In the months leading up to the 7 October attacks by Hamas, they did begin to see things: practice raids, mock hostage-taking, and farmers behaving strangely on the other side of the fence.
Noa, not her real name, says they would pass information about what they were seeing to intelligence and higher-ranking officers, but were powerless to do more. “We were just the eyes,” she says.
It was clear to some of these women that Hamas was planning something big – that there was, in Noa’s words, a “balloon that was going to burst”.
The BBC has now spoken to these young women about the escalation in suspicious activity they observed, the reports they filed, and what they saw as a lack of response from senior Israel Defense Forces (IDF) officers.
These women were not the only ones raising the alarm, and as more testimony is gathered, anger at the Israeli state – and questions over its response – are mounting.
The BBC has spoken also to the grieving families who have now lost their daughters, and to experts who see the IDF’s response to these women as part of a broader intelligence failure. The IDF said it was “currently focused on eliminating the threat from the terrorist organisation Hamas” and declined to answer the BBC’s questions.
“The problem is that they [the military] didn’t connect the dots,” a former commander at one of the border units tells the BBC.
If they had, she says, they would have realised that Hamas was preparing something unprecedented.
China’s claims over Taiwan are not new – it sees the island as part of its territory and Xi Jinping has made unification a goal. But the threats have ramped up in the past year.
And yet, despite renewed warnings from China against voting for the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), millions of Taiwanese headed to the polls under warm, sunny skies on Saturday to do just that.
It’s an unprecedented third term for the DPP, a party China sees as skirting too close to its unquestionable red line – Taiwanese independence.
How Mr Lai manages Beijing, and how Beijing reacts to him, will determine his presidency.
Tsai 3.0 – or a fresh start?
Mr Lai has promised that his term will be a continuation of the eight years of his predecessor, Tsai Ing-wen.
Even in his Saturday address, he chose his words carefully and offered dialogue and co-operation.
On the campaign trail he has repeated her formula over and over that there is “no need to declare independence, because Taiwan is already an independent sovereign state – its name is the Republic of China – Taiwan”.
However, Mr Lai has long been considered much more of a firebrand than the cautious President Tsai.
Watch: The BBC’s Shaimaa Khalil joined DPP supporters at a rally celebrating their win
He came up through the DPP’s ranks as a member of the “new wave” faction, which advocated the formal declaration of Taiwan independence.
Mr Lai and his running mate Hsiao Bi-khim are deeply disliked and mistrusted by Beijing, which has banned them both from travel to mainland China and Hong Kong.
Ms Hsiao, the daughter of an American mother and a Taiwanese father, was most recently Taiwan’s representative to the US.
So China is extremely unlikely to agree to any dialogue with the new president. The two sides have had no formal communication since 2016. China suspended the channel at the time, infuriated by Ms Tsai’s refusal to acknowledge that Taiwan was a part of the mainland.
Saturday’s verdict will also mean a continuation of the very tense situation that already exists in the Taiwan Strait, with almost daily intrusions by Chinese ships and military aircraft.
Beijing could signal its discontent with a big show of military force, as it did after US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taipei in 2022. Taipei accused it then of mimicking a near blockade of the island.
China may also step up economic and diplomatic pressure, by luring away more of the handful of small states that still recognise Taiwan, and sanctioning more Taiwanese companies, products and people.
Mr Lai’s strategy for facing down the Chinese military threat is to continue what Ms Tsai has done.
He has promised to spend more on Taiwan’s military, continue the indigenous submarine building programme, and to build an even closer relationship with the United States, Japan and Europe. Ms Tsai has especially built a strong relationship with Washington.
But there will be some concern in the US that a Lai presidency could be more provocative, given his background as a pro-independence politician.
However his running mate Ms Hsiao is a reassurance to the Biden administration. She is likely to take the lead in persuading the US that Mr Lai can be trusted not to provoke Beijing.
‘Xi Jinping needs to learn to be quiet’
No matter how carefully Mr Lai plays his cards, Beijing cannot ignore the message his win sends.
Polls suggested it was a very close race but the DPP won by a much wider margin than expected.
Image caption,Mr Lai and his running mate Hsiao Bi-khim are expected to continue the policies of outgoing President Tsai (centre)
Hou You-ih and the main opposition Kuomintang (KMT) ran a campaign that played to the very real fears people here have that China could attack the island.
A KMT win would probably have seen China turn down the rhetoric against Taiwan, and the military intimidation, and it is far more likely that Beijing would agree to dialogue with Mr Hou.
Mr Xi met Taiwan’s last KMT president Ma Ying-jeou in 2015. It was the first time that the leaders of Taiwan and China had met face to face since the end of the Chinese civil war in 1949.
But those who oppose the KMT accused it of having a capitulationist attitude to China and not taking the defence of the island seriously, by blocking increases in defence spending and reducing military service on the island to just four months.
The fear was that a KMT government could also make Taiwan more vulnerable. Powerful allies like the US who arm the island would question why they should commit to defending Taiwan if it does not take its own defence seriously.
Taiwan currently spends around 2.5% of its GDP on defence. Much less than the US, or other countries in the region with serious security challenges such as South Korea.
So the voters seem to have made a clear choice. They are aware of the danger from Beijing, and they do want dialogue. But the KMT didn’t appeal to those young voters who also increasingly see themselves as Taiwanese rather than Chinese.
And this is despite the fact that the KMT now rarely talks of unification, or even “one China”, instead saying it wants to protect Taiwan’s peace and security through better relations with Beijing.
The last few months also perhaps drove home what would be Taiwan’s biggest loss. Its elections are boisterous affairs, its democracy is still young and the enthusiasm for voting is palpable.
That same democracy also made its dissatisfaction with the DPP clear – rising house prices, stagnant wages and shrinking job opportunities drove young voters away.
And that’s why the DPP looks set to lose its majority in the parliament. The KMT in coalition with a third party, the Taiwan People’s Party, is likely to muster the seats that will give it a stranglehold over legislation – and an opportunity to block Mr Lai’s agenda.
The path ahead is far from smooth for President Laihttps://gitarisgila.com/. Beyond his own government and a giant neighbour that will look to him with antipathy, his term will also be shaped by another election on the other side of the world.
He must be prepared for a very different kind of ally in the White House if Donald Trump becomes the next US president.
Menteri Luar Negeri AS Antony Blinken dalam pernyataannya memberi hormat kepada Lai yang menang pemungutan suara pada Sabtu. Dia memuji sistem demokrasi dan proses pemilihan yang terjadi di Taiwan.
Taiwan, yang terpisahkan selat sepanjang 180 kilometer dari daratan China, terus-terusan berada dalam tekanan China yang menginginkan unifikasi. AS, yang merupakan mitra militer Taiwan, menjadi sosok peredam konflik dengan China.
Lai bakal menjabat presiden Taiwan untuk periode ketiga. Dia berjanji bakal melindungi Taiwan dari ancaman dan intimidasi China dalam pidato kemenangannya.
China sudah menyatakan sebelum pemungutan suara bahwa Lai adalah ‘bahaya besar’ dan menyarankan pemilih tidak memilih dia.
AS pada awal pekan ini mengatakan berencana mengirim delegasi tidak resmi ke Taiwan setelah pemungutan suara dan memperingati China terhadap segala provokasi militer.
China merespons dengan meminta AS https://gitarisgila.com/menahan diri campur tangan dalam pemilu Taiwan.
But this season it is not the exploits of Barcelona that have been dazzling the footballing world but rather the achievements of the region’s second city, Girona, and especially those of their head coach, Miguel Angel Sanchez Munoz known as Michel.
Girona currently sit joint top of the table with Real Madrid on 48 points after a first half of the season that has seen them score more goals than anyone else (46) and suffer just one defeat, a 3-0 loss at home to Carlo Ancelotti’s side in September last year.
To win La Liga – talk currently banned by the club itself – would class as one of football’s greatest stories and dwarf Leicester City’s Premier League title win of 2016.
But how has a club, with an attendance of just 200 at the turn of the century, even got themselves in contention?
Girona will move top of La Liga if they get a point or more at bottom club Almeria on Sunday
Historically, most of the city’s footballing fans from the city have supported Barcelona or even Espanyol. Despite playing in the smallest stadium currently in La Liga’s top flight, back as recently as 1999 the 15,000 capacity Estadi Montilivi must have looked cavernous with about 200 fans dotted around it watching their side play in the fifth tier of Spanish football.
But things started to change when the side finally went up to Spain’s second tier back in 2008 following back-to-back promotions. They made it into the top flight for the first time in their then-87-year history after finishing second in the table at the end of the 2016-17 season.
The arrival at the club at the end of the 2014-15 season of Guardiola, not Pep, but his younger brother Pere, revolutionised things at the club.
Pere came to the club with a background in football marketing and development with companies like Nike. Back in 2009 he had co-founded his own agency and gone on to become one of the most influential agents in football with a list of clients including his brother, Andres Iniesta and Luis Suarez.
Despite relegation a couple of seasons later, Girona returned to the top flight in 2022, winning the play-off 3-1 against Tenerife, after two seasons of play-off heartbreak.
Their return was masterminded by coach Michel who had joined the club at the start of the 2021-22 promotion-winning campaign. A change of fortune for the manager that had received his marching orders from his two previous clubs – Rayo Vallecano and Huesca – both of whom he had previously led into the first division only to be sacked when things started to go wrong.
One of the keys to Michel’s first season at the club was the owners keeping faith in him when the team found itself at the wrong end of the table. They ended up promoted and then finishing 10th in their first campaign back, despite the loss of key players.
An eventual Xavi successor at Barcelona?
Michel has a bit of Pep Guardiola about him although he is a long way from being a footballing innovator or visionary.
While he is certainly intense, the 48-year-old has got a clear idea of what he wants and how to achieve it on the pitch, and has the ability to improve players and change his team’s tactics mid-game. Michel’s basic approach is based on possession when required, but also directness and counter-attacking – a mix not too dissimilar to that of Manchester City.
He also knows how to direct his players, which is something that few managers are able to do successfully and he has a keen eye for the smaller details.
Even though he has regular contact with Pep Guardiola, he appreciates where he is now and where he has come from.
Previous experiences have shown that when you are the ‘minnows’ swimming around the La Liga shark tank, it is frequently ephemeral and only achieved as a result of all the hard work that is done on a day-to-day basis.
So while others are making comparisons with Leicester City’s monumental title-winning achievement, for now Michel is taking nothing for granted other than perhaps the satisfaction of knowing that the 48 points his side has amassed to date will guarantee top-flight safety. And, yes, perhaps the possibility of reaching Europe is one that has been discussed in the changing rooms.
His parents ran a fruit shop in the working class Vallecas district of Madrid and because they had to work up to 12 hours a day to put food on the table, Michel and his three brothers were brought up by their grandparents.
Vallecas was his home and he would go on to become a hero at Rayo Vallecano, where he made 425 appearances over two spells at the club before becoming their coach in 2017. It taught him to integrate because the area was heavily populated with many immigrants and people of all origins.
And wherever he went, he did so with the words of his grandmother in his ears. “Adapt where you go,” she told him.
Michel’s attention to detail, and how to adapt, has not gone unnoticed either.
One of the first things he did when he arrived in Girona was start taking lessons in Catalan.
Michel first started to speak it shortly after he arrived in Girona without his family. He was befriended by an elderly couple in the flat next door who introduced him not only to the Catalan language, but to some of the region’s culinary delights.
The fans adore him for it and are frequently heard chanting, “Michel..Catala!!”. They refer to him as ‘Un dels nostres’ (‘one of our own’) and recently presented him with a flag picturing him wearing the classic ‘barretina’, the woollen hat that is symbolic of Catalonia.
Not surprisingly, his achievements have earned him the envious gaze of bigger clubs around Europe’s big leagues, with Bayern Munich and Newcastle rumoured to be sniffing around.
But the stories doing the rounds that he is on the verge of leaving Girona and finding a bigger home for his talents are way off the mark. For the time being he is going nowhere, although in the future I see him as a perfect fit for the manager’s seat at Catalonia’s big brother, Barcelona, once Xavi’s tenure is over.
Girona chairman Pere Guardiola is realistic about his coach’s future.
He said recently: “He can leave whenever he wants, he’s earned it. If a team comes in and he’s excited about it, thank you and goodbye.
“If he received an offer from Bayern and had a contract with Girona, I would take him by car to Munich myself! What he has done in Girona is something to be eternally grateful for.”
Savio has been linked with Real Madrid and Manchester City since signing for Girona from Troyes
How important is Girona’s link with the Man City group?
On 23 August 2017, City Football Group (CFG), a subsidiary of Abu Dhabi United Group, purchased 44.3% ownership in Girona. Another 44.3% was held by Girona Football Group, led by Pere Guardiola.
Soon after arriving at the club, Pere Guardiola set about securing loan deals for fringe City players or talented youngsters in need of minutes to develop into world-class stars – something that has been a major source of Girona stars down the years.
In 2015/16, four players were loaned from Man City to Girona, three In 16/17, and five in 17/18. The next season it was three, in 2020/21 it was four, then three last season – including one from another CFG-owned club New York City.
A union of several clubs around the world, with Manchester City clearly the standout, it allows for a simpler exchange of footballers between teams.
It is however far from being the major reason for the club’s success, which is due mainly to some extremely shrewd dealing on the transfer and loans market despite severe financial limitations.
Published figures illustrate the huge gap between La Liga’s giants and clubs like Girona in all aspects of the club including salaries for everyone including players and coaches.
Real Madrid’s expenditure limit this season is 727.5m euros (£626m), Atletico Madrid 296.4m euros (£255m), Barcelona 270m euros (£232m). Girona’s is just 52m euros (£44.7m), the eighth-lowest in the league. Links to the City Football Group means the much-used “punching above their weight” phrase is never applied to this Girona organisation, although it most certainly should be.
Key to the plan has been sporting director Quique Carcel, whose acumen in the market has helped Michel build the foundations that have brought success.
His ability to spot talent and build teams for each manager has really stood out, as well as his skill in constantly rebuilding every season to cover for departures.
There have been signings as well as numerous loan deals, although nothing like the big-money buys of Europe’s elite clubs.
Artem Dovbyk, Girona’s record signing at 7.5m euros from Dnipro this summer, caught sporting director Carcel’s eye after scoring 24 goals in 30 games last season while his Ukrainian international team-mate in Tsygankov came in from Dynamo Kyiv.
Perhaps the best example of the club’s canny scouting ability is seen in the form of 19-year-old loanee winger Savio, one of the highlights in La Liga this season and someone who never even featured for Troyes after they signed him from Atletico Mineiro for around 7m euros (£6m) in 2022.
Over and above everything the Girona story is all about sound housekeeping and level-headedness. They have spent just 4.35m euros (£3.74m) more than they earned in sales – 10 teams in La Liga had a bigger net spend.
With that they have managed to put together a squad made up of veterans and youngsters, loanees and rejects. In total, Girona have spent just 33.75m euros (£29m) in transfer fees on the entire squad. Only five other teams in La Liga have spent less and Real Madrid’s squad cost 573m euros (£493m).
Could Girona shock the footballing world and repeat Leicester City feat?
While Leicester’s title achievement was huge, a similar triumph for Girona would surpass it.
While everyone is enjoying their runaway success, the chances of maintaining it until the end of the season are remote and any talk of winning the title is banned at the club.
What it has shown, however, is that in a world of football financial lunacy exhibited primarily by their illustrious countrymen 100km due south, is that it is not all about money and stars, and footballing success and sound management and careful housekeeping are not mutually exclusive.https://gitarisgila.com/
And while no-one is talking about lifting the title, it’s worth noting that in the history of La Liga, no club with this number of points at this stage of the season has ever failed to qualify for the Champions League.
NBCUniversal’s flagship streaming service Peacock added 4 million subscribers and revenue increased 64% to $830 million, stemming the subscription service’s adjusted quarterly loss to $565 million. Peacock lost an adjusted $614 million in the same period a year prior on $506 million in revenue.
Here’s how Comcast performed, compared with estimates from analysts surveyed by LSEG, formerly known as Refinitiv.
For the quarter ended Sept. 30, Comcast reported net income of $4 billion, or 98 cents per share, compared with a loss of $4.6 billion, or $1.05 cents per share, a year earlier. Adjusted for one-time items, per-share earnings were $1.08 in the quarter. The prior year’s results were affected by one-time impairment and goodwill charges associated Comcast’s 2018 acquisition of Sky.
Revenue rose 0.9% compared with the prior-year period. Adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) rose 5.1% to $9.96 billion.
Theme parks’ adjusted EBITDA increased 20% to $983 million — the highest quarterly profit on record for the division — driven by the popularity of Super Nintendo World in Universal Studios Hollywood, Comcast said.
Wireless revenue rose 16% to $917 million in the quarter on a net addition of 294,000 customers. Comcast ended the quarter with 6.3 million wireless customers. Comcast usesVerizon’s network to provide branded Xfinitywireless coverage from an agreement struck in 2016.
Comcast shares fell more than 8% Thursday after the company reported a loss of 18,000 residential broadband customers in the third quarter and warned losses will be larger in the fourth quarter.
Rising interest rates have slowed the buying and selling of houses, which has led to a decline in new home internet connections. Mortgage demand is at its lowest point in nearly 30 years. The 30-year fixed mortgage rate hit 8% last week for the first time since 2000. Additionally, new competition for home broadband from wireless providers such as T-Mobile and Verizon had added to Comcast’s lack of residential growth.
Comcast’s lack of broadband growth started last year, when the largest U.S. internet provider reported no additions in the second quarter of 2022 for the first time in the company’s history. Since then, Comcast has reported net broadband losses in three of the last five quarters.
Comcast executives have pushed investors to focus on broadband’s rising average revenue per user (ARPU) growth, driven by price increases and upselling packages, rather than net additions. Comcast’s residential broadband ARPU rose 3.9% in the quarter.
“As we continue to manage this balance, we expect ARPU growth to remain strong and our primary driver of broadband revenue growth with somewhat higher subscribers losses expected the fourth quarter compared to the 18,000 loss we just reported in the third quarter,” Comcast Chief Financial Officer Jason Armstrong said during the company’s earnings conference call Thursday.
Comcast also owns NBCUniversal, a company ostensibly worth tens of billions. Theme park revenue rose more than 17% in the quarter, and streaming service Peacock added 4 million subscribers in the quarter, stemming losses from a year ago.
But investors shrugged at those results and focused on the company’s guidance that broadband growth won’t return next quarter.
Comcast on Thursday reiterated it plans to return to broadband growth eventually, while not offering a specific timeline. While a rough housing market is a clear headwind on broadband additions, T-Mobile added 557,000 new high-speed broadband customers in its third quarter. Verizon reported net additions of 434,000. That speaks to Comcast’s decision not to engage in a price war with wireless competitors.
“It’s a pretty competitive environment,” Comcast cable President Dave Watson said on Thursday’s earnings call. “We’ve seen the expansion of both fiber and fixed wireless’s footprint. Part of our game plan is we’re going to continue invest in a better network and compete aggressively but we’re going to maintain financial discipline. That means making certain decisions when it comes to balancing rate and volume.”
Comcast added 294,000 wireless subscribers in the quarter, as it fights back against wireless company competition by eating into some of their subscribers. Still, residential broadband has a much higher profit margin for Comcast and derives far more revenue for the company.
Comcast reported broadband revenue of $6.4 billion in the quarter from 32.3 million subscribers, or an average of about $200 in revenue in the quarter per subscriber. Comcast reported $917 million in revenue from its 6.3 million wireless customers — $145 in revenue per subscriber for the quarter.
After the bell Wednesday, Roku reported a net loss of $330.1 million for the third quarter, or $2.33 per share, nearly triple the loss of $122.2 million, or 88 cents per share, which is what the company reported in the year-ago quarter.
But revenue was up 20% year over year, the company reported, largely driven by “strong performance in content distribution and video advertising, along with unit sales of Roku-branded TVs, which launched in March 2023,” Roku said in a shareholder letter.
Roku-branded smart TV’s come pre-installed with the Roku interface users would experience on an external plug-in Roku Streaming Player. The smart TVs were first made available at Best Buy earlier this year and drove a device segment revenue increase of 33% from the year-ago quarter, the company said during its earnings call Wednesday.
“Branded TVs also drove a higher portion of net adds in active accounts than the streaming players in international markets,” Roku Devices President Mustafa Ozgen said during Wednesday’s earnings call.
The company said it fared better during the quarter with advertisements, weathering an industry-wide ad slowdown.
“We had a solid rebound in video ads in the third quarter,” Roku Media President Charlie Collier said during the earnings call. “We expect year-over-year growth in the fourth quarter to be similar, but we remain cautious about the ad market recovery going forward.”
Active accounts also beat the Street’s estimates, coming in at 75.8 million for the quarter, compared to StreetAccount estimates of 75.33 million. That’s a net increase of 2.3 million active accounts from the previous quarter.
In September, Roku said it was laying off 200 employees in a bid to reduce the company’s year-over-year operating expense growth rate. The move followed rounds of layoffs earlier this year in March and November 2022. The company also committed to various cost-cutting measures including consolidating office space and slowing hiring, CNBC reported at the time.
“With the expiration of New York’s Adult Survivors Act fast approaching, it became clear that this was an opportunity to speak up about the trauma I have experienced and that I will be recovering from for the rest of my life,” said Cassie, whose legal name is Casandra Ventura.
The Adult Survivors Act since last November allows accusers a one-year window to file civil claims of sexual abuse that otherwise would be barred by the statute of limitations.
“Ms. Ventura’s demand of $30 million, under the threat of writing a damaging book about their relationship, was unequivocally rejected as blatant blackmail,” Brafman said. “Despite withdrawing her initial threat, Ms. Ventura has now resorted to filing a lawsuit riddled with baseless and outrageous lies, aiming to tarnish Mr. Combs’ reputation, and seeking a pay day.”
Cassie’s lawyer, Douglas Wigdor, shot back that Combs “offered Ms. Ventura eight figures to silence her and prevent the filing of this lawsuit. She rejected his efforts and decided to give a voice to all woman who suffer in silence.”
Cassie’s suit says that in 2005, when she was 19 years old, the then 37-year-old Combs lured the singer into a professional relationship by signing her to his label, Bad Boy Records.
Within several years he induced her into a sexual relationship, and introduced her “to a lifestyle of excessive alcohol and substance abuse and required her to procure illicit prescriptions to satisfy his own addictions,” the suit alleges.
The suit claims that Combs raped Cassie in her home after she tried to leave him, “blew up” another man’s car after learning of his romantic interest in the singer, and often beat and kicked her.
“These beatings were witnessed by Mr. Combs’ staff and employees of Bad Boy Entertainment and Mr. Combs’s related businesses, but no one dared to speak up against their frightening and ferocious boss.”
Cassie’s suit is the latest legal challenge for Combs. Earlier this year, he sued Ciroc owner Diageo for alleged racial discrimination, saying they neglected Ciroc and his tequila brand, DeLeon. The company ended their relationship in June after about 16 years.
Combs also was a close friend of rapper Notorious B.I.G., known as Biggie. He was in Biggie’s entourage, in a separate vehicle, when the rapper was fatally shot in 1997.
Iger appears to be re-running the playbook for 2024. After flooding Disney+ with movies and other new content for several years, Iger is strategically cutting back to accelerate free cash flow generation and profitability. Disney eliminated animation jobs in June — the first significant cuts in about a decade — as part of a larger round of job reductions. After releasing four Marvel Cinematic Universe movies in 2021 and three in 2022 and 2023, Disney will have just one in 2024 — “Deadpool 3.” There hasn’t been a Star Wars movie since 2019′s “The Rise of Skywalker.”
In 2006, acquiring Pixar quickly improved Disney’s film quality and box office results. The animators’ blend of technology and storytelling rubbed off on Disney’s traditional animation unit, eventually leading to hits including “Frozen” and “Zooptopia.” This time, Disney will need to improve organically, putting pressure on Iger and studio head Alan Bergman to show results as activist shareholders Trian Partners and ValueAct threaten to pressure management and the board.
“I feel good about the direction we’re headed, but I’m mindful of the fact that our performance from a quality perspective wasn’t really up to the standards that we set for ourselves,” Iger said last week. “And so working with the talented team at the studio, we’re looking to and working to consolidate, meaning make less, focus more on quality. We’re all rolling up our sleeves, including myself, to do just that.”
Iger noted the Disney animation studio’s next release, “Wish,” which stars Ariana DeBose and debuts in theaters on Wednesday, could begin a run of sustainable hits for Disney. Early ticket sales suggest “Wish” is tracking at $55 million for the Wednesday to Sunday period including Thanksgiving. That trails previous Thanksgiving openers from Disney movies including “Ralph Breaks the Internet,” “Coco,” “The Good Dinosaur” and “Tangled” but is higher than the $18.9 million brought in from “Strange World” last year and the $40.6 million from “Encanto” in 2021, according to data from Comscore.
Warner Bros. Discovery reported a net loss of $417 million for the third quarter, or 17 cents per share, an improvement from the $2.31 billion, or 95 cents per share, loss the company reported in the year-ago quarter. Revenue rose 2% to $9.98 billion.
The company’s stock closed down 19% Wednesday. The slide comes after a media rally late last week driven by Roku and Paramount earnings. Rival media giant Disney is set to report earnings after the closing bell Wednesday.
The company also warned of a number of obstacles heading into 2024, including sluggish ad revenue and ongoing impacts from the actors’ strike.
“This is a generational disruption we’re going through. Going through that with a streaming service that’s losing billions of dollars, it’s really difficult to go on offense,” CEO David Zaslav said during the earnings conference call.
The third quarter marked the first full quarter since Warner Bros. Discovery launched its flagship streaming service Max in May, which merged content from HBO Max and Discovery+.
The company reported 95.1 million global direct-to-consumer subscribers, a 700,000 decrease from the previous quarter, and less than the analyst projection of 95.4 million subscribers, according to StreetAccount.
The “modest sequential loss” was largely a result of an “extraordinarily light content slate,” CFO Gunnar Wiedenfels said during the earnings call.
Warner Bros. Discovery also made headway on paying off its debt load, with $2.4 billion of repayments made during the quarter, the company said. It still has $45.3 billion in gross debt.
