The call in brief

Read the Q1 2026 earnings summary ↗

Warner Bros. Discovery reported a strong Q1 2026, headlined by the successful direct-to-consumer launch of HBO Max in the U.K., Germany, Italy, and Ireland and by meaningfully exceeding its over-140-million subscriber guidance, with management reaffirming a path to more than 150 million subscribers by year-end. Streaming has completed a roughly $4 billion turnaround from over $2 billion in losses to $1.4 billion in profit last year, with operating leverage and bottom-line growth now accelerating on the back of a deep, consistent content slate (The Pitt, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms) and a record Academy Awards haul of 11 Oscars including Best Picture for One Battle After Another. The studio targets at least $3 billion in annual adjusted EBITDA, networks remain a resilient cross-platform content engine with overall networks up significantly, and bundling continues to deliver the highest-LTV subscribers. Offsetting these gains, separation- and transaction-related expenses (including the proposed Paramount Skydance deal) continue to pressure free cash flow by roughly $100 million in Q1 with more to come, and management remains cautious on making sports profitable within streaming, opting for disciplined, market-by-market experimentation.

What went well
  • Successfully launched HBO Max direct-to-consumer in four major new European markets (U.K., Germany, Italy, and Ireland), establishing direct audience relationships beyond the prior Sky licensing arrangement.
  • Meaningfully exceeded the guidance of over 140 million total subscribers by the end of Q1, with strong and accelerating momentum toward more than 150 million globally by year-end.
  • Delivered breakout HBO content, with the second season of The Pitt averaging more than 20 million viewers per episode and A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms reaching 36 million viewers per episode, among the most popular debut series in HBO history.
  • Warner Bros. won 11 Oscars at the Academy Awards, including a first Best Picture win in more than a decade for One Battle After Another, the most Oscars in the studio's 103-year history.
  • Streaming swung from losing over $2 billion to making $1.4 billion last year, with bottom-line growth now in increasing double digits and operating leverage starting to accelerate.
What went wrong
  • Separation- and transaction-related expenses (including the Netflix break fee that was not paid) continue to flow through the P&L below the line and weigh on free cash flow, with roughly $100 million in negative cash impact in Q1 and more expected through 2026.
  • Sports in a streaming context remains a hard equation to make profitable; management is still experimenting across markets to find a model that delivers engagement and subscribers while also being profitable.
  • Disruption in the linear television market continues to create well-known challenges for the global networks business.

Management Commentary

Read the Q1 2026 summary ↗
Peter Lee
SVP of Investor Relations, Warner Bros. Discovery

Good afternoon, and thank you for joining us for our Q1 2026 earnings call. Joining me today from Warner Bros. Discovery's management is David Zaslav, President and Chief Executive Officer, Gunnar Wiedenfels, our Chief Financial Officer, and J.B. Perrette, CEO and President, Global Streaming and Games. This afternoon, we issued our earnings release, shareholder letter, and trending schedule, and these materials can be found on our website at ir.wbd.com. Today's presentation will include forward-looking statements that we make pursuant to the Safe Harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements include, without limitation, statements about the benefits of the proposed transaction between WBD and Paramount guidance, future financial and operating results, the combined company's plans, objectives, expectations and intentions, and other statements that are not historical facts.

Such statements are based upon the current beliefs and expectations of WBD's management and are subject to significant risks and uncertainties outside of our control that could cause actual results to differ materially from our current expectations. For additional information on factors that could affect these expectations, please see the company's filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, including, but not limited to, the company's most recent annual report on Form 10-K and its reports on Form 10-Q and Form 8-K. WBD is not under any obligation, and expressly disclaims any obligation, to update, alter, or otherwise revise any forward-looking statements, whether written or oral, that may be made from time to time, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise, except to the extent required by applicable law. In addition, we will discuss non-GAAP financial measures on this call.

Reconciliations of these non-GAAP financial measures to the closest GAAP financial measure can be found in our earnings release and in our trending schedules, which can be found in the Investor Relations section of our website. I will turn the call over to David for some brief remarks, after which we will take your questions. Before doing so, I ask that you limit your questions to topics related to our Q1 results and related business and financial topics. As noted in our shareholder letter, management will not be taking questions regarding the proposed Paramount Skydance transaction. With that, I'll turn it over to David.

David Zaslav
President and CEO, Warner Bros. Discovery

I'd like to start by taking a moment to remark on the great life and extraordinary legacy of Ted Turner, who was sadly lost today. The words giant and visionary get tossed around loosely in our industry, but Ted Turner truly embodied both. Ted was a generational entrepreneur, someone who believed deeply in the power of ideas and in telling stories and building platforms that could inform, connect and inspire people around the globe. His global vision for our industry was way before its time and presciently powerful. Alongside Ted through much of that journey was John Malone, whose partnership, strategic vision, and shared belief in the power of cable helped build and strengthen many of these iconic businesses over decades.

In many ways, it was a full circle moment for John and me when Warner Bros. Discovery came together in 2022, and we had the opportunity to work with the great businesses and brands that Ted imagined and built. Ted was so happy. From CNN to TNT and TNT Sports to TBS, Cartoon Network, and Turner Classic Movies, Ted built businesses that changed the world. Decades later, they remain vibrant and central to who Warner Bros. Discovery is today. His vision and spirit are very much alive in all the work we do. Ted inspired a generation and inspired so many young hopefuls like me to believe in the dream and join the cable business. With Ted, everything was possible, and along the way, he gave us all courage. He gave us a great life and meaning. He changed the world. He was a great American, and I loved him.

May his memory be a blessing. Turning to the quarter. We're excited to share the results of another strong quarter for Warner Bros. Discovery, marked by excellent progress in delivering on each pillar of our strategy and propelling our ongoing transformation. I'd like to start by highlighting how our team continues to translate the investments we've made over the last four-plus years into entertainment people love and results shareholders expect. Beginning with streaming, in Q1, we introduced HBO Max to important new markets while also delivering high-quality content that engaged existing subscribers and attracted new ones. We successfully launched HBO Max in the U.K., Germany, Italy, and Ireland. While our Sky licensing relationship has long made WBD content available in these significant European markets, for HBO Max to be a truly global and scaled streaming service, it was imperative that we build a direct relationship with these audiences.

We prepared diligently and invested aggressively to ensure success, and we delivered. Thanks to these successful launches, we've now meaningfully exceeded our guidance of over 140 million total subscribers by the end of Q1. We have strong and accelerating momentum and expect to finish the year with more than 150 million subscribers globally. More importantly, we are seeing healthy acceleration in subscriber-related revenue growth, which we expect will pick up real pace in Q2 and through the rest of the year. We believe the key to strong subscriber and subscriber-related revenue growth is delivering content that audiences love, boy, do they love what they're getting on HBO Max today.

Thanks to the brilliance of the HBO team, Warner Bros. Pay-1 movies, Warner Bros. TV, one of the industry's best and strongest TV studios, and an industry-leading film and television library amassed over a century, HBO Max's content is thriving in a highly competitive market. Fresh off its Emmy and Golden Globe wins, the second season of The Pitt reinforced its place as a cultural phenomenon, averaging more than 20 million viewers an episode. A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms proved one of the breakout TV hits of 2026, not just rewarding Game of Thrones fans, but bringing many viewers into that universe for the first time. With 36 million viewers per episode, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is among the most popular debut series in HBO history.

In fact, HBO has never featured more active shows averaging more than 20 million global viewers than it does right now. Complemented by comedy hits like Rooster, limited series like DTF St. Louis, and an international local language series such as Like Water for Chocolate in Mexico and Maxima in Argentina. We've created an offering that is distinct, balanced, and earns a pricing premium through consistent excellence. With Euphoria now back, a new season of House of the Dragon on the way, and the upcoming debuts of the television series Lanterns, Stuart Fails to Save the Universe, and Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone on Christmas Day, we see nothing but strong growth ahead for HBO Max. The second pillar of our strategy has been elevating our WB Studios back to industry leadership. Since bringing WBD together, we've transformed WB Studios on nearly every level.

Last year, those changes broke through creatively and financially. If there were any remaining questions about Warner Bros.' creative renaissance, they were answered unmistakably at this year's Academy Awards. Warner Bros. was recognized with 11 Oscars, including One Battle After Another, becoming Warner Bros.' first Best Picture winner in more than a decade, and the most Oscars in the studio's 103-year history. From the beginning, we committed to attracting and working with the world's best creative talent to tell culture-defining stories and to marketing and releasing those films in theaters. These Oscar wins and the string of box office successes in our Motion Picture Group validate our conviction. This year, Warner Bros. Motion Picture Group will release 14 films, including Dune: Part Three, Supergirl, Clayface, Practical Magic 2, and Digger, starring Tom Cruise.

We're slated to release up to 18 films in 2027, including The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum, Batman, and the Superman sequel, Man of Tomorrow. Warner Bros. Television continues to be one of Hollywood's most prolific independent TV suppliers, with 80+ active shows spanning more than 20 streamers and linear platforms. As we are making strides in areas such as games and experiences where we believe we have meaningful unrealized opportunity ahead, we are well-positioned to achieve our goal of at least $3 billion in annual WB Studios adjusted EBITDA. The work we've done to return our WB Studios to leadership has set the foundation for the company's next chapter. Finally, the third pillar of our strategy has been optimizing our global linear networks. Disruption in the linear television market has created well-known challenges.

Faced with those challenges, our team has shown great resolve and ingenuity in keeping our network brands and content highly relevant. We're seeing the fruits of those efforts across sports, news, and general entertainment. We've significantly evolved our sports portfolio with a focus on breadth, value, and international exposure. During Q1, we increased linear viewership of the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics by 50% compared to the Beijing Winter Olympics in 2022, and more than doubled streaming hours and tripled streaming viewers compared to Beijing in 2022.

We had a record-breaking March Madness this year with the most-watched Men's National Championship game ever broadcast on TNT Sports. We're off to a strong start with both the MLB regular season and the NHL playoffs. We're also seeing resilience in general entertainment networks. We continue to innovate and refine our content strategy, and in Q1 we saw a 16% sequential improvement in year-over-year general entertainment delivery trends versus Q4. Even excluding sports, networks like TLC and TBS grew primetime viewership by double-digit percentages versus the prior year. Increases were even more pronounced in news. The world has confronted a wave of recent disruption. As it has, CNN has proven again it's where people go for news they trust, delivering 30% year-over-year growth in total minutes spent across platforms in Q1.

These strategic and operational successes all help set the stage for the next chapter in our transformation. No event was more significant in Q1 than our reaching an agreement for Paramount Skydance to acquire WBD at a cash price of $31 per share. Our shareholders clearly agreed that this offer represents outstanding value, as two weeks ago they voted to approve the sale to Paramount Skydance. We've said consistently that we're living through a period of historic disruption in media and entertainment. How content is made, how it's distributed, and how it's consumed is evolving with increasing velocity. When you look across Warner Bros. Discovery today, in studios, streaming, and global linear networks, each segment of our business is demonstrably more nimble and better positioned for future success than when Warner Bros. Discovery was formed.

That's a testament to the hard work and dedication of our talented team of 30,000+ colleagues who have remained focused and relentless in pushing Warner Bros. Discovery forward. With that, we'll now take your questions.

Analyst Q&A

Rich Greenfield — Analyst, LightShed Partners
Thanks for taking the question. J.B., now that we've sort of finished the major European rollouts, and it feels like sort of your global rollouts are sort of now complete, I was just wondering, you know, maybe get your observations, HBO Max as a business and sort of where the product stands today. You know, anything you could sort of say about where you think the future of HBO Max is? Just Disney and Josh D'Amaro this morning really highlighted the point that sports really has a growing importance to streaming platforms. It's why they want to keep ESPN inside of Disney. You all have a very different perspective on sports and streaming. It'd be helpful to understand what you see or your unique perspective.
J.B. Perrette — CEO and President of Global Streaming and Games, Warner Bros. Discovery
Yeah, thanks, Rich. It is an exciting moment. I think, you know, when we look at the four-year journey that we've been on, when we set out in 2022 and said we believe the world was gonna go to, the winners were gonna require a global footprint. You'd have a handful of big global streamers that could be successful, and we knew that we had to be one of those. We worked tirelessly. We got a, obviously, a world-class team together, pulling from the best of the tech and the media world. We invested and spent that first year re-developing a whole new platform and product that was flexible and dynamic and allowed us to deliver high quality and consistent streams of all content types, including high concurrency things like the Olympics. We obviously went global.
We were in about 40% of the TAM at the time. We're now more than double that. We kind of relentlessly, David, myself, Casey, and a group of us just iterated on the strategy and the positioning over sweating it every day, every week, every month. Ultimately, we made mistakes, plenty of mistakes along the way, but kept being led by both the customer feedback and the data, and transforming the service into this must-watch service that people value because it does hit different and delivers on this better is better, not necessarily more is better premise.
Lastly, obviously, look, we're hugely beneficiaries of the incredible team that Casey and the entire WBD content creative leadership has put together with a content slate that has gotten better, broader, and more consistent 365 days a year throughout this journey. We sit here today, when we started this journey with sort of mid 90 million subs, we've added almost 50 million subs over that period. We were losing $2 billion. We're now, we made $1.4 billion last year. You saw the results today, growing increasingly double digit on the bottom line. We're seeing the benefits of the operating leverage that we have start to really kick in as the growth on profits is really starting to accelerate as we look throughout the year.
I think, going forward, the great thing is, we still have multiple different levers of growth, Rich, to your point. We're still nascent in some of these big markets. We have, as I said, stronger and stronger slates. Obviously, going into 10 years of Potter is going to be a huge tailwind for us, with, I think, the biggest streaming event, certainly for us, ever, coming at the beginning of the year and over the next few years. The content slate continues to strengthen. We're moving more and more wholesale subs into retail, and the ARPU and the LTV of that is accretive and looks better. Our ad sales business, particularly internationally, is still very nascent and growing.
Our product, which we've talked about a lot, we've invested a lot to get it better, and it still has a lot of things that we're moving day to day to improve, and that will help engagement. As you've often touted, the engagement and the churn metrics we're starting to see, particularly over the last couple of months and as we look out for 2026, are the best we've seen in the four years that we've been here. We're very excited about where we are. It's taken a lot of sweat, an incredible team effort to get us here. We also see a great and promising future where the momentum's actually getting stronger as we look out across the year and beyond 2026.
On sports, I would say it a little bit differently, Rich, is that we know the power of sports, and we've been playing in that space, whether it be in Europe, in the international markets, for 15+ years. I think the thing is, we know the power of sports, but we are more wanting to prove out the ability to do sports profitably. That's a much harder equation in the streaming space. We know it can be acquisitive, we know it can help engagement, and there's indirect values to those. We're experimenting, I'd say, much more, trying to figure out what is that secret sauce that allows you to do sports and streaming in a profitable. We have various different experiments. We're obviously doing simulcast here in the U.S.
We're doing standalone, premium sports offering, a la carte in the U.K. We have sports bundled into the basic HBO Max tier in Brazil and Mexico. We have standalone sports in Chile and Argentina. We are, absolutely, we see the power of it, but we're gonna continue to be disciplined and experiment to try and figure out what's the model you need to use and exploit it in a streaming space that can deliver engagement and subs, but also profit.
David Zaslav — President and CEO, Warner Bros. Discovery
You know, HBO Max is a global high-growth asset, is really the linchpin of our ability to have our ambition to split the company. Now I think, a piece of the business that you will see, will be a huge benefit to Paramount, when our deal closes together with their assets. It's a, for J.B. and Casey, the whole creative leadership at Warner Bros., you know, Mike and Pam and James Gunn and Channing, to all come together, and get behind this idea of a global HBO Max, and to turn it from losing over $2 billion to effectively a $4 billion turnaround.
More importantly, a high growth asset that made our studio and streaming business a sustainable growth asset, which was the basis on which we executed the strategy of splitting the company, which ended up in, with the interest of multiple players and ultimately Paramount. For J.B. and Casey and the whole team and the creative renaissance that went behind it, that is the leading growth asset at Warner Bros. right now, and I think it'll continue to be. That's probably the most important asset. It pulls together all of our TV library, it pulls together all the great motion picture content that Warner Bros. and DC puts together.
Having that kind of a leading growth asset, as J.B. says, as a global player is something we're excited about, particularly in light of it coming together with even more strength from Paramount.
Peter Lee — SVP of Investor Relations, Warner Bros. Discovery
Thank you, Rich. Operator, next question.
Robert Fishman — Analyst, MoffettNathanson
Good afternoon, everyone. David, with the launch of YouTube TV sports and just overall cord-cutting trends, curious what your latest thoughts are on how the pay-TV landscape will evolve from here. Are we reaching a floor for sports fans? What do you think happens to the cable networks that aren't primarily sports? Just maybe following up on your first comments, you've long discussed the advantages of bundling streaming services in the U.S., while also thinking about the international DTC opportunity. Curious through all of your different conversations with Netflix and Paramount, any updated views you have on the power of a global scaled streaming service and how some of these smaller services can still best compete over the long run? Thank you.
David Zaslav — President and CEO, Warner Bros. Discovery
Let me start with the second one, the idea of bundling or consolidation. When you put your TV set on and you see in any market around the world 15 to 20 choices of apps that you come in and out of, and when you're talking about what you wanna watch, you got three people on a couch googling where it is and how to get in and out of it's just not a good consumer experience.
For four years, we've been saying that the consumer experience is going to get restructured, and that there'll be a lot of value creation, in those that can be one of the emerging leaders, and more importantly, for consumers to have a better experience. We saw with Disney that it was, that bundling together, the churn went down. It was a better consumer experience. It was also a better economic experience. We've been working on bundling. You know, the idea of Paramount coming together with Warner Bros. is in that same vein of creating a service which David and the team will work to do, which is, will create an even more robust and compelling consumer experience.
J.B., you've been leading around the world this idea of bundling for us. You know, three years ago, you and I were talking about it, and the last year and a half, loads of regional players have been working with you and with Casey on doing that.
J.B. Perrette — CEO and President of Global Streaming and Games, Warner Bros. Discovery
Robert, we're obviously big believers in it. We've seen the benefits of it from an LTV perspective on our base. As David said, you know, we had, you know, three years ago or so, no bundled subscribers from, you know, bundles with other programmers. Now, in addition to obviously the Disney bundle here, we launched in Germany with RTL+. We've launched with Viu in Southeast Asia. We're part of bundles in LATAM and across frankly, the global footprint. The reality is we see meaningfully our highest LTV subscribers coming from some of those bundled subscribers. It's, you know, beneficial to marketing expense. It's obviously hugely beneficial to churn.
Ultimately, it's a very healthy and growing part of the business that I think will be an increasingly important part of the entire ecosystem.
David Zaslav — President and CEO, Warner Bros. Discovery
On the ecosystem for channels, we had a great quarter focusing on doing what we do, which is try and create content within sports, food, home, general entertainment. Our overall networks were up significantly. A real focus on the creative team of creating more content that nourishes our viewers. The sports also for us is doing very well. CNN, Mark's team, the ratings were up significantly. Your guess is as good as ours in terms of what happens to the overall universe. It's encouraging what Chris Winfrey's strategy has been at Charter. If you look at their actual multi-channel subscribers, they're almost flat.
And they're providing a very compelling experience where you can go from cable over and enjoy some of the best programming that you want on services like HBO Max or Disney. I think we can't control that. We can help it by doing great programming, and that's what we're continuing to do, and the numbers reflect that.
Gunnar Wiedenfels — CFO, Warner Bros. Discovery
David, if I can add one point that's important. We have long stopped viewing our linear networks as linear networks. We have created creative teams that are creating fantastic content that works across platforms. We are generating significant returns with every dollar we're spending in that business. Increasingly, we're seeing very significant revenue contributions growing from international and in some cases more than 50% of revenue is coming out of streaming utilization of this content. The demand for this content and the viewer engagement is still there and continues to be a great business for us.
Robert Fishman — Analyst, MoffettNathanson
Thank you all.
Peter Lee — SVP of Investor Relations, Warner Bros. Discovery
Thanks, Robert.
Peter Lee — SVP of Investor Relations, Warner Bros. Discovery
Operator, next question.
Steven Cahall — Analyst, Wells Fargo
Thank you. As we think about studios, the guidance I think for adjusted EBITDA is relatively in line with 2025. First was just looking to understand that a level deeper. You had a really strong slate in 2025. I know you've got a big slate this year too, just trying to understand if there are drivers to that profitability in 2026 that maybe offset a slightly smaller slate expectation in 2025. You know, some folks like Paramount account for internal licensing a little differently. I know that was a contributor in Q1 as well. Is there any good way for us to just think about the revenue or the EBITDA of the studio business excluding that? I know at the consolidated level it comes out, just kinda thinking about the studio level.
On networks, I think EBITDA was down roughly about the same as revenue, which was a big improvement on the back half of last year. Any way that you kinda think about the revenue plus EBITDA trajectory longer term of networks? Do you think you can continue to hold EBITDA at or better than the pace of the top line? Thank you.
Gunnar Wiedenfels — CFO, Warner Bros. Discovery
Steven, let me, let me start with the internal licensing question. It really doesn't make sense to exclude internal content sales from the studio performance. That's why we have chosen to go with this internal fair market value model because whatever we sell internally, we could also sell externally. The only thing that would change is we would probably, in many cases, generate a little less profit over the ultimate period for that content. We would generate that profit a little earlier because it takes J.B.'s team a little more time to generate the profits by utilizing content internally. That's why these things have to go hand in hand. We have a lot of disclosure around, you know, what gets eliminated.
What I've said in earlier calls is that over the past few years, as we have pretty dramatically shifted from a heavily externally focused content licensing to a more internal utilization model, we have essentially created value in our company profits that are eliminated and sitting on the balance sheet and that are beginning to bleed back in a much more material way into our consolidated profits as we're getting the benefit from utilizing the content, which took a little longer to hit the P&L, but is gonna be a very helpful driver for us. On the studio side, look, you mentioned this, 2025 has been a fantastic year for the studio and, you know, an absolutely outstanding year for the Motion Picture Group.
You know, maintaining that profit level, I think is healthy and is certainly an ambition for the team. We also have that quarter-over-quarter fluctuation for our content sales. As you know, the timing of the renewal of certain deals is always, you know, slightly different and leads to bumps in the individual quarters. If you think about sort of longer term growth opportunities, one thing that we have also talked about multiple times and that is flowing through our numbers increasingly is our opportunity that we see in experiences in consumer products, an area that historically hadn't received a lot of attention. You know that we have opened, you know, a Potter Tour in Tokyo.
We're working on another one in Shanghai. We have smaller experiences, activations. These things are increasingly going to contribute to our profits, and that will be the case this year as well. On the linear network side, look, I wanna be, I wanna stay away from giving very specific guidance as to, you know, where we see the revenue trajectory and our ability to maintain EBITDA levels. You know, what you did see this quarter is, you know, some very encouraging signals, much better delivery in share gains in many of our key international markets for the business.
As I said earlier, increasingly, we're seeing the monetization shift, still generating fantastic returns with a different mix and incremental value coming from international markets, streaming, utilization, et cetera. As we have said before, we are continuing to be very focused on efficiency management. Not to the extent anymore as in the earlier years after creating Warner Bros. Discovery, where we were able to, you know, offset very significant percentages of the revenue declines. We do still see opportunities. Clearly, you know, AI, I think, is at a stage where this is going to become a more meaningful contributor to efficiencies and, you know, greater volume, more easily created in certain areas in our workflows.
I do think there's a lot to be optimistic about. Again, wouldn't be the right time, I think at this point to create sort of new longer-term guidance for that business.
Steven Cahall — Analyst, Wells Fargo
Thank you.
Kannan Venkateshwar — Analyst, Barclays
Thank you. David, you scaled Discovery over the years by orders of magnitude. There are obviously some areas where, you know, scale benefits, things like maybe the tech stack or marketing. Is there an asymptote that you start to hit as you get larger? Do the benefits of scale basically increase proportionately with, you know, with size? The main reason I'm asking this is we are starting to see some engagement stagnation across premium services, especially the larger services, you know, Netflix engagement being an example. Also on the legacy TV side, I mean, you know, it took a little bit of time for you to integrate the Warner assets with Discovery.
Would be good to get your context on, you know, as you scaled the business, where did you start hitting the hurdles? Beyond a certain point, does scale become, you know, a disadvantage? Gunnar, from your perspective, you know, the spin that was being planned, are there costs right now in the P&L that would not have existed if the spin was not being planned? I mean, is there, you know, some of these efficiencies potentially in the future? Thanks.
David Zaslav — President and CEO, Warner Bros. Discovery
Thanks much. On scale, having more scale of great content and storytelling on your menu is clearly valuable. What we learned is aggregating it all together in one place isn't always the best way to create the most value. As Gunnar was saying, there's a lot of our content on our channels domestically and around the world that J.B. and Casey have found is really helpful in engagement and attraction on HBO Max. There's some that we get significant incremental value by reselling it on AVOD, to niche users that have a great love for our affinities. Same thing was, you know, the idea of putting sports together with all of our content in every market.
In some cases, putting that scale all in one place, we were better. Like, for instance, in the U.K., we have TNT Sports. We put all of our entertainment content in one basket, then we put all of our sports content in another. We think we can nourish different audiences in different ways and get more value. You know, having more premium, high quality content that when people can watch anything they want, is what you really need in order to be successful together with a global footprint. I mean, the biggest issue on scale is global. When you're competing regionally, if you're a U.S. only business or if you're German speaking only, or if you're Mexico only or Brazil only, those used to be very compelling businesses.
As TikTok, and Instagram, and Facebook together with Amazon, and Netflix, and HBO Max, and Disney start to become more global and have the ability to advertise content above the globe in that way and see what works and then restructure that content in different ways to create more value, it becomes harder and harder to be a regional player. J.B., you've been in this fight.
J.B. Perrette — CEO and President of Global Streaming and Games, Warner Bros. Discovery
Yeah. I mean, I think the short answer to your question is we don't see that moment coming anytime soon. I understand the question of, you know, some of the leaders in the space who've been at this for 15 to 20 years, maybe seeing some maturation. That is a very different situation for us that we've been at this for, you know, five or six. We're in the early innings, where they may be in more mature innings.
The levers that I described earlier are the same levers that from a certainly an operating leverage standpoint financially, we're seeing great opportunities to drop, you know, more and more dollars from the top line growth to the bottom line, given a lot of obviously the investments we've made on tech platform and some of the core infrastructure. Those are, you know, still a long way to go in terms of penetration in some markets, including very nascent markets that obviously we've just recently launched in that we're still in the very early days of that growth trajectory.
At the end of the day, as we said, oftentimes our product is the content, the slate and the data that we've used to try and deliver clearer and clearer views of the types of content that will better nurture and satisfy or bring in more customers, we're getting smarter and smarter at it. The slate that you keep seeing delivered by Casey and the team, which already is a, you know, sort of best in the business in terms of batting average, we keep doing better and better and getting better and better slates that are delivering more and more for our customers.
Between that and then also the ad sales benefits continue to improve the product, which is also where we are in the early innings versus others who are much more sophisticated, because they've been at it longer. All those ingredients would lend you to believe that, you know, we still got years to go in terms of operating getting more and more high operating leverage from this business as we continue to sort of grow across those different levers.
David Zaslav — President and CEO, Warner Bros. Discovery
Gunnar.
Gunnar Wiedenfels — CFO, Warner Bros. Discovery
Yeah, Kannan, on your question on separation-related expenses in the P&L, there are still some separation-related expenses flowing through, but I just wanna explain the geography a little bit. Those are costs that you will find below the line, so they will have a very marginal impact only on EBITDA. There is a lot going on below the line. If you look at our restructuring expenses, you see the Netflix break fee that we didn't even pay flow through our P&L, et cetera. That is going to continue. It's not, you know, not only the separation-related work, but also expenses related to our sale process and the pending PSKY sale. The interesting point here, I think, is for free cash flow.
You did see that we had pretty meaningful negative cash impacts last year. We may not get quite to that level, but pretty close in 2026 as well. We flowed $100 million roughly in negative cash impact through the first quarter. Again, there will be more coming through a combination of, you know, advisory fees, but also incremental interest from the bridge, tax leakage, et cetera, et cetera. That's gonna continue to be a factor, and we'll keep pointing it out over the course of the year.
David Zaslav — President and CEO, Warner Bros. Discovery
Thank you, Kannan.
Kannan Venkateshwar — Analyst, Barclays
Thank you.
Source: Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc. earnings call transcript (2026-05-06). Management commentary and analyst Q&A are reproduced as delivered; speaker roles as stated on the call.

More on Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc.

Company

Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc. overview
Facet

Q1 2026 earnings summary
Facet

Financials

See how VectorShift works for your firm

Request Demo