Warner Bros. Discovery reported a record quarter for its streaming segment, with revenues exceeding $3 billion and a significant improvement in adjusted EBITDA, driven by strong subscriber growth and content performance. Management remains confident in the completion of the Paramount Skydance deal and provided a positive outlook for 2027, including a ramped-up film slate. The call was heavily focused on new streaming content, licensing demand, and strategic bundles. Streaming segment achieved record revenues of over $3 billion in Q2 2026, up 10% XFX in subscriber-related revenue growth.
Warner Bros. Discovery reported a record quarter for its streaming segment, with revenues exceeding $3 billion and a significant improvement in adjusted EBITDA, driven by strong subscriber growth and content performance. Management remains confident in the completion of the Paramount Skydance deal and provided a positive outlook for 2027, including a ramped-up film slate. The call was heavily focused on new streaming content, licensing demand, and strategic bundles. Streaming segment achieved record revenues of over $3 billion in Q2 2026, up 10% XFX in subscriber-related revenue growth.
Warner Bros. Discovery reported a record quarter for its streaming segment, with revenues exceeding $3 billion and a significant improvement in adjusted EBITDA, driven by strong subscriber growth and content performance. Management remains confident in the completion of the…
Streaming segment achieved record revenues of over $3 billion in Q2 2026, up 10% XFX in subscriber-related revenue growth.
Streaming adjusted EBITDA reached $512 million, a 60% improvement year-over-year, with margins nearing 17%.
Management guided to raising film output from 14 films in 2026 to 19 films in 2027, signaling increased investment in theatrical.
Management cited strong demand for content licensing, with healthy demand for library titles and improved streaming distribution growth (double-digit, low-teens ex-related party). They noted weaker international linear ad markets with caution from consumer weakness.
Management highlighted strong streaming turnaround, content pipeline, and confidence in studio turnaround and deal close, despite studio headwinds.
“we're making 14 films this year, ramping that to 19 next year and we're very confident that we're going to be able to maintain that larger number.”
“we still were laughing for part of the quarter this related party deal that we disclosed a while back. And if you looked at it excluding that related party deal, our distribution growth would actually have been in the low teens.”
“If you look at a decade worth of this business going from preliminary predominantly broadcast focused production to more and more SVOD production with longer windows and a larger upfront margin and fee, that's going to come back and start…”
“We're seeing very healthy demand. I mean, we're getting healthy demand even for shows that are a decade old, and it's a healthy marketplace right now. And as you said, the margins are great.”
| Показатель | Период | Диапазон | Середина | Статус |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| RevenueSTUDIO | FY2027 | $3B | $3B | MAINTAINED |
WBD expects to benefit financially as SVOD shows it produced for other platforms begin to return to its library, replenishing content licensing revenue streams. — This is a significant future revenue catalyst for WBD as a content supplier, as its produced shows generate licensing fees from streamers and also enrich its own library.
“including 28 for programs that we produce to third-party platforms like Shrinking and Avid Elementary.”
… momentum to continue. This year's Emmy Awards also attest to our commitment to storytelling excellence, with WBD leading the industry with 150 nominations. HBO Max alone led the industry and garnered 122 Emmy nominations, spanning 21 individual programs, including 26 for season two of The Pit and 25 for the final season of Hacks. And Warner Brothers Television again showed that it is among the world's best television producers with 52 Emmy nominations. including 28 for programs that we produce to third-party platforms like Shrinking and Avid Elementary. Our quality programming is also fueling our global network's resilience as they contend with continued headwinds. In Q2, our roster of premium sports properties showed its value as we saw the highest rated national championship basketball game ever on TNT Sports. a more than 20% increase in viewership for the MLB regular season thus far, and a 50% viewership increase for the NHL playoffs. In a turbulent geopolitical moment, the quality, trustworthiness, and reliability of CNN's journalism again proved itself. In Q2, CNN linear viewership increased 24% over the previous year. and minutes spent across all CNN platforms increased …
WBD's streaming distribution growth would have been in the 'low teens' rather than double digits, excluding the impact of a related-party deal, indicating underlying strong subscriber momentum. — This reveals that the underlying streaming business is growing faster than headline numbers suggest, indicating stronger competitive positioning against rivals like Netflix and Disney.
“Disney mentioned on their call yesterday that the bundle is really working for both of you. Can you talk about what you've seen from bundling in general or specifically with the Disney bundle?”
Hi. I think that's me. A couple of things. It seems like one of the most challenging things right now, given that the deal has been pushed out and pushed out, is maintaining focus. Can you just talk about how you manage the troops and keep everybody aligned at this challenging time? Second, you haven't talked about DC for a while. I know sometimes they perform, sometimes they don't. But is there any change in strategy? And can you talk about the cadence from here? and then finally on HBO Max, Disney mentioned on their call yesterday that the bundle is really working for both of you. Can you talk about what you've seen from bundling in general or specifically with the Disney bundle? How much churn has come down? Like you told about the magnitude of the benefits. That would be great. Thank you.
The launch of the RTL+ bundle in Germany is highlighted as a successful programmer bundle, combining local and global content to drive subscriber value.
“RTL Plus in Germany when we launched earlier this year, which has the best of local and the best of global coming together.”
Hi. I think that's me. A couple of things. It seems like one of the most challenging things right now, given that the deal has been pushed out and pushed out, is maintaining focus. Can you just talk about how you manage the troops and keep everybody aligned at this challenging time? Second, you haven't talked about DC for a while. I know sometimes they perform, sometimes they don't. But is there any change in strategy? And can you talk about the cadence from here? and then finally on HBO Max, Disney mentioned on their call yesterday that the bundle is really working for both of you. Can you talk about what you've seen from bundling in general or specifically with the Disney bundle? How…
Yeah, Jessica, you know we've been big believers. David has been a big champion of bundles and the power that they can have for consumers, particularly at a time where obviously pricing continues to increase across the individual services. and we continue to see both benefits on subscriber acquisition as well as obviously retention and meaningful improvements in turn with those bundles. And it's a combination of distributor bundles like Verizon in the U.S. who bundles Netflix and us or MercadoLibre and Claro in Latin America or Canal Plus or Sky here in Europe as well as programmer bundles which Disney obviously in the and most successful to date, RTL Plus in Germany when we launched earlier this year, which has the best of local and the best of global coming together. We'll be announcing more, another bundle coming later in this fall in Europe. We have a view bundle in Southeast Asia. And so we continue to be big believers in it. We see the proof is in the data in both, as I say, acquisition and meaningfully and so on. We are looking at a 2026 year where the trends give us sort of high confidence that we're going to have our best year ever in terms of retention and lower churn in 2026. That trend is also helping, and we see that trend continuing, particularly as we talked about earlier, as the strength of our content lineup and the consistency of it throughout the year makes us feel even more bullish for 2027.
Verizon is highlighted as a key customer/distribution partner whose bundle offering helps drive HBO Max subscriber growth and retention.
Hi. I think that's me. A couple of things. It seems like one of the most challenging things right now, given that the deal has been pushed out and pushed out, is maintaining focus. Can you just talk about how you manage the troops and keep everybody aligned at this challenging time? Second, you haven't talked about DC for a while. I know sometimes they perform, sometimes they don't. But is there any change in strategy? And can you talk about the cadence from here? and then finally on HBO Max, Disney mentioned on their call yesterday that the bundle is really working for both of you. Can you talk about what you've seen from bundling in general or specifically with the Disney bundle? How…
Yeah, Jessica, you know we've been big believers. David has been a big champion of bundles and the power that they can have for consumers, particularly at a time where obviously pricing continues to increase across the individual services. and we continue to see both benefits on subscriber acquisition as well as obviously retention and meaningful improvements in turn with those bundles. And it's a combination of distributor bundles like Verizon in the U.S. who bundles Netflix and us or MercadoLibre and Claro in Latin America or Canal Plus or Sky here in Europe as well as programmer bundles which Disney obviously in the and most successful to date, RTL Plus in Germany when we launched earlier this year, which has the best of local and the best of global coming together. We'll be announcing more, another bundle coming later in this fall in Europe. We have a view bundle in Southeast Asia. And so we continue to be big believers in it. We see the proof is in the data in both, as I say, acquisition and meaningfully and so on. We are looking at a 2026 year where the trends give us sort of high confidence that we're going to have our best year ever in terms of retention and lower churn in 2026. That trend is also helping, and we see that trend continuing, particularly as we talked about earlier, as the strength of our content lineup and the consistency of it throughout the year makes us feel even more bullish for 2027.
WBD is ramping film production from 14 films in 2026 to 19 in 2027, with management expressing high confidence in maintaining this increased output, signaling a shift away from a year with 'light tentpole' releases. — This signals a significant increase in theatrical output and investment, likely requiring more content production resources and impacting the broader film industry's release calendar.
… and consumer products has greatly improved its resilience and ability to generate consistent shareholder value. We are excited by what's in the pipeline from our remaining 2026 and 2027 film slate to Ted Lasso to opportunities generated by Harry Potter. Over the long term, we continue to expect this segment to deliver our goal of generating over $3 billion in adjusted EBITDA. Taken together, our results this quarter show how much we've readied each segment of our business for the future. We've succeeded in making HBO Max a highly valuable global streaming service and are seeing strong financial returns now after years of heavy investment. We've optimized our global networks and continue to invest in general entertainment, sports and news that serve tens of millions of global viewers. And over the last year, we've shown our studios remain the industry's creative leader while simultaneously transforming its operating model and financial profile. As stated in our shareholder letter, we remain confident that our agreed upon sale to Paramount Skydance will be completed. We are excited for what's ahead in the remainder of 2026 and beyond. And with that, we welcome your questions.