Warner Bros Discovery posts surprise quarterly profit on streaming, studio boost
As the company restructures into studio-focused Warner Bros and cable-centric Discovery Global, it is accelerating its global streaming expansion by bringing the Warner Bros and DC universes to international markets.
It gained 3.4 million global streaming subscribers in the quarter ended June, fueled by the launch of rebranded HBO Max in Australia. Analysts at Visible Alpha had expected 2.71 additions.
With HBO Max's July launch in Albania, Armenia, Georgia, and nine other regions, the service is now available in more than 90 countries and territories.
"A Minecraft Movie", inspired by the iconic video game, grossed nearly $1 billion worldwide, while Michael B. Jordan starrer "Sinners" powered past $360 million at the global box office.
A title-heavy quarter led to 55% growth in studio, pushing total revenue to $9.81 billion in the second quarter and beating expectations for $9.76 billion, according to data compiled by LSEG.
The July release of DC movie "Superman" is expected to further drive growth for the company.
During the quarter, the streaming platform also saw hits like the season finale of medical drama series "The Pitt".
The company's streaming unit posted an adjusted core profit of $293 million, compared with a loss of $107 million a year ago. Advertising revenue in the segment grew 17.5%, primarily driven by an increase in ad-lite subscribers.
The company posted a quarterly profit of 63 cents per share, compared with expectations for a loss of 21 cents.
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Reuters
19 minutes ago
- Reuters
Manulife shares fall after earnings miss due to US weakness
TORONTO, Aug 7 (Reuters) - Canadian insurer Manulife Financial ( opens new tab shares fell by more than 3% on Thursday after it reported quarterly earnings below analysts' estimates, largely due to elevated credit and mortality losses in the United States. "This quarter, we did see variability, and it was negative variability," CFO Colin Simpson said in an interview after earnings were reported after the market close on Wednesday. "We operate in the affluent and high net worth space and it's relatively by face amount, so that does potentially bring about variability in claims." The U.S. business experienced an elevated number of claims on large policies under its life insurance segment, Simpson said, adding that it was normal claim volatility rather than an unfavorable mortality trend. Core earnings at its U.S. segment fell 53%. The company earned core earnings of 95 Canadian cents for the second quarter ended June 30, two Canadian cents lower than analysts' estimates, according to data compiled by LSEG. Manulife's Asia business performed better, boosted by new business. Its core earnings climbed 13% to $520 million in the quarter compared with the year-ago period. Manulife's annual premium equivalent, a commonly used metric in the insurance industry to measure the total value of new business written in a given period, jumped 15% during the quarter, powered by a jump in its Asia unit. Shares of Manulife have lost about 5% this year. They were down 3.5% on Thursday. "That (the U.S. results) overshadowed what was otherwise a good result across the lifeco's other business lines, each of which reported core earnings that were slightly ahead of our estimates," Scotiabank analyst Mike Rizvanovic said in a note. Manulife, which has freed up billions of dollars in capital including through de-risking deals last year, said it would acquire 75% of private credit manager Comvest Credit Partners in a more than $1 billion deal to create a $18.4 billion private credit unit. Paul Lorentz, global wealth and asset management head at Manulife, said in an interview there was an opportunity to use Manulife's scale in Asia to expand its platform in the region. Peer Sun Life Financial ( opens new tab is set to report later on Thursday. Its shares have fallen about 1% so far this year.
The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
Learned Behaviours by Zeynab Gamieldien review – murder mystery probes privilege and class politics
Interrogating your privilege can be a divisive, somewhat uncomfortable endeavour – but the way it underpins everyday lives makes for great fiction. It's a topic that has been explored via familial relationships in Brit Bennett's The Vanishing Half, through the employer-employee dynamic in Kiley Reid's Such a Fun Age, and in a schoolgirl narrative in Alice Pung's teen novel Laurinda. Australian author Zeynab Gamieldien's second book, Learned Behaviours, also tackles the issue, via a murder mystery: a searing look at how the intersections of race, class and gender can affect the trajectory of a person's life, even when they no longer seem consequential. It follows Zaid, a prospective barrister who has made considerable efforts to shed his past in a diverse outer part of Sydney known to locals as The Area, which he describes as a 'broad collection of western Sydney suburbs with Canterbury-Bankstown at its heart'. He has travelled overseas, lived in London, drives a Mercedes, and works a job that sees him socialise with the wealthier and whiter north shore and eastern suburbs types on weekends. There he 'assume[s] the role of informant' on the quirks of his past life; it's a currency he trades off in his new world. Sign up for the fun stuff with our rundown of must-reads, pop culture and tips for the weekend, every Saturday morning That past comes back to him in the form of Amira, the sister of his high school best friend, Hass, who killed himself after being arrested for the murder of a female friend in their final year of school. Amira has found Hass's diary and asks Zaid to read it, convinced her brother might have been innocent. Her request draws Zaid back in time to confront painful memories, make rattling revelations and square up to his own role in his friend's death. Told between his high-school past and the present, Learned Behaviours isn't a typical murder mystery. Fans of true crime and meticulously plotted crime fiction might find the ending lacks the kind of detail that provides closure; they might even scoff at the possibility that the police bungled the investigation so spectacularly. But this book is not about a clean finish or plausibility (I could never imagine the boys I know from The Area keeping a diary, for example). In it, the intricacies of the murder investigation take a back seat to the bigger themes of belonging, upward social mobility and wrangling a past that weighs heavy on your present – not just in Zaid's case, but in that of his father, Tapey, who is constantly dwelling on the injustices he experienced in District 6 in apartheid South Africa. Gamieldien has done an excellent job of interrogating privilege without being sententious or didactic. It's in the cost of Zaid's barrister training, which he feels more than his moneyed colleagues; it's in the bills piling up in his father's home, and Tapey's reticence to seek compensation for the wrongs done against him; it's in his sister Iman's struggle to leave an abusive relationship in London and return home with a young child in tow. Despite appearances, Zaid knows he has not really 'made it'; he's perpetually on the outer edge of his colleagues' orbit, lacking the fancy school connections that are traded for favours in the workplace, and the weekends away at coastal second homes. Like Gamieldien's debut, The Scope of Permissibility – which explored the push-pull of faith and desire – Learned Behaviours explores social codes and what happens when they are broken. Zaid's inability to swim is a motif, representing how the stark disparity between social classes is experienced on even the most mundane levels. Zaid does his best to rectify it, and the novel is littered with scenes where he plunges himself into bodies of water, hoping for a shift. Sign up to Saved for Later Catch up on the fun stuff with Guardian Australia's culture and lifestyle rundown of pop culture, trends and tips after newsletter promotion Early on in the story, Zaid realises that ''making it' is not synonymous with movement', and that social climbing does not ensure success or belonging. As he ventures back to The Area more frequently – to continue visiting his father, yes, but also to spend more time with Amira – Zaid begins to recognise that getting out of The Area doesn't mean escaping it. Learned Behaviours is a pacy, compelling and immersive narrative that deftly tackles a weighty topic. It's understated but sophisticated, with more than one tragedy at its heart: a murder, yes, but also a necessary reminder that some people can 'afford missteps … requiring only a single step to get back on course', while others need to tread more carefully, or risk being derailed for ever. Learned Behaviours by Zeynab Gamieldien is out through Ultimo Press, $34.99
The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
‘We wish it never existed': readers tell us about their family's use of YouTube
What role does YouTube play in the lives of Australian families with children? As the federal government plans to include YouTube in its forthcoming ban on social media accounts for children under the age of 16, Guardian readers responded to a call out about their own kids' use of the platform and what they thought of the ban. This is what they told us. Parents frequently reported they were restricting their children's use to shared areas by co-watching or through parental controls. But many said this was time-intensive and nearly impossible to maintain and were concerned about what content was slipping under their radar. 'We use YouTube Kids and always check what they watch before we let them watch anything on there. We do this because YouTube cannot be trusted – the algorithm leads you very quickly down weird or concerning rabbit holes and the messaging in a video is often subtle and hard to screen as a parent without pre-watching everything (which is not realistic). 'The final reason [we restrict our children's use] is because of my own experience with YouTube as an adult. I currently feel like I am having to actively fight against the algorithm taking me in direction I don't want to go. I watch one video of a gel blaster, and I get 100 videos of Americans shooting guns. One video of a bodybuilder in the gym and I get 100 scantily clad fitness models … If I have to fight this hard, YouTube would do the same with my kids.'Marty, father of two children under 9, Brisbane 'Before we removed it, our children would watch YouTube for hours. We removed it because they would get stuck in gratification loops and jump from one video to the next. 'I have enjoyed watching some videos with our children. Some are clever and very funny. But ultimately it's too difficult to regulate, filter content and be sure they're not being exposed to potentially harmful content. We have three boys and we're aware that many videos contain explicit and implicit attitudes that young boys can be influenced by when it comes to women, for example.' Parent of three children who are 13, 11 and 6 years old, Adelaide 'YouTube is the bane of our existence – we wish it never existed. Our son locks himself in his room and for the recent school holidays spent almost the entire two weeks on YouTube and gaming. We've got no idea what harmful content he's seen as there always seems to be a loophole to internet monitoring software.'Dan, parent of a 15-year-old and a 12-year-old, Melbourne 'YouTube provides next to no useful parental controls over content and the few measures they do have are next to useless (having gone through the whole thing very recently). While so far we have been lucky in that [our son's] rather narrow focus has kept his feed relatively free of less than ideal content, we are always concerned that he will be served up something totally inappropriate.'Gerard, father of a 13-year-old, Canberra 'There is no control over what they see. Even with strict settings on YouTube kids, my child was automatically played horrific content disguised as kid's TV.'Peter, father of three children who are 2, 4 and 6 years old, Sydney 'It is simply impossible to monitor the content that is being viewed but even through occasional glances at the feed I can tell that my daughter is being exposed to a lot of material with beauty/body image stereotypes, while my son's feed tends to be more larrikin/sport oriented. I am also left with the impression that the content is rife with misinformation.'Richard, parent of a 10-year-old and a 13-year-old, Hobart 'My children are children and by that definition are easily swayed by bright lights and dopamine-releasing repetitive reward programming. My issues with YouTube is that it is used as a kind of poker machine to make money off of our built in thirst for dopamine and we all have been sucked in. I would prefer more controls to avoid the rubbish while benefiting from the very good content available but alas the reality is that the educational stuff is not the money maker, the brain draining, high energy, colourful trope is the heart of what runs this behemoth.'Monique, parent of an 8-year-old and an 11-year-old, Bell Post Hill From fleeting attention spans and hours wasted to concerns about the content that can slip under the radar of children's YouTube feeds, many parents felt the YouTube algorithm encouraged excessive use and offered potentially harmful content. 'I do worry how short content impacts their ability to pay attention and I notice that a TV or a movie definitely doesn't hold their attention for as long. We have to give a warning before we turn it off to manage the transition away from screens. Some of the content certainly seems mindless (like my daughter watching another child playing with dolls) but they also regularly tell me interesting facts and info they've learned on YouTube.' Parent of a 3-year-old and a 5-year-old, Sydney 'The waste of time it actively cultivates through the algorithm, there's no warning as to what will pop up next, it seems to get weirder and more extreme the longer you watch it. I have no faith in the tech companies caring about the wellbeing of children. I think they actively create algorithms that are harmful in purpose to get eyeballs for longer.'Alicia, parent of an 8-year-old and a 12-year-old, Colonel Light Gardens 'If left to watch YouTube by themselves, as they have occasionally at friends' houses, it is always puerile, short-attention-span mashup [of] rubbish or scary videos such as [the horror video game] Poppy Playtime, etc. Our youngest watched three hours of this at a friend's house a few years ago and had nightmares for months. I'm very supportive of the educational content in YouTube, but despite having free access to this the kids just do not seem to choose to watch it and only watch rubbish.'Damien, father of a 9-year-old and a 12-year-old, Sydney 'It's has been (at times) frustrating due to YouTube being happy to expose our kids to inappropriate content. Shorts is diabolical. But it has gotten better once we could identify our kids as YouTube users.'Matt, father of a 16-year-old and an 11-year-old, Ballarat Sign up: AU Breaking News email 'I teach ethics at a local public school and in a section where we asked about a dream job about half the kids said they wanted to be gamer YouTubers, which is a concern, although older age groups seem to grow out of this. 'I am less concerned about 'inappropriate content' as I am about completely valueless content, and kids don't have the ability to discern the difference.'Parent of a 15, 13 and 10-year-old, Sydney 'It's a genuine addiction, including full-on tantrums when it is restricted.' Parent of a 16-year-old, Brisbane, Queensland 'They can watch it for hours without breaks. So the rule we have now is one hour a day. Especially for my 7-year-old who would immediately melt down and cry when it was turned off. That was a very big sign that it was not creating positive feedback to him. Sign up to Breaking News Australia Get the most important news as it breaks after newsletter promotion 'My 12-year-old has better governance, but has on occasions been frightened by videos that have come up appearing to be for kids, but been disturbing instead ... We really hate YouTube, though, and wish it wasn't there for us to contend with.'Parent of three children who are 7, 10 and 12 years old, Harrisdale 'He used to be able watch what he wanted, but he would only watch shorts. We found that watching these shorts all the time was effecting his mood. Since we limit his YouTube to more educational stuff, we have found his mood to be a lot more stable.'Kevin, father of a 13-year-old, Burua Many parents cited huge educational benefits from YouTube, from supporting niche hobbies to allowing children a creative outlet as content creators themselves. 'I am concerned about the level of unfiltered content he could easily be exposed to if he strayed off the path, but I am actually more concerned about the possibility of him losing access to it. He learned how to crochet from YouTube, we both learned about intersectional feminism and we are about to jointly learn how to weatherproof our flat.'Single parent to a teenage son, ACT 'We use YouTube for education (eg Ms Rachel, how things are made, volcanoes, David Attenborough content), entertainment (Puffing Billy videos, music videos eg Teeny Tiny Stevies). I am a music teacher and use YouTube every day (online footage of musical performances, tutorial videos, other students playing students pieces, professional recordings of band pieces etc). [YouTube is] the best education platform in the history of civilisation!!!'Parent to a 2-year-old and a 5-year-old, Melbourne 'Both my sons 11 and 14 regularly use YouTube for information and gaming videos. My eldest has an account where he makes videos about his ant colonies. He has about 100 followers, other kids who are into ants. I don't [support the ban]. Many kids are just sharing their knowledge and passions which is healthy.'Parent of a 11-year-old and a 14-year-old, Sydney 'Our son uses YouTube daily for his main hobby, which is stop-motion filming with Lego setups. He spends many hours on beautiful video clips, edits them and uploads the final product to YouTube where he has followers on his own channel. The whole thing is a really creative, productive hobby, and YouTube plays a central part in it.'Dan Arno, father of an 11-year-old son, Munich Parents had a diverse range of views on whether or not a ban on under-16s from having their own YouTube accounts is desirable or effective, citing concerns about privacy in the proposed law alongside a frustration that parents were unable to protect their children from harmful or excessive use without more regulation. 'I don't support the current legislation at all. It should be biased toward making the tech companies change their content policies, not require more [personal identification] be uploaded to the internet for age verification purposes.'Parent of a 12-year-old and a 15-year-old, Brisbane 'Now I will have to put my own YouTube access into restricted mode to give to them access, or create a fake account, which I do not want to do. My partner and I will decide what my children watch and what social media they have access to. This is just more boomers and [members of] gen X making decisions about, and interfering with, things that are none of their business.'Parent of two children, Western Sydney 'Digital platforms and tech bros make billions out of content creators' violent antisocial material and it is watched over and over by impressionable kids. Parents struggle to police this and the only winners are the content creators and the digi-tech billionaire platform owners.'Parent of a 16-year-old son, Windsor 'Their accounts give us a history of what has been watched. [A ban is] unenforceable. It's a breach of my privacy to have to register myself.'Tim, parent of two children, Blackburn '100% [I support the ban]. The tech companies, despite their protestations, have proven themselves, over and over again, to have little to no interest in creating a safe environment for kids.'Gerard, father of a 13-year-old son, Canberra 'I hem and haw about it. I'm sure that the ban will be easily breached by the under-16s who are determined. But I also think that it's, at least, some sort of proactive method to try and halt kids and young teens from viewing inappropriate material.'Parent of a 5-year-old son, Adelaide Submissions have been edited for length and clarity
