Walt Disney Co.

Disney and ViacomCBS shares were buoyant in trading Monday thanks to good news that allowed ViacomCBS to buck the general downtrend for the Nasdaq index.

Disney is continuing its retreat from traditional television by selling its stake in German family channel Super RTL. The U.S. company’s joint-venture partner, the German broadcasting giant RTL, has acquired Disney’s 50% holding in the channel. RTL will now own 100% of Super RTL. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Disney and the NFL have reached a broad agreement on a new media rights deal that will see ESPN renew Monday Night Football and ABC return to the Super Bowl rotation for the first time since 2006, according to sources. Contracts still have not been signed, but the two sides have smoothed over enough differences that a deal is very close at hand. Both the NFL and ESPN declined to comment.

Susan Fox, VP of government relations for Disney has been named head of the company’s government relations team in Washington as senior VP, government relations. She reports to Alan Braverman, SVP and general counsel, and succeeds Richard Bates, who died in December.

The NFL is in active discussions on renewal rates with all four of its existing network partners — NBC, CBS, Fox, and Disney-owned ESPN, according to people familiar with the matter. The NFL is hoping to get its primary package renewals completed by March 17. NBC, CBS and Fox are likely to accept increases closer to 100% than Disney, which is currently paying much more than the three broadcast networks for its Monday Night Football package, said the people.

Walt Disney has named Jenny Cohen to the newly created role of Executive Vice President, Social Responsibility, reporting directly to CEO Bob Chapek. Cohen, a 23-year Disney veteran was most recently SVP, brand, franchise and customer relationship management. She will lead the media giant’s global corporate social responsibility and environmental, social and governance work.

Disney’s net income fell sharply in its most-recent quarter, as the coronavirus pandemic still weighs heavily on many of its businesses, from theme parks to movies. But results surpassed Wall Street’s expectations thanks to subscribers flocking to Disney+ and other of the entertainment giant’s streaming services.

This year, at least one perennial upfronts week presenter — Disney — is returning to its usual position on the schedule. Disney will hold its upfront presentation on Tuesday, May 18, at 4 p.m. ET, which is the company’s traditional upfronts week time slot. But attendees will have to wait another year to return to the typical location at New York’s Lincoln Center — the event will be held virtually.

UBS analyst John Hodulik upgraded his rating on the stock of the Walt Disney Co. from “neutral” to “buy” in a Friday report, lauding the Hollywood giant’s streaming success and arguing its theme parks would benefit from the reopening of the economy after the coronavirus pandemic. He also boosted his stock price target from $155 to $200.

Disney disclosed the total compensation for its top executives in a year that saw the company hit hard by the pandemic right after Bob Chapek took over as CEO.

Disney is asking a Los Angeles judge to dismiss a sexual harassment, discrimination and retaliation complaint from California’s Department of Fair Employment and Housing for being “hopelessly vague” about which Criminal Minds workers it’s suing on behalf of.

The Walt Disney Co. and the Motion Picture Association are joining Comcast, AT&T and others in halting political contributions to House and Senate lawmakers who voted to reject the certification of electoral votes for Joe Biden.

Rich Greenfield, the analyst who is outspoken in his belief that streaming will demolish the traditional TV business, said he was wrong about his recommendation to sell stock in the Walt Disney Co.

Disney veteran Rick Strauss, one of the key executives that launched Disney+, is leaving the company after nine years. Rebecca Campbell, Disney’s chairman of direct-to-consumer and international, made the announcement internally, with Strauss also sharing the news with his staff.

Richard M. Bates, longtime senior vice president, U.S. government relations for the Walt Disney Co., has died. Since 2010, Bates oversaw Disney’s interactions with federal and state government entities and trade associations. He was a 29-year Disney veteran. Prior to working for Disney, Bates served as executive director for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

As Hollywood tries to make sense of 2020’s sweeping changes in TV’s C-suites, streaming’s priority is the only constant.

In a virtual presentation for investors, Disney CEO Bob Chapek laid out super-sized ambitions for it direct-to-consumer efforts, leaning heavily on some of the company’s biggest brands. Over the next few years, Disney is planning to premiere directly on Disney+ not just an armada of Star Wars and Marvel series but 15 live-action, Pixar and animated series, and 15 live-action, Pixar and animated movies.

Some big-budget movies will first go to theaters. Other offerings will debut online. All will ultimately strengthen Disney+.

Disney is the latest traditional media company to consolidate its content creation across streaming and linear as traditional media companies adjust to the streaming age. Dana Walden, chairman of entertainment, Walt Disney Television, today unveiled a major restructure of the television production and original content businesses under her purview that involve Craig Erwich, Karey Burke, Craig Hunegs, Bert Salke, Carolyn Cassidy and Jane Francis.

The company discloses that it plans to cut about 4,000 more staffers than previously targeted, mostly in its theme parks unit, during the first half of fiscal year 2021 due to the coronavirus crisis.

While the pandemic delivered a big hit to the company’s theme park and movie business in the just-reported quarter, TV broadcasting was a bright spot, with political advertising for the ABC O&Os and increased affiliate revenues (retrans and reverse comp) countering a drop in other advertising. CEO Bob Chapek was also bullish on his company’s streaming efforts.

Walt Disney blew past Wall Street estimates last quarter although it swung to red and revenue fell with Disneyland shuttered, and movie theaters in major markets dark. The company’s pivot to streaming with rapid growth in Disney+ have kept the buzz going and the stock well afloat

Following Disney CEO Bob Chapek’s major reorganization announcement last month, Disney continues to reshuffle the corporate pieces to better focus on its streaming business. In an internal memo to staff from Peter Rice, chairman of the recently rebranded Disney General Entertainment Content (DGE) division, he elaborated on the company’s decision to split off its content creation team from its distribution and commercialization efforts, and outlined its leadership and publicity structures.

It has been known for a long time that Disney/ABC/ESPN would be very aggressive in negotiating for more NFL, the most valuable programming in television. However, according to sources, it is more than that as the pitch Disney is making to the NFL is that it currently pays the most so it deserves the best primetime regular-season schedule. On top of that, according to officials familiar with the negotiations, Disney/ABC/ESPN wants to acquire two separate NFL packages.

Once Disney’s cash cow, the cable giant is shedding linear subscribers while the high cost of live sports rights is hindering its transition to a direct-to-consumer future.

As the Hollywood giant hands studio leaders greater control over the content they create and builds out a new distribution division, the shake-up raises new questions.

The Walt Disney Co.’s Monday announcement that it was undertaking a major reorganization of its film and television teams with a goal of bolstering its streaming services was a hit with investors.  Shares of the entertainment giant rose on the news that the company would refocus its operations to produce movies and shows and decide at a later date if they would debut on the big screen, cable or streaming arms Hulu and Disney Plus. But internally, employees across the board were left puzzled by both the timing and contents of the announcement.

The company is creating three content arms, one each for sports, general entertainment and its studios, which have famous brands including Star Wars and Marvel. Their primary focus will be on making shows and movies for streaming services, Disney CEO Bob Chapek said in a statement. Meanwhile, a new distribution group will centralize how the content is sold and oversee streaming operations.

Two-thirds of the planned layoffs at parks in California and Florida involve part-time workers but they ranged from salaried employees to hourly workers, Disney officials said. Disney’s parks closed last spring as the pandemic started spreading in the U.S. The Florida parks reopened this summer, but the California parks have yet to reopen as the company awaits guidance from the state of California.

Walt Disney Co. has sold TrueX Inc., an advertising-technology company it absorbed as part of its $71.3 billion acquisition of 21st Century Fox assets in 2019, to Gimbal, a company that provides location-based technology and ad services. Financial terms of the deal weren’t announced. Gimbal, the customer-facing name of PaeDae Inc., paid less than $100 million for TrueX, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Each Monday Night Football broadcast this season takes place as the NFL and the TV networks that air its games are holding critical negotiations about rights contracts that, if they aren’t renewed, could determine nothing less than the fate of traditional TV itself. To be sure, networks make tweaks and improvements to regular programs all the time, but this season, any changes to gridiron TV take place under a new and intense spotlight.

Verizon and Disney are expanding their distribution and marketing partnership to add the full Disney+/Hulu/ESPN+ bundle at no charge for 12 months for subscribers to two wireless plans. Beginning Thursday, customers who choose the “Play More Unlimited” or “Get More Unlimited” packages will get the bundle for free as part of their monthly cost of $45 or $55 before taxes and fees. Disney charges $13 a month for its three-service bundle. If bought separately, they would be $19.

When Walt Disney Co. announced that it had closed more than 20 foreign TV channels last week, Chief Executive Officer Bob Chapek looked like he was taking the knife to a big chunk of the company’s international audience. The move would have been unthinkable a few years ago. But Chapek — less than six months after succeeding longtime CEO Bob Iger — is using the COVID-19 crisis to transform Disney much faster than expected, all with an eye toward making the company an online juggernaut that reaches far more people worldwide.

Wall Street analysts covering Walt Disney on Wednesday focused on the future digital upside for the Hollywood giant instead of the near-term financial pain caused by the coronavirus pandemic, with several raising their stock price targets for the company and two upgrading the stock.

Improved operating income results for broadcasting and cable couldn’t offset the pandemic’s impact on theme parks, resorts and cruise ships.