{"id":195711,"date":"2025-10-07T16:38:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-07T16:38:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/195711\/"},"modified":"2025-10-07T16:38:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-07T16:38:10","slug":"closure-of-gcn-cost-warner-bros-3m-new-account-filings-reveal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/195711\/","title":{"rendered":"Closure of GCN+ cost Warner Bros \u00a33m, new account filings reveal"},"content":{"rendered":"

The closure of the GCN+ streaming app<\/a> in late 2023 set Warner Bros. Discovery back more than \u00a33m in \u201crestructuring costs\u201d, the company\u2019s latest annual accounts reveal.<\/p>\n

Covering the period to the end of December 2024, and published this week, the accounts for WBD Sports Holding Limited show a pre-tax loss of close to \u00a338m, almost all of which is due to the company\u2019s dealings with Play Sports Network Limited, the parent company of the YouTube channel GCN.<\/p>\n

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WBD wholly owned Play Sports Network until June 2024, when it reduced its shareholding to 30%, and sold a majority share back to its original founder<\/a> Simon Wear and CEO Mia Walter. Alongside the deal, WBD wrote off more than \u00a333m of debt outstanding from Play Sports Network, which forms the lion\u2019s share of the company\u2019s losses for 2024.<\/p>\n

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Also in the company accounts are \u00a33,192,397 of \u201cexceptional administrative expenses\u201d, explained as \u201crestructuring costs\u201d specifically related to the closure of the GCN+ app that WBD \u201ccommitted to pay\u201d.<\/p>\n

Launched in early 2021, GCN+ provided live streaming of road, mountain bike and cyclo-cross races from around the world, uninterrupted by adverts, for \u00a36.99 a month, or \u00a339.99 a year. It came in tandem with the GCN App, which also homed more than 200 documentaries<\/a>.<\/p>\n

On 19 December 2023, less than three years after its launch, GCN+ and the GCN App were axed by WBD<\/a> in a move from the company to \u201cconsolidate its streaming services\u201d. Cycling was then moved to WBD\u2019s Discovery+ streaming platform, and in February 2025, the sport was placed within a broader sports subscription package, priced at \u00a330.99 a month<\/a> \u2013 more than four times the GCN+ offering.<\/p>\n

Play Sports Network, GCN\u2019s parent company, also faced financial repercussions from the closure of GCN+.<\/p>\n

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Writing in the company\u2019s annual accounts covering 2024, also published this week, CEO Walter said: \u201cPlay Sports Network Limited revenue decreased significantly from \u00a324.0m in 2023 to \u00a310.3m in 2024. This was mainly driven by the closure of the GCN+ app on the 19 December 2023. This accounted for \u00a39.7m of revenue in 2023.\u201d<\/p>\n

The company\u2019s 2023 accounts noted \u201crestructuring costs\u201d of \u00a31.7m related to the closure of the GCN+ service and app.<\/p>\n

In 2024, Play Sports Network significantly reduced its pre-tax losses, from almost \u00a39.5m the previous year, to \u00a331,204. Part of this came from a decrease in staff costs, to the tune of \u00a36.8m, following the closure of GCN+.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The closure of the GCN+ streaming app in late 2023 set Warner Bros. Discovery back more than \u00a33m…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":195712,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[569],"tags":[64,63,784,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-195711","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-cycling","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195711","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=195711"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195711\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/195712"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=195711"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=195711"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=195711"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}