Warner Bros. Discovery Narrows Q4 Loss

Total revenues at Warner Bros. Discovery fell by 7 percent in Q4 to $10.3 billion, with the company narrowing its loss from $2.1 billion to $400 million.

“After executing against our strategic plan to reposition the company, we are now on solid footing with a clear pathway to growth,” said David Zaslav, president and CEO. “We generated $6.2 billion in free cash flow and paid down $5.4 billion in debt in 2023, which puts us at 3.9x net leverage. We have an attack plan for 2024 that includes the rollout of Max in key international markets, a more robust creative pipeline across our film and TV studios and further progress against our long-range financial goals, and are confident in our ability to drive sustained operating momentum and enhanced shareholder value.”

At the studios segment, revenues fell by 18 percent ex-FX to $3.2 billion, with content revenues down 20 percent ex-FX to $2.9 billion, largely due to the Hollywood strikes and certain large licensing deals the year prior. Other revenue increased 12 percent ex-FX due to the Q2 opening of Warner Bros. Studio Tour Tokyo, partially offset by the impact of the strikes on studio production services.

Networks revenues fell by 8 percent ex-FX to $5 billion, with distribution revenues down 3 percent to $2.75 billion due to a contraction in pay-TV subs, advertising down 14 percent to $1.9 billion and content revenues down 16 percent to $261 million.

Direct-to-consumer revenues, meanwhile, rose 3 percent to $2.53 billion, with distribution up 4 percent to $2.2 billion, thanks to new partnerships and price increases and advertising up 51 percent to $186 million. Content revenues in this segment fell 30 percent to $171 million. Global DTC subs were 97.7 million at the end of Q4, which included 1.3 million subscribers from the company’s acquisition of BluTV. The company had 52 million U.S. subs, down from 54.6 million in the same period last year, while international grew from 42.6 million to 45.6 million.