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☆ Robert Iger Shakes Up Disney’s Entertainment Operations, Rethinks Hulu Ownership
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-10 | by ( Robbie Whelan | Joe Flint | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

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☆ Warner Bros. Discovery to Keep Discovery+, in Strategy Shift
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-08 | by ( Jessica Toonkel | Joe Flint | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Warner Bros. Discovery has said that it is looking to offer streaming options at different prices. Warner Bros. Discovery Inc. plans to keep Discovery+ as a stand-alone streaming service, people familiar with the matter said, a strategy shift for a company that had planned to consolidate content in a single subscription app. The move comes as Warner Discovery is close to launching a new, yet-to-be named supersize streaming service amid increased competition and in an uncertain economic environment.

☆ Fox to Seek Acquisition Targets After Decision to Drop News Corp Deal
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-08 | by ( Joe Flint | Will Feuer | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Fox Corp. Executive Chair and Chief Executive Lachlan Murdoch said the media company will be looking for merger-and-acquisition targets more aggressively after the decision to call off plans to remerge with News Corp .“There will be things we will be sure to cast our eyes over,” Mr. Murdoch said on a call with Wall Street analysts to discuss Fox Corp.’s quarterly earnings. “Mergers and acquisitions will be a more important part of our tool kit.”

☆ NFL, DAZN Strike International Football Streaming Deal
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-07 | by ( Joe Flint | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

The agreement effectively consolidates the NFL’s international streaming operations with DAZN, which already has a growing presence abroad. The National Football League and the sports streaming company DAZN Group struck a deal to distribute NFL games to most of the rest of the world, they said Tuesday. The 10-year agreement starts next season and will make DAZN the exclusive home of the NFL’s Game Pass International service. The NFL said it would be available in most of the world—but not in China.

☆ LIV Golf Reaches Deal to Broadcast Events on CW Network
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-19 | by ( Joe Flint | Andrew Beaton | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

LIV Golf, the controversial Saudi-funded golf tour that launched last year and has signed stars such as Phil Mickelson and Dustin Johnson, finally has a television home in the United States. Nexstar Media Group Inc. said it reached a multiyear deal with LIV Golf to broadcast the league on its CW Network, the broadcast network it acquired majority control of last year.

☆ There were some bumps in the transition to Amazon doing NFL games, says WSJ's Joe Flint
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-13 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: 1 min

Share Share Article via Facebook Share Article via Twitter Share Article via LinkedIn Share Article via EmailThere were some bumps in the transition to Amazon doing NFL games, says WSJ's Joe FlintThe Wall Street Journal's Joe Flint joins 'Power Lunch' to discuss the drop in NFL viewership in the first year that Thursday Night Football moved to Amazon's streaming service.

☆ NFL Regular-Season Ratings Fell Amid ‘Thursday Night Football’ Move to Amazon
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-11 | by ( Joe Flint | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

“Thursday Night Football” for the first time this season was available to most of the country only through streaming. National Football League ratings for the just-concluded 2022-23 regular season are expected to be down about 3% from a year earlier, a decline that is primarily because of the move of “Thursday Night Football” to Amazon .com Inc.’s Prime Video. During the 2021-22 season, the NFL averaged 17.1 million viewers per game, which was its highest average in six years. This season, the average is likely to be around 16.6 million viewers, according to Nielsen data.

☆ Barbara Walters, Pioneering TV Journalist, Dies at Age 93
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-30 | by ( Joe Flint | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Barbara Walters , the trailblazing journalist who was the first woman anchor of both a morning and an evening television-news program and at one point was the highest-paid TV-news personality in the country, has died. She was 93 years old. Ms. Walters died Friday evening at her home in New York, according to Walt Disney Co. Chief Executive Robert Iger .

☆ YouTube Paying Roughly $2 Billion a Year for NFL Sunday Ticket
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-22 | by ( Joe Flint | Miles Kruppa | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

YouTube will pay an average price of roughly $2 billion a year to secure rights to the NFL Sunday Ticket franchise, people familiar with the deal said, the latest sign that the migration of sports from traditional television to streaming is chugging ahead. The deal cements YouTube, a division of Alphabet Inc.’s Google, as a rising force in streaming online and on television sets. The business, which began as a website serving user-generated clips with little curation, now also sells the cable bundles and prime sports programming that it once set out to supplant.

☆ NFL in Advanced Talks With Google’s YouTube for ‘Sunday Ticket’ Rights Deal
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-20 | by ( Joe Flint | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

The Kansas City Chiefs playing the Houston Texans in an NFL game in Houston, Texas, on Sunday. The National Football League is in advanced talks on a deal with Google’s YouTube, part of Alphabet Inc., for exclusive rights to “Sunday Ticket,” a subscription-only package that allows football fans to watch most Sunday afternoon games, people familiar with the matter said. An agreement could be reached as early as Wednesday following a meeting of NFL owners who are required to approve rights deals.

☆ World Cup Final Draws Record 16.8 Million Viewers for Fox
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-20 | by ( Joe Flint | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

A record audience of roughly 16.8 million people watched Argentina defeat France in the World Cup championship on the Fox network and its streaming platform, according to Nielsen Media Research. NBCUniversal’s Spanish-language network Telemundo also covered the World Cup and the audience for the championship game Sunday on its network and the Peacock streaming service averaged 9 million viewers, an increase of 65% from the 2018 finale. NBCUniversal is a unit of Comcast Corp.

Bob Iger had been out of Walt Disney Co. for nearly a year, but as most people around him knew, he had never really let go. Acting almost as a shadow CEO, he had undermined his successor and provided an ear for unhappy Disney executives, some of whom he had mentored. When the call to return as chief executive came, it was from someone on his old team. Mr. Iger later told people he had an inkling of how the script would go.

☆ Warner Bros. Discovery Raises Restructuring-Cost Estimate by Up to $1 Billion
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-14 | by ( Joe Flint | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Warner Bros. Discovery Inc. said it expects to face as much as $1 billion more in restructuring charges than it had forecast less than two months ago, as the company continues to cut costs and cancel programming commitments following the combination of Discovery Inc. and AT&T Inc.’s WarnerMedia unit. The company, whose holdings include movie and television studios, CNN and HBO, and Discovery channels such as Food Network and HGTV, said in a filing on Wednesday that it expects to incur pretax restructuring charges of as much as $5.3 billion through 2024. In late October, it had said it anticipated as much as $4.3 billion in restructuring charges.

☆ HBO Max Comes Back to Amazon Prime Video Channels After Yearlong Absence
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-06 | by ( Joe Flint | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

HBO Max content such as ‘The White Lotus’ will be offered on Amazon for $14.99 a month. Warner Bros. Discovery Inc. is bringing HBO Max back to Amazon .com Inc.’s streaming portal, reversing a decision made last year by HBO’s previous owner to reduce its reliance on third-party platforms for subscribers. As a result of the agreement between Amazon and Warner Bros. Discovery, HBO Max will be offered on Amazon.com Inc.’s Prime Video Channels platform for $14.99 a month, the same price it is available to consumers via other distribution platforms.

☆ HBO Max Comes Back to Amazon’s Platform After Yearlong Absence
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-06 | by ( Joe Flint | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Warner Bros. Discovery Inc. is bringing HBO Max back to Amazon .com Inc.’s streaming portal, reversing a decision made last year by HBO’s previous owner to reduce its reliance on third-party platforms for subscribers. As a result of the agreement between Amazon and Warner Bros. Discovery, HBO Max will be offered on Amazon.com Inc.’s Prime Video Channels platform for $14.99 a month, the same price it is available to consumers via other distribution platforms.

☆ CNN, Gannett, Other Media Giants Resort to Layoffs Ahead of Potential Downturn
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-03 | by ( Sarah Krouse | Joe Flint | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

An advertising slowdown, economic worries and strains of the shift to streaming have many major media companies in cost-cutting and layoff mode. News organizations, TV networks, movie and television studios, and entertainment giants laid off hundreds of workers over the past week alone, including Warner Bros. Discovery Inc.’s CNN and Paramount Global ’s television-production units.

☆ From CNN to Paramount, Media Companies Cut Jobs as Pressures Mount
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-03 | by ( Sarah Krouse | Joe Flint | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

☆ Amazon Executive Who Oversaw Entertainment Push Exits Company
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-02 | by ( Joe Flint | Dana Mattioli | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Veteran Amazon.com Inc. executive Jeff Blackburn , who played a key role in the tech giant’s push into entertainment, is leaving the company. In a memo to staff, Amazon Chief Executive Andy Jassy said the departure of Mr. Blackburn, who had returned to Amazon about 18 months ago from a sabbatical, will result in restructuring and leadership changes at the global media and entertainment division, which Mr. Blackburn oversaw.

LOS ANGELES—Walt Disney Co. was working with consulting firm McKinsey & Co. in recent months on an effort to centralize control of major spending decisions, triggering an uproar from top creative executives at the entertainment giant, according to people familiar with the matter. Discussions regarding the plan were under way in the weeks leading up to Nov. 20, when Disney’s board of directors fired Bob Chapek as chief executive and replaced him with his predecessor, Robert Iger .

☆ Disney CEO Robert Iger at Town Hall Vows to Focus on Creativity
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-28 | by ( Joe Flint | Robbie Whelan | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Walt Disney Co.’s Chief Executive Robert Iger told employees in a companywide town hall meeting that he will give priority to creativity and that he will chase profitability over growing subscriber numbers at Disney’s streaming services. The town hall is Mr. Iger’s first since he was reinstated to the top job about one week ago after the board of directors ousted Bob Chapek . Mr. Iger, who was Disney’s CEO from 2005 to 2020, was met with applause when he was introduced at the Monday town hall and he responded by saying he thought he might cry.

☆ Disney CEO Robert Iger at Town Hall Vows to Focus on Creativity, Streaming Profitability
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-28 | by ( Joe Flint | Robbie Whelan | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Walt Disney Co.’s Chief Executive Robert Iger told employees in a companywide town hall meeting that he will empower Disney’s creative teams and emphasize profitability over growing subscriber numbers at the company’s streaming serviceThe town hall is Mr. Iger’s first since he was reinstated to the top job about one week ago after the board of directors ousted Bob Chapek . Mr. Iger, who was Disney’s CEO from 2005 to 2020, was met with applause when he was introduced at the Monday town hall and he responded by saying he thought he might cry.

Behind the surprise change in leadership at Walt Disney Co. on Sunday was festering discontent among investors and top executives including Chief Financial Officer Christine McCarthy , who in recent weeks had expressed to directors her lack of confidence in Chief Executive Bob Chapek , according to people familiar with the matter. Disney executives and investors had been complaining for months to the prior CEO, Robert Iger , about the direction of the company under Mr. Chapek, according to people familiar with the matter. Mr. Iger advised some of these executives to take their concerns to the company’s board, some people familiar with the matter said.

Bob Chapek’s position at the top of Disney had been shaky for months, according to people familiar with the matter. Behind the surprise change in leadership at Walt Disney Co. on Sunday was festering discontent among investors and top executives including chief financial officer Christine McCarthy , who in recent weeks had expressed to directors her lack of confidence in chief executive Bob Chapek , according to people familiar with the matter. Disney executives and investors had been complaining for months to the prior CEO, Robert Iger , about the direction of the company under Mr. Chapek, according to people familiar with the matter. Mr. Iger advised some of these executives to take their concerns to the company’s board, some people familiar with the matter said.

Walt Disney Co.’s board of directors on Sunday night replaced Chief Executive Bob Chapek with Robert Iger , the company’s former chairman and CEO who left the company at the end of last year, according to a company announcement. “The board has concluded that as Disney embarks on an increasingly complex period of industry transformation, Bob Iger is uniquely situated to lead the company through this pivotal period,” said Susan Arnold , chairman of Disney’s board, in a statement.

☆ Top CBS Executives Exit Amid Broader Restructuring at Paramount
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-17 | by ( Joe Flint | Jessica Toonkel | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Kelly Kahl, CBS’s head of entertainment, will leave his post at the end of the year, the company said. The top two entertainment executives at CBS are leaving as part of a broader restructuring at the network and its parent company, Paramount Global . CBS’s head of entertainment, Kelly Kahl , and his top lieutenant, Thom Sherman , will leave their posts at the end of the year, the company said.

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