Company revises restructuring charges to SEC with figure potentially topping $5bn (£4bn)
Warner Bros Discovery (WBD) has estimated its write-offs will increase by $800m-$1bn (£650m-£812m), as the company revised pre-tax restructuring charges in an ongoing bid to rein in content spend and make cost-savings.
In a filing to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Wednesday the company said it was was revising upwards its previously disclosed estimates from $3.2bn-$4.3bn (£2.6bn-£3.5bn) to $4.1bn-$5.3bn (£3.3bn-£4.3bn).
Content and development write-offs are expected to increase by $1bn (£810.7m) at a top estimate, and WBD said this could even go up. Restructuring is expected to be “substantially completed” by the end of 2024.
Chief exec David Zaslav and his lieutenants are scouring the company for cost savings in the wake of the merger with WarnerMedia after Wall Street shifted its perspective this year and began to take a dim view on unfettered content spending by streamers.
WBD has implemented lay-offs, with its TV division seeing its workforce drop a quarter and HBO Max’s international originals team disbanded, and more are expected. Elsewhere, WBD has been taking ruthless content decisions following the high-profile pulling of DC Universe of Batgirl earlier this year, which allowed the company to take a $90m (£72.3m) tax deduction related to that.
This week, it emerged prestige HBO shows like Westworld and The Nevers are to be pulled from HBO Max and licensed to free, ad-supported streaming TV platforms (FAST channels) with others likely to follow. The streamer also cancelled and pulled popular series Love Life after two series and reversed the recommission of comedy Minx as it was about to wrap filming.
Earlier this month, TV division chief Channing Dungey said that the content “spending bubble” was over and the industry, not just WBD, is making efforts to bring costs down.
- A version of this story first appeared on our sister publication Screen
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