Discovery’s Q1 squeezed by streaming costs, lower ad sales

Discovery, the owner of Food Network, HGTV and TLC, reported first quarter results that fell short of Wall Street’s projections due to higher-than-expected costs related to the launch of its streaming service Discovery+ and declining advertising sales.

Shares of Discovery slumped over 7 percent on the news on Wednesday. It recently traded down 5.9 percent to $36.65 a share. The New York-based firm said quarterly net income tumbled 63 percent to $140 million, or 21 cents a share, missing analysts’ expectations of 65 cents a share.