Warner Bros. Discovery joins competitors Netflix and Disney in announcing a password crackdown on its Max streaming service is planned for later this year. TheWrap reports: WBD CEO and President of Global Streaming and Gaming JB Perrett said the initiative is expected to launch later this year and be rolled out more broadly in 2025. “We believe this is a meaningful opportunity relative to the size of our business,” Perrett said at the Morgan meeting. Stanley's 2024 Technology, Media and Telecom Conference in San Francisco on Monday. The push to crack down on password sharing comes as Warner Bros. Discovery narrowed its streaming losses to $55 million in the fourth quarter of 2023 from a $217 million loss a year ago. For the full year, the company turned a profit of $103 million, compared to a loss of $1.59 billion in 2022.
Regarding future prospects, WBD said that its DTC business will have a “slightly negative” EBITDA in the first half of 2024, and then turn profitable in the second half. WBD aims to make his direct-to-consumer EBITDA his $1 billion in 2025. In the fourth quarter, Warner Bros. Discovery added 1.8 million direct-to-consumer subscribers for a total of 97.7 million. DTC segment results include Max, Discovery+, and traditional HBO cable subscriptions. According to Ars Technica, Pallett also mentioned an interest in transactional advertising. Perrette: “While we've made many improvements over time when it comes to ad format size, there are still many enhancements to ad formats that give marketers even more functionality. [like] shoppable ads [and] I think other aspects of the ad format can also be improved. ”
