Warner missed every target across every income statement and throughout its entire operations. The company also wrote down the value of all of its traditional television network, which it acquired in 2022 when Warner Bros. Discovery was birthed out of an acquisition of WarnerMedia.

For the past quarter, Warner reported a net loss of $10 billion, a figure that includes additional charges of $2.1 billion from the merger. Revenue fell 6.2 percent to $9.71 billion during the same period.

"The write down confirmed that legacy cable channels like CNN and TNT are no longer worth what they were when the $42 billion merger was completed," reports explain, pointing to the ongoing collapse of CNN that "just won't stop" as a major driver behind the company's financial woes.

"In fact, judging by the ongoing mass layoffs at the former, one can argue that CNN's value is now negative and will continue to be so until it stops hemorrhaging cash."

NBA helped spearhead Warner's demise

Things have changed so dramatically for legacy media outlets, especially in just the past several years, that company leaders are unable to prevent the carnage from worsening.

Warner CEO David Zaslav told investors on a call that things are now in uncharted territory when it comes to trying to steer the financial ship out of the iceberg-ridden waters.

"Two years ago, market valuations and prevailing conditions for legacy media companies were quite different than they are today," Zaslav told investors. "This impairment acknowledges this and better aligns our carrying values with our future outlook."