華納兄弟探索 (WBD) 2023 Q4 法說會逐字稿

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Warner Bros. Discovery Fourth Quarter 2023 Earnings Conference Call. (Operator Instructions) Additionally, please be advised that today's conference call is being recorded.

女士們、先生們，歡迎參加華納兄弟探索頻道 2023 年第四季財報電話會議。 （操作員說明）此外，請注意，今天的電話會議正在錄音。

I would now like to hand the conference over to Mr. Andrew Slabin, Executive Vice President, Global Investor Strategy. Sir, you may begin.

我現在將會議交給全球投資者策略執行副總裁安德魯‧斯萊賓 (Andrew Slabin) 先生主持。先生，您可以開始了。

Good morning, and thank you for joining us for Warner Bros. Discovery's Q4 earnings call. Joining me today is David Zaslav, President and Chief Executive Officer; Gunnar Wiedenfels, Chief Financial Officer; and JB Perrette, CEO and President, Global Streaming and Games.

早安，感謝您參加我們華納兄弟探索頻道的第四季財報電話會議。今天與我一起出席的是總裁兼執行長 David Zaslav； Gunnar Wiedenfels，財務長； JB Perrette，全球串流媒體和遊戲執行長兼總裁。

Today's presentation will include forward-looking statements that we make pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements may include comments regarding the company's future business plans, prospects and financial performance, and involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from our expectations. For additional information on factors that could affect these expectations, please see the company's filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, including, but not limited to, the company's most recent annual report on Form 10-K, in its reports on Form 10-Q, and Form 8-K.

今天的演示將包括我們根據 1995 年《私人證券訴訟改革法案》的安全港條款做出的前瞻性陳述。前瞻性陳述可能包括有關公司未來業務計劃、前景和財務業績的評論，並涉及風險和可能導致實際結果與我們的預期有重大差異的不確定性。有關可能影響這些預期的因素的更多信息，請參閱該公司向美國證券交易委員會提交的文件，包括但不限於該公司最新的 10-K 表格年度報告以及 10-10 表格報告。Q 和表格 8 -K。

And with that, I'd like to turn the call over to David.

說到這裡，我想把電話轉給大衛。

Hello, everyone, and thank you for joining us for our fourth quarter and full year earnings call. Our top priority this year was to get this company on solid footing and on a pathway to growth, and we've done that. We said we would be less than 4x levered, and we are. We paid down $5.4 billion in debt for the year for a total of more than $12.4 billion since the deal closed. We're now at 3.9x and expect to continue to delever in 2024.

大家好，感謝您參加我們的第四季和全年財報電話會議。我們今年的首要任務是讓這家公司立足並走上成長之路，我們已經做到了。我們說過我們的槓桿率將低於 4 倍，而我們確實做到了。自交易完成以來，我們全年償還了 54 億美元的債務，總計超過 124 億美元。我們現在的利率為 3.9 倍，預計 2024 年將繼續去槓桿化。

We've significantly enhanced the efficiency of the organization with a long runway still to go. We said we were going to generate meaningful free cash flow, a key KPI for our leadership and company, and we've exceeded our goal with $6.2 billion for the year. Gunnar will take you through the financials. But I would just highlight that as we look at the start of the first quarter, 2 months in, we are already seeing markedly improved free cash flow for Q1 versus first quarter last year, and inflection sequentially in linear and acceleration in streaming advertising. We are optimistic that the efforts we've undertaken on digital and advanced advertising solutions, much of which you'll hear about leading up to and during the upfront, will enable us to achieve a more competitive profile.

我們已經顯著提高了組織的效率，但還有很長的路要走。我們表示，我們將產生有意義的自由現金流，這是我們領導層和公司的關鍵 KPI，而且我們已經超越了今年 62 億美元的目標。 Gunnar 將帶您了解財務狀況。但我想強調的是，當我們回顧第一季初（兩個月後）時，我們已經看到第一季的自由現金流與去年第一季相比顯著改善，並且串流廣告的線性和加速依序出現變化。我們樂觀地認為，我們在數位和先進廣告解決方案方面所做的努力（其中大部分您會在前期和前期期間聽到）將使我們獲得更具競爭力的形象。

Bottom line, we're a far healthier company now and we're building real momentum. And we expect 2024 will be a year to drive that momentum forward even further. That said, this business is not without its challenges. Among them, we continue to face the impacts of ongoing disruption in the pay-TV ecosystem and a dislocated linear advertising ecosystem. We are challenging our leaders to find innovative solutions. For example, our U.S. networks and sports teams have been collaborating on a number of initiatives aimed at expanding audience reach and impact through cross-promotion. And I do believe we are getting smarter at determining what's working and what's not, which is helping to drive healthy traction in ratings and an improved near-term outlook in advertising revenue.

最重要的是，我們現在是一家更健康的公司，我們正在建立真正的動力。我們預計 2024 年將進一步推動這一勢頭。也就是說，這項業務並非沒有挑戰。其中，我們持續面臨付費電視生態系統持續中斷和線性廣告生態系統錯位的影響。我們正在挑戰我們的領導者尋找創新的解決方案。例如，我們的美國網路和運動團隊一直在合作開展一系列舉措，旨在透過交叉推廣擴大受眾範圍和影響力。我確實相信，我們在確定什麼有效、什麼無效方面變得越來越聰明，這有助於推動收視率的健康發展，並改善廣告收入的近期前景。

Internationally, Gerhard Zeiler and his regional teams are doing an outstanding job as international networks are performing strongly and gaining momentum, particularly in EMEA. Of note, linear advertising in EMEA was positive in Q4, with standout markets in Poland, Germany and Italy, the latter of which is enjoying a truly material upswing in ratings behind some of the incredibly successful programming moves at flagship Nova, which had its best quarter ever in Q4.

在國際方面，Gerhard Zeiler 和他的區域團隊表現出色，國際網路表現強勁並勢頭強勁，尤其是在歐洲、中東和非洲地區。值得注意的是，歐洲、中東和非洲地區的線性廣告在第四季度表現良好，其中波蘭、德國和義大利市場表現出色，後者在旗艦產品Nova 的一些極其成功的節目舉措背後，收視率出現了真正的實質上升。第四季有史以來的四分之一。

I was just in Italy 2 weeks ago and spent some time with the team. Their ratings this quarter are tracking up over 20%. It's a terrific creative team, and they have some real momentum. In fact, EMEA enjoyed its largest quarterly year-over-year share growth since the outset of the pandemic in 2020, despite some sluggishness in the U.K. and in certain Nordic markets. This next chapter for Warner Bros. Discovery is about putting us on a pathway to growth.

兩週前我剛在義大利，和團隊一起度過了一段時間。本季他們的收視率上漲了 20% 以上。這是一個非常棒的創意團隊，他們有一些真正的動力。事實上，儘管英國和某些北歐市場出現了一些低迷，但歐洲、中東和非洲地區仍實現了自 2020 年疫情爆發以來最大的季度同比增長。華納兄弟探索頻道的下一章是讓我們走上成長之路。

And we've got a lot of drivers of that growth, which, at its core, is underpinned by great storytelling. We are a creative storytelling company powered by 100 years of arguably the best franchises, brands, libraries and content in the business, and we are on offense. Our studios are back and firing on nearly all cylinders after the strikes. We're one of the biggest makers and sellers of content in the world.

我們有很多推動這種成長的驅動力，而其核心是精彩的故事敘述。我們是一家創意故事講述公司，擁有 100 年來可以說是業內最好的特許經營權、品牌、庫和內容，我們正在進攻。罷工後，我們的工作室已經恢復並幾乎全力以赴。我們是世界上最大的內容製造商和銷售商之一。

On the theatrical and gaming side, while we did have some real misses this year, we also had some really big wins, including Barbie, the #1 movie globally and the most successful movie in the history of Warner Bros; and Hogwarts Legacy, the biggest game of 2023. Also in 2023, we relaunched our theatrical animation division with a commitment to have 2 features a year on our slate beginning in 2026. Bill Domanski is leading our animation division after spending 2 decades at DreamWorks, and he's hard at work here with us on the lot.

在戲劇和遊戲方面，雖然我們今年確實有一些真正的失誤，但我們也取得了一些真正的重大勝利，包括全球排名第一的電影《芭比娃娃》，也是華納兄弟歷史上最成功的電影；以及2023 年最大的遊戲《霍格華茲遺產》。同樣在2023 年，我們重新啟動了院線動畫部門，並承諾從2026 年開始每年推出2 部劇情片。比爾·多曼斯基(Bill Domanski ) 在夢工廠工作了20 年，目前正在領導我們的動畫部門。他和我們一起努力工作。

Now with the addition of animation, DC and our existing Warner Bros. and Newline cinema labels, we have created a home for every kind of film and story to be told, and we are excited about what's ahead for moviegoing audiences.

現在，隨著動畫、DC 以及我們現有的華納兄弟和新線電影品牌的加入，我們為各種類型的電影和故事創造了一個家園，我們對電影觀眾的未來感到興奮。

We've had a challenging couple of years, but we are now very excited about our slate in the year ahead. Starting with Dune Part 2, which arrives in theaters a week from today and a strong tracking, 97% on Rotten Tomatoes, which is rare for a sequel. We also have Godzilla vs. Kong: The New Empire, a follow-up to the hugely successful 2021 film opening next month.

我們度過了充滿挑戰的幾年，但我們現在對未來一年的計劃感到非常興奮。從今天起一週後上映的《沙丘第二部》開始，爛番茄的票房高達 97%，這對續集來說是罕見的。我們還有《哥吉拉大戰金剛：新帝國》，這是 2021 年上映的大獲成功電影的後續作品，將於下個月上映。

When we launched this company almost 2 years ago, we made it clear. We believe in this business, we're a pure storytelling company, and we're going to bring the best people in front of and behind the camera back to Warner Bros., and we have been laser focused on doing just that.

當我們大約兩年前創辦這家公司時，我們就明確了這一點。我們相信這個行業，我們是一家純粹講故事的公司，我們將把鏡頭前和幕後最優秀的人才帶回華納兄弟，我們一直致力於做到這一點。

First, Warner Bros. is back in business with Tom Cruise. Our partnership with Tom is off and running. Mike and Pam spent a couple of days hard at work with Tom in London earlier this month. As you saw yesterday, we are in negotiations for a new film by Academy Award winner, Alejandro Inarritu, starring Tom. This will be the first of many films with us and Tom, and we look forward to a long future together.

首先，華納兄弟重新與湯姆克魯斯合作。我們與湯姆的合作關係已經開始並正在運作。本月早些時候，麥克和帕姆在倫敦與湯姆一起努力工作了幾天。正如您昨天所看到的，我們正在就一部由奧斯卡金像獎得主亞歷杭德羅·伊納裡圖 (Alejandro Inarritu) 主演、湯姆 (Tom) 主演的新電影進行談判。這將是我們和湯姆合作的眾多電影中的第一部，我們期待著共同的長遠未來。

Paul Thomas Anderson is also at Warner hard at work on his new film, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Sean Penn and Regina Hall. Maggie Gyllenhaal's new movie is set to begin shooting soon, starting Christian Bale, Jessie Buckley, Penelope Cruz and Annette Bening. Black Panther's director, Ryan Coogler and star, Michael B. Jordan, are coming together for a new original genre film that will go in front of cameras later this spring. George Clooney is back with Warner Bros. and working on a number of exciting projects.

保羅湯瑪斯安德森也在華納努力製作他的新電影，由李奧納多狄卡皮歐、西恩潘和雷吉娜赫爾主演。瑪姬·吉倫哈爾的新電影即將開拍，由克里斯蒂安·貝爾、傑西·巴克利、佩內洛普·克魯茲和安妮特·貝寧主演。 《黑豹》的導演瑞恩庫格勒和主演麥可B喬丹將聯手拍攝一部新的原創類型電影，該電影將於今年春天晚些時候在鏡頭前上映。喬治克隆尼重返華納兄弟並致力於許多令人興奮的項目。

On the TV side, we just announced another season of the hit show True Detective, with creator and showrunner, Issa Lopez. Juggernaut series, The White Lotus, from creator and showrunner, Mike White, is currently in production. And Craig Mazin has started filming the new season of the hit show The Last of Us.

在電視方面，我們剛剛宣布了熱門節目《真探》的另一季，由創作者兼劇集主管伊薩洛佩茲 (Issa Lopez) 主演。由創作者兼劇集主管 Mike White 創作的主宰系列《白蓮花》目前正在製作中。克雷格麥辛 (Craig Mazin) 已開始拍攝熱門電視劇《最後生還者》的新一季。

It's really encouraging to see so many incredibly talented creatives here at Warner Bros. And most importantly, they share our vision: To be a home to great storytelling. Stories that entertain, inform, and when we are at our best, inspire. This is the Warner Brothers we are building together. This is the Warner Bros. of the future.

在華納兄弟看到這麼多才華橫溢的創意人員真的很令人鼓舞。最重要的是，他們分享了我們的願景：成為精彩故事的家。故事具有娛樂性、啟發性，當我們處於最佳狀態時，還能激發靈感。這就是我們共同打造的華納兄弟。這是未來的華納兄弟。

A real strategic advantage we have as a company, and I've talked about it often, is the strength and depth of our franchises, which I believe will be a meaningful driver of asset value and growth for us. We intend to deliver on our commitment to reinvigorate the best of them. And as I've said, our major franchises have been underused and underleveraged. We are hard at work to begin to get full value.

作為一家公司，我們擁有的真正策略優勢是我們特許經營權的實力和深度，我相信這將成為我們資產價值和成長的有意義的驅動力，我經常談到這一點。我們打算兌現我們的承諾，重振他們中最優秀的人才。正如我所說，我們的主要特許經營權沒有得到充分利用和利用。我們正在努力工作，以開始獲得全部價值。

Superman, we haven't made a Superman movie in over a decade. James Gunn's Superman starts filming next week. I've had a glimpse into what James and Peter are doing and it really does serve as an exciting indicator of where the new DC is headed under their leadership, and there'll be more that you'll hear from them in the months ahead. Game of Thrones, George R. R. Martin is in preproduction for the new spin-off, A Night of the 7 Kingdoms, which will premiere in late 2025 on Max.

超人，我們已經十多年沒有拍超人電影了。詹姆斯岡恩的《超人》下週開始拍攝。我已經瞥見了詹姆斯和彼得正在做的事情，這確實是一個令人興奮的指標，表明新的DC 在他們的領導下將走向何方，在接下來的幾個月裡，你會從他們那裡聽到更多消息。喬治·R·R·馬丁正在為《權力的遊戲》的新衍生劇《七國之夜》進行前期製作，該劇將於 2025 年末在 Max 上首播。

Harry Potter. We've not been shy about our excitement around Harry Potter. The last film was made more than a dozen years ago. I was in London a few weeks ago with KC and Channing, and we spent some real time with JK and her team. Both sides are thrilled to be reigniting this franchise. Our conversations were great, and we couldn't be more excited about what's ahead. We can't wait to share a decade of new stories with fans around the world on Max. We're aiming for a debut in 2026. The top priority for us has been building Max our streaming service. We fought hard to get Max to be profitable last year. We are now committed to driving profitable top line growth. And while it's still early innings, we feel good about the trajectory we're on and are on track to achieve our guidance of $1 billion in EBITDA in 2025.

哈利波特。我們並不羞於表達對哈利波特的興奮。上一部電影是十幾年前拍攝的。幾週前，我與 KC 和 Channing 一起在倫敦，我們與 JK 和她的團隊一起度過了一些真正的時光。雙方都對重新點燃這支球隊感到興奮。我們的談話非常愉快，我們對即將發生的事情感到非常興奮。我們迫不及待地想與世界各地的粉絲分享 Max 十年來的新故事。我們的目標是在 2026 年首次亮相。我們的首要任務是打造 Max 我們的串流服務。去年我們努力讓 Max 獲利。我們現在致力於推動獲利性營收成長。雖然現在還處於早期階段，但我們對目前的發展軌跡感到滿意，並預計在 2025 年實現 10 億美元 EBITDA 的目標。

We're especially excited about the next 24 months. We have a number of meaningful growth levers ahead, including the rollout of Max in key international regions and markets, starting with Latin America next week. With markets in EMEA and APAC to follow later in the year, including new markets, France and Belgium to coincide with the Paris Olympics this summer. Keep in mind, we are only available in less than half the addressable households and markets as compared to our larger peers, so we still have a huge opportunity for growth from globalization over the next 2 years, including many critical markets around the globe, such as the U.K., Germany, Italy, Australia and Japan, all of which we have a substantial amount of local content, and in many, we have sports as well.

我們對接下來的 24 個月感到特別興奮。我們未來將採取許多有意義的成長手段，包括在主要國際地區和市場推出 Max，下週將從拉丁美洲開始。歐洲、中東和非洲和亞太地區的市場將在今年稍後跟進，包括新市場、法國和比利時，這些市場將與今年夏天的巴黎奧運會同期舉行。請記住，與較大的同業相比，我們僅涵蓋不到一半的可尋址家庭和市場，因此未來兩年我們仍然有巨大的全球化成長機會，包括全球許多關鍵市場，例如例如英國、德國、義大利、澳洲和日本，我們在所有這些國家都有大量的本地內容，而且在許多國家，我們也有體育內容。

We're also driving better segmentation and monetization by launching the new ad-supported offering, which is currently only available here in the U.S. And by the end of this year will be available in over 40 markets globally as well. We also have a number of lucrative partnership deals internationally that will help us scale in more efficient and accelerated fashion.

我們也透過推出新的廣告支援產品來推動更好的細分和貨幣化，該產品目前僅在美國提供，到今年年底也將在全球 40 多個市場提供。我們在國際上也擁有許多利潤豐厚的合作夥伴協議，這將有助於我們以更有效率、更快速的方式擴大規模。

It's worth noting that Q4 saw the lowest U.S. churn rates in HBO Max and Max's history. And the personalization and product improvements planned for this year should continue to have positive impact on churn. And finally, we're excited to be refreshing and reigniting our content pipeline at Max. The fact is, the strikes really slowed down production and we didn't have as much content as we wanted for Max. And we're now moving forward with a great slate.

值得注意的是，第四季美國用戶流失率創下了 HBO Max 和 Max 史上最低的紀錄。今年計劃的個人化和產品改進應該會繼續對客戶流失產生積極影響。最後，我們很高興能夠刷新並重新點燃 Max 的內容管道。事實上，罷工確實減慢了製作速度，而且我們沒有為 Max 提供足夠的內容。我們現在正帶著一份偉大的名單向前邁進。

Our most recent series, True Detective: Night Country, starring Jodie Foster, was a real success, averaging over 12.5 million viewers, the highest season ever for the series. Looking ahead, we've got one of the best lineups in the history of HBO. This next quarter will have Hacks and House of the Dragon, followed by DCs The Penguin and the new Dune series. Then in 2025, we'll kick off the year with the new season of The White Lotus, followed by The Last of Us and Euphoria, just to name a few.

我們最新的影集《真探：夜國》由茱蒂佛斯特主演，取得了真正的成功，平均觀看人數超過 1,250 萬，是該劇有史以來收視率最高的一季。展望未來，我們擁有 HBO 史上最好的陣容之一。下個季度將有《Hacks》和《House of the Dragon》，接下來是 DC 的《企鵝》和新的《沙丘》系列。然後在 2025 年，我們將以新一季的《白蓮花》拉開新的一年，接下來是《最後生還者》和《幸福感》等等。

Also coming to Max from Warner Bros. Motion Pictures are Aquaman and the Last Kingdom on February 27. Wonka will join the service on March 8. Followed by Dune Part 2 in the spring. We also inked a multiyear deal with A24 in December to bring A24's theatrical releases exclusively to Max. They've already started being carried.

華納兄弟電影公司的《海王與最後的王國》也將在 2 月 27 日登陸 Max。《旺卡》將於 3 月 8 日加入該服務。隨後，《沙丘第 2 部分》將在春季推出。我們還在 12 月與 A24 簽署了一項多年協議，將 A24 的院線版本獨家提供給 Max。他們已經開始被搬運了。

I want to mention one other area of our business before turning it over to Gunnar to talk through the quarter. As you heard last week, we're entering a new joint venture with Disney and Fox focused on sports. We believe this will provide a terrific consumer experience and will be a great business. We couldn't be more excited about it.

在交給 Gunnar 討論本季之前，我想提一下我們業務的另一個領域。正如您上週所聽到的，我們將與迪士尼和福克斯建立新的合資企業，專注於體育業務。我們相信這將提供出色的消費者體驗，並將成為一項偉大的業務。我們對此感到非常興奮。

We'll also be able to bundle this product with Max, so we see this new joint venture as another potential driver of incremental growth for our business going forward.

我們還可以將該產品與 Max 捆綁在一起，因此我們認為這家新合資企業是我們未來業務增量成長的另一個潛在驅動力。

One more point on our sports business. Last weekend, we saw a great coverage and strong ratings at the NBA All-Star Game and All-Star Weekend. We have a strong, positive 40-year relationship with the NBA. And in terms of our NBA rights, we are now full engaged in renewal discussions and they are constructive and productive.

關於我們的體育業務還有一點。上週末，我們在 NBA 全明星賽和全明星賽週末看到了精彩的報道和強勁的收視率。我們與 NBA 有著長達 40 年的牢固、積極的關係。就我們的 NBA 權利而言，我們現在正在全力進行續約討論，這些討論是建設性的、富有成效的。

Our global sports portfolio continues to provide real meaningful value to all of our platforms. We're proud to be the home of one of the most coveted collections of premium sports content in the industry, along with the best-in-class talent roster and exceptional production values. We're excited for our expansive coverage of the Paris Summer Olympics throughout all of Europe as well.

我們的全球體育產品組合繼續為我們所有的平台提供真正有意義的價值。我們很自豪能夠成為業內最令人垂涎​​的優質體育內容集合之一，以及一流的人才名單和卓越的製作價值。我們對巴黎夏季奧運會在整個歐洲的廣泛報導感到興奮。

The hard work we've done over the last nearly 2 years has positioned us well, financially and creatively. And as we look towards the future, we will continue to make the tough calls and do what is necessary to get this business on a clear pathway to growth and to drive increased shareholder value.

過去近兩年來我們所做的努力使我們在財務和創造力方面都處於有利地位。展望未來，我們將繼續做出艱難的決定，並採取必要措施，使該業務走上清晰的成長之路，並提高股東價值。

With that, I'll turn it over to Gunnar, and he'll walk you through the financials for the quarter.

接下來，我會將其交給 Gunnar，他將向您介紹本季的財務狀況。

Thank you, David, and thank you, everyone, for joining us this morning. 2023 was indeed a year marked by the accomplishment of several key objectives, and I'm very pleased with the effort across the organization to evolve our company as our industry continues to change. We come into 2024 well positioned and, once again, with an ambitious agenda to further enhance our financial and strategic profile, and to drive meaningful long-term shareholder value. .

謝謝大衛，也謝謝大家今天早上加入我們。 2023 年確實是實現了多個關鍵目標的一年，我對整個組織為隨著行業不斷變化而發展我們公司所做的努力感到非常高興。進入 2024 年，我們處於有利位置，並再次製定了雄心勃勃的議程，以進一步增強我們的財務和戰略形象，並推動有意義的長期股東價值。 。

Though we grew EBITDA 12% for the year on a pro forma basis, more than $1 billion year-over-year, the enormous financial benefits of our many important and successful transformative efforts have been somewhat mitigated by sustained headwinds across the industry, yet we made strong progress against this backdrop this year, and I'd like to highlight a few notable accomplishments.

儘管按預計，我們今年的EBITDA 增長了12%，同比增長超過10 億美元，但我們許多重要且成功的轉型努力所帶來的巨大財務收益在一定程度上因整個行業的持續不利因素而有所減弱，但我們今年在此背景下取得了巨大進展，我想強調一些值得注意的成就。

First, our post-merger integration is substantively complete as of the end of 2023. We have now achieved total combined merger and transformation savings of $4 billion, not including the significant savings realized on content as well. As David has laid out before, while we talked about synergies, we're really applying a fundamentally different management approach to the combined company, data-driven and rational with shareholder value at the center.

首先，截至 2023 年底，我們的合併後整合已基本完成。我們目前已實現合併和轉型節省總額達 40 億美元，這還不包括在內容方面實現的大量節省。正如大衛之前所指出的，雖然我們談論了協同效應，但我們實際上對合併後的公司採用了根本不同的管理方法，以數據驅動和理性，以股東價值為中心。

There are substantial improvement opportunities left for us to capture, particularly in areas such as enterprise systems, production flow, global centers of excellence, to name a few, and we expect to see this reflected in our near- and long-term free cash flow generation. This is an entire organization buying into and operating with a one team, one company mindset.

我們還有大量的改進機會等待我們抓住，特別是在企業系統、生產流程、全球卓越中心等領域，我們預計這會反映在我們的近期和長期自由現金流中一代。這是一個整個組織採用「一個團隊、一個公司」的理念並以此理念運作。

Second, our streaming team has made the turn. The D2C segment generated approximately $100 million of positive EBITDA, a $2.2 billion improvement year-over-year on a pro forma basis, well ahead of our targets. This was accomplished with a tremendous level of rigor and discipline across every aspect of the business from programming to marketing to technology. And as expected, we've begun to see an inflection in subscriber-related revenues, both distribution and advertising, which accelerated to over 6% during the second half of the year versus very modest growth in the first, helped by price increases, growth in the Ultimate tier and scaling of the Ad Light subscriber base.

其次，我們的串流媒體團隊已經實現了轉變。 D2C 部門產生了約 1 億美元的正 EBITDA，預計將年增 22 億美元，遠遠超出了我們的目標。這是透過從程式設計到行銷再到技術的業務各個方面的高度嚴格和紀律來實現的。正如預期的那樣，我們已經開始看到與訂戶相關的收入（包括發行和廣告）出現變化，在價格上漲、增長的幫助下，下半年增長速度超過 6%，而上半年的增長非常溫和。終極層和Ad Light 用戶群的擴展。

2024 will indeed be a pivotal year for Max. Relaunches and rebranding in existing Latin American and European markets over the next few months will be critical to bringing consumers an improved product experience and a more robust content offering, which will put us on better competitive footing. We will continue to take a disciplined approach to investing in subscriber growth, mindful of lifetime value to subscriber acquisition cost ratios as we proceed into this next phase.

2024 年對 Max 來說確實是關鍵的一年。未來幾個月在現有拉丁美洲和歐洲市場的重新推出和品牌重塑對於為消費者帶來更好的產品體驗和更強大的內容提供至關重要，這將使我們處於更好的競爭地位。當我們進入下一階段時，我們將繼續採取嚴格的方法來投資用戶成長，並注意終身價值與用戶獲取成本的比率。

D2C advertising growth should layer in nicely throughout the year, and the business is gaining momentum as it scales. With a more high-profile slate of shows from HBO scheduled for release throughout the year as compared to the second half of 2023, we're very well positioned to offer a greater share of highly coveted premium streaming inventory.

D2C 廣告的成長應該會在全年表現良好，而且隨著業務規模的擴大，其勢頭也將增強。與 2023 年下半年相比，HBO 計劃全年推出更多備受矚目的節目，因此我們完全有能力提供更大份額的備受追捧的優質串流廣告資源。

Third, you have heard us talk about the free cash flow opportunity since we first announced the deal. In 2023, we generated $6.2 billion of free cash flow, a 60% conversion of our EBITDA to free cash flow. The impact of the strikes contributed roughly $1 billion to free cash flow, while negatively impacting our EBITDA by a few hundred million dollars. We made great strides in realizing capital efficiencies throughout the year, and it was particularly evident in Q4 with over $3.3 billion of free cash flow generated this quarter alone.

第三，自從我們首次宣布這項交易以來，您已經聽到我們談論自由現金流機會。 2023 年，我們產生了 62 億美元的自由現金流，即 EBITDA 的 60% 轉化為自由現金流。罷工的影響為自由現金流貢獻了約 10 億美元，同時對我們的 EBITDA 產生了數億美元的負面影響。我們全年在實現資本效率方面取得了長足進步，這一點在第四季度尤為明顯，光是本季就產生了超過 33 億美元的自由現金流。

I am very pleased with the momentum here as the focus of the entire team continues to shift towards a deeper understanding of capital returns and shareholder value. We have laid a very solid foundation in 2023, and I expect 2024 to be another strong free cash flow year.

我對這裡的勢頭感到非常高興，因為整個團隊的重點繼續轉向對資本回報和股東價值的更深入理解。我們在 2023 年奠定了非常堅實的基礎，我預計 2024 年將是另一個強勁的自由現金流年。

Finally, all of this has helped support $5.4 billion of debt paydown during the year, including all of our more expensive variable rate term loans, enabling us to finish 2023 with less than $40 billion of net debt and resulting in net leverage of 3.9x EBITDA, in line with our guidance from last February despite all the headwinds mentioned earlier.

最後，所有這些都幫助支持了今年54 億美元的債務償還，包括我們所有更昂貴的可變利率定期貸款，使我們能夠在2023 年結束時淨債務低於400 億美元，淨槓桿率為3.9 倍EBITDA儘管存在前面提到的所有不利因素，但與我們去年 2 月的指導一致。

I am very pleased and comfortable with our current capital structure, given the tremendous progress we have made. The entirety of our outstanding debt is now fixed with an average cost of 4.6% and average duration of 15 years. Importantly, we have only very manageable amounts of debt coming due over the next 3 years: $1.8 billion this year, $3.1 billion next year and $2.3 billion in 2026, providing us with real flexibility in how exactly we delever the company.

鑑於我們取得的巨大進步，我對我們目前的資本結構感到非常滿意和滿意。我們的全部未償債務現已固定，平均成本為 4.6%，平均期限為 15 年。重要的是，我們未來 3 年到期的債務金額非常可控：今年 18 億美元，明年 31 億美元，2026 年 23 億美元，這為我們如何準確地去槓桿化公司提供了真正的靈活性。

We remain committed to our long-term gross leverage target of 2.5 to 3x. And while we do not expect to hit that target by the end of this year, as we noted on our last earnings call, we do expect to continue delevering in 2024 as we stay focused on debt repayment with our free cash flows and any proceeds from noncore asset sales, like the All3Media sale announced last week.

我們仍致力於 2.5 至 3 倍的長期總槓桿目標。正如我們在上次財報電話會議上指出的那樣，雖然我們預計在今年年底前不會達到這一目標，但我們確實預計將在2024 年繼續去槓桿化，因為我們將繼續專注於利用自由現金流和任何收益來償還債務。非核心資產出售，例如上周宣布的 All3Media 出售。

Turning briefly to the quarter, which I will discuss on a constant currency basis. I'd like to call out a few items and offer some additional puts and takes to consider for each of the segments. Starting with Studios. The primary callouts were, number one, the impact of the strikes, as I noted, which halted the production and delivery of TV content during the fourth quarter, which also informed some of our decisions about retaining or licensing content externally in the second half of the year.

簡單地談談本季度，我將在固定匯率的基礎上討論該季度。我想指出一些項目，並為每個細分市場提供一些額外的考慮因素。從工作室開始。正如我所指出的，首要的問題是罷工的影響，罷工在第四季度停止了電視內容的製作和交付，這也為我們在下半年保留或外部許可內容的一些決定提供了依據。那一年。

And two, what can best be characterized as an inconsistent performance of the theatrical slate. Wonka, the cofinancing partnership has had great success at the global box office and performed well above expectations, while Aquaman and The Lost Kingdom and The Color Purple, unfortunately did not. This was evident in our lower-than-expected financial results across revenue and EBITDA.

第二，最能描述的是戲劇表演的不一致。聯合融資的《旺卡》在全球票房上取得了巨大成功，表現遠超預期，而遺憾的是《水行俠》、《失落的王國》和《紫色》卻沒有。這從我們低於預期的收入和 EBITDA 財務表現可以明顯看出。

A couple of items to consider for the Studios segment during the coming quarter. We are lapping the release of Hogwarts Legacy in February last year, which saw the largest portion of its very positive financial impact in the first quarter. This year, Suicide Squad, one of our key video game releases in 2024, has fallen short of our expectations since its release in the quarter, setting our games business up for a tough year-over-year comp in Q1.

下一季工作室部門需要考慮的幾個事項。我們對去年 2 月發布的《霍格華茲遺產》感到滿意，該遊戲在第一季度實現了其非常積極的財務影響的最大部分。今年，《自殺突擊隊》是我們在 2024 年發布的主要電玩遊戲之一，自本季度發布以來，其表現並未達到我們的預期，這使得我們的遊戲業務在第一季度的同比表現將更加艱難。

On the film side, Q1 will be burdened with the marketing campaigns for Dune 2 and Godzilla versus Kong, which opens at the very end of the quarter.

在電影方面，第一季將承接本季末上映的《沙丘 2》和《哥吉拉大戰金剛》的行銷活動。

Turning to Networks. Revenues decreased 8% as advertising decreased 14% due to continuing softness in the U.S. linear advertising market. Note the disposition of the AT&T SportsNet negatively advertising revenues by approximately 100 basis points during the quarter. While still not back to where we'd like it to be, we are seeing a nice improvement thus far in Q1. Domestic ad sales are pacing meaningfully better quarter-to-date as we are beginning to capture the benefits of our strong upfront deals struck last year.

轉向網路。由於美國線性廣告市場持續疲軟，廣告收入下降 8%，廣告收入下降 14%。請注意，本季 AT&T SportsNet 的廣告收入下降了約 100 個基點。雖然仍未回到我們希望的位置，但到目前為止，我們看到第一季有了很大的進步。隨著我們開始從去年達成的強勁預付款交易中獲益，國內廣告銷售本季迄今的成長率明顯加快。

International ad sales, which accounts for over 20% of total network ad sales, continue to be firm overall, particularly in EMEA, which represents over 3/4 of International ad revenues, and where we saw modest growth year-over-year during the fourth quarter. Like the U.S., we're seeing acceleration through the beginning of the first quarter so far in EMEA overall, while we continue to face a challenging market environment in LatAm as ad dollars more steadily migrate to streaming, which ultimately presents a nice opportunity for Max as we relaunch in these markets.

國際廣告銷售額佔網路廣告總銷售額的20% 以上，整體持續保持堅挺，特別是在歐洲、中東和非洲地區，該地區佔國際廣告收入的3/4 以上，並且我們在2017 年看到了同比小幅成長。第四季。與美國一樣，我們看到整個歐洲、中東和非洲地區從第一季初開始加速成長，而隨著廣告資金更加穩定地轉向串流媒體，我們在拉丁美洲繼續面臨充滿挑戰的市場環境，這最終為Max 提供了一個很好的機會當我們在這些市場重新推出時。

Networks distribution revenues were effectively flat in the quarter after adjusting for the 400 basis point headwind from exiting the AT&T SportsNet and transferring the TNT Sports Chile business to the B2C segment. On a reported basis, revenue decreased 3% as U.S. pay-TV subscriber declines outpaced U.S. affiliate rate increases. While inflationary impacts, supported by inflation-linked pricing agreements in Argentina also benefited results.

在對退出 AT&T SportsNet 並將 TNT Sports Chile 業務轉移至 B2C 部門帶來的 400 個基點逆風進行調整後，本季網路分銷收入實際上持平。據報道，由於美國付費電視用戶的下降速度超過了美國聯盟行銷費用的成長速度，收入下降了 3%。儘管通膨的影響，阿根廷通膨掛鉤定價協議的支持也使業績受益。

Overall, Networks EBITDA decreased 11% as the decline in high-margin advertising revenues was only partially offset by a 3% decrease in operating expenses, excluding the AT&T SportsNet and TNT Sports Chile impact.

總體而言，網路 EBITDA 下降了 11%，因為高利潤廣告收入的下降僅被營運費用下降 3% 所部分抵消（不包括 AT&T SportsNet 和 TNT Sports Chile 的影響）。

Turning now to D2C. We finished the quarter with nearly 98 million subscribers, a modest sequential increase after accounting for the full consolidation following our acquisition of the outstanding shares of BluTV, as well as transferring our TNT Sports Chile subs to the D2C segment as part of our premium sports streaming strategy.

現在轉向 D2C。本季末，我們的訂戶數量接近9,800 萬，考慮到我們收購BluTV 流通股後的全面合併，以及將我們的TNT Sports Chile 訂閱者轉移到D2C 部門（作為我們優質體育流媒體的一部分），這一數字實現了適度的環比成長策略。

International remains the most important driver of our D2C subscriber growth with over 1 million subscribers gained in Q4. This more than offset domestic declines, where we continue to feel the impact of the partly strike-driven lack of fresh tentpole content through the second half of the year. And as discussed before, remember that linear wholesale losses continue to mask underlying retail D2C traction.

國際仍然是我們 D2C 用戶成長的最重要驅動力，第四季度用戶數量超過 100 萬。這足以抵銷國內的下降，我們在今年下半年繼續感受到部分由罷工驅動的新鮮主力內容缺乏的影響。正如之前所討論的，請記住，線性批發損失繼續掩蓋了潛在的零售 D2C 吸引力。

Content revenue in the segment declined 30% due to the intra-year timing of third-party licensing deals that we laid out in detail earlier in the year. Keep this in mind as we comp this in Q2 of 2024. Among the D2C subscriber-related revenues, which were up over 6% in the quarter, distribution revenues increased 4% and benefited from price increases in the U.S. and certain international markets, as well as the Amazon Prime partnership in the U.S. which we lapped in December.

由於我們今年稍早詳細列出的第三方授權交易的年內時間安排，該部門的內容收入下降了 30%。當我們在2024 年第二季度進行比較時，請記住這一點。在本季度增長超過6% 的D2C 用戶相關收入中，發行收入增長了4%，並受益於美國和某些國際市場的價格上漲，如以及我們去年 12 月與美國亞馬遜 Prime 的合作夥伴關係。

Advertising revenues accelerated nicely versus Q3 to over 50%, helped by the '23, '24 upfront deals, higher engagement on Max and Ad Light subscriber growth. We currently see the pace of D2C advertising revenue accelerating off this pace in Q1 and expect this to be an impactful segment driver for 2024 overall.

由於「23」、「24」前期交易、Max 和 Ad Light 訂戶成長的更高參與度，廣告收入較第三季大幅成長至 50% 以上。目前，我們看到 D2C 廣告收入的成長速度在第一季有所加快，並預計這將成為 2024 年整體細分市場的一個有影響力的驅動因素。

With regional relaunches and key new market launches heavily weighted towards the first half of the year, we expect D2C EBITDA to be modestly negative in the first half and then profitable again in the second half. Net-net, we currently expect the D2C segment to be profitable for the year as we continue to pivot our focus on profitable top line growth. We remain focused on our target of $1 billion in D2C segment EBITDA in 2025, and 2024 will certainly lay important foundations for achieving this goal.

隨著上半年區域性重新啟動和重要新市場的推出，我們預計 D2C EBITDA 在上半年將出現小幅負值，然後在下半年再次實現盈利。 Net-net，我們目前預計 D2C 業務今年將實現盈利，因為我們將繼續將重點放在獲利性營收成長上。我們仍專注於 2025 年 D2C 細分市場 EBITDA 達到 10 億美元的目標，2024 年必將為實現這一目標奠定重要基礎。

Turning to our outlook for Q1 free cash flow. We're off to an outstanding start. Remember, Q1 is traditionally our seasonally weakest quarter, yet we see continued strong momentum so far and expect a very meaningful improvement year-over-year versus the negative $930 million we incurred last year. We continue to capture our cash opportunities, and I believe we have many more bites at the apple for years to come.

轉向我們對第一季自由現金流的展望。我們有了一個出色的開始。請記住，第一季傳統上是我們季節性最弱的季度，但我們看到迄今為止持續強勁的勢頭，並預計與去年同期負 9.3 億美元相比，將出現非常有意義的改善。我們將繼續抓住現金機會，我相信在未來幾年我們將有更多機會。

Let me mention additional puts and takes to consider as you think about free cash flow for the year. Number one, the net cash benefit from the strikes, which will reverse this year as content production resumes to normalized levels, will naturally be a negative to free cash flow. We incurred roughly $1 billion in integration-related cash costs, a little lower than what we had anticipated for 2023 due to the timing of certain initiatives. As we continue to execute on our transformation journey, we will likely incur some additional cash restructuring costs, but we expect this to be at a significantly lower level.

讓我提一下當您考慮今年的自由現金流時需要考慮的其他看跌期權和看跌期權。第一，罷工帶來的淨現金收益將在今年隨著內容製作恢復到正常水平而逆轉，這自然會對自由現金流產生負面影響。由於某些措施的時間安排，我們產生了約 10 億美元的整合相關現金成本，略低於我們對 2023 年的預期。隨著我們繼續執行轉型之旅，我們可能會產生一些額外的現金重組成本，但我們預計該成本將大大降低。

Number three, the Olympics will be a drag to free cash flow this year, given its working capital dynamic. Number four, interest expense will certainly be lower in 2024 as we continue to delever and CapEx will likely be slightly lower as well. And finally, of course, EBITDA will be the biggest determinant of free cash flow.

第三，鑑於其營運資本的動態，奧運將拖累今年的自由現金流。第四，隨著我們繼續去槓桿化，2024 年利息支出肯定會降低，資本支出也可能會略有下降。最後，當然，EBITDA 將是自由現金流的最大決定因素。

Before I turn it back for Q&A, I'd like to finish with the final remark on the magnitude of change that's taken place at WBD, it really is night and day versus where we started. Of course, we still have additional work to do and more opportunity to capture, but the heavy lifting we've done helped pave the way for ongoing transformation and our ability to embrace the 3 pillars of our strategy, which reflect our strong commitment to quality storytelling, achieving maximum value through broad distribution and monetization, and operating professionally with one company mindset.

在我將其轉回進行問答之前，我想對 WBD 所發生的變化的幅度做最後的評論，與我們開始的地方相比，這確實是日日夜夜的。當然，我們還有更多的工作要做，還有更多的機會要抓住，但我們所做的繁重工作為持續轉型鋪平了道路，也為我們擁抱戰略三大支柱的能力鋪平了道路，這反映了我們對品質的堅定承諾講故事，透過廣泛的發行和貨幣化實現最大價值，並以同一個公司的思維方式專業運營。

We are significantly closer to our longer-term leverage targets with more than $12 billion of debt paid down in less than 2 years. Certainly, having a more flexible financial profile doesn't insulate us, or anyone else for that matter, from having creative wins and losses. But it most certainly will help us take the necessary steps required to further achieve our growth objectives and to more intently focus on driving shareholder value.

我們已經非常接近我們的長期槓桿目標，在不到 2 年內償還了超過 120 億美元的債務。當然，擁有更靈活的財務狀況並不能讓我們或任何其他人免於創造性的勝利和損失。但它肯定會幫助我們採取必要的步驟，進一步實現我們的成長目標，並更加專注於推動股東價值。

Now David, JB and I will take your questions.

現在 David、JB 和我將回答你們的問題。

(Operator Instructions) Your first question comes from the line of Vijay Jain from Evercore ISI.

（操作員說明）您的第一個問題來自 Evercore ISI 的 Vijay Jain。

This is Kutgun Maral on for Vijay. One on the Studios and one on DTC. On the Studios, can you talk a little bit more about your strategic initiatives over the next few years? And when do you think we'll get to see the execution on your vision manifest more meaningfully from a financial perspective? Can we see more signs of this in 2024, 2025? Or do you think it will still be at least a few years until we get it to full value since it takes a while to reinvigorate franchises?

我是庫特岡·馬拉爾 (Kutgun Maral) 為維傑 (Vijay) 發言。一份在 Studio 上，一份在 DTC 上。在工作室方面，您能多談談您未來幾年的策略舉措嗎？您認為我們什麼時候才能看到從財務角度更有意義地執行您的願景？ 2024年、2025年我們能看到更多這樣的跡象嗎？或者您認為我們至少還需要幾年時間才能充分發揮其價值，因為重振特許經營權需要一段時間？

And at DTC, when I look at Max from a content perspective, it feels a lot more like legacy HBO Max and maybe with a less of a focus on legacy Discovery+. So I was hoping to get a little bit more color on how you think about the content portfolio overall at Max, and if there are areas you expect to invest more or less in going forward. And I guess as we all think about the evolution of the broader media ecosystem and to date M&A scenarios, what I'm really trying to get at is whether more programming tonnage is necessary to be successful in DTC as we think about the evolution of the broader ecosystem.

在 DTC，當我從內容的角度看待 Max 時，感覺它更像傳統的 HBO Max，而且可能不太關注傳統的 Discovery+。因此，我希望能更詳細地了解您對 Max 整體內容組合的看法，以及您未來是否希望在某些領域進行更多或更少的投資。我想，當我們都在思考更廣泛的媒體生態系統的演變以及迄今為止的併購場景時，我真正想要了解的是，當我們考慮媒體生態系統的演變時，是否需要更多的程式設計能力才能在DTC 中取得成功。更廣泛的生態系統。

Thanks so much. Look, we're coming through 2 years of product that we inherited that was a struggle, and you saw it as it came through our balance sheet. This year, we expect it's going to be much better. Wonka was very strong. The team got in and really reworked that product. We've shown that we have a great ability to market a product globally. We're very committed to the motion picture business. We have loads of talent back, which I enumerated. But when you look at this year, we have M. Knight, his daughter has a movie coming out this summer, The Watchers. We have Beetlejuice coming, we're very excited about. Todd Phillips has his Joker 2 coming, all of which our overall lineup this year is much more compelling.

非常感謝。聽著，我們繼承的產品經歷了兩年的掙扎，你可以從我們的資產負債表中看到這一點。今年，我們預計情況會好得多。旺卡非常堅強。該團隊介入並真正重新設計了該產品。我們已經證明我們擁有在全球範圍內行銷產品的強大能力。我們非常致力於電影業務。我列舉了很多人才回來了。但當你看看今年，我們有 M. Knight，他的女兒今年夏天有一部電影《守望者》上映。 Beetlejuice 即將推出，我們對此感到非常興奮。托德菲利普斯 (Todd Phillips) 的《小丑 2》即將上映，我們今年的整體陣容更加引人注目。

We have a team that's ready to take -- to build those brands around the world. And as I've said, we've really targeted DC. We have Superman, Supergirl, a great script that's been written, and that's being cast. We'll have James and Peter take you through in the next few months, a full spectrum of what they see over the next 10 years. And we're attacking Lord of the Rings. We're attacking Harry Potter. Because we think this is a balance. We have these great brands, Game of Thrones. We have these great brands that people everywhere in the world know, love and will leave dinner to come run and see. And the balance is, we also need things like the new things like Barbie.

我們擁有一支隨時準備在世界各地打造這些品牌的團隊。正如我所說，我們確實瞄準了華盛頓特區。我們有《超人》、《女超人》，一個很棒的劇本已經寫好了，正在選角。我們將讓詹姆斯和彼得在接下來的幾個月裡帶您了解他們在未來 10 年所看到的全部內容。我們正在攻擊魔戒。我們正在攻擊哈利波特。因為我們認為這是一個平衡。我們擁有《權力的遊戲》這些偉大的品牌。我們擁有這些偉大的品牌，世界各地的人們都知道、喜愛這些品牌，並且會留下晚餐來跑來看看。平衡點是，我們還需要像芭比娃娃這樣的新事物。

And Mike and Pam are doing a terrific job, and our commitment to the motion picture business is something that's -- there's a real sense of in the town, and it's one of the reasons why we're getting some of the very best people coming onboard with us. So I'm pretty excited about what we have this year and what you'll see rolling out in the year ahead. Bottom line, the Studio has really been underperforming and -- including the end of the year, where we had some real struggle. But we're very optimistic about this year, and it has -- gives us a chance to have a lot of upside in the next 2 years. I mean it was really a struggle. JB?

麥克和潘姆做得非常出色，我們對電影業務的承諾是——在鎮上有一種真正的感覺，這也是我們吸引一些最優秀的人才加入的原因之一與我們一起上船。因此，我對今年的內容以及未來一年將推出的內容感到非常興奮。最重要的是，工作室的表現確實不佳——包括年底，我們確實遇到了一些困難。但我們對今年非常樂觀，它讓我們有機會在未來兩年內獲得很大的上升空間。我的意思是，這確實是一場鬥爭。傑布？

Yes. And Kutgun, on the DTC segment, I guess a couple of points. Number one is I think as we mentioned in our previous calls, first of all, as we're 8 months in, the encouraging thing for us that we've seen is our engagement in terms of time spent in proactive account is -- has continued to increase. And most of that increase has been driven by the inclusion of the legacy Discovery content. So -- and it's not been cannibalistic to the legacy HBO Max content. So we have seen increased engagement, increased our views, all driven by the inclusion of the legacy Discovery content.

是的。 Kutgun，在 DTC 部分，我想有幾點。第一，我認為正如我們在之前的電話會議中提到的，首先，我們已經過去8 個月了，我們看到的令人鼓舞的事情是，我們在主動帳戶上花費的時間方面的參與度是——持續增加。其中大部分的成長是由舊版 Discovery 內容的納入所推動。因此，它並沒有蠶食 HBO Max 的傳統內容。因此，我們看到參與度有所提高，我們的觀點也有所增加，這一切都是由於納入舊版 Discovery 內容而推動的。

The second point I'd make is if you look at the top 10 rails, it's pretty indicative. And you'll see oftentimes in there weeks where 90 Day Fiance, or some of our other legacy Discovery content, are making up 3, 4, 5, sometimes even of the top 10 series on Max. So again, talking of the content diversity and the success of the 2 content portfolios coming together.

我要說的第二點是，如果你看看排名前 10 的鐵路，你會發現它非常具有指示性。在這幾周里，您經常會看到《90 天未婚夫》或我們其他一些舊版 Discovery 內容佔據了 Max 前 10 系列的 3、4、5 個，有時甚至是 10 個。再次討論內容多樣性和兩個內容組合的成功。

And then the third thing I'd say is I think what is exciting about the next sort of 12, 24, 36 months is about 1.5 years ago, Casey and the team, with the non-HBO content, the Max originals really took a turn to sort of focus on bigger, broader WB based franchises. And when you think of the lineup coming, they're very broad, very 4-quadrant titles, like Penguin, Dune, It, Conjuring, Harry Potter. And so we feel like we're on a great trajectory. And frankly, the content lineup over the next 2-plus years on Max is the most rich and the deepest and broadest that I think will ever have been, not just on Max, but frankly, even within the HBO lineup as well.

然後我要說的第三件事是，我認為接下來的 12、24、36 個月令人興奮的是大約 1.5 年前，Casey 和團隊，憑藉非 HBO 內容，Max 原版確實花了轉向專注於更大、更廣泛的WB特許經營權。當你想到即將推出的陣容時，你會發現它們都是非常廣泛、非常四象限的遊戲，像是《企鵝》、《沙丘》、《它》、《厲陰宅》、《哈利波特》。所以我們感覺我們正走在一個偉​​大的軌道上。坦白說，Max 未來兩年多的內容陣容是我認為有史以來最豐富、最深入、最廣泛的內容陣容，不僅是在 Max 上，坦率地說，甚至在 HBO 陣容中也是如此。

And contrasted candidly of the next -- of the last 6 to 8 months, where we just didn't have a lot of content. So what's encouraging is that we've been able to grow, and we really haven't had much fresh content. And so this True Detective was step one, but we're going to be rolling out all of these franchises and shows over the next 12 to 24 months, and it gives us a real sense of optimism.

與接下來的 6 到 8 個月進行坦率的對比，我們只是沒有太多內容。所以令人鼓舞的是我們已經能夠成長，而且我們確實沒有太多新鮮內容。所以這部《真探》是第一步，但我們將在接下來的 12 到 24 個月內推出所有這些系列和節目，這給了我們真正的樂觀感。

Your next question comes from the line of John Hodulik from UBS.

您的下一個問題來自瑞銀集團 (UBS) 的約翰‧霍杜利克 (John Hodulik)。

Two, if I could. First, maybe for Gunnar. Thanks for some of the puts and takes for '24, but just any other color you could give regarding EBITDA and potential growth. Maybe breakdown it by segments, if you could. And then on the new skinny sports bundle, just any other info you guys could provide in terms of what the product is going to look like, pricing, economics? And just maybe, David, your confidence that it's not going to accelerate cord cutting?

兩個，如果可以的話。首先，也許是針對古納爾。感謝您對 24 年的一些看法，但您可以就 EBITDA 和潛在成長給出任何其他顏色。如果可以的話，也許可以將其細分。然後，關於新的緊身運動套裝，你們可以提供有關產品外觀、定價、經濟方面的任何其他資訊嗎？大衛，也許你有信心這不會加速斷線？

Sure. Well, why don't I start with that. Look, there's about 125 million households that -- in America. And there's more than 60 million of those that are not in the traditional bundled cable ecosystem. The -- and we see that with things like Bleacher Report, where we have 30 million people, mostly under 30, that the overwhelming majority are not in the traditional cable universe. But they love sports, they're on Bleacher and House of Highlights all day.

當然。好吧，我為什麼不從這個開始呢？看，在美國大約有 1.25 億個家庭。其中有超過 6,000 萬用戶不屬於傳統的捆綁式電纜生態系統。我們看到，透過《Bleacher Report》之類的內容，我們有 3000 萬人，其中大部分年齡在 30 歲以下，而絕大多數人並不在傳統的有線電視領域。但他們熱愛運動，他們整天都在看《Bleacher》和《House of Excellence》。

And so we have a very rich target of over 60 million people that love sports. And it's a product that's quite modern. So today, when people are thinking, what channels should I watch, what channel is my support on you'll be able to go to this new product, this new app-based product. And if you love the baseball playoffs, you'll watch all of them, and you're not thinking what channel is it on. Hockey, you watch all of the hockey playoffs, right, to the Stanley Cup. For basketball, you'll watch all the playoffs right through to the championships. And you will never think or ever have to Google where is it.

因此，我們有一個非常豐富的目標，超過 6000 萬熱愛運動的人。這是一個非常現代的產品。因此，今天，當人們在思考，我應該觀看哪些頻道，我支持哪些頻道時，您將能夠使用這個新產品，這個基於應用程式的新產品。如果你喜歡棒球季後賽，你會觀看所有比賽，而且你不會想到它在哪個頻道上。曲棍球，你觀看了所有的曲棍球季後賽，對吧，直到史丹利杯。對於籃球比賽，您將觀看所有季後賽直至總冠軍。你永遠不會想到也不必去谷歌它在哪裡。

And so it's a platform that this -- that the younger generation that is not subscribing, we're able to go after those that we're missing. We're missing those subscribers. The traditional cable industry is missing those subscribers. We think it's very pro-consumer. Look, we have a great relationship with our existing distributors. This is a unique product that's looking to meet a very strong demand. And together, I think this partnership of us, together with Disney and Fox, with Bob and with Lachlan, we're like-minded, we're aligned, we believe that this could be a very compelling product. We're going to be very aggressive with it. We're going to be aggressive marketing it. And we think it coexists very effectively.

因此，這是一個平台，讓那些沒有訂閱的年輕一代，我們能夠尋找那些我們錯過的人。我們缺少這些訂閱者。傳統的有線電視產業正缺乏這些用戶。我們認為這非常有利於消費者。看，我們與現有經銷商有著良好的關係。這是一款獨特的產品，旨在滿足非常強勁的需求。我認為我們與迪士尼和福克斯、鮑勃和拉克蘭的合作夥伴關係，我們志同道合，我們是一致的，我們相信這可能是一個非常引人注目的產品。我們將非常積極地對待它。我們將積極行銷它。我們認為它可以非常有效地共存。

We don't see a lot of people unsubscribing to cable in order to get this. We're going after the 60 million plus, those that are not thinking about getting cable when they get their own apartments. And so we're quite excited about it. I've seen a number of the prototypes. We're pretty far along. This is not an announcement. You're going to see, we are going to follow pretty quickly with our plans. And I think it's going to meet a really -- it's going to meet a demand that's very strong in the marketplace.

我們沒有看到很多人為了得到這個而取消有線電視訂閱。我們的目標是超過 6000 萬人，他們在擁有自己的公寓時沒有考慮安裝有線電視。所以我們對此感到非常興奮。我看過很多原型。我們已經走得很遠了。這不是一個公告。你會看到，我們很快就會執行我們的計劃。我認為它將真正滿足市場上非常強勁的需求。

Well, and then on your EBITDA question, John. So I did go through some of the puts and takes, as you said, in the prepared remarks. We are also going to continue calling out factors that will affect comparability over the course of the year. On a segment-by-segment level, if we start with the Studio, we've talked about the games cadence last year, this year. And on the film side, obviously, this is going to continue to be a hit-driven business. And just last year was a great example with the greatest success in the film studios history and some real challenges across the industry on the superhero side.

好吧，然後關於你的 EBITDA 問題，約翰。因此，正如您在準備好的發言中所說，我確實經歷了一些調整和調整。我們也將繼續指出影響全年可比性的因素。在逐一細分的層面上，如果我們從工作室開始，我們去年、今年都討論過遊戲節奏。顯然，在電影方面，這將繼續成為熱門驅動的業務。就在去年，電影製片廠歷史上取得了最大的成功，而整個產業在超級英雄方面也面臨著一些真正的挑戰。

So there's not a lot more to add at this point. For D2C, which clearly is the top priority here from a growth perspective for us, we're committed to maintain profitability. But as we said last time we spoke to all you guys, is we've restructured the business. $2.2 billion of profit improvement in 12 months. From here, the priority is going to be different. We're not going back to subs at all cost, but we want to fuel profitable top line growth. And that's going to be guiding us as we go through this year and beyond.

因此，此時沒有更多可添加的內容。對於 D2C 來說，從成長的角度來看，這顯然是我們的首要任務，我們致力於保持獲利能力。但正如我們上次與大家交談時所說，我們已經重組了業務。 12 個月內利潤增加 22 億美元。從這裡開始，優先順序將會有所不同。我們不會不惜一切代價回到潛水艇，但我們希望推動獲利的營收成長。這將引導我們度過今年及以後的時光。

We have the $1 billion bogey for 2025, and JB and the team are going to lay very important foundations this year. We are deliberately not giving a more specific target here because we will not be in a situation where we manage the business for results in individual quarters or fiscal years. We'll do the right thing for the company and especially on the DTC side that might mean decisions over the course of the year to pull back on individual markets, accelerate into others, respond to how our consumers are receiving our content. So rest assured, we'll do the right thing from the perspective of long-term asset value and value generation, but we will not be focused so much on individual quarters or years profitability.

我們在 2025 年面臨 10 億美元的柏忌，JB 和團隊今年將奠定非常重要的基礎。我們故意不在這裡給出更具體的目標，因為我們不會遇到以單一季度或財政年度的業績來管理業務的情況。我們將為公司做正確的事情，尤其是在 DTC 方面，這可能意味著在這一年中做出決定，撤回個別市場，加速進入其他市場，並對消費者如何接收我們的內容做出回應。所以請放心，我們會從長期資產價值和價值創造的角度做正確的事情，但我們不會太關注個別季度或年份的獲利能力。

On the linear side...

在線性方面...

Just one point on that. This -- the ability to now have a profitable streaming business and to keep that business profitable and growing in a year where we're launching in multiple markets around the world, where we're deploying real capital to build the brand, to market the programming and to have the infrastructure around the world. And so for us, we see this year as a continued build as we go toward next year and -- of a $1 billion in streaming.

僅此一點。這就是現在擁有盈利的串流媒體業務並在一年內保持該業務盈利和增長的能力，我們在全球多個市場推出，我們正在部署真正的資本來建立品牌，營銷編程並在世界各地擁有基礎設施。因此，對我們來說，我們認為今年是我們邁向明年的持續建設，串流媒體收入將達到 10 億美元。

Right. And then just to finish up the segments here on the linear side. I mean you heard us talk about what we're seeing right now, and that is a more optimistic view than we have had throughout most of the past 21 months since we closed this deal. But at the same time, I don't have a crystal ball, and we're not in the business of making longer-term projections here. We're going to be as transparent as we can in as much detail as we can about what we're seeing, and we'll continue doing that as we go through the year.

正確的。然後只是完成線性側的片段。我的意思是，你聽到我們談論我們現在所看到的情況，這是一個比我們完成這筆交易以來的過去 21 個月的大部分時間裡所看到的更加樂觀的觀點。但同時，我沒有水晶球，我們也不打算在這裡做出長期預測。我們將盡可能透明地、盡可能詳細地描述我們所看到的情況，並且我們將在這一年中繼續這樣做。

What really matters to me is we're going to continue to be very focused on delevering the company. I told you that against the $6.2 billion of cash generated last year, we're off to a strong start in Q1. January was very good. We're going to continue focusing. And I do think that we're still in the early innings here. We have an entire organization with 35,000 people changing their view on how we run the company, how we deploy capital and what we're optimizing for. That's going to have dividends for us for many, many years. So we'll continue to delever. We're committed to our 2.5 to 3x target range. And you'll continue to hear us talk about free cash flow generation.

對我來說真正重要的是我們將繼續專注於公司的去槓桿化。我告訴過你，相對於去年產生的 62 億美元現金，我們在第一季有了一個強勁的開局。一月非常好。我們將繼續關注。我確實認為我們仍處於早期階段。我們擁有一個擁有 35,000 名員工的整個組織，他們正在改變對我們如何經營公司、如何部署資本以及我們正在優化什麼的看法。這將為我們帶來很多很多年的紅利。所以我們會繼續去槓桿。我們致力於 2.5 至 3 倍的目標範圍。您將繼續聽到我們談論自由現金流的產生。

Look, free cash flow is a key metric for us. And we said we're going after it to have generated the $6.2 billion, but also just the 60% conversion. This company -- and in a year where we held back dramatically on selling our content to third parties, where you saw -- I think it was almost $1 billion in difference year-over-year in terms of the content that we sold. We're doing what's right for the business long term.

你看，自由現金流是我們的關鍵指標。我們說過，我們希望它能產生 62 億美元的收入，但也只有 60% 的轉換率。這家公司——在這一年裡，我們大幅抑制了向第三方銷售我們的內容，正如你所看到的——我認為我們銷售的內容與去年同期相比幾乎有 10 億美元的差異。我們正在做對業務長期有利的事。

We're laser-focused on driving free cash flow, delevering, you'll see us driving free cash flow this year. You'll see us delevering the balance sheet. That makes us a healthy company. Because when you partner that with the fact that we have great content, great creatives at Warner, at Max, at HBO, great content coming up in the next few years, that, we think, is the recipe to really differentiate us.

我們專注於推動自由現金流，去槓桿化，你會看到我們今年推動自由現金流。你會看到我們去槓桿化資產負債表。這使我們成為一家健康的公司。因為當你將這一點與我們在華納、Max、HBO 擁有出色的內容、出色的創意以及未來幾年內出現的出色內容這一事實相結合時，我們認為，這才是真正使我們脫穎而出的秘訣。

Your next question comes from the line of Ric Prentiss from Raymond James.

您的下一個問題來自雷蒙德詹姆斯 (Raymond James) 的里克普倫蒂斯 (Ric Prentiss)。

Yes, hitting the free cash flow number, obviously a strong year this year, but you have the strike benefit. And you say you're going to grow the free cash flow, can you give us a sense of is that -- can you go beyond the $6.2 billion? You got to normalize for the $1 billion, can you do mid-5s? Can you give us kind of a goalpost on the free cash flow?

是的，達到自由現金流數字，今年顯然是強勁的一年，但你有罷工福利。你說你要增加自由現金流，你能給我們一個感覺嗎——你能超越 62 億美元嗎？你必須為了 10 億美元而正常化，你能做到 5 歲左右嗎？您能為我們提供自由現金流的目標嗎？

And then second question, as you think about that free cash flow production that you're driving and the delevering that you're driving, it naturally brings up capital allocation questions. Someday stock buybacks maybe, but also organic and external growth. What assets do you think you've got covered, we don't need any other assets in this category. But there's some other assets out there in the marketplace that might be interesting on a nice to have or need to have.

第二個問題，當你考慮你正在推動的自由現金流生產和你正在推動的去槓桿化時，它自然會帶來資本配置問題。也許有一天會回購股票，但也會出現有機和外部成長。您認為您已經涵蓋了哪些資產，我們不需要此類別中的任何其他資產。但市場上還有一些其他資產可能很有趣，值得擁有或需要擁有。

Let me start with the free cash flow question and a view on investment priorities. So I did go through in my prepared remarks some of the puts and takes, and I literally do not want to give a specific quantitative free cash flow guidance. We did call out the fact that there was $1 billion of a benefit last year, and that is going to reverse in 2024. There's no question about it. I also took you through some of the below the line help us here. Interest expense and cash out is going to come down. CapEx is going to come down. Restructuring expenses are going to come down.

讓我從自由現金流問題和對投資優先事項的看法開始。因此，我確實在準備好的發言中闡述了一些看跌期權和看跌期權，而且我實際上不想給出具體的定量自由現金流指導。我們確實指出，去年有 10 億美元的福利，這一情況將在 2024 年扭轉。這是毫無疑問的。我還向您介紹了一些在線幫助我們的內容。利息支出和現金支出將會下降。資本支出將會下降。重組費用將會下降。

And as I said, we will continue to be very, very focused on capital efficiency. And some of that impact is not going to be individual quarters, but it's a longer-term process. And we have already very significantly changed the approach to our investment decision-making and a harmonized process across the entire company. So I have a lot of confidence that these will be very positive contributions over years to come.

正如我所說，我們將繼續非常非常關注資本效率。其中一些影響不會是個別季度的，而是長期的過程。我們已經大幅改變了整個公司的投資決策方法和統一流程。因此，我非常有信心，這些將在未來幾年內做出非常積極的貢獻。

And as I said before, I'm not in a position this year to give very specific EBITDA or cash conversion guidance. We'll be very, very focused on it. We still believe that our long-term target of 60% cash conversion is very doable, very achievable. We're going to continue to focus on delevering the company. And what I will say is we haven't really -- we haven't made any trade-off decisions here between investing in the company and delevering. We have funded our investments. David talked a little bit about the film studio, but we've also made investments on the games side to get to a more consistent cadence of releases over time. We have deployed hundreds of millions of capital into our studio lots and tours and operations.

正如我之前所說，我今年無法給出非常具體的 EBITDA 或現金轉換指引。我們將非常非常關注它。我們仍然相信我們 60% 現金轉換的長期目標是非常可行、非常可實現的。我們將繼續專注於公司去槓桿化。我要說的是，我們還沒有真正在投資公司和去槓桿化之間做出任何權衡決定。我們已經為我們的投資提供了資金。大衛談到了一些關於電影工作室的事情，但我們也在遊戲方面進行了投資，以便隨著時間的推移保持更一致的發布節奏。我們已經在我們的工作室、巡迴和營運中投入了數億資金。

And we have funded every promising content project. And all of that is happening at the same time as we're investing in an overhaul of our systems landscape, et cetera. So we have made a ton of investments. We have great assets. We know where to invest more over time. And as I said, we -- from a capital allocation, capital structure perspective, we remain focused on the 2.5, 3x for now. But you're right, over time, there's going to be more and more optionality.

我們資助了每一個有前途的內容項目。所有這一切都是在我們投資徹底改革我們的系統環境的同時發生的，等等。所以我們進行了大量的投資。我們擁有豐富的資產。隨著時間的推移，我們知道應該在哪裡進行更多投資。正如我所說，從資本配置、資本結構的角度來看，我們目前仍關注 2.5 倍、3 倍。但你是對的，隨著時間的推移，選擇將會越來越多。

And just as an operating thesis for the company, we're really focused on running these companies -- each of the companies efficiently, having them work together. And we're fighting for free cash flow and to grow free cash flow in each of the businesses. As Gunnar said, this past year, we did get the help of the strikes. On other transactions or whether there's assets out there outside of investing in ourselves that make sense, obviously, we look at everything.

正如公司的營運主題一樣，我們真正專注於經營這些公司——每家公司都高效地運作，讓它們一起工作。我們正在爭取自由現金流並增加每項業務的自由現金流。正如古納爾所說，去年我們確實得到了罷工的幫助。顯然，在其他交易中，或者除了投資我們自己之外是否還有其他有意義的資產時，我們會考慮一切。

We worked really hard to get ourselves a healthy balance sheet to pay down debt to get below 4x levered, to really focus on where we're spending money, on driving free cash flow. And so we've positioned this company really now as being a healthy company and with a great leadership team, with a lot of direction. We have a great set of assets. We're probably the only pure storytelling company, particularly a pure storytelling company that operates on all platforms. And I think we have the greatest set of franchise content assets.

我們非常努力地工作，讓自己擁有一個健康的資產負債表，以償還債務，將槓桿率控制在 4 倍以下，真正專注於我們花錢的地方，推動自由現金流。因此，我們現在確實將這家公司定位為一家健康的公司，擁有一支優秀的領導團隊，並且有很多方向。我們擁有大量資產。我們可能是唯一一家純粹說故事的公司，尤其是一家在所有平台上運作的純粹說故事的公司。我認為我們擁有最豐富的特許經營內容資產。

And so I like our hand. I think as we look to the future now with Max profitable, we think we can build that. And so we like where we are. We do have the optionality of looking at other assets. But it's going to be a very high bar for us. We like our hand where it is, and we like the -- our particular strategy right now of building Max and really deploying all of our great creative assets.

所以我喜歡我們的手。我認為，當我們展望未來時，Max 已經獲利，我們認為我們可以實現這一目標。所以我們喜歡我們現在的處境。我們確實可以選擇查看其他資產。但這對我們來說將是一個非常高的門檻。我們喜歡我們現在的手，我們喜歡我們現在建立 Max 並真正部署我們所有偉大創意資產的特定策略。

Your next question comes from the line of Jessica Reif Ehrlich from Bank of America.

您的下一個問題來自美國銀行的 Jessica Reif Ehrlich。

So maybe switching gears to advertising. You mentioned a few times that Q1, you're starting to see strength. Can you just give us some color on where it's coming from, how confident you are that this will continue throughout the year, particularly in light of all the increase in inventory, whether it's Amazon coming to the business, Walmart with Vizio? And then as a follow-up, you mentioned some market launches in some pretty big countries, U.K., Germany, Italy, Australia, Japan. Can you talk about the timing? Some of these markets have limitations like the U.K. And then lastly, any color that you can give on third-party content sales or your views on that? There's just no way, given your library, that you can use all this content on Max.

所以也許要轉向廣告。你多次提到第一季度，你開始看到力量。您能告訴我們一些關於它的來源嗎？您對這種情況將持續一整年的信心有多大，特別是考慮到庫存的增加，無論是亞馬遜、沃爾瑪還是 Vizio 介入這一業務？作為後續行動，您提到了在一些相當大的國家（英國、德國、義大利、澳洲、日本）的一些市場啟動。能談談具體時間嗎？其中一些市場有局限性，例如英國。最後，您對第三方內容銷售有何看法或您對此有何看法？鑑於您的圖書館，您不可能在 Max 上使用所有這些內容。

All right. Let me maybe take the first one here and provide a little more color on Advertising. So as we said in our prepared remarks, we have actually seen improvements now into the first quarter across the board. The U.S. side is, I think, benefiting from the fact that we've seen improving ratings trends over the entire second half of last year, and I think that we're beginning to monetize that. The upfront deals are kicking in. Remember, we've had a very different strategy this year versus last year. So it's a visible improvement across the board.

好的。讓我在這裡討論第一個，並為廣告提供更多的色彩。正如我們在準備好的發言中所說，我們實際上已經看到第一季全面改善。我認為，美國方面受益於去年整個下半年收視率不斷改善的趨勢，我認為我們已經開始將其貨幣化。前期交易正在開始。請記住，我們今年的策略與去年截然不同。所以這是一個全面的明顯改進。

And we -- again, I don't want to make any predictions for the rest of the year. But we have a lot of growth priorities lined up. We're catching up on advanced advertising revenues. The team has made some structural changes, and we're beginning to harness the entire data footprint of Warner Bros. Discovery as we roll this out. Upfront, the cancellations are looking weak. So that's the U.S. market. And again, forget about the streaming side of it, which, as I said, is growing at north of 50%.

我們再次強調，我不想對今年剩餘時間做出任何預測。但我們有很多成長優先事項。我們正在追趕先進的廣告收入。團隊已經進行了一些結構性更改，並且在推出此項目時我們開始利用華納兄弟探索頻道的整個數據足跡。從前期來看，取消訂單看起來很疲軟。這就是美國市場。再說一遍，忘掉串流媒體方面吧，正如我所說，串流媒體方面正在以 50% 以上的速度成長。

Internationally as well. And while there is no such thing as one international market, it is a mixed picture. But the key markets, the most relevant markets for us in Europe specifically are doing very well. Again, Poland is doing incredibly well. We've got very, very strong network positions there. Italy has seen real upswing in programming. We're the fastest-growing group in that market. And that's all flowing through to advertising. And even in those markets that historically have underperformed a little bit for us, such as the U.K., the Nordics, those numbers are looking much more stable now than they did in the fourth quarter. Again, this is 7 weeks into the year. I don't want to make any predictions, but we're in a much, much better place today than we were.

國際上也是如此。雖然不存在單一的國際市場，但情況卻好壞參半。但關鍵市場，尤其是與我們最相關的歐洲市場，表現非常好。波蘭的表現再次令人難以置信。我們在那裡擁有非常非常強大的網路地位。義大利的節目製作取得了真正的進步。我們是該市場中成長最快的集團。這一切都流向了廣告。即使在那些歷史上表現稍差的市場，例如英國、北歐，這些數字現在看起來也比第四季穩定得多。再說一遍，今年已經過了 7 週。我不想做出任何預測，但我們今天的處境比以前好得多。

On the Max side, Jessica, in terms of international rollouts, I mean, David -- as David said in his remarks, one of the things that sort of misunderstood when people look at our subscriber numbers versus certainly our larger peers, is the point he made in his remarks, which is that we are currently available. Our TAM is less than half the size of those larger peers. So that means we have still 2x of the addressable market to go after, the other half of the addressable market to go after.

在Max方面，傑西卡，就國際推廣而言，我的意思是，大衛——正如大衛在他的演講中所說，當人們將我們的訂閱者數量與我們較大的同行相比時，人們會產生一些誤解，這就是重點他在演講中表示，這就是我們目前可以做到的。我們的 TAM 規模還不到那些較大同行的一半。因此，這意味著我們仍有 2 倍的目標市場需要追求，還有另一半的目標市場需要追求。

We are excited that in 2024, we're getting back to growth in new market rollouts, which is the first time in 2 years as we've been obviously hard at work retooling the platform and the technology and getting it right in the U.S. with LatAm launch next week. Europe starting in the second quarter, with 2 brand new markets in France and Belgium starting in the second quarter. Asia and Australasia will likely be more by '25. And then the rest of the European markets for now slated more for '26. So that's sort of how we see the rollout coming, and we think that's a huge tailwind for us for growth in subscriber growth and revenue growth over the next 24 months.

我們很高興到 2024 年，我們將在新市場推出中恢復成長，這是兩年來的第一次，因為我們顯然一直在努力重組平台和技術，並在美國取得成功。拉丁美洲將於下週推出。歐洲從第二季開始，法國和比利時兩個全新市場也從第二季開始。到 25 年，亞洲和澳洲的數量可能會更多。然後歐洲其他市場目前預計 26 年的價格會更高。這就是我們對即將推出的預期，我們認為這對我們未來 24 個月的用戶成長和收入成長來說是一個巨大的推動力。

And then, Jessica, on the third-party sales, I'll let David weigh in as well, of course. But we are doing exactly what we said we were going to do. There is no religion with regards to warehousing all of our content on Max or not doing business with competitors. We are one of the greatest makers of content in the world, and we serve our own platforms and we serve third-party platforms.

然後，傑西卡，關於第三方銷售，我當然也會讓大衛參與其中。但我們正在按照我們所說的去做。對於將我們的所有內容儲存在 Max 上或不與競爭對手開展業務沒有任何宗教信仰。我們是世界上最偉大的內容製造商之一，我們為自己的平台提供服務，也為第三方平台提供服務。

And the honest answer is, I can't give you a sort of high-level direction. We're looking at this case by case. And we've got a process in place. We have the best possible view now on what the strategic, the financial merits of exploitation of our own platforms, versus partial exploitation with third parties are. And we have healthy discussions. And what you will notice is we haven't sold anything since we closed the Warner Bros. Discovery merger. We have done some co-exclusive deals, and that makes a lot of sense. We've got all the data. We know exactly what we're giving up and we know exactly what we're winning.

誠實的答案是，我無法給你某種高層指導。我們正在逐案研究這個問題。我們已經制定了一個流程。現在，我們對利用我們自己的平台與部分利用第三方平台的策略和財務優勢有了盡可能最好的了解。我們進行了健康的討論。您會注意到，自從我們完成與華納兄弟探索公司的合併以來，我們還沒有出售過任何東西。我們已經完成了一些共同獨家交易，這很有意義。我們已經掌握了所有數據。我們清楚地知道我們正在放棄什麼，我們也清楚地知道我們正在贏得什麼。

Now at the same time, we are having tough discussions internally. We look at the data together and there are definitely certain red lines, and David made sure that we never cross them. But in other cases, we've gone with some deals that have garnered some press attention and that I'm very, very happy with because we're doing the right thing, we're providing oxygen to our content and we're optimizing returns here, not only for the company or our shareholders, but also for the talent that we're working with. We are doing the best we can to make those great stories and monetize them in the best possible way.

現在與此同時，我們內部正在進行艱難的討論。我們一起查看數據，肯定存在某些紅線，大衛確保我們永遠不會跨越它們。但在其他情況下，我們達成了一些吸引了媒體關注的交易，我對此非常非常滿意，因為我們正在做正確的事情，我們正在為我們的內容提供氧氣，並且我們正在優化在這裡，不僅為公司或我們的股東帶來回報，也為與我們合作的人才帶來回報。我們正在盡最大努力製作這些精彩的故事，並以盡可能最好的方式將它們貨幣化。

The point that Gunnar made, when we do sell content, we do it only co-exclusively so that we hold on to everything. There's nothing that we want that's on Max that we would sell and wouldn't be on Max anymore. I would put it in 2 categories. Channing is back in business quite aggressively, the Warner Bros. Television business. We have over 100 series, some of the best series on television, Shrinking, Abbott Elementary, Ted Lasso. We have some of the greatest talent on the TV side working with us. And so that's back up and we think we'll see a lot of opportunity there.

Gunnar 提出的觀點是，當我們出售內容時，我們只會以共同排他的方式進行，以便我們保留一切。 Max 上沒有任何我們想要出售但不再出現在 Max 上的東西。我會把它分成兩類。查寧相當積極地重返華納兄弟電視業務。我們有 100 多部劇集，其中一些是電視上最好的劇集，《Shrinking》、《Abbott Elementary》、《Ted Lasso》。我們擁有一些電視領域最優秀的人才與我們合作。所以這又回來了，我們認為我們會在那裡看到很多機會。

On our library, we're incredibly aggressive on the bottom end of it. There is a group of big branded programs that represent the core of who we are as a company. And we're -- those are going to stay with us. And you've seen some big named shows, but most of those have been around for a very long time. They've already been syndicated on other platforms, and we're able to reap a significant amount of dollars from them. And so that will be the balance. We probably have the biggest motion picture and TV library in the world, and our job is to really focus on how to monetize that with different windows.

在我們的庫中，我們對它的底端非常積極。有一組大品牌計劃代表了我們公司的核心。我們──那些將會留在我們身邊。你也看過一些大牌節目，但其中大多數已經存在很久了。它們已經在其他平台上聯合起來，我們能夠從它們中獲得大量美元。這就是平衡。我們可能擁有世界上最大的電影和電視庫，我們的工作是真正關注如何透過不同的窗口將其貨幣化。

Your next question comes from the line of Ben Swinburne from Morgan Stanley.

您的下一個問題來自摩根士丹利的 Ben Swinburne。

Maybe for JB, just to follow up on the direct-to-consumer Max strategy. You listed U.K., Italy, Germany. I know those are Sky licensing deals. I'm assuming Australia, Japan have a similar structure. So you guys -- have you guys made the decision to sort of move out of those relationships and go direct to consumer? Or maybe just talk about your thoughts, because you have had some nice deals in those markets in the past.

也許對 JB 來說，只是為了跟進直接面向消費者的 Max 策略。您列出了英國、義大利、德國。我知道這些是天空電視台的授權協議。我假設澳洲和日本也有類似的結構。所以你們——你們有沒有決定擺脫這些關係並直接面向消費者？或者也許只是談談您的想法，因為您過去在這些市場上有過一些不錯的交易。

And then for JB and maybe Gunnar, however you want to address it great news to hear on the NBA conversations. Clearly, that would be a big positive to retain those rights. How do you think about making that work financially for the company? It's not a big debate that linear TV is under pressure on the revenue side. And I think it's probably safe to say the NBA costs are going to go up. So how do you guys approach this from a kind of a P&L point of view when you think about exploiting the NBA for what I imagine will be another long-term deal?

然後對於 JB，也許還有 Gunnar，無論如何，你都想在 NBA 對話中聽到好消息。顯然，保留這些權利將是一個很大的正面因素。您如何看待使其在公司財務上發揮作用？線性電視在收入方面面臨壓力，這並不是一個大爭論。我認為可以肯定地說 NBA 的成本將會上漲。那麼，當你們考慮利用 NBA 來達成我認為的另一筆長期合約時，你們如何從損益的角度來看待這個問題呢？

Thanks, Ben. Look, the U.K., Germany and Italy, and I think we've said it before over the last year, are key markets for us. We have deals in those markets with Sky, which is a -- has been a -- over the years, a great partner to us in many ways, and will continue to be a great partner to us. But having our own direct-to-consumer product in those markets is a core strategic initiative of ours. And we're already in business aggressively in those markets. In the U.K., we have our direct-to-consumer Discovery+ product. And we're one of the leaders in sport in the U.K. where we have our partnership with TNT, which we just rebranded as TNT Sports, and that has millions and millions of subscribers. And that partnership is going very, very well.

謝謝，本。你看，英國、德國和義大利，我想我們去年已經說過，是我們的關鍵市場。我們在這些市場上與 Sky 達成了交易，多年來，Sky 在許多方面一直是我們的優秀合作夥伴，並將繼續成為我們的優秀合作夥伴。但在這些市場上擁有我們自己的直接面向消費者的產品是我們的核心策略舉措。我們已經在這些市場積極開展業務。在英國，我們有直接面向消費者的 Discovery+ 產品。我們是英國體育領域的領導者之一，我們與 TNT 建立了合作夥伴關係，我們剛剛將其更名為 TNT Sports，擁有數百萬訂閱者。這種夥伴關係進展得非常非常順利。

And so the idea of coming into that market with the wealth of content that we have and our content is -- we see how well our content works in the U.K., Germany and Italy. We could see the ratings of that content when it airs on Sky and the share that it gets in the aggregate. And so we think it's -- those will be real businesses for us and meaningful, and real opportunity to grow economics and grow subscribers. But that will be in -- beginning in '26.

因此，帶著我們擁有的豐富內容進入這個市場的想法是——我們看到我們的內容在英國、德國和義大利的效果如何。我們可以看到該內容在天空電視台播出時的收視率以及它所獲得的整體份額。所以我們認為，這些對我們來說將是真正的業務，也是有意義的，也是成長經濟和增加用戶的真正機會。但這將從 26 年開始。

And I'd just add, Ben, I think the thing that's in most -- in some ways, most exciting for the international rollout is that, as David mentioned in some of his prepared remarks, there are a number of distribution partners in all these markets that are very eager to find ways to help us get to market faster and scale faster. And doing it with a partner, in many cases, can drive a lot of efficiencies from a marketing standpoint and get us to scale very quickly.

我想補充一點，本，我認為在某種程度上，國際推廣最令人興奮的是，正如大衛在他準備好的一些發言中提到的那樣，總共有很多分銷合作夥伴這些市場非常渴望找到方法來幫助我們更快進入市場並更快地擴大規模。在許多情況下，與合作夥伴合作可以從行銷的角度提高效率，並讓我們快速擴大規模。

So those are also great and very good conversations, and ultimately, economically, I think will be very interesting for us as we transition from more licensed model to a DTC model. Now there are markets like, for instance, India, where we did a very attractive deal with Reliance. There are markets where we look and we say that, for the near term, even in that case, we did not do a long-term deal, we get a chance to see how all of our content does. And if we think that we can be more profitable and build asset value in a market, we will go in markets where we don't and the economics are very compelling to sit out for a period of time. We'll do that, like we did in India. But Europe is core to us, and Latin America. So you're seeing us really speak to that with these launches, and you'll see it over the next 18 months.

因此，這些也是很棒、非常好的對話，最終，從經濟角度來看，我認為隨著我們從更多授權模式過渡到 DTC 模式，這對我們來說將會非常有趣。現在有一些市場，例如印度，我們與 Reliance 達成了一項非常有吸引力的交易。我們著眼於某些市場，我們說，就短期而言，即使在這種情況下，我們也沒有達成長期協議，我們有機會看看我們所有內容的表現。如果我們認為我們可以在市場上獲得更多利潤並建立資產價值，我們就會進入那些我們無法實現的市場，而且經濟狀況非常令人信服，需要靜觀一段時間。我們會這樣做，就像我們在印度所做的那樣。但歐洲是我們的核心，拉丁美洲也是。因此，您會看到我們透過這些發布真正討論了這一點，並且您將在接下來的 18 個月內看到它。

And then, Ben, on the NBA, as you know, we're in the middle of exclusive discussions here. So I want to lift it up maybe one level to a general statement on how we look at sports rights. We're spending close to $20 billion sort of on content and programming in the broadest sense. And every dollar we spend plays a different role across the portfolio. We generally like to own our content. That's not the case with sports. But we obviously acknowledge the enormous value -- reach value, emotional value of these deals. And we have been able to strike profitable deals and we're always going to be disciplined.

然後，Ben，關於 NBA，如你所知，我們正在這裡進行獨家討論。因此，我想將其提升到一個層次，以概括性地闡述我們如何看待體育權利。從最廣泛的意義上來說，我們在內容和節目上花費了近 200 億美元。我們花費的每一美元在投資組合中都扮演著不同的角色。我們通常喜歡擁有自己的內容。體育運動則不然。但我們顯然承認這些交易的巨大價值——達成價值、情感價值。我們已經能夠達成有利可圖的交易，並且我們始終遵守紀律。

It's very easy to lose control over Sports rights investments. That's not what we do. We're going -- we know exactly what value we assign and we stay disciplined during our discussions. And if you take that into account, I think we have enormous opportunity to be much more efficient with our content spend overall across the entire company, and that will include certain areas in which, you're right, you probably have to assume that there is inflation going forward. On the NBA specifically, we've had a very, very strong partnership for 40 years, and I certainly hope that we're going to be able to continue that in the most positive way.

失去對體育版權投資的控制是很容易的。那不是我們做的。我們確切地知道我們賦予什麼價值，並且在討論過程中保持紀律。如果你考慮到這一點，我認為我們有巨大的機會來提高整個公司整體內容支出的效率，這將包括某些領域，你是對的，你可能必須假設有通貨膨脹是否會繼續。特別是在 NBA 領域，40 年來我們一直保持著非常非常牢固的合作關係，我當然希望我們能夠以最積極的方式繼續這種合作。

Your final question comes from the line of Robert Fishman from MoffettNathanson.

你的最後一個問題來自 MoffettNathanson 的 Robert Fishman。

Two for you guys quickly, if I can. David, you've been vocal about the idea of rebundling. Do you think it's inevitable that the digital streaming ecosystem will end up looking a lot like the old MVPD world? And maybe if you can talk about the benefit of bundling Max with other streaming services, like Netflix through Verizon? And then for JB or Gunnar, can you talk about the future of Bleacher Report, Sports Add-on product, given the sports JV announcement? Anything you can share in terms of the engagement with Sports on Max to date with the free option.

如果可以的話，很快就給你們兩個。大衛，你一直直言不諱地表達了重新捆綁的想法。您認為數位串流生態系統最終會不可避免地變得很像舊的 MVPD 世界嗎？也許您能談談將 Max 與其他串流媒體服務（例如透過 Verizon 提供的 Netflix）捆綁在一起的好處嗎？然後，對於 JB 或 Gunnar，鑑於體育合資企業的公告，您能否談談體育附加產品 Bleacher Report 的未來？您可以透過免費選項分享迄今為止與 Sports on Max 的互動方面的任何內容。

Thanks, Robert. Look, I think everything is driven by the consumer experience. And the consumer experience right now is -- it's cluttered, it's awkward, it's somewhat confusing. People have learned how to deal with it. You Google what show, where show is and where a sport is. But rebundling just makes an awful lot of sense. And this idea, I think we've transitioned out of the idea of subs at any cost. We've done that by getting Max profitable and really focusing on getting real subs, with real economics and growing that like a real business.

謝謝，羅伯特。看，我認為一切都是由消費者體驗驅動的。現在的消費者體驗是──混亂、尷尬、有點令人困惑。人們已經學會如何處理它。你用谷歌搜尋什麼節目、節目在哪裡以及運動在哪裡。但重新捆綁是非常有意義的。我認為我們已經擺脫了不惜任何代價使用替補的想法。我們透過讓 Max 獲利並真正專注於獲得真正的潛水艇、具有真正的經濟效益並像真正的業務一樣發展來做到這一點。

But the ability for a consumer to go to one place. The Verizon example is a good example, and Netflix is a great product. You put it together with Max and you can get those together, provide a very meaningful experience for people and it makes it a lot easier to traverse across our universe and theirs. In the longer term, I expect there will be meaningful bundling. It's going to happen in 1 or 2 ways. It will either be a bundling by an intermediary, a platform company like an Apple or an Amazon or a Roku, or what's going on with Charter and Comcast, which is very compelling and I think very helpful to all of us in the content business. That these channel stores morph into places that have just provide a simpler and easier and less anxious experience for people to find the content that they want and have it be simple and fluid.

但消費者有能力去一個地方。 Verizon 的例子就是一個很好的例子，Netflix 就是一個很棒的產品。你將它與 Max 結合在一起，你可以將它們組合在一起，為人們提供非常有意義的體驗，這使得穿越我們和他們的宇宙變得更加容易。從長遠來看，我預計將會出現有意義的捆綁銷售。它會以 1 或 2 種方式發生。它要么是由中介機構、蘋果、亞馬遜或 Roku 等平台公司進行的捆綁，要么是與 Charter 和 Comcast 發生的事情，這非常引人注目，我認為對我們內容行業的所有人都非常有幫助。這些通路商店演變成為人們提供更簡單、更輕鬆、更輕鬆的體驗的地方，讓他們可以找到他們想要的內容，並且內容簡單、流暢。

Or we could do it ourselves. And I've always advocated that we should do it ourselves. And so we're looking to do that domestically. We're looking to do it outside the U.S. In some ways, the sports venture is that very -- is trying to meet that very need. That when you put our product together with Lachlan and Fox's product, together with the ESPN product, it just has a much better, more fluid, more simple consumer experience. It's not which channel is it on, it's not where do I go, how do I go, do I have it, don't I have it. It's in one place. And I think more and more will be gravitating toward that.

或者我們可以自己做。我一直主張我們應該自己做。所以我們希望在國內做到這一點。我們希望在美國以外的地方做到這一點。從某些方面來說，體育企業正在努力滿足這項需求。當你把我們的產品與 Lachlan 和 Fox 的產品以及 ESPN 產品放在一起時，它會帶來更好、更流暢、更簡單的消費者體驗。不在於它在哪個頻道，不在於我去哪裡，我怎麼去，我有沒有。它在一個地方。我認為越來越多的人會傾向於這一點。

And I think, Robert, on the VR sports part of the question, it really -- it dovetails exactly with what David just said, which is we look at the overall the sports venture, this new sports venture and the ability for the partners to bundle with their existing streaming services, and with our case with Max, is great for the consumer, makes it much more simplified. And as it relates to what does that mean for the existing VR sports that are on Max, look, we'll have more to share with that over the coming months as the -- we get closer to launch the venture.

我認為，羅伯特，關於問題的 VR 體育部分，它確實與大衛剛才所說的完全吻合，即我們著眼於整個體育事業，這個新的體育事業以及合作夥伴的能力與他們現有的流媒體服務捆綁在一起，以及我們與Max 的案例，對消費者來說非常好，使其變得更加簡單。這對 Max 上現有的 VR 運動意味著什麼，看看，隨著我們距離啟動該專案越來越近，我們將在未來幾個月內分享更多內容。

But obviously, it's incredibly compelling to be able to say that we'll be able to take the incredible entertainment offering that will be on the -- that is on Max, along with the great aggregated, simpler, more compelling consumer offering of the joint venture to put those 2 together and offer them in a compelling fashion to the subscribers.

但顯然，能夠說我們將能夠獲得 Max 上令人難以置信的娛樂產品，以及聯合提供的聚合的、更簡單的、更引人注目的消費者產品，這是非常令人信服的。冒險將這兩者放在一起，並以一種引人注目的方式向訂閱者提供它們。

And just as a note, obviously, in the meantime, we're continuing to lean in on the Bleacher Report sports offering, and we're incredibly excited over the next few months to bring all of our March Madness, including building up to the Final 4 on Max for the first time here over the next 45 days, and then leading into the NBA playoffs and a little bit later in the spring.

順便說一句，顯然，與此同時，我們將繼續依靠 Bleacher Report 體育賽事，我們非常興奮在接下來的幾個月裡將我們所有的瘋狂三月，包括為在接下來的45 天內，Max 首次進入總決賽4 強，然後進入NBA 季後賽，並在春季晚些時候進行。

Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's conference call. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.

女士們、先生們，今天的電話會議到此結束。感謝您的參與。您現在可以斷開連線。