One thing to keep in mind, all these attendance estimates are just educated guesses. WDW does not release actual guest counts and I assume UO does the same. As @clarker99 pointed out, these estimating firms said attendance was down in the last reported quarter when in reality it was up. Hopefully the upcoming earnings report will give us some real clarity.
DIS Shareholders and Stock Info ONLY
- Thread starter hhisc16
- Start date
DVC sales are surprisingly strong in this current economy:
In June 2023, 134,177 points were sold for the 11 DVC resorts located at Walt Disney World and 162,106 points were sold for the newest DVC resort, The Villas at Disneyland Hotel. The combined 296,283 point total is the third best month for DVC sales in the 13 years that DVCNews.com has tracked direct sales. Only July 2013 (364,416 points) and April 2022 (310,866 points) recorded more points than June 2023.
https://dvcnews.com/dvc-program-men...ridian-surges-in-june-2023?utm_source=dlvr.it
In June 2023, 134,177 points were sold for the 11 DVC resorts located at Walt Disney World and 162,106 points were sold for the newest DVC resort, The Villas at Disneyland Hotel. The combined 296,283 point total is the third best month for DVC sales in the 13 years that DVCNews.com has tracked direct sales. Only July 2013 (364,416 points) and April 2022 (310,866 points) recorded more points than June 2023.
https://dvcnews.com/dvc-program-men...ridian-surges-in-june-2023?utm_source=dlvr.it
jade1
I spend half my money on WDW, and waste the rest.
- Joined
- Dec 30, 2001
- Messages
- 11,632
I get that, and agree for WDW.
Just saying they are making Slink and 7DMT type coasters as well-3 of them. I don't really call those thrill rides, or would I consider all of Epic Univers "all about thrill rides".
Bottom line at least for our family, is even one new family Slink style coaster only a few miles up the road is far more than WDW is currently building-nothing.
At the same time, I'm fine with Epic making 2 mammoth coasters esp when they are adding 7 other non thrill attractions-along with all the rest a new park offers.
Put another way, I wouldn't complain if WDW decided to make 2 big coasters and 7 new non thrill rides. Esp compared to Nothing.
wabbott
DIS Veteran
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https://wdwnt.com/2023/07/disney-ceo-bob-iger-appearing-on-cnbc-squawk-box/
Disney CEO Bob Iger Appearing on CNBC Squawk Box
July 11, 2023
by Shannen Michaelsen
Bob Iger, CEO of The Walt Disney Company, will appear on CNBC’s Squawk Box on Thursday morning.
Iger’s interview with David Faber will air at 8:00 a.m. ET on July 13, 2023.
Disney CEO Bob Iger Appearing on CNBC Squawk Box
July 11, 2023
by Shannen Michaelsen
Bob Iger, CEO of The Walt Disney Company, will appear on CNBC’s Squawk Box on Thursday morning.
Iger’s interview with David Faber will air at 8:00 a.m. ET on July 13, 2023.
wabbott
DIS Veteran
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https://variety.com/2023/global/asia/disney-india-business-potential-sale-joint-venture-1235667496/
Jul 11, 2023 8:19pm PDT
Disney Reportedly Exploring Strategic Options in India, Including Potential Sale or Joint Venture
by Patrick Frater
The Walt Disney Company is reviewing its strategic options in India, the world’s most populous nation and one of the entertainment industry’s most challenging developing markets.
The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday that the conglomerate has spoken with at least one bank to discuss options on how to make its India business grow, while also seeing the cost burden shared. These options could include a sale of the business or a joint venture, the paper says.
Contacted by Variety, a Disney corporate spokesman in India declined comment.
Disney has spent heavily to buy a sizable market position in India. In 2019, it paid $71 billion to buy 21st Century Fox, with Fox’s TV assets in Asia and the Star pay-TV business in India among the crown jewels of the acquisition.
The value of those businesses has been fundamentally changed by the global strategy of streaming and in the competitive market of Asia. Disney is currently in the process of closing down many of the linear channels in East Asia that it acquired from Fox.
In India, the leapfrogging move to mobile broadband delivery of video services, which has brought with it tens of millions of new TV households, has also opened the doors to significant new competitors. Some of these are nimble local players, others are local-foreign ventures. The biggest challenger is JioCinema, part of the Viacom18 cluster, which is backed by Reliance industries and India’s richest businessman Mukesh Ambani.
As a result of the Fox acquisition, Disney is currently the market leader in streaming in India with its Disney+ Hotstar service. However, the loss of significant cricket telecast rights has weakened that product this year. The WSJ quotes anonymous sources saying that Disney+ Hotstar India could lose eight to 10 million subscribers in the third quarter.
The Indian streaming market is also a low ARPU and highly price sensitive one. Disney+ Hotstar India has subscription revenue of just $0.59 per month per subscriber.
The WSJ sources say that overall Star business (pay-TV and streaming) revenue for the fiscal year ending September 2023 is expected to drop around 20% to slightly less than $2 billion. Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization are expected to fall roughly 50% for the same time period, from about $200 million last year. Fox had projected $1 billion EBITDA in 2020.
The current challenges at Star are not the first time that Disney has been wrong-footed in India. In 2012, it acquired UTV, one of India’s largest film studios and an operator of multiple TV channels. By 2017, it closed down UTV Motion Pictures, preferring instead to concentrate on distributing its Hollywood movies.
The Indian media landscape is a challenging one, requiring scale and patience. Sony has endured a more than 18-month regulatory wait as it tries to merge its own substantial TV operations with those of local heavyweight Zee Entertainment Enterprises. Other recent moves suggest that Warner Bros. Discovery is in no hurry to join the race to the bottom in Indian streaming by launching Max in the territory any time soon. In April, instead, WBD announced a multi-year HBO content licensing deal, switching allegiance from Star to JioCinema.
Jul 11, 2023 8:19pm PDT
Disney Reportedly Exploring Strategic Options in India, Including Potential Sale or Joint Venture
by Patrick Frater
The Walt Disney Company is reviewing its strategic options in India, the world’s most populous nation and one of the entertainment industry’s most challenging developing markets.
The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday that the conglomerate has spoken with at least one bank to discuss options on how to make its India business grow, while also seeing the cost burden shared. These options could include a sale of the business or a joint venture, the paper says.
Contacted by Variety, a Disney corporate spokesman in India declined comment.
Disney has spent heavily to buy a sizable market position in India. In 2019, it paid $71 billion to buy 21st Century Fox, with Fox’s TV assets in Asia and the Star pay-TV business in India among the crown jewels of the acquisition.
The value of those businesses has been fundamentally changed by the global strategy of streaming and in the competitive market of Asia. Disney is currently in the process of closing down many of the linear channels in East Asia that it acquired from Fox.
In India, the leapfrogging move to mobile broadband delivery of video services, which has brought with it tens of millions of new TV households, has also opened the doors to significant new competitors. Some of these are nimble local players, others are local-foreign ventures. The biggest challenger is JioCinema, part of the Viacom18 cluster, which is backed by Reliance industries and India’s richest businessman Mukesh Ambani.
As a result of the Fox acquisition, Disney is currently the market leader in streaming in India with its Disney+ Hotstar service. However, the loss of significant cricket telecast rights has weakened that product this year. The WSJ quotes anonymous sources saying that Disney+ Hotstar India could lose eight to 10 million subscribers in the third quarter.
The Indian streaming market is also a low ARPU and highly price sensitive one. Disney+ Hotstar India has subscription revenue of just $0.59 per month per subscriber.
The WSJ sources say that overall Star business (pay-TV and streaming) revenue for the fiscal year ending September 2023 is expected to drop around 20% to slightly less than $2 billion. Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization are expected to fall roughly 50% for the same time period, from about $200 million last year. Fox had projected $1 billion EBITDA in 2020.
The current challenges at Star are not the first time that Disney has been wrong-footed in India. In 2012, it acquired UTV, one of India’s largest film studios and an operator of multiple TV channels. By 2017, it closed down UTV Motion Pictures, preferring instead to concentrate on distributing its Hollywood movies.
The Indian media landscape is a challenging one, requiring scale and patience. Sony has endured a more than 18-month regulatory wait as it tries to merge its own substantial TV operations with those of local heavyweight Zee Entertainment Enterprises. Other recent moves suggest that Warner Bros. Discovery is in no hurry to join the race to the bottom in Indian streaming by launching Max in the territory any time soon. In April, instead, WBD announced a multi-year HBO content licensing deal, switching allegiance from Star to JioCinema.
wabbott
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Aug 4, 2021
- Messages
- 6,275
https://variety.com/2023/tv/features/writers-strike-tv-industry-streaming-problem-1235666463/
Peak TV Has Peaked: From Exhausted Talent to Massive Losses, the Writers Strike Magnifies an Industry in Freefall
by Jennifer Maas
July 11, 2023
The tipping point has finally arrived. After years of heady growth, heightened demands and unpredictable development and production schedules, seasoned TV writers are feeling the burn and yearning for the structure of simpler times, before streaming changed everything. As striking Writers Guild of America members gather daily on picket lines in Los Angeles and New York, the realization of how much has been lost amid the unprecedented spike in episodic production has come into sharp focus.
“I miss the predictability of pilot season,” says Cindy Chupack, a veteran writer-producer who is a two-time Emmy winner for her work on “Modern Family” and “Sex and the City.” Chupack adds that these are words she never thought she’d say — or even think. And she’s not alone.
Since the writers strike began on May 2, the unintended consequences of the ramp-up in series production during the past dozen years have been laid bare.
The phrase “Peak TV” emerged around 2015 as a description of television’s endless appetite for original series. Now, there’s one thing that writers and their estranged employers agree on: Peak TV has peaked. The talent pool has been stretched beyond its breaking point, and so have most of Hollywood’s balance sheets. The entertainment industry in aggregate can’t afford to keep producing content at the pace of recent years, as evidenced by the astounding financial losses reported and cost-cutting campaigns underway at Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery, Paramount Global and to a lesser degree Comcast.
“You already have major legacy media companies that are struggling with pretty sizable streaming losses,” says Rich Greenfield, media analyst for LightShed Partners. “The challenge right now is that all of these companies are firing people and shrinking. There couldn’t be a worse time for a strike than right now. Yes, they save some money on not producing stuff in the short term, but the reality is these are increasingly challenged businesses. Linear TV is not doing well,” he says.
Greenfield’s view is echoed by a top literary agent who has watched closely as spending on film and TV content has been curbed across the board, even at the largest streamers, which are insulated from the pain spreading across traditional Hollywood.
“Old media is in the worst position, including Disney,” the agent says. “Netflix, in the way that they’ve gobbled up local production and gotten global hit shows out of it — that can sustain them forever with the WGA sitting out. With Apple and Amazon, they’re not content companies. One makes phones and computers, and the other brings your groceries, and that’s always going to be their bread and butter. If their content pipeline slows down, it’s not going to lead to less Apple subscribers or less Prime subscribers.”
The solidarity SAG-AFTRA demonstrated with the WGA on picket lines has became loud enough to dramatically affect the Emmys’ FYC season. The fear of Hollywood enduring a double strike has become all too real during what J.D. Connor, associate professor of cinematic arts at USC, calls the “hot labor summer of 2023.” He predicts it will spur more merger and buyout activity among smaller outfits such as Lionsgate and AMC Networks.
“It is one of those situations where, once one or two of the dominoes finally fall into place, I expect to see a large wave of new consolidations, of acquisitions, barring a Biden administration antitrust activity that we haven’t seen yet,” says Connor, who specializes in contemporary Hollywood and studio economics.
Likewise, one former broadcast executive sees the niche, slow-to-grow streamers having the hardest time once the strike is over: “I think people start saying, ‘Well, where’s the shows? I don’t need this, so I’ll cancel this service.’”
As whispers spread throughout Hollywood about who will live and who will die by the writers strike, these companies remain radio silent on when they think the strike will be — and, financially, will need to be — over.
“The most surprising for me is just how no Hollywood executive seems to be standing up saying, ‘I’m going to take the lead in resolving this,’” says analyst Greenfield. “You haven’t seen Bob Iger, David Zaslav, Shari Redstone, Ted Sarandos — nobody is stepping up and saying, ‘Let’s get this resolved,’ which is fascinating.”
There is no doubt that the TV content landscape will be very different once the strike is settled. The work stoppage has set off a domino effect among delayed shooting schedules that will complicate the best-laid plans of networks and streamers for months, if not years. But even without the strike-induced disruption to the content pipeline, the volume of scripted series orders is expected to drop by double-digit percentages in the coming years.
In 2022, mainstream TV networks and platforms delivered a record high of 599 total English-language adult scripted TV series, according to the annual industry benchmark compiled by FX Networks. That compares with 182 in 2002, the year FX announced its arrival as a major player with the police drama “The Shield.” The success of “Mad Men” and “Breaking Bad” — two beloved dramas that transformed the fortunes of the once-sleepy movie channel AMC Network — added more demand in the late 2000s among cable networks that were then flush with profits. In 2012, just before “streaming” became synonymous with “television,” the industry’s aggregate original series count hit 288, per FX.
But the greatest catalyst for content growth was Netflix’s big splash in February 2013 with its $100 million, two-season bet on “House of Cards,” the edgy political thriller from director David Fincher and writer Beau Willimon. With its explosive debut, the show introduced viewers to the radical new concept of binge-watching by making a full season’s worth of episodes available on premiere day. And that big-bang moment, so quickly embraced by viewers, led to the launch of Disney+, Apple TV+, Max (and its HBO-branded predecessors), Peacock and Paramount+. Netflix’s example also drove Amazon to pump up the volume at Prime Video.
Ten years later, amid labor strife and the ragged business landscape, the original series count number for 2023 can only fall. Even Netflix is easing the throttle on overall content spending as the company begins to deliver steady profits after years of investment.
With the changes in the industry, there’s been so much that has impacted our livelihoods and the health of this business,” says a veteran media executive who has been allaying the fears of younger colleagues. “We’ve known those changes are going to continue to come until there is some sort of financial stability for all the studios. And I know that it’s much broader than the strike, but it’s all impacting at the same time.”
Hollywood’s old guard has been forced to make draconian cuts in the turbulent post-pandemic era, punctuated by Disney’s pink-slipping of 7,000 staff positions. Warner Bros. Discovery and Paramount have also made deep cuts. And they’re all yanking shows right and left from cable and streaming platforms to save money on basic residuals and music licensing costs. Apple and Amazon remain outliers, bolstered by their respective trillion-dollar market capitalizations, but even the deepest of pockets have their limits.
In the weeks leading up to the strike, Netflix, Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery and other mega media companies assured shareholders and subscribers that their content pipelines are stocked, that they are well positioned to roll out TV series through the end of the year, some through the first quarter of 2024, and that a writers strike over the summer won’t ultimately affect their bottom lines.
But that was before the WGA took an aggressive and tactical approach to mounting picket lines on location shoots to ensure that even shows with completed scripts in hand on May 1 would not be able to complete production orders on schedule. Observers say the hardest blow the WGA strike can deliver will come over the long term, when the cost of grappling with shuttered productions and partially completed seasons will be enormous.
The WGA’s forceful action dovetails with a surge of anger among rank-and-file SAG-AFTRA members that has the performers union on the verge of an industrywide strike for the first time since 1980. SAG-AFTRA’s complaints are more evidence of how employment dynamics have changed for the worse for working Hollywood.
For decades, pilot development episodic television was done assembly-line fashion on a steadily predictable schedule. The cap gun would go off in January, when each of the major networks would select two dozen or so scripts to greenlight to pilot production. Back then, industry insiders would grouse about the rushed pace of producing make-or-break series pilots in a three-month period in advance of the May upfronts. It was nonetheless a process that imposed a schedule for production and decision-making. In hindsight, it feels to many like a level of discipline that has been missing from the Peak TV binge.
“It was all or nothing, but at least you knew where you stood after a pilot season,” Chupack reflects. “Now you can wait so long to hear anything on a greenlight and you can go months and months between seasons if you do get picked up.”
The focus on delivering episodes for a traditional September-May television season also dictated a schedule of production that was punishing but fulfilling. The many picket-line reunions that have been staged in recent weeks have reminded seasoned writers of the camaraderie of working on 22-episode-per-season series that enjoyed long runs on air. The short-order and short-lived shows of today have some feeling like itinerant workers forced to hop from writers room to writers room after four-to-eight weeks.
For companies, the macroeconomic environment marked by high inflation and rising interest rates also puts pressure on corporate leaders. Across the industry, there’s no wiggle room for investment and fliers on projects. USC’s Connor predicts that some of Hollywood’s biggest conglomerates will face hardball tactics from large private equity investors, such as the proxy fight from activist investor Nelson Peltz that Disney recently tamped down.
“The incentives for private equity stakeholders in so many of these companies have changed dramatically in the last 18 months because of the return of inflation and much higher interest rates,” Connor says. “There will be pushes from some of these investors to unload things.”
Issues like streaming viewership transparency, the future of AI in creative spaces and the length of time writers are guaranteed work on a show and what they’ll be paid are the central sticking points in the WGA stalemate. Behind closed doors, executives are looking at the same issues and preparing for more widespread changes before the dust settles. As writers reminisce about pilot season, executives and talent representatives also recognize the need for fundamental changes to course-correct the transition to streaming platforms.
But what that actually looks like is anyone’s guess. First, Hollywood has to figure out how to make real money on streaming platforms and how to shore up the money it now banks on linear channels. Both are far easier said than done. The avalanche of disruption in Hollywood has come largely from the entry of tech-rooted streamers that have never had a stake in the old ways of turning a profit on movies and TV shows.
“There’s got to be some things that get fixed first, because there’s such a dichotomy between the way these companies are making money,” one high-ranking TV studio exec says. “The legacy media companies have these broadcast and cable networks, the streamers aren’t quite encumbered, and even within the streaming world, they all make money in different ways, and these services mean something different to their ecosystems.”
Peak TV Has Peaked: From Exhausted Talent to Massive Losses, the Writers Strike Magnifies an Industry in Freefall
by Jennifer Maas
July 11, 2023
The tipping point has finally arrived. After years of heady growth, heightened demands and unpredictable development and production schedules, seasoned TV writers are feeling the burn and yearning for the structure of simpler times, before streaming changed everything. As striking Writers Guild of America members gather daily on picket lines in Los Angeles and New York, the realization of how much has been lost amid the unprecedented spike in episodic production has come into sharp focus.
“I miss the predictability of pilot season,” says Cindy Chupack, a veteran writer-producer who is a two-time Emmy winner for her work on “Modern Family” and “Sex and the City.” Chupack adds that these are words she never thought she’d say — or even think. And she’s not alone.
Since the writers strike began on May 2, the unintended consequences of the ramp-up in series production during the past dozen years have been laid bare.
The phrase “Peak TV” emerged around 2015 as a description of television’s endless appetite for original series. Now, there’s one thing that writers and their estranged employers agree on: Peak TV has peaked. The talent pool has been stretched beyond its breaking point, and so have most of Hollywood’s balance sheets. The entertainment industry in aggregate can’t afford to keep producing content at the pace of recent years, as evidenced by the astounding financial losses reported and cost-cutting campaigns underway at Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery, Paramount Global and to a lesser degree Comcast.
“You already have major legacy media companies that are struggling with pretty sizable streaming losses,” says Rich Greenfield, media analyst for LightShed Partners. “The challenge right now is that all of these companies are firing people and shrinking. There couldn’t be a worse time for a strike than right now. Yes, they save some money on not producing stuff in the short term, but the reality is these are increasingly challenged businesses. Linear TV is not doing well,” he says.
Greenfield’s view is echoed by a top literary agent who has watched closely as spending on film and TV content has been curbed across the board, even at the largest streamers, which are insulated from the pain spreading across traditional Hollywood.
“Old media is in the worst position, including Disney,” the agent says. “Netflix, in the way that they’ve gobbled up local production and gotten global hit shows out of it — that can sustain them forever with the WGA sitting out. With Apple and Amazon, they’re not content companies. One makes phones and computers, and the other brings your groceries, and that’s always going to be their bread and butter. If their content pipeline slows down, it’s not going to lead to less Apple subscribers or less Prime subscribers.”
The solidarity SAG-AFTRA demonstrated with the WGA on picket lines has became loud enough to dramatically affect the Emmys’ FYC season. The fear of Hollywood enduring a double strike has become all too real during what J.D. Connor, associate professor of cinematic arts at USC, calls the “hot labor summer of 2023.” He predicts it will spur more merger and buyout activity among smaller outfits such as Lionsgate and AMC Networks.
“It is one of those situations where, once one or two of the dominoes finally fall into place, I expect to see a large wave of new consolidations, of acquisitions, barring a Biden administration antitrust activity that we haven’t seen yet,” says Connor, who specializes in contemporary Hollywood and studio economics.
Likewise, one former broadcast executive sees the niche, slow-to-grow streamers having the hardest time once the strike is over: “I think people start saying, ‘Well, where’s the shows? I don’t need this, so I’ll cancel this service.’”
As whispers spread throughout Hollywood about who will live and who will die by the writers strike, these companies remain radio silent on when they think the strike will be — and, financially, will need to be — over.
“The most surprising for me is just how no Hollywood executive seems to be standing up saying, ‘I’m going to take the lead in resolving this,’” says analyst Greenfield. “You haven’t seen Bob Iger, David Zaslav, Shari Redstone, Ted Sarandos — nobody is stepping up and saying, ‘Let’s get this resolved,’ which is fascinating.”
There is no doubt that the TV content landscape will be very different once the strike is settled. The work stoppage has set off a domino effect among delayed shooting schedules that will complicate the best-laid plans of networks and streamers for months, if not years. But even without the strike-induced disruption to the content pipeline, the volume of scripted series orders is expected to drop by double-digit percentages in the coming years.
In 2022, mainstream TV networks and platforms delivered a record high of 599 total English-language adult scripted TV series, according to the annual industry benchmark compiled by FX Networks. That compares with 182 in 2002, the year FX announced its arrival as a major player with the police drama “The Shield.” The success of “Mad Men” and “Breaking Bad” — two beloved dramas that transformed the fortunes of the once-sleepy movie channel AMC Network — added more demand in the late 2000s among cable networks that were then flush with profits. In 2012, just before “streaming” became synonymous with “television,” the industry’s aggregate original series count hit 288, per FX.
But the greatest catalyst for content growth was Netflix’s big splash in February 2013 with its $100 million, two-season bet on “House of Cards,” the edgy political thriller from director David Fincher and writer Beau Willimon. With its explosive debut, the show introduced viewers to the radical new concept of binge-watching by making a full season’s worth of episodes available on premiere day. And that big-bang moment, so quickly embraced by viewers, led to the launch of Disney+, Apple TV+, Max (and its HBO-branded predecessors), Peacock and Paramount+. Netflix’s example also drove Amazon to pump up the volume at Prime Video.
Ten years later, amid labor strife and the ragged business landscape, the original series count number for 2023 can only fall. Even Netflix is easing the throttle on overall content spending as the company begins to deliver steady profits after years of investment.
With the changes in the industry, there’s been so much that has impacted our livelihoods and the health of this business,” says a veteran media executive who has been allaying the fears of younger colleagues. “We’ve known those changes are going to continue to come until there is some sort of financial stability for all the studios. And I know that it’s much broader than the strike, but it’s all impacting at the same time.”
Hollywood’s old guard has been forced to make draconian cuts in the turbulent post-pandemic era, punctuated by Disney’s pink-slipping of 7,000 staff positions. Warner Bros. Discovery and Paramount have also made deep cuts. And they’re all yanking shows right and left from cable and streaming platforms to save money on basic residuals and music licensing costs. Apple and Amazon remain outliers, bolstered by their respective trillion-dollar market capitalizations, but even the deepest of pockets have their limits.
In the weeks leading up to the strike, Netflix, Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery and other mega media companies assured shareholders and subscribers that their content pipelines are stocked, that they are well positioned to roll out TV series through the end of the year, some through the first quarter of 2024, and that a writers strike over the summer won’t ultimately affect their bottom lines.
But that was before the WGA took an aggressive and tactical approach to mounting picket lines on location shoots to ensure that even shows with completed scripts in hand on May 1 would not be able to complete production orders on schedule. Observers say the hardest blow the WGA strike can deliver will come over the long term, when the cost of grappling with shuttered productions and partially completed seasons will be enormous.
The WGA’s forceful action dovetails with a surge of anger among rank-and-file SAG-AFTRA members that has the performers union on the verge of an industrywide strike for the first time since 1980. SAG-AFTRA’s complaints are more evidence of how employment dynamics have changed for the worse for working Hollywood.
For decades, pilot development episodic television was done assembly-line fashion on a steadily predictable schedule. The cap gun would go off in January, when each of the major networks would select two dozen or so scripts to greenlight to pilot production. Back then, industry insiders would grouse about the rushed pace of producing make-or-break series pilots in a three-month period in advance of the May upfronts. It was nonetheless a process that imposed a schedule for production and decision-making. In hindsight, it feels to many like a level of discipline that has been missing from the Peak TV binge.
“It was all or nothing, but at least you knew where you stood after a pilot season,” Chupack reflects. “Now you can wait so long to hear anything on a greenlight and you can go months and months between seasons if you do get picked up.”
The focus on delivering episodes for a traditional September-May television season also dictated a schedule of production that was punishing but fulfilling. The many picket-line reunions that have been staged in recent weeks have reminded seasoned writers of the camaraderie of working on 22-episode-per-season series that enjoyed long runs on air. The short-order and short-lived shows of today have some feeling like itinerant workers forced to hop from writers room to writers room after four-to-eight weeks.
For companies, the macroeconomic environment marked by high inflation and rising interest rates also puts pressure on corporate leaders. Across the industry, there’s no wiggle room for investment and fliers on projects. USC’s Connor predicts that some of Hollywood’s biggest conglomerates will face hardball tactics from large private equity investors, such as the proxy fight from activist investor Nelson Peltz that Disney recently tamped down.
“The incentives for private equity stakeholders in so many of these companies have changed dramatically in the last 18 months because of the return of inflation and much higher interest rates,” Connor says. “There will be pushes from some of these investors to unload things.”
Issues like streaming viewership transparency, the future of AI in creative spaces and the length of time writers are guaranteed work on a show and what they’ll be paid are the central sticking points in the WGA stalemate. Behind closed doors, executives are looking at the same issues and preparing for more widespread changes before the dust settles. As writers reminisce about pilot season, executives and talent representatives also recognize the need for fundamental changes to course-correct the transition to streaming platforms.
But what that actually looks like is anyone’s guess. First, Hollywood has to figure out how to make real money on streaming platforms and how to shore up the money it now banks on linear channels. Both are far easier said than done. The avalanche of disruption in Hollywood has come largely from the entry of tech-rooted streamers that have never had a stake in the old ways of turning a profit on movies and TV shows.
“There’s got to be some things that get fixed first, because there’s such a dichotomy between the way these companies are making money,” one high-ranking TV studio exec says. “The legacy media companies have these broadcast and cable networks, the streamers aren’t quite encumbered, and even within the streaming world, they all make money in different ways, and these services mean something different to their ecosystems.”
DeeBee3
I'm not grumpy; you're too happy.
- Joined
- Jun 9, 2020
- Messages
- 2,195
Have to say I am amazed at those numbers. Non-essential expenses like that in today's world blows my mind (also a DVC member), but I do think it's a good product.
wabbott
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Aug 4, 2021
- Messages
- 6,275
https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/mission-impossible-7-expected-blow-213525058.html
‘Mission: Impossible 7’ Is Expected to Blow Up the Box Office – That’s the Good News
Jeremy Fuster
Tue, July 11, 2023 at 11:35 PM GMT
Wednesday sees the release of a film with sky-high expectations: Paramount/Skydance’s “Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning, Part One,” a film that marks Tom Cruise’s return to the summer box office to defend his title as the season’s champion after the near $1.5 billion global run of “Top Gun: Maverick” last year. But among the similarities surrounding the films’ releases, “Mission Impossible” does have some unique challenges between box office success and turning a profit.
Like “Top Gun: Maverick,” “Mission: Impossible 7” is heading into theaters with a huge load of momentum, as critics have hailed the film as the epitome of the term “summer blockbuster” and have given it a 98% Rotten Tomatoes score, beating even the 96% score of “Maverick.”
In a sign of confidence in the film, Paramount moved its opening day from a Friday to a Wednesday, hoping to build some of that mid-week momentum and audience buzz that “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” enjoyed back in April to boost its Friday-Sunday numbers even further. As it stands, five-day projections stand at around $90 million domestic and $250 million worldwide, both of which would be the highest opening ever for a “Mission: Impossible” film and come with a strong chance of overperformance.
The thing is, “Dead Reckoning” faces a hurdle that recent films like “The Flash,” “Fast X” and “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” have struggled to overcome: an immense production budget. Trade reports have put the price tag for “Mission: Impossible 7” at $290 million-$300 million before a globetrotting marketing campaign by Cruise to promote the film that included stops in Rome, London, Seoul and Sydney.
By comparison, 2018’s “Mission: Impossible — Fallout” had a budget of $178 million. The difference, of course, was the COVID-19 pandemic, which delayed on-location shooting of “Dead Reckoning” for five months in 2020. The delay also led to a lawsuit by Paramount against the production’s insurance company that was later settled.
For a franchise sequel to turn a theatrical profit at this budget level, it must perform well across all demographics and all markets. “Fast X,” which got only so-so reception with American audiences and got hit with the same downturn in Chinese box office returns as other Hollywood films, has needed all of its lingering global appeal just to get close to breaking even with $702 million worldwide against a $340 million budget. “Indiana Jones,” with a budget of around $300 million, hasn’t even made that much after two weekends in theaters.
Paramount saw this sort of underperformance with “Transformers: Rise of the Beasts,” which has a reported budget of at least $200 million and just crossed $400 million worldwide after a month in theaters, putting it on pace to be the lowest-grossing film in the “Transformers” series.
The studio has chalked this up to the aforementioned plunge in Chinese box office grosses for American films, insiders at Paramount told TheWrap. Execs see the film’s performance in the U.S. ($145 million domestic) and in other overseas markets as signs that there is still interest in the “Transformers” series. Paramount is looking to use that to move the franchise forward in new directions, including the animated origin film “Transformers One” that will likely carry a much lower production cost than its live-action counterparts as Paramount plans to expand its animation slate starting with “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem” next month.
“Mission: Impossible,” thanks to the popularity of both its past films and its lead star, is not as dependent on China for its overseas performance as “Transformers.” While China contributed $181 million of the $791 million global total of “Fallout” five years ago, Cruise helped push “Top Gun: Maverick” to an overseas total of $776 million without any help from China, where the movie never received permission to screen. Instead, the United Kingdom and Japan each contributed over $100 million while South Korea, Australia and France all reached $60 million-plus.
It’s unlikely that “Dead Reckoning” will reach the global heights of “Top Gun: Maverick” given the competition from “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” this month as well as the fact that “Mission: Impossible,” part of a franchise with seven films over the last 27 years, doesn’t have the novelty of being a legacy sequel that “Maverick” enjoyed being 36 years removed from the first “Top Gun.”
But a global run of $800 million-$1 billion would make this film profitable against its high break-even mark, and would make it the top grossing “Mission: Impossible” film yet. Given the overwhelming critical praise and the renewed interest in Cruise generated by “Maverick,” that should be a mission that Paramount will choose to accept.
‘Mission: Impossible 7’ Is Expected to Blow Up the Box Office – That’s the Good News
Jeremy Fuster
Tue, July 11, 2023 at 11:35 PM GMT
Wednesday sees the release of a film with sky-high expectations: Paramount/Skydance’s “Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning, Part One,” a film that marks Tom Cruise’s return to the summer box office to defend his title as the season’s champion after the near $1.5 billion global run of “Top Gun: Maverick” last year. But among the similarities surrounding the films’ releases, “Mission Impossible” does have some unique challenges between box office success and turning a profit.
Like “Top Gun: Maverick,” “Mission: Impossible 7” is heading into theaters with a huge load of momentum, as critics have hailed the film as the epitome of the term “summer blockbuster” and have given it a 98% Rotten Tomatoes score, beating even the 96% score of “Maverick.”
In a sign of confidence in the film, Paramount moved its opening day from a Friday to a Wednesday, hoping to build some of that mid-week momentum and audience buzz that “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” enjoyed back in April to boost its Friday-Sunday numbers even further. As it stands, five-day projections stand at around $90 million domestic and $250 million worldwide, both of which would be the highest opening ever for a “Mission: Impossible” film and come with a strong chance of overperformance.
The thing is, “Dead Reckoning” faces a hurdle that recent films like “The Flash,” “Fast X” and “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” have struggled to overcome: an immense production budget. Trade reports have put the price tag for “Mission: Impossible 7” at $290 million-$300 million before a globetrotting marketing campaign by Cruise to promote the film that included stops in Rome, London, Seoul and Sydney.
By comparison, 2018’s “Mission: Impossible — Fallout” had a budget of $178 million. The difference, of course, was the COVID-19 pandemic, which delayed on-location shooting of “Dead Reckoning” for five months in 2020. The delay also led to a lawsuit by Paramount against the production’s insurance company that was later settled.
For a franchise sequel to turn a theatrical profit at this budget level, it must perform well across all demographics and all markets. “Fast X,” which got only so-so reception with American audiences and got hit with the same downturn in Chinese box office returns as other Hollywood films, has needed all of its lingering global appeal just to get close to breaking even with $702 million worldwide against a $340 million budget. “Indiana Jones,” with a budget of around $300 million, hasn’t even made that much after two weekends in theaters.
Paramount saw this sort of underperformance with “Transformers: Rise of the Beasts,” which has a reported budget of at least $200 million and just crossed $400 million worldwide after a month in theaters, putting it on pace to be the lowest-grossing film in the “Transformers” series.
The studio has chalked this up to the aforementioned plunge in Chinese box office grosses for American films, insiders at Paramount told TheWrap. Execs see the film’s performance in the U.S. ($145 million domestic) and in other overseas markets as signs that there is still interest in the “Transformers” series. Paramount is looking to use that to move the franchise forward in new directions, including the animated origin film “Transformers One” that will likely carry a much lower production cost than its live-action counterparts as Paramount plans to expand its animation slate starting with “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem” next month.
“Mission: Impossible,” thanks to the popularity of both its past films and its lead star, is not as dependent on China for its overseas performance as “Transformers.” While China contributed $181 million of the $791 million global total of “Fallout” five years ago, Cruise helped push “Top Gun: Maverick” to an overseas total of $776 million without any help from China, where the movie never received permission to screen. Instead, the United Kingdom and Japan each contributed over $100 million while South Korea, Australia and France all reached $60 million-plus.
It’s unlikely that “Dead Reckoning” will reach the global heights of “Top Gun: Maverick” given the competition from “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” this month as well as the fact that “Mission: Impossible,” part of a franchise with seven films over the last 27 years, doesn’t have the novelty of being a legacy sequel that “Maverick” enjoyed being 36 years removed from the first “Top Gun.”
But a global run of $800 million-$1 billion would make this film profitable against its high break-even mark, and would make it the top grossing “Mission: Impossible” film yet. Given the overwhelming critical praise and the renewed interest in Cruise generated by “Maverick,” that should be a mission that Paramount will choose to accept.
PolymerSkywalker
DIS Veteran
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That official?
PolymerSkywalker
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The street like stability and consistency of good performance. Maybe Bob can turn it around and give us both.
Apthorp76
Earning My Ears
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- 43
Interesting, the Orlando Sentinel reports extension through the end of 2026 -- after the next Florida gubernatorial election on 3 Nov 2026.
https://www.orlandosentinel.com/2023/07/12/disney-extends-igers-ceo-contract-through-2026/
wabbott
DIS Veteran
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https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/12/business/media/disney-bob-iger.html
Bob Iger to Remain as Head of Disney Through 2026
Brooks Barnes
The 72-year-old chief executive previously said he planned to leave a the end of his contract in 2024.
July 12, 2023Updated 8:06 p.m. EDT
Robert A. Iger has extended his reign at Disney through 2026, as finding an heir continues to be difficult and questions mount about the viability of the company’s vaunted movie studios and theme parks.
The Walt Disney Company said on Wednesday that Mr. Iger, 72, will remain chief executive for two years beyond his previously announced re-retirement date. Mr. Iger reluctantly ended his first run at Disney in 2021, handing the company’s top job to Bob Chapek, a former theme park executive. Mr. Chapek was fired in November, and Mr. Iger made a triumphant return as chief executive.
At the time, Disney said Mr. Iger had been asked “to set the strategic direction for renewed growth and to work closely with the board in developing a successor to lead the company at the completion of his term.” Mr. Iger repeatedly said that he would retire for good when his contract was up at the end of 2024.
“My plan is to stay here for two years,” Mr. Iger told CNBC in November. “That was my agreement with the board, and that is my preference.”
But many people in Hollywood were skeptical. During his first tenure as chief executive, from 2005 to 2020, Mr. Iger delayed his departure at least three times. (He continued as Disney’s executive chairman for a year after stepping down as chief executive.)
“Because I want to ensure Disney is strongly positioned when my successor takes the helm, I have agreed to the board’s request to remain C.E.O. for an additional two years,” Mr. Iger said in a statement on Wednesday.
“The importance of the succession process cannot be overstated," he added, “and as the board continues to evaluate a highly qualified slate of internal and external candidates, I remain intensely focused on a successful transition.”
In the months since Mr. Iger has been back at Disney, he has moved quickly to cut costs — some $5.5 billion, in part by eliminating 7,000 jobs, including at Pixar and ESPN — and push Disney’s streaming operation toward profitability. He also won a proxy battle with the activist investor Nelson Peltz, one turning in part on Disney’s poor track record of succession planning. Mr. Peltz declined to comment on Wednesday.
But a successor has yet to be identified. The board has been looking at candidates inside and outside the company, Disney has said. Mr. Iger brought a trio of executives with him to this week’s Allen & Company Sun Valley media conference, the annual “billionaires’ summer camp,” and all are viewed as succession possibilities: Dana Walden, a co-chairman of Disney Entertainment; her counterpart, Alan Bergman; and Josh D’Amaro, chairman of Disney Parks, Experiences and Products.
A spokeswoman for Mr. Iger said he was unavailable for an interview.
In recent months, as Disney’s troubles have increased, senior executives have privately pressed Mr. Iger to renew. In its statement on Wednesday, Disney took pains to point out that it was the board, not Mr. Iger, that pushed for an extension. Given his serial contract renewals, a narrative has formed in Hollywood, rightly or wrongly, that he is reluctant to step away from power. “The board determined it is in the best interest of shareholders to extend his tenure, and he has agreed to our request,” Mark G. Parker, chairman of the Disney board, said in the statement, adding that Mr. Iger had already “set Disney on the right strategic path for ongoing value creation.”
Our business reporters. Times journalists are not allowed to have any direct financial stake in companies they cover.
Disney shares have been trading at about $90, down 3 percent from a year ago and 54 percent from their peak in March 2021. Following the news of Mr. Iger’s extension, shares remained largely flat in after-hours trading.
The challenge is that, in addition to succession, Disney is dealing with problems on almost every front, including new questions about its movie studios, given disappointing results at the summer box office for “Elemental,” “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” and, to a lesser extent, “The Little Mermaid.” Disney has been maneuvering to buy full control of Hulu, but such a purchase would be expensive, and Disney is loaded with roughly $45 billion in debt, partly because of the pandemic.
In the meantime, Disney’s earnings engine for the last 30 years — traditional television, including ESPN — has become a shadow of its former self, the result of cord cutting, advertising weakness and rising sports programming costs. Mr. Iger is betting that streaming services will return the company to growth. But Disney+ has been shedding subscribers, and a broader streaming division remains unprofitable, losing nearly $2 billion since the start of the fiscal year.
Disney is also contending with a lingering screenwriters’ strike; and contract negotiations between studios and SAG-AFTRA, the guild that represents about 160,000 actors, have been going poorly and could result in a strike as early as Thursday.
Unlike most of its rival media conglomerates, Disney can rely on its theme park business for profit and growth — unless a recession hits. Lately, attendance at the company’s largest property, Disney World in Florida, has appeared to weaken as part of a broader decline in tourism to Florida. (Universal Studios has also seen softness, according to analysts.)
Disney has been embroiled in a public standoff with Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida over control of government services at Disney World. Dueling lawsuits are making their way through federal and state courts, and Mr. DeSantis has been harshly critical of Disney as a “woke” corporation while campaigning for president.
In an email to employees on Wednesday, Mr. Iger acknowledged the company’s many challenges.
“There is more to accomplish before this transformative work is complete, and I am committed to seeing this through,” he said. “As I’ve said many times since we began this important transformation of the company, our progress will not be linear as we continue navigating a difficult economic environment and the tectonic shifts occurring in our industry.”
Lauren Hirsch contributed reporting.
Bob Iger to Remain as Head of Disney Through 2026
Brooks Barnes
The 72-year-old chief executive previously said he planned to leave a the end of his contract in 2024.
July 12, 2023Updated 8:06 p.m. EDT
Robert A. Iger has extended his reign at Disney through 2026, as finding an heir continues to be difficult and questions mount about the viability of the company’s vaunted movie studios and theme parks.
The Walt Disney Company said on Wednesday that Mr. Iger, 72, will remain chief executive for two years beyond his previously announced re-retirement date. Mr. Iger reluctantly ended his first run at Disney in 2021, handing the company’s top job to Bob Chapek, a former theme park executive. Mr. Chapek was fired in November, and Mr. Iger made a triumphant return as chief executive.
At the time, Disney said Mr. Iger had been asked “to set the strategic direction for renewed growth and to work closely with the board in developing a successor to lead the company at the completion of his term.” Mr. Iger repeatedly said that he would retire for good when his contract was up at the end of 2024.
“My plan is to stay here for two years,” Mr. Iger told CNBC in November. “That was my agreement with the board, and that is my preference.”
But many people in Hollywood were skeptical. During his first tenure as chief executive, from 2005 to 2020, Mr. Iger delayed his departure at least three times. (He continued as Disney’s executive chairman for a year after stepping down as chief executive.)
“Because I want to ensure Disney is strongly positioned when my successor takes the helm, I have agreed to the board’s request to remain C.E.O. for an additional two years,” Mr. Iger said in a statement on Wednesday.
“The importance of the succession process cannot be overstated," he added, “and as the board continues to evaluate a highly qualified slate of internal and external candidates, I remain intensely focused on a successful transition.”
In the months since Mr. Iger has been back at Disney, he has moved quickly to cut costs — some $5.5 billion, in part by eliminating 7,000 jobs, including at Pixar and ESPN — and push Disney’s streaming operation toward profitability. He also won a proxy battle with the activist investor Nelson Peltz, one turning in part on Disney’s poor track record of succession planning. Mr. Peltz declined to comment on Wednesday.
But a successor has yet to be identified. The board has been looking at candidates inside and outside the company, Disney has said. Mr. Iger brought a trio of executives with him to this week’s Allen & Company Sun Valley media conference, the annual “billionaires’ summer camp,” and all are viewed as succession possibilities: Dana Walden, a co-chairman of Disney Entertainment; her counterpart, Alan Bergman; and Josh D’Amaro, chairman of Disney Parks, Experiences and Products.
A spokeswoman for Mr. Iger said he was unavailable for an interview.
In recent months, as Disney’s troubles have increased, senior executives have privately pressed Mr. Iger to renew. In its statement on Wednesday, Disney took pains to point out that it was the board, not Mr. Iger, that pushed for an extension. Given his serial contract renewals, a narrative has formed in Hollywood, rightly or wrongly, that he is reluctant to step away from power. “The board determined it is in the best interest of shareholders to extend his tenure, and he has agreed to our request,” Mark G. Parker, chairman of the Disney board, said in the statement, adding that Mr. Iger had already “set Disney on the right strategic path for ongoing value creation.”
Our business reporters. Times journalists are not allowed to have any direct financial stake in companies they cover.
Disney shares have been trading at about $90, down 3 percent from a year ago and 54 percent from their peak in March 2021. Following the news of Mr. Iger’s extension, shares remained largely flat in after-hours trading.
The challenge is that, in addition to succession, Disney is dealing with problems on almost every front, including new questions about its movie studios, given disappointing results at the summer box office for “Elemental,” “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” and, to a lesser extent, “The Little Mermaid.” Disney has been maneuvering to buy full control of Hulu, but such a purchase would be expensive, and Disney is loaded with roughly $45 billion in debt, partly because of the pandemic.
In the meantime, Disney’s earnings engine for the last 30 years — traditional television, including ESPN — has become a shadow of its former self, the result of cord cutting, advertising weakness and rising sports programming costs. Mr. Iger is betting that streaming services will return the company to growth. But Disney+ has been shedding subscribers, and a broader streaming division remains unprofitable, losing nearly $2 billion since the start of the fiscal year.
Disney is also contending with a lingering screenwriters’ strike; and contract negotiations between studios and SAG-AFTRA, the guild that represents about 160,000 actors, have been going poorly and could result in a strike as early as Thursday.
Unlike most of its rival media conglomerates, Disney can rely on its theme park business for profit and growth — unless a recession hits. Lately, attendance at the company’s largest property, Disney World in Florida, has appeared to weaken as part of a broader decline in tourism to Florida. (Universal Studios has also seen softness, according to analysts.)
Disney has been embroiled in a public standoff with Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida over control of government services at Disney World. Dueling lawsuits are making their way through federal and state courts, and Mr. DeSantis has been harshly critical of Disney as a “woke” corporation while campaigning for president.
In an email to employees on Wednesday, Mr. Iger acknowledged the company’s many challenges.
“There is more to accomplish before this transformative work is complete, and I am committed to seeing this through,” he said. “As I’ve said many times since we began this important transformation of the company, our progress will not be linear as we continue navigating a difficult economic environment and the tectonic shifts occurring in our industry.”
Lauren Hirsch contributed reporting.
Must they look at absolutely everything thru a political lens?? It's exhausting!!
irlandaise
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Sep 27, 2022
- Messages
- 2,023
I believe "they" was Apthorp, not the Sentinel. While Disney's fight with DeSantis is mentioned in the article, there's no reference to the 2026 election.
Iger returned to Disney on Nov. 20th, 2022, so "through 2026" is probably four years from that date. But that would just be coincidence with the election.
wabbott
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Aug 4, 2021
- Messages
- 6,275
OH!!! EMM!!! GEE!!!
The man is capable of learning!!! There is hope yet!!!
https://www.cnbc.com/2023/07/13/disney-ceo-iger-opens-door-to-unloading-tv-assets.html
Disney CEO Iger opens door to unloading TV assets as linear business struggles
Published Thu, Jul 13 2023-8:16 AM EDT
Updated 10 Min Ago
Lillian Rizzo@Lilliannnn
Key Points
Iger appeared on CNBC on Thursday, the morning after the company announced it would extend his contract by two years through 2026. He returned to the helm of the company in November after Disney’s board ousted Bob Chapek with a two-year contract through 2024 and plans to find a next successor.
“After coming back, I realized the company is facing a lot of challenges, some of them self inflicted,” Iger told CNBC’s Faber on Thursday, noting he’s accomplished a lot of work in seven months but there’s more to be done.
At the top of the list is assessing the traditional TV business, Iger said on Thursday. Disney owns a portfolio of TV networks, from broadcast station ABC to cable-TV channels like ESPN.
Disney is going to be “expansive” in its thinking about the traditional TV business, leaving the door open to a possible sale of the networks. “They may not be core to Disney,” Iger said, adding the creativity that has come from those networks has been core to Disney.
Cable-TV channel ESPN is in a different bucket, however. On that front, Iger said Disney is open to finding a strategic partner, which could take the form of a joint venture or offloading an ownership stake.
Iger said when he had left the company he had predicted the future of traditional TV and had been “very pessimistic,” and has found since his return that he was right in his thinking, adding it’s worse than he expected.
When Iger last spoke with Faber in February, soon after announcing a major restructuring at the company, he said he felt “a sense of obligation” to return to Disney and that his preference was to stay for his two-year contract.
“We’ve gotten a lot done very quickly, significant cost reductions and significant realignment of the company,” Iger said. “But dealing head on with some of our biggest challenges.”
The appearance in February came shortly after Disney announced a sweeping restructuring that included thousands of layoffs and billions of dollars cut in spending.
The reorganization warded off a potential proxy fight with activist investor Nelson Peltz.
Disney reorganized into three segments: Disney Entertainment, which includes most of its streaming and media operations; an ESPN division; and a parks, experiences and product unit.
These were some of Iger’s most significant actions in the months after his return. Disney revealed it would cut $5.5 billion in costs, consisting of $3 billion from content, excluding sports, and the remaining amount from non-content costs. The company earmarked 7,000 layoffs.
In addition to looking for his next successor, Iger has been tasked with bringing Disney’s streaming business to profitability. In the last year, media executives across all companies have focused on how to make streaming profitable, particularly after streaming behemoth Netflix
lost subscribers early last year and since instituted ad-supported streaming and a crackdown on password sharing to drive revenue.
While the company posted revenue and profit in line with Wall Street estimates last quarter, it saw a loss of 4 million subscribers at its flagship streamer Disney+.
Those subscriber losses were offset by price increases, which Iger said in May weren’t to blame for the lower numbers. Instead, he said it showed room for further increases when it comes to streaming, and pushing customers toward the ad-supported tier, with the aim of reaching profitability.
In an effort to bulk up Disney+ and attract more subscribers to its cheaper, ad-supported tier – which it launched last year – the company announced last quarter it would add Hulu content to Disney+.
In May, Iger had attributed the move toward a one-app location for both Disney+ and Hulu content to the increased advertising potential of a combined platform.
Disney has been weighing whether it should buy all of Hulu, as it owns 66% and Comcast
owns the rest. It’s likely Comcast will sell its Hulu stake to Disney at the beginning of 2024, CNBC previously reported.
Disney will report its fiscal third quarter earnings after the market closes Aug. 9.
Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal, which includes CNBC.
The man is capable of learning!!! There is hope yet!!!
https://www.cnbc.com/2023/07/13/disney-ceo-iger-opens-door-to-unloading-tv-assets.html
Disney CEO Iger opens door to unloading TV assets as linear business struggles
Published Thu, Jul 13 2023-8:16 AM EDT
Updated 10 Min Ago
Lillian Rizzo@Lilliannnn
Key Points
- Disney CEO Bob Iger sat down with CNBC’s David Faber at Allen & Co.’s annual conference in Sun Valley on Thursday.
- Disney announced on Wednesday that it was extending Iger’s contract by two years through 2026.
- Iger returned to the helm of Disney late last year. The company has since undergone thousands of layoffs and cut billions of dollars in spending, including from content.
Iger appeared on CNBC on Thursday, the morning after the company announced it would extend his contract by two years through 2026. He returned to the helm of the company in November after Disney’s board ousted Bob Chapek with a two-year contract through 2024 and plans to find a next successor.
“After coming back, I realized the company is facing a lot of challenges, some of them self inflicted,” Iger told CNBC’s Faber on Thursday, noting he’s accomplished a lot of work in seven months but there’s more to be done.
At the top of the list is assessing the traditional TV business, Iger said on Thursday. Disney owns a portfolio of TV networks, from broadcast station ABC to cable-TV channels like ESPN.
Disney is going to be “expansive” in its thinking about the traditional TV business, leaving the door open to a possible sale of the networks. “They may not be core to Disney,” Iger said, adding the creativity that has come from those networks has been core to Disney.
Cable-TV channel ESPN is in a different bucket, however. On that front, Iger said Disney is open to finding a strategic partner, which could take the form of a joint venture or offloading an ownership stake.
Iger said when he had left the company he had predicted the future of traditional TV and had been “very pessimistic,” and has found since his return that he was right in his thinking, adding it’s worse than he expected.
When Iger last spoke with Faber in February, soon after announcing a major restructuring at the company, he said he felt “a sense of obligation” to return to Disney and that his preference was to stay for his two-year contract.
“We’ve gotten a lot done very quickly, significant cost reductions and significant realignment of the company,” Iger said. “But dealing head on with some of our biggest challenges.”
The appearance in February came shortly after Disney announced a sweeping restructuring that included thousands of layoffs and billions of dollars cut in spending.
The reorganization warded off a potential proxy fight with activist investor Nelson Peltz.
Disney reorganized into three segments: Disney Entertainment, which includes most of its streaming and media operations; an ESPN division; and a parks, experiences and product unit.
These were some of Iger’s most significant actions in the months after his return. Disney revealed it would cut $5.5 billion in costs, consisting of $3 billion from content, excluding sports, and the remaining amount from non-content costs. The company earmarked 7,000 layoffs.
In addition to looking for his next successor, Iger has been tasked with bringing Disney’s streaming business to profitability. In the last year, media executives across all companies have focused on how to make streaming profitable, particularly after streaming behemoth Netflix
lost subscribers early last year and since instituted ad-supported streaming and a crackdown on password sharing to drive revenue.
While the company posted revenue and profit in line with Wall Street estimates last quarter, it saw a loss of 4 million subscribers at its flagship streamer Disney+.
Those subscriber losses were offset by price increases, which Iger said in May weren’t to blame for the lower numbers. Instead, he said it showed room for further increases when it comes to streaming, and pushing customers toward the ad-supported tier, with the aim of reaching profitability.
In an effort to bulk up Disney+ and attract more subscribers to its cheaper, ad-supported tier – which it launched last year – the company announced last quarter it would add Hulu content to Disney+.
In May, Iger had attributed the move toward a one-app location for both Disney+ and Hulu content to the increased advertising potential of a combined platform.
Disney has been weighing whether it should buy all of Hulu, as it owns 66% and Comcast
owns the rest. It’s likely Comcast will sell its Hulu stake to Disney at the beginning of 2024, CNBC previously reported.
Disney will report its fiscal third quarter earnings after the market closes Aug. 9.
Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal, which includes CNBC.
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