The final round of quarterly earnings updates for 2025 kick off with Netflix earnings on Tuesday afternoon, followed by Comcast next week and Warner Bros. Discovery, Paramount and Disney in November.
The financials will paint the latest picture on where these companies stand as they look to grow streaming profitability amid linear TV’s continued decline. Executives will also have the opportunity to address several major shifts set to take place across the media landscape in the coming quarters, including increased competition from YouTube, the copyright implications from OpenAI’s Sora 2, Comcast’s spin off of its cable network portfolio into Versant and David Ellison’s new vision for Paramount as the company pursues a potential acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, which said on Tuesday its fielding interest from “multiple parties” for all or part of its business.
“We were finally beginning to settle into a position where Netflix has won the streaming wars. It just feels like things are being thrown into flux again,” Third Bridge analyst John Conca told TheWrap. “We’re in a time of disruption.”
Disney, Comcast and Paramount declined to comment on this story. Netflix and Warner Bros. Discovery did not immediately return TheWrap’s request for comment.
Here are five questions we hope to get more answers to as earnings season kicks off.
Can Netflix keep engagement growth going?
After ending its quarterly disclosures at the end of 2024, Wall Street will be paying close attention to Netflix’s guidance around engagement, which has become the streamer’s new metric of success as it looks to scale its ad tier.
Wedbush Securities analyst Alicia Reese told TheWrap that Netflix is finally at a turning point where the company’s ad tier is poised to become a primary revenue driver in 2026. She noted that Wedbush’s quarterly consumer survey indicates “pretty strong stability” in Netflix subscriber growth.
“The retention is largely due to their ad supported tier,” she said. “They have the lowest ad delivery rates of anyone in streaming and I think their ads are becoming more and more relevant as they get better at targeting. That will only get better over time.”
UBS analyst John Hodulik expects a 17% increase in revenue and 25% increase in operating income as a result of subscriber growth, higher pricing and increased ad revenues. He believes the return of shows like “Squid Game” and “Wednesday,” as well as new hits like “KPop Demon Hunters” and “Untamed,” will provide a boost to engagement and monetization. He expects that trend to continue with its fourth-quarter slate, which includes “The Witcher,” “Stranger Things” and the NFL Christmas Day games.
Netflix will also add video podcasts to its platform in 2026 as part of a new partnership with Spotify, so expect to hear some commentary around that.
Though Netflix itself has also been floated as a potential WBD suitor, J.P. Morgan analyst Doug Anmuth emphasized its “certainly not an acquisitive company” and added that a large, complex deal would “likely bog the company down for an extended period of time and potentially invite regulatory scrutiny.” Netflix co-CEO Greg Peters also shaded big media mergers earlier this month, noting they “don’t have an amazing track record.”
Will Jimmy Kimmel’s suspension impact Disney’s bottom line?
Disney will report its first earnings results since its temporary suspension of “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” on ABC and affiliates owned by Nexstar Media Group and Sinclair Broadcasting.
The move, which came in response to the late night host’s comments about Charlie Kirk’s alleged assassin, triggered calls to cancel Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+ subscriptions.
Bank of America analyst Jessica Reif Ehrlich expects Kimmel to have “little impact” on streaming churn in the quarter given the timing of billing cycles, though she predicted there could be a “modest” impact in Disney’s first fiscal quarter of 2026. On the advertising side, Seaport Research’s David Joyce estimated the Kimmel situation could have resulted in a $4.25 million hit, assuming a $30 average cost-per-thousand impressions (CPM) and 1.77 million average viewers, but acknowledged that could be easily recouped.
Antenna revealed on Monday that the monthly churn rate for Disney+ and Hulu doubled in September to 5% and 10%, respectively, though it’s unclear how much of that was related directly to Kimmel. An insider told TheWrap that Antenna’s percentages are higher than what Disney is seeing internally.
“Disney ultimately, and effectively we believe, resolved its controversies over the past couple of weeks, but the immediate follow-on with planned streaming price increases might compound the cancellations and put the +10 [million] net adds guidance at risk — but not likely by a wide margin,” Joyce said.
Notably, ESPN+ will no longer report its subscriber and average revenue per user metrics starting this quarter, with Disney+ and Hulu set to follow suit in the company’s first quarter of 2026.
An Antenna spokesperson told TheWrap that the estimated cancellation volumes for Disney+ and Hulu totaled 3 million and 4.1 million, compared to the averages of 1.2 million and 1.9 million, respectively, in the last three months. Disney+ had around 2.18 million sign-ups during the month, while Hulu had just over 2.1 million sign-ups, per Antenna.
In addition to Kimmel, Wall Street will be paying close attention to any additional financial guidance for 2026, as well as commentary around Disney CEO succession updates, its new ESPN streamer and its impact on cord-cutting, the efforts to combine Disney+ and Hulu into a standalone app in 2026, the financial impact of its NBA rights renewal and loss of F1 rights, the outlook for their linear business, recent price hikes at their U.S. theme parks and the impact from competition with Universal’s Epic Universe.
Will Paramount CEO David Ellison address the WBD elephant?
Ellison will finally take questions from Wall Street after the closing of Skydance Media’s $8 billion merger as he and president Jeff Shell outline their vision and provide updates on the company’s efforts to achieve $2 billion in cost savings.
Those efforts include thousands of upcoming layoffs which are expected to kick off as soon as next week, a review of its real estate portfolio and finding efficiencies in other areas such as procurement and workflow. Leadership also said they would look to transform Paramount into a technological leader in entertainment, with plans to use tools like virtual production and AI, as well as leverage Skydance’s existing relationship with Larry Ellison’s Oracle and move Paramount+, Pluto TV and BET+ to a unified tech stack next year.
Additionally the company has been investing more in content, setting new media rights deals with the UFC and Zuffa Boxing, new series such as Jeremy Strong’s “9/12” and Nicole Kidman and Elle Fanning’s “Discretion,” and striking deals with“South Park” creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone, The Duffer Brothers and James Mangold.
“It will probably be a few quarters before we really have a good idea of what this vision truly is,” Conca said. “It’s exciting and invigorating that we have seen them make the moves that they’ve made so far, but we don’t know where this might all end up going.”
Analysts will also have an opportunity to ask Paramount about its pursuit of all of Warner Bros. Discovery and larger M&A strategy on the heels of its $150 million purchase of Bari Weiss’ The Free Press. When asked during Bloomberg’s Screentime conference, Ellison dodged talk about the WBD bid, but said he sees “a lot” of “actionable” M&A possibilities in the near-term.
“We would approach that through the lens of wanting to make more, not less,” Ellison said.
Conca says he’ll also be looking for specifics around Paramount’s content spend, how a WBD acquisition may or may not change the plans for holding onto its linear networks and the timeline for ramping up its content production on the film side.
Will WBD split or sell?
Speaking of Warner Bros. Discovery, the company revealed on Tuesday that it has launched a review of strategic alternatives after “unsolicited interest” from “multiple parties” for both the entire company and Warner Bros., its streaming and studios business that will separate from its linear networks business Discovery Global in April.
The review comes as WBD reportedly rejected a $20 per share takeover bid from Paramount for being too low. Lightshed Partners analyst Rich Greenfield noted that, assuming the lowest price the WBD board is willing to entertain is $25 per share, the Ellisons could pay around $63 billion with $50 billion in cash, though he doesn’t believe they’d be interested in that option. They could also write a $30 billion check for WBD and raise $20 billion in new debt, along with issuing $12 billion to $13 billion of new Paramount stock to WBD shareholders.
Additionally, analysts will be looking for any further guidance around HBO Max’s efforts to grow revenue, profitability and subscribers through its ongoing international expansion and looming password sharing crackdown, as well as the impact of WBD’s loss of its NBA rights to Amazon, NBCUniversal and Disney.
Though it wasn’t included in the larger group, Warner notably reached a settlement with the league that will give TNT Sports and its portfolio of brands a global license to create, produce and distribute new and existing NBA content across its platforms, as well as international rights in Northern Europe and Latin America, excluding Mexico and Brazil.
Morningstar Research analyst Matthew Dolgin told TheWrap it’s too soon to tell what the overall impact of the NBA loss will be, but that it’s an area he’ll be keeping an eye on.
“Their recent pay TV renewals should keep the subscription line steady for now, but the extent of ad revenue declines and cash savings over the next couple of quarters will be important,” Dolgin said.
Will Comcast emerge as a rival WBD bidder?
Though many analysts have viewed Comcast as an ideal merger partner for WBD for years, the company faces difficulty in getting a deal done given its upcoming spin off of Versant, as well as the required financing for a competing bid against the world’s second richest man and potential regulatory hurdles from the Trump administration.
“I would be very surprised if they were to get involved at this point. It seems like Paramount has the appetite to absorb both and then maybe deal with it later. I don’t see Comcast wanting to do that, at least as of now,” Conca said. “If we’re sitting here a year from now and there’s a full Warner Bros. Discovery unwinding and they’re spun off, I could see Comcast maybe getting involved for the studio piece and Versant getting involved for the cable networks, but I don’t see that now as they’re going through their own organizational reshuffle.”
On the flip side, Wolfe Research analyst Peter Supino believes that Comcast should “try hard to buy it,” arguing it would have “much to gain” and that it could “fix NBCU’s ~$30B undervaluation.”
Supino said Comcast could get around the political and financing challenges by issuing new stock to WBD, eliminating its “super voting” share structure and appointing a new chairman and CEO given Trump’s repeated criticism of Brian Roberts. (Comcast recently announced it would elevate Comcast president Mike Cavanagh to co-CEO alongside Roberts, though the latter said the pair would work together for “years to come.”)
He added that NBCU could sweeten its bid with a position for WBD CEO David Zaslav in the combined company.
Outside of the WBD bid conversation, analysts will keep an eye out for any positive momentum for Comcast’s broadband business, which has suffered declines in recent quarters due to increased competition, and any further guidance that can be shared about Versant’s outlook. In a first glimpse at its financials ahead of the spin off, Comcast disclosed that Versant’s profits fell 16% to $670 million and revenue fell 6% to $3.42 billion in the first half of 2025.
They’ll also be paying close attention to Peacock’s growth and how its recent price increase and NBCUniversal’s new 11-year media rights deal with the NBA may impact its profitability efforts.
“With the NBA contract beginning in this year’s fourth quarter, I don’t think third quarter sales, subscribers or profits can be expected to be a trend,” Dolgin said. “We’ll need to wait until next year to see if the NBA is bearing fruit and allowing for a better outlook for Peacock, which we’ve seen as the laggard.”
