What happened

Shares of entertainment giant Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD -2.17%) gained 32.3% during the first half of 2023, according to numbers from S&P Global Market Intelligence, although the bulk of that gain took shape in January. Investors celebrated the end of costly write-downs in addition to a price hike for its HBO Max streaming service that's been reasonably well accepted.

So what

Fortuitous timing has a lot to do with this year's big gain, for the record. WBD shares tumbled all the way through the very end of 2022, leaving them ripe for a rebound headed into the new year. Warner Bros. Discovery simply supplied the needed nudge at the right time.

CFO Gunnar Wiedenfels is responsible for at least part of the bounce. Speaking at Citigroup's annual Communications, Media & Entertainment Conference held in early January, he assured investors that 2022's write-offs reaching nearly $2.9 billion wouldn't be repeated in 2023.

At the same time, HBO Max's monthly price for its ad-free tier was raised from $14.99 to $15.99 early this year. Although the company's streaming division is still unprofitable, it's not terribly deep in the red. This price increase has the potential to move it markedly closer to a breakeven.

Also note that while subscriber growth is slowing down, Warner Bros. Discovery still managed to add streaming subscribers during the first quarter of this year.

Much of this success -- as well as the stock's progress -- was in jeopardy as of May. That's when Warner-owned CNN aired a townhall meeting with former U.S. President Donald Trump that proved more contentious for the cable news channel than anticipated. In early June, though, the stock began rallying again on the heels of then-CNN CEO Chris Licht's resignation. Shares rekindled this waning strength in late June, ending the first half of the calendar year on a high note.

Now what

Warner Bros. Discovery isn't a bad company. Indeed, it's one of the few entertainment media outfits in the television, film, and streaming industry that's still reliably profitable (perhaps because it feeds the struggling cable television market with content but isn't actually in the cable television service business itself). It's got strong brand names to work with too.

Compared to other prospects, however, it's not a must-own stock until it's clear what the video entertainment business will look like five years from now and what Warner's place in that market will be.

That said, if you happen to own it right now, there's no particular need to exit it at this point either, particularly if doing so creates an unwanted tax consequence. The bulk of the stock's downside potential is already priced in. Now it's a waiting game.