Mumbai: US major AT&T has reported its fourth-quarter financial results on Wednesday. The company's WarnerMedia segment posted revenues of $9.9 billion, a growth of 15.4 per cent year-on-year driven by content licensing and direct-to-consumer subscription growth. The company said that it expects the WarnerMedia-Discovery transaction to close by the second quarter of 2022.

“We are encouraged with how the process for the WarnerMedia deal is progressing and now expect the transaction to close in the second quarter,” said AT&T CEO John Stankey. “Coming off an outstanding year with HBO Max, we plan to hand off the business with a strong exit velocity, and we look to further our international momentum and deliver more world-class content for viewers.”

He further added, “When the deal closes, the investments made in both content and HBO Max growth, coupled with strong execution by the team, will ensure Warner Bros Discovery is positioned as a leading global media company with the depth of content and the capabilities required to lead in the next era of media.”

WarnerMedia’s streaming service HBO Max added 13.1 million subscribers in 2021 and currently has a base of 73.8 million subscribers globally. The investor presentation also revealed that WarnerMedia saw a DTC subscription revenue growth of 11.5 per cent from $1.7 billion to $1.9 billion in the fourth quarter.

In May 2021, AT&T announced that it had proposed a merger between Discovery Inc and its media subsidiary WarnerMedia, which would be spun off into a new publicly-traded company to be known as Warner Bros Discovery. The merged entity would be led by Discovery CEO David Zaslav. The transaction was approved by the European Commission in December 2021 and it is expected to be completed in mid-2022.