Discovery on Thursdayreported higher fourth-quarter earnings despite lower ratings, continued cord-cutting and investments in its direct-to-consumer business as the bottom line result exceeded Wall Street expectations. Discovery CEO David Zaslav on the earnings conference call said the company recorded more than $700 million of "next-gen and direct-to-consumer revenue" in 2019 and was "well on our way" to exceed the milestone of $1 billion in 2020.