AT&T Inc. released its fourth-quarter 2021 earnings report Jan. 26, reporting increased revenue for WarnerMedia ahead of its expected merger with Discovery Inc.The New York-based telecommunications company reported that total revenues for WarnerMedia hit $9.9 billion in the fourth quarter of 2021, up 15.4% year over year. In addition to direct-to-consumer revenues being up 11.5% in the fourth quarter, combined global subscribers to its linear cable service HBO and streaming service HBO Max improved 13.1 million year over year for a total of 73.8 million.
WarnerMedia’s domestic subscribers of both services was up 5.3 million for the full year for a total of 46.8 million. These numbers also mark a gain of 1.6 million subscribers from the third quarter of 2021, during which the company reported a net loss of 1.9 million subscribers due to the end of a deal with Seattle, Washington-based technology and streaming company Amazon.com Inc. to distribute HBO to its subscribers.
Subscription revenues for those services were $3.8 billion for the quarter, an improvement of 5.4% that the company credited to the growth of HBO Max. Quarterly content and other revenues, meanwhile, hit 4.4 billion, a 45% improvement year over year driven by higher TV licensing and theatrical. Conversely, advertising revenues were $1.6 billion for the same period, a decline of 12.9% from the prior year, which the company attributed to “lower audiences with tough comparisons to the prior year political environment” in its statement.
Announcing a virtual event in March 2022 to “provide additional insight and expectations for financial and operational performance of the Communications Company following the close of the pending WarnerMedia transaction,” AT&T announced that it expected to close the merger between WarnerMedia and Discovery in the second quarter of 2022. It also projected full-year revenues of $37 billion to $39 billion, an improvement from WarnerMedia 2021 revenue of $25.6 billion. Meanwhile, AT&T Chief Executive John Stankey promised more details about the upcoming merger in March, saying the company’s board had not decided whether it will divest WarnerMedia as a spinoff, which means shareholders will automatically receive stock in WarnerMedia-Discovery, or as a split, which would give shareholders a choice of shares between AT&T and the new media company.
For reprint and licensing requests for this article, CLICK HERE.
