Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc. (the “Company”) (Nasdaq: WBD) today reported financial results for the quarter ended March 31, 2023.
The Company will conduct a conference call today at 8:00 a.m. ET to discuss the results. A link to the live webcast of the conference call will be available in the “Investor Relations” section of the Company’s website at https://ir.wbd.com/.
A telephone replay of the call will be available approximately two hours after the completion of the call until May 13, 2023. The replay can be accessed by phone by dialing +1 800-770-2030 or +1 647-362-9199 using playback passcode 1493434. A replay of the audio webcast will also be available in the “Investor Relations” section of the Company’s website for twelve months.
David Zaslav, President and Chief Executive Officer of Warner Bros. Discovery said, “It is an important time for Warner Bros. Discovery. We’ve come through some major restructurings and have repositioned our businesses with greater precision and focus. And we see a number of positive proof points emerging, with DTC perhaps the most prominent. We made a meaningful turn this quarter with $50 million in segment EBITDA and 1.6 million net adds, and we feel great about the trajectory we are on. In fact, we now expect our U.S. DTC business to be profitable for 2023 – a year ahead of our guidance. Even in today’s challenging marketplace, we are positioned to drive free cash flow and deleverage our balance sheet, and we remain confident in our strategy and ability to achieve our financial targets.”
Q1 Financial Summary & Operational Highlights:
- Q1 total revenues were $10,700 million. Revenues decreased 5% ex-FX, or decreased 3% ex-FX excluding the impact of the 2022 Winter Olympic Games, compared to the prior year quarter, on a combined basis.
- Net loss available to Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc. was $(1,069) million, and included $1,810 million of pre-tax amortization from acquisition-related intangible assets and $95 million of pre-tax restructuring expenses.
- Q1 total Adjusted EBITDA was $2,611 million. Adjusted EBITDA increased 12% ex-FX compared to the prior year quarter, on a combined basis.
- Q1 cash provided by operating activities and reported free cash flow are not directly comparable to the prior year quarter due to the acquisition of the WarnerMedia business.
- Cash provided by operating activities was $(631) million, which includes $836 million of semi-annual interest payments largely attributable to merger-related debt.
- Reported free cash flow was $(930) million.
- Ended Q1 with $2.6 billion of cash on hand, $49.5 billion of gross debt, and 5.0x net leverage.
- Global DTC subscribers increased 1.6 million to 97.6 million at the end of Q1 vs. 96.1 million subscribers at the end of Q4.
- In Q1, WBD was the #1 most-watched Total TV linear portfolio among P25-54 viewers, driven by the broadcast of the NCAA March Madness tournament, and had 6 of the top 10 cable networks in Prime.
- Celebrated CNN’s first ever Oscar® with Navalny winning best documentary feature film.
- The Q1 launch of Hogwarts Legacy was the largest release of all time for Warner Bros. Games and is the best selling game year-to-date with over $1 billion in retail sales.
WARNER BROS. DISCOVERY REPORTS FIRST-QUARTER 2023 RESULTS
About Warner Bros. Discovery:
Warner Bros. Discovery (Nasdaq: WBD) is a leading global media and entertainment company that creates and distributes the world’s most differentiated and complete portfolio of content and brands across television, film and streaming. Available in more than 220 countries and territories and 50 languages, Warner Bros. Discovery inspires, informs and entertains audiences worldwide through its iconic brands and products including: Discovery Channel, discovery+, CNN, DC, Eurosport, HBO, HBO Max, HGTV, Food Network, OWN, Investigation Discovery, TLC, Magnolia Network, TNT, TBS, truTV, Travel Channel, MotorTrend, Animal Planet, Science Channel, Warner Bros. Pictures, Warner Bros. Television, Warner Bros. Games, New Line Cinema, Cartoon Network, Adult Swim, Turner Classic Movies, Discovery en Español, Hogar de HGTV and others. For more information, please visit www.wbd.com.