As his media company deals with more than $44 billion of debt and the very possible loss of one of its biggest revenue-producing engines, live NBA game rights, Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav “has ordered his lieutenants to find additional opportunities for cost-cutting,” Bloomberg reported, citing unnamed sources.
Among the possible outcomes, the report said, are additional job cuts, on top of the nearly 2,000 WBD employees who have been let go since Zaslav and his team took over in 2022.
The prices of Max and Discovery Plus are also said to be rising, while the company trims marketing and technology budgets for those subscription streaming platforms.
Ambitiously, WBD, which trimmed direct-to-consumer streaming losses to just $55 million vs. $217 million in Q4 2022, wants to reach $1 billion in earnings from Max and Discovery Plus by next year, Bloomberg said.
WBD reported the loss of 400,000 domestic DTC customers in the fourth quarter, so the business has been losing customers before any price increase was initiated.
WBD's stock price is down around 33% year to date. The conglomerate is set to report first-quarter earnings on Thursday.
