Brutal Q2 for Warner Discovery

Warner Bros. Discovery posted weaker-than-expected secondquarter earnings Thursday and said the merger of its streaming services would be done in a year.

The media behemoth reported its earnings for the first time since merging to combine the properties of Discovery and WarnerMedia — which include HBO, CNN, Warner Bros., HGTV and TLC.

Shares tumbled nearly 12% in after-hours trading.

WBD CEO David Zaslav (right) has come under fire for his costcutting since the merger — including scrapping the alreadycompleted “Batgirl” movie.

He said HBO Max and Discovery+ will be merged next summer.

“We’ve had a busy, productive four months since launching Warner Bros. Discovery, and have more conviction than ever in the massive opportunity ahead,” Zaslav said.

In the quarter, the media giant posted a net loss of $3.42 billion, or $1.50 a share. Revenues totaled $9.83 billion. Wall Street expected a net loss of 3 cents a share on revenue of $11.84 billion.

The company said its streaming subscriber base, which includes both Discovery+ and HBO Max, totals 92.1 million.