Warner Bros. announced Discovery reported third-quarter 2024 earnings results on Thursday. July 1 – September. The ’30s concluded with more than 110 million global subscribers joining WBD’s HBO, Max and Discovery+ channels, while box office sales were down 40% from last summer’s blockbuster “Barbie.”
Direct-to-consumer sales rose 9% to $2.6 billion. Distribution was up 8%, ad sales were up 51%, and content was down 11% during the quarter, which saw Warner Bros. Discovery will broadcast the second season of “House of the Dragon,” as well as Olympic Games programming across international territories and Discovery’s “Shark Week.” Programming block.
During a call with investors later Thursday, WBD CEO David Zaslav said the company expects to “significantly exceed” its goal of $1 billion in streaming revenue in 2025.
In the studio segment, WBD saw revenue decline 17% to $2.7 billion. Television revenues were up 30%, while video game sales were down 31% (the “SmashBros”-like MultiVersus couldn’t surpass last year’s hit “Hogwarts Legacy”) and theater sales were down the aforementioned 40% with “Beetlejuice” and “Twisters” perform weaker than 2023’s “Barbie.”
Warner Bros.’s network division has increased its popularity. Discovery’s revenues increased by 3% compared to the third quarter of 2023, to reach $5 billion. Content revenue rose 87% with ad sales down 11% and distribution down 7%.
Wall Street expected an earnings per share (EPS) loss of 9 cents on revenue of $9.8 billion, according to analyst consensus data provided by LSEG. Warner Bros. announced Discovery reported diluted EPS of 5 cents, a profit of $135 million, and revenue of $9.6 billion.
The company reported that it carries a total of $40.7 billion in debt. Free cash flow was $632 million during the quarter.
Warner Bros. CEO David Zaslav said: Discovery, in a letter to “Warner Bros. Discovery’s third-quarter results show once again that as we continue to face extraordinary disruptions in our environment, the strategy we have taken to position Warner Bros. Discovery for future success is showing significant results.” Contributors. “Thanks to our rapid international expansion and continued investment in high-quality, diverse content, we saw momentum accelerate in our global direct-to-consumer business in the third quarter. In total, Max achieved 7.2 million net subscriber additions, the strongest quarterly gain since the platform launched, leading to healthy growth.” in subscriber-related revenue and making tangible progress toward achieving our Direct-toConsumer segment financial goals for 2025. Likewise, our recently announced strategic partnership with Charter Communications, for both linear network distribution and Max aggregation, not only enhanced the value of our content portfolio, but represented our desire “In working with our partners to enhance the consumer experience as our industry transforms.”