Pressure is mounting on Warner Bros Discovery boss David Zaslav after the company was forced to take a $11.2 billion writedown in the wake of its loss of NBA rights to rival Amazon.
WBD has launched a legal action in a bid to restore the basketball rights, but there is little optimism that this can be achieved.
The company lost 11% of its stock market value on Wednesday – it has already fallen by 34% this year with the company now considering an asset sale in order to restore investor confidence.
“In light of industry headwinds, we have and will continue taking bold steps, like reimagining our existing linear partnerships and pursuing new bundling opportunities, with the goal to get Max on the devices of more consumers faster and at a fraction of the acquisition cost,” said Zaslav said in a prepared statement.
WBD had just reported Q2 revenues of $9.7 billion, 5% down on the same period in 2022. Its $10 million in losses including the impairment charge.
A bright spot came from its direct-to-consumer services, which depending on the market includes Discovery+, HBO Max and Max. These increased by 3.6 million following an extensive rollout of Max in Europe.
