Awful Announcing
"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!"
ESPN parent corporation Disney has found their next CEO.
ESPN+ now has 3.5 million paid subscribers, as per Disney CEO Bob Iger.
Disney CEO Bob Iger said in February "I don’t see The Walt Disney Company, certainly in the near term, getting involved in the business of gambling, in effect, by facilitating gambling in any way." Well, they're doing so at the moment thanks to their stake in DraftKings.
In March, questions swirled surrounding what would be next for the NFL Sunday Ticket package. The NFL was reportedly...
The deal is now being held up by anti-trust concerns in Brazil.
As per Iger, ESPN+'s subscriber numbers so far are strong, and consumers may eventually be able to combine ESPN+ with Disney+ and Hulu at a discount.
"Jimmy felt that the pendulum may have swung a little bit too far away from the field. And I happen to believe he was right."
ESPN actually saw an operating income increase this time around, a big change from the last couple of years.
A Wall Street Journal report suggests issues arose between Skipper and Iger over time, which may help to explain why Skipper abruptly exited in December instead of being put on leave.
"We were trying to figure out where he was and how we could get a satellite feed to him so that he could watch his Ducks game in a hotel in Prague. I believe we succeeded."
Skipper said his cocaine habit had rarely interfered with work before an extortion plot forced his abrupt resignation.
Iger also spoke about variable price plans for specific ESPN Plus services and about OTT entertainment spend replacing some spend in current bundles.
ESPN had a relatively good quarter, compared to both its past results and what happened at ABC.
Could Skipper have been forced out in a corporate power-play?
