The strike by writers and actors in Hollywood saved the media giant Warner Bros. Discovery around 100 million dollars (around 91 million euros) in the past quarter. The walkout stopped filming across the board – and as a result, Warner’s film and TV studio has lower production costs.
CEO David Zaslav said at the same time that he hoped for a quick agreement. Everyone involved in the film and TV business should be paid fairly and feel valued. If the strike lasts long, the gap could pose significant problems for the film and TV business. At the same time, Warner does not rule out that the demand for licenses for older programs could increase.
A key issue in the strike is the advance of artificial intelligence. The authors are not only demanding better contracts with streaming services, but also fear that the studios could be tempted to have software write the scripts. Among other things, the actors want to prevent digital copies of them from being used in an uncontrolled manner.
In the face of fierce competition from streaming providers, Warner managed to reduce the operating loss of its division with the Max service to three million dollars – from $518 million in the same quarter last year. While streaming market leader Netflix is working at a profit, competitors like Warner and Disney have been making losses in the business so far. Warner subscribers fell by 1.8 million to 95.8 million within three months.
The bottom line is that the group posted a loss of 1.2 billion dollars (1.1 billion euros) after a minus of 3.4 billion a year earlier. The Hollywood studio brought in less because the film “The Flash” was nowhere near as successful as the Batman flick a year ago. In the current quarter, however, the “Barbie” film should provide a rain of money.
