Warner Bros. Discovery has wrapped its TV upfront talks, the corporate confirmed throughout its second-quarter earnings name on Wednesday.
Through the name, CEO David Zaslav mentioned streaming service Max’s quantity grew by nearly 50% as shoppers noticed worth in its upscale and younger-skewing viewers in addition to sponsorship alternatives in Max’s programming just like the third season of The White Lotus.
Zaslav mentioned the corporate’s linear income additionally noticed sturdy sports activities pricing and double-digit quantity progress led by elevated demand from their protection of March Insanity, Main League Baseball, NBA, the NHL, and the Stanley Cup finals. Newer sports activities programming like NASCAR and the French Open additionally drove progress.
The corporate didn’t tackle or share CPMs (or the associated fee to succeed in 1,000 viewers) through the earnings name.
Zaslav additionally famous that the studio enterprise with movies like Twisters is powerful, which he mentioned remains to be within the midst of what’s going to be a “multi-year turnaround.”
Warner Bros. Discovery joins NBCU, Fox, Disney, and TelevisaUnivision in closing their upfronts.
Warner Bros. Discovery reported a $9.1 billion non-cash impairment cost, or write-down, on its TV linear networks division. Nonetheless, the corporate’s streaming enterprise noticed some minor beneficial properties and ended the quarter with $240 million in streaming promoting income.
Moreover, WBD introduced that it’s taking authorized motion in opposition to the NBA after the league selected to go along with Amazon for its huge 11-year media rights deal, regardless of WBD saying it had matched the streamer’s provide.
The corporate additionally has a brand new sports activities providing coming within the fall with its three way partnership for Venu Sports activities with Disney and Fox.
The upfront information comes at a tumultuous time for Warner Bros. Discovery. The corporate lately introduced layoffs that affected practically 1,000 folks.
