Shares jump 13% after restructuring statement
Follows path taken by Comcast's brand-new spin-off business
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Challenges seen in selling debt-laden linear TV networks
(New throughout, adds details, background, remarks from market insiders and experts, updates share costs)
By Dawn Chmielewski, Deborah Mary Sophia and Aditya Soni
Dec 12 (Reuters) - Warner Bros Discovery on Thursday chose to separate its declining cable television organizations such as CNN from streaming and studio operations such as Max, preparing for a prospective sale or spinoff of its TV service as more cable customers cut the cable.
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Shares of Warner leapt after the company said the new structure would be more deal friendly and it anticipated to finish the split by the middle of 2025. Warner shares closed at $12.49, up more than 15%.
Media business are considering choices for fading cable television companies, a long time golden goose where incomes are eroding as millions of customers welcome streaming video.
Comcast last month unveiled strategies to divide many of its NBCUniversal cable networks into a brand-new public business. The new company would be well capitalized and positioned to obtain other cable networks if the industry combines, one source informed Reuters.
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Bank of America research study expert Jessica Reif Ehrlich wrote that Warner Bros Discovery's cable possessions are a "really logical partner" for Comcast's brand-new spin-off business.
"We highly believe there is potential for fairly large synergies if WBD's linear networks were integrated with Comcast SpinCo," composed Ehrlich, using the industry term for standard tv.
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"Further, we think WBD's standalone streaming and studio assets would be an attractive takeover target."
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Under the brand-new structure for Warner Bros Discovery, the cable television TV service consisting of TNT, Animal Planet and CNN will be housed in an unit called Global Linear Networks.
Streaming platforms Max and Discovery+ will be under a different division along with film 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," stated Jonathan Miller, president of digital media investment business Integrated Media. "Now, it's winning as a business."
Brightcove CEO Marc DeBevoise stated Warner Bros Discovery's new corporate structure will separate growing studio and streaming properties from successful but diminishing cable television TV organization, providing a clearer financial investment picture and likely setting the stage for a sale or spin-off of the cable system.
The media veteran and consultant predicted Paramount and others might take a similar path.
CEO David Zaslav, a veteran deal-maker who led Discovery through its acquisition of Scripps Networks Interactive before acquiring the even larger target, AT&T's WarnerMedia, is positioning the business for its next chess relocation, wrote MoffettNathanson expert Robert Fishman.
"The concern is not whether more pieces will be walked around or knocked off the board, or if further debt consolidation will occur-- it is a matter of who is the purchaser and who is the seller," composed Fishman.
Zaslav indicated that scenario during Warner Bros Discovery's investor call last month. He said he anticipated President-elect Donald Trump's administration would be friendlier to deal-making, opening the door to media industry consolidation.
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Zaslav had taken part in merger talks with Paramount late last year, though a deal never materialized, according to a regulatory filing last month.
Others injected a note of care, keeping in mind Warner Bros Discovery carries $40.4 billion in debt.
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"The structure change would make it easier for WBD to sell off its linear TV networks," eMarketer expert Ross Benes said, referring to the cable television business. "However, discovering a buyer will be tough. The networks owe money and have no signs of growth."
In August, Warner Bros Discovery jotted down the value of its TV properties by over $9 billion due to unpredictability around fees from cable and satellite distributors and sports betting rights .
Today, 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 wagering the Comcast agreement, together with a deal reached this year with cable television and broadband company Charter, will be a template for future settlements with distributors. That could help stabilize pricing for the domestic pay TV market. (Reporting by Deborah Sophia and Aditya Soni in Bengaluru, Dawn Chmielewski in Los Angeles
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