It’s no secret that Warner Bros. Discovery has been one of the most head-scratching results of a major merger in recent memory (and competition in this space is fierce). From completely shelving essentially finished films for tax write-offs to drunkenly rebranding HBO Max as just Max, it’s been rough, and now it turns out that the once-thriving TV business is taking a massive hit under David Zaslav’s reckless leadership, too.

I may not be great with numbers and market laws and whatnot (otherwise I wouldn’t be rambling about pop culture online), but I can tell when something is objectively fake and executives are just trying to keep the peace among hungry shareholders and investors with generic and/or empty statements, and the folks at Warner Bros. Discovery have been doing this for some time. It’s something you just get after a while.

It was revealed via IndieWire that WB Discovery’s TV business, once a rock-solid foundation for everything else, is actually “worth $9.1 billion less than originally estimated, leading to a net loss of $10 billion in the second quarter of 2024.” This blow comes after widespread disappointment with WB Games’ recent financial performance, aggressive job cuts, and Zaslav giving himself pats on the back and more bonuses rather than being booed out of the company and banished to a cave.

As mentioned, the massive drop in the company’s Networks division is a pretty worrying sign, as that division had kept the entire company afloat while the film and streaming divisions were being spun off into something else. As for the uncertain future of Warner Bros. Games, rumors are currently circulating (via the Financial Times) that a stake in WB Discovery’s gaming operations may be offloaded. At this point, it just feels like Zaslav is running a looting operation rather than a well-functioning business.

In the meantime, the company is blaming an uncertain market (which is affecting everyone else) and advertising problems, ignoring headlines like the loss of rights to broadcast the NBA. The “good” news was that streaming added 3.6 million subscribers this quarter, for a total of 103.3 million subscribers. However, this segment also lost $107 million, so expect more cuts sooner rather than later.

However, Max’s late 2024 and early 2025 slate looks good, and Warner Bros. Pictures’ box office performance this year (with quality crowd-pleasers) was pretty impressive even without the upcoming DCU films. So it seems more like a case of the C-suites lining the coffers and ruining a company by chasing short-lived gold diggers than a lack of quality production. Oh well, it is what it is.