Streaming Was A Bright Spot For Warner Bros. Discovery’s Mixed Quarter

For CTV advertisers, the first Fiscal year report by Warner Bros. Discovery about the fiscal year of 2025 was a slightly mixed bag.

First, bad news. The company did not meet the Wall Street expectations for the quarter, and the total revenue dropped 10%, with $ 9.96 billion last year at $ 8.98 billion this year.

They saw income from advertising. It reduced by 8% compared to Q1, from $ 2.15 billion to $ 1.98 billion.

But there is a silver lining in which the flow is concerned.

Max, the primary service of WBD Streaming, received 5.3 million subscribers from Q4 for a total of 122.3 million subscribers.

The flow revenues increased by 8% compared to this time last year, from $ 2.46 to $ 2.66 billion. And the income from streaming advertising jumped significantly from $ 175 to $ 237 million, which is an increase in growth of 35%.

“Great Demand” to flow

At the invitation with investors on Thursday, the WBS CEO David Slavo has shared that the publisher plan for this year’s TV upfronts – who, like writing, is only a week away – focus on Max’s current supplies.

“The decline of traditional business outweighs the increase in our subscribers and advertising revenues, so we are a net positive there,” he said.

This electricity growth is especially impressive, given that the content supported by ads began to become available in the US market just over a year ago, and now it exists over 45 markets.

In addition, said JB Perrette, executive director and president Global Streaming and Games, there was a “great demand” on ads in many largest markets of the company, “UP multiple what they were 12 months ago.”

On the other hand, as increasingly for earnings on earnings in this quarter, the WBD Executive team also abolished the possibility that increased economic insecurity could scare advertisers and subscribers.

Repeated discussions could go a little more slowly this year, said Gunnar Wiedenfels Financial Director Gunnar. But it was also compensated for by “strong spray” of the various WBD assets, as well as precautions that the company began to take immediately after the tariffs were first announced.

“Not how much, that’s good”

Not mentioned was news that Max quietly removed Over two hundred seasons of the reality show with Brands Discovery Channel this month. Most of the reality show titles, such as the “90-day fiancé”, “My life of 600 pounds” and “Diners, Drive-In and Destroyers,” were added after HBO Max was connected to Discovery+ 2023.

Streamer will also have fewer new sports content to return to. The WBD sports portfolio will affect some of the outgoing and arrival rights, said Wiedenfels – specifically the loss of NBA, which in the next 11 years moves exclusively in NBCuniversal, ESPN and Amazon Prime.

Asked about the greater politics of the WBD content licensing, Sansav said that the goal of the company was always in quality compared to the quantity.

“Consumers look at quality content and say it’s really what they want,” he said. “And we got rid of a lot. It was a shift since we took over and bought this company.

Sansav refers to Controversial content cleaning This preceded the merging of Streaming in late 2022, which also saw the disappearance of the original HBO Max series like “Station Eleven” and “Raised it Wolves.”

But that purge since 2022 – and this one, probably – was in line with WBD’s dedication that “he does not flood the zone” content, Said said.

“The future of Max is quality, quality, quality,” he said.