WBD Owned Networks Account For Nearly ¼ Of Top 50 Nets
Warner Bros. Discovery has had a busy few weeks.
Last week the company debuted WBD Stream, a digital video ad product that will give advertisers access to content across its portfolio, as well as a number of ad options for Max and Discovery+. This week, the company launched Max, its rebrand of HBO Max.
With that in mind, we thought we’d take a look at how WBD networks are performing.
WBD networks accounted for 12 of the top 50 networks (24%) ranked by watch-time from Jan. 1, 2023 through May 14, 2023. That’s more than any other parent company, according to data from Inscape, the currency-grade smart TV ACR data provider and data technology division of Vizio.
Warner Bros. Discovery is a newer entrant into the list of parent companies. In April 2022, Discovery completed its acquisition of AT&T’s WarnerMedia assets, forming the media and entertainment behemoth WBD. The deal combined Discovery’s popular networks, including Food Network, HGTV and the eponymous Discovery Channel, with WarnerMedia’s premium HBO fare as well as legacy Turner nets TBS, TNT and CNN.
It’s also worth noting that sports programming is a big driver of eyeballs and WBD said last August that it was looking to use sports to bring more viewership to TNT and TBS. That strategy put TNT at No. 8 (1.91% percent shared duration) and TBS at No. 9 (1.88% percent share duration) in the top 50 ranking thanks in part to the NBA, the NCAA Tournament and the NHL.
WBD’s home improvement and real estate network HGTV was the company’s third most-watched channel, notching 1.77% share duration and the No. 10 spot.
On the ad front, Warner Bros. Discovery-owned networks delivered 19.6% of the total household TV ad impressions for Jan. 1 - May 14, 2023, per iSpot.tv.
HGTV came out on top for WBD with 55.7 billion impressions over the time period and 2.31% impressions share of voice (across all networks, not just WBD-owned channels). Of WBD networks, next came TNT, powered by sports, with 55.4 billion impressions and 2.30% impressions share of voice. CNN also came in high with 51 billion impressions and 2.11% impressions share of voice.
