Warner Bros. Discovery expects a $500 million earnings hit from ongoing WGA and SAG strikes

Warner Bros. Discovery expects the ongoing strikes to result in a $500 million earnings loss.

Transcript

00:00 I'm JD Durkin reporting from the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.

00:03 Stocks finishing the session in the red closed out the very first day of trading for the

00:07 shortened holiday week.

00:08 The Dow closing down 0.5% lower, the NASDAQ finishing down fractionally, and the S&P 500

00:14 closing down 0.4%.

00:17 Stocks very much feeling the pressure from a jump in oil prices, which came after Saudi

00:21 Arabia extended its voluntary 1 million barrels per day oil price cuts through the end of

00:27 the year.

00:28 Meanwhile, in the world of Hollywood, Warner Bros. expected to take a pretty huge hit from

00:33 the ongoing writer strike, despite its wild box office smash sensation success with the

00:38 Barbie film earlier this summer.

00:41 The media and entertainment giant said it expects to lose between $300 and $500 million

00:47 as the strike continues to keep production halted.

00:50 The Writers Guild of America, which represents 11,000 writers, has been on strike since May

00:55 of this year as writers lobby for fair pay and protections against AI.

01:00 And SAG-AFTRA, which represents about 160,000 actors, joined the writers in striking back

01:06 in July.

01:07 This strike marks the first time in 63 years that Hollywood writers and actors are striking

01:12 at the same time.

01:14 Warner Bros. initially expected the strike to end this month, but negotiations between

01:18 the two sides are still ongoing.

01:20 The company says they are hopeful the strike will soon end, but still expects the financial

01:24 impact of the strikes to last through the end of this year.

01:28 Other companies also set to take a bit of a hit include Apple, Amazon, CBS, Disney,

01:33 and many more.

01:34 That'll do it for your daily briefing.

01:36 From the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, I'm J.D. Durkin with The Street.

01:39 Thanks for watching.

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