Shares dive 13% after restructuring statement

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, includes details, background, remarks from industry insiders and experts, updates share costs)

By Dawn Chmielewski, Deborah Mary Sophia and Aditya Soni

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

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

Media business are thinking about options for fading cable TV services, a longtime golden goose where earnings are wearing down as millions of consumers embrace streaming video.

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

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

"We strongly believe there is potential for relatively substantial synergies if WBD's linear networks were integrated with Comcast SpinCo," wrote Ehrlich, using the market term for standard television.

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

Under the new structure for Warner Bros Discovery, the cable service consisting of TNT, Animal Planet and CNN will be housed in a system called Global Linear Networks.

Streaming platforms Max and Discovery+ will be under a separate department along with movie 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," stated Jonathan Miller, president of digital media investment firm Integrated Media. "Now, it's winning as a service."

Brightcove CEO Marc DeBevoise said Warner Bros Discovery's new business structure will separate growing studio and streaming possessions from lucrative however diminishing cable television TV company, offering a clearer investment image and most likely setting the phase for a sale or spin-off of the cable television system.

The media veteran and advisor forecasted Paramount and others might take a comparable path.

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 company for its next chess move, wrote MoffettNathanson analyst Robert Fishman.

"The concern is not whether more pieces will be moved or knocked off the board, or if additional debt consolidation will take place-- it refers who is the buyer and who is the seller," composed Fishman.

Zaslav signified that scenario during Warner Bros Discovery's financier call last month. He stated he anticipated President-elect Donald Trump's administration would be friendlier to deal-making, opening the door to media industry consolidation.

Zaslav had 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, noting Warner Bros Discovery carries $40.4 billion in financial obligation.

"The structure change would make it easier for WBD to sell its linear TV networks," eMarketer analyst Ross Benes said, referring to the cable organization. "However, discovering a buyer will be difficult. The networks are in financial obligation and have no signs of development."

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

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

Warner Bros Discovery is wagering the Comcast agreement, together with a deal reached this year with cable television and broadband supplier Charter, will be a design template for future negotiations with distributors. That could help support pricing 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)