Shares dive 13% after reorganizing announcement

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

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Challenges seen in offering debt-laden direct TV networks

(New throughout, adds 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 decreasing cable television services such as CNN from streaming and studio operations such as Max, laying the foundation for a potential sale or spinoff of its TV company as more cable customers cut the cord.

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

Media companies are considering choices for fading cable television TV businesses, a long time golden goose where earnings are eroding as countless consumers embrace streaming video.

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

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

"We strongly think there is capacity for relatively substantial synergies if WBD's linear networks were combined with Comcast SpinCo," wrote Ehrlich, using the market term for traditional television.

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

Under the new structure for Warner Bros Discovery, the cable television 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 along with film studios, consisting of Warner Bros Pictures and New Line Cinema.

The restructuring reflects an inflection point for the media market, 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 firm Integrated Media. "Now, it's winning as a company."

Brightcove CEO Marc DeBevoise stated Warner Bros Discovery's new business structure will separate growing studio and streaming properties from rewarding but diminishing cable service, giving a clearer investment photo and most likely setting the phase for a sale or spin-off of the cable television system.

The media veteran and advisor anticipated 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 relocation, composed MoffettNathanson expert Robert Fishman.

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

Zaslav indicated that circumstance during Warner Bros Discovery's financier 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 industry consolidation.

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

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

"The structure change would make it simpler for WBD to sell its direct TV networks," eMarketer analyst Ross Benes stated, referring to the cable television business. "However, finding a buyer will be tough. The networks are in debt and have no indications of growth."

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

Today, the media business announced a multi-year deal increasing the general charges Comcast will pay to disperse Warner Bros Discovery's networks.

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