(Reuters) – Warner Bros. Discovery reported a quarterly loss on Friday as results were hurt by costs related to the merger that caused the US media giant in 2022, even as its video-on-demand (VOD) business recorded his first profit.
On the New York Stock Exchange, Warner Bros. Discovery lost 4.4% to 11.79 dollars at 1:43 p.m. GMT.
Warner Bros. Discovery posted a quarterly loss of 44 cents per share, while analysts had expected a profit of 1 cent, according to Refinitiv data.
The group born from the merger of AT&T and Discovery recorded a charge of 1.81 billion dollars (1.65 million euros) related to its merger in the first quarter, while accounting for 95 million dollars in restructuring costs.
The company’s streaming unit, which includes services HBO Max and Discovery+, reported adjusted pretax profit of $50 million, compared with a loss of $227 million a year earlier. This division, hitherto in deficit, has also gained 1.6 million subscribers.
Warner Bros. Discovery reported revenue of $10.70 billion for the first three months of 2023, while analysts had expected $10.78 billion, according to Refinitiv data.
“It’s been over a year since Warner Bros. Discovery completed its merger and it appears David Zaslav is still considering how best to move this combined company forward,” Third Bridge analyst Jamie Lumley said. , referring to the group’s chief executive.
Advertising revenue from the company’s networks, which include HGTV, Discovery Channel and TLC, increased 56%.
(Reporting Dawn Chmielewski in Los Angeles and Samrhitha Arunasalam in Bangalore, French version Augustin Turpin, editing by Kate Entringer)
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