It’s a new year for Warner Bros. Discovery, and it will likely be the last year as we know (and love) it.
WBD on Wednesday reported $8.9 billion in revenue for the first quarter of 2026, down slightly from the same quarter last year but within the range of Wall Street analysts’ expectations. The company lost $2.9 billion from January to March, but that includes the $2.8 billion severance fee it had to pay to Netflix (and was primarily reimbursed by Paramount Skydance.) There was also $1.3 billion in “pre-tax amortization of acquisition-related intangible assets, content fair value increases, and restructuring expenses,” according to the company’s most recent earnings report. This includes layoff costs and severance funds.
Warner Bros. advertising revenues declined. Discovery for the first quarter to $1.85 billion — and the organization is still feeling the NBA’s shortage on its Turner cable stations. (On the plus side, she no longer has to pay for the expensive rights.)
Streaming revenue in the quarter totaled $2.9 billion (even some) and studios pulled in $3.1 billion (a significant increase). Linear TV revenues declined to $4.4 billion (bottom). WBD ended the March quarter with net debt of just over $30 billion for Paramount to eventually inherit.
In the fourth quarter of 2025, when Netflix and Paramount Skydance beat out Warner Bros. Discovery, the belle of the ball suffered a loss of a quarter of a billion dollars. At that time, WBD’s global streaming subscriptions reached 131.6 million. Now the company says it exceeded its guidance by more than 140 million subscribers at the end of the first quarter.
Having previously accepted Netflix’s offer to buy “Warner Bros.” (primarily WBD studios, streaming companies and linear HBO), Warner Bros. Discovery got an offer she couldn’t refuse The godfather Home Paramount recently merged with David Ellison’s Skydance. Ellison now has a deal to buy out WBD outright for roughly $111 billion, a figure much higher than the dead Netflix deal of $83 billion.
The acquisition of Paramount, which is backed by Ellison’s wealthy father Larry Ellison (founder of Oracle), is expected to close later this year. Paramount reported its first-quarter 2026 earnings on Monday, when executives said they were “making significant progress” toward closing the Warner Bros. deal. Discovery, with its targeted third-quarter close remaining late on track.
