bet9ja.com
Shares jump 13% after reorganizing statement
Follows course taken by Comcast's brand-new spin-off company
*
bit.ly
Challenges seen in offering debt-laden linear TV networks
(New throughout, adds details, background, remarks from industry experts and analysts, updates share rates)
By Dawn Chmielewski, Deborah Mary Sophia and Aditya Soni
Dec 12 (Reuters) - Warner Bros Discovery on Thursday chose to separate its declining cable businesses such as CNN from streaming and studio operations such as Max, preparing for a prospective sale or spinoff of its TV business as more cable television subscribers cut the cable.
Shares of Warner leapt after the company said the new structure would be more deal friendly and it anticipated to complete the split by the middle of 2025. Warner shares closed at $12.49, up more than 15%.
are thinking about choices for fading cable television organizations, a long time golden goose where revenues are deteriorating as millions of consumers accept streaming video.
Comcast last month unveiled strategies to divide most of its NBCUniversal cable television networks into a new public business. The brand-new company would be well capitalized and placed to get other cable networks if the market consolidates, one source informed Reuters.
Bank of America research expert Jessica Reif Ehrlich composed that Warner Bros Discovery's cable assets are a "extremely sensible partner" for Comcast's new spin-off business.
"We strongly think there is potential for fairly substantial synergies if WBD's direct networks were combined with Comcast SpinCo," composed Ehrlich, using the market term for standard tv.
bet9ja.com
"Further, we believe WBD's standalone streaming and studio possessions would be an attractive takeover target."
Under the brand-new structure for Warner Bros Discovery, the cable television service consisting of TNT, Animal Planet and CNN will be housed in a system called Global Linear Networks.
Streaming platforms Max and Discovery+ will be under a separate division along with movie studios, including Warner Bros Pictures and New Line Cinema.
The restructuring reflects an inflection point for the media industry, as investments in streaming services such as Warner Bros Discovery's Max are finally paying off.
"Streaming won as a habits," said Jonathan Miller, chief executive of digital media investment firm Integrated Media. "Now, it's winning as a business."
Brightcove CEO Marc DeBevoise said Warner Bros Discovery's new business structure will differentiate growing studio and streaming properties from rewarding however diminishing cable company, providing a clearer investment photo and likely setting the phase for a sale or spin-off of the cable system.
bet9ja.com
The media veteran and consultant forecasted Paramount and others may take a comparable path.
CEO David Zaslav, a veteran deal-maker who led Discovery through its acquisition of Scripps Networks Interactive before getting the even larger target, AT&T's WarnerMedia, is positioning the business for its next chess relocation, wrote MoffettNathanson expert Robert Fishman.
"The question is not whether more pieces will be walked around or knocked off the board, or if further consolidation will take place-- it is a matter of who is the buyer and who is the seller," wrote Fishman.
Zaslav signaled that situation during Warner Bros Discovery's investor call last month. He said he expected President-elect Donald Trump's administration would be friendlier to deal-making, opening the door to media market combination.
Zaslav had actually engaged in merger talks with Paramount late in 2015, though a deal never materialized, according to a regulative filing last month.
Others injected a note of care, keeping in mind Warner Bros Discovery brings $40.4 billion in financial obligation.
"The structure modification would make it simpler for WBD to sell its direct TV networks," eMarketer analyst Ross Benes stated, referring to the cable TV service. "However, discovering a purchaser will be challenging. The networks owe money and have no indications of growth."
In August, Warner Bros Discovery wrote down the value of its TV possessions by over $9 billion due to unpredictability around fees from cable and satellite suppliers and sports betting rights renewals.
This week, the media company announced a multi-year offer increasing the general fees Comcast will pay to disperse Warner Bros Discovery's networks.
Warner Bros Discovery is sports betting the Comcast contract, together with an offer reached this year with cable and broadband provider Charter, will be a template for future negotiations with distributors. That could help support prices for the domestic pay TV market. (Reporting by Deborah Sophia and Aditya Soni in Bengaluru, Dawn Chmielewski in Los Angeles
1
Warner Bros Discovery Sets Stage For Potential Cable Deal By
rodney91b97815 edited this page 1 week ago