On Monday, Warner Bros Discovery announced that it plans to split itself into two companies. Kind of ironic since they were two companies in the past. But they aren’t splitting up as Warner Bros and Discovery. Instead, WBD is splitting its streaming and studios division away from its linear television business.
This split is expected to be complete by mid-2026. The company says that this split is being done to “maximize the potential” of its portfolio of brands.
Warner Bros Television, Warner Bros Motion Picture Group, DC Studios, HBO, and HBO Max will not fall under a new “Streaming and Studios” company. While the other company is being described as “Global Networks,” it will run the company’s entertainment, sports, and news television brands, including CNN, Bleacher Report, Discovery Plus, TNT Sports in the U.S., and Discovery TV channels across Europe.
Final names for these two companies have not been made public yet, and it’s likely they haven’t been finalized internally either.
This plan has been underway for over a year
Back in 2024, the Financial Times reported that WBD CEO, David Zaslav had been considering creating a new company to separate its streaming business from the TV business which is suffering from growing debts. And this appears to be the solution to handling those losses.
WBD also announced that it is taking out a $17.5 billion short-term loan to buy back some of its $37 billion debt ahead of the split. The company did not mention how the debt would be handled between the two new companies. But, during the investor call, the company did say that the majority of the debt would fall under the Global Networks company. Which is fair, that’s the company that is causing all of these losses.
It wouldn’t be surprising to see more companies do this in the future. As linear TV continues to head towards its deathbed, and more people are favoring streaming.
2025-06-09 15:05:05