Warner Bros. Discovery said its first-quarter loss narrowed from the year-earlier period as it added more than 5 million subscribers to its streaming services around the globe. Even so, the company had to contend with dips in all of its traditional streams of revenue, including advertising and distribution, more evidence it continues to grapple with a difficult operating environment for the media sector.
The owner of the TNT, TBS and CNN cable networks and the Max streaming service said its net loss came to $453 million, compared with $966 million in the year-earlier period. Revenue in the first quarter fell 10% to $8.97 billion.
In a letter to shareholders, the company said it was seeing new momentum from the shows it has created, including “The Pitt” and “The Last of Us,” but noted that “our first quarter film slate underperformed expectations” and that its TV networks faced a “challenging and uncertain environment.”
Revenue fell 7% to $4.7 billion in the company’s largest business, its TV networks. Warner Bros. Discovery said ad revenue fell 12%, while distribution revenue was off by 9%. The company cited declines in audiences at its networks for the downturns.
Revenue from the company’s production studios fell 18% to $2.3 billion, largely due to a year-earlier quarter that included theatrical releases such as “Dune: Part Two” and “Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire.”
Streaming revenue rose 8% to $2.65 billion, with fees from distribution and ad sales both increasing as new subscribers joined services such as Max.
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