Shares dive 13% after reorganizing statement

Follows course taken by Comcast's brand-new spin-off company

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Challenges seen in offering debt-laden direct TV networks

(New throughout, adds information, background, remarks from market experts and analysts, updates share prices)

By Dawn Chmielewski, Deborah Mary Sophia and Aditya Soni

Dec 12 (Reuters) - Warner Bros Discovery on Thursday decided to separate its decreasing cable businesses such as CNN from streaming and studio operations such as Max, laying the foundation for a possible sale or spinoff of its TV organization as more cable subscribers cut the cable.

Shares of Warner jumped after the business stated the new structure would be more deal friendly and it anticipated to complete the split by the middle of 2025. Warner shares closed at $12.49, up more than 15%.

Media business are considering options for fading cable television companies, a long time money cow where earnings are eroding as millions of consumers accept streaming video.

Comcast last month revealed strategies to split most of its NBCUniversal cable networks into a brand-new public company. The brand-new company would be well capitalized and placed to get other cable networks if the market combines, one source told Reuters.

Bank of America research analyst Jessica Reif Ehrlich wrote that Warner Bros Discovery's cable assets are a "really sensible partner" for Comcast's brand-new spin-off business.

"We highly believe there is capacity for fairly sizable synergies if WBD's direct networks were combined with Comcast SpinCo," wrote Ehrlich, using the market term for traditional television.

"Further, we believe WBD's standalone streaming and studio assets would be an appealing takeover target."

Under the brand-new structure for Warner Bros Discovery, the cable organization including TNT, Animal Planet and CNN will be housed in an unit called Global Linear Networks.

Streaming platforms Max and Discovery+ will be under a separate department in addition to movie studios, consisting of Warner Bros Pictures and New Line Cinema.

The restructuring reflects an inflection point for the media market, as financial investments in streaming services such as Warner Bros Discovery's Max are finally settling.

"Streaming won as a habits," stated Jonathan Miller, president of digital media financial investment business Integrated Media. "Now, it's winning as an organization."

Brightcove CEO Marc DeBevoise said Warner Bros Discovery's new business structure will differentiate growing studio and streaming assets from successful however shrinking cable organization, giving a clearer financial investment photo and most likely setting the stage for a sale or spin-off of the cable television system.

The media veteran and adviser anticipated Paramount and others might take a comparable path.

CEO David Zaslav, a veteran deal-maker who led Discovery through its acquisition of Scripps Networks Interactive before obtaining the even bigger target, AT&T's WarnerMedia, is placing the company for its next chess move, wrote MoffettNathanson expert Robert Fishman.

"The concern is not whether more pieces will be walked around or knocked off the board, or if additional debt consolidation will occur-- it is a matter of who is the buyer and who is the seller," composed Fishman.

Zaslav indicated that situation throughout Warner Bros Discovery's financier call last month. He said he anticipated President-elect Donald Trump's administration would be friendlier to deal-making, unlocking to media market combination.

Zaslav had participated in merger talks with Paramount late in 2015, though an offer never materialized, according to a regulatory filing last month.

Others injected a note of caution, keeping in mind Warner Bros Discovery brings $40.4 billion in debt.

"The structure modification would make it simpler for WBD to sell its linear TV networks," eMarketer analyst Ross Benes said, describing the cable television organization. "However, finding a buyer will be difficult. The networks owe money and have no signs of growth."

In August, Warner Bros Discovery documented the worth of its TV assets by over $9 billion due to uncertainty around fees from cable and satellite distributors and sports betting rights renewals.

Today, the media business revealed a multi-year deal increasing the total fees Comcast will pay to disperse Warner Bros Discovery's networks.

Warner Bros Discovery is wagering the Comcast arrangement, together with an offer reached this year with cable and broadband supplier Charter, will be a template for future settlements with suppliers. That might help support rates for the domestic pay TV market. (Reporting by Deborah Sophia and Aditya Soni in Bengaluru, Dawn Chmielewski in Los Angeles; Editing by Shilpi Majumdar, Arun Koyyur, Keith Weir and David Gregorio)