Shares jump 13% after restructuring statement

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

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Challenges seen in selling debt-laden direct TV networks

(New throughout, adds details, background, comments from market experts and experts, updates share rates)

By Dawn Chmielewski, Deborah Mary Sophia and Aditya Soni

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

Shares of Warner leapt after the business said 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 thinking about alternatives for fading cable television organizations, a long time cash cow where earnings are deteriorating as countless customers accept streaming video.

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

Bank of America research study analyst Jessica Reif Ehrlich wrote that Warner Bros Discovery's cable tv properties are a "extremely rational partner" for Comcast's brand-new spin-off company.

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

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

Under the new structure for Warner Bros Discovery, the cable 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 department together with film studios, including Warner Bros Pictures and New Line Cinema.

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

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

Brightcove CEO Marc DeBevoise said Warner Bros Discovery's brand-new corporate structure will differentiate growing studio and streaming possessions from profitable but shrinking cable television service, providing a clearer investment picture and likely setting the phase for a sale or spin-off of the cable television system.

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 larger target, AT&T's WarnerMedia, is positioning the company for its next chess relocation, composed MoffettNathanson analyst Robert Fishman.

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

Zaslav indicated that situation throughout 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 industry combination.

Zaslav had actually participated in merger talks with Paramount late in 2015, though a deal never emerged, according to a regulative 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 sell its direct TV networks," eMarketer expert Ross Benes said, describing the cable television business. "However, discovering a purchaser will be tough. The networks are in debt and have no indications of growth."

In August, Warner Bros Discovery jotted down the value of its TV assets by over $9 billion due to uncertainty around charges from cable and satellite suppliers and sports betting rights renewals.

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

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