Warner Bros. Discovery will split into two media giants

Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) has announced that it will be splitting up into two separate media companies. The new structure will see one entity retain Warner Bros. film, television and game studios, along with New Line Cinema, DC Studios, HBO and HBO Max, while the other will hold the company’s full portfolio of live cable channels, which includes many household names like CNN, HGTV, Cartoon Network, Discovery, TCL and others.

In a shareholder deck, WBD refers to these two entities as “WBD Global Networks” and “WBD Streaming & Studios,” and highlights the strengths of each portfolio. The company points out that the newly minted entities would each produce healthy free cash flow and intends for each to be listed as publicly traded companies. This comes just three years after the original merger between WarnerMedia and Discovery.

David Zaslav, the current CEO and president of WBD, will serve ...