FALL OUT

MONDAY MORNING 3Q-BACKING

Happy Monday War & Peaceniks! Ready for more Earnings Season Play-by-Play?

A barrage of earnings came out last week. From Lionsgate (TL;DR version: not great, verging on uh-oh); to the NY Times (using digital subscriptions to defy the downturn); to DISH and iHeart (both either pretty ok, or super meh, depending on how you look at it); among many more.

TANGENTIAL NOTE: The earnings releases of all the major media companies are all readily available and relatively easy to read, right on their websites. I realize many of you know this. I put it in writing because I get a sense that very few people read these reports, even those whose jobs it is to cover these companies. I say this because when you read the coverage of 3Q Earnings Season investor/analyst calls, things are written and questions are asked that seem implausible for one who has read them before posting analysis. I offer examples below.

I will not take you through all 15 companies who issued 3Q earnings last week, but rather focus on four companies – Roku, Warner Brothers Discover, Paramount, and EA – whose individual and collective performances in 3Q offer an array of tea leaves for their own futures, and importantly, some crystal clear bellwethers for the general media economy in 2023.

WBD (aka DISCO BROS)

(Note that paying subs automatically get the rest of this article. To those who don’t yet get the full benefits of a paid subscription, I promise that this one is worth the hassle of signing up for the free trial 👇 and then cancelling before you have to pay. If not, I will refund your free trial.)