Can ABC's Bob Iger Avoid the Hook?
(Business Week) -- Bob Iger, president of Walt Disney, grabbed a first-row seat in the ballroom of the Ritz Carlton Hotel, where TV critics gather each July to be spun by network execs pushing their upcoming sched-ules. And no one has more need to spin than the Disney-owned ABC Network, which finished last season a distant third after losing nearly a quarter of its viewers. And, perhaps, no media executive has more at stake right now than Iger. Disney executives are getting the uncomfortable feeling that ABC needs to show remark-able improvement this season or heads will roll -- again. Seven months back, Disney forced out Stu Bloom-berg, its second ABC programming chief to leave in four years. For good measure, Disney also watched Steve Bornstein, who oversaw all of ABC, head for the door as well. Disney's board of directors has called Chairman Michael Eisner on the carpet and told him they expect ABC to shape up -- and soon. Even before the board gave Eisner its directive, he and Iger were hard at work trying to right their listing ship, reading scripts and tak-ing meetings with just about anyone who might have had a promising premise for a show. Indeed, it has been a miserable year for ABC, which saw its numbers plummet along with the once-wildly popular Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. Since last year, ABC's ratings have fallen 22%, the largest one-year decline for a network in anyone's memory. ABC Chairman Lloyd Braun told reporters, "Our primary job this year is to show the tangible signs of a turnaround." That hardly sounds like a raging case of optimism. Still, as Iger and the assembled re-porters watched, ABC rolled out a schedule that has promise.
The network's new top programming executive, ABC Entertainment President Susan Lynne, says she's betting on a new show called 8 Simple Rules, a new Tuesday night comedy starring John Ritter and Katey Segal. There are also high hopes for a weekly drama based on ABC's miniseries about talking dinosaurs Dinotopia. And ABC's one hot new show, Bachelor, will be back with two editions next season, each lasting six weeks. And it will be joined by a female version of the show, Bachelorette, starring Tristin Rehn, the 29 year old Miami physical therapist who was the last contestant bounced from Bachelor. Looking ahead, the Disney high com-mand is eager to give its shows every chance to turn around the network. Eisner and Iger, say Braun, have ordered the rest of the Disney Empire -- its theme parks, ESPN, and Disney Stores -- to pitch in. Each will help promote ABC's prime-time line up this year. ABC last year represented 23% of Disney's $25.3 in revenues. And with advertisers fleeing, the network lost $87 million in the last six months, down from operating earnings of $454 million for a comparable period last year. That made ABC one of the biggest drags on Disney's earn-ings for the six months ended Mar. 31, when overall earnings fell by 29%, to $692 million, on revenues of nearly $13 billion. And it's not clear yet those advertisers are betting along with Iger and Eisner. In May, after watching pilots for the new shows, advertisers bellied up with $1.5 billion in ad sales for the so-called up-front market for shows that will air in September. That's an 8.3% decline from last year's emaciated ad sales. And ABC was the only one of the six networks to see a decline in the upfront season. And that means that some-time not too far down the road -- say maybe in December -- the network's ratings will have to be better, or someone will have to take the fall. The problem is that not many folks are left to fire, says one Disney insider. And with the board demanding changes, that might point the finger at someone like Iger, a former ABC presi-dent before the 1996 merger. That would be a shame. He's known at Disney headquarters as -- with apologies to soul singer James Brown -- "the hardest-working man in show business." He routinely arrives at Disney at 6 a.m. and works past dinner, e-mailing from home after that. But Iger, much like Bob Pittman at AOL Time Warner, may end up taking the rap for the parent company's inability to make an acquisition work.
(Business Week) -- Bob Iger, president of Walt Disney, grabbed a first-row seat in the ballroom of the Ritz Carlton Hotel, where TV critics gather each July to be spun by network execs pushing their upcoming sched-ules. And no one has more need to spin than the Disney-owned ABC Network, which finished last season a distant third after losing nearly a quarter of its viewers. And, perhaps, no media executive has more at stake right now than Iger. Disney executives are getting the uncomfortable feeling that ABC needs to show remark-able improvement this season or heads will roll -- again. Seven months back, Disney forced out Stu Bloom-berg, its second ABC programming chief to leave in four years. For good measure, Disney also watched Steve Bornstein, who oversaw all of ABC, head for the door as well. Disney's board of directors has called Chairman Michael Eisner on the carpet and told him they expect ABC to shape up -- and soon. Even before the board gave Eisner its directive, he and Iger were hard at work trying to right their listing ship, reading scripts and tak-ing meetings with just about anyone who might have had a promising premise for a show. Indeed, it has been a miserable year for ABC, which saw its numbers plummet along with the once-wildly popular Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. Since last year, ABC's ratings have fallen 22%, the largest one-year decline for a network in anyone's memory. ABC Chairman Lloyd Braun told reporters, "Our primary job this year is to show the tangible signs of a turnaround." That hardly sounds like a raging case of optimism. Still, as Iger and the assembled re-porters watched, ABC rolled out a schedule that has promise.
The network's new top programming executive, ABC Entertainment President Susan Lynne, says she's betting on a new show called 8 Simple Rules, a new Tuesday night comedy starring John Ritter and Katey Segal. There are also high hopes for a weekly drama based on ABC's miniseries about talking dinosaurs Dinotopia. And ABC's one hot new show, Bachelor, will be back with two editions next season, each lasting six weeks. And it will be joined by a female version of the show, Bachelorette, starring Tristin Rehn, the 29 year old Miami physical therapist who was the last contestant bounced from Bachelor. Looking ahead, the Disney high com-mand is eager to give its shows every chance to turn around the network. Eisner and Iger, say Braun, have ordered the rest of the Disney Empire -- its theme parks, ESPN, and Disney Stores -- to pitch in. Each will help promote ABC's prime-time line up this year. ABC last year represented 23% of Disney's $25.3 in revenues. And with advertisers fleeing, the network lost $87 million in the last six months, down from operating earnings of $454 million for a comparable period last year. That made ABC one of the biggest drags on Disney's earn-ings for the six months ended Mar. 31, when overall earnings fell by 29%, to $692 million, on revenues of nearly $13 billion. And it's not clear yet those advertisers are betting along with Iger and Eisner. In May, after watching pilots for the new shows, advertisers bellied up with $1.5 billion in ad sales for the so-called up-front market for shows that will air in September. That's an 8.3% decline from last year's emaciated ad sales. And ABC was the only one of the six networks to see a decline in the upfront season. And that means that some-time not too far down the road -- say maybe in December -- the network's ratings will have to be better, or someone will have to take the fall. The problem is that not many folks are left to fire, says one Disney insider. And with the board demanding changes, that might point the finger at someone like Iger, a former ABC presi-dent before the 1996 merger. That would be a shame. He's known at Disney headquarters as -- with apologies to soul singer James Brown -- "the hardest-working man in show business." He routinely arrives at Disney at 6 a.m. and works past dinner, e-mailing from home after that. But Iger, much like Bob Pittman at AOL Time Warner, may end up taking the rap for the parent company's inability to make an acquisition work.