Warner Bros. Discovery ended 2023 with 97.7 million streaming subscribers, an increase of half a million on the 2022 total.
It was enough to make the US media giant the first in the world to make a full year profit out of streaming securing $103 million, compared to a loss of nearly $2.1 billion for 2022.
Despite a fourth quarter loss of $55 million, the remaining nine months were enough to see it over the line. Netflix posted its first profit in 2003 and recorded $5.4 billion in 2023.
The company behind HBO Max and TNT Sports reported a loss of $400 million in its fourth quarter across its business, an improvement on the $2.1 billion in 2022.
“We have an attack plan for 2024 that includes the roll-out of Max in key international markets, a more robust creative pipeline across our film and TV studios, and further progress against our long-range financial goals and are confident in our ability to drive sustained operating momentum and enhanced shareholder value,” said David Zaslav, CEO, Warner Bros. Discovery.
The 97.7 million subscribers, which combines subscriptions for Max and Discovery+, also includes 1.3 million subscribers from the acquisition of Turkey’s BluTV.
Global ARPU (the average amount of revenue per subscriber), grew from $7.42 in Q4 22 to $7.94 in Q4 23.
Direct-to-consumer revenies increased 5% year-on-year to $10.2 billion compared to the corresponding quarter in 2022. There was also an increase on advertising revenue, which grew by 51%, thanks to greater engagement with the US version of Max and increases in ‘ad-lite’ subscribers.
Networks revenues decreased 8% to $21.2 billion as both advertising and distribution revenues declined along with audiences. Additionally, the prior year broadcast of the Olympics in Europe negatively impacted content revenues on a year-over-year basis.