It’s no secret that Warner Bros. Discovery has been one of the most headache-inducing results of a massive merger in recent times (and the competition is fierce in that arena). From completely shelving essentially finished movies for tax write-offs to drunkenly re-branding HBO Max into just Max, it’s been rough in there, and now it turns out the once-blooming TV business under David Zaslav’s ruthless guidance is taking a massive hit as well.
I may not be great with numbers and market laws and whatnot (I wouldn’t be rambling about pop culture online if I was), but I can tell when something’s objectively cooked and executives are just BSing their way through generic and/or empty statements to try to maintain peace amongst hungry shareholders and investors, and the folks at Warner Bros. Discovery have been doing that bit for a while now. It’s something you simply pick up after a while.
Via IndieWire, it’s been revealed WB Discovery’s TV business, which used to be a rock-solid foundation for everything else, is actually worth “$9.1 billion less than it originally thought, leading to a net loss of $10 billion in the second quarter of 2024.” This blow comes after general disappointment with WB Games’ recent financial performance, aggressive job cuts, and Zaslav gifting himself pats on the back and more bonuses instead of being booed off the company and into a cave.
As pointed out before, the massive plummet coming from the ‘Networks’ section of the company is a rather worrying sign, as that side of the business had been keeping the whole enterprise afloat while the film and streaming divisions were reworked into something else. As for the uncertain future of Warner Bros. Games, current word on the street (via Financial Times) is that a stake in WB Discovery’s gaming operations might be offloaded. At this point, it just feels like Zaslav is running a scavenging operation rather than a well-functioning business.
Meanwhile, the company is putting the blame on an uncertain market (which is affecting everyone else) and advertising issues, all while ignoring hits such as losing its rights to broadcast the NBA. The “good” news was that streaming added 3.6 million subscribers in this quarter, for a total of 103.3 million subs, yet that segment also lost $107 million, so expect further cuts to the bone sooner rather than later.
Max’s lineup for late 2024 and early 2025 is looking strong, however, and Warner Bros. Pictures’ theatrical performance this year (with quality crowd-pleasers) has been pretty impressive even without the upcoming DCU movies, so this appears to be a case of C-suites fumbling the bag and running a business to the ground by chasing ephemeral golden geese rather than a lack of quality output. Ah well, it is what it is.
