Quarterly numbers disappoint at Warner Bros Discovery

Warner Brothers Discovery posted a bigger-than-expected quarterly loss on Friday, weighing on the shares.

The US media giant reported a 7% decline in total revenues in the three-months to December end, to $10.28bn. Wall Street had been expecting closer to $10.35bn.

Adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation eased 5% to €3.6bn.

The diluted net loss per share came in at 16 cents, a notable improvement on last year’s loss of 86 cents per share but well below expectations for a 7 cent loss.

The firm’s subscription service Max moved into profit, with EBITDA of $103m and 97.7m global direct to consumer subscribers by the end of the quarter.

But studio revenues were hit by the writer and actor strikes, and fell 17% to $3.17bn.

Network advertising revenues were also down sharply, falling 12% to $1.9bn. As well as Discovery, Warner Bros also owns CNN, TLC and Eurosport, among others.

Shares in Warner Bros lost 8% in pre-market trading.

David Zaslav, chief executive, said: "After executing against our strategic plan to reposition the company, we are now on solid footing with a clear pathway to growth.

"We have an attack plan for 2024 that includes the roll-out 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 our confident in our ability to drive sustained operating momentum and enhanced shareholder value."