Shares jump 13% after reorganizing 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 market experts and experts, updates share prices)

By Dawn Chmielewski, Deborah Mary Sophia and Aditya Soni

Dec 12 (Reuters) - Warner Bros Discovery on Thursday chose to separate its declining cable television TV businesses such as CNN from streaming and studio operations such as Max, laying the groundwork for a potential sale or spinoff of its TV company as more cable customers cut the cable.

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

Media business are thinking about choices for fading cable TV companies, a longtime golden goose where earnings are deteriorating as millions of consumers accept streaming video.

Comcast last month revealed plans to split the majority of its NBCUniversal cable networks into a new public business. The new company would be well capitalized and placed to acquire other cable television networks if the market combines, one source told Reuters.

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

"We highly think there is capacity for relatively substantial synergies if WBD's linear networks were combined with Comcast SpinCo," composed Ehrlich, using the industry term for traditional tv.

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

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

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

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

"Streaming won as a behavior," said Jonathan Miller, primary executive of digital media investment company Integrated Media. "Now, it's winning as an organization."

Brightcove CEO Marc DeBevoise stated Warner Bros Discovery's brand-new business structure will differentiate growing studio and streaming possessions from lucrative however shrinking cable television TV business, providing a clearer investment picture and likely setting the phase for a sale or spin-off of the cable television unit.

The media veteran and advisor predicted Paramount and others might take a comparable course.

CEO David Zaslav, a veteran deal-maker who led Discovery through its acquisition of Scripps Networks Interactive before getting the even bigger target, AT&T's WarnerMedia, is positioning the business for its next chess relocation, wrote MoffettNathanson analyst Robert Fishman.

"The concern is not whether more pieces will be moved or knocked off the board, or if further debt consolidation will happen-- it is a matter of who is the buyer and who is the seller," wrote Fishman.

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

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

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

"The structure modification would make it much easier for WBD to sell its direct TV networks," eMarketer analyst Ross Benes said, describing the cable service. "However, discovering a purchaser will be tough. The networks owe money and have no indications of development."

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

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

Warner Bros Discovery is sports betting the Comcast arrangement, together with an offer reached this year with cable and broadband provider Charter, will be a template for future negotiations with suppliers. That might help support prices 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)