, WBD’s DTC business turned a profit of $677 million, compared to a 2023 profit of $103 million.
The media and entertainment company said it has a “clear path” to hit 150 million global subscribers on Max by the end of 2026.
WBD previously said it targeted $1 billion or more in DTC earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) in 2025.
Chief executive David Zaslav, however, recently told Wall Street that the company was now expecting to meaningfully exceed that.
He said: “We expect strong DTC subscriber growth to continue throughout 2025. And we now have a clear path to reach at least 150 million global subscribers by the end of 2026, with corresponding strong DTC revenue and adjusted EBITDA growth.
“Max continues to grow at a powerful pace, and we expect it to continue throughout 2025 and beyond. In this generational media disruption, only the global streamers will survive and prosper, and Max is just that.”
Max is set to launch in Australia at the end of March and on major pay-TV network Sky in the United Kingdom and Ireland by the second quarter of 2026 before debuting in Germany and Italy in the first quarter of that year. The service was rolled out in more than 70 countries across Europe and Asia last year.
WBD announced Wednesday that Max would keep its B/R Sports and CNN content available at no additional cost to subscribers in its standard and premium tiers. Initially, WBD planned to charge an additional cost for sports.
However, it will pull both verticals from its basic, ad-supported tier beginning March 30.
In terms of its major sports rights, WBD is losing US broadcast rights to basketball’s NBA starting next season. It still has a domestic sports portfolio that includes the French Open tennis grand slam, Major League Baseball, college football, and the ice hockey’s NHL.
With major streaming platforms such as Netflix entering the live sports scene and providing competition to established media groups, Zaslav said the company is more focused on maximizing its returns than acquiring more sports content.
He stated: “There are sports rights that we can look at opportunistically and say we can make a real return on, but we don’t need any more sports anywhere in the world to support our business. We would buy sports if we think it would enhance our business.”
Zaslav argued the continuing appeal of sports content bundles will be driven by potential value and convenience for consumers.
Last month, Venu Sports, the prospective joint venture sports streaming platform planned by WBD, Disney, and Fox Corp., was scrapped.
Venu would have combined the sports streaming property portfolios of Disney, Fox, and WBD and control over 50% of live sports broadcasts in the US both regionally and nationally.
Revenue for networks, WBD’s biggest segment that includes the aforementioned sports broadcasters in their linear form, came in at $4.8 billion, compared with $5.04 billion in 2023, and profits down 13% to $1.9 billion. Ad revenue dropped 17%, driven by domestic networks' audience declines of 28%.
Meanwhile, WBD has acquired rights to The Snow League winter sports competition in Europe in a multi-year deal.
All the action will be streamed live on Max and Discovery+ across Europe starting with the first event in Aspen, USA from March 7-8.
Live coverage will be complemented by a highlights programme on WBD’s premium linear channels.
The inaugural season will feature some of the world’s top winter sports athletes going head-to-head in four competitions at iconic resorts, with events leading up to, and immediately following, the Milan Cortina Olympic Winter Games in 2026.
The competition will feature 36 snowboarding stars including men’s reigning Olympic halfpipe champion Ayumu Hirano (Japan), men’s reigning half-pipe World Champion Chaeun Lee (South Korea), and Beijing 2022 women’s halfpipe medallists Queralt Castellet (Spain) and Sena Tomita (Japan).
The deal was brokered on behalf of Snow League by the Range Sports agency, which advises on its media rights and commercial partnerships strategy and execution.
