Warner Bros. Discovery
reported a wider-than-expected third-quarter loss and a decline in television revenue amid Hollywood strikes and a difficult advertising market.
Warner Bros. (ticker: WBD) stock was the worst performer in the
S&P 500
Wednesday, was falling 16% to $10.02. It was on pace for its largest percentage decrease since August 2022, according to Dow Jones Market Data.
Shares of competitor
Paramount Global
(PARA) were dropping 7.8% to $11.83.
Warner Bros. reported a third-quarter loss of 17 cents a share on revenue of $9.98 billion. Analysts surveyed by FactSet had expected the entertainment company to report a loss of 9 cents a share on revenue of $9.97 billion.
In the same period last year, Warner Bros. posted a loss of 95 cents a share on revenue of $9.82 billion.
The company reported content revenue for its networks segment of $215 million, a 22% decline from the same period last year.
“TV revenue declined significantly primarily due to certain large licensing deals in the prior year and the impact of the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes,” Warner Bros. said in a press release.
SAG-AFTRA actors have been on strike since July with workers demanding higher pay and residuals, as well as more concrete protections against artificial intelligence. Hollywood writers ended their strike at the end of September.
Total advertising revenue for the quarter of $1.8 billion was down 12% from the previous year, as the ad market remained soft, Warner said.
The company also reported that global direct-to-consumer subscribers declined by 700,000 to 95.1 million in the quarter. This comes as Warner announced changes to its streaming services, including the launch of the Bleacher Report Sports Add-On to streaming service Max and offering CNN Max to streaming subscribers.
Warner Bros. shares have gained 3.5% this year.
Write to Angela Palumbo at [email protected]
Read the full article here