Disney CFO Says Advertising Will Come Back

Streaming continues to get a lot of attention, and indeed was the focus of many questions as executives of the Walt Disney Co. spoke today at the MoffettNathanson Inaugural Technology, Media and Telecom Conference. But Disney CFO Christine McCarthy also insisted that the company is well positioned with its traditional TV and cable businesses.

“Linear has gotten a lot of attention. I know that there is subscriber decline. That is something that’s impacting the entire media sector. Advertising is cyclical and, once again, everyone is pretty much down on advertising — every media company had to report results that were lower year-over-year. The fact of the matter is that advertising will come back,” she told the investor gathering.

Meanwhile, she said Disney is leaning into more technology and the ad stack on its data platforms. When the ad market does become more robust, she said, “we are very well positioned.” And even now, McCarthy noted, “Advertising for live sports is strong.”

And, Rita Ferro, Disney president, advertising sales, said: “I’m still very bullish on our linear business, by the way. I think when advertisers come to Walt Disney Co., and especially in a marketplace like this where you have such dynamic conditions, people are going to do fewer, bigger things with the right partners. So, The Walt Disney Co. has the best broadcast, the best of cable, the best of sports and the best of streaming, coupled with the best investments around data and technology that really enable advertisers to buy in as close as they want to, to make sure that they’re spending the right money around the right KPIs [key performance indicators] that they’re looking for. Every dollar has to work harder.”

Ferro told the investors that her operation has teams focused on specific categories. “They’re experts on financial services, CPG, pharmaceuticals — we still do that because it’s really important that clients understand the capabilities of everything that we’re doing in that space.”

Michael Nathanson asked if advertisers are moving to sports because it is live.

“There are clearly advertisers who associate themselves with certain leagues and, by the way, come in multi-year on those relationships. College football is a big driver of that, NFL and we have all the big ones. But there are advertisers who are seeing the growth of sports and want to be there,” Ferro said.

“It’s interesting when you talk about live — live was a big part of what we talked about yesterday at the upfront. When you look across our broadcast network today, 70% of our content is live when you look across all dayparts. It’s really a big driver of audiences coming together and brands want to be in the moment — and live creates moments. It creates moments for integration with brands. It creates moments for bigger scale of audiences, so it’s a really important strategy for us,” the Disney advertising chief said.