Warner Bros. Discovery Lost $2.9 Billion in March Quarter — But That’s Mostly the Netflix Breakup Fee
It’s a new year for Warner Bros. Discovery, and likely its last one as we know (and love?) it.
On Wednesday, WBD reported $8.9 billion in first quarter 2026 revenue, down a bit from the same quarter last year but within the range of Wall Street analysts’ expectations. The company lost an eye-popping $2.9 billion from January through March, but that includes the $2.8 billion termination fee it had to pay to Netflix (and was reimbursed by Paramount Skydance, essentially.) There was also $1.3 billion in “pre-tax acquisition-related amortization of intangibles, content fair value step-up, and restructuring expenses,” according to the company’s latest earnings report. So that includes layoff costs and severance monies.
Warner Bros. Discovery’s advertising revenue for the first quarter declined to $1.85 billion — the organization continues to feel a lack of the NBA on its Turner cable stations. (On the plus side, it no longer has to pay for the pricey rights.)
Streaming revenues in the quarter totaled $2.9 billion (up some) and the studios drew $3.1 billion (up a good deal). Linear television revenue declined to $4.4 billion (down). WBD ended the March quarter with just over $30 billion in net debt for Paramount to eventually inherit.
In the final quarter of 2025, when Netflix and Paramount Skydance duked it out over Warner Bros. Discovery, the belle of the ball posted a quarter-billion-dollar loss. At the time, WBD tallied 131.6 million global streaming subs. Now the company says it has exceeded its guidance of more than 140 million subs at the end of the first quarter.
After having previously accepted a Netflix bid for “Warner Bros.” (WBD’s studios, streaming and linear HBO businesses, basically), Warner Bros. Discovery got an offer it could not refuse from The Godfather home Paramount, recently merged with David Ellison’s Skydance. Ellison now has a deal in place to buy all of WBD for about $111 billion, a vastly superior figure to Netflix’s dead $83 billion deal.
The Paramount takeover, backed by Ellison’s uber-rich father Larry Ellison (the founder of Oracle), is expected to close later this year. Paramount reported its own Q1 2026 earnings on Monday, when executives said they are “making great progress” toward closing the Warner Bros. Discovery deal, with a late Q3 target close still on track.
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