The outside of the Warner Bros. Discovery Atlanta campus is pictured after the Writers Guild of America started their strike in opposition to the Alliance of Movement Photos and Tv Producers, in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Could 2, 2023.

Alyssa Pointer | Reuters

Warner Bros. Discovery missed analyst targets for each revenue and income within the fourth quarter however boosted free money move as its streaming service Max ended 2023 worthwhile for the primary time.

Shares of Warner Bros. Discovery fell about 1% in premarket buying and selling Friday following the report.

Warner Bros. Discovery generated $3.31 billion in free money move within the fourth quarter and ended 2023 with $6.16 billion in free money move, up 86% from a yr prior. Chief Government Officer David Zaslav has prioritized boosting free cash flow and shrinking the corporate’s debt. Warner Bros. Discovery paid down $1.2 billion of debt within the quarter and $5.4 billion in debt in 2023. The corporate nonetheless has $44.2 billion of gross debt remaining.

The corporate’s flagship subscription streaming service, Max, ended 2023 worthwhile, with full-year adjusted earnings earlier than curiosity, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) of $103 million.

Zaslav has dramatically reduce content material spending for the streaming service since merging WarnerMedia and Discovery in 2022. His efforts have helped Max attain profitability earlier than the streaming divisions of legacy media rivals Disney, Comcast‘s NBCUniversal, and Paramount Global.

The corporate reported 97.7 million world direct-to-consumer subscribers, a 2% improve from the earlier quarter.

Here is what the corporate reported for the quarter ended Dec. 31, versus analysts’ estimates, in accordance with LSEG, previously often known as Refinitiv:

Loss per share: 16 cents vs. 7 cents anticipated
Income: $10.28 billion vs. $10.35 billion anticipated

President and Chief Government Officer of Warner Bros. Discovery David Zaslav attends the world premiere of the 4k restorated 1959 film “Rio Bravo” offered on the Opening Night time of the 2023 TCM Basic Movie Competition within the TCL Chinese language Theatre in Hollywood, California, April 13, 2023.

Aude Guerrucci | AFP | Getty Pictures

The corporate’s fourth-quarter web loss was $400 million, or 16 cents per share, in contrast with a lack of $2.1 billion, or 86 cents per share, through the year-ago interval.

Fourth-quarter adjusted EBITDA was $2.5 billion, down 5% from a yr in the past, excluding the affect of overseas trade, as studio income lagged on account of strikes by the Writers Guild of America and the Display screen Actors Guild – American Federation of Tv and Radio Artists.

Studio income dropped 17% to $3.17 billion within the quarter. Adjusted EBITDA for the unit fell 29% to $543 million.

Warner Bros. Discovery reported a 14% decline in linear tv promoting income excluding adjustments in overseas trade and a 4% drop in distribution income.

Given the declines amongst cable TV subscriptions, Warner Bros. Discovery announced earlier this month it plans to start a three way partnership with Disney and Fox to supply a smaller, inexpensive bundle of linear networks that target sports activities programming.

Disclosure: NBCUniversal is the dad or mum firm of CNBC.