A preliminary injunction hearing for Fubo’s legal battle against Fox, Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery’s sports streaming joint venture has been set for Aug. 7 at 9:30 a.m. by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. The hearing will continue on Aug. 8 and Aug. 9, if necessary.
Nelson Peltz only secured about 30% of the vote he sought for his board seat, with Jay Rasulo losing his vote by a margin of five-to-one.
In a letter sent Tuesday to the CEOs of the three companies, Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), the ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, and Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-Texas) requested answers about the competitive implications of the proposed sports streaming JV. “As programmers, your companies exert tremendous influence over pricing across the live sports TV ecosystem,” Nadler and Castro wrote in the letter to Disney’s Bob Iger, Fox’s Lachlan Murdoch and Warner Bros. Discovery’s David Zaslav.
Taylor Swift made her chart debut in Nielsen’s streaming rankings, as her concert movie The Eras Tour (Taylor’s Version) had a strong showing over its first four days of release on Disney+. The film racked up 677 million minutes of viewing in the U.S. in the week of March 11-17 (it debuted on Disney+ on March 14), finishing second among movies and eighth among all titles for the week.
In fending off Nelson Peltz (and Ike Perlmutter) during a $40 million proxy battle, the CEO gets to keep his board seats and leeway to take part in succession planning — again.
ESPN‘s planned streaming product will be part of the Disney bundle when it launches in 2025. CEO Bob Iger said during recorded remarks at Disney’s annual shareholder meeting that the stand-alone ESPN streamer will be available through Disney+ for subscribers who bundle their Disney streaming services. He compared the ESPN integration into Disney+ to that of Hulu, which formally launched a week ago.
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The CEO rolled out a string of initiatives that helped inoculate the company against the activist’s attack.
In recently months, CEO Bob Iger has been putting more of his focus on the quality of the company’s movies, announced plans to make the ESPN networks available via streaming, cut costs and reduced head count — strategies that will continue with the Disney board in place.
The dissident shareholders had said in a preliminary proxy filing that they wanted to replace Iger at Disney and align management pay with performance. Despite their loss, they declared a victory of sorts following the vote, noting that since Peltz’s company, Trian Partners, started pushing Disney in late 2023, the entertainment giant has engaged in a flurry of activity by adding new directors, and announcing new operating initiatives and capital improvement plans for its theme parks.
Walt Disney Co. has secured enough shareholder votes to defeat a challenge against its board mounted by Nelson Peltz’s hedge fund Trian Fund Management, people familiar with the matter said on Tuesday. Enough votes had been cast as of Tuesday evening to put Disney’s board directors safely ahead of Trian’s two challengers, Peltz and former Disney chief financial officer Jay Rasulo, the sources said.
Disney’s shareholder vote has become a contentious referendum on CEO Bob Iger, who has struggled to tame enormous problems that prompted his return in late 2022.
Walt Disney Co. has pulled ahead in its proxy battle against Nelson Peltz’s Trian Partners with more than half of all shares voted, according to people familiar with the matter. BlackRock and T. Rowe Price are among major investors backing Disney.
Dana Walden is in the running to be Bob Iger’s successor as Disney CEO, according to people familiar with the matter. If she is chosen, Walden would be the first female CEO of Disney in its 100-year history.
Individuals hold as much as 40% of the company’s shares, and they may decide a proxy battle that is one of the most expensive in history.
The California Public Employees Retirement System (CalPERS) said on Friday it voted to elect activist investment firm Trian Fund Management’s two director candidates to Walt Disney’s board, in one of the most closely watched and expensive battles for corporate control. “CalPERS believes Walt Disney Co. will benefit from fresh eyes on its board of directors and voted its company shares in favor of candidates Nelson Peltz and Jay Rasulo,” the U.S. pension fund, which owned 6.65 million shares in the entertainment giant at the end of December, said.
What started as a public statement condemning Florida’s so-called “Don’t Say Gay” law devolved into a years-long, bitter feud in which neither side wanted to give the appearance of surrendering.
Activist Disney investor Blackwells Capital has filed a lawsuit against the media giant over what it sees as an inappropriately cozy relationship with another shareholder, ValueAct Capital. In the lawsuit filed Thursday in Delaware Chancery Court, Blackwells lays out concerns about whether ValueAct has been paid to take a pro-Disney position in a brewing proxy fight with activists. Blackwells and Trian Fund Management have both agitated for fresh voices on Disney’s board of directors ahead of next Wednesday’s annual shareholder meeting, when ballots in board elections will officially be tallied.
After a major Wall Street firm sides with activist Nelson Peltz ahead of an April 3 shareholders meeting, investors are questioning how the CEO plans to plot out growth — and his own succession.
In a meeting Wednesday, the DeSantis-appointed members of the board of the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District approved the settlement agreement, ending almost two years of litigation that was sparked by DeSantis’ takeover of the district from Disney supporters following the company’s opposition to Florida’s so-called “Don’t Say Gay” law.
Disney’s streaming bundle combining Hulu and Disney+ in one service officially launched Wednesday morning, ending a three-month beta period described by the company as a success. The “duo” plan, Hulu on Disney+, is priced $2 higher than each individual subscriptions alone. It follows in the the estimable footsteps of the three-service Disney Bundle first introduced in 2020, which also includes ESPN+. Unlike that ongoing offering, though, the two-service one is focused on streamlining the consumer experience and pooling the content of two large, established streaming players within a single outlet.
Proxy adviser Egan-Jones on Wednesday became the second independent firm to support activist Nelson Peltz‘s effort to secure seats on the Disney board. The endorsement follows that of ISS earlier this month, which was a notable win for Peltz’s Trian Fund Management as it is the biggest advisory firm and highly influential. While ISS backed Peltz alone, Egan-Jones is supports both the billionaire activist investor and former Disney executive Jay Rasulo, Trian’s other nominee to the Disney board.
Disney and its current CEO, Bob Iger, have secured the backing of Iger’s onetime boss, former Chairman-CEO Michael Eisner. In a statement posted to social media, Eisner didn’t name Nelson Peltz, whose Trian Fund Management is mounting an offensive to win two seats on Disney’s board at the April 3 annual shareholder meeting. But the longtime media exec wrote that “bringing in someone who doesn’t have experience in the company or the industry to disrupt Bob and his eventual successor is playing not only with fire but earthquakes and hurricanes as well.”
ISS, which recommends how institutional shareholders should vote, says that Disney’s failed succession processes are key to its recommendation.
Disney is Swift-ifying its homepage with collections of movies and TV shows like Fearless (Disney’s Version) to coincide with the streaming release of The Era’s Tour (Taylor’s Version).
Disney shares were up 2% at mid-day Monday, extending their recent rally, as the company renewed its attacks on activist investor Nelson Peltz. In a video posted to VoteDisney.com criticizing Peltz and his firm, Trian Fund Management, Disney said the investor’s pursuit of board seats for himself and ex-Disney CFO Jay Rasulo “seems more about vanity than a belief in Disney.” The company added that Rasulo “hasn’t been employed since leaving Disney” in 2015. The proxy fight is set to play out April 3 at the company’s annual shareholder meeting, which will be a virtual event this year.
Charter Communications and the Walt Disney Co. today announced ESPN+ is now available to Spectrum TV Select Plus customers at no additional cost, as the two companies’ distribution agreement from […]
The forthcoming sports streaming venture backed by Disney, Fox Corp. and Warner Bros. Discovery will reach 5 million subscribers in its first five years, according to a projection shared Monday by Fox CEO Lachlan Murdoch. Speaking at a conference hosted by Morgan Stanley, Murdoch cited the forecast in responding to questions about whether the new venture would threaten the company’s existing pay-TV business.
Top station group executives see deeper fragmentation and more strain on the network-affiliate relationship as upshots of a new joint venture sports streaming service announced earlier this month by Fox Corp., Warner Bros. Discovery and Disney. This story is available to TVNewsCheck Plus subscribers only. Become a subscriber here.
Local broadcast station groups plummeted in value this week after Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery and Fox announced they will be launching a new joint venture focused on sports fans. However, according to EW Scripps CEO Adam Symson, says Wall Street is overestimating the new product’s popularity, saying investors appear to be pricing in that local ABC and Fox affiliates wouldn’t be part of the new skinnier bundle. They will be included, he said, citing assurances he’s been given in conversations with Disney executives. “Affiliates are going to be compensated for being carried along,” Symson said.
Echo, the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s newest TV show, made its debut on Nielsen’s weekly streaming rankings in 10th place for the week of Jan. 8-14. The series was watched for 731 million minutes in its first six days of availability on Disney+.
Disney Sees Solid Quarter With Upbeat Streaming Outlook
Disney’s profit blew away forecasts although revenue fell a bit short in a key, and solid, earnings report that the company hopes will set the stage for more robust growth. Revenue was flat at $23.5 billion for Disney’s fiscal first quarter ended in December. Diluted EPS (excluding some items) was $1.22, up 23% from the year before.
Wall Street analysts break down the plan by Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery and Fox to launch a joint streaming venture that has rights to the NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, college football and NCAA March Madness basketball.
The three companies will each share one-third ownership in the joint venture. A name for the service and pricing will be announced later. The platform will include games from the NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, WNBA, NASCAR and college sports, including the men’s and women’s NCAA Tournament, as well as golf, tennis and the FIFA World Cup.
Nearly 40 advertisers jump over the boards onto the ice.
