A recovering advertising market has boosted revenues by a fifth at Discovery, the media conglomerate that is preparing to merge with AT&T’s WarnerMedia.
The company, which is broadcasting the Olympic Games in Europe for the first time, beat Wall Street’s expectations in the latest quarter, saying that business within its key markets had surpassed pre-pandemic levels.
Total revenues rose 21 per cent to $3.06 billion in the three months to June 30, with net income more than doubling to $672 million.
The company agreed this year to merge with WarnerMedia, which owns CNN, HBO and the Warner Bros film studio. It has been trying to build a direct-to-consumer business to challenge the likes of Netflix, rolling out the Discovery+ platform over the past 18 months and now has 18 million paying subscribers.
Its shares fell, as investors took profits and were down 4.6 per cent, or $1.34, at $27.75 in New York yesterday afternoon.
