Shares jump 13% after restructuring announcement

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

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Challenges seen in offering debt-laden direct TV networks

(New throughout, adds information, background, remarks from market insiders 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 declining cable television TV organizations such as CNN from streaming and studio operations such as Max, preparing for a prospective sale or spinoff of its TV business as more cable customers cut the cable.

Shares of Warner jumped after the company 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 options for fading cable organizations, a longtime golden goose where incomes are deteriorating as countless customers welcome streaming video.

Comcast last month unveiled strategies to split many of its NBCUniversal cable networks into a brand-new public company. The brand-new business would be well capitalized and positioned to obtain other cable networks if the industry consolidates, one source informed Reuters.

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

"We highly believe there is potential for relatively substantial synergies if WBD's linear networks were combined with Comcast SpinCo," wrote Ehrlich, utilizing the industry term for standard tv.

"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 TV service 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 in addition to film studios, consisting of Warner Bros Pictures and New Line Cinema.

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

"Streaming won as a behavior," said Jonathan Miller, chief executive 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 separate growing studio and streaming assets from rewarding but shrinking cable television TV organization, giving a clearer investment image and 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 similar path.

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

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

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

Zaslav had taken part in merger talks with Paramount late in 2015, though a deal never materialized, according to a regulative filing last month.

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

"The structure change would make it simpler for WBD to offer off its linear TV networks," eMarketer analyst Ross Benes said, describing the cable business. "However, finding a buyer will be difficult. The networks owe money and have no indications of development."

In August, Warner Bros Discovery made a note of the value of its TV assets by over $9 billion due to uncertainty around fees from cable television and satellite suppliers and sports betting rights renewals.

Today, the media business announced 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 agreement, together with an offer reached this year with cable and broadband provider Charter, will be a template for future settlements with distributors. 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)