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☆ Disney just had its worst day in a year and a half
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-07 | by ( Allison Morrow | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

New York CNN —Disney managed a rare feat for a legacy media company: Its streaming service actually turned a profit — with some caveats. It was Disney’s worst stock trading day in 18 months. That’s a lot of money, but it is a pretty huge improvement over the $659 million loss the collective streaming business reported in the same period a year ago. Streaming is new(ish) and very different beast from the traditional cable TV model Disney and other media giants like Paramount, Viacom and Warner Bros. “It is a very tough business,” Verna said.

Persons: CNN Business ’, New York CNN — Disney, ” Paul Verna, ” Disney, ” Verna, Bob Iger, It’s, ” “ Indiana Jones, ”, Iger, Brian Mulberry Organizations: CNN Business, New York CNN, Disney, ESPN, Apple, Netflix, Paramount, Viacom, Warner Bros ., Zacks Investment Management Locations: New York, “, India

☆ The 6 biggest questions about ESPN, Fox, and WBD's new sports streamer
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-07 | by ( Ashley Rodriguez | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

ESPN parent Disney and Fox report earnings on Wednesday, and more answers could be on the way. Here are six of the biggest questions coming out of the new announcement:How much will it cost? This new streamer could be the thing that finally kills cable TV. If they believe it has promise, could it give ESPN, Fox, and WBD more bargaining power in sports-right negotiations and greater ability to shoulder the sky-high costs? Will this new streamer come to the negotiating table for more sports rights to pad out its offering?

Persons: Bernstein, Paul Verna, Brian Weiser, there's, Disney's Bob Iger, Fox's Lachlan Murdoch, WBD's David Zaslav Organizations: ESPN, Disney, Fox, CNBC, YouTube, NBC, English Premier League —, Insider Intelligence, Business, Hulu, Netflix, JV, Amazon Locations: Madison, Disney's

Disney's fiscal first-quarter earnings per share beat expectations and it said its full-year EPS will rise at least 20% from 2023. Iger also unveiled his strategy and timeline for bringing Disney's flagship sports network ESPN into the streaming era. AdvertisementThe company will launch a stand-alone streaming service with ESPN and its sister networks in the fall of 2025, something Iger called "inevitable." Even if there's consumer demand, the JV faces several hurdles, from challenges brought by existing distributors to antitrust opposition, LightShed Partners wrote in a note published ahead of Disney's earnings release. Challenges aside, the new sports streaming strategy is a big step forward for Iger and Disney.

Persons: —, Bob Iger's, Iger, Taylor Swift, Nelson Peltz, Bob Chapek's, Peltz's, Disney, Paul Verna, Alpha, LightShed, Iger didn't, Trian, Elon Musk, Gina Carano's, Iger's Organizations: Service, Disney, Epic Games, Peltz's Trian Fund Management, Blackwells, ValueAct, Business, Iger, Insider Intelligence, ESPN, Disney's, Fox, Warner Bros, JV, LightShed Partners, Marvel, CNBC Locations: Moana

Toy figures of people are seen in front of the displayed Disney + logo, in this illustration taken January 20, 2022. For the fiscal fourth quarter ended Sept. 30, Disney reported adjusted per-share earnings of 82 cents, topping an average forecast of 70 cents, according to LSEG data. The company said it added nearly 7 million Disney+ streaming subscribers in the quarter, with the inclusion of "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. Disney+ and Disney+ Hotstar together boast 150.2 million subscribers, ahead of Visible Alpha's estimate of 147.4 million. "Our results this quarter reflect the significant progress we've made over the past year," Iger said in a statement.

Persons: Dado Ruvic, Walt Disney, Bob, Kevin Lansberry, Iger, Disney, Nelson Peltz, Trian, Paolo Pescatore, Paul Verna, Verna, We've, Dawn Chmielewski, Lisa Richwine, Chavi Mehta, Peter Henderson, Sayantani Ghosh, Matthew Lewis Organizations: REUTERS, ABC, Disney, Guardians, Trian, Management, Warner Bros Discovery, SAG, Insider Intelligence, Hulu, ESPN, Shanghai Disney, Walt Disney, Disney's Entertainment, Star, Big Ten, Thomson Locations: Shanghai, Hong Kong, Florida, India, Los Angeles, Bengaluru

☆ Bob Iger's return as Disney's CEO once sparked hope inside the company. Now, insiders are anxious and losing faith.
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-07 | by ( Lucia Moses | Reed Alexander | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +15 min

"There was a lot of excitement and hope at the return of Bob Iger a year ago," a current Disney staffer told Insider. Uncertainty about the company's future and about who's deciding what on the creative side has left execs in a state of inertia, according to an entertainment lawyer with knowledge of Disney's business. The declining linear TV business culminated in a standoff with Charter Communications over terms for a new contract for carrying Disney's cable channels. And Disney's streaming business, which was supposed to make up for the decline in cable revenues, has lost $11 billion since Disney+ launched in 2019. Churn is a top concern in Disney streaming, some employees said.

Persons: Goofy, what's, Bob Iger, Bob Chapek, He's, confidants, Zenia Mucha, Alan Braverman, Alan Horn, Jayne Parker, Christine McCarthy —, Mickey, Ariel, grumbled, Iger's, It's, he's, Iger, Paul Verna, Chapek, Bob, it's, Ron DeSantis —, Iger —, Nelson Peltz, he'd, hasn't, Verna, Disney, Ike Perlmutter, Peltz, Perlmutter, Ike, Disney's, Paul Singer, Kevin Mayer, Tom Staggs, Puck, Stagg's Blackstone, Intelligence's Verna Organizations: Walt Disney Co, Disney, ABC, Hollywood, CNBC, Writers Guild of America, Wall, Insider Intelligence, Marvel, Lucasfilm, Century Fox, Google, Facebook, Netflix, Communications, Florida Gov, Hulu, ESPN Iger, FX, Geographic, ESPN, Apple, Electronic, Elliott Investment Management, Bloomberg, Mayer Locations: Burbank, Hollywood, Florida's, Iger

☆ Disney to nearly double parks spending to $60 billion over 10 years
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-19 | by ( Dawn Chmielewski | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Sept 19 (Reuters) - Walt Disney (DIS.N) said on Tuesday it would nearly double its capital expenditure for its parks business to about $60 billion over the next 10 years. Disney CEO Bob Iger and Josh D'Amaro, the company's parks chief, announced the accelerated pace of investment at a gathering of Wall Street analysts and investors at Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, Florida, focused on the company's parks business. Parks have become a reliable profit engine for Disney and has helped cushion losses in the Disney+ streaming business, which is expected to become profitable only next year. The announcement of the planned investment followed a slowdown at Walt Disney World in Orlando, as attendance surges at its parks around the world, particularly Shanghai Disney Resort and Hong Kong Disneyland. Disney also plans to nearly double the capacity of its cruise line, adding two ships in fiscal 2025 and another in 2026.

Persons: Walt Disney, Bob Iger, Josh D'Amaro, Parks, Iger, Disney, Ron DeSantis, Mario Anzuoni, Paul Verna, Thomas Hayes, Samrhitha, Dawn Chmielewski, Shailesh Kuber, Chizu Nomiyama, Paul Simao, Aurora Ellis Organizations: Disney, Wall Street, Walt Disney World, Disney California, Hollywood Studios, Republican, REUTERS, Insider Intelligence, Walt Disney, Shanghai Disney Resort, Great, Thomson Locations: Orlando , Florida, California, Orlando, Florida, Anaheim , California, U.S, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Great Hill, Bengaluru, Dawn, Los Angeles

☆ 3 key questions Disney analysts say CEO Bob Iger faces ahead of earnings, as concerns mount about succession and streaming profits
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-09 | by ( Reed Alexander | Lucia Moses | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +12 min

For Disney, Iger's return was a doctor's-orders scenario. "What is the long game for any pure-play media company in a world where we have tech-driven media companies that are much larger than any traditional media company and have fundamentally different business models?" Will Disney sell TV assets like ABC? Industry watchers have focused on private-equity firms as likely buyers of Disney's TV assets. Are you a Disney insider?

Persons: Bob Iger, Bob Chapek, Iger, Disney, Iger's, Peter Csathy, Tom Staggs, Kevin Mayer, Csathy, they're, He's, Paul Verna, Verna, David Heger, Edward Jones, Heger, Hulu —, it's, Dave Portnoy's Barstool, Will, Evercore, Dana Walden, Alan Bergman, Puck, Disney bigwigs, Mayer, Walden, Bergman, Reed Alexander, Lucia Moses Organizations: Disney, ESPN, Walt Disney Co, Hollywood, Creative Media, Apple, PE, Candle Media, Insider Intelligence, Hulu, LightShed Partners, Penn Entertainment, ESPN Bet, Penn, Yahoo Finance, Will Disney, ABC, Geographic, CNBC, Industry, Disney's, Parks

☆ 3 key questions Disney analysts say CEO Bob Iger faces ahead of earnings this week, as concerns mount about succession and streaming profits
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-07 | by ( Reed Alexander | Lucia Moses | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +11 min

Persons: Bob Iger, —, Bob Chapek, Iger, Disney, Iger's, Peter Csathy, Tom Staggs, Kevin Mayer, Csathy, they're, He's, Paul Verna, Verna, David Heger, Edward Jones, Heger, Hulu —, Will, it's, Evercore, Dana Walden, Alan Bergman, Puck, Disney bigwigs, Mayer, Walden, Bergman, Reed Alexander, Lucia Moses Organizations: Disney, ESPN, Walt Disney Co, Hollywood, Creative Media, Apple, PE, Candle Media, Insider Intelligence, Hulu, LightShed Partners, Will Disney, ABC, Geographic, CNBC, Industry, Disney's, Parks

[1/3] A man looks at his phone as he passes by a screen advertising Walt Disney's streaming service Disney+ in New York City, U.S., November 12, 2019. The division ended the quarter with an operating loss of $659 million, compared with $1.1 billion in the prior quarter. At the same time, total subscribers to the flagship Disney+ service dropped by 4 million to 157.8 million. Inge Heydorn, a fund manager at GP Bullhound, said a question for investors is: "are the trade offs from lower marketing costs leading to lower subscribers?" "We've only just begun to scratch the surface of what we can do with advertising on Disney+," Iger said on a conference call with analysts.

☆ Disney's Iger may have to add slowing growth to his turnaround checklist
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-09 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Disney is also embroiled in a legal fight with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis over state efforts to control Disney World. The media and entertainment giant's Disney+ streaming service is expected to add a net 1.3 million subscribers in the second quarter, compared with additions of 7.9 million a year ago, according to Visible Alpha. "Star Wars" spin-off "The Mandalorian" was Disney+'s most in-demand series both in the U.S. and worldwide during the quarter, according to data provider Parrot Analytics. The streaming unit's operating loss is expected to widen to about $750 million from a loss of nearly $670 million a year earlier. That would mark the slowest growth since the second quarter of 2021, as the company's cable business also takes a hit from an ad market slowdown.

☆ Warner Bros. Discovery reengineers the traditional TV bundle for the streaming era
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-13 | by ( Oliver Darcy | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

In effect, WBD announced that it is recreating the bundle, erecting the pillars of a one-stop shop for scripted and unscripted television, movies, news and sports at a flat monthly rate. Insider Intelligence analyst Paul Verna noted to me that the WBD competitor has “resisted the temptation” to combine Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN+. Instead, Verna observed that Disney is “leaning into each brand’s core strength,” though Disney does offer the ability to purchase the individual services in a bundle. But it goes without saying that Max — the product of the merger between WarnerMedia and Discovery — represents the future for WBD, which has been entrenched in the declining traditional TV business. The Max service launches May 23.

☆ Netflix Sunsets ‘Surprise Me’ Shuffle-Play Button
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-14 | by ( Katie Deighton | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +3 min

Netflix Inc. has removed its “Surprise Me” button, a feature introduced in 2021 to alleviate the modern burden of choosing something to watch from thousands of titles. Netflix in the past year has increased its emphasis on making money from its users instead of focusing only on adding them, Mr. Verna said. “Netflix tries a lot of things, iterates quickly, and kills things that aren’t working,” Mr. Greenfield said. The feature instantly started playing a television show or movie without making users scroll through Netflix’s library to find something to watch. Netflix shares last month rose to their highest since last April after the streaming company announced that it had added 7.7 million subscribers in the final quarter of 2022, topping its own projections.

"This reorganization will result in a more cost-effective, coordinated approach to our operations," Iger told analysts on a conference call. Disney earlier reported its first quarterly decrease in subscriptions for its Disney+ streaming media unit, which lost more than $1 billion. Iger also repositioned the company to capitalize on the streaming revolution, acquiring 21st Century Fox's film and television assets in 2019 and launching the Disney+ streaming service that fall. Now, Iger will seek to put Disney's streaming business on a path to growth and profitability. It reorganized its business in 2018 to accelerate the growth of its streaming business, and again in 2020, to further spur streaming's growth.

☆ How Netflix leaders, including its new co-CEO, are thinking about a fast streaming service that could supercharge its ads business
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-09 | by ( Lucia Moses | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Netflix said it's open to adding a free, ad-supported streaming service. A FAST offering could help Netflix scale its nascent ads business, which has been slow to take off. Could Netflix launch a free, ad-supported service? A FAST channel — free, ad-supported television — is a linear stream, a model media companies are increasingly using to complement traditional TV and paid streaming services. For Netflix, a FAST could be a quick way to scale its ads business.

☆ Netflix is thinking about a free streaming service to boost its ads business, insiders say
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-24 | by ( Lucia Moses | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

☆ Netflix insiders applaud new co-CEO Greg Peters, 'the only real visionary' in the C-suite, but scratch their heads over what other exec changes mean for the company
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-20 | by ( Elaine Low | Lucia Moses | Claire Atkinson | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Netflix's elevation of Greg Peters to co-CEO shows the importance of its advertising sales effort. But Bela Bajaria's rise to content chief has caused some confusion about the future of the TV and film organization. The Netflix veteran now shares the role with current co-CEO Ted Sarandos, as company cofounder Reed Hastings steps down and settles into an executive chairman position. The move made a lot of sense to industry insiders, and even publicly, Netflix had been signaling the ascension for some time. Netflix insiders said Bajaria's new title underscored the importance of TV versus film in the streaming wars.

☆ Disney succession plan is a top priority for returning CEO Bob Iger: 'People would struggle to write down three names' at the company who could step up
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-03 | by ( Lucia Moses | Reed Alexander | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Former Disney CEO Bob Iger is back in his old job, in a move that shocked the media world. From cost cuts to streaming to a solid future succession plan, here's what they hope the CEO will tackle. Following the stunning November 20 announcement that former Disney CEO Bob Iger would be returning to his old job, the happiest place on earth might actually be Wall Street. "What I like about Bob Iger is Bob Iger has always been direct, he's been honest, he's been willing to make tough choices," Michael Nathanson, a senior research analyst and co-founder of the firm, said in a CNBC interview. Are you a Disney insider with insight to share about Bob Iger's return?

☆ Deep cuts at AMC Networks signals turbulent time for media industry
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-29 | by ( Oliver Darcy | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

The cuts, first reported by The Wall Street Journal, will amount to 20% of its US workforce, which is roughly 1,700 employees, AMC said. “At the same time we have seen the rise of direct to consumer streaming apps including our own AMC+. It was our belief that cord cutting losses would be offset by gains in streaming,” Dolan wrote. And the havoc being wreaked upon AMC Networks could foreshadow what is yet to come for others. “We’ve already seen layoffs and restructuring for a handful of companies,” Insider Intelligence principal analyst Paul Verna told CNN on Tuesday.

☆ Bob Iger's return to Disney is fueling concern over future CEO succession plan: 'People would struggle to write down three names inside Disney' who could step up
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-21 | by ( Lucia Moses | Reed Alexander | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Former Disney CEO Bob Iger is back in his old job, in a move that shocked the media world. From cost cuts to streaming to a solid future succession plan, here's what they hope the CEO will tackle. Following the stunning announcement late Sunday night that former Disney CEO Bob Iger would be returning to his old job, the happiest place on earth might actually be Wall Street. "What I like about Bob Iger is Bob Iger has always been direct, he's been honest, he's been willing to make tough choices," Michael Nathanson, a senior research analyst and co-founder of the firm, said in a CNBC interview on Monday. Are you a Disney insider with insight to share about Bob Iger's return?

☆ Sports gambling opportunities for marketers
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-22 | by ( Paul Verna | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

And sports gambling, which is now legal in nearly half the US, is emerging as a market opportunity for brands and broadcasters alike. Legalized sports gambling in the US will generate $2.1 billion in revenues this year. It also tallies states with active sports gambling legislation as well as those with no legislation or dead legislation. As of May 2021, sports gambling was legal and active in 21 states plus the District of Columbia. In addition, MGM Resorts International projects that sports gambling will generate $13.5 billion by 2025, with 38 US states participating by that time.

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