Warner Bros. Discovery had a $111 million profit on its streaming direct-to-consumer business and shrunk its overall third-quarter loss to $417 million.
Direct-to-consumer has been the debt-laden company’s main problem. Like other media companies jumping into streaming, it has been cutting costs and raising prices to stanch the red ink.
The company lost 700,000 direct-to-consumer subscribers in the quarter, but average revenue per subscriber rose 6% to $7.82.
The company finished the quarter with 95.1 million subscribers to Max and Discovery Plus, including 52.6 million domestic subscribers, a loss of 1.4 million.
Direct-to-consumer adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) were $111 million, compared to a $634 million loss a year ago.
DTC distribution revenue rose 6% to $2.179 million. DTC ad revenue increased 30% to $136 million.
Overall, Warner Bros. Discovery reported a $417 million loss in the quarter, or 17 cents a share, compared to a $2.3 billion loss (or 95 cents a share) a year ago.
Revenue rose 2% to $9.979 million.
Warner Bros. Discovery’s networks segment had adjusted EBITDA of $2.396 billion, down 9% from a year ago.
Networks revenue was down 7% to $4.868 billion.
Advertising revenue was down 12% to $1.709 billion. Distribution revenue was down 3% to $2.833 billion. Content revenue was down 22% to $215 million.
Adjusted EBITDA for the company’s Studios segment fell 5% to $727 million. Revenues were up 4% to $3.23 billion thanks to the release of the Barbie movie.
“I am very pleased with the strong financial results that our company delivered in Q3,” said CEO David Zaslav.
“Among the highlights, our direct-to-consumer business had another profitable quarter with $111 million of adjusted EBITDA and launched its new live-programming offerings with CNN Max and the Bleacher Report Add On, which are showing early signs of contributing to increased engagement and lower churn on Max,” Zaslav said. “We’ve made great strides in just 19 months and are excited to continue building on this strong momentum, as we focus on driving future growth and creating long-term value for our shareholders.”
