The company swung to a $148 million Q3 net loss (6 cents per share) from a $135 million profit a year ago, though it beat analyst expectations for a 7-cent loss. Revenue fell 6% to $9.05 billion, missing the $9.18 billion consensus.
Streaming subscribers grew by 2.3 million to 128 million across Max and Discovery+, but ad sales plunged 16% to $1.41 billion and distribution revenue slipped 4% to $4.7 billion—both dragged by linear TV declines.
Content revenue dropped 3% to $2.65 billion, but would have risen 23% excluding last year’s Olympic sublicensing, thanks to strong theatrical performance.
The planned split would create one company with studios, HBO, and streaming, and another with cable networks including CNN, TNT, Discovery, and Food Network. Paramount has made three rejected bids for the entire company, per the Wall Street Journal, while Comcast and Netflix have expressed interest.