David Zaslav
Analyst · LightShed Partners
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. And 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 love him. May his memory be a blessing. Now 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 4-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. And 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. And boy, 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. And 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 Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum, Batman and the Superman sequel, Man of Tomorrow. And Warner Bros. Television continues to be one of Hollywood's most prolific independent TV suppliers with 80-plus 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. And 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 prime time 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. And 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 2 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-plus colleagues who have remained focused and relentless in pushing Warner Bros. Discovery forward. With that, we'll now take your questions.