華納兄弟探索 (WBD) 2024 Q2 法說會逐字稿

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Warner Bros. Discovery's second-quarter 2024 earnings conference call. (Operator Instructions) Additionally, please be advised that today's conference call is being recorded. I would now like to hand the call over to Mr. Andrew Slabin, Executive Vice President, Global Investor Strategy. Sir, you may now begin.

女士們、先生們，歡迎參加華納兄弟探索頻道 2024 年第二季財報電話會議。 （操作員說明）此外，請注意，今天的電話會議正在錄音。我現在想將電話轉交給全球投資者策略執行副總裁安德魯‧斯萊賓 (Andrew Slabin) 先生。先生，您現在可以開始了。

Good afternoon, and thank you for joining us for Warner Bros. Discovery's Q2 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. Today's presentation will include forward-looking statements that we made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The 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.

下午好，感謝您參加我們華納兄弟探索頻道的第二季財報電話會議。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。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。導致實際結果與我們的預期有重大差異的不確定性。

For additional information on factors that could affect these expectations, please see the company's filings with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, including, but not limited to, the company's most recent annual report on Form 10-K and its reports on Form 10-Q and Form 8-K. In addition, we will discuss non-GAAP financial measures on this call. Reconciliation of these non-GAAP financial measures to the closest GAAP financial measure can be found in our earnings release and in our trending schedules, which can be found in the Investor Relations section of our website. And with that, I'd like to turn the call over to David.

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 表年度報告及其 10-Q 表報告和表格8- K。此外，我們也將在本次電話會議上討論非公認會計準則財務指標。這些非公認會計原則財務指標與最接近的公認會計原則財務指標的調節可以在我們的收益發布和趨勢表中找到，這些可以在我們網站的投資者關係部分找到。說到這裡，我想把電話轉給大衛。

Hello, everyone, and thank you for joining us. This has been a busy, productive quarter, albeit against the backdrop of what continues to be tough market conditions. Two-plus years after launching our company, we are still in the midst of a long-term transition marked by many notable progress points as well as some tough challenges. Our direct-to-consumer business is doing very, very well, and we see a tremendous amount of upside. At the same time, there were tough conditions in the legacy business.

大家好，感謝您加入我們。儘管市場條件依然嚴峻，但這是一個忙碌而富有成效的季度。公司成立兩年多後，我們仍處於長期轉型期，有許多顯著的進步，也面臨一些嚴峻的挑戰。我們的直接面向消費者的業務做得非常非常好，我們看到了巨大的上升空間。同時，傳統業務也面臨嚴峻的情況。

With that as a frame, let me walk you through some of the highlights. On the direct-to-consumer side, at the home of the Olympics in Europe, Max and Discovery+ are the only place to watch virtually every minute of the Olympic Games, and it's really worked for us. It's been a multi-platform experience spanning linear, digital, social and streaming with more than 141 million people engaged across our channels and platforms. We purposely timed the launch of Max in Europe to capitalize on the attention around the Olympics.

以此為框架，讓我帶您了解一些亮點。在直接面向消費者方面，在歐洲奧運的舉辦地，Max 和 Discovery+ 是唯一可以觀看奧運幾乎每一分鐘的地方，這對我們來說確實很有效。這是一種跨越線性、數位、社交和串流媒體的多平台體驗，超過 1.41 億人透過我們的管道和平台參與其中。我們特意安排 Max 在歐洲推出，以利用奧運引起的關注。

It was a heavy lift and it paid off. We broadcast the games on Max and Discovery+ on linear TV and online through our Eurosport channels to 47 markets in 20 different languages, a challenging endeavor by any measure and yet the team at our broadcast center in the heart of Paris has made it look easy. More importantly, the response from consumers since the start of the games has exceeded our highest expectations, both in terms of subscriber growth and viewership. The success of the Olympics and our whole offering reflects an incredible amount of work over the last two years, fighting to make our content available outside the US. And now we are finally there in Latin America and in Europe.

這是一項艱鉅的任務，但它得到了回報。我們透過Max 和Discovery+ 在線性電視上以及透過Eurosport 頻道在線以20 種不同的語言向47 個市場轉播比賽，無論以何種標準衡量，這都是一項具有挑戰性的工作，但我們位於巴黎市中心的轉播中心的團隊卻讓這一切看起來很容易。更重要的是，自比賽開始以來消費者的反應無論是在訂戶成長還是收視率方面都超出了我們的最高預期。奧運會和我們整個產品的成功反映了過去兩年中令人難以置信的大量工作，努力使我們的內容在美國以外的地區可用。現在我們終於到達了拉丁美洲和歐洲。

We are now a global streaming service and one of the strongest international media companies in the world. It's an important and strategic advantage. With films, series, local content, local sports and the very best original entertainment in markets around the world, which is an absolute requisite for a successful direct-to-consumer business. I am convinced that to be successful, you have to be global.

我們現在是一家全球串流媒體服務公司，也是世界上最強大的國際媒體公司之一。這是一個重要的戰略優勢。電影、電視劇、本地內容、本地體育賽事以及全球市場上最好的原創娛樂，這是成功的直接面向消費者業務的絕對必要條件。我堅信，要成功，就必須全球化。

It's a core belief I had at Discovery, and our global attack plan at Discovery was what fueled the majority of our shareholder value creation there. And now after 18 months of rebuilding our product and platform at Max, refocusing our proposition and brand, restructuring our cost and reloading our content arsenal, we're beginning to really scale and grow the service worldwide, and momentum is building. We are only just beginning to unlock the global value opportunity that exists. We added 2 million subscribers sequentially in the first quarter and more than 3.6 million subscribers in the second quarter.

這是我在 Discovery 的核心信念，我們在 Discovery 的全球進攻計畫推動了我們大部分股東價值的創造。現在，經過18 個月的時間，Max 重建了我們的產品和平台，重新調整了我們的主張和品牌，調整了我們的成本並重新加載了我們的內容庫，我們開始真正在全球範圍內擴展和發展服務，並且勢頭正在增強。我們才剛開始釋放現有的全球價值機會。第一季我們連續增加了 200 萬訂戶，第二季增加了超過 360 萬訂戶。

And it's worth noting that we began launching in Europe in the middle of the quarter with only two weeks of House of the Dragon and before the Olympics had even kicked off. And we'll see even greater subscriber growth this quarter. Meanwhile, we've scaled the platform while driving increased revenue. We have lots of runway still ahead and real momentum.

值得注意的是，我們在本季中期開始在歐洲推出，當時《龍之屋》只有兩週，甚至在奧運開始之前。本季我們將看到更大的用戶成長。同時，我們在增加收入的同時擴展了平台。我們還有很長的路要走，還有真正的動力。

Our big advantage is our channels, infrastructure and local teams in almost every market that can now all row together to promote our SVOD service. Max is finally in 65 international markets and yet still not present in almost half the global addressable markets, including sizable streaming markets where our content and franchises have significant fan bases like Australia, Japan, the UK, Germany and Italy. We intend to continue our drumbeat of new market launches over the next 18 to 24 months. At the same time, we've been very active in reimagining our existing partnerships with international distributors of our linear channels, to encourage them to support the distribution of Max in ways that are a true win-win for both parties.

我們的一大優勢是我們幾乎每個市場的通路、基礎設施和本地團隊現在可以齊心協力推廣我們的 SVOD 服務。 Max 最終進入了 65 個國際市場，但仍然沒有進入全球近一半的潛在市場，包括澳大利亞、日本、英國、德國和義大利等我們的內容和特許經營權擁有大量粉絲基礎的大型串流媒體市場。我們打算在未來 18 至 24 個月內繼續大力推出新市場。同時，我們一直非常積極地重新構想與線性通路國際分銷商的現有合作夥伴關係，鼓勵他們以雙方真正雙贏的方式支持 Max 的分銷。

These partnerships help get Max on the devices of more consumers, faster and at a fraction of the acquisition cost. We've done more than 150 of these deals to date in Europe and in Latin America, and you'll begin to see them really pay off, and we have more to come. We've also been big proponents of bundling, given the benefits it can provide on lowering the cost of entry for consumers, reducing churn and having an overall more positive consumer experience. And we continue to lead in this space with key players around the world, including a new bundle launched last month with Claro, the biggest cable distributor in Brazil.

這些合作夥伴關係有助於讓 Max 更快進入更多消費者的設備，並且成本僅為採購成本的一小部分。到目前為止，我們已經在歐洲和拉丁美洲完成了 150 多項此類交易，您將開始看到它們真正得到回報，而且我們將有更多交易。我們也一直是捆綁銷售的大力支持者，因為它可以帶來降低消費者進入成本、減少客戶流失以及整體上更積極的消費者體驗等好處。我們繼續與世界各地的主要參與者一起在這一領域處於領先地位，包括上個月與巴西最大的有線電視經銷商 Claro 推出的新捆綁包。

The bundle offers Max, Netflix and Global Play, the largest local streamer in the market and Claro TV+. Here in the US two weeks ago, we launched the ultimate bundle in the Disney+, Hulu, Max package. We've been extremely pleased with the response from consumers and look forward to tracking and updating you on what we believe is a compelling consumer experience that will provide an even stronger retention profile. And in the fall, we'll roll out venue sports with ESPN and FOX.

該捆綁包提供 Max、Netflix 和 Global Play（市場上最大的本地串流媒體）以及 Claro TV+。兩週前，我們在美國推出了 Disney+、Hulu、Max 套餐的終極套裝。我們對消費者的反應非常滿意，並期待追蹤並向您更新我們認為令人信服的消費者體驗，這將提供更強大的保留概況。秋季，我們將與 ESPN 和 FOX 合作推出場地體育賽事。

Of course, the most important driver of our direct-to-consumer growth is great content. And we have one of our strongest lineups over the next two-plus years to support our global expansion. Among the many highlights from the quarter, season two of the hit series, House of the Dragon, and the Hard Knocks franchise, featuring the Giants, which have both done incredibly well. Looking ahead, we're excited for the highly anticipated HBO series, The Penguin, written and directed by Matt Reeves, premiering in September.

當然，我們直接面向消費者成長的最重要驅動力是優質的內容。我們擁有未來兩年多最強大的陣容之一來支持我們的全球擴張。在本季的眾多亮點中，熱門影集《House of the Dragon》第二季以及以巨人隊為主角的《Hard Knocks》系列都表現出色。展望未來，我們對備受期待的 HBO 系列《企鵝》感到興奮，該劇由馬特里夫斯編劇和導演，將於 9 月首播。

The new Doom series coming in November. Blockbuster international titles like the new series, City of God: The Fight Rages On, premiering later this month, along with new seasons of hit shows, The White Lotus, and The Last of Us coming next year, just to name a few. Bottom line, the increased momentum we're enjoying underpins our outlook for positive EBITDA in the second half of the year, which will set us up well to deliver on our goal of achieving over $1 billion in EBITDA in 2025. Our direct-to-consumer business has also been a meaningful driver for advertising.

新《毀滅戰士》系列將於 11 月推出。國際大片，例如將於本月稍後首播的新劇集《上帝之城：激戰》，以及將於明年推出的新季熱播劇《白蓮花》和《最後生還者》，僅舉幾例。最重要的是，我們所享受的成長勢頭支撐了我們下半年實現正 EBITDA 的前景，這將使我們能夠很好地實現 2025 年實現 10 億美元以上 EBITDA 的目標。力。

In fact, ad sales had its biggest streaming quarter ever in Q2, in part driven by greater engagement, increased ad-lite subscribers and early international traction. This contributed to a notable sequential reduction in total company advertising declines to 3% from 7% in Q1. While trends across our advertising business continue to reflect the bifurcation in the broader ad market, we remain encouraged by the healthy momentum and growing scale we see in streaming. Turning to the upfront, we performed well relative to the industry.

事實上，廣告銷售在第二季度創下了有史以來最大的串流季度業績，部分原因是參與度的提高、低廣告訂閱者的增加以及早期的國際吸引力。這導致公司廣告總量下降幅度從第一季的 7% 大幅下降至 3%。雖然我們廣告業務的趨勢繼續反映了更廣泛的廣告市場的分歧，但我們仍然對串流媒體領域的健康勢頭和不斷增長的規模感到鼓舞。談到前期，我們相對於業界表現良好。

Max volume grew by almost 50% as clients continue to see great value in our upscale and younger skewing audience. As well as in sponsorship opportunities in award-winning content like Season 3 of the hit series, The White Lotus. And in linear, we did especially well in sports, with strong pricing and double-digit volume growth, led by increased demand for our coverage of March Madness, Major League Baseball, NBA, the NHL, including the Stanley Cup Finals and new properties like NASCAR and The French Open. Shifting focus to our studio business, we are still in the midst of what we have said will be a multiyear turnaround.

隨著客戶繼續看到我們的高端和年輕受眾群體的巨大價值，最大成交量增加了近 50%。以及獲獎內容的贊助機會，例如熱門影集《白蓮花》第三季。在線性方面，我們在體育領域表現尤其出色，定價強勁，銷量增長兩位數，這主要是由於對我們的瘋狂三月、美國職棒大聯盟、NBA、NHL（包括史丹利杯總決賽）和新媒體等報導的需求增加。將重點轉向我們的工作室業務，我們仍然處於我們所說的多年周轉之中。

There's been a great response to Twisters, which were 50% partners with Universal Pictures and Amblin. The film has become a nearly $275 million box office hit and one of the year's top 10 highest grossing films worldwide. And we're excited for what's ahead with Beetlejuice two coming in September, and Joker, Folie Du starring Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga premiering in early October. There's also a lot of great stuff coming from DC Studios across live action and animated film, television, games and experiences.

Twisters 得到了熱烈的反響，該公司與環球影業和 Amblin 擁有 50% 的合作夥伴關係。該片已成為票房近 2.75 億美元的熱門影片，並成為年度全球票房最高的 10 部影片之一。我們對即將在 9 月上映的《甲蟲汁 2》以及由華金·菲尼克斯和 Lady Gaga 主演的《小丑、佛利杜》將於 10 月初首映感到興奮。 DC 工作室還推出了許多精彩的作品，涉及真人電影、動畫電影、電視、遊戲和體驗。

James and Peter are fully focused on delivering on their 10-year plan for DC. If you just look at the next six months, the new adult animated series, Kite Man, premiered on Max in July and is doing very well. The incredibly moving documentary, Superman, the Chris Reeve Story will have a brief run in theaters in September before coming to Max. As I mentioned, the live action series, The Penguin, premiers in September, followed by The Joker in October.

詹姆斯和彼得完全專注於實現他們的華盛頓十年計劃。如果你只看接下來的六個月，新的成人動畫系列《風箏人》於 7 月在 Max 上首映，表現非常好。令人難以置信的感人紀錄片《超人，克里斯·里夫的故事》將於 9 月在影院進行短暫放映，然後在《麥克斯》上映。正如我所提到的，真人影集《企鵝》將於 9 月首映，隨後《小丑》將於 10 月首播。

Then Creature Commandos, an original animated series from the mind of James Gun kicks off in December. And beyond that, James and crew just wrapped on Superman, which is set for release in theaters on July 11. We can't wait to show this amazing film to a whole new generation of moviegoers. On the Warner Bros. TV side, Channing and her team are currently producing close to 90 live action scripted, unscripted and animated series for nearly 20 different platforms.

然後，詹姆斯岡 (James Gun) 創作的原創動畫系列《生物突擊隊》將於 12 月上映。除此之外，詹姆斯和劇組人員剛完成了《超人》的拍攝，該片將於 7 月 11 日在影院上映。在華納兄弟電視方面，查寧和她的團隊目前正在為近 20 個不同的平台製作近 90 部真人劇本、無劇本和動畫影集。

In fact, Warner Bros. Television Group is the only studio which shows on every major platform industry-wide, including Presumed Innocent on Apple TV+, which is now the number one drama series in the history of the platform. This is one of our superpowers. We are the most prolific producer of content for ourselves as well as third parties. As I've said many times, I believe the best content wins, and we've been working hard over the last few years to bolster our storytelling capability even further. We have the best talent, the best assets, and we're confident this gives us a strong, maybe even the strongest seat at the table.

事實上，華納兄弟電視集團是唯一一家在全行業各大平台上播出的工作室，其中包括 Apple TV+ 上的《假定無辜》，該劇現已成為該平台歷史上排名第一的劇集。這是我們的超能力之一。我們是最多產的內容生產者，為我們自己以及第三方提供內容。正如我多次說過的，我相信最好的內容會獲勝，過去幾年我們一直在努力進一步增強我們講故事的能力。我們擁有最好的人才、最好的資產，我們相信這使我們在談判桌上擁有強大的、甚至可能是最強的席位。

Pivoting to sports, we're pleased with the growth and activity we're seeing across the business, both in the US and abroad. I mentioned the Olympic Games, which has been a huge driver of growth for us internationally. We also saw strong momentum leading into the Olympics, with a record-breaking Roland-Garros across all platforms and our best ever streaming performance for Tour de France. We also have a strong sports presence in Latin America, where we achieved record levels of engagement for Max during the knockout stages and finals of UEFA Champions League.

以體育為重點，我們對美國和海外業務的成長和活動感到滿意。我提到了奧運會，它是我們國際成長的巨大推動力。我們也看到了進入奧運的強勁勢頭，法網在所有平台上都打破了紀錄，環法自行車賽也創下了有史以來最好的串流媒體表現。我們在拉丁美洲也擁有強大的體育影響力，在歐洲冠軍聯賽的淘汰賽階段和決賽中，我們為馬克斯創造了創紀錄的參與度。

Also of note, we rebranded BT and Eurosport to TNT Sports, which is a leading at scale and growing sports platform in the UK. The strength and growth of TNT Sports will be helpful as we launch Max in the UK in early 2026. In the US, we had a big second quarter with especially strong performances by the NCAAs Men's March Madness National Championship on TBS and the NHL Stanley Cup playoffs on TNT. As a part of the growth plan we put in place at TNT Sports, we continue to build our strong portfolio of sports rights.

另外值得注意的是，我們將 BT 和 Eurosport 更名為 TNT Sports，這是英國規模領先且不斷發展的運動平台。 TNT Sports 的實力和發展將為我們於 2026 年初在英國推出 Max 提供幫助。的季後賽。作為我們在 TNT Sports 實施的成長計畫的一部分，我們將繼續打造強大的體育版權組合。

In just the last 12 months, we added NASCAR, Roland-Garros Tennis, Big East Men's and Women's basketball, Mountain West Football as well as College Football Playoff games, all multiyear partnerships. These new rights will add scale and breadth to our existing best-in-class portfolio of Major League Baseball, NBA, NHL, US men's and women's soccer, all spread across TBS, TNT, truTV, Max, House of Highlights and Bleacher Report. And as a result of all this additional quality live sports, we are now also converting truTV to TNT Sports and Prime in October. And all of this will help support the upcoming launch of venue sports.

在過去的 12 個月裡，我們增加了 NASCAR、法國網球公開賽、Big East 男子和女子籃球、西部山區橄欖球以及大學橄欖球季後賽，所有這些都是多年合作夥伴關係。這些新轉播權將為我們現有的美國職棒大聯盟、NBA、NHL、美國男子和女子足球等一流的產品組合擴大規模和廣度，所有這些產品均分佈在TBS、TNT、truTV、Max、House of Highlights 和Bleacher Report 上。由於所有這些額外的高品質體育直播，我們現在也將在 10 月將 truTV 轉換為 TNT Sports 和 Prime。所有這些都將有助於支持即將推出的場地運動。

When the service rolls out in the fall, fans will have access to an extensive offering of live games and event coverage of all the major professional sports leagues and top college conferences and popular studio shows and shoulder programming. And as we announced last week, the service will be available at a compelling price point that we're confident will appeal to the cord cutter and cord never fans, not currently served by existing pay-TV packages. Needless to say, we're excited for the future of our sports business and the tremendous value we provide to fans and our partners. I want to make one final point, as you saw, this quarter, we recorded a noncash impairment of the goodwill attributed to our linear networks.

當該服務於秋季推出時，球迷將可以觀看所有主要職業運動聯盟和頂級大學會議的大量現場比賽和賽事報告以及流行的演播室節目和肩部節目。正如我們上周宣布的那樣，該服務將以極具吸引力的價格提供，我們相信這將吸引那些剪線族和不喜歡剪線的人，而目前現有的付費電視套餐還沒有提供這種服務。不用說，我們對體育業務的未來以及我們為球迷和合作夥伴提供的巨大價值感到興奮。我想最後指出一點，正如您所看到的，本季度，我們記錄了歸因於我們線性網路的商譽的非現金減損。

It's fair to say that even two years ago, market valuations and prevailing conditions for legacy media companies were quite different than they are today. And this impairment acknowledges this and better aligns our carrying values with our future outlook. Gunnar will have more to say on this in a moment. We recognized early on this was a generational disruption impacting our industry, requiring us to take bold necessary steps and to pursue opportunities we see across the media landscape to best position Warner Bros. Discovery for the future.

可以公平地說，即使在兩年前，傳統媒體公司的市場估值和普遍狀況與今天有很大不同。這種減損承認了這一點，並使我們的帳面價值與我們的未來前景更好地保持一致。 Gunnar 稍後將對此發表更多言論。我們很早就認識到，這是影響我們行業的一代人的顛覆，要求我們採取大膽的必要步驟，並在整個媒體領域尋求機會，為華納兄弟探索頻道的未來提供最佳定位。

We are uniquely advantaged with globally scaled businesses and a capital structure that allow us to make these moves in a thoughtful and strategic way. We have finally launched Max globally and are pursuing bundling opportunities domestically and internationally, all to serve customers around the world with our unparalleled storytelling and content. We are positioned to grow, and while there's still lots to do, we are more confident than ever in our global strategy. Local content, local sports, best-in-class library and quality branded storytelling, a unique recipe few can do. And with that, I'll turn it over to Gunnar.

我們擁有獨特的優勢，擁有全球規模的業務和資本結構，使我們能夠以深思熟慮和策略性的方式採取這些舉措。我們最終在全球推出了 Max，並正在國內和國際上尋求捆綁機會，所有這些都是為了透過我們無與倫比的故事講述和內容為世界各地的客戶提供服務。我們已經做好了成長的準備，儘管還有很多工作要做，但我們對我們的全球策略比以往任何時候都更有信心。本地內容、本地運動、一流的圖書館和優質的品牌故事敘述，這是很少人能做到的獨特秘訣。有了這個，我會把它交給 Gunnar。

Thank you, David, and good afternoon, everyone. I'd like to focus my remarks on a few key topics before I briefly run through the quarter. First, I want to highlight the progress we're making on paying down our debt balance. During the second quarter, we successfully executed a tender for $3.4 billion of debt, utilizing $2.6 billion of cash, capturing $800 million in value from the embedded discount.

謝謝大衛，大家下午好。在簡要介紹本季度之前，我想重點討論幾個關鍵主題。首先，我想強調我們在償還債務餘額方面所取得的進展。第二季度，我們成功執行了 34 億美元債務招標，動用了 26 億美元現金，從嵌入折扣中獲得了 8 億美元價值。

We funded this debt purchase with free cash flow and an upsized Eurobond offering of EUR1.5 billion. We ended the quarter with $37.8 billion of net debt or around 4 times net leverage. The primary use of our free cash flow will continue to be debt pay down. We will maintain a balanced and flexible posture and weighing the benefits of purchasing debt that may be trading at a deeper discount versus the $3.8 billion that we have maturing through the end of 2025, including $800 million through the end of this year.

我們透過自由現金流和 15 億歐元的大規模歐洲債券發行為這筆債務購買提供了資金。本季結束時，我們的淨債務為 378 億美元，約為淨槓桿率的 4 倍。我們自由現金流的主要用途將繼續用於償還債務。我們將保持平衡和靈活的姿態，並權衡購買債務的好處，這些債務的交易價格可能比我們到 2025 年底到期的 38 億美元（包括今年年底的 8 億美元）有更大的折扣。

With a weighted average maturity of nearly 14 years, and an average cost of 4.6%, and with our strong free cash flows, significantly greater than our maturities in any given year for the foreseeable future, we have an advantageous capital structure to support our transformation and the growth opportunities ahead. I can't stress this point enough. Importantly, we have not wavered in our commitment to achieving our 2.5 times to 3 times gross leverage target, though admittedly on a longer time frame than initially anticipated. I am also firmly committed to maintaining our investment-grade rating.

加權平均期限近 14 年，平均成本為 4.6%，加上我們強勁的自由現金流，遠高於可預見的未來任何特定年份的期限，我們擁有有利的資本結構來支持我們的轉型以及未來的成長機會。我怎麼強調這一點都不為過。重要的是，我們並沒有動搖實現 2.5 倍至 3 倍總槓桿率目標的承諾，儘管無可否認，時間框架比最初預期的要長。我還堅定致力於維持我們的投資等級。

Second, I'd like to build on David's comments regarding the impairment charge for the Network segment. To take a step back first, Warner Bros. Discovery's balance sheet carries significant amounts of goodwill created over a series of past M&A transactions, including the formation of WBD in 2022. And of course, we regularly monitor the value and use of our assets. In the second quarter, a number of triggering events, including the difference between our current market cap and the book value of the company, the continued softness in the US ad market and uncertainty related to affiliate and sports rights renewals required us to adjust our planning assumptions and take a $9 billion noncash impairment charge against the carrying values in the Networks segment.

其次，我想以大衛關於網路部門減損費用的評論為基礎。首先退後一步來說，華納兄弟探索公司的資產負債表包含了過去一系列併購交易（包括 2022 年 WBD 的成立）所創造的大量商譽。第二季度，一系列觸發事件，包括我們當前市值與公司賬面價值之間的差異、美國廣告市場的持續疲軟以及與聯盟和體育版權續訂相關的不確定性，要求我們調整計劃假設並根據網絡部門的帳面價值提列90 億美元的非現金減損費用。

While I am certainly not dismissive of the magnitude of this impairment, I believe it's equally important to recognize that the flip side of this reflects the value shift across business models and our conviction and confidence in the growth and value opportunity across studios and our global direct-to-consumer business have never been stronger. Third, and to that point, I am very pleased with the progress we continue to make, taking Max around the globe, most recently with the successful rollout across Latin America and Europe. We have seen great momentum over the past quarter and even more so into the current, with the Olympics serving as a fantastic launching pad. We have talked about the substantial investments we've made, the heavy lift and the multiyear journey we're on, and it finally feels like we're beginning to see the fruits of that labor, both operationally and financially.

雖然我當然不會忽視這種損害的嚴重程度，但我認為同樣重要的是要認識到這一點的另一面反映了商業模式的價值轉變以及我們對工作室和全球直接增長和價值機會的信念和信心。第三，就這一點而言，我對我們不斷取得的進展感到非常高興，帶著 Max 環遊全球，最近在拉丁美洲和歐洲成功推出。我們在過去一個季度看到了巨大的勢頭，尤其是當前，奧運會成為了一個絕佳的跳板。我們已經討論了我們所做的大量投資、艱鉅的任務和我們正在進行的多年旅程，最終感覺我們開始看到這些勞動的成果，無論是在營運上還是在財務上。

And as David pointed out, with our strong content, both global and local, our global sports, our beloved brands, a state-of-the-art and scalable product platform now available across a rapidly expanding international footprint, and our promotional and operational infrastructure in virtually every territory of the world now fully aligned as one truly global team, we could not be more excited about what lies ahead for our streaming growth story for many years to come. Turning briefly to some of the key highlights from our second quarter results, which I will discuss as always on an ex-FX basis. Continuing with DTC, subscriber-related revenues grew 6% during Q2, largely due to the strong momentum in advertising revenues, while content revenue declined 70% as we have previously noted, due to the timing of certain large licensing deals in the prior year. Domestic net add trends remain similar to the recent quarters.

正如大衛所指出的那樣，憑藉我們強大的全球和本地內容、我們的全球體育、我們喜愛的品牌、現在可在快速擴張的國際足跡中使用的最先進和可擴展的產品平台，以及我們的促銷和營運現在，世界上幾乎每個地區的基礎設施都作為一個真正的全球團隊完全協調一致，我們對未來許多年流媒體成長故事的前景感到無比興奮。簡要介紹我們第二季業績的一些關鍵亮點，我將一如既往地在排除外匯因素的基礎上進行討論。繼續DTC，第二季度與訂閱者相關的收入增​​長了6%，這主要是由於廣告收入的強勁勢頭，而內容收入下降了70%，正如我們之前指出的，由於去年某些大型許可交易的時間安排。國內淨增加趨勢與最近幾季相似。

That is continued growth in the retail Max space, which was slightly more than offset by linear wholesale headwinds. And as we expected, we did see a modest uptick in churn after March Madness and the conclusion of the NBA and NHL seasons. While we continue to expect the bulk of total subscriber growth to emanate from outside of the US, as evidenced by nearly four million net adds internationally during Q2, we do expect to see monetization gains from all regions, with perhaps the biggest upside opportunity domestically, at least in the nearer term. We recently raised the domestic ad free price by $1 and saw better-than-expected churn during July when the price increase rolled through the existing subscriber base.

這是零售 Max 領域的持續成長，但被線性批發逆風所抵消。正如我們預期的那樣，在「瘋狂三月」以及 NBA 和 NHL 賽季結束後，我們確實看到了客戶流失率的小幅上升。雖然我們仍然預期大部分總用戶成長將來自美國以外的地區，第二季國際用戶淨增加量近400 萬就證明了這一點，但我們確實預期所有地區的貨幣化都會有所成長，其中可能是國內最大的上昇機會，至少在近期內。我們最近將國內無廣告價格提高了 1 美元，並且在 7 月份，當價格上漲覆蓋現有訂戶群時，我們發現客戶流失情況好於預期。

Streaming ad revenues doubled year-over-year on continued strong demand for Max inventory and the addition of sports content, which drove healthy engagement. We expect meaningful growth ahead as more subscribers opt for the ad-lite tier, which represented over 40% of global gross adds last quarter. EBITDA was a negative $107 million, in part impacted by allocation of sports costs and EMEA launch costs. All taken together, DTC is tracking better than our expectations, even with the investment heavy first half of this year.

由於對 Max 庫存的持續強勁需求以及體育內容的增加，串流媒體廣告收入比去年同期翻了一番，從而推動了健康的參與。我們預計，隨著越來越多的訂戶選擇 ad-lite 層（佔上季全球總增量的 40% 以上），未來將出現有意義的成長。 EBITDA 為負 1.07 億美元，部分原因是體育費用分配和 EMEA 啟動費用。總而言之，儘管今年上半年投資力度很大，但 DTC 的表現仍優於我們的預期。

And with key launches behind us, we should begin to pivot towards second half EBITDA profitability driven by improving subscriber-related revenue trends, continued momentum behind our content slate, stronger engagement fueled by a more personalized content discovery experience and continued expense discipline. In fact, I expect the DTC segment to be nicely profitable for the full year and with a strong ramp in the second half, which will represent a meaningful step towards our 2025 EBITDA target of at least $1 billion. That said, as I've noted, we will always prioritize investing to secure profitable Max subscribers versus maximizing near-term EBITDA in any given quarter or year. Turning to Networks, distribution revenues decreased 8% on a reported basis.

隨著關鍵發布的推出，我們應該開始轉向下半年的EBITDA 盈利能力，這得益於訂閱者相關收入趨勢的改善、我們內容背後的持續動力、更個性化的內容髮現體驗和持續的費用紀律推動的更強的參與度。事實上，我預計 DTC 業務將全年實現良好盈利，並在下半年實現強勁增長，這將代表我們朝著 2025 年至少 10 億美元的 EBITDA 目標邁出有意義的一步。也就是說，正如我所指出的，我們將始終優先考慮投資以確保可獲利的最大訂閱者，而不是在任何特定季度或年度最大化近期 EBITDA。就電視網絡而言，據報道，發行收入下降了 8%。

Excluding the impact of the AT&T SportsNet, distribution revenues decreased 5% as pay-TV subscribers declined 9% domestically, while domestic affiliate rates increased 5%. Network ad revenue decreased 9% as domestic impressions declined 13% during the quarter and were partially offset by strong sports-related pricing. EMEA continued to outperform and was up nicely during the quarter. I am also pleased that on a total company basis, we enjoyed significant sequential improvement in advertising trends down 3% in Q2 versus down 7% in Q1.

排除 AT&T SportsNet 的影響，發行收入下降了 5%，因為國內付費電視訂戶數量下降了 9%，而國內聯盟費率則增加了 5%。由於本季國內展示次數下降 13%，網路廣告收入下降 9%，部分被強勁的體育相關定價所抵銷。歐洲、中東和非洲地區的表現持續優於大市，並在本季度取得了良好的成長。我還很高興的是，從整個公司的角度來看，我們的廣告趨勢取得了顯著的連續改善，第二季下降了 3%，而第一季下降了 7%。

Tying this back to the impairment conversation, this is another great example of how pressure in one segment goes hand-in-hand with tailwinds in another. Finally, on the Olympics, we expect just over $100 million of negative impact to EBITDA, mostly at Networks. Recall, this is the final Olympic games under the agreement we struck in 2015. And we are looking forward to our continued partnership with the IOC as our new Olympics rights agreement will begin with the 2026 winter games in Milan and Cortina and which is better aligned to our streaming and pay-TV platforms.

將其與損害對話聯繫起來，這是另一個很好的例子，說明一個細分市場的壓力如何與另一個細分市場的順風順水相伴。最後，在奧運會方面，我們預計 EBITDA 將受到超過 1 億美元的負面影響，主要是在網路方面。回想一下，這是我們2015 年達成的協議下的最後一屆奧運會。與國際奧委會更加一致到我們的串流媒體和付費電視平台。

Now turning to Studios, we enjoyed healthy theatrical revenue growth despite underperformance of recent releases and aided by strong carryover from Q1 releases. Experiences in consumer product revenues continued to perform nicely, and we remain very upbeat about the opportunity we see in better coordinating processes around managing franchises. Television was down, particularly as we work through the last of the strike delayed deliveries, which sets us up for a big swing up in the second half. While as we've called out last quarter, games are still struggling against last year's Hogwarts Legacy comp and a muted response to Suicide Squad this year.

現在轉向製片廠，儘管最近上映的影片表現不佳，但得益於第一季上映的強勁結轉，我們仍享受到健康的影院收入成長。消費品收入的經驗持續表現良好，我們對在更好地協調特許經營管理流程方面看到的機會仍然非常樂觀。電視節目的播放量下降了，特別是當我們正在努力解決最後一次罷工延遲交付的問題時，這為我們下半年的大幅增長做好了準備。正如我們上個季度所指出的那樣，遊戲仍然在與去年的《霍格華茲遺產》競爭以及今年對《自殺小隊》的冷淡反應中掙扎。

From a modeling standpoint, while the strike impact will present the favorable year-over-year comp on EBITDA during the second half of the year, it will be a headwind to cash content spend. Turning to free cash flow. We generated nearly $1 billion during the quarter, representing a $750 million decrease year-over-year. This was largely driven by two key factors. First, an increase in net content investment against the modest cash savings with the start of the WGA strike in the prior year. And second, lower operating profits, partially offset by lower cash restructuring costs.

從模型的角度來看，雖然罷工的影響將在今年下半年帶來有利的 EBITDA 同比比較，但這將成為現金內容支出的阻力。轉向自由現金流。本季我們創造了近 10 億美元的收入，比去年同期減少 7.5 億美元。這主要是由兩個關鍵因素所驅動的。首先，隨著去年 WGA 罷工的開始，淨含量投資增加，而現金節省卻很少。其次，營業利益下降，但被現金重組成本下降部分抵銷。

Finally, a few puts and takes to consider for free cash flow during the second half of the year. Number one, like in Q1, we will have our normal semiannual cash interest payments during the third quarter. Number two, we will be comping against the most strike impacted quarters last year. And number three, the Olympics will be a meaningful drag on free cash flow during the third quarter, including in part due to working capital dynamics.

最後，還有一些下半年自由現金流需要考慮的因素。第一，與第一季一樣，我們將在第三季正常支付半年現金利息。第二，我們將與去年受罷工影響最嚴重的季度進行比較。第三，奧運將嚴重拖累第三季的自由現金流，部分原因是營運資本動態。

As such, cash conversion will certainly be lower than the very elevated levels last year. That said, I remain confident in our ability to continue to both generate meaningful free cash flow in the second half and pay down debt. And we expect to finish the year at lower net leverage than at the start of the year. I remain very proud of our organization's dedication, resiliency and focus while maintaining the flexibility and adaptability within an industry going through so much change.

因此，現金轉換肯定會低於去年的高水準。儘管如此，我仍然對我們在下半年繼續產生有意義的自由現金流和償還債務的能力充滿信心。我們預計今年年底的淨槓桿率將低於年初。我仍然對我們組織的奉獻精神、彈性和專注感到非常自豪，同時在經歷如此多變化的行業中保持靈活性和適應性。

I feel confident with the path that we're on and I believe we have made the right investments while better aligning our capital allocation with discipline to set the company up for long-term success. Now I'd like to turn the call over to the operator, and David, JB and I will take your questions.

我對我們所走的道路充滿信心，我相信我們已經做出了正確的投資，同時更好地調整我們的資本配置和紀律，為公司長期成功奠定基礎。現在我想將電話轉給接線員，我和 David、JB 將回答您的問題。

(Operator Instructions) Robert Fishman, MoffettNathanson.

（操作員說明）Robert Fishman，MoffettNathanson。

I'm curious now with over 100 million DTC subscribers, how do you think about the future of Max in the streaming marketplace and whether you have a preference to exploring formal JVs, either in the US or internationally, or looking to expand the content offering through third party licensing deals? And then maybe for Gunnar, if you can help us think about the goodwill write-down. Can you just talk a little bit more about the uncertainty with the outcome of the NBA and how that led to any sensitivities around future affiliate fee negotiations?

我現在很好奇，擁有超過1 億的DTC 訂閱者，您如何看待Max 在串流媒體市場的未來，以及您是否傾向於探索正式的合資企業（無論是在美國還是國際上），還是希望擴大內容提供透過第三方授權交易？然後也許對古納爾來說，如果你能幫助我們考慮商譽減記的話。您能否多談談 NBA 結果的不確定性以及這如何導致未來聯盟費用談判的敏感度？

Thanks, Robert. As you know, we spent the last two years rebuilding Max and we are, at our core, a global media company. We have infrastructure in every country. We have local content and sports in most countries, and we have relationships with distributors, so we've really been kind of chomping at the bit to get this product launched globally.

謝謝，羅伯特。如您所知，我們花了兩年時間重建 Max，我們的核心是一家全球媒體公司。我們在每個國家都有基礎建設。我們在大多數國家/地區都有本地內容和體育節目，並且與分銷商建立了關係，因此我們確實非常渴望在全球範圍內推出該產品。

In order to be competitive and ultimately to be long term and have sustainable growth, we think one of the key advantages is that we are and can be a global leader. And the fact that we're now launched in Latin America, and we launched in the second half of the quarter in Europe, we're off to a terrific start. It will be a blend. We're seeing real growth, as you've seen, almost 4 million subscribers internationally last quarter. We'll see more this quarter. We're also in the US, we're off to a very good start with our Disney bundle, and so I think this is all going to be driven by the consumer experience.

為了保持競爭力並最終實現長期和可持續成長，我們認為關鍵優勢之一是我們是並且能夠成為全球領導者。事實上，我們現在已在拉丁美洲推出，並於本季下半年在歐洲推出，我們有了一個好的開始。這將是一種混合。如您所見，我們看到了真正的成長，上個季度全球訂戶數量接近 400 萬。本季我們會看到更多。我們也在美國，我們的迪士尼捆綁包有了一個很好的開始，所以我認為這一切都將由消費者體驗驅動。

The offering that we have and the content that we have is working very well in Europe and Latin America. And in some cases, like the example I gave in Brazil, it's very early, but what we believe will be a very compelling consumer offering with Disney+ and with Hulu, that all of those will add to sustainable and more accelerated (technical difficulty), JB?

我們提供的產品和內容在歐洲和拉丁美洲運作良好。在某些情況下，就像我在巴西舉的例子，現在還為時過早，但我們相信迪士尼+和Hulu將提供非常引人注目的消費者產品，所有這些都將增加可持續發展和加速（技術難度），傑布？

All right. I lost it for a second. Look, echoing David's comments, so anything about the international rollout is we have more and more partners outside of the US who are coming to us saying, hey, we'd love to figure out ways to do more things together, whether that be, as Dave said, on the traditional distribution side, whether that be other players in the streaming space and particularly, which is important outside the US, local content players in a lot of markets who are looking for a partner and look at us as having a very strong platform capability and obviously, an incredible international content offering and lineup that we can do something together. And so we've had a lot of strength already as some of the examples David showed, but we do have a lot of active conversations with additional partners that will help us scale and help us localize and get more local content into these offerings as we roll out, which we'll certainly tell you more about over the weeks and months to come.

好的。我有一瞬間失去了它。看，呼應大衛的評論，所以關於國際推廣的任何事情都是我們在美國以外有越來越多的合作夥伴來找我們說，嘿，我們很樂意找出共同做更多事情的方法，無論是，正如戴夫所說，在傳統發行方面，無論是串流媒體領域的其他參與者，特別是在美國以外的地區，許多市場中正在尋找合作夥伴並認為我們擁有非常強大的平台能力，顯然，還有令人難以置信的國際內容產品和陣容，我們可以一起做一些事情。因此，正如大衛所展示的一些例子，我們已經擁有了很大的實力，但我們確實與其他合作夥伴進行了很多積極的對話，這將幫助我們擴展規模，幫助我們本地化，並在我們的產品中加入更多本地內容。

Okay. Robert, and then this is going a little more color on the goodwill impairment. And to get straight to the point here, there is no one factor that is driving this impairment. So the way this works is, obviously, with the amount of goodwill that we have, there's a systematic process that we go through every quarter, and we're monitoring for a so-called triggering events. And this is clearly where a sports rights discussion like the one with the NBA comes into play as a triggering event, which then compels us to reevaluate our business case and a strategic planning process with the latest assumptions, the best view of where the industry is and how we play in that field.

好的。羅伯特，然後這對商譽減損有更多的影響。言歸正傳，沒有任何一個因素會導致這種損害。因此，顯然，隨著我們擁有的商譽數量，我們每季都會經歷一個系統化的流程，並且我們正在監控所謂的觸發事件。顯然，像 NBA 那樣的體育權利討論作為觸發事件發揮作用，然後迫使我們根據最新的假設、對行業現狀的最佳看法重新評估我們的商業案例和戰略規劃流程。

And that's what then leads to evaluation, which in the second quarter happened to be $9.1 billion below what was on the books for the Network segment. So it's really full re-evaluation, not a response to one individual factor. I do think that the outcome is, from my perspective, consistent with where the market is, where not only the linear television market, but also what, frankly, the investment community reflects in our current share price. And I do want to go back to what I said a minute ago, there is a very significant other side of the coin here, right? David mentioned the distribution deals that we're engaging in on a global basis.

這就是評估的結果，第二季的評估結果恰好比網路部門的帳面價值低了 91 億美元。因此，這實際上是全面的重新評估，而不是對某個單獨因素的回應。我確實認為，從我的角度來看，結果與市場狀況一致，不僅是線性電視市場，而且坦白說，也與投資界在我們當前股價中所反映的情況一致。我確實想回到我一分鐘前所說的，這裡還有非常重要的另一面，對嗎？大衛提到了我們在全球範圍內參與的分銷交易。

We're talking about both sides of our business. This is really a distribution ecosystem in transition not a content ecosystem in transition. And we're using our content increasingly and increasingly more successfully in the streaming space and less so on the linear side. The ad sales, the outcomes of the upfront here in the US are another example, as I mentioned earlier, so I just want to stress that point as well.

我們正在談論我們業務的雙方。這其實是一個轉型中的分送生態系統，而不是一個轉型中的內容生態系統。我們在串流媒體領域越來越成功地使用我們的內容，而在線性領域則越來越不成功。正如我之前提到的，廣告銷售、美國預付款的結果是另一個例子，所以我也想強調這一點。

There is a transition in the industry. There is a transformation of the company. We are actively driving that to some extent, and the goodwill impairment at the end of the day is the accounting reflection of that state of the industry and our strategy.

產業正在發生轉變。公司正在進行轉型。我們在某種程度上正在積極推動這一目標，最終的商譽減損是行業狀況和我們策略的會計反映。

[Michael Min,] Goldman Sachs.

[麥可敏]高盛。

I just have two. First one on video games. Warner acquired Player First Games last month, but there's certainly been some uneven performance within games over the last couple of years, but clearly, lots of potential as well. Could you just talk a little bit about the strategic value of video games for Warner Bros. and whether you view it as a core part of the portfolio? And then I have a quick follow-up.

我只有兩個。第一個關於視頻遊戲的。華納上個月收購了 Player First Games，但過去幾年遊戲的表現確實有些參差不齊，但顯然也有很大的潛力。您能否簡單談談電玩遊戲對華納兄弟的戰略價值以及您是否將其視為產品組合的核心部分？然後我會進行快速跟進。

JB?

傑布？

Yes. Look, I think we look at the evolution of the storytelling and interactive entertainment as a space and say it's the one of the unique areas in media that is growing, both growing in terms of time spent, growing in terms of engagement and growing in terms of revenue. And so we still see this as a huge opportunity for us. We know that our franchises, particularly in a world where the gaming industry launching brand-new franchises is getting harder and harder for a number of reasons, including IDFA deprecation and more challenges with marketing and customer acquisition, and that franchises like the ones that we have are in high demand and can help in launching games. Now you still need a great game, and the reality is we've had the unfortunate in the short period of 12 months, we went from having the record year that we had in 2023 with Hogwarts Legacy to, unfortunately, having the opposite side of that spectrum with Suicide Squad.

是的。聽著，我認為我們將講故事和互動娛樂視為一個空間的演變，並說這是媒體中正在增長的獨特領域之一，無論是在花費的時間、參與度和參與度方面都在增長。的收入。因此，我們仍然認為這對我們來說是一個巨大的機會。我們知道，我們的特許經營權，特別是在遊戲行業推出全新特許經營權變得越來越困難的世界中，原因有很多，包括IDFA 的棄用以及營銷和客戶獲取方面的更多挑戰，並且像我們這樣的特許經營權需求量很大，可以幫助發布遊戲。現在你仍然需要一款出色的遊戲，而現實是我們在短短 12 個月內經歷了不幸，我們從 2023 年《霍格華茲遺產》創下的創紀錄年份，不幸地迎來了相反的一面自殺小隊的光譜。

There will still be a hit driven nature of some of that business. But one of the areas that we are particularly leaning into which is about half of the $200 billion games business is the free-to-play space. And the Player First deal was really about strengthening our capabilities in that space because we do think we are subscale and we have more opportunities to grow in that space, which is a big part of the market. When we do that it will help also provide some more balance to our games business from the inevitable cyclicality of more console-based releases, which have a three to four-year time horizon and a little bit more lumpiness even when you do get it right.

其中一些業務仍將具有熱門驅動的性質。但我們特別關注的領域之一是免費遊戲領域，約佔 2,000 億美元遊戲業務的一半。玩家優先交易實際上是為了加強我們在該領域的能力，因為我們確實認為我們規模較小，並且我們在該領域有更多的發展機會，這是市場的重要組成部分。當我們這樣做時，它也將有助於為我們的遊戲業務提供更多的平衡，避免更多基於主機的版本不可避免的周期性，這些版本有三到四年的時間範圍，即使你做對了，也會有更多的波動性。

And so we continue to be strong believers in the games space. We want to continue to see and figure out how we lean into it and get bigger in that space. And we'll certainly tell you more about it as time goes on.

因此，我們繼續堅定地相信遊戲領域。我們希望繼續觀察並弄清楚如何深入其中並在該領域變得更大。隨著時間的推移，我們肯定會告訴您更多相關資訊。

One of the strategic advantages of owning all of our IP is, as the world has changed, it used to be you launch a movie or you launch a TV series and then you do a game. But one of the reasons that Hogwarts Legacy was so successful and the number one game last year is, you went to Hogwarts Legacy and you entered the game and you were able to become part of that world. And that ultimately, I think, is a big piece of where this industry is going, that will create a movie, whether it's Batman or Superman or Harry Potter, and then maybe there'll be a TV show. But the ability to go into that world and have that experience of spending time with all the characters is something that we still own.

擁有我們所有IP的戰略優勢之一是，隨著世界的變化，過去是你推出一部電影或推出電視劇，然後你做一款遊戲。但《霍格華茲遺產》如此成功並成為去年排名第一的遊戲的原因之一是，你去了《霍格華茲遺產》並進入了遊戲，你就能夠成為那個世界的一部分。我認為，這最終是這個行業發展的重要組成部分，它將製作一部電影，無論是蝙蝠俠、超人還是哈利波特，然後也許會有一部電視節目。但進入那個世界並獲得與所有角色共度時光的體驗的能力仍然是我們所擁有的。

We have 11 studios here and we have a lot of IP. And there's also a lot of interest among others and coming to take advantage of some of that IP for gaming, which we're looking at because as JB said, we need to get bigger and the IP that we own and the value that it has in the gaming space is something we're looking to take advantage of.

我們這裡有11個工作室，我們有很多IP。其他人也有很多興趣，並希望利用其中一些 IP 進行遊戲，我們正在考慮這一點，因為正如 JB 所說，我們需要變得更大，我們擁有的 IP 及其所具有的價值我們正在尋求利用遊戲領域的優勢。

Great. And then second, I was just wondering if you could talk about the strategy around carriage negotiations, just given the potential changes related to NBA programming. Are there any changes in terms of the number of carriage deals that come up in the next year or so, just given the wide expectation of the NBA negotiation that just wrapped up?

偉大的。其次，我想知道您是否可以談談有關運輸談判的策略，考慮到與 NBA 節目相關的潛在變化。鑑於人們對剛結束的 NBA 談判的廣泛期望，未來一年左右的運輸交易數量是否會發生任何變化？

Thanks, Michael. I'm not going to speak to any specific negotiation or a specific piece of content or IP. But this is what we do for a living. We're in 200 countries. Aside from the excitement and drive that we have around Max and our studio business of being the biggest maker of TV content and our library business, is that we have free-to-air and cable channels all over the world.

謝謝，麥可。我不會談論任何具體的談判或特定的內容或智慧財產權。但這就是我們的謀生之道。我們遍佈 200 個國家。除了我們作為最大的電視內容製造商和我們的工作室業務以及我們的圖書館業務對 Max 的興奮和動力之外，我們還擁有世界各地的免費和有線頻道。

And those channels are B2B businesses. They require carriage agreements. And we've been in that business for 40 years. We've been very effective in that business. And it's our job, whether it's a food channel or an entertainment channel or a sports channel to make sure that we have a very robust offering of content, that nourishes and excites an audience so that, one, they want to spend a lot of time with us so that we could monetize it with advertising, but two, that distributors get significant value by carrying that and therefore, pay us significant value.

這些管道是 B2B 業務。他們需要運輸協議。我們從事這項業務已經 40 年了。我們在這方面一直都非常有效。我們的工作是，無論是美食頻道、娛樂頻道還是體育頻道，都要確保我們提供非常強大的內容，滋養和激發觀眾，以便他們願意花很多時間與我們合作，以便我們可以透過廣告將其貨幣化，但第二，分銷商透過攜帶它來獲得巨大的價值，因此向我們支付巨大的價值。

And we've been able to get meaningful increases for our content. And we've worked very hard here in the US and around the world, whether it be sports channels or other channels, to make sure that our offering is robust and meaningful. And as you look at our different sports services around the world, you'll see that. We may be the leader or we are one of the leaders of sports globally.

我們的內容也得到了有意義的成長。我們在美國和世界各地都非常努力，無論是體育頻道還是其他頻道，以確保我們的產品強大且有意義。當您查看我們在世界各地提供的不同體育服務時，您會發現這一點。我們可能是全球體育運動的領導者，或者我們是領導者之一。

Benjamin Swinburne, Morgan Stanley.

班傑明‧斯溫伯恩，摩根士丹利。

David, there's been a lot released in the press over the last few weeks or months about kind of unlocking value at the company through everything from kind of smaller asset sales to splitting the company up. You and Gunnar talked about the strength at DTC. That's a business that could be pretty interesting as a stand-alone company in the public markets. So I'm just wondering if you're considering more aggressive action to try to unlock some value in your stock price just given all the press speculation out there.

大衛，過去幾週或幾個月，媒體發布了許多關於透過從小型資產出售到分割公司等各種方式釋放公司價值的內容。您和 Gunnar 談到了 DTC 的優勢。作為公開市場上的獨立公司，這項業務可能會非常有趣。因此，我只是想知道，考慮到所有媒體的猜測，您是否正在考慮採取更積極的行動來釋放股價的一些價值。

And then I know it's a tough question, but certainly, investors are wondering how to think about the potential impact of losing the NBA on your basic Networks EBITDA. So anything you or Gunnar can share with us as we think about that potential outcome into 2026 would be much appreciated.

我知道這是一個棘手的問題，但投資者肯定想知道如何考慮失去 NBA 對基本網路 EBITDA 的潛在影響。因此，當我們思考 2026 年的潛在結果時，您或 Gunnar 能與我們分享的任何內容都將不勝感激。

Yes. I mean, look, Ben, on the last point, I mean, we have said in the past that the NBA is a profitable right, and we've been very clear about that. Again, as David said earlier, this is not the time to go into any level of detail, but obviously, you should assume that whatever we just refreshed in our analysis appropriately, it reflects the scenarios that we're seeing, so that's all I want to say about that. And then, on the strategic options, and I'll hand it back to David in a second, but just to make one thing clear.

是的。我的意思是，看，本，關於最後一點，我的意思是，我們過去曾說過，NBA 是一個有利可圖的權利，我們對此非常清楚。同樣，正如大衛之前所說，現在不是討論任何細節的時候，但顯然，你應該假設無論我們剛剛在分析中適當刷新了什麼，它都反映了我們所看到的場景，所以這就是我的全部內容對此我想說一下。然後，關於戰略選擇，我稍後會將其交還給大衛，但只是為了澄清一件事。

First of all, don't expect a specific answer on any individual speculations or rumors out there. But second, look, we're a public company. This is a public company management team, and we are very well aware of our responsibility to have a view on whatever strategic options are out there and the same applies to the board. We are very clearly focused on evaluating everything beyond just running the operational business.

首先，不要期望對任何個人的猜測或謠言有具體的答案。但其次，我們是一家上市公司。這是一個上市公司的管理團隊，我們非常清楚我們有責任對現有的任何策略選擇發表看法，這同樣適用於董事會。我們非常明確地專注於評估一切，而不僅僅是經營營運業務。

So we said before, you shouldn't be surprised to see us engaging in whatever M&A processes are going on out there. You shouldn't be surprised to see us engaging in partnership discussions. David has been talking about this for quite some time. And where it makes sense, you have seen us engage in those things. Regarding our own portfolio, of course, we are constantly updating our views on the value of the assets in our portfolio and whether or not we believe that they're properly reflected in the valuation of the company --.

因此，我們之前說過，看到我們參與正在進行的任何併購流程，您不應感到驚訝。看到我們參與合作關係討論，您不應感到驚訝。大衛已經談論這個問題有一段時間了。在有意義的地方，你已經看到我們參與了這些事情。當然，關於我們自己的投資組合，我們會不斷更新我們對投資組合中資產價值的看法，以及我們是否認為它們正確反映在公司的估值中。

As well as the strategic value of those assets.

以及這些資產的策略價值。

Yes. So this is all ongoing professional management, I would say. And to your question specifically, there have been rumors about potentially splitting up the company. Look, we have been operating under the one Warner Bros. Discovery strategy for the past 2.5 years since creating Warner Bros. Discovery. And every day, I'm seeing evidence everywhere in the business of the benefits of those strategies.

是的。所以我想說，這都是持續的專業管理。具體到你的問題，有傳言說公司可能會分拆。看，自從創建華納兄弟探索頻道以來，我們在過去 2.5 年裡一直按照華納兄弟探索頻道的單一策略運作。每天，我都能在業務中看到這些策略的好處的證據。

David mentioned in a sentence earlier the DC, 10-year plan, just seeing how that how that team is now leveraging all of our assets, all of our IP, our various business units, all the cash registers that we can coordinate. I have no doubt that we're going to get great results. And it is important to be able to use all of that across distribution platforms and across business unit. So the focus is on running the business, the focus is on making sure that we get the Studio to where it should be.

David 在前面的一句話中提到了 DC 的 10 年計劃，只是看看該團隊現在如何利用我們所有的資產、所有的知識產權、我們的各個業務部門以及我們可以協調的所有收銀機。我毫不懷疑我們會取得很好的成果。能夠跨分銷平台和跨業務部門使用所有這些非常重要。因此，重點是經營業務，重點是確保我們讓工作室達到應有的水準。

It's an incredibly valuable asset from my perspective, and unfortunately, that business, as JB alluded to, for the game space, the same is true for film and TV production, it takes a little longer to see the results of the very significant changes that the team has been making. And then, third, as you've heard us say multiple times on this call already, we're really starting to see the fruits of our labor in the DTC space. And the studio and the DTC segment have from my perspective, a tremendous value opportunity. And once we start seeing more evidence for that and seeing more materialization of that value, I believe that corporate structure is actually a secondary consideration. I don't know, David, anything to add?

從我的角度來看，這是一項非常寶貴的資產，不幸的是，正如JB 所提到的，對於遊戲領域來說，對於電影和電視製作也是如此，需要更長的時間才能觀看到非常重大的變化的結果，團隊一直在製作。然後，第三，正如您已經在這次電話會議上多次聽到我們所說的那樣，我們確實開始看到我們在 DTC 領域的勞動成果。從我的角度來看，工作室和 DTC 細分市場擁有巨大的價值機會。一旦我們開始看到更多證據並看到該價值的更多實現，我相信公司結構實際上是次要考慮因素。我不知道，大衛，還有什麼要補充的嗎？

I would just add that, look, the market conditions within the traditional business are tough, and they're challenging. But from our perspective, two years ago, we saw that the business was being generationally disrupted. And so we did an awful lot of work to get our balance sheet in good shape. We have a terrific capital structure.

我想補充一點，傳統產業的市場條件很艱難，而且充滿挑戰。但從我們的角度來看，兩年前，我們看到這項業務正在被世代顛覆。因此，我們做了很多工作來使我們的資產負債表保持良好狀態。我們擁有出色的資本結構。

We view our debt as an asset. We're generating meaningful free cash flow. We're investing substantially in content. We're a storytelling company. The strength of this company is that we're a global storytelling company with content that works well all around the world, local and entertainment and sports, so we feel very good about where we are.

我們將債務視為資產。我們正在產生有意義的自由現金流。我們在內容上進行了大量投資。我們是一家說故事的公司。這家公司的優勢在於，我們是一家全球性的說故事公司，其內容在世界各地、本地、娛樂和體育領域都表現良好，因此我們對自己的處境感到非常滿意。

And we have to, as Gunnar said, look at all and consider all options. But the number one priority is to run this company as effectively as possible. And you will see, as our Studio begins to grow and if our global direct-to-consumer business scales the way we believe it's going to, then that will be very apparent to investors and we expect that that will create shareholder value.

正如古納爾所說，我們必須審視所有並考慮所有選擇。但首要任務是盡可能有效地經營這家公司。你會看到，隨著我們的工作室開始發展，如果我們的全球直接面向消費者的業務按照我們認為的方式擴展，那麼這對投資者來說將是非常明顯的，我們預計這將創造股東價值。

Vijay Jayant, Evercore ISI.

Vijay Jayant，Evercore ISI。

This is Kutgun Maral on for Vijay. Just one on the EBITDA outlook. I know that you're not providing guidance, but it's tough to have a lot of visibility given linear challenges, DTC investments and the hit-driven nature of the Studio. But I wanted to see if you could help level set expectations a bit for the back half? Gunnar, the outlook you provided on DTC was certainly very encouraging. Can you help us and maybe walk through some of the other moving pieces?

我是庫特岡·馬拉爾 (Kutgun Maral) 為維傑 (Vijay) 發言。僅介紹 EBITDA 前景。我知道您沒有提供指導，但考慮到線性挑戰、DTC 投資和工作室的熱門驅動性質，很難獲得大量可見性。但我想看看你是否可以幫助調整後半段的期望？ Gunnar，您對 DTC 的展望無疑非常令人鼓舞。您能幫助我們並介紹一下其他一些令人感動的部分嗎？

So again, as we said, we are not in a position to provide detailed guidance. But if we go through the segments a little bit here, again, we're expecting a very significant step forward on the DTC side. On the studio side, as I mentioned, we have two big films in the pipeline. So generally speaking, if you compare the release schedules this year versus last year, I would say, a little more beneficial with only one film in December, whereas last year, we took a lot of marketing expenses and didn't get a lot of the benefit of some of the late releases in December, so that's definitely a factor.

因此，正如我們所說，我們無法提供詳細的指導。但如果我們再次回顧這些部分，我們預計 DTC 方面將向前邁出非常重要的一步。在工作室方面，正如我所提到的，我們有兩部大電影正在籌備中。所以總的來說，如果你把今年的上映時間和去年相比，我會說，12月份只有一部電影更有利一些，而去年我們花了很多行銷費用，但沒有得到很多收益。的一些較晚版本的好處，所以這絕對是一個因素。

But I also, as you said, I want to point out that each one of those are hit-driven and create some volatility as well. Elsewhere in the studio, certainly, in the TV production business, things should get a lot better. We're now coming into the part of the year that was deeply impacted by the strike last year. So that should be a helper. On the network side --.

但正如您所說，我也想指出，每項都是熱門驅動的，也會造成一些波動。當然，在演播室的其他地方，在電視製作行業，情況應該會好得多。我們現在正進入深受去年罷工影響的一年。所以這應該是個幫助者。在網路方面——。

On the TV side, which is encouraging, there is quantifiably a lot less investment in the marketplace in purchasing TV content and we're not really seeing that. I think it represents the fact that we have very high-quality content. Our content is working very well. We have strong IP that's known and so Channing and the team are seeing the numbers are looking --.

在電視方面，令人鼓舞的是，市場上購買電視內容的投資明顯減少了很多，而我們並沒有真正看到這一點。我認為這代表了我們擁有非常高品質的內容。我們的內容運作良好。我們擁有眾所周知的強大智慧財產權，因此錢寧和團隊看到了這些數字——。

83 ongoing productions on air pretty much unaffected by any of those trends. On the network side, again, as I said, we're not seeing a lot of change in the linear ad market environment in the US. It's differentiated. I called out earlier that Europe is actually looking almost surprisingly strong in some of the markets, that's definitely a positive outlier.

83 正在播出的作品幾乎沒有受到任何這些趨勢的影響。在網路方面，正如我所說，我們沒有看到美國線性廣告市場環境發生很大變化。這是有差別的。我早些時候指出，歐洲的某些市場實際上看起來幾乎令人驚訝地強勁，這絕對是一個積極的異常值。

But to your point, visibility is not high in that market, and I don't want to make any predictions beyond the point that in the US, Q3 is typically also a little bit of a weaker quarter for us given the timing of our sports schedule. And remember, we have the Olympics in Europe, which is a smaller ad market relative to those rights, whereas in the US if anything, we're taking a little bit of a hit from them being ongoing. Those are the building blocks that I'm happy to provide, and I hope that's helpful, Vijay.

但就你的觀點而言，該市場的知名度並不高，而且我不想做出任何預測，除了在美國，考慮到我們的體育賽事的時間安排，第三季度通常對我們來說也是一個較弱的季度日程。請記住，我們在歐洲舉辦奧運會，相對於這些轉播權來說，這是一個較小的廣告市場，而在美國，如果有的話，我們會因為奧運會的進行而受到一點打擊。這些是我很樂意提供的構建模組，我希望這對您有所幫助，Vijay。

On the Motion Picture side, it is a long-cycle business, but we have a really good team with Mike and Pam, and it is encouraging that we just have back-to-back movies this summer that are generating real value. We're rooting for that. As we launch Beetlejuice, which there's some early very positive data that we're getting, the idea that people seem to be going back to the theater for good movies that provide some compelling or unique storytelling. We also have Joker coming up. And we've been really pushing to get Warner Bros. back aggressively into the Motion Picture business, whether it be DC and Warner.

在電影方面，這是一項長週期的業務，但我們擁有一支由邁克和帕姆組成的非常優秀的團隊，令人鼓舞的是，我們今年夏天連續拍攝了幾部正在產生真正價值的電影。我們對此表示支持。當我們推出 Beetlejuice 時，我們得到了一些早期非常積極的數據，即人們似乎會回到電影院觀看提供一些引人入勝或獨特故事講述的好電影。我們還有小丑即將登場。我們一直在努力推動華納兄弟積極重返電影業務，無論是 DC 還是華納。

So we're encouraged by that, and we're encouraged by our slate ahead. We're still working our way through the slate that we inherited, and we're much more optimistic about what we have ahead.

因此，我們對此感到鼓舞，也對我們的未來感到鼓舞。我們仍在繼續努力解決我們繼承的問題，並且我們對未來的前景更加樂觀。

Jessica Reif Ehrlich, Bank of America Securities.

傑西卡·雷夫·埃利希，美國銀行證券公司。

So I think we all appreciate the massive efforts that you guys are undertaking to restore the Studios plural, Warner Bros. NDC as well as your TV operations and also, of course, Max and HBO. But I guess at the end of the day, with the steady decline in the pay-TV universe and obviously no letup in sight or will it be enough to offset what you're doing?

因此，我認為我們都感謝你們為恢復工作室複數、華納兄弟 NDC 以及你們的電視業務，當然還有 Max 和 HBO 所做的巨大努力。但我想最終，隨著付費電視領域的穩定下滑，而且顯然看不到任何放緩的跡象，或者這足以抵消你正在做的事情？

Is it enough on a consolidated basis, is it enough to offset this. So David said earlier, you're positioned for growth. Gunnar, I know you discussed on WBD. When do you foresee consolidated earnings growing on a sustainable basis? So that's one thing. And the second thing on the NBA loss, if you don't win the matching rights lawsuit, are the more recent sports acquisitions and maybe some upcoming rights enough to close the gap?

綜合起來是否足夠，是否足以抵消這一點。所以大衛之前說過，你已經做好了成長的準備。 Gunnar，我知道你在 WBD 上討論過。您預計綜合收益何時可持續成長？所以這是一回事。關於 NBA 失利的第二件事，如果你沒有贏得匹配權訴訟，最近的體育收購以及可能即將推出的一些版權是否足以縮小差距？

At this point, we've handed it off to our lawyers. We have confidence in our position. The judge will decide whether our matching right, which is 11 pages long, and whether our what we offered matched we're not. And we'll see. We're getting back to work, and the lawyers will handle this, and the judge will decide and off we'll go.

至此，我們已將其交給我們的律師。我們對自己的地位充滿信心。法官將決定我們的匹配權利（長達 11 頁）是否匹配，以及我們提供的內容是否匹配。我們拭目以待。我們要回去工作了，律師會處理這件事，法官會做出決定，我們就走吧。

On your first question, look, there is no doubt to us as a management team that the answer to that question is yes. We believe there is tremendous upside opportunity, both in the DTC business and in the Studio business and it is enough to offset what's happening on the linear side. Again, as I said, we just went through another strategic discussion, strategic planning process with our board, and we have a strong plan that supports this. I'm not in a position to perfectly predict when this is going to happen. Am I disappointed about the impairment?

關於你的第一個問題，身為管理團隊，毫無疑問，這個問題的答案是肯定的。我們相信 DTC 業務和 Studio 業務都存在巨大的上昇機會，足以抵消線性方面發生的情況。正如我所說，我們剛剛與董事會進行了另一次策略討論和策略規劃流程，我們有一個強有力的計劃來支持這一點。我無法完美預測這一切何時會發生。我對損害感到失望嗎？

Yes. Am I disappointed that the trends in the linear business haven't been a little better? There's been talk about recovery a year, 1.5 years ago. It hasn't really happened. It is what it is. We're managing this as best we can. The key point here is that on the DTC side, where finally, after two years of heavy investments, hard work, at the point where we're ready to accelerate.

是的。我是否對線性業務的趨勢沒有改善感到失望？一年前，也就是 1.5 年前，就有人談論過復甦。這還沒有真正發生過。就是這樣。我們正在盡力管理此事。這裡的關鍵點是，在 DTC 方面，經過兩年的大量投資和努力，我們終於準備好加速。

And as you heard from us, we believe we are going to see an acceleration on the topline, and we have significant opportunity across every driver of the business. And we've been very clear. We've talked for a while about the $1 billion mark in EBITDA for 2025. That is a starting point, not an ending point. So we have a lot of confidence in that. And on the Studio side as well, I can share a little bit more at the level of effort and rigor that is going into virtually every step along the value chain in the studio from green light through the physical production the windowing approach, the coordination between the various teams, it's a night and day difference. It takes a little while to become effective.

正如您從我們那裡聽到的那樣，我們相信我們的收入將會加速成長，並且我們在每個業務驅動因素上都擁有巨大的機會。我們已經非常明確了。我們已經討論了 2025 年 EBITDA 達到 10 億美元的目標。所以我們對此充滿信心。在工作室方面，我可以分享更多關於工作室價值鏈上幾乎每一步的努力和嚴謹程度，從綠燈到物理製作、窗口方法、之間的協調不同的球隊，這是一個白天和黑夜的區別。需要一段時間才能見效。

2025 is really going to be the year when the first films greenlit by Mike and Pam are going to dominate the slide. JB has talked about the long development cycles on the game side, et cetera. So there's no question about it. The Studio can operate at a very, very significantly higher level of performance.

2025 年確實將是麥克和帕姆批准的第一批電影將在幻燈片中佔據主導地位的一年。 JB談到了遊戲方面開發週期長等問題。所以這是毫無疑問的。 Studio 可以以非常非常高的效能等級運作。

And JB, I think it would be helpful. This is something that you and I are talking about every day. But we have an attack plan meeting every week, all hands on. Lay out the growth drivers for direct-to-consumer that it gives us now what we're seeing and why we have some real substantial confidence in the acceleration of growth and the acceleration of profit in our direct-to-consumer global business.

JB，我認為這會有幫助。這是你和我每天都在談論的事情。但我們每週都會召開一次攻擊計畫會議，所有人都親自動手。列出直接面向消費者的成長動力，它為我們提供了我們現在所看到的以及為什麼我們對直接面向消費者的全球業務的成長加速和利潤加速充滿信心。

Yes. I mean, look, we talked about our growth levers. Obviously, international growth and rollouts in more markets is by far the biggest. So that's number one. Number two is we have obviously a content slate, which as we've talked about on prior calls, the first nine to 12 months post the US launch, between just timing of some of our tent pools series being out of cycle, the strikes, obviously didn't help. We unfortunately had one of our weakest content slates.

是的。我的意思是，看，我們討論了我們的成長槓桿。顯然，國際成長和在更多市場的推出是迄今為止最大的。所以這是第一。第二點是我們顯然有一個內容清單，正如我們在之前的電話會議中討論過的那樣，在美國推出後的前9 到12 個月，在我們的一些帳篷池系列不周期、罷工的時間之間，顯然沒有幫助。不幸的是，我們有最薄弱的內容之一。

We now go into a period where thanks to all the great work from Casey and his team, the improved pay-1 slate that David and Gunnar have just talked about and more Max originals as well as the great content from the US net side, that we have probably one of the strongest content lineups with all of our tent pools coming back, starting with House of the Dragon obviously, this quarter, but over the next 18 months or so. And so we feel great about the content slate, which is clearly a massive driver of our success. Our ARPU story is the third one where you've seen us obviously raise price in the US. We are raising price outside the US.

我們現在進入了一個時期，感謝 Casey 和他的團隊所做的所有出色工作，David 和 Gunnar 剛剛談到的改進的 pay-1 名單，以及更多 Max 原創作品以及來自美國網絡方面的精彩內容，我們可能擁有最強大的內容陣容之一，我們所有的帳篷池都會回來，顯然是從《龍之家》開始，本季度，但在接下來的18 個月左右。因此，我們對內容板感到非常滿意，這顯然是我們成功的巨大推動力。我們的 ARPU 故事是您看到我們在美國明顯提高價格的第三個故事。我們正在提高美國以外地區的價格。

We're also changing rev shares outside the US, which historically in some of the wholesale agreements on the HBO side. We feel we're underpriced, so we're driving that. We're rolling out an ad-lite product in many more markets previously ad-lite on the old HBO Max was only in the US. We've now rolled it out in 39 markets across Lat Am, a handful of markets across Europe.

我們也改變了美國以外的收入份額，這在歷史上是在 HBO 方面的一些批發協議中進行的。我們覺得我們的價格被低估了，所以我們正在推動這一點。我們正在更多市場推出廣告精簡版產​​品，先前舊版 HBO Max 上的廣告精簡版僅在美國推出。現在，我們已在拉丁美洲的 39 個市場和歐洲的少數市場推出了該服務。

We're looking to roll it out in more markets, so advertising will become a bigger and bigger play for us. The product experience is one that we've talked a lot about. But the reality is we said a year ago when we rolled out Max in the US, the product went from not great to good. But it's still got a ways to get to world class.

我們希望將其推廣到更多市場，因此廣告對我們來說將成為越來越大的業務。產品體驗是我們經常談論的問題。但事實是，我們一年前說過，當我們在美國推出 Max 時，該產品從不好變成了好。但它仍然有辦法達到世界一流水平。

And we're working every day to improve features, to improve the personalization of the product, the recommendation in the product and that takes time. It's a game of inches that we are continuously driving. Another lever as David talked about earlier, is just the distribution agreements. We are partnering with more and more partners who can get us to market and in front of more customers and on more devices faster to accelerate our rollout and do it in a more efficient and effective way.

我們每天都在努力改進功能、改進產品的個人化、產品中的推薦，這需要時間。這是一場我們不斷推動的寸土寸金的遊戲。大衛之前談到的另一個槓桿就是分銷協議。我們正在與越來越多的合作夥伴合作，他們可以讓我們更快地進入市場，並在更多客戶和更多設備上展示，從而加速我們的推出，並以更有效率、更有效的方式進行。

And then last but not least, we are rolling out, obviously, our password sharing crackdown, which we've said before, will start towards the end of this year and bleed into 2025. And so that will be another revenue driver. And so we look at the building blocks not as sort of a what-if, could-it-be business model exercise. But we see real fundamentals and momentum in our business case for DTC that make us very confident about the profitability in the second half of this year. And also the $1 billion plus going into 2025.

最後但並非最不重要的一點是，我們顯然正在推出我們之前說過的密碼共享打擊行動，該打擊行動將於今年年底開始，一直持續到 2025 年。因此，我們將建構模組視為一種假設、可能的商業模式練習。但我們在 DTC 業務案例中看到了真正的基本面和勢頭，這讓我們對今年下半年的獲利能力非常有信心。還有到 2025 年的 10 億美元以上。

And look, this global disruption is being felt by everyone. It's a challenge. It's a transition. And as Gunnar said, this is a distribution disruption. People are consuming more content than ever. Our content is stronger than it's ever been. But the fact that it's being felt by so many, we've seen a lot of the local markets.

瞧，每個人都感受到了這種全球性的破壞。這是一個挑戰。這是一個過渡。正如古納爾所說，這是一種分銷中斷。人們消費的內容比以往任何時候都多。我們的內容比以往任何時候都更強大。但事實上，很多人都感受到了這一點，我們已經看到了許多當地市場。

Some great content players that don't have platforms, that are looking at us and saying, you're starting to make money. You're starting to scale. Maybe I can be a part of you. And if I'm a part of you, then maybe I have a chance of being more successful and turning around the economics of the business that I'm in, that's declining. Some of these discussions on the challenge and the difficulty, even though we're feeling that pain and we're fighting through it, is providing opportunity. Many of these bundles, they wouldn't be happening if people felt that they were doing terrific on their own, but it's the challenge of the marketplace that's forcing people to say what makes sense? How could this work better?

一些沒有平台的優秀內容播放器看著我們說，你開始賺錢了。你開始擴大規模。也許我可以成為你的一部分。如果我是你們的一部分，那麼也許我有機會取得更大的成功，並扭轉我所在產業正在下滑的經濟狀況。儘管我們感到痛苦並且我們正在克服它，但其中一些關於挑戰和困難的討論正在提供機會。如果人們覺得自己做得很好，那麼許多捆綁銷售就不會發生，但市場的挑戰迫使人們說出什麼是有意義的？這怎麼樣才能更好地發揮作用呢？

And what really works about this is the consumer experience right now is not good. And so we're all going to be driven toward always works this way. What's the best consumer experience and what is the best content. And so we're being driven through bundling or through I think you're going to see a number of players become part of other players and players that are playing in markets in the US or in markets outside the US, that we're hoping that they can make it alone. At least we believe that you need to be global.

真正起作用的是現在的消費者體驗不好。因此，我們都將努力始終以這種方式運作。什麼是最好的消費者體驗，什麼是最好的內容。因此，我們正在透過捆綁或透過我認為你會看到許多玩家成為其他玩家的一部分，以及在美國市場或美國以外市場玩遊戲的玩家，我們希望如此他們可以獨自完成。至少我們相信您需要全球化。

And when you look around and you say, who is global and who can I be a part of, because building a platform for one country, no matter how big, is a huge challenge when you're competing against taking Harry Potter around the world to a billion people above the globe. And so we've positioned ourselves, I think, to be profitable this year, to be now finally global and accelerating and be in a position where each of these countries around the world employers that have been playing at this and losing money or being challenged, there's only a few people they can reach out to and say, can I come along?

當你環顧四周時，你會說，誰是全球性的，我可以成為誰的一部分，因為當你與帶著哈利波特環遊世界的人競爭時，為一個國家建立一個平台，無論多大，都是一個巨大的挑戰為地球上十億人服務。因此，我認為，我們已經對自己進行了定位，今年將實現盈利，現在終於實現全球化並加速發展，並處於這樣一個位置：世界上每個國家的雇主都在這樣做，但一直在虧損或受到挑戰。

And Jessica, just for the avoidance of doubt, I want to come back to your original question. We have a plan that foresees growth, topline growth, bottom line growth. There is a transformation period that we're working through very obviously, as you saw in the impairment that we took today. We have a very strong balance sheet.

潔西卡，為了避免疑問，我想回到你原來的問題。我們有一個預見成長、營收成長、獲利成長的計劃。正如您在我們今天採取的減值中看到的那樣，我們正在經歷一個非常明顯的轉型期。我們擁有非常強勁的資產負債表。

We're fully committed to maintaining that investment-grade rating. We're going to generate tremendous free cash flow through the transformation period. And I have no doubt that we're going to come out as a strong and healthy and sustainably growing company on the other side of this.

我們完全致力於維持投資等級。我們將在轉型期間產生巨大的自由現金流。我毫不懷疑，我們將成為一家強大、健康、可持續發展的公司。

John Hodulik, UBS.

約翰‧霍杜里克，瑞銀集團。

I just wanted to follow up on JB's comments. David, I think you mentioned 65 markets now for Max. Just how big could it be? I mean, can imagine, it will be everywhere on the globe. But how many markets do you expect that to get to? And then as it relates to the Olympics here in the third quarter, you expect that to drive the business both in terms of advertising and DTC growth?

我只是想跟進 JB 的評論。 David，我想您現在提到了 Max 的 65 個市場。它到底能有多大？我的意思是，可以想像，它將遍布全球各地。但您預計會涵蓋多少個市場？然後，由於與第三季的奧運會相關，您預計這將推動廣告和 DTC 業務的成長？

Let me just start by saying we're not in three of the biggest markets where our content has huge appeal. And we see it in the viewership numbers in the UK and in Germany and in Italy, so at the end of '25, which is coming up soon, we'll be launching our own product in the UK. We're also a leader in our own sports product with TNT Sport which gives us an advantage.

首先我要說的是，我們的內容並不位於我們的內容具有巨大吸引力的三個最大市場中。我們在英國、德國和義大利的收視率中看到了這一點，因此在即將到來的 25 年底，我們將在英國推出我們自己的產品。我們也是 TNT Sport 運動產品的領導者，這為我們帶來了優勢。

And so to come out in those three markets, I think you're going to see real scale. JB, we talked a little bit about Japan and some of our other markets, but more than 50% our markets we're not in yet. JB?

因此，要進入這三個市場，我認為您將看到真正的規模。 JB，我們討論了一些日本和其他一些市場，但超過 50% 的市場我們還沒有涉足。傑布？

That's exactly the best way to think about the scaling, and we talked about the 18- to 24-month time frame, but the reality is by first half of '26, the vast majority of our rollout will be underway and will have taken place. And David mentioned, we talked about addressable market and the fact that our two bigger peers are if you measure there is 100% of those addressable markets. We're in just over 50% of them today, and we're at over 100 million subs.

這正是考慮擴展的最佳方式，我們討論了 18 到 24 個月的時間框架，但現實是到 26 年上半年，我們的絕大多數部署將正在進行並且已經發生。大衛提到，我們討論了可尋址市場，以及如果你衡量這些可尋址市場 100% 的話，我們的兩個更大的同行就是這樣的事實。今天，我們的訂閱量超過 50%，訂閱人數超過 1 億。

So you have to do your own thinking of what our penetration and opportunity could be, but we're about half of the addressable market today at 103 million subs. We think the opportunity to David's point, in some of those markets are big markets where we know our content and our audiences, we know the size of them is significant. And so we think in the next 18 to 24 months, the opportunity is certainly easily in the tens and tens of millions of subscribers on top of where we are today.

因此，您必須自己思考我們的滲透率和機會，但我們目前擁有 1.03 億訂閱者，約佔潛在市場的一半。我們認為大衛的觀點是有機會的，在其中一些市場是大市場，我們了解我們的內容和受眾，我們知道它們的規模是巨大的。因此，我們認為，在接下來的 18 到 24 個月內，機會肯定會輕易地出現在我們今天的數以千萬計的訂閱者中。

And look, that's 50% that we're going to be attacking. We just launched in Europe and Latin America. We launched last quarter. And in Europe, we launched in the middle of last quarter. So we're a couple of weeks in. So we haven't had the yield, which you're going to start to see from those markets over the next several months. And you'll see it this coming quarter.

你看，我們要攻擊的就是 50%。我們剛在歐洲和拉丁美洲推出。我們上個季度推出了。在歐洲，我們於上季中期推出。所以我們已經幾週了。 所以我們還沒有得到收益，你將在接下來的幾個月開始從這些市場看到收益。您將在下個季度看到這一點。

And the Olympics?

那麼奧運呢？

The Olympics, this is the last set of Olympic games under our old contract that we struck in 2015 and that was a wholesale contract. It had various business benefits for us. There's a large sublicensing components in those markets where we don't meet the broadcast and free-to-air requirements. There was a big, obviously, digital push to, at the time, rollout to drive the Eurosport Player, and it's very, very helpful today.

奧運會，這是我們2015年簽訂的舊合約下的最後一場奧運會，那是一份批發合約。它為我們帶來了多種商業利益。在那些我們無法滿足廣播和免費播放要求的市場中存在大量的再授權成分。當時，顯然有一個巨大的數位化推動力來推動 Eurosport Player 的推出，這在今天非常非常有幫助。

And the Max rollout. And then over the past eight years, we have benefited very significantly from having these rights in all of our affiliate discussions and renewals. The one thing to keep in mind, we've talked about this in past Olympics years, is that all of the costs are essentially recognized in the quarter where the games take place. That's why in this individual quarter, you're going to see a loss from the Olympics and a little more pronounced free cash flow impact on the negative side, as I called out, because a lot of the benefits are generated over the entire 8-year period.

以及 Max 的推出。在過去的八年裡，我們在所有附屬討論和續約中都擁有這些權利，從而使我們受益匪淺。需要記住的一件事是，我們在過去的奧運會中已經討論過這一點，所有成本基本上都是在奧運會舉辦的季度確認的。這就是為什麼在這個單獨的季度，你會看到奧運會帶來的損失，以及更明顯的自由現金流負面影響，正如我所說，因為許多好處是在整個 8-年期間。

And again, the next games are going to be taking place under our new arrangement, which is much more focused on the pay-TV and most importantly, the streaming rights and opportunity. And we believe, based on the numbers that we're seeing that it's going to continue to be a phenomenal driver for engagement and subscriber acquisition.

再說一次，接下來的比賽將在我們的新安排下進行，新安排將更加關注付費電視，最重要的是串流媒體權利和機會。我們相信，根據我們看到的數字，它將繼續成為參與度和用戶獲取的顯著驅動力。

And that does conclude today's question-and-answer session. And this does conclude today's program. We thank you for your participation. (technical difficulty) that you please disconnect at any time, and have a wonderful day.

今天的問答環節到此結束。今天的節目到此結束。我們感謝您的參與。 （技術難度）請隨時斷開連接，祝您有美好的一天。