WarnerMedia Lifts AT&T Results

AT&T’s third-quarter revenues grew by 15.3 percent to $45.7 billion, largely as a result of its acquisition of Time Warner.

At the rebranded WarnerMedia division, Turner and HBO delivered year-on-year subscription revenue growth, and Warner Bros. was boosted by strong gains in television licensing revenues and the box-office release of Crazy Rich Asians, among other titles. Overall WarnerMedia revenues for the period were $8.2 billion, up 7 percent from the year-ago period, with $3 billion from Turner (a 4-percent gain), $1.6 billion from HBO (a 2-percent gain) and $3.7 billion from Warner Bros. (up 8 percent). Segment operating income was $2.6 billion.

At the Entertainment Group, DIRECTV posted a net subscriber loss of 346,000, while the OTT service DIRECTV NOW added 49,000 customers.

“I’m pleased with the progress we made on a number of fronts in the third quarter,” said Randall Stephenson, AT&T’s chairman and CEO. “Our U.S. wireless business is growing and it’s the single biggest contributor to our earnings and cash flow. WarnerMedia was immediately accretive in its first full quarter, contributing 5 cents to EPS, and our free cash flow grew by double digits. We’ve accomplished all this while staying focused on managing our debt portfolio. We’re on track to get to the 2.5x debt-to-EBITDA range by year-end 2019. And as we’re nearing completion of our fiber build and making pricing moves on video, we’re laying the foundation for stabilizing our Entertainment Group profitability in 2019. Across the business, I like our momentum and feel confident that we’re on track to deliver on our plans.”