Warner Bros Discovery sees Max streaming growth but legacy media was a drag

Warner Bros Discovery today tread a similar path as Disney, which earlier this week reported strong growth in streaming but challenging trading for its ‘linear’ or ‘legacy’ television businesses.

The HBO-Max owner highlighted it added 2 million new pay-monthly subscribers in the period, bringing its streaming audience to 99.6 million.

Max generated $2.46 billion of revenue, and streaming made $86 million of earnings for the group.

But, the TV networks suffered lower ad revenues which fell 11%, leaving the division’s revenue 8% lower at $5.13 billion

At group level revenue came in under expectations with the company reporting $9.96 billion versus analyst forecasts for $10.23 billion. It meant that Warner’s net loss of $966 million, 40 cents per share, was much worse than the 24 cents that the market had ancitipated.

Chief executive David Zaslav talked up the upcoming expansion and roll-out of Max worldwide.

“We delivered meaningful growth in our streaming business with a nice acceleration in ad sales, generating nearly $90 million in positive EBITDA for the quarter,” Zaslav said.

He added: “We will soon be rolling out Max to 29 countries across Europe, and the content lineup for Max over the coming year is one of our strongest ever.

Another apparent silver-linnig was the strong box-office showing for Dune 2 which banked $700 million, and alongside Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire helped the movie division reach $1.2bn of gross box office takings.

In New York, WBD stock was resilient rising 1.47% to change hands at $7.92.