Shares of Warner Bros. Discovery climb while the CNN parent weighs the division of cable asset: report

Warner Bros Discovery is heading towards a possible division, CNBC reported on Thursday, as media companies explore options for their businesses in cable TV difficulties and sharpen their concentration on their fastest growing and studios.

WBD shares increased more than 4% in the news, returning from nearly 6% previous losses driven by a dense quarterly report.

Warner Bros Discovery lost the first trimester revenue estimates and posted a greater loss than expected in the day due to a slow cashier performance and the constant collapse of cables.

The media industry is undergoing what some executives have called a “general outage” as millions of subscribers abandon the once-in-transmission cable TV. This has accumulated pressure on companies to consistently produce content in the hit studio and increase the benefit in their transmission businesses.

The WBD had laid the groundwork for a possible sale or spinoff of its cable TV assets in December by notifying a separation from its transmission and studio operations. She reported results under the new structure for the first time on Thursday.

A compartment would approximate the WBD with Comcast, which is rotating nbcuniversal cable TV networks, including MSNBC and CNBC, to position itself for growth in the transmission age.

Analysts have long speculated on a division of WBD, formed by the 2022 union between Warner Media and Discovery.

“WBD would be weaker and would have a stronger growth potential without cable assets. But finding a buyer can be difficult. The linear TV is deteriorating and the WBD has great debts,” said analyst Emarketer Ross Benes.

WBD, who has $ 38 billion gross debt, did not respond to a Reuters request for comment on the CNBC report.

Streaming Booms, Studio disappointed

Its Director General David Zaslav said on Thursday the company’s programming force was helping Max attract subscribers to a human -filled market for broadcasting services.

The WBD added 5.3 million quarterly transmission subscribers, compared to 3.1 million assessed by analysts, according to visible Alpha, receiving its total at 122.3 million. Its contents of content in the period included the third season of HBO’s “white lotus” and the “Pitt” medical drama series.

However, its results were prevented by a weak show in the cash register while the WBD tried to repeat last year’s “Dune: the second” success, which earned more than $ 700 million. Her release Marque for the period, Bong Joon Ho’s Dark “Mickey 17”, won just a little more than her budget reported in the cash register.

The studio revenue dropped 18% to $ 2.31 billion, losing estimates of $ 2.73 billion, according to visible Alpha.

However, the company has made a strong start in the second trimester with Ryan Coogler’s horror film “Sinners” and blocker “A Minecraft Film”, which has reconciled about $ 900 million globally, making it the largest omission of 2025 so far.

Income in the TV network segment, which includes CNN, Discovery Channel and Animal Planet, fell 7%.

In general, revenues dropped 10% to $ 8.98 billion, the average estimate of lost analysts of $ 9.60 billion, according to data compiled by LSEG. The 18 cent loss per share was also greater than the expectations for a 13 percent loss.