Warner Bros. Discovery slips on revenue miss, passes 92M subscribers
Warner Bros. Discovery stock (NASDAQ:WBD) fell 3.8% in early postmarket trading after its second-quarter earnings, where it missed revenue expectations and logged a substantial net loss.
Revenues as reported were $9.83B (not comparable to the unmerged Discovery of a year ago). Pro forma combined revenues were $10.82B, down 1% in constant currency from a year ago.
Meanwhile a net loss of $3.42B included over $2B in amortization of intangibles as well as $1B in restructuring and other charges, and $983M in transaction/integration costs.
Also pro forma, combined EBITDA fell 31% in constant currency year-over-year.
Total direct-to-consumer subscribers were 92.1M, up by 1.7M from Q1's 90.4M. The totals are newly adjusted based on new definitions of DTC subscribers after combining Discovery with WarnerMedia. (That new definition excludes 10M legacy Discovery noncore subs - a signal for HBO taking over the brand? - and unactivated AT&T mobility subs from the Q1 count.)
Revenues by segment: Networks, $5.742B as reported, $6.12B pro forma (up 1% ex-FX); Studios, $2.796 as reported, $3.364B pro forma (up 4% ex-FX); Direct-to-Consumer, $2.23B as reported, $2.41B pro forma (up 4% ex-FX); Inter-segment revenue eliminations, -$949M as reported, -$1.088B pro forma.
Earlier, WBD revealed that some titles from Chip & Joanna Gaines' Magnolia Network are headed to HBO Max in September, presaging the eventual combination of the company's streaming efforts.
The company is set to talk about streaming strategy in an "extended" conference call to come at 4:30 p.m. ET.