Discovery said it ended 2021 with 22 million direct-to-consumer subscribers, up 2 million from the end of the third quarter.
The company said its coverage of the Beijing Winter Olympics increased new paid streaming subscribers by an amount that was almost 50% than was generated by the PyeongChang games in 2018.
What the company calls “next-generation” revenue was up 80% in all of 2021 to $1.6 billion.
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Overall, fourth-quarter net income dropped to $38 million, or 9 cents a share, from $281 million, or 42 cents a share, a year ago.
Revenue rose $10% to $3.187 million.
Adjusted operating income rose 17% to $1.1 billion at Discovery’s U.S. networks in the fourth quarter as revenue increased 14% to $2.billion in the quarter. Ad revenue was up 5% to $1.1 billion. Distribution revenue climbed 17% to $832 million as Discovery Plus added subscribers.
For the year, Discovery’s linear networks lost 8% of their subscribers, or 5% excluding the sale of GAC. The company’s fully distributed networks lost 4% of their subs.
“2021 was by all measures an exceptional year for our company, in which we achieved significant operational, financial, and strategic objectives,“ CEO David Zaslav said. “We grew our global DTC paying subscribers to 22 million, a tailwind for our strong distribution revenue growth of 11%, while global advertising revenues grew 10% due to continued strength in our key markets and share gains.”
Zaslav also said the company was making progress toward its combination with WarnerMedia, which is being spun off from AT&T.
“We, of course, are pleased to receive unconditional clearance from the European Commission, the expiration of the HSR waiting period, and clearance from other key international markets, and AT&T having received a favorable private letter ruling from the IRS,“ he said. “We also filed our merger proxy earlier this month and have scheduled our stockholder meeting for March 11. Following the vote, and assuming the deal is approved by our stockholders, we expect to be on track to close in Q2.” ■
