Disney

The battle between Charter Communications and Walt Disney, spurred due to cord-cutting, is now getting very tangled. Charter suggested last week that it might be ready to cut Disney networks from its programming lineup after the two companies reached an impasse in talks to extend their carriage contract. Now Disney is hinting to Charter subscribers that they might want to cut their connection with the large cable distributor.

A tipping point for the broadcast industry is coming, and part of it hinges on a problem that Disney chief Bob Iger created for himself.

Shares of several big media and entertainment companies tumbled Friday as investors considered the potential fallout from an impasse between cable giant Charter Communications and media titan Walt Disney Co. On Thursday, Disney said it had pulled major networks such as ESPN and ABC from Charter systems after the two companies could not come to terms on a renewal of their carriage license. Charter’s systems reach a little under 15 million subscribers in markets that include New York City and Los Angeles.

Addressing Thursday night’s carriage impasse with Disney, Charter Communications executives told Wall Street investors on a conference call today that their linear video business is “at the edge of a precipice.” Charter CEO Chris Winfrey said any resolution to the outage, which left almost 15 million customers in the dark at the start of football season, would need to happen quickly. Otherwise, he said, Charter will take pains to preserve broadband relationships with customers who drop video service.

ESPN and 18 other Disney networks as well as ABC stations have gone dark across Spectrum, the No. 2 cable TV service in the U.S. Charter Communications, which runs Spectrum, and Disney had been locked in a distribution dispute since well before the U.S. Open tennis tournament began this week. In the coming days, college football and the NFL will kick off, potentially putting two massive sports properties on the list of programming unavailable to Spectrum customers. Along with the ESPN family of networks, the carriage fight also involves FX and a number of non-sports networks as well as ABC stations.

Remi Yamamoto, who most recently served as special assistant to President Biden and senior advisor for the White House chief of staff, has joined Disney Entertainment Television as vice president, Media Relations. She will report directly to Naomi Bulochnikov-Paul, EVP Publicity, and Head of Communications for Disney Entertainment Television. (Image: ABC/Michael Kirchoff)

Verizon is the latest player to have discussions with Disney about ESPN’s future. Disney has had preliminary talks with Verizon focused on creating a new ESPN streaming service. Verizon is already a key distributor for Disney, with deals that include a current one offering the Disney bundle (Disney+, Hulu with ads and ESPN+ with ads) for a discounted $10 per month to Verizon MyPlan customers.

The average cost of watching a major ad-free streaming service is going up by nearly 25% in about a year, as entertainment giants bet that customers will either pay up or switch to their cheaper and more-lucrative ad-supported plans.

A growing consensus is forming among Wall Street analysts, former employees and industry experts that Disney should split in two

The buzz about bundling has been steadily growing in TV industry circles since May, when Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav took a break from his usual mustache-twirling to lay out a case for why companies with streaming platforms needed to get on the ball and figure out a way to package their respective services together in one consumer-friendly package — a.k.a. a bundle.

Walt Disney Co. has created a task force to study artificial intelligence and how it can be applied  across the entertainment conglomerate, even as Hollywood writers and actors battle to limit the industry’s exploitation of the technology. Launched earlier this year, before the Hollywood writers strike, the group is looking to develop AI applications in-house as well as form partnerships with startups, according to three sources.

The Disney-controlled channel is trying to find a way forward in the streaming age and has had discussions with the NFL, the NBA and Major League Baseball.

If CEO Bob Iger follows through on his desire to sell off the company’s linear TV business, the sale is likely to happen in pieces, experts say, and any potential buyer among broadcasters faces numerous complications.

Eight months after returning as Disney’s CEO, Iger is straining to put out fire after fire, including streaming losses, an activist investor and TV woes.

Disney CEO Bob Iger opened the door to selling the company’s linear TV assets as the business struggles during the media industry’s transition to streaming and digital offerings. Iger appeared on CNBC on Thursday, the morning after the company announced it would extend his contract by two years through 2026. He returned to the helm of the company in November after Disney’s board ousted Bob Chapek with a two-year contract through 2024 and plans to find a next successor. Disney is going to be “expansive” in its thinking about the traditional TV business, leaving the door open to a possible sale of the networks. “They may not be core to Disney,” Iger said, adding the creativity that has come from those networks has been key for Disney.

The first half of 2023 has been a colossal disappointment for media executives who wanted this year to be a rebound from a terrible 2022, when a slowdown in streaming subscribers cut valuations for Netflix, Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery and Paramount Global roughly in half. Instead, investors have once again become excited by Netflix’s future prospects as it’s cracked down on password sharing, potentially leading to tens of millions of new signups. Netflix shares have surged the past five months, outpacing the S&P 500. Meanwhile, the legacy players can’t get out of their own way.

Marvel’s Secret Invasion is already causing a commotion on social media, though not for reasons that the studio may have hoped. The series, which debuted on Disney+ on Wednesday with just one episode, has touched a sore spot after director Ali Selim confirmed to Polygon that the opening credits were generated by artificial intelligence. Designed by Method Studios, Selim said he thought that the idea of using AI for the opening credits fit into the themes of the show.

Disney’s chief diversity officer and senior vice president Latondra Newton is exiting her role after more than six years, according to an internal memo. An individual with knowledge of the situation says that Newton will be joining the corporate board of another company soon, and plans to devote more time to her self-owned creative company.

File this under the worst-kept secret in Hollywood. To the surprise of absolutely no one, uberproducer Ryan Murphy is racing back to his old stomping grounds, and in the process of re-joining longtime collaborator Dana Walden under a new overall deal at Disney. The decision to reunite with Walden — now the co-chairman of Disney Entertainment — comes five years after Murphy left 20th Century Fox TV for a rich deal at Netflix that was reportedly valued at the time at $250 million-$300 million.

Hulu’s parents, Walt Disney Co. and Comcast, are negotiating to end their troubled marriage. Comcast can require Disney, which owns two-thirds of Hulu, to buy its one-third stake, or Disney can require Comcast to sell under a deal starting in 2024. Hulu has a minimum valuation of $27.5 billion under the agreement.

Disney is starting to pull content from streaming, with dozens of series and specials slated to leave Disney+ and Hulu on May 26, Deadline has learned. The titles, which are being removed from Disney’s streaming services globally, include Disney+’s Willow, Big Shot, Turner & Hooch, The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers, Just Beyond, Diary of a Future President, The Mysterious Benedict Society and The World According to Jeff Goldblum and Hulu’s Y: The Last Man, Dollface, The Hot Zone, Maggie, Pistol and Little Demon. Clockwise from top left: Willow, Big Shot, The Mysterious Benedict Society, Pistol, Y: The Last Man and Dollface.

Disney reported that its streaming losses narrowed as price increases helped offset the loss of 4 million subscribers at Disney+. The company, which posted revenue and profit in line with Wall Street’s projections, also reported significant growth at its theme parks during its second fiscal quarter. Its linear TV unit struggled, however.

The president made his first public comments on the writers strike, which hits the one-week mark Tuesday, in remarks ahead of a screening of Disney+ series American Born Chinese. He was joined by an overflow crowd of hundreds of community leaders, elected officials and cast members and producers from the show in the East Room and the State Dining Room. “Nights like these are a reminder of stories and the importance of treating storytellers with the dignity, respect and the value they deserve,” Biden said. “I sincerely hope the writers strike in Hollywood gets resolved and the writers are given a fair deal they deserve as soon as possible.” Pictured: Actor Ke Huy Quan hugs President Joe Biden after he introduced Biden to speak before a White House screening of the American Born Chinese. The screening was held in celebration of Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, Monday. (Susan Walsh/AP)

Disney has a new streaming boss. Joe Earley (left), who was president of Hulu, has been promoted to president, direct-to-consumer, Disney Entertainment. Michael Paull (right), who was previously in that role, is leaving the company. The move comes after Bob Iger launched Disney Entertainment, the new division run by Dana Walden and Alan Bergman, in February, a shakeup that saw the pair take over all of the company’s global streaming businesses and managing all content decisions for Disney+ and Disney-controlled Hulu.

Following the departure of Tyra Banks, Dancing With the Stars has found a new co-host — one who’s likely familiar to viewers of the show. Julianne Hough, a former pro dancer and judge on the long-running competition series, is rejoining DWTS as a host for its 32nd season. She’ll co-host the Disney+ show alongside Alfonso Ribeiro.

According to Wells Fargo’s Steven Cahall, Disney selling Hulu is no longer just an alternative counter-theory, existing on the outer fringes of the broader, rampant forward-looking speculation regarding Hulu’s fate. It’s evolved into a mainstream thesis. “Ask 10 investors if they think Disney will sell Hulu, and we think ~7 will answer, ‘yes,'” Cahall wrote in a Wednesday morning investor note.

Marvel’s Black Panther: Wakanda Forever opened on Nielsen’s Streaming Top 10 chart to record breaking numbers. During the Jan. 30-Feb. 5 viewing window, the film (which was added to the Disney+ streaming service on Feb. 1 following its theatrical run) quickly landed itself on Nielsen’s most-streamed movies within a measurement week chart with 2.269 billion viewing minutes. It falls just behind Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery (2.886 billion) and Hocus Pocus 2 (2.725 billion). It’s also Nielsen’s top-viewed title of the week.

Disney’s prowess as an entertainment powerhouse is undisputed. Aaron LaBerge, chief technology officer of the Disney Media & Entertainment Distribution (DMED) division, argues that the company also has also built an industry-leading competency in ad tech. Over the last several years, LaBerge’s team has created its own advertising-delivery stack from the ground up, centered on the proprietary Disney Ad Server. The company deployed the new Disney Ad Server on Hulu last year — and it’s now also powering Disney+ with ads, which launched last month. Currently, the Disney Ad Server delivers some 500 million ad impressions per day.

Wednesday would have been Marvel Comics leader Stan Lee’s 100th birthday. To celebrate, Disney+ announced that an original documentary on the man will arrive at some time in 2023. Lee died at age 95 in 2018. He was the cocreator of Spider-Man, the Avengers, the X-Men, the Hulk and the Fantastic Four, among many others, and his cameos in the blockbuster Marvel films based on those characters are eagerly awaited by fans.

The new AVOD offering rolled out in the U.S. on Thursday, with plans to expand internationally in 2023.

Disney+ is gearing up to launch a new streaming tier with ads on Thursday and, according to new data analysis form Kantar, could expect one in four of its loyal base to trade down to the AVOD plan. Disney+ with ads costs $7.99 per month and tomorrow’s launch comes about a month after SVOD giant Netflix debuted its own ad-supported tier.

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 is giving the acclaimed Diego Luna drama an unprecedented cross-platform holiday rollout across ABC, FX, Freeform and Hulu.

Disney+ will be the exclusive home for Doctor Who‘s upcoming adventures starting in late 2023, for territories outside of the U.K. and Ireland. Stateside, new Doctor Who episodes/specials had been airing on BBC America since 2008.

The end of September brought in the expiration of another carriage deal with no agreement in place to renew it. At midnight on Sept. 30, the Disney-owned television stations that carry ABC programming as well as cable networks ESPN, FX Networks, Nat Geo, Freeform and Disney Channel, are no longer available on Dish and Sling TV. The news comes just a couple of days after the Game Show Network was restored on Dish and Sling TV after it too went dark over a carriage dispute. The disruption also comes as ABC is launching the new seasons of its series at the start of the broadcast season,

Disney+ is getting a new president. Alisa Bowen has been promoted to the position. She was most recently EVP, business operations, a position that she was promoted to in February. Bowen will continue to report to Michael Paull, president, direct to consumer, Disney Media Entertainment & Distribution.