AT&T Beats on Q4 Earnings, WarnerMedia Revenue Up 15% as Discovery Merger Expected to Close by Mid-March

variety.com:

Todd Spangler NY Digital EditorAT&T topped Wall Street estimates for the fourth quarter of 2021, with WarnerMedia revenue driving top-line results helped by strong growth of HBO Max.The company also announced that the it expects the WarnerMedia spinoff and merger with Discovery to close by mid-March 2022.

AT&T said it plans to host a virtual analyst event in the first half of March, following the close of the WarnerMedia transaction.WarnerMedia total revenues grew 15.4% to $9.9 billion, driven by content licensing revenues and strong direct-to-consumer subscription growth, AT&T said.

DTC subscription revenue increase by 11.5% year-over-year, to $1.9 billion.The telco earlier this month pre-announced Q4 results for HBO/HBO Max subscribers, beating its own forecast: The services at year-end tallied 73.8 million combined global subs, up 4.3 million sequentially, over the high end of AT&T’s guidance of 70 million-73 million.

HBO and HBO Max ended 2021 with 46.8 million domestic subscribers, a net gain of 1.6 million in Q4.Click here to sign up for Variety’s free Strictly Business newsletter covering earnings, financial news, and more.The Q4 earnings stand to be one of AT&T’s last to include WarnerMedia, expected to spin off and close the $43 billion merger with Discovery in Q2 pending regulatory approvals including by the DOJ.Overall, AT&T’s fourth quarter 2021 revenue was $41.0 billion, down 10.4%.