CNBC’s Bold Disney Predictions for 2025

For the past several years, CNBC has posted several wild predictions about the upcoming business year.

Since Wall Street and Hollywood alike obsess on The Walt Disney Company, it’s almost always a key part of this conjecture.

This year’s forecasts are no different, as Disney plays heavily into several analysts’ expectations.

Here are CNBC’s bold Disney predictions for 2025.

And I should remember that they predicted Bob Iger’s return before he’d even retired! So, some of these may be right!

Dana Walden Leaves Disney

Let’s begin with this year’s showstopping prediction. Many Disney analysts, including me, believe we know who will succeed Iger.

Disney’s CEO succession battle has consumed Wall Street with speculation ever since Iger returned.

Disney Experiences Chairman Josh D’Amaro and Disney Entertainment Co-Chairman Dana Walden are the co-favorites.

That’s been the opinion of most insiders for the past two years, but the tide has turned lately.

James Gorman, someone with little overall affiliation to Disney, has joined the company and instantly gained power.

As of this month, Gorman is the Chairman of the Board at Disney and will choose Disney’s next CEO.

His ascension lowers the odds of a Disney internal candidate earning the job.

Gorman comes Morgan Stanley and the investment banking field.

Most of the people he trusts and respects are moneymakers, not creatives.

So, Walden is no longer in the driver’s seat with her candidacy, which leads one person to tell CNBC the following:

“Dana Walden will leave Disney at year-end when she doesn’t get the CEO job.”

Yes, you read that right. This anonymous insider speculates that Walden is spending her final year at Disney.

A different executive in the same piece named a specific candidate for Disney’s next CEO:

“NBCUniversal Entertainment and Studios chairman Donna Langley will be considered for the job as a challenge to Walden and other internal candidates.”

Rather than stay with the company after losing the gig, the prevailing belief is that Walden will take a leadership role elsewhere.

Personally, I don’t buy this one for a second for multiple reasons, not the least of which is that Gorman persuaded everyone to stay at Morgan Stanley during its succession race.

Still, this is an important story to track in 2025 as palace intrigue grows at Disney.

Kathleen Kennedy Will Leave Lucasfilm

I feel like I’ve been hearing this particular prediction ever since Kathleen Kennedy earned the title of President of Lucasfilm in 2012.

The reality is that certain sections of Wall Street, Hollywood, and the Star Wars fanbase bristle at a female executive.

That’s objectively remained a lingering issue with her, and the struggles with the Star Wars franchise haven’t helped any.

Constant indecision turned the trilogy into a messy drama behind the scenes.

Then, the firing of the team working on Solo: A Star Wars Story and that film becoming a bomb fostered a perception.

To its credit, the Star Wars brand has excelled in some ways due to The Mandalorian (and Baby Yoda) and Andor.

More recently, Star Wars: Skeleton Crew has been quite well-received, but The Acolyte was largely a commercial failure.

Once Disney+ canceled that show after one season, attention once again turned to Kathleen Kennedy’s leadership tenure.

CNBC doesn’t elaborate much on the executive’s prediction, simply saying the following:

“It may be time for a new leader of the Star Wars franchise.” Honestly, they didn’t need to quote somebody for that.

There are probably thousands of social media posts along those lines from calendar 2024 alone.

As the producer of E.T., Jurassic Park, and Star Wars, Kennedy is well-accustomed to criticism of people’s love/hate relationship with films.

At the age of 71, only two years younger than Iger, it’s feasible she is ready to retire, though.

I certainly wouldn’t want to spend that much of my life listening to Star Wars fans complain.

Venu Sports Never Launches

Okay, this prediction isn’t a bold one, as I’ve said it myself here on at least three occasions and tons more on my media podcast, Streaming into the Void.

Earlier this year, Disney, Warner Bros. Discover, and Fox headed to court with FuboTV.

The skinny bundle service sued the three major players in live sports broadcasting.

FuboTV’s goal was to stop Venu Sports from launching. It’s (theoretically) a competing skinny bundle service.

Should Venu ever launch, it’d feature the combined cable and network television programming of those three companies.

However, multiple court rulings thus far have sided with FuboTV, which is a true “David beats Goliath” scenario.

Meanwhile, Disney is prepping its so-called Flagship streaming service, which will feature all ESPN content.

This service represents ESPN’s full conversion from broadcast to streaming, even though there will be overlap for several years.

With Venu stagnating in court, the prediction that isn’t particularly bold.

But the same executive also predicts the following:

“Fox will license its sports content to ESPN’s streaming service.”

Now, we’ve got ourselves a ballgame in that this unprecedented deal would make a lot of sense.

Fox no longer has its own viable streaming service unless we count Tubi, which I don’t.

Meanwhile, Flagship has one core flaw. It lacks Sunday afternoon NFL games.

This sort of licensing agreement keeps Fox relevant during society’s streaming conversion, and it fills one of Flagship’s voids.

UPDATE: In the time since CNBC posted its predictions and I wrote this column, Disney acquired FuboTV in a complex but clever deal.

Disney and its partners can launch Venu Sports, which complicates the prediction. Disney and Fox have new options to consider here.

ABC Buys Its Own Affiliates

This one’s kind of a record scratch for those of us who grew up with broadcast television, as it’s been impossible for our entire lives.

However, an CNBC analyst believes that the incoming Trump administration will relax all sorts of governmental oversight rules.

The applicable one here is the rule preventing broadcast networks like ABC from owning their affiliate stations.

In simplest terms, you don’t watch ABC on ABC but rather on your local affiliate. In my case, that’s WATE Channel 6.

In Orlando, it’s WFTV, while Los Angeles has KABC, New York has WABC, Chicago has WLS-TV, and so forth.

Disney doesn’t own all those affiliates, just ABC and the ones in larger markets.

There’s an FCC rule limiting the number of stations a network can own, and it’s been a hallmark of broadcasting for generations now.

This executive believes that in an attempt to help the networks, the government will drop the FCC rule preventing it.

Such a turn of events would have seemed earth-shattering at the turn of the century. Now, it’s a fairly reasonable course of action.

Should this happen, MickeyBlog would detail the impact on Disney, but I still think it’s a longshot in the short term.

I’m skeptical that any of the major networks are really pushing for this, but if the Murdochs want it, it’ll probably happen.

Someone Buys EA

Technically, this prediction doesn’t involve Disney, but I’m mentioning it anyway to cover my bases.

Someone’s prophecy is that: “A big tech company will acquire video game maker Electronic Arts.”

The supposition is that someone like Apple, Amazon, or Google will acquire the video game titan and its massive number of franchises.

The idea is that the tech giants need more intellectual property, and an EA purchase accomplishes that goal in one fell swoop.

Disney simply cannot compete with the trillion-dollar companies on an acquisition like this.

So, if any of those companies or another like Tencent wants EA, they’ll get EA.

Some rumors link EA CEO Andrew Wilson with Disney succession, though.

There are scenarios out there wherein Wilson becomes Disney’s new CEO via a merger/acquisition.

In a way, fans of D’Amaro and Walden should feel relieved if EA winds up becoming a part of a giant tech company instead.

Such a move increases the odds of James Gorman selecting a current Disney executive to become CEO.

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