Zaslav Downplays Live Sports As WBD Reports Weak Results 

Warner Bros. Discovery, already in the midst of corporate upheaval, continues to develop a new streaming home for TNT Sports. For WBD CEO David Zaslav, that shift probably can’t happen soon enough.

As WBD reported third-quarter earnings Thursday, the company reiterated its previously announced effort to develop a new streaming service for TNT Sports and its retooled portfolio of programming. That new platform is expected sometime next year, roughly coinciding with a planned split of the company. 

“The [development] team is making great progress, and that will put us in a position to have a compelling standalone offering, but also something that will allow us to partner and bundle with our own products and others in the market,” said WBD CFO Gunnar Wiedenfels, who will also lead the planned Discovery Global that will house most of the TNT Sports assets.

Thus far, TNT Sports content has been streamed on HBO Max, and previously, that was a major corporate priority for WBD. That positioning is not unlike how NBCUniversal has made live sports a focal point on Peacock, a key competitor in the general entertainment streaming space. 

Zaslav, however, said Thursday that sports on HBO Max has not made a significant impact on the service.

“Here in the U.S. … we were so robust in our storytelling that we did not find that these sports were providing enough value for us in terms of incremental subs. We did not get that many,” Zaslav said. “HBO Max is much stronger as being a motion picture and storytelling product, not dependent on rental sports.”

The executive has had a history of being somewhat dismissive toward sports. Most notably, he said in 2022 that WBD “didn’t have to have” a new deal with the NBA, and ultimately, the company lost its live rights to that league. 

Future Pathways

WBD, meanwhile, did not have much of a substantive update on its ongoing process to potentially sell itself. Since that was formalized last month, there have reportedly been multiple offers from CBS Sports parent company Paramount that have been rebuffed, while Netflix and NBC Sports parent company Comcast have taken more cautious stances toward potential WBD deals. 

“The team is hard at work, both on a separation transaction and following the board’s direction to evaluate strategic alternatives,” Zaslav said. “You’ve all seen media reports as to potential interested parties, and I won’t comment on anything specific. It is fair to say we have an active process underway.”

The WBD quarterly report also included a generally downbeat set of financial results, as revenue fell 6% to $9.05 billion, below Wall Street projections, and net income swung from a prior $135 million gain to a $148 million loss. Declines were felt in multiple areas, including advertising and linear TV subscribers.