DIS Shareholders and Stock Info ONLY

[wabbott]

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/com...r-many-americans-it-s-now-youtube/ar-BB1mmmvi

What’s on TV? For Many Americans, It’s Now YouTube
People spent nearly 10% of their TV-viewing time watching the service, home to videos by creators like MrBeast

By Sarah Krouse and David Marcelis
May 14, 2024 - 5:30 am EDT

Nearly 10% of the time Americans spent in front of TV screens last month was on YouTube’s flagship smart-TV app, Nielsen data show, a sign of continued transformation of the platform. Once a repository of amateur videos, the service owned by Alphabet’s Google has grown into a streaming behemoth with full-length films, highly produced series, sports highlights and live events.

Today, 150 million people in the U.S.—more than 40% of the population—watch YouTube on connected-TV screens each month, a spokeswoman for the platform said. It has benefited from new features that let viewers shop or chat with one another while watching big events, like a livestream of last month’s Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival.

Unlike traditional media companies, which have to pay hefty sums upfront for programming that they hope will bring in larger amounts of subscription and advertising revenue, YouTube incentivizes the creation of content by sharing 55% of revenue from ads that run in creators’ long-form content, and 45% of revenue from ads on their short-form videos.

 

[wabbott]

https://www.cnbc.com/2024/05/14/bre...r-sony-rethinking-paramount-bid-sources-.html

Breaking News from CNBC’s David Faber: Sony Rethinking Paramount Bid – Sources

Published Tue, May 14 2024 - 2:37 PM EDT

Following is the unofficial transcript of breaking news from CNBC’s David Faber on “Power Lunch” (M-F, 2PM-3PM ET) today, Tuesday, May 14. Following is a link to video on CNBC.com: https://www.cnbc.com/video/2024/05/14/sony-rethinking-its-bid-for-paramount-sources-tell-cnbc.html.

 

[wabbott]

https://deadline.com/2024/05/bob-iger-disney-upfront-1235915873/

Bob Iger Returns To Upfront Stage For First Time Since 1994 With Pitchman Praise For Disney’s “Creative Excellence” & Jimmy Kimmel’s Roast To Follow
By Dominic Patten - Executive Editor, Legal, Labor & Politics
May 14, 2024 - 1:43pm PDT

“I am deeply optimistic about our company, and in a world that is so in need of entertainment is a true privilege,” said Disney boss Bob Iger today in a rare appearance on stage at the start of Disney’s upfront presentation in New York City.

As he noted from the get-go, this is the first time Iger has been in front of advertisers and other clients on an upfront stage since he ran ABC back in the early days of Bill Clinton’s presidency.

The upfront won’t be Iger’s only stint on stage this week. The CEO will be speaking at MoffettNathanson Media and Communications Summit and participating in a Q&A.

 

[JPKanks]

It was an earnings call, not a media event.

uh, yea I know. Thanks.

 

[pens4821]

Do we need to bury every comment and/or conversation in this thread under copy/pasted articles? For an article, can we just post a headline, a short excerpt and a link? Just my 2 cents.

Thought it was just me. Couldn’t agree more! Especially hate having to scroll so much when it’s an article I’m not interested in.

 

[RivShore]

I guess Bob did not impress at today's conference (listing to it now).
And I'm Netflix's encroachment into live sports doesn't help:.

Top Midday Stories: Netflix to Stream 2 NFL Games on Christmas Day; AMC, GameStop Shares Plummet After Meme-Stock Rally; Amazon Warehouse Workers Struggle With Food, Housing Insecurity

11:53 AM EDT, 05/15/2024 (MT Newswires) -- The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite both hit record highs Wednesday as investors responded warmly to a slower-than-expected consumer price index inflation report.

In company news, Netflix (NFLX) and the National Football League announced Wednesday that the streaming service secured broadcast rights to two Christmas Day games. Netflix will also stream at least one NFL game on Christmas Day in 2025 and 2026, the company said. Shares of the company were down 0.4%.
Shares of AMC Entertainment (AMC) and GameStop (GME) slumped on Wednesday after the companies experienced significant gains amid the "meme stock" run seen earlier this week. AMC's stock was down 21.5%, while GameStop's was down 32.5% in late-morning trading.

Walt Disney (DIS) will cut its marketing expenses for its Disney+ streaming service as it seeks to reach a profit on that business, Chief Executive Bob Iger said Wednesday. The reduction in marketing expenses will coincide with the company's efforts to increase engagement and a crackdown on password sharing, Iger said. Disney shares were down 2.8%.

 

[wabbott]

https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/DIS

The Walt Disney Company (DIS)
102.60 -2.75 (-2.61%)
As of 12:53 PM EDT. Market Open.

Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI)
39,841.33 +283.22 (+0.72%)
As of 12:59 PM EDT. Market Open.

 

[Elijah Abrams]

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/disney-bob-iger-streaming-1235899938/

Bob Iger Reflects on Disney’s Streaming Launch: “We Invested Too Much”​

The studio boss talked about his turnaround strategy to boost audience engagement and manage traditional TV and digital assets seamlessly.

• Etan Vlessing
• MAY 15, 2024 7:23AM PDT

Disney CEO Bob Iger gave a mea culpa for big losses incurred while launching streaming platforms like Disney+ during an investor conference appearance on Wednesday.

“As we got into the streaming business in a very, very aggressive way, we tried to tell too many stories. Basically we invested too much, way ahead of possible returns. It’s what led to streaming ending up as a $4 billion loss,” Iger told the MoffettNathanson Media, Internet & Communications Conference during a session that was webcast.

Iger addressed a falling out with his hand-picked successor, former Disney CEO Bob Chapek, whose tenure he called out for lavish and misplaced content spending. “It was clear to me that our structure was not working, because we were removing accountability from those that were basically investing the most capital was a mistake,” he argued.

Iger said Chapek had moved the P&L (profit and losses) responsibility to the studio’s distribution arm, a move he reversed on his return as CEO in 2022.

The result of spending more on content than could be turned to profit “resulted in volume and not quality, which turned out to be a mistake,” Iger added. The Disney boss conceded volume was required to win the streaming wars against rivals like Netflix and Prime Video.

But he added: “There’s a very fine line that you can cross and get in trouble if your volume ends up diluting management’s attention to what is being made is right. And that’s what happened to us. So I have pulled that back,” Iger told the conference.

As part of his turnaround plan for Disney, Iger said he reinstalled a link between the creative and monetization sides of the studio “to basically help guide what was being made, when it was being made and where, meaning internationally.”

He reiterated his respect for rival Netflix for being able to engage users with appealing content. “I’ve been telling everybody good isn’t good enough. It has to be great. Just keep driving that, but if you force them to make too much, then that becomes almost impossible to do,” Iger added, returning to the thorny question of balancing volume with quality.

To drive engagement, Iger’s evolving streaming strategy has included bundling Disney+ with Hulu. “I won’t get into too many details there, but if you are a Disney+ subscriber, for an extra $2 you can get Hulu ad-supported … The combination of those two is an engagement play more than anything else,” Iger said.

He added bundling Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN+ to get all three streaming services together potentially can “increase engagement to an extraordinary level.” Iger also addressed his 2022 statement made when he was no longer Disney CEO, but about to return to replace Chapek, that traditional TV was “marching to a distinct precipice, and it’s going to be pushed off.”

That was followed by Iger when back at the Disney helm announcing he was looking at all options, including a possible sale of ABC, ESPN and its linear TV assets. He has since revised his strategic thinking around Disney’s linear TV assets, he told the investors conference, and now sees them as part of a wider slate of assets to engage consumers.

“When I came back, I did declare everything was on the table,” Iger recalled of a root and branch look at the studio’s asset base. “And I looked very expansively at traditional media. Ultimately I concluded – and I know I mentioned the word portfolio — where it’s not going to be a growth business, but it could become an important component to our ability to basically engage with the consumer,” Iger argued.

Along with that strategy, Disney had reduced its content spend for traditional TV networks, invested in some and then managed them seamlessly with streaming platforms, whether that’s ABC or Hulu. “So you have the same executives managing both, and their goal is to drive basically bottom line growth and success,” Iger argued.

 

[wabbott]

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/netf...0-million-monthly-active-users-191551448.html

Netflix ad tier reaches 40 million monthly active users
Alexandra Canal · Senior Reporter
Wed, May 15, 2024, 2:15 PM CDT

Netflix (NFLX) told advertisers at its second Upfront presentation on Wednesday that its ad tier has reached 40 million global monthly active users — a significant jump from the 15 million users the company revealed back in November and a 35 million increase compared to the year-ago period.

The ads plan now accounts for over 40% of all Netflix sign-ups in the markets it's offered in.