Warner Bros. Discovery has reported having added 2 million subscribers during the first quarter of 2022 as the mass media company tries to catch up with Netflix who revealed to have lost subscribers for the first time in a decade.
Warner Bros. Discovery, formed through a merger between Discovery and AT&T’s WarnerMedia, reported a 13% rise in quarterly revenue to USD 3.16 billion. The company claims to have benefitted from a spike in ad spending during the Olympics and the Beijing Summer Games.
Interestingly, the company results do not include WarnerMedia’s other properties, such as the Batman and Harry Potter franchises as well as the streaming service HBO Max.
During a call with investors, Chief Financial Officer Gunnar Wiedenfel said that the company’s profit for 2022 would be lower than previously expected. He noted that the Discovery division is likely to contribute around USD 100 million to the company’s profit.
Wiendenfel added that the company is on track to achieve USD 3 billion in cost savings by 2022. He cited the company’s decision to stop the CNN+ streaming service as an example of how it would continue to reduce costs.
For those unaware, WarnerMedia’s Discovery announced last week that it would stop the CNN+ streaming service, which had reportedly attracted just 10,000 viewer’s a day.
Before the merger between Discovery and WarnerMedia was completed, the number of paid subscribers had increased to 24 million. But Wall Street is starting to question the long-term prospects of streaming services following the pandemic. This has now become a thought-provoking factor after the disappointing results from Netflix.
Warner Bros. Discovery’s earnings per share were 69 cents higher than the previous year’s income of 21 cents per share. However, shares of the company were trading lower before the market opened on Tuesday (26th April).
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