Loss of NBA Felt in WBD’s Latest Earnings

The impact of no longer having NBA live rights is all over the latest earnings report from Warner Bros. Discovery. But the TNT Sports parent company is still touting its current rights portfolio and financial savings to come. 

WBD said Thursday that it posted $9.46 billion in revenue for the fourth quarter of 2025, down 6% from the same period in 2024. Meanwhile, the net loss was $252 million, an improvement from the comparable $494 million loss. Within those topline figures, WBD said that the loss of NBA live rights created a 4% drag on advertising revenue in the fourth quarter, absent of currency effects. That effect is expected to grow to 7% in the first quarter 2026 and to 20% in the second quarter due to the comparison to last year’s NBA postseason. 

Still, WBD said the current NBA pact focused in part on highlights and production of Inside the NBA is beginning to yield significant cost savings and that the loss of that advertising revenue from live games “will be more than offset by an associated improvement in operating expenses.” WBD also said “not all sports rights are created equal,” and the retooling of its overall portfolio to include additional college sports and tennis content, among other sports, remains a key strategy. 

“We continue to have an appetite for sports rights,” WBD CFO Gunnar Wiedenfels said in a call with analysts. “It is one of our important strategic pillars. And what has not changed is we are going to be disciplined. We are not going to be doing deals that do not make financial sense for us, but we are open for business.”

No Update on Acquisition

WBD, meanwhile, did not offer any substantive update on the competing acquisition offers for all or part of the company. A review continues of a newly revised offer from CBS Sports parent Paramount, which said Wednesday that it considers a potential acquisition of WBD an “accelerant” to its own overhaul. WBD said the Paramount offer could “reasonably be expected to lead to a ‘company superior proposal.’”

Netflix, however, still has its $83 billion agreement in place to buy WBD’s studios and streaming business, a deal originally struck in December and recently converted to an all-cash structure. As of now, WBD is still recommending that deal to shareholders, with a vote scheduled for March 20.

“The board remains committed to maximizing shareholder value and certainty while mitigating downside risks, and, the board will evaluate any proposal against that standard with the objective of delivering the best deal for our shareholders,” WBD said in a letter to investors. 

The fate of TNT Sports hangs in the balance. In the Netflix deal, the operation would separate from WBD as part of a planned Discovery Global spin-off and embark on a separate, independent path from the WBD assets acquired by Netflix. In a Paramount deal, the entire company would be acquired and the TNT Sports operations would be blended with those of CBS Sports.