Latest news with #WBD
Business Insider
2 days ago
- Business
- Business Insider
$0.60: What It Costs to Buy Over-the-Air Warner Bros Discovery (NASDAQ:WBD) Channels
We all know that over-the-air television is in the doldrums right now, and local channels business worldwide is coming under similar strain. That being said, Sky New Zealand discovered firsthand just what it takes to buy local channels operations from entertainment giant Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD). How does $0.60 sound to you? It sounded like good news to investors, who gave shares a fractional boost in the closing minutes of Tuesday's trading. Elevate Your Investing Strategy: Take advantage of TipRanks Premium at 50% off! Unlock powerful investing tools, advanced data, and expert analyst insights to help you invest with confidence. Sky New Zealand paid Warner NZ$1, which was worth about $0.60 US at the time of the report, in exchange for Warner's local channels business in New Zealand. The deal will make Sky the major force in TV media, giving it 100% of outstanding shares in Discovery NZ on a '…cash-free debt-free basis.' This will also give Sky 35% of the linear television ad market revenue share, and about 24% of the same thing in digital TV. Sky will also end up with the Three free-to-air channel as well as the ThreeNow streaming platform. Further, Warner will even supply content for the next several years as a 'multi-year agreement' has been established to do just that. The deal is expected to close August 1, and the New Zealand Commerce Commission has quietly advised both sides that it will not be objecting to any part of the deal. Max Surge Meanwhile, Warner will be pushing its streaming operations that much harder. HBO Max recently added around 12 new territories, mostly in Europe. With the addition of Tajikistan, Malta, Lithuania, Latvia, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Iceland, Georgia, Estonia, Cyprus, Armenia and Albania, Warner clears the 90-market mark with hopes to clear 100 soon. Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom are all set for a launch early in 2026. Sports, meanwhile, will be well-represented here too. Eurosport access will be involved, with Tour de France racing, US Open tennis, the PGA Tour and more coming up. And sports on HBO Max will also be available with an add-on option. Is WBD Stock a Good Buy? Turning to Wall Street, analysts have a Moderate Buy consensus rating on WBD stock based on 10 Buys and eight Holds assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. After a 48.49% rally in its share price over the past year, the average WBD price target of $13 per share implies 1.13% upside potential.
Business Insider
6 days ago
- Business
- Business Insider
'Thumbnail Testing' a New Play at Warner Bros Discovery (NASDAQ:WBD) Stock Slips
A little profit-taking to close out the week at entertainment giant Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD)? That is not out of line, especially after yesterday's 52-week high hit. It certainly explains why investors took the news of Warner's new plan to start thumbnail testing is meeting with seemingly modest disapproval. Shares are down fractionally in the closing minutes of Friday's trading. Elevate Your Investing Strategy: Take advantage of TipRanks Premium at 50% off! Unlock powerful investing tools, advanced data, and expert analyst insights to help you invest with confidence. Make smarter investment decisions with TipRanks' Smart Investor Picks, delivered to your inbox every week. Reports note that Warner plans to start doing A/B testing on photo thumbnails used on HBO Max, a development that one of its biggest rivals, Netflix (NFLX), has already been engaged in for most of the last decade. Essentially, the project will show users several different thumbnail images for a particular video, or set of videos. Then, the system will be able to track which thumbnail displayed ended up with the most user engagement. The testing will be done with the most popular titles in Warner's stable at first, reports note, but then will expand outward from there. By the end of 2026's first half, almost all of the catalog should be using A/B testing on thumbnails. For now, humans will be handling thumbnail construction, but in the future, that job will be artificial intelligence's baby, reports note. Updates on DCU Movies With Warner's Superman win still ringing in its collective ears, attention turned to two of the other major properties in its arsenal. Namely, the two other founding members of the Justice League: Batman, with the upcoming The Brave and the Bold, and an as-yet-untitled Wonder Woman movie. The bad news, for those eager to catch the latest comic book outings, is that these two will be a while in coming. The scripts are still being written, and shooting cannot begin until the scripts are actually ready to go, as DC Studios CEO James Gunn noted. While the news of further waiting is not pleasant, it is comforting to note that Warner seems focused on giving the creative team the time it needs to properly incubate titles and bring out quality product. Is WBD Stock a Good Buy? Turning to Wall Street, analysts have a Moderate Buy consensus rating on WBD stock based on 10 Buys and eight Holds assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. After a 48.1% rally in its share price over the past year, the average WBD price target of $13 per share implies 1.76% upside potential.
Business Insider
6 days ago
- Business
- Business Insider
'Thumbnail Testing' a New Play at Warner Bros Discovery (NASDAQ:WBD) Stock Sliips
A little profit-taking to close out the week at entertainment giant Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD)? That is not out of line, especially after yesterday's 52-week high hit. It certainly explains why investors took the news of Warner's new plan to start thumbnail testing is meeting with seemingly modest disapproval. Shares are down fractionally in the closing minutes of Friday's trading. Elevate Your Investing Strategy: Take advantage of TipRanks Premium at 50% off! Unlock powerful investing tools, advanced data, and expert analyst insights to help you invest with confidence. Make smarter investment decisions with TipRanks' Smart Investor Picks, delivered to your inbox every week. Reports note that Warner plans to start doing A/B testing on photo thumbnails used on HBO Max, a development that one of its biggest rivals, Netflix (NFLX), has already been engaged in for most of the last decade. Essentially, the project will show users several different thumbnail images for a particular video, or set of videos. Then, the system will be able to track which thumbnail displayed ended up with the most user engagement. The testing will be done with the most popular titles in Warner's stable at first, reports note, but then will expand outward from there. By the end of 2026's first half, almost all of the catalog should be using A/B testing on thumbnails. For now, humans will be handling thumbnail construction, but in the future, that job will be artificial intelligence's baby, reports note. Updates on DCU Movies With Warner's Superman win still ringing in its collective ears, attention turned to two of the other major properties in its arsenal. Namely, the two other founding members of the Justice League: Batman, with the upcoming The Brave and the Bold, and an as-yet-untitled Wonder Woman movie. The bad news, for those eager to catch the latest comic book outings, is that these two will be a while in coming. The scripts are still being written, and shooting cannot begin until the scripts are actually ready to go, as DC Studios CEO James Gunn noted. While the news of further waiting is not pleasant, it is comforting to note that Warner seems focused on giving the creative team the time it needs to properly incubate titles and bring out quality product. Is WBD Stock a Good Buy? Turning to Wall Street, analysts have a Moderate Buy consensus rating on WBD stock based on 10 Buys and eight Holds assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. After a 48.1% rally in its share price over the past year, the average WBD price target of $13 per share implies 1.76% upside potential.
Yahoo
7 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
What to Expect From Warner Bros' Q2 2025 Earnings Report
New York-based Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc. (WBD) operates as a media and entertainment company worldwide. Valued at $29.5 billion by market cap, the company operates through Studios, Network, and DTC segments. The media giant is expected to release its Q2 results before the markets open on Thursday, Aug. 7. Ahead of the event, analysts expect WBD to report a loss of $0.15 per share, notably down from the loss of $4.07 per share reported in the year-ago quarter. While the company has surpassed the Street's bottom-line projections once over the past four quarters, it has missed the estimates on three other occasions. More News from Barchart Dear Google Stock Fans, Mark Your Calendars for July 23 Retirement Ready: 3 Dividend Stocks to Set and Forget Dear UnitedHealth Stock Fans, Mark Your Calendars for July 29 Tired of missing midday reversals? The FREE Barchart Brief newsletter keeps you in the know. Sign up now! For the full fiscal 2025, analysts expect WBD to report a loss of $0.04 per share, notably down from the $4.62 loss per share reported in fiscal 2024. In fiscal 2026, its earnings are expected to experience a significant boost and come in at $0.16 per share. WBD stock has soared 57.6% over the past 52 weeks, notably outperforming the Communication Services Select Sector SPDR ETF Fund's (XLC) 22.4% surge and the S&P 500 Index's ($SPX) 10.5% gains during the same time frame. Despite missing the Street's expectations, Warner Bros' stock prices increased 5.3% following the release of its Q1 results on May 8. Due to a significant drop in its content revenues, along with a dip in revenues from distribution, advertising, and others, Warner's overall topline declined 9.8% year-over-year to $8.98 billion. This figure fell short of the Street's projections by a large margin. Furthermore, its loss per share of $0.18 also missed analysts' consensus estimates by a significant margin. Meanwhile, its global average revenue per user dropped from $7.83 in Q1 2024 to $7.11. However, its global streaming subscription increased by an impressive 22.8% year-over-year to 122.3 million, which likely caught investor attention. The stock maintains a consensus 'Moderate Buy' rating overall. Of the 26 analysts covering the WBD stock, opinions include 12 'Strong Buys,' one 'Moderate Buy,' and 13 'Holds.' As of writing, the stock is trading below its mean price target of $13.12. On the date of publication, Aditya Sarawgi did not have (either directly or indirectly) positions in any of the securities mentioned in this article. All information and data in this article is solely for informational purposes. This article was originally published on
Business Insider
7 days ago
- Entertainment
- Business Insider
HBO Max is getting into thumbnail testing — 9 years after Netflix
Warner Bros. Discovery is preparing to roll out A/B testing on HBO Max photo thumbnails for the first time, two employees familiar with the project told Business Insider. A company spokesperson confirmed the effort. The project, which one employeenicknamed the "multi-armed bandit," will randomly display one of severaldifferent thumbnails — the small preview images you see for a TV show or movie before you click — for each HBO Max title. After the tests, the system will show all users the thumbnail that drives the most engagement. The rollout shows how WBD's flagship streamer is playing catch-up to rivals like Netflix, which publicly confirmed it was A/B thumbnail testing nine years ago, in May 2016. By contrast, HBO Max is relatively new to the streaming wars. It first launched in May 2020, and its current tech platform didn't come out until May 2023. Disney+, Hulu, and Peacock also started A/B thumbnail tests years ago. And Paramount+ started A/B testing images last year, which the company said boosted its click-through rate by 162%. WBD has previously used A/B tests in other ways but hasn't applied them to thumbnails. HBO Max will first test thumbnails on a small number of popular TV shows and movies, and if all goes well, plans to roll out the program across most of the streamer's catalog in the first half of 2026, an employee close to the project said. This person added that WBD eventually wants to personalize thumbnails by tailoring them to specific users, like Netflix does. Beyond the paid streamers, thumbnails have become something of an obsession for social-media creators. Top YouTuber MrBeast has a team dedicated to making thumbnails that generated about 50 iterations per video as of last year, according to Chucky Appleby, who oversaw the effort at the time. The future is AI HBO Max's thumbnail variations will initially be created by humans, the employee close to the project said. However, they eventually expect that to change. "AI isn't incorporated now, but that is the plan," this person said. The spokesperson confirmed AI would help scale thumbnail selection eventually, though humans would remain involved. Streamers are racing to add AI to their platforms. Netflix has debuted an AI search tool and also recently refreshed its layout to include vertical video. Some analysts say it should go a step further by adding more short-form content to better compete with YouTube and TikTok. As for WBD's AI efforts in streaming, HBO Max uses AI to improve content recommendations. It revamped its personalization system last summer. The company said these changes meaningfully improved viewership time, return visits, homepage-to-playback conversions, and titles watched. Three WBD software engineers told BI that HBO Max's tech has room for improvement, but has come a long way.
