Shares dive 13% after restructuring statement

Follows course taken by Comcast's new spin-off business

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Challenges seen in selling debt-laden linear TV networks

(New throughout, includes details, background, remarks from industry insiders and experts, updates share costs)

By Dawn Chmielewski, Deborah Mary Sophia and Aditya Soni

Dec 12 (Reuters) - Warner Bros Discovery on Thursday chose to separate its decreasing cable television companies such as CNN from streaming and studio operations such as Max, preparing for a possible sale or spinoff of its TV business as more cable television customers cut the cord.

Shares of Warner jumped after the business said the brand-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 companies are thinking about choices for fading cable television TV organizations, a long time golden goose where earnings are wearing down as millions of customers accept streaming video.

Comcast last month revealed strategies to split the majority of its NBCUniversal cable networks into a brand-new public company. The brand-new company would be well capitalized and positioned to acquire other cable networks if the industry combines, one source informed Reuters.

Bank of America research expert Jessica Reif Ehrlich wrote that Warner Bros Discovery's cable assets are a "very rational partner" for Comcast's new spin-off company.

"We highly believe there is capacity for relatively sizable synergies if WBD's direct networks were integrated with Comcast SpinCo," wrote Ehrlich, utilizing the market term for standard tv.

"Further, our company believe WBD's standalone streaming and studio possessions would be an attractive takeover target."

Under the new structure for Warner Bros Discovery, the cable company consisting of TNT, Animal Planet and CNN will be housed in a system called Global Linear Networks.

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

The restructuring reflects an inflection point for the media industry, as investments in streaming services such as Warner Bros Discovery's Max are lastly paying off.

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

Brightcove CEO Marc DeBevoise said Warner Bros Discovery's brand-new business structure will distinguish growing studio and streaming possessions from lucrative but diminishing cable television company, giving a clearer investment picture and most likely setting the stage for a sale or spin-off of the cable unit.

The media veteran and consultant forecasted Paramount and others may take a comparable course.

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 business for its next chess move, wrote MoffettNathanson expert Robert Fishman.

"The question is not whether more pieces will be moved or knocked off the board, or if additional debt consolidation will take place-- it refers who is the purchaser and who is the seller," composed Fishman.

Zaslav signified that circumstance during Warner Bros Discovery's investor call last month. He stated he prepared for President-elect Donald Trump's administration would be friendlier to deal-making, unlocking to media market debt consolidation.

Zaslav had engaged in merger talks with Paramount late last year, though an offer never emerged, according to a regulatory filing last month.

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

"The structure change would make it easier for WBD to offer off its direct TV networks," eMarketer expert Ross Benes said, referring to the cable service. "However, finding a purchaser will be difficult. The networks are in financial obligation and have no indications of development."

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

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

Warner Bros Discovery is wagering the Comcast arrangement, together with a deal reached this year with cable and broadband provider Charter, will be a design template for future negotiations with suppliers. That could assist stabilize pricing 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)