Disney Headlines for April 9th, 2024
This past week, Disney added Baby Yoda to Star Tours and announced the closing date for EPCOT’s Test Track.
Those stories couldn’t even crack the top five Disney Headlines for the week.
So, if you slept on Disney last week, you missed a lot.
Let’s do a quick autopsy of everything that just happened in Disney Headlines.
Iger 2, Peltz 0
I view Nelson Peltz in the same light that Big Ten teams hate the SEC. It’s a deep and abiding dislike.
Still, I felt a bit strange typing that header of Iger 2, Peltz 0.
In a way, that’s absolutely true since Peltz has tried to push his way onto Disney’s Board of Directors for two straight years.
This past week, the billionaire suffered what several analysts described as his worst defeat ever. Statistically, that’s probably true.
Of course, as one of Disney’s largest shareholders, Peltz’s antipathy toward Iger played to the activist investor’s advantage.
During a CNBC interview, Peltz hinted that he’d earned $1 billion during this latest round of Disney drama.
So, who really won, and who lost here? Peltz is running a grift, and he’s quite the successful con man.
Despite this fact, Iger just won the battle AND the war. I say this because Iger spent the past four months talking to shareholders.
During this conversation, Disney’s CEO learned all the issues that matter most, and he listened.
During the latest Peltz bare-knuckles brawl, Disney accomplished all the following:
- Bought a stake in Epic Games
- Started a Fortnite-adjacent video game business model
- Created a Hulu-esque service for Live Sports
- Became the best 2024 earner percentage wise on the NYSE
- Learned that Vanguard and BlackRock were squarely in his corner
- Restocked the Disney film schedule with bona fide heavyweights like Moana 2, Frozen 3/4 and Toy Story 5
- Signed a lucrative streaming deal with Taylor Swift
I could keep going, but you get the point. Loathe as I am to say this, Disney objectively benefited from a motivated Bob Iger.
Peltz made Iger bleed his own blood, and that sucker punch reminded the CEO who he is.
Disney Looks Forward
Hopefully, I’m about to discuss Peltz for the last time ever on this site, at least in the present tense.
The activist investor, a sore loser until the very end, made it clear that despite his humiliating loss, he’ll be back if Disney struggles.
Iger knows that’s true because Isaac Perlmutter will never forgive Disney’s CEO for firing him.
Again, this knowledge provides Iger with motivation to sustain Disney’s momentum.
He definitely doesn’t want this nonsense to occur again in the fall.
The instant that Disney confirmed its victory, the stock dropped by a couple of dollars and ended the week down $4 from its peak.
Much of that decline stems from profit-taking from savvy investors. But it’s not something Iger wants to see.
The CEO needs Disney to boost its stock price to keep Peltz golfing in Palm Beach rather than obstructing Iger.
I say all this as a preface to the fact that Bob Iger didn’t rest on his laurels in the aftermath of his victory.
Sure, he went on CNBC and gloated a bit, knowing Peltz was gnashing his teeth while watching.
However, while that conversation was happening, Magic Kingdom officials were filing the paperwork for the park’s biggest expansion ever.
Also, Disney’s social media confirmed that the Animal Kingdom re-theme of DinoLand U.S.A. was well underway.
That was Thursday. On Friday, Disney lined up its theatrical release schedule for 2026.
So, Iger is thinking that far ahead to stack the deck and thereby create multiple anti-Peltz firewalls.
Disney’s Live Sports Wins
Iger also clarified his plans for ESPN’s over-the-top digital conversion as well as the so-called Sports Hulu service.
While I have lingering concerns about both, as do many analysts, Iger noted that he’s not worried about antitrust charges.
Respected sports journalist John Ourand, recently of Puck, supported Iger’s statements about Sports Hulu.
Ourand points out that the greed of cable carriers all the way back in 1992 hoists them on their own petards today.
According to Ourand, it would “take an act of Congress to modify the 1992 Cable Act.”
Now, that’s only one subset of the antitrust conversation, but I had to laugh at the thought of it.
Disney’s now weaponizing the greed of cable companies against them. That’s exactly the sort of cunning I expect from Bob Iger.
We didn’t see it as much during the early days of his return to Disney, as he seemed caught off-guard by the company’s struggles.
Now, Iger is back up to game speed, and he’s looking like a force of nature again. He’s also lucky.
12.3 Million Viewers
I’m writing this at a time between the Women’s Final Four semifinals and finals.
ESPN has gained the dream matchup of undefeated South Carolina against supernova star Caitlin Clark.
Mere days into 2024, Disney signed a $920 million agreement to broadcast/keep several college sports championship games.
After three months, that deal already looks like a bargain, as Clark’s Elite Eight matchup with LSU gained 12.3 million viewers.
As Justin Hermes mentions, that’s the most-watched college basketball in ESPN history.
It’s also more viewers than any World Series game last year and all but one NBA Finals game.
In fact, it’s ESPN’s second-highest rated basketball game of the decade, which is all the more astounding once you remember cord-cutting.
Pulling a rating like this in 2024 is like climbing Everest while you’re carrying a baby (although I don’t recommend that you try that).
14.2 Million Viewers
The degree of difficulty was hard enough five years ago. Now, it should be impossible, but Caitlin Clark just did it.
Then, Clark turned around and did it again with Friday night’s game, which claimed 14.2 million viewers.
Folks, that’s 15 percent higher than the incomprehensible number from last weekend!
Women’s college sports are ascendant due to stars like Clark and Olivia Dunne, and ESPN got in early enough to maximize the revenue stream.
Also, these numbers underscore Iger’s belief that live sports will prove vital to ESPN conversion.
The people watching these sports come from the post-cord-cutting generation. They weren’t raised on cable sports.
ESPN is indoctrinating a new generation of viewers, one who will happily watch this content via streaming as soon as they can.
That aspect alone is worth $920 million to Disney. It’s chump change compared to what ESPN can earn if all goes according to plan.
Folks, the Disney Headline this week is that Bob Iger is killing it!
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