Warner Bros posts surprise streaming profit as cable struggles

WARNER Bros Discovery reported a surprise profit in streaming TV as its legacy cable networks continued to lose advertising and viewers.

The company, which will relaunch its streaming service as Max on May 23, earned US$50 million in the first quarter from its online TV business, according to a statement on Friday (May 5). Analysts were forecasting a US$49 million loss on average. The company’s global direct-to-consumer subscribers increased 1.6 million to 97.6 million.

The news will likely be viewed as a welcome sign for the company and the TV industry as a whole, which has struggled to generate profit from multibillion-US dollar investments in streaming.

Elsewhere, the parent of HBO and CNN posted disappointing results. Sales, at US$10.7 billion, were in line with Wall Street forecasts of US$10.73 billion. The company posted a net loss of 44 cents a share, steeper than Wall Street projections for a 4-cent loss.

Part of the shortfall was due to lower results from the Warner Bros. movie studio, which benefited a year earlier from the hit film The Batman. Warner Bros. Discovery was created last year with the merger of Discovery and the WarnerMedia operations of AT&T

On Thursday, shares of Paramount Global, parent of CBS, MTV and other networks, tumbled 28 per cent, after the company reporting steeper losses in its streaming business and slashing its dividend to conserve cash. BLOOMBERG