Warner Bros. Discovery has at long last crossed 100 million direct-to-consumer subscribers.
With 3.6 million second-quarter subs signing up for streamers Max, Discovery+, and/or linear HBO this spring, WBD now has 103.3 million total DTC subscribers. The segment’s Q2 2024 results makes it three straight quarters of subscriber growth following three straight quarters of sub loss.
The company’s streaming business swung backwards to a $107 million loss in the second quarter. But that was nothing compared to the $9.1 billion of value that was wiped out via an audit of assets. All told, Warner Bros. Discovery posted a massive $10 billion net loss in the quarter.
WBD President & CEO David Zaslav said in a prepared statement accompanying the financials:
“At Warner Bros. Discovery, our top priority is our global direct-to-consumer business and we are extremely pleased with the growing momentum we are seeing, as demonstrated by another strong quarter of growth with 3.6 million net adds, fueled by our ongoing international expansion and investment in high quality, diverse content. In light of industry headwinds, we have and will continue taking bold steps, like reimagining our existing linear partnerships and pursuing new bundling opportunities, with the goal to get Max on the devices of more consumers faster and at a fraction of the acquisition cost, and we are seeing clear evidence that these and other actions we are taking will help drive segment profitability in the second half of the year and into 2025 and beyond.”
Ya left something out there, Dave.
At the box office, “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga” flopped in the quarter, but “Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire” (its opening weekend was in Q1) was a pleasant surprise. The second half of 2024, with “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” and “Joker: Folie à Deux” should be kinder to Warner Bros.
Small-screen highlights for the recently-wrapped quarter include the first chunk of “House of the Dragon” Season 2. “Hacks” Season 3 performed well and “Dune: Part Two” pitched in for film (on Max).
As previously announced, Warner Bros. Discovery, Disney, and Fox plan on launching sports-centric streaming service Venu ($42.99 per month) this fall. Unless Fubo — or the U.S. government — gets its way.
Earlier on Wednesday, Disney reported its own earnings from the quarter. The company turned a profit from streaming for the first time since Disney+ launched, despite modest (at best) subscriber growth.
More to come…
