During a recent employee town hall in New York, Disney CEO Bob Iger laid out priorities for building in 2024. Joined on stage by Disney executives Josh D’Amaro, Jimmy Pitaro, Dana Walden, and Alan Bergman, Mr. Iger stated his three priorities in 2024 were expanding theme parks, developing a full ESPN streaming service, and improving the studio business.
Mr. Iger told employees that he is looking forward to “building again,” after spending the majority of 2023 mending parts of the business that “needed attention.”
“I feel that we’ve just emerged from a period of a lot of fixing to one of building again, and I can tell you building is a lot more fun than fixing,” said Iger, who was interviewed by ABC News anchor David Muir at New York’s Amsterdam Theater.
In 2023 Disney has been defined by 7,000 job cuts and a company-wide mission to cut spending. Disney projects to save $7.5 billion this year, largely through the elimination of jobs and content spending rollbacks.
Mr. Iger noted he acquired Pixar and Marvel in the early part of his tenure as Disney’s CEO, which began in 2005. The acquisitions were utilized to jumpstart an era of building at the company. This time around, Mr. Iger has no desire to rely on acquisitions. Instead, he plans to expand Disney’s theme parks with a $60 billion commitment over the next 10 years. In addition, plans are to build an ESPN direct-to-consumer platform no later than 2025. Mr. Iger stated that Disney’s movie studio business has suffered from making too many films and plans are to rebuild the movie studio business.
Mr. Iger and Mr. Pitaro said they want to launch an ESPN streaming service with additional features such as advanced statistics and integration with fantasy sports to appeal to a younger audience. Pitaro is conducting research on how expensive to make the platform and when to launch, he noted.
“What Bob and I have talked about is we don’t just want to flip the switch,” Pitaro said. “We don’t want to just move our networks over and make them available over the top without significant product enhancements.”
Fixing the studio business
While both Iger and studio head Alan Bergman acknowledge the quality of Disney films has suffered, they emphasized the importance of movies for the entire company.
“When it comes to creating a perception of the company, nothing is more powerful than movies,” Iger said. “That’s perception among investors, perception among the audience, obviously consumers and also perception among our own employees.”
Disney shares have risen 6.8% during 2023, underperforming the S&P 500, which is up about 18%. Mr. Iger is optimistic about Disney’s change to build in 2024. It is not clear if investors will reward the company without more dramatic changes, such as selling off the company’s declining linear business or finding strategic partners for ESPN.
No decision on a path forward has been made at this time; however, Mr. Iger acknowledged he is considering all of the options.
Excited about the possibility of “building again” in 2024?