WBD - Warner Bros Discovery Pulled Off An Impressive Turnaround In The Streaming Arena | Benzinga
When it comes to streaming, Warner Bros Discovery Inc (NASDAQ: WBD) reached profitability before its legacy media rivals such as The Walt Disney Corporation (NYSE: DIS), Comcast Corporation (NASDAQ: CMCSA) and Paramount Global (NASDAQ: PARA). However, with a slump in advertising revenue, Warner Bros missed both top and bottom-line estimates with its fourth quarter results. After the report, shares fell 12% in early trading on Friday.
Fourth Quarter Highlights
For the quarter that ended on December 31st, Warner Bros reported revenue of $10.28 billion that came short of LSEG’s estimate of $10.35 billion.
Warner Bros made a fourth-quarter net loss of $400 million, or 16 cents per share, narrowing down its 2023’s comparable quarter loss of $2.1 billion, or 86 cents per share. Adjusted EBITDA dropped 5% YoY to $2.5 billion, with the drop attributed to the underperformance of studio revenue that was the result of the unforseen WGA and SAGAFTR strikes. Studio revenue tanked 17% to $3.17 billion.
Excluding the impact of foreign currency exchange, Discovery reported a 14% decline in linear television advertising revenue with a 4% drop in actual distribution revenue.
On a brighter note, Warner Bros Discovery ended 2023 with a 86% YoY rise in free cash flow that amounted to $6.16 billion. ...