Warner Bros. Discovery weighs possible split of digital and studio businesses: Report

WBD has floated a plan to separate its digital streaming and studio divisions from its TV networks in an effort to lift its struggling stock price.

Warner Bros. Discovery is considering separating its digital streaming and studio businesses from its traditional television networks, according to a report by the Financial Times. The media giant behind CNN and HBO is exploring various strategies to enhance its declining share price.

Sources attributed in the report indicate that CEO David Zaslav is evaluating several strategic options, including asset sales and spinning off the Warner Bros. movie studio and Max streaming service into a new company. This new entity would not carry the majority of the group's current $39 billion net debt.

Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) previously explored potential mergers with Comcast’s NBCUniversal and Paramount. Paramount has since decided to sell itself to David Ellison’s Skydance studio. Both NBCUniversal and Paramount possess legacy television assets and smaller-scale streaming platforms.

People familiar with the matter says that the potential split of WBD could encounter several challenges, including the need to establish agreements for sharing sports rights and other content that WBD currently distributes across both its digital and traditional television platforms.