It’s no secret that Warner Bros. Discovery Channel is one of the biggest headaches to come out of a massive merger in recent years (and competition in the space is fierce). From completely shelving essentially completed movies for tax write-offs to drunkenly renaming HBO Max Max, things have been rocky there, and now it turns out that under the ruthless direction of David Zaslav, once The booming television business is taking a huge hit.
I may not be good at things like numbers and market laws (if I were, I wouldn’t be chatting about pop culture online), but I can tell when something is objectively cooked and executives are just passing it off generically and/or empty statement nonsense. This is something you simply pick up after a while.
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According to IndieWire, WB Discovery’s TV business, which was once the solid foundation for everything else, is actually worth “$9.1 billion less than originally thought, resulting in a net loss of $10 billion in the second quarter of 2024.” The blow comes after widespread disappointment with WB Games’ recent financial performance, significant layoffs, and Zaslav giving himself a pat on the back and a bigger bonus instead of being booed by the company and left in limbo.
As noted previously, the sharp decline in the company’s “Internet” division is a rather worrying sign, as that business unit has been keeping the entire enterprise afloat while the film and streaming divisions were repurposed into other divisions. As for Warner Bros. Games’ uncertain future, current rumors (via the Financial Times ) are that a stake in Warner Bros. Games’ gaming business could be put up for sale. At this point, Zaslav feels like he’s running a scavenging business rather than a well-run business.
At the same time, the company is blaming the uncertain market (which is affecting everyone else) and advertising issues, while ignoring major events like the loss of NBA broadcast rights. The “good” news is that streaming added 3.6 million subscribers in the quarter, bringing the total to 103.3 million, but the segment also lost $107 million, so expect further cuts sooner rather than later.
However, Max’s lineup for late 2024 and early 2025 looks strong, and even without the upcoming DCU movies, Warner Bros. Pictures’ theatrical performance this year (high-quality crowd-pleasers) has been pretty impressive, so that’s Seems to be a case of clumsy management at the top running a business by chasing short-lived golden goose rather than a lack of quality output. Ah, well, that’s it.
