Warner Bros Discovery Posts $10 Billion Loss in Q2

Warner Bros Discovery has experienced a $10 billion loss in the second quarter, despite writing down $9.1 billion on its struggling network assets. This was due to uncertainties surrounding fees from cable and satellite distributors as well as sports rights renewals.

The reassessment of the value of assets set at the time of the Warner Bros and Discovery merger resulted in a $9.1 billion goodwill charge in the second quarter. The decline in value over the past two and a half years is linked to the reduced popularity of traditional television viewership, largely driven by the rise of streaming services.

The studio segment saw a 6% drop in content revenue, largely attributed to the underperformance of the game "Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League" released earlier this year compared to the previous year's successful game "Hogwarts Legacy."

The much-anticipated film "Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga" by director George Miller performed poorly at the box office following its release in May. Excluding one-time items like the goodwill charge, the company's loss amounted to 36 cents per share, surpassing the estimated 22 cents per share.

Despite a reported budget of $168 million, "Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga" only generated $67.5 million at the domestic box office, as per IMDb's box office Mojo data. On Wednesday, the media giant reported revenue of $9.71 billion in the second quarter, falling short of analysts' estimate of $10.07 billion according to LSEG data.

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