DIS Shareholders and Stock Info ONLY

[irlandaise]

The truth is that without ABC, FX, etc., then Disney’s pursuit for getting all of Hulu is OFF! Let Comcast have it.

I don't understand that. Hulu is via streaming and ABC, etc are all cable or over-the-air.

Perhaps Elijah meant that without content from ABC and FX, Hulu would be a much less attractive property for Disney.

 

[irlandaise]

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/tv-ratings-thursday-sept-14-2023-1235591931/

TV Ratings: ‘Thursday Night Football’ Hits Amazon High
The NFL's weeknight game scores its biggest audience since moving to streaming.

by Rick Porter - September 15, 2023 3:29pm PDT

Thursday Night Football scored its biggest audience since moving to streaming with its opening game of the 2023 season.

As that article says, TNF airs on Amazon Prime, not ESPN. Did you mean to quote this article about Monday Night Football, which Disney airs?

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/nfl-week-1-2023-tv-ratings-1235587742/

"Monday Night Football drew its biggest audience of the ESPN era, which dates to 2006. The 22.64 million viewers (11.66 million on ABC, 9.46 million on ESPN and 1.52 million on ESPN2’s Manningcast) is up 14 percent over last year’s debut (also on all three outlets) and beat the previous ESPN MNF high of 21.8 million viewers (not including out of home) in 2009."

 

[wabbott]

As that article says, TNF airs on Amazon Prime, not ESPN. Did you mean to quote this article about Monday Night Football, which Disney airs?

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/nfl-week-1-2023-tv-ratings-1235587742/

"Monday Night Football drew its biggest audience of the ESPN era, which dates to 2006. The 22.64 million viewers (11.66 million on ABC, 9.46 million on ESPN and 1.52 million on ESPN2’s Manningcast) is up 14 percent over last year’s debut (also on all three outlets) and beat the previous ESPN MNF high of 21.8 million viewers (not including out of home) in 2009."

I saw that article about MNF earlier. I posted the TNF article as general info on pro football viewership. IMO, the price for NFL games will increase a lot this year and will cause ESPN to either come up with the money as contracts expire, or lose out in the bidding.

Can ESPN compete with Amazon, Google, Apple, or whoever else chooses to bid on the NFL contracts? We shall see.

 

[HokieRaven5]

The NFL has a 10 year contract in place with NBC, CBS, ESPN, Amazon, Fox that expires in 2033.

ESPN will be broadcasting the 2026 and 2030 Super Bowl based on the current agreement.

 

[peder]

We still don't know the terms of the ABC/Nexstar deal. I figure Disney will hold on to most of the content, but they'll sell the network infrastructure to Nexstar. In that scenario, the Hulu deal still makes sense.

Specific content like ABC News or The View? I'm not sure where that'll go. Could easily be part of the sale.

 

[wabbott]

We still don't know the terms of the ABC/Nexstar deal. I figure Disney will hold on to most of the content, but they'll sell the network infrastructure to Nexstar. In that scenario, the Hulu deal still makes sense.

Specific content like ABC News or The View? I'm not sure where that'll go. Could easily be part of the sale.

Thursday afternoon, after the news broke about Nexstar, I was driving and had my Sirius radio tuned in to Bloomberg Business Radio. David Westin was being interviewed about the possible sale of ABC. Recall he was ABC News prez from 1997 to 2010, under both Eisner and Iger. He now hosts a Bloomberg show. Anyway, he is obviously knowledgeable about all things DIS and media.

He was asked about DIS possibly losing the synergies with ABC - promotions, content sharing, etc. He said that could easily be worked around by having contract provisions that cover the particular items.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/audi...s-president-david-westin-talks-disney-podcast

As far as ABC News itself, that division is probably a money-loser. Historically that has been the case with all the networks news divisions, ABC, NBC, and CBS. About 12 or 13 years ago, I did a lot of research on the history of news, and it was sort of an unwritten understanding that they would all run news divisions, no matter the cost, as a "public service." Things may have changed since, but I think probably not.

The View is nothing more than naked political propaganda. It has no business as a part of the DIS family, nor did it ever. Imagine the world-wide hysteria that would have ensued if DIS had bought Fox News along with their movie studio.

 

[wabbott]

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/disn...tional-tv-is-still-in-question-132324332.html

Disney had a win this week — but its future in traditional TV is still in question

Alexandra Canal · Senior Reporter
Sat, September 16, 2023 at 6:23 AM PDT

Disney (DIS) resolved its high-profile dispute with cable giant Charter (CHTR) earlier this week — but the company's future in traditional TV remains unclear as multiple news outlets reported that Disney has engaged in early stage talks with both Nexstar Media Group (NXST) and businessman Byron Allen to sell its broadcast and cable channels.

The talks, first reported by Bloomberg, are said to still be in exploratory stages; however, Allen did reportedly offer $10 billion for the purchase of ABC, National Geographic, FX, and other Disney-owned local broadcast channels.

Nexstar declined to comment. Allen Media Group did not immediately respond to Yahoo Finance's request.

In a statement, Disney said, "While we are open to considering a variety of strategic options for our linear businesses, at this time The Walt Disney Company has made no decision with respect to the divestiture of ABC or any other property and any report to that effect is unfounded."

The reports come after Disney and Charter reached a precedent-setting agreement on Monday following a contract dispute that led Disney to pull its owned and operated channels, including ESPN and ABC, off Charter Spectrum cable systems in late August.

As part of the deal, Charter will offer some Disney streaming services — the ad-supported version of Disney+, ESPN+, and ESPN's yet-to-be-launched direct-to-consumer offering — for select cable packages at no additional cost to the consumer.

The Charter dispute had raised questions about the future of the traditional cable TV bundle, especially as more consumers drop their cable packages in a trend known as cord-cutting and instead opt for streaming services that are less profitable for media companies.

According to recent data from Nielsen, linear TV viewership fell below 50% in July for the first time. Broadcast and cable each hit a new low of 20% and 29.6% of total TV usage, respectively, to combine for a linear television total of 49.6%.

Time spent streaming (via a television) increased 2.9% in July compared with June, according to the data, to reach a record of 38.7% of total TV usage.

"Linear TV [is] past the point of no return," Macquarie analyst Tim Nollen wrote in a note just ahead of the data's release. He added the revenue line for cable and satellite operators is "probably permanently negative" as pricing fails to drive upside and TV advertising growth stalls.

Amid those declines, Disney CEO Bob Iger said he would take an "expansive" look at the entertainment giant's traditional TV assets, which includes broadcast network ABC and cable channels FX, Freeform, and National Geographic — signaling the potential for a sale.

"We are expansive in our thinking about [the linear business], and we're going to look expansively ... [for] opportunities there because, clearly, it's a business that's going to continue to struggle," the executive said in an interview with CNBC in July.

The executive added the current distribution model is "definitely broken," saying the linear TV assets "may not be core" to Disney's strategy any longer.

It's a challenge that fellow legacy media companies have also faced with Comcast's NBC (CMCSA), Paramount's CBS (PARA), and Fox Corporation's Fox network (FOXA) all feeling the pressure as TV advertising woes mount.

"The television advertising sector is experiencing what might feel like an existential crisis at the moment," Brian Wieser, principal at insights provider Madison and Wall, said in a new note released earlier this month.

"At the start of this year, we had a situation where cord-cutting was accelerating into high-single-digit levels of decline, enabled (if not outright encouraged) by traditional TV network owners’ shift of resources and programming budgets into streaming platforms, which have been and are likely to always be ad-free or ad-light at best," he continued, adding the Hollywood strikes have also added an extra layer of impact.

Investors have also seemed to put their weight behind streaming services as the market cap of Netflix (NFLX), currently hovering above $175 billion, roughly equals the market caps of Disney, Fox, and Paramount combined.

Still, networks continue to earn double-digit margins as sports viewership remains a big driver behind cable bundle subscriptions.

Tom Carter, Nexstar’s former COO who became a senior adviser at the company in August, said at Bank of America's Media, Communications, and Entertainment Conference on Wednesday that the company would be interested in "opportunities" to acquire linear assets from legacy media giants, including Disney.

Still, he warned a sale would likely be complicated, especially if ESPN is not included in a potential spin-off.

"A lot of those assets, the linear and the [direct-to-consumer] assets are intertwined," he said. "From a programming perspective and from a content perspective, you're seeing ESPN simulcast the majority of their large sporting events on ABC. If you were to buy the ABC complex, how would that work going forward? So there's a lot of questions that need to be answered there."

Analysts have questioned the strength of a potential buyer for Disney's TV channels given the intense secular declines in linear television networks.

"Every media company is facing cord-cutting, shifts of television advertising to connected TVs and other platforms," Rich Greenfield, media and technology analyst at LightShed Partners, previously told Yahoo Finance Live. "The linear TV business is just under a lot of pressure, and investors are already asking me, 'Well, who are they selling it to? Who wants to buy a linear TV business?'"

Other industry watchers said a possible asset sale is likely necessary to protect the business's future — but only with the right buyer.

"We agree that asset sales are a good idea, but our best advice would be to sell all (or all the content assets) of DIS to AAPL, AMZN, or another company that never needs to make money from creating content," Needham analyst Laura Martin previously wrote. "If they don't sell, DIS will be competing against those companies in an industry with deteriorating economics (because they never need to make money from content), we believe."

Some have even said Disney should consider splitting up the business.

MoffettNathanson analyst Michael Nathanson suggested the company should be broken up into two entities: one focused on parks, Disney+, and studio IP and another focused on Disney’s linear networks, ESPN+, Hulu SVOD, Hulu Live TV, and Disney+ Hotstar.

"I'm not in the camp that says that Disney really needs to split up," Bank of America analyst Jessica Reif Ehrlich previously told Yahoo Finance, maintaining the solution likely won't be enough to solve Disney's myriad problems.

"Having said that, I think all options, and Bob Iger has made this very clear, all options are on the table," she said.

 

[wabbott]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byron_Allen

Byron Allen Folks[2] (born April 22, 1961)[3] is an American businessman, television producer, and comedian. He is the founder of the U.S. media company Entertainment Studios, which has interests in television production, broadcasting, film production, and digital media.

Born in Detroit and later moving to Los Angeles, he initially pursued a career in stand-up comedy. After an appearance on The Tonight Show, Allen began to expand into television work, including becoming a host for NBC's Real People. In 1993, Allen established what would later become known as Entertainment Studios.

Early life and education

Allen was born in Detroit, grew up there until 1968 when he moved with his mother after her divorce to Los Angeles.[3] His interest in show business began during his childhood when he accompanied his mother, Carolyn Folks,[4] to NBC Studios in Burbank (where she worked as a publicist).[5]

At age 14, Allen put together his first stand-up routine, and began appearing on amateur night at comedy clubs throughout the Los Angeles area.[5] Allen attended high school at Fairfax High School in Los Angeles and college at the University of Southern California.[6]

Professional career

Comedian Jimmie Walker saw Allen's stand-up act and invited the 14-year-old comedian to join his comedy writing team alongside promising young comedians Jay Leno and David Letterman. In 1979 at the age of 18, Allen made his television debut on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, becoming the youngest comedian to ever perform on the show;[7] he used the appearance to learn more about the television industry.[8]

Following his appearance on The Tonight Show, NBC cast Allen as a reporter for its series Real People—his first role on a network prime time program.[8] Allen co-wrote and co-starred in the 1988 CBS television film Case Closed,[8][9] hosted the syndicated late-night talk show The Byron Allen Show from 1989 to 1992,[8] and toured as an opening act for musicians such as Dolly Parton, Gladys Knight, Lionel Richie, and The Pointer Sisters.[8]

In 1993, Allen established a production company known as CF Entertainment, which would be devoted to producing low-cost non-fiction television programming;[10][11] its first program would be the syndicated talk show Entertainers with Byron Allen, which featured interviews between Allen and celebrities. The interviews were filmed at hotel press junkets for upcoming films, allowing him to produce the show at a relatively low cost by leveraging equipment set up by the studio for use by the media. Allen distributed the program under a bartered model, in which it would be offered to stations at no cost, with revenue sharing on advertising sales.[8] The business model was not initially successful, resulting in Allen's home facing multiple foreclosures, and at one point losing telephone service—requiring him to conduct business via a payphone.[8]

The company was renamed Entertainment Studios in 2003.[11] In 2012, Allen began forays into scripted programming with the sitcoms The First Family and Mr. Box Office.[12][13][14] Later in the decade, Entertainment Studios began to pursue various acquisitions, including film distributor Freestyle Releasing,[15] TheGrio,[16] The Weather Channel,[17][18] an equity stake in Sinclair Broadcast Group's acquisition of the Fox Sports Networks,[19] and broadcast television stations.[20] By October 2022, the company was valued at over $4.5 billion.[21]

In February 2022, Allen made a bid to buy the Denver Broncos of the National Football League.[22] Allen was ultimately outbid by a group led by S. Robson Walton.[23][24]

Awards

In 2018, Allen was selected for the Bloomberg 50 as one of "the people in business, entertainment, finance, politics, technology and science whose 2018 accomplishments were particularly noteworthy".[25]

He was also selected for the 100 Most Intriguing Entrepreneurs at the Goldman Sachs Builders & Innovators Summit 2018, and he was honored by The Salvation Army and the Los Angeles Metropolitan advisory board at the Salvation Army's 11th annual Christmas Kettle luncheon.[26]

In January 2019, Allen was a recipient of National Association of Television Program Executives's 16th Annual Brandon Tartikoff Legacy Awards,[27] presented during the annual NATPE Miami Marketplace & Conference. Allen received the 2019 Whitney Young Award at the 46th annual Los Angeles Urban League Awards dinner.[28]

In February 2023, the African American Student Union of the Harvard Business School presented Allen with its inaugural "Legendary Honor".[29]

Personal life

Allen married TV producer Jennifer Lucas in 2007.[30] The couple have three children.[31][32][33] Allen is on the Motion Picture & Television Fund Board of Governors.[34]

Allen has residences in Aspen, Maui, Los Angeles, and New York City. In 2022, he bought a two-home compound in Beverly Hills, California from Jeffrey Skoll for $22 million,[35] and a mansion in Malibu, California, previously owned by Tamara Gustavson for $100 million. The latter was reported to be the most expensive U.S. home purchase ever made by an African American.[21][36]

 

[wabbott]

https://www.cnbc.com/2023/09/17/disney-asset-sales-will-move-media-industry-forward.html
Disney asset sales won’t break the bank, but they will move legacy media forward

Published Sun, Sep 17 2023 - 8:00 AM EDT
Alex Sherman@sherman4949

Key Points

• Investors may cheer Disney’s decision to consider selling some legacy media businesses even if the deal price doesn’t break the bank.
• Divesting legacy businesses, which have lower growth profiles, is symbolically more important to Disney and its shareholders than the purchase price of the assets.
• Disney has held early talks with Nexstar to sell ABC and its owned local affiliates, although no deal is assured.

Usually when a person or company sells something, the primary motivation is getting back as much money as possible.

Disney’s motivation to potentially sell ABC and its owned affiliates, linear cable networks and a minority stake in ESPN isn’t predicated on what these assets will fetch in a sale. It’s about signaling to investors the time has come to stop thinking about Disney as old media.

Disney’s market capitalization is about $156 billion. The company has about $45 billion in debt. Selling assets can help the entertainment giant lower its leverage ratio while buffering the continued losses from its streaming businesses.

Still, that’s not the prime rationale for why Disney Chief Executive Bob Iger told CNBC in July he’s contemplating selling off media assets — something he’s long resisted. Rather, a sale of ABC and linear cable networks would be a message to the investment community: The era of traditional TV is over. Disney is ready for its next chapter.

“Disney almost has a good bank and a bad bank at this point,” Wells Fargo analyst Steven Cahall said in a CNBC interview. “Streaming is its future. It’s its strongest asset, next to the parks. The linear business is something Disney has clearly signaled is going to be in decline. They’re not looking to necessarily protect it. If they can move some of that lower, negative-growth business off of the books and to a better, more logical operator, we think that’s good for the stock.”

Nexstar

has held preliminary conversations with Disney to acquire ABC and its owned and operated affiliates, Bloomberg reported Thursday. Media mogul Byron Allen has made a preliminary offer to pay $10 billion for ABC and its affiliates along with cable networks FX and National Geographic, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Disney released a statement Thursday saying “while we are open to considering a variety of strategic options for our linear businesses, at this time The Walt Disney Company has made no decision with respect to the divestiture of ABC or any other property and any report to that effect is unfounded.”

Declining values

The value of broadcast and cable networks has significantly declined from the 1990s and early 2000s as tens of millions of Americans have canceled cable in recent years.

Cahall values ABC and Disney’s eight owned affiliate networks at about $4.5 billion. That’s a far cry from the $19 billion Disney paid for Capital Cities/ABC in 1995 — the deal that brought Iger to the company.

ESPN has a valuation of about $30 billion, according KeyBanc Capital Markets analyst Brandon Nispel, “though we view it as a melting iceberg,” he added in a September note to clients. LightShed analyst Rich Greenfield values ESPN at closer to $20 billion.

Disney would like to keep a majority stake in ESPN, Iger told CNBC. It currently owns 80% of the sports media business, and Hearst owns the other 20%.

About 10 years ago, analysts valued ESPN at around $50 billion.

Selling ABC

Disney’s most interesting decision may be deciding what to do with the ABC network. The company can easily sell off its eight owned and operated affiliate stations — located in markets including Chicago, New York and Los Angeles — without changing the trajectory of the media industry.

But divesting the ABC network would be a bold statement by Disney that it sees no future in the broadcast cable world of content distribution.

Selling ABC would be particularly jarring given Iger’s comments both to CNBC and in Disney’s last earnings conference call that he wants the company to stay in the sports business.

“The sports business stands tall and remains a good value proposition,” Iger said last month during Disney’s third-quarter earnings conference call. “We believe in the power of sports and the unique ability to convene and engage audiences.”

There’s clear value, at least for the next few years, in keeping a large broadcast network for major sports leagues. NBCUniversal executives hope ownership of the NBC network will convince the NBA that it should be cut into a new rights agreement to carry NBA games. NBC is a free over-the-air service and can increase the league’s reach, they plan to argue. Even if the world is transitioning to streaming, millions of Americans still use digital antennas to watch TV.

Currently, ESPN and ABC split sports rights. Selling ABC may trigger certain change-of-control provisions that force existing deals with pay TV operators or the leagues to be rewritten, according to people familiar with typical language around such deals.

Moving on from the network also may obstruct ESPN’s ability to land future sports rights deals. Without ownership of ABC, leagues may choose to sell rights to other companies, thus further weakening ESPN.

If Iger is true to his word and Disney stays in the sports broadcasting business, the company will have to weigh the negative externalities of losing ABC with the positive gains of showing investors it’s serious about shedding declining assets.

“Obviously, there’s complexity as it relates to decoupling the linear nets from ESPN, but nothing that we feel we can’t contend with if we were to ultimately create strategic realignment,” Iger said last month.

The way forward

If Disney does land a deal to sell ABC, and investors cheer the move, it may also function as a catalyst for other large legacy media companies to sell their declining assets. NBCUniversal, Paramount Global and Warner Bros. Discovery all have legacy broadcast and cable networks in addition to their flagship streaming services.

Disney may become the leader in pushing the industry forward.

“We see this as a real bullish sign at Disney.” said Cahall. “There’s a lot going on now at Disney, between ESPN and partnerships and divesting some of this stuff. Disney is suddenly feeling a little more catalyst-rich than it was recently.”

– CNBC’s Lillian Rizzo contributed to this article.

Disclosure: Comcast owns NBCUniversal, the parent company of CNBC.

 

[clarker99]

“Disney’s motivation to potentially sell ABC and its owned affiliates, linear cable networks and a minority stake in ESPN isn’t predicated on what these assets will fetch in a sale. It’s about signaling to investors the time has come to stop thinking about Disney as old media”.

This makes no sense to me. No mention of how or when Disney can replace Linear profits? If DTC was sitting at $6b in operating income with sure signs of growing to $8b-$10b then I can see why you strategically sell off assets.

I still don’t really understand why you don’t just continue taking the profits from linear and use it to help its DTC division grow to replace it. We are closing in on breaking even. But nowhere near replacing the $4b-$6b/year that Linear will pay out over the next few years, let alone the $8b profit linear pumped out after the Fox merger.

As a shareholder don’t we want OI growth to get back to $15b/year, like pre-Covid and then show signs of pushing towards $20b.

I am not anti-sell, I just do not understand selling for the sake of selling.

 

[PolymerSkywalker]

At this point in time, yes. The rub is what the future holds for linear TV advertising, network and cable.

What would any of us do were we in Iger's chair today? Sell now? Hold on and hope ad revenue rebounds? I guess that's why he's paid the big bucks - to make correct decisions more often than not.

Step one would be to fire lots of managers and creatives and studio heads that can’t seem to deliver on timelines and financial goals for their areas of control. If you haven’t had a successful project in the last 3 years, here is your walking papers. Then hire the brightest minds in the entire industry, like Disney used to hire. Winners win and losers lose…….that has been my experience.

Next thing is pivot to content on all platforms that is not divisive and appeals to most of the average fans.

Next thing is get out of anything that would remotely be considered political in nature, just don’t do it! Don’t pick a side, either side……ever.

I don’t think turning it around is hard, but it needs to start today.

 

[Jwaire]

Next thing is get out of anything that would remotely be considered political in nature, just don’t do it! Don’t pick a side, either side……ever.

I don’t think turning it around is hard, but it needs to start today.

This is easier said than done.

You have one side going on national news networks to complain about a pant suit wearing Minnie Mouse in the fashion capital of the world and another side wanting to ban Peter Pan and Dumbo because it doesn't meet modern sensitivity standards.

TWDC can't win.

 

[Jason_V]

Next thing is pivot to content on all platforms that is not divisive and appeals to most of the average fans.

Next thing is get out of anything that would remotely be considered political in nature, just don’t do it! Don’t pick a side, either side……ever.

Both are 100% impossible:

Everyone has their own definition of divisive and political. How do you create content for "everyone" when "being neutral" is your north star? Does that mean all your characters are white and blonde haired? That's going to be divisive.

Walt wasn't neutral...he made war films. I'm betting WWII was divisive and political in certain groups. Sleeping Beauty used "hell" at the very end...I'm sure that was divisive to some. Snow White was also divisive since it was the first animated film at a time when folks were convinced long form animation was bad for people.

 

[mom2rtk]

Both are 100% impossible:

Everyone has their own definition of divisive and political. How do you create content for "everyone" when "being neutral" is your north star? Does that mean all your characters are white and blonde haired? That's going to be divisive.

Walt wasn't neutral...he made war films. I'm betting WWII was divisive and political in certain groups. Sleeping Beauty used "hell" at the very end...I'm sure that was divisive to some. Snow White was also divisive since it was the first animated film at a time when folks were convinced long form animation was bad for people.

It’s not that black and white. Your “white and blonde” comment is ridiculous. They are never going to please both sides completely. But there’s a lot of room where both sides will be OK. They need to lean into that space.

 

[Jason_V]

It’s not that black and white. Your “white and blonde” comment is ridiculous. They are never going to please both sides completely. But there’s a lot of room where both sides will be OK. They need to lean into that space.

You're right...it's not that black and white. My point is EVERYTHING is DIVISIVE. Even when it's not, it is.

 

[ChipnDale79]

It’s not that black and white. Your “white and blonde” comment is ridiculous. They are never going to please both sides completely. But there’s a lot of room where both sides will be OK. They need to lean into that space.

what space is that?

 

[mom2rtk]

You're right...it's not that black and white. My point is EVERYTHING is DIVISIVE. Even when it's not, it is.

You aren’t wrong. But it’s not absolute. Some things are enough to boycott a company. Most things aren’t. It’s kind of a sliding scale. One of society’s problems right now is that people are too absolutist. There’s plenty of grey space where everyone can reside.

Even the most divisive political issues of our day have lots of overlap of agreement. But consensus and overlap don’t go viral.

 

[BrianL]

It’s not that black and white. Your “white and blonde” comment is ridiculous. They are never going to please both sides completely. But there’s a lot of room where both sides will be OK. They need to lean into that space.

Is there though? It seems like people these days will pick apart literally anything out there. But that's the whole point - you can nevr make everyone happy. It simply isn't possible. So you do what you do. The bigger fallacy is the thought that, "If they would just make what I LIKE, then most people would like that too."

 

[mom2rtk]

Is there though? It seems like people these days will pick apart literally anything out there. But that's the whole point - you can nevr make everyone happy. It simply isn't possible. So you do what you do. The bigger fallacy is the thought that, "If they would just make what I LIKE, then most people would like that too."

Yes, I absolutely think there is. But it’s not a conversation we can really have here. And it has nothing to do with what I LIKE.

It’s not all or nothing. But that’s where everyone seems to go these days.

 

[BrianL]

Yes, I absolutely think there is. But it’s not a conversation we can really have here. And it has nothing to do with what I LIKE.

It’s not all or nothing. But that’s where everyone seems to go these days.

But what would it look like for them to produce work that nobody would see any controversey in? I'm willing to bet that someone would find something to complain about. Really that's always been the case, folks are just louder now. The fact is that most people are already totally fine with most of the content that Disney has put out, or at least they don't really buy into the controversey's that people whine about on the Internet. They may like or dislike the final product, but the reason why is not what most of those loud voices think it is.