WarnerMedia Q4 Revenues Down by 9.5 Percent

Fourth-quarter revenues at WarnerMedia fell by 9.5 percent to $8.6 billion, with a decline at Warner Bros. partially offset by gains at HBO.

The AT&T-owned business delivered an operating income of $2.5 billion, a 10 percent fall on the year-ago period.

At Turner, revenues were stable at $3.2 billion. Subscription revenues rose thanks to higher domestic affiliate rates, partially offset by a decline in regional sports network revenues and lower international revenues. Ad revenues were down primarily due to the delay of the NBA season. Content and other revenues fell, also from the delayed start of the NBA season. The segment delivered an operating income of $1.4 billion, up 7.6 percent.

At Home Box Office (HBO), revenues grew by 11.7 percent to $1.9 billion, led by growth in international revenues and higher domestic direct-to-consumer subscribers, partially offset by lower domestic linear subscribers. HBO Max and HBO hit a combined 41.5 million subs in the U.S., a gain of 7 million on the year-ago period, and almost 61 million worldwide. Operating income in the segment plummeted to $86 million as a result of the investment into HBO Max.

Warner Bros. posted revenues of $3.2 billion, a 21.2 percent decline, with lower theatrical and television revenues due to COVID-19. Operating income was $791 million.

Parent company AT&T delivered Q4 revenues of $45.7 billion, down from $46.8 billion in the year-ago period.

“We ended the year with strong momentum in our market focus areas of broadband connectivity and software-based entertainment,” said John Stankey, AT&T’s CEO. “By investing in our high-quality wireless customer base, we had our best full-year of postpaid phone net adds in a decade and our second lowest postpaid phone churn ever. Our fiber broadband net adds passed the 1 million mark for the year. And the release of Wonder Woman 1984 helped drive our domestic HBO Max and HBO subscribers to more than 41 million, a full two years faster than our initial forecast.”