As part of its initial effort to eliminate around 7,000 jobs and reduce cost by $5.5 billion, The Walt Disney Co. has eliminated the division charged with developing business around the nascent “metaverse.” 

About 50 workers from the so-called “Next Generation Storytelling and Consumer Experiences” division were let go. Mike White, the former Yahoo executive who led the venture, will be retained and deployed in another capacity. 

The move was first reported by the Wall Street Journal and subsequently confirmed by numerous other outlets. Disney's current CEO, Bob Iger, sent a note to staff Monday outlining the broader scope of the upcoming layoffs. 

The next-gen storytelling division was built and championed last year by former Disney CEO Bob Chapek. And its demise marks the second major dismantling of a recent Chapek creation by Iger, who replaced Chapek in November amid his abrupt ouster. 

Iger's first move in returning to Disney’s CEO office was to axe the Disney Media and Entertainment Distribution division, led by Chapek lieutenant Kareem Daniel. 

Outlining Disney’s “strategic pillars” in a lengthy staff memo sent 14 months ago, Chapek highlighted what he saw were opportunities in the metaverse for Disney as it reached its 100th birthday. 

“Since Steamboat Willie, we have been the world’s foremost innovative storytellers,” Chapek wrote. “That must continue as technology evolves, giving our creative teams new canvases like the metaverse on which to paint.”

It’s unclear as to what Disney’s nascent metaverse group was working on. Certainly, Disney isn't the only large TMT company to explore metaverse opportunities. Facebook, for example, which recently restructured in a way such that its parent company is now called Meta Platforms, is notably all in on this brave, new world of storytelling few of us understand. 

To date, however, no one has yet proven that there can be a wildly profitable business built on the metaverse in the near term. ■

In the camel back’s final straw that was Bob Chapek’s disastrous Disney earnings call earlier this month, one number stuck out: the $1.5 billion the company lost on streaming last quarter. Ouch. 

Now Hollywood’s favorite CEO, Bob Iger, is back in charge, promising to fix all that ails the Mouse House, first by reversing Chapek’s company reorganization that enraged Disney creative executives. But giving all those creatives the power to say “yes" again doesn’t fix the bigger issue. 

Also read: Iger Calls Apple M&A 'Pure Speculation,' Says Disney Must Now Focus on Streaming Profits, Not Scale

Basically, Disney is spending way more money than it’s bringing in from the streaming services that both Bobs said were the company’s future. At the same time, its many legacy businesses are making less than expected.

Does Iger pull back on the promises to Wall Street both he and Chapek made of reaching break-even on streaming spending by 2024? Does he repeal Chapek’s projection of up to 260 million subscribers by then? Should the company sell more projects to other outlets, or make fewer shows for its streaming services? For that matter, is streaming still the future of the company? How much should the company be investing in streaming while it’s still milking ESPN, ABC, Freeform and theatrical movie releases, never mind its prodigious parks & resorts, consumer products and other divisions? 

It’s a crucial set of questions for Iger to solve, right after that big one at the top of his list: Find a permanent successor.

But it won’t be a simple solve. As former HBO executive Charles Schreger, now an NYU marketing professor, put it to NPR’s Marketplace, “Streaming is a terrible business.”

Or is it? That’s what Iger has to figure out as the entire industry goes through a fundamental reconsideration, and investors demand profits sooner than once promised. 

After Netflix’s equally disastrous earnings call back in April, it went through a wrenching bunch of changes to clean up its messy balance sheet. 

Now, Netflix is adding subscribers again, and more importantly, making money again, with nearly $500 million in free cash flow last quarter on $7.9 billion in revenue.  For everyone else, this Streaming Transition Thing has been a lot more challenging. 

As Netflix put it in its third-quarter earnings investor letter, “… it's hard to build a large and profitable streaming business — our best estimate is that all of these competitors are losing money on streaming, with aggregate annual direct operating losses this year alone that could be well in excess of $10 billion, compared with our +$5-$6 billion of annual operating profit.”

Netflix remains focused, mostly, on its pure-play streaming approach, though with some new wrinkles like that ad-supported tier. 

It’s even forgoing easy money like a potential box-office bonanza from the Knives Out sequel, Glass Onion. Rather than a long run in thousands of theaters, Netflix is giving it a one week in a few hundred screens before bringing it to its 223 million subscribers. For Co-CEO Ted Sarandos, the real win is delivering a hugely appealing movie to those paying customers his company already has, giving them another reason to stick around. ■

Compare that to Warner Bros. Discovery, which is leaning into its past as it struggles with $48 billion in debt,. CEO David Zaslav has been dumping direct-to-streaming originals and day-and-date simultaneous movie releases and other such experiments, and focused on milking the old stuff as long as he can. 

Given the modest scale of HBO Max (roughly a third of Disney Plus in subscribers), and WBD’s many financial limitations, maybe he’s right. 

So what does Bob Iger supposed to do with streaming? He helped inaugurate streaming’s modern era when Disney Plus launched three years ago and quickly rocketed past100  million customers. 

Perhaps rather than swinging a mouse-eared version of Zaslav’s meat cleaver, Iger will gently shift Disney’s various streaming services to a more modulated approach. Whatever Iger’s reorganization becomes, it will still need to figure out what goes to streaming, and what goes somewhere else first. This month’s movie debuts will certainly give him much to consider. 

Marvel’s Black Panther sequel, Wakanda Forever, topped the long holiday weekend again, pushing its theatrical gross to $675 million worldwide, after just three weeks in theaters.

BoxOfficeMojo.com says,the Black Panther sequel is already 16th in domestic grosses among the 30 Marvel Cinematic Universe releases (not counting Black Widow, which went straight to streaming deep in the pandemic last year).

Contrast that with another Disney film’s disastrous debut this weekend, the animated Strange World. It limped out of theaters with a barely-there $18.6 million domestically, and could lose $100 million on its theatrical release. Should Strange World have just bypassed theaters for Disney Plus, and saved those tens of millions of dollars spent on a traditional marketing push? 

Zaslav may not want to hear it, but Iger may conclude some projects make more sense with traditional (expensive) theatrical releases, but others do better on streaming. While Iger wants to empower his creatives, he’ll also need a nuanced approach to all the $33 billion the company spends on content. 

Marvel and Star Wars films do great in theaters, family programming not so much lately. Also, maybe there’s reason to pull back on some of the incessant cadence of Marvel and Star Wars streaming-only series. Or perhaps some of those series would do better if they were sold to competitors (much as Sony is doing with some Spider-Man shows), expanding the franchise reach and overall profitability. 

No doubt the Disney strategy on movies, TV shows, and streaming projects needs further evolution. More nuanced thought about what goes where, and yes, more attention to the bottom line of revenues and not the top line of new subscribers, will be on tap. Good thing Iger’s supposed to be the king of nuance. He’ll need it.  

So Bob Iger’s evil plan actually worked. Rather than ruin his golden-boy image as America’s favorite CEO when the pandemic and its planet-changing impact loomed over everything The Walt Disney Co. does, Iger suddenly handed control of the most respected media company on said planet to his stolid No. 2 and headed off to something like retirement. 

Except Iger never really let go of control. Think of his time on the sidelines as more a secret sabbatical while successor Bob Chapek grappled with closed parks and resorts, infected cruise ships, empty movie theaters and no sports on ESPN, all while managing (not always effectively) the complex and expensive transition to streaming. 

Read our complete Disney executive transition coverage:

* Bob Iger Wastes No Time With Reorganization at Disney

* Disney Stock Price Jumps Following Return of Bob Iger

* Bob Iger Takes Pay Cut in Return as Disney CEO

* Disney Stock Price Jumps Following Return of Bob Iger

* Bob Iger Replaces Successor Bob Chapek As Disney CEO

Iger remained as executive chairman for most of the next two years, then meddled from afar in various ways, holding forth at investor conferences, tweeting at inopportune times, allowing supposedly private and definitely tart criticisms to resurface in public media. 

Now, just as suddenly, Iger’s back, Chapek’s gone, and Disney is … where? 

Still in a complex mess amid an economic slowdown, with a bunch of problems that Iger probably won’t be able to fix in his supposed two-year comeback. No matter. Shares jumped as much as 9% Monday morning before settling back, as the investors, creatives and others rushed to embrace the familiar comforts of one of their favorite CEOs. 

Iger indeed is the GOAT among media executives. He’s the Tom Brady of CEOs. And like Tom Brady, he can’t stop playing the game. (Somewhere, Gisele Bundchen is contorting her perfect face in a grimace of condolence for Iger’s equally overachieving spouse, Willow Bay.) 

As big tech investor Alex Kantrowitz put it this morning, “Disney and Bob Iger have a co-dependence problem.” 

To repurpose a movie’s particularly apt phrase, they can’t quit each other. 

To be sure, Chapek’s bull-in-a-china-shop handling of various controversies — stumbling into Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’s own-the-libs woke trap after that Iger tweet, publicly calling out Scarlett Johansson in a bonus flap after Black Widow skipped went day-and-date on Disney Plus — understandably enraged crucial constituencies. 

And Chapek absolutely mishandled this month’s disastrous earnings call, when the company disclosed a whopping $1.5 billion in quarterly losses on its streaming operations as cord-cutting walloped legacy operations. Chapek then compounded the problem by announcing a plan to, basically, make a plan to fix the spending problems with cuts, layoffs and reorganizations. 

Bouncing Bob 2 for Bob 1 buys Disney’s board some grace. But here’s the hard truth. For all of Chapek’s missteps, would Disney have been that much better off with Iger running things the past two years and nine months? 

The list of challenges for the Old New Guy are long. Many of those challenges were actually set in motion by Iger during his 15 years running the company. Worst of all, he won’t have much time to fix all of this, especially if he wants to preserve his remarkable legacy:

What to do with the company’s structure and finances: Disney’s many creative executives hated a Chapek reorganization that took away their green-light power and reposed it in a centralized distribution operation under Kareem Daniel, Chapek’s longtime lieutenant. Daniel, of course, is already updating his LinkedIn profile for his next gig. But reorganizing the reorganization, as Iger has signaled he’ll do, won’t fix an essential challenge of the age: cost-effectively and efficiently deciding what projects should go where. Somebody has to decide what becomes a straight-to-streaming series on Disney Plus, versus a theatrical release, versus a series on ABC or Freeform. Creatives may have been unhappy, but given the era’s tight media economics, the company needs some rational approach to its $33 billion in content spending. And it has to do that while losing less money, protecting market share in the hugely competitive streaming sector, in the middle of an economic slowdown. Piece of cake. 

What to do with who’s next: The board’s news release about Iger’s return made it clear: One key job in the next two years is finding a permanent successor. We already know how that worked out last time. Chapek was an Iger decision, and only after Iger bumped off at least two previous would-be successors in Tom Staggs and Kevin Mayer while speaking publicly about retirement at least four different times. It’s not clear why Iger will do any better picking the New No. 1 this time than last. The most-discussed successors include Disney entertainment chair Dana Walden, Marvel guru Kevin Feige and ousted movie co-chief Peter Rice. None of those people, it’s worth noting, has any useful experience running parks and resorts, merchandise, home entertainment, and other operations that generate around half of Disney’s revenue. Said experience might be useful.

What to do with debt and acquisitions: Iger’s $71 billion acquisition of Fox brought Disney a controlling chunk of Hulu and the pungent programming of FX, which continues to give Hulu subscribers reason to watch. But it also saddled Disney with a big pile of debt that burdens the company going forward. Some have speculated that Iger will seek another acquisition to drive growth because it’s possible Disney is still not large enough to compete with Netflix, Amazon, and Apple. Ridiculous suggested targets include Netflix, which ignores not only the mammoth cost (and debt) involved but the even larger regulatory pushback it would set off. More importantly, it’s not clear any acquisition would ease what ails Disney, other than providing some distraction for pundits. 

What to do with Hulu: Speaking of Hulu, that put/call agreement with Comcast has to be resolved by 2024, and continues to complicate the streaming strategies of both companies. Whenever that agreement is triggered, Disney will buy out Comcast’s one-third share of Hulu at an enterprise value of at least $27 billion. Comcast executives believe it’s worth a lot more, which means still more debt for Disney. The buyout won’t resolve where U.S.-bound Hulu fits into Disney’s global streaming strategy, however. Should Disney Plus be a more general service? Should Hulu or Hotstar remain a separate thing? As marketing and operations costs grow, this issue is becoming more pressing. 

What to do with ESPN. Disney also needs to figure out what to do with one of its most valuable, if cable-bound assets, ESPN. “I think if I had remained, I would have pushed that harder,” Iger told CNBC a year ago, meaning he should have pushed ESPN into streaming more aggressively, rather than clinging to its fabulously profitable cable past. “Do you accelerate that or do you hold back as long as you can?” Iger went on. Well, now he gets to revisit that strategy with a great deal more urgency. Nowhere is the tension between a lucrative legacy and an uncertain streaming future more pressing than at ESPN and its under-fed streaming service, ESPN Plus.

What to do with China: It’s been years since any of Disney’s big movies has been released in the world’s No. 2 theatrical market. China’s government tightly controls how many U.S. films appear in its theaters, and when they’ll run. In recent years, they’ve largely turned off the spigot for Disney films. Perhaps Iger can again pry open that market through the force of his winning personality. But also perhaps, he can’t. Xi Jin Ping, fresh off consolidating power amid his third term as premier, cares far more about building his local movie industry, which now churns out home-grown nationalistic blockbusters that also support Xi’s larger messaging goals. A lack of access to China’s bountiful box office has big implications for Disney’s entire theatrical strategy, including the budgets and marketing plans for Marvel, Star Wars, Avatar, and Pixar projects.

What to do with Marvel, Star Wars fatigue: How much of a good thing is too much? Under Iger, the company drew up a long-term plan for lots of Marvel movies and streaming series and lots of Star Wars movies and streaming series. That worked for a while, but now, even the hard-core have begun grousing about the onslaught. Numerous Marvel and Star Wars shows have underperformed, eroding a crucial component of the entire Disney flywheel. If putting more and more shows isn’t the answer, what is? A slower tempo of releases may increase returns on a given project, but does nothing for streaming’s most important metric: engagement. Fewer shows mean less time on site, and higher churn. 

What to do with Parks: To help cover the streaming losses, Chapek mercilessly bumped up prices at Disney’s resorts. Spending there is still strong as people exorcise their lockdown demons, but if the economy continues to pinch, do those excruciatingly high fees bite into long-term revenue? 

It’s a long list of challenges, and while Iger is certainly the planet’s best qualified human to take them on, he may rue the day he decided to come back. It’s not going to be a fun two years, and his reputation as a manager will face some of its biggest challenges. 

“I hope he enjoys what he’s doing, because he has a lot to do,” Morris Mark, founder of Mark Asset Management, told CNBC interviewers this morning. 

Truer words were never spoken. ▪️

As every Ted Lasso fan knows, there are consequences to having a bad season in the English Premier League. Last season, Burnley, Watford and Norwich City were relegated (aka “demoted) to the English Football League Championship after each team finished in the bottom three of the Premier League. They’ll now have to finish in the top three in the Championship in the 2022-23 campaign if they want to be promoted back. 

Not to let Heidi Klum clutter up a perfectly good sports analogy for Next TV's new Friday afternoon navel-gazer, the business o’ video streaming is the same way — one week you’re in, the next you’re out. 

Here are some companies, executives, technologies or … things that we’d like to see promoted this week, and here’s another list we’d like to see relegated. 

PROMOTE 

* Roku City - Created as a homepage backdrop and screensaver for the Roku OS four years ago by former freelance graphic artist Kyle Jones, the scrolling magenta urban scape, filled with easter eggs, and now known as “Roku City,” has emerged as a happy hashtag on Twitter in recent weeks amid the social media platform’s post-apocalyptic chaos. It’s meme-liness was even spotlighted by the New York Times last weekend, which noted that Roku City has “become the unlikely venue for a massive public art experiment.” Of all the #RokuCity tweets referenced in the article, we liked this one from comedian Michelle Gold best:

Bob Chapek - Faced with EBITDA losses on direct-to-consumer businesses that would flush lesser quarterbacks into “course corrections” that make little sense in an age of accelerated cratering of linear media businesses, the Disney CEO stood tall in the pocket this week during his company’s third-quarter earnings report. Sure, he got hit after throwing the ball — Disney stock cratered 13%, a massive Wall Street setback that hasn’t been experienced in a generation. To Chapek, it’s just a matter of finding his open guys — ARPU on Disney Plus and the broader “Disney Bundle” have to be improved, and the advertising side of the business has to get launched and ironed out. But the blocking and tacking are there. The lighting-quick growth of Disney’s DTC scale — it blew by Netlfix in just three years — backs Chapek’s pledge to investors that Disney will be the first media conglomerate to be profitable in the new IP-distributed world. 

NBCUniversal - Amassing only 15 million paid users after two and a half years in the market, we’re not about to consider promoting NBCU’s DTC platform into our proverbial “Premier League.” Maybe out of the National League (which is like four rungs below the Premier)? But NBCU had a big programming win recently, releasing Universal Pictures’ 17th Halloween franchise movie, Halloween Ends, day and date onto Peacock and in theaters. The film generated what appears to be Peacock’s biggest audience to date. In fact, Nielsen revealed Thursday that a Peacock program surfaced for the first time on its weekly top 10 ranking of streaming shows, with Halloween Ends registering 717 million streaming minutes in the U.S. from Oct. 14-16. The film also generated $103.3 million at the global box office. Not a bad blended distribution strategy for a Blumhouse Productions movie with a reported production budget of around $33 million. 

RELEGATE

Ryan Murphy and Netflix - Sure, the prolific creative just hoisted some of Netflix’s biggest audience numbers of the year with Monster - The Jeffrey Dahmer Story and The Watcher. But just because Netflix could have expanded both limited series into multi-season enterprises doesn’t mean it should have. We won’t get into it again how The Watcher took Next TV — which had been hooked by episode 3 — down with it off a creative cliff with its convoluted ending in episode 7. But it's been the decision to expand Monster into an anthology series, transforming it into a full  “universe” of serial killers (Netflix’s words), that’s drawn all the ire on social media. “They’re franchising a bunch of psychotic, misogynistic serial killers like they're the f***ing Avengers,” tweeted one unhappy social media denizen. 

Chris Licht - The man brought in by David Zaslav to replace CNN chief Jeff Zucker, and ostensibly restore centrism and ratings sense to the network, just laid a pretty big egg with what is always one of cable news’ biggest nights, the midterm elections. The presumed radical lefties at MSNBC beat the Wolf Blitzer-less CNN in primetime election coverage on Tuesday night with a 3.2 million to 2.6 million viewer advantage. Granted, the overall audience for Tuesday’s midterms — which determined if candidates with absolutely no faith in the election process assumed lever-arm control of it on a national and state level — was somehow the smallest it has been for a midterm since 2014. But if you’re gonna come in cracking skulls and tanking morale, you better produce some damned audience ratings. 

Spectrum Internet - The Former Guy’s decision to gut the U.S. Postal Service ahead of the 2020 election has left a lasting imprint here at Next TV’s West Adams District headquarters in Los Angeles. The two mailboxes at our duplex remain festooned with not only our own spam mail from Charter Communications, but also the cable come-ons being sent to no less than five generations of occupants who lived here prior to our October 2016 purchase of the property. (There’s simply no effective, easy way anymore to tell the USPS that a previous occupant no longer lives at your house.) If I had kept all of the promotional mail sent by Charter over this six-year span, I would have a stack tall enough to reach the highest T-Mobile 5G tower, where affordable $50-a-month fixed-wireless-access home internet is being transmitted and received every damned second of every damned day. Instead, Next TV has chosen to further fill local landfills with Charter's wasteful paper marketing refuse … while we also continue paying Charter $74.99 a month — nay, $79.99 a month, after the just imposed price increase for broadband-only customers — for 300 Mbps, last-generation DOCSIS 3.0 Spectrum Internet service. With no managed Wi-Fi. On top of that, we have to listen to Charter execs wax on during earnings reports about how unhappy we’ll be with the performance of FWA services if we choose to switch. Well, sir, we just might have to see for ourselves, won’t we? 

Bob Chapek, CEO of The Walt Disney Co., spoke about the present, and future, of the media giant at the Paley International Council Summit in New York. Chapek said the Disney Plus platform is off to a strong start. Disney shared earnings November 8, and revealed that Walt Disney Co. subs are up to 235 million globally.

Chapek called the Disney Plus launch price for subscribers "an extreme value," and suggested consumers are willing to pay more. "We believe we still have some headroom there," he said.

The Walt Disney Co. added 14.6 million subscriptions in the fourth quarter, while Disney Plus added 12.1 million of them. "Given our three-year journey, we're extremely pleased," said the boss, who mentioned "a good pathway to profitability" for the streamer.

Disney Plus provides a wealth of consumer data, he said, which fuels the broad range of Disney products, including the parks.

Chapek spoke about an initiative that sees Disney Plus subscribers offered exclusive access to merchandise. He described the corporate portfolio as "the physical world and the digital world," and said the merchandise test "takes that one step further."

Chapek said "big blockbuster films are certainly back," but things are a bit "sketchy" for the smaller films. As Disney's forte is the tentpole pictures, it bodes well for the company.

Disney is pushing forward on a sophisticated production integration program that Chapek called "next-generation storytelling." It is carefully customized for the individual consumer. "It really creates that next level of storytelling that's unique to you," Chapek said. 

Also part of next-generation storytelling is a virtual experience where consumers can exit a ride to see how the ride works and what is behind the scenes, which Chapek hopes will prevent actual park-goers from exiting rides prematurely out of curiosity.

He also mentioned a focus on consumers outside of Disney's demographic sweet spot, including a "lifestyle community" for seniors in the Palm Springs area, where "they can live the next chapter of their lives in the Disney way."

The pandemic, he said, allowed the parks department to "almost re-engineer the parks business." It used to be one size fits all for consumers, he noted, but is increasingly catered to the individual. 

"We made what was already a magical experience an even more magical experience," Chapek said. 

On the cable side, Chapek stressed that ESPN is much more than a cable TV network, and is a "powerhouse brand."

"Don't just tie it to a distribution legacy system," he said. "Think of what the potential is for that brand going forward."

Asked about the future for Disney, Chapek said, "Storytelling, storytelling, storytelling" — and mentioned storytelling done in a more personalized way. ■

Continuing a busy week of public appearances, Disney CEO Bob Chapek told CNBC Thursday that his company needs to spend more than its current level of around $16 billion annually on direct-to-consumer content. 

"When we first launched Disney Plus, we way underestimated how much fuel the beast needs to be where it can be," Chapek said, confirming the $16 billion figure CNBC host David Faber threw at him. 

Also read: Brian Roberts: Comcast Would Buy Hulu Outright If It Were for Sale

Chapek seemed also confirm the $20 billion in DTC revenue data point that Faber also tossed out, as well as the $30 billion revenue figure for competitor Netflix. 

The CEO conceded that Disney is looking to up its content spending. He listed Disney's "flexible distribution pipeline" as a key competitive advantage, with linear TV networks and a recovering theatrical pipeline augmenting the distribution "kingpin" that is streaming, providing effective ways to amortize costs in ways that Netflix can't. 

"What we’re doing moving the chess pieces around, trying to figure out what the best combination is for all these channels," Chapek said. 

The CEO, who also appeared last weekend at D23 in Los Angeles and Wednesday at the Goldman Sachs Communacopia & Tech Conference, maintained Disney's position that Disney Plus will be profitable by 2024. 

He also said that we'll probably have to wait until that year before the fate of Hulu -- currently being haggled out with streaming JV's other owner, Comcast/NBCU -- will be decided. 

"As 2024 becomes more and more imminent, the chances of a Hail Mary pass that enables us to come to earlier resolution becomes less and less likely," Chapek said. "I would like to come upon an earlier resolution myself, but it takes two parties to make that happen ... I'm optimistic. Who knows."

NBCU has an agreement to sell its 30% stake in Hulu to majority owner Disney in 2024 based on three times its asset value at the time of the sale. The two sides can't agree on how much that asset value is, or whether NBCU even still wants to sell its stake. 

Less than two hours after The Walt Disney Co. CEO Bob Chapek said he’d like to exercise his right to buy out Comcast’s 33% stake in SVOD pioneer Hulu sooner rather than later, Comcast chief Brian Roberts said he’d buy the streamer outright if it were available.

Comcast’s NBCUniversal was one of the original investors in Hulu, and retained a 33% interest in the company after Disney upped its stake to 67% with its buyout of 21st Century Fox assets in 2019. According to their agreement, Disney has the right to purchase Comcast’s interest beginning in 2024, and Comcast has the right to "put" its stake to Disney on the same date. 

“Hulu is a phenomenal business,” Roberts said at the Goldman Sachs Communacopia + Technology conference on Wednesday. “It has 50 million customers, its scale is fantastic and it has wonderful content. I believe if it were put up for sale, Comcast would be interested and so would a lot of other tech and media companies. You would have a robust auction. There has never been a pure-play, fabulously scaled streaming service put on the market. I don’t know that the public markets are the way to judge the value.”

Asked if he was just making a point or if he were actually interested in buying Hulu, Roberts was a bit vague. 

“That question is up to Disney,” Roberts said. “Either way, the value of 100% of Hulu is what we’re entitled to. But if it were for sale we certainly, and I think others, would also want to get into that opportunity. I think our position is very enviable.”

Roberts' comments seem a bit of a departure from his past stance on the stake, and came less than two hours after Chapek, who spoke at the same conference at 6 p.m. ET, said that he would “love to” buy out Comcast’s stake before 2024 if the cable company agreed on a reasonable price. 

Roberts also chafed at Chapek’s comments in an interview with The Financial Times earlier this week, saying he took “great exception” to the Disney chief's allusion in the article that Hulu’s value has declined as sentiment around streaming companies has waned. 

So perhaps Roberts’ comments were merely his way of informing Disney that  Comcast expects to get paid very handsomely for its stake.

In 2019, Comcast agreed to sell its stake to Disney in 2024, in a deal that set the floor for Hulu’s value at $27.5 billion. Comcast also agreed to sell content from its NBC and Universal Studios arms to the service through 2024. In return, Disney received full operational control of the streamer. 

That deal was struck before either company launched its own streaming service — Disney Plus debuted in November 2019 and Comcast‘s Peacock was unveiled in April 2020 — and the valuations for the service are likely higher. About a year ago, MoffettNathanson estimated that Hulu could be worth as much as $47 billion, but cautioned that streaming valuations were volatile.

At a $27.5 billion valuation, Comcast's 33% interest would be worth about $9 billion. At $47 billion, that stake's value rises to $15 billion.

Disney has said it would like to fold Hulu into its Disney Plus service, but that would require full ownership. While Chapek told the FT that  Disney and Comcast have spoken “numerous” times over the past year about a possible deal, it appears they may have to wait a little longer to iron out an agreement. Whether that’s in two weeks or two years, the ball seems to be in Disney’s court. ■ 

The board of directors of The Walt Disney Co. voted to extend embattled CEO Bob Chapek’s contract for three years.

Chapek’s status had been questioned after the company’s shifting stance on Florida’s “don’t say gay” law upset employees and the governor of Florida, the home of the Disney World theme park. There were also concerns after he fired top TV creative exec Peter Rice, though the board issued a statement in support at the time.

Despite the negative buzz around Chapek, the board said its decision to extend his contract was unanimous 

“Disney was dealt a tough hand by the pandemic, yet with Bob at the helm, our businesses—from parks to streaming—not only weathered the storm, but emerged in a position of strength,” said Susan Arnold, chairman of the board. “In this important time of growth and transformation, the board is committed to keeping Disney on the successful path it is on today, and Bob’s leadership is key to achieving that goal. Bob is the right leader at the right time for The Walt Disney Company, and the board has full confidence in him and his leadership team.”

Chapek, age 63, was with Disney for 30 years when he was named CEO. He took over for the well-regarded Bob Iger at the start of the pandemic, which disrupted Disney’s parks and movie businesses.

“Leading this great company is the honor of a lifetime, and I am grateful to the board for their support,” said Chapek. “I started at Disney almost 30 years ago, and today have the privilege of leading one of the world’s greatest, most dynamic companies, bringing joy to millions around the world. I am thrilled to work alongside the incredible storytellers, employees, and Cast Members who make magic every day.” ■

Already reeling from his clumsy handling of last summer's ugly Scarlett Johansson salary dispute and his costly flip-flopping over Florida's far right-backed “Don’t Say Gay” education law, Disney CEO Bob Chapek is taking flak once again. 

After his abrupt firing of Disney Entertainment Chairman Peter Rice was revealed on Thursday, The Hollywood Reporter put out a fishing net for rival studio execs and Disney insiders unhappy with the way the Chapek handled the ouster. The trade ended up dredging up quite the catch (although no one wanted their name attached to their comments).

• According to ”one of the most powerful executives in media” — “Chapek just made another massive mistake.”

• A “high-level executive at a Disney competitor” — “By firing the guy this way, everyone else says, ‘Is this what he’ll do to me?’ ”

• A “Disney insider” — “It’s horrendous. It’s not good for the company. Morale is terrible.”

• Another ”Disney insider“ — “I wonder if Chapek has even been aware that Rice held Zoom town halls and Q&As throughout the pandemic that really made him a presence in the lives of us rank-and-file schlubs.”

Disney stock is down nearly 5% since news of Rice's firing leaked out Thursday morning. One rival studio exec put blame on Disney chairwoman Susan Arnold for not re-upping Chapek’s contract until the last minute. 

“You let the CEO get within a year of his contract being up,”  one longtime industry power player said. “That by itself is a statement of nonsupport. A vote of confidence is nonsense. It is the most Mickey Mouse company. It’s so dysfunctional.”

The Disney board put out this statement Thursday: “The strength of The Walt Disney Company's businesses coming out of the pandemic is a testament to Bob’s leadership and vision for the company’s future. In this important time of business growth and transformation, we are committed to keeping Disney on the successful path it is on today, and Bob and his leadership team have the support and confidence of the Board.” ▪️

The Walt Disney Co. suddenly has a new head of television content in Dana Walden.

Walden was moved up after Peter Rice was removed as head of Disney’s general entertainment content unit by CEO Bob Chapek.

Chapek, who has been under pressure for Disney’s uneven streaming growth and for political missteps in Florida, has named Walden chairman, Disney General Entertainment Content.

Walden, who was chairman, entertainment for Walt Disney Television, will oversee ABC Entertainment, ABC News, Disney Branded Television, Disney Television Studios, Freeform, FX Hulu Originals, National Geographic content and Onyx Collective. 

 “Dana is a dynamic, collaborative leader and cultural force who in just three years has transformed our television business into a content powerhouse that consistently delivers the entertainment audiences crave,” Chapek said. “Her well-earned reputation for championing creative talent and developing programming that truly captures the cultural zeitgeist has resulted in hit after hit, from ABC’s Abbott Elementary and Onyx Collective’s Academy Award-winning Summer of Soul, to Hulu Originals like Only Murders in the Building, Dopesick, The Dropout and The Kardashians. She and Peter have worked closely together for years to create the best programming in the industry, and I can think of no one better than Dana to lead Disney General Entertainment to even greater heights.”  

Like Rice, Walden joined Disney when it acquired 21st Century Fox in 2019. She reports to Chapek.

“It is an incredible honor to be asked to lead this amazingly talented team — they are truly the absolute best in every respect — and I am grateful to Bob for this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” Walden said. “Disney General Entertainment’s culture of creative excellence and originality has made us home to many of the most talented creators in the business. I am humbled to lead this team, and I am confident that together, we will continue to build on the foundation of culture-defining entertainment we have achieved so far.” ■

It’s been a rough spring for Disney CEO Bob Chapek, enough to fuel industry murmurs about his future at the top of Hollywood’s biggest media company. 

Despite strong operational results, Chapek’s performance -- coming after a battlefield promotion weeks before the pandemic locked down Disney theme parks and the theaters showing Disney movies -- has been marred by the botched handling of a political hot potato affecting the Florida theme parks, and suddenly gloomier growth prospects for everyone’s streaming-video services. 

Disney stock prices, like those of every other U.S. public company, are down dramatically from last year, plunging almost in half since a March 2021 high of $197 a share.

And though no one at Disney is accused of any wrongdoing, it’s worth keeping an eye on an unfolding political corruption scandal in Anaheim, where the mayor already has resigned. 

A top Disney Parks executive (not Chapek) is referred to in FBI court filings as a leader of a “cabal” of local power brokers effectively running the city where Disney’s original theme park has dominated the local landscape since the 1950s. Chapek headed Disney’s theme park division for five years before becoming CEO. Whatever happens with the corruption case, its timing isn’t great.

With all that as backdrop, will Chapek need a Hail Mary deal to fix his place in the Disney firmament? Or will he end up a pandemic-era placeholder between the sainted Bob Iger and whomever might come next atop of the Mouse House? 

Some are suggesting Disney must clarify its muddled bundle strategy, particularly regarding Hulu, the controlling share for which Disney inherited with its 2019 Fox deal. As recently as last year, most observers assumed Disney would buy out NBCUniversal’s remaining 30% stake under a deal the companies signed last year. 

Now, it may make more sense for Disney to get out of Hulu altogether. Yes, the service remains the third most popular streaming outlet in the United States, its only operating territory. 

But being in the Big Four (Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu, Disney Plus) isn’t as fun as it used to be. Boston Consulting Group’s latest streaming report says most domestic growth in subscription services is coming from the second tier of services (HBO Max, Apple TV Plus, Peacock, Paramount Plus), where, downside, churn rates are three times higher. 

For the bigger services, BCG wrote: “As it becomes clear that streaming is no longer a pure growth market, we can expect strategies to shift and the market to move into the next phase of maturity as competitors focus more on profitability and test a variety of approaches, including new business models and pricing plans, bundling, partnerships, and M&A.”

Disney, meanwhile, is still losing lots of money on its streaming operations, nearly $900 million last quarter, triple the same period the year before. The company is also marginally cutting its programming spend, $1 billion from what had been a $33 billion plan for 2022. 

The provocateurs at LightShed Partners have repeatedly suggested Disney sell off its Hulu shares and use the resulting $18 billion - $20 billion to invest in a more broadly constructed Disney Plus or even to buy Netflix or, intriguingly, Roblox. 

“Waiting until 2024 feels suboptimal for Disney to end the current Hulu partnership with Comcast,” LightShed analysts wrote. “Comcast has already taken back their NBCU content for Peacock (kicks in this fall). With Disney proving it can expand the diversity of content on Disney Plus with parental controls (link), there is little rationale for Disney to keep Hulu.”

Certainly, Hulu could use some love from someone. Picking through the offerings on Hulu can be a little sparse these days in terms of eye-catching originals. Much of what’s there initially appeared on ABC, Freeform and FX, with few buzzy originals to break up the legacy leftovers. 

A couple of prestige picks have arrived: Under the Banner of Heaven, based on Jon Krakauer’s best-selling book, is getting many critical kudos. Also of note is Conversations with Friends, an adaptation of yet another Sally Rooney novel about the complicated love life of painfully inarticulate Irish writers and performers (who knew there were so many?). Candy, with Jessica Biel and Melanie Lynskey, is getting lost in the flood of true-crime adaptations infesting all the streaming services. 

It’s true Chapek was dealt about as bad a hand as possible when Iger hurriedly decamped, a few weeks before the pandemic lockdown hit. Disney was particularly vulnerable to the pandemic’s depredations, with its theme parks and cruise lines shut down, and the theaters carrying its blockbuster movies largely empty or mothballed for months. 

Iger had presided as CEO over 15 years of expansion, eye-catching acquisitions, and success on most every front (though the less we say about Disney’s game and social-media forays, the better). 

Chapek’s first two years feature some strong upsides: effectively managing through the pandemic’s impacts on parks, a batch of Marvel theatrical hits, the Disney Plus rocket launch. 

But it’s impossible to overlook the flap over Florida’s regrettable “Don’t Say Gay” law/political football. That kerfuffle was something like the worst of all outcomes, and has turned Disney into an unlikely right-wing avatar of horrible “woke capitalism.” 

Chapek’s tardy comments opposing the bill did little to mollify concerned employees. And they fueled political retribution by the Florida legislature and governor, eliminating a special tax district that gave Disney effective control over the area around its Orlando parks complex. 

Chapek was given a relatively short leash when he took over for Iger, a three-year contract that runs out next February. Though board members haven’t in any way indicated they won’t renew Chapek’s contract, it’s worth wondering what they’re waiting for. The contract ends in less than nine months; if Chapek were an all-star shortstop on the Los Angeles Dodgers, Chapek’s agent would be wanting to know whether his client was about to become a free agent

The lack of any sort of signal from the board has certainly set off speculation across Hollywood, according to a Business Insider piece this week quoting 10 high-level sources within and outside the company. 

One anonymous Hollywood executive said Chapek, "is going to have to make a transformational move if he wants to keep his job.” 

Making another acquisition the level of Pixar/LucasArts/Marvel seems unlikely to pass regulatory muster, especially now that the Federal Trade Commission has finally added its third Democratic member under Chairman Lina Khan, an antitrust hawk.

But it’s just possible that Chapek could figure out a way to make Disney Plus more successful  and appealing, while narrowing the company’s streaming focus in an important way. Whether Chapek can pull the trigger on a Hulu sale, and perhaps save his own job, may be the question of the summer.

The squeaky clean Walt Disney Co. is ready to dive into the gambling pool as sports betting becomes legal in more of the country.

Speaking on Disney’s earnings call Wednesday afternoon, CEO Bob Chapek said that Disney has studied how getting involved in betting will affect the brands of Disney and ESPN and found that there won’t be any damage.

“We’ve done substantial research in terms of the impact not only to the ESPN brand, but to the Disney brand in terms of consumers changing perceptions of the acceptability of gambling,” Chapek said. “What we’re finding is there’s a very significant insulation. Gambling does not have the cache now that it had say 10 or 20 year ago.”

Also: New York Mobile Sports Betting Could Mean Big Money for Networks

Chapek admitted Disney had concerns about gambling. “But I can tell you that given all the research that we’ve done recently, that is not the case," he said

Gambling “actually strengthens the broad of ESPN when you have a betting component and it has no impact on the Disney brand,” he said.

That means Disney is ready to push its chips into the pot. And that would be good particularly for ESPN.

He noted that the younger sports fans that ESPN needs to replace aging fans want gambling as part of their sports experience. On TV, that’s more of a lean forward type of experience, he said.

“As we follow the consumer, we necessarily have to seriously consider getting into gambling in a bigger and bigger way and ESPN’s the perfect platform for this," Chapek said.

Gambling offers the demographic opportunity to attract younger viewers, and also has “not insignificant revenue implications,” he said. “This is something that we’re keenly interested in and we are pursuing aggressively.”

The Walt Disney Co. saw little consumer reaction when it raised the price of Disney Plus by $1 a month earlier this year, clearing the way for more increases in the future.

Speaking at the  J.P. Morgan Global Technology, Media and Communications Conference Monday, Disney CEO Bob Chapek said the company was pleased with the price value proposition Disney Plus still offers consumers.

“I think that’s borne out by the fact that in the U.S. when we took our first price increase, we didn’t really observe any significantly higher churn than we had been seeing,” Chapek said.

Also Read: Discovery-WarnerMedia Deal 'Doesn’t Really Change Much', Says Bob Chapek

On the international front, Disney increased the price of Disney Plus, but simultaneously added content from its Star service. 

“We added the Star content at the same time as a sixth brant tile and we actually saw in improvement in our churn rate, more retention,” Chapek said.

That would indicate Disney has pricing power with the product.

“We reserve the right to increase our price value relationship through further pricing actions as we add more and more content and get [ to that point where, you know, we're adding a new piece of content, essentially, every week,” he said.

Chapek was also asked about the ad-supported parts of Disney’s business.

“We've enjoyed double-digit ad growth in addressable advertising,” Chapek said.

The growth is the result of a combination of Disney’s content with its advertising technology.

Also Read: Disney Ad Showcase Heralds Data, Programmatic Tech

“It starts with that unparalleled content,” he said, “but it' also says something I think about our audience-focused data and technology and our ability to make that advertising truly addressable, which were excited about.”

Chapek said Disney’s technology allows its customers to buy self-service programmatic advertising, which he called a much more modern way of transacting.

“There's a lot of behavioral shifts that are happening in the marketplace,  whether it's got to do with the consumers themselves, or the advertisers themselves, and we pleased with where we're at,” he said. “We think we're ahead of the market, we're ahead of the curve, and we're seeing tremendous gains and addressable advertising.”

Asked what impact the big deal combining AT&T’s WarnerMedia with Discovery would have on its competitive position, Walt Disney Co. CEO Bob Chapek said not much.

Speaking at the JPMorgan media investors conference Monday, Chapek said “we’re pretty happy with the template that we have and the strategies that we have. And we think this frankly doesn't really change much at all.”

Last week AT&T announced that it was spinning off WarnerMedia three years after buying it. It will be merged with Discovery, with the idea that the combined companies will be better able to compete in the streaming wars now enveloping the media business.

The leaders in the subscription business now are Netflix and Disney, with competitors including WarnerMedia’s HBO Max and Discovery’s Discovery Plus looking to catch up.

“We remain focused on sort of what got us to the point where we’ve got 100 million households within the first 16 months,” Chapek said. 

The keys to building Disney Plus include the company’s powerhouse franchises, including Marvel and Star Wars. The company also built scaled distribution and expanded worldwide. 

Earlier this month, Disney said the number of Disney Plus subscribers rose to 103.6 million from 94.9 million when the company reported in February.

The number was below Wall Street expectations, which sent Disney stock lower.

Disney used last week’s annual shareholder’s meeting to trumpet news that streaming service Disney Plus had crossed the 100 million subscriber mark just 16 months after launch. 

The company certainly had reason to brag. But the bigger news might be what came later in the week, with the appearance of ESPN Plus programming (and an easy subscription link) on Hulu. Hulu will also make available ESPN Plus pay-per-view events, including UFC matches beginning this summer. 

It marks the first substantive crossover between the two neglected children in Disney’s streaming family, and suggests the Mouse House is finally unwinding some of the most problematic aspects of its original, deeply flawed streaming strategy.

“Deeply flawed” because until this week, the only real sign to consumers that the three services were connected was advertising for TheDisneyBundle.com, which yoked them together for $12.99 a month. Even the bundle’s sign-up process remains relatively clunky and involved, treating the services largely as standalone products from separate organizations. You’d probably have a simpler experience buying them through Apple or Amazon.  

That bundle aside, the three services have had different sign-ons, billing and the rest, and no presence on each other’s home page. Now, it’s finally starting to change, just as consumers are beginning to expect more from their streaming services than a bottomless well of superhero and princess movies. 

The situation is an awkward artifact of the twisty history and corporate silos in which each service was birthed. Their continued separation remains both boon and bane for Disney as it expands globally and brands itself to customers who care little about its core, family-friendly and Hollywood-centric programming. 

In part, the original strategy was built around maximizing streaming opportunities for disparate, isolated parts of the Disney empire back in the old days of 18 months ago, when Hollywood as a whole regarded streaming as a bottom-line add-on, a long-long-long-term play, or perhaps just a necessary evil that distracted from running lucrative traditional film and TV businesses. 

ESPN Plus was intended to attract cord-cutters and the hardest-core sports fans at a time when cable departures were eating painfully but not fatally into the financial underpinnings of the Four-Letter Network. It wasn’t designed to be a replacement so much as an add-on to what was still on cable. 

As a result, ESPN Plus is rather anemic, featuring mostly sports documentaries, a smattering of so-so original programming and a plenitude of live games likely to appeal to niche and regional audiences. They’re the sort of stuff that fills out the programming grid on ESPNU or regional sports networks.  

Hulu, leg No. 2 of the Disney streaming tripod, has an even more unlikely provenance. Founded in 2007 as a joint venture between News Corp., NBCUniversal and a private-equity firm, Disney didn’t buy in until 2009, and didn’t take control until a decade later, as a small part of its $71.3 billion mega-deal for most of Fox. 

Even with Disney control (NBCUniversal remains a minority partner through 2024), Hulu still has seemed to be largely its own beast, with original programming, a vMVPD bundle, and a hybrid ad-subscription business model very different from ESPN Plus or Disney Plus. 

Even Disney Plus started as a highly focused product for the Mouse House’s most dedicated fans, of which there are plenty. It might be seen as the TV channel of choice for Disney Stores, and the long lines waiting for a ride on Space Mountain.

One possible tell regarding the importance Disney leadership gave streaming back in the Before Times: Its surprise choice of successor to long-time CEO Bob Iger in the weeks before the pandemic hit the United States, Bob Chapek.

Chapek, who headed the parks and resorts division for several years after running what used to be called “home entertainment,” took over instead of alleged heir apparent Kevin Mayer, who’d overseen the streaming strategy and shepherded the big Star Wars and Marvel acquisitions. Mayer soon left.

To Chapek’s credit, after the pandemic closed all those parks and resorts and cruise ships and stores, cancelled months of ESPN’s and ABC’s game broadcasts, and sent the lucrative theatrical exhibition window into an uncontrolled tailspin, the company recalibrated, as evidenced by that December investor presentation. 

There, company executives laid out plans to roll out more than 100 series and features, with 80% headed to streaming first. Indeed, even as sports have resumed and parks and theaters reopen, Disney will lean hard into its streaming future. Over the past month, they’ve repeatedly reiterated that changing mindset to investors, analysts, distribution partners, and everyone else.

“…We’d like to let the consumer be our guide in almost all situations,” Chapek said. “And I don’t think they’ll have much of a tolerance for a title, say, being out of theatrical for months yet it hasn’t had a chance to actually be thrown to the marketplace in another distribution channel, just sort of sitting there getting dust.”

But even as Disney leans in, it will need to figure out how to tighten up its streaming bundle even further, to get consumers that are missed in the current siloed approach. The appearance of ESPN Plus within Hulu seems like an important next step, at least in the United States. 

Consumers need easier programming arrangements in the post-cable era. You sell more in the long run. Conveniently, bundles also seem likely to substantially reduce churn, the big headache facing all the streaming services crowding the market now.

Disney appears headed to a different solution beyond the domestic market, launching the Star service in recent weeks, and beginning to integrate connections between it and Disney Plus. 

Star, a brand lifted from its Indian acquisition HotStar, appears to be Disney’s designated Hulu successor on the global stage, providing a capacious home for Plus and non-Plus content to live in without undercutting Disney’s sacrosanct pro-family core brand. 

That still doesn’t solve what to do with ESPN Plus, though we’re getting more visibility with Disney’s just-signed deal with the NHL and widespread leaks about the imminent renewal of NFL rights across all the big media companies. How ESPN Plus, and those sports rights, travel to other countries, will be the next challenge. 

In the meantime, expect Disney to continue tightening up the bundle approach, as its faces its streaming future with open arms, and seeks its next 100 million subscribers. 

The Walt Disney Co. said pay for its top executives dropped in 2020 as incentive plan compensation dropped to zero in a year when its theme parks closed, its films couldn’t play in theaters and thousands of employees lost their jobs.

Bob Iger, who gave up the CEO title in February and remains executive chairman, received total compensation of $21.03 million in 2020, compared to $47.52 million in 2019. Iger’s salary fell to $1.569 million from $3 million. Last year he got $21.75 million in non-equity incentive plan compensation.

In its SEC filing, the company said that while executives performed admirably amid the challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic, “management and the Compensation Committee believe that in light of circumstances this year, that no bonus should be made” to its named executive officers.

Bob Capek, who followed Iger as CEO, got total compensation of $14.163 million, including a salary of $1.81 million.

CFO Christine McCarthy’s total compensation dropped to $10.997 million from $14.974 million in 2019.

Zenia Mucha, senior executive VP and chief communications officer, received $4.946 million, down from $7.562 million.

Chief Human Resources Officer and senior executive VP M. Jayne Parker’s compensation was 7.292 million, down from $9.021 million.

Disney Plus now has 86.8 million subscribers, announced The Walt Disney Co. CEO Bob Chapek Thursday during the company's investor day.

Across all of its streaming services Disney has 137 million subscribers as of December 2, with Hulu at 38.8 million and ESPN Plus at 11.5 million, according to Rebecca Campbell,  chairman of International Operations and Direct to Consumers. (About 30% of Disney Plus subscribers come from Hotstar in India.)

Also Read: Disney Plus Plans $1 Price Increase to $7.99

That’s well above the goals set when Disney laid out its  plans to pivot to direct-to-consumer streaming in 2019.

“The tremendous success we’ve achieved across our unique portfolio of streaming services, with more than 137 million subscriptions worldwide, has bolstered our confidence in our acceleration toward a DTC-first business model,” Chapek said. “With our amazing creative teams and our ever-growing collection of the high-quality branded entertainment that consumers want, we believe we are incredibly well positioned to achieve our long-term goals.”

Disney also said Disney Plus and ESPN Plus will be coming to Comcast’s Xfinity X1 platform early next year. Hulu is already available on X1.

The company also said that as the first year of its arrangement with Verizon ended that gave subscribers to Disney Plus, Verizon subscribers will will be offered access to the Disney streaming bundle at a reduced price of $12.99.

New Star Wars, Marvel, Disney Series Ahead

Chapek said the company will be making an array of Disney Plus Originals so that the service would be launching something new each month. There will be 10 new Marvel series, 10 new Star Wars series, 15 series from Disney, Disney Animation and Pixar and 15 features from Disney, Disney Animation and Pixar.

The upcoming film Raya and The Last Dragon, originally planned as a theatrical release, will be available to Disney Plus subscribers with Premier Plus at the same time it goes into theaters.

Overall, the company said it aims to add more than 100 new titles a year to Disney Plus. It also outlined aggressive programming plans for its Hulu and ESPN Plus services.

Disney also detailed its rollout plan for Star and Star Plus, its international streaming services. 

ESPN President Jimmy Pitaro announced that the network has signed a new 10 year deal with the SEC. The conference’s key Saturday afternoon football games will move from CBS to ABC, with some primetime games also airing on ABC, as well as the conference’s annual championship game.

Other SEC football games will appear on ESPN Plus. 

As part of the deal, ESPN becomes the exclusive rights holder for all SEC sports. 

ESPN also announced that it will have a third season of Peyton’s Places, featuring Peyton Manning. Manning’s brother, Eli, will also have a show on ESPN Plus about college football. ESPN Plus will also be getting its own exclusive morning show plus a program headlined by the network’s Stephen A. Smith called Stephen A’s World.

Subscribers to Hulu will be able to buy and access ESPN Plus through the Hulu interface.

Hulu will be expanding its production of exclusive FX on Hulu movies from movie studios 20th Century and Searchlight Pictures.

Hulu will also be expanding its relationship with ABC News.

John Landgraf, CEO of FX said FX will be creating 30 original programs each year. 

Three projects in FX’s pipeline are a TV series based on the Alien film series set on earth, with producer Noah Hawley working with Ridley Scott; The Stones, telling the band’s story from the 60s through 1972 with Nick Hornsby, and a remake of Shogun.

The presentation features a long list of projects heading to Disney Plus from the company's studios

From Lucasfilm, there are more Star Wars films including, Obi-Wan Kenobi, starring Ewan McGregor with Hayden Christensen returning as Darth Vader, Mandalorian spinoffs Rangers of the New Republic and Ahsoka, and Andor, a spinoff of the film Rogue One.

Additional new Lucasfilm titles announced for Disney Plus include Star Wars: The Bad Batch, Star Wars: Visions, Lando, The Acolyte, and A Droid Story. The studio is also revisiting Willow in a new series with Warwick Davis returning in the title role.

Disney Plus will have original series based on movies from Disney Television Studios with The Mighty Ducks Game Changers starring Emilio Estevez with Lauren Graham as a hockey mom, Turner & Hooch, and a Beauty and the Beast prequel with Luke Evans and Josh Gad as Gaston and LaFou. Another series is based on The Mysterious Benedict Society book series. 

Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures Production is cooking up a passel of original movies for Disney Plus including Hocus Pocus 2, reboots of Three Men and a Baby with Zac Efron and Cheaper by the Dozen with Kenya Barris and Gabrielle Union, and a new Sister Act film starring Whoopi Goldberg with Tyler Perry producing. Also in the hopper are Chip ‘N Dale: Rescue Rangers, starring John Mulaney and Andy Samberg; Pinocchio, starring Tom Hanks; Peter Pan & Wendy starring Jude Law as Captain Hook and Disenchanted, with Amy Adams returning as Giselle.

New live action biographical films set for the service include Greek Freak, about NBA star Giannis Antetokounmpo, as well as projects about Keanon Lowe and Chris Paul. In development are new animated takes on favorite 20th Century Studios’ titles Diary of a Wimpy Kid, The Ice Age Adventures of Buck Wild and Night at the Museum.

Walt Disney Animation is working on a series based on Baymax, Zootopia, Tiana and Moana, as well as Iwaju, produced with the African comic book company Kugali. 

Marvel Studios said its cinematic universe will be extending into Disney Plus, revealing three new series: Secret Invasion with Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury, Ironheart and Armor Wars, with Don Cheadle as War Machine. 

National Geographic is producing documentary film Cousteau about the legendary underwater explorer, which will be exclusive to Disney Plus.

Nat Geo’s Genius anthology series will become exclusive to Disney Plus with the fourth installment, which will be about Martin Luther King. 

James Cameron is making a National Geographic Explorer special, The Secrets of the Whales, which will be narrated by Sigourney Weaver, also exclusively for Disney Plus.

NatGeo also has Disney Plus series headlined by big stars, with Chris Hemsworth trying to conquer aging in Limitless and Will Smith exploring strange corners of the planet in Welcome to Earth. 

Internationally, Disney will be building on its Disney Plus Hotstar service in India and Indonesia. Star will be included as part of Disney Plus in some international markets and launch as a separate streaming service known as Star Plus in Latin America. Star will feature TV and movie content from Disney studios and also have local programming to build viewer engagement.

Star will launch in Europe on Feb. 23 as part of Disney. The Star logo will be featured on the Disney Plus homepage, like Marvel, Pixar and National Geographic.

In Latin America, Star Plus will have entertainment content plus a roster of live sporting events.

With many of its businesses struggling because of the pandemic, The Walt Disney Co. became the latest media company to restructure its organization and focus its creative efforts on direct-to-consumer streaming platforms.

Bob Chapek, who became Disney’s CEO earlier this year, named Kareem Daniel, who had been president of consumer products, games and publishing at Disney, as head of the company’s new media and entertainment distribution group.

Also read: Disney Plus App Installs Spiked 68% Amid ‘Mulan’ Premiere

The distribution group will be responsible for all monetization of content -- both distribution and ad sales -- and will oversee operations of the company’s streaming services. It will also have profit and loss accountability for Disney’s media and entertainment business.

Daniel will report to Chapek, as will the heads of three units that create content. Those executives are Peter Rice, who is in charge of general entertainment; James Pitaro, head of sports, and Alan Horn and Alan Bergman, who together run the studios.

Rebecca Campbell will serve as chair, International Operations and Direct-to-Consumer. With the reorganization, the Direct-to-Consumer and International business will no longer be managed on a combined basis, the company said.. In Campbell’s role leading international operations, she will be responsible for coordinating and integrating activities across the various business units in each market to best represent the Company’s overall interests, and will report to Chapek. In her role leading direct-to-consumer operations for Disney Plus, Hulu and ESPN Plus, she will report to  Daniel.

Former CEO Bob Iger, in his role as executive chairman, will continue to direct the company’s creative endeavors.

“Given the incredible success of Disney Plus and our plans to accelerate our direct-to-consumer business, we are strategically positioning our Company to more effectively support our growth strategy and increase shareholder value,” Chapek said. “Managing content creation distinct from distribution will allow us to be more effective and nimble in making the content consumers want most, delivered in the way they prefer to consume it. Our creative teams will concentrate on what they do best — making world-class, franchise-based content — while our newly centralized global distribution team will focus on delivering and monetizing that content in the most optimal way across all platforms, including Disney Plus, Hulu, ESPN Plus and the coming Star international streaming service.”

Daniel has been with Disney four 14 years. Before being in charge of consumer products, he was president of the Walt Disney Imagineering Operations, product creation, publishing and games. He also served as senior VP of strategy and business development for business development for Disney Consumer Products and Interactive Media and VP of distribution strategy at Walt Disney Studios.

“Kareem is an exceptionally talented, innovative and forward-looking leader, with a strong track record for developing and implementing successful global content distribution and commercialization strategies,” said Chapek. “As we now look to rapidly grow our direct-to-consumer business, a key focus will be delivering and monetizing our great content in the most optimal way possible, and I can think of no one better suited to lead this effort than Kareem. His wealth of experience will enable him to effectively bring together the Company’s distribution, advertising, marketing and sales functions, thereby creating a distribution powerhouse that will serve all of Disney’s media and entertainment businesses.”

Disney will hold a virtual Investor Day on Dec. 10, where it will present further details of its direct-to-consumer strategies, the company said.

The Walt Disney Co. said it has named CEO Bob Chapek to its board of directors, just weeks after being selected for the top spot and amid reports that executive chairman and chairman of the board Bob Iger has taken a greater day-to-day role in the company.

Disney named Chapek CEO in February, succeeding Iger who will remain executive chairman of Disney through December 2021. Chapek had most recently been in charge of Disney Theme Parks, and is a 27-year veteran of the company. 

"Bob Chapek has demonstrated remarkable leadership in the face of unprecedented challenges that were unimaginable when he became CEO just seven weeks ago, and we’ve watched him navigate this very complex situation with decisiveness and compassion,” the board’s independent lead director Susan Arnold and Iger said in a press release. "We are pleased to add Bob to the board, as we stated we would when he was named CEO.”

Disney has been hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic, and has said it will furlough “non-essential” workers, most likely in its theme parks that have been closed since March and its retail operations, beginning on April 19. Company executives, including Iger and Chapek, also have taken pay cuts to ease the financial burden.

Chapek’s appointment also comes less than a week after an April 12 story in the New York Times said that Iger has reasserted control, which the chairman appeared to confirm in an e-mail message to the paper. 

“A crisis of this magnitude, and its impact on Disney, would necessarily result in my actively helping Bob [Chapek] and the company contend with it, particularly since I ran the company for 15 years!” Iger told the Times in an email message, according to the paper.

Chapek, who joined Disney in 1993, has a long history with many of the units impacted most by COVID-19. As head of the Disney Parks, Experiences and Products, Chapek oversaw the opening of Disney's first theme park in China, and led the operation of its six resorts across the U.S., Europe and Asia. He has also served as president of Disney's Consumer Products and was president of distribution at Walt Disney Studios, where he spearheaded the "vault strategy" of its classic films.

Walt Disney Co.’s top brass are biting the bullet during the COVID-19 pandemic, with executive chairman Bob Iger foregoing his $3 million salary in fiscal 2020, while newly minted CEO Bob Chapek will reduce his pay by 50%.

Chapek outlined that and other executive pay changes in a memo to employees Monday. According to the memo, Disney executives at the VP level will see their compensation reduced by 20% beginning April 5, with SVPs taking a 25% pay cut and EVPs taking a 35% cut.

“This temporary action will remain in effect until we foresee a substantive recovery in our business,” Chapek said in the memo.

Iger received total compensation of about $45.7 million in fiscal 2019, more than 90% of that through stock awards and other compensation tied to company performance. The year before, when his salary was $2.875 million, his total compensation was $65.6 million. Iger has said he will retire at the end of 2021. 

Chapek, who had been head of Disney’s Theme Parks before being named CEO in February was expected to receive about $2.5 million in salary in fiscal 2020, and could receive up to another $22.5 million in performance-related incentives.

The salary reductions come as the coronavirus continues to keep Americans confined to their homes to stem the outbreak. Disney has had to close its domestic theme parks and hotels, suspended its cruise line, halted film and TV production and theatrical content distribution, and is weathering a lack of live sports programming at its flagship cable channel ESPN. In a research note, MoffettNathanson media analyst Michael Nathanson estimated Disney would take a $1.4 billion revenue hit in fiscal Q2 and Q3 2020 as a result of the virus.

“While I am confident we will get through this challenging period together and emerge even stronger, we must take necessary steps to manage the short- and long-term financial impact on our company,” Chapek wrote in the memo.

Disney shareholders appeared to be pleased, driving the stock up about 3.5% ($3.40 per share) to $99.80 each on March 30. 

The Walt Disney Co.’s new executive chairman Bob Iger said the decision to step aside as CEO with more than a year left on his contract was one that has been a long time coming and was necessary for him to properly focus on the entertainment giant’s creative strategy.

Iger gave up the CEO title Tuesday after 15 years, passing the baton to Disney Parks chief Bob Chapek, effective immediately. Iger will remain with the company through Dec. 31, 2021, and will lead its board of directors as executive chairman.

Iger had tried to retire on at least three occasions over the past five years, but something always brought him back.  Since being named CEO in 2005, Iger has brought such iconic brands as Pixar, Lucasfilms and Marvel under the Disney umbrella. In the past year alone he has led the purchase of certain assets of 21st Century Fox for $71.3 billion and launched its wildly successful streaming service Disney+ in November.

Related: Disney Names Parks Chief Chapek as CEO

In a conference call with analysts after the market close on Feb. 25, Iger said the decision to step down now wasn’t made out of any particular sense of urgency, “other than we felt the need was now to make this change.” He added that Chapek had been singled out as his successor “for quite some time.”

Iger said after the completion of the Fox deal and the launch of ESPN+ and Disney+, the company’s asset base is in place and that the No. 1 priority is now to focus on the creative side of the business.

“Thinking about what I want to accomplish before I leave the company at the end of 2021, getting everything right creatively would be my No. 1 goal,” Iger said. “I could not do that if I were running the company on a day-to-day basis.”

Chapek, who spent the bulk of his 27-year career tenure with Disney on the studio side -- he served as president of Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment and as president of distribution for The Walt Disney Studios before joining consumer products in 2015 -- said that he and Iger have worked closely through all aspects of the business.

“Bob [Iger] has been great in terms of giving me exposure across the many segments of the company,” Chapek said on the call. “I spent 19 years at the Studios and then moved on to consumer and then on to parks, so I had probably a fairly broad overview of how the company operates, regardless of the different industries that we work in. That said, obviously I have not spent as much time on the media side or the direct-to-consumer side, but we have some really great experienced leaders that are in place in those businesses. The way that Bob manages his direct team is we have a lot of cross fertilization. We meet every single week and discuss each other's businesses. While I certainly have an opportunity to immerse myself more inside those media businesses, I have a bit of fluency just like my peers have some fluency in our business and familiarity with the opportunities and some of the challenges that they all face.”

In a research note, Evercore ISI media analyst Vijay Jayant wrote that although the announcement was somewhat abrupt, it has been common knowledge for quite a while that Iger would step down after his employment contract was up.

“We think a quick transition makes sense and effectively eliminates the need for a transitional period, and we do not expect any meaningful strategic shifts for the company as a result of the change,” Jayant wrote.

As far as Chapek, Jayant noted that the parks chief supervised a massive capital investment that doubled the size of its cruise ship fleet and led to the construction of several theme parks around the globe. And more importantly, the 22-month lead time between now and Iger’s departure gives the outgoing CEO ample time to show Chapek the ropes.

“[T]he ~22-month lead time between now and the end of Iger’s contract gives Bob Chapek plenty of time to assume and learn day-to-day CEO responsibilities,” Jayant wrote, adding that he doesn’t anticipate any major structural changes at the company. “As mentioned, we think the abrupt nature of this evening’s press release announcing Chapek as CEO stems only from the goal of making the transition as swift and smooth as possible. We fully expect Iger to remain engaged in executing the company’s long-term strategy and note that Chapek appears to have been named CEO after a long and thorough search conducted by the company’s board.” 

The Walt Disney Co. said it has named Disney Parks chairman Bob Chapek as chief executive officer, effective immediately. The 27-year company veteran replaces Bob Iger, who will become executive chairman of the company.

The appointment of Chapek to the CEO spot solves what has been a corporate dilemma for the company for years, finding a successor to the well-respected chairman and CEO. Iger is a tough act to follow — Disney has added iconic brands like Pixar, Lucasfilm, Marvel and most recently 21st Century Fox, since he was named CEO in 2005. Iger will continue to direct Disney creative projects and will finish out the remainder of his contract, which expires on Dec. 31, 2021. As executive chairman he will also lead Disney’s board of directors.

In Chapek, Disney gets a company veteran that has served on the distribution and consumer products sides of the business. He joined the company in 1993 and has served as president of Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment, president of distribution for The Walt Disney Studios and 2011 to 2015, he was president of the former Disney Consumer Products segment. In 2018, he was named chairman of Disney Parks, Experiences and Products.

“With the successful launch of Disney’s direct-to-consumer businesses and the integration of 21st Century Fox well underway, I believe this is the optimal time to transition to a new CEO,” Iger said in a press release. “I have the utmost confidence in Bob and look forward to working closely with him over the next 22 months as he assumes this new role and delves deeper into Disney’s multifaceted global businesses and operations, while I continue to focus on the Company’s creative endeavors.”

Chapek will be the seventh CEO in Disney’s nearly 100-year history.

“Throughout his career, Bob has led with integrity and conviction, always respecting Disney’s rich legacy while at the same time taking smart, innovative risks for the future,”Iger continued. His success over the past 27 years reflects his visionary leadership and the strong business growth and stellar results he has consistently achieved in his roles at Parks, Consumer Products and the Studio.”

In his new role as CEO, Chapek will directly oversee all of the Disney’s business segments and corporate functions. He will report to Iger and the board of directors. He will be appointed to the board at a later date. A new head of Disney Parks, Experiences and Products will be named at a future time.

“I am incredibly honored and humbled to assume the role of CEO of what I truly believe is the greatest company in the world, and to lead our exceptionally talented and dedicated cast members and employees,” Chapek said in a press release. “Bob Iger has built Disney into the most admired and successful media and entertainment company, and I have been lucky to enjoy a front-row seat as a member of his leadership team. I share his commitment to creative excellence, technological innovation and international expansion, and I will continue to embrace these same strategic pillars going forward. Everything we have achieved thus far serves as a solid foundation for further creative storytelling, bold innovation and thoughtful risk-taking.”

The Walt Disney Co. named Bob Chapek as CEO, succeeding Bob Iger, who becomes executive chairman.

The company said Iger will direct the company’s creative work and guide the company through an executive leadership transition through when his contract ends Dec. 31, 2021.

Chapek had been head of Disney’s parks unit. Disney has had a history of difficult successions and Iger has extended his contract several times before now naming a successor.

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Iger has overseen an overhaul of Disney’s TV business, shifting priorities to streaming from traditional TV. Last year’s launch of Disney+ drew 10 million subscribers on its first day and the service has continued to grow.

“With the successful launch of Disney’s direct-to-consumer businesses and the integration of 21st Century Fox well underway, I believe this is the optimal time to transition to a new CEO,” Iger said in a statement. “I have the utmost confidence in Bob and look forward to working closely with him over the next 22 months as he assumes this new role and delves deeper into Disney’s multifaceted global businesses and operations, while I continue to focus on the Company’s creative endeavors.”

Chapek was named chairman of the parks division in 2018.