Elijah Abrams
Well-Known Member
- In the Parks
- Yes
Maybe they should just sell off 20th Century Studios and Searchlight Pictures.
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Disney Encouraged to Sell Off ABC & ESPN as stock faces worst year since 1974
- Thread starter ohioguy
- Start date
Elijah Abrams
Well-Known Member
- In the Parks
- Yes
If Disney did lose Hulu to Comcast, they would have to sell off 20th Century Studios.
TalkToEthan
Well-Known Member
Maybe next time don't spend 4 billion for Chewbacca and another 4 billion for rehash super hero and do your own creating instead. And while you're at it start knowing who you are and dispense with the jack of all trades/Renaissance man approach to business and stick to the knitting.
Everything IS the knitting. ABC, ESPN, Pixar, Lucasfilm, Marvel and Fox IS the knitting. So they already are "sticking to the knitting." Duh.
Smiley/OCD
Well-Known Member
No, Disney IS the knitting…Fox, Marvel, ABC, etc. are all the extras. Blame who you want, Bob I, the BoD, Chappie, Eisner, all of them, etc. but as my
Mom used to say when I overate, “Your eyes are bigger than your stomach”. It’s easy to Monday morning quarterback now, but when you think about it, Mickey DOES have big eyes…how’s that Galactic Starcruiser working out?
It's working out fine. There's nothing fundamentally wrong with Disney. It's only a perception problem, and dishonest vultures in the press and short sellers want to batter the company and kick it down, as well as rig the game to prevent Avatar from reaching the same levels as the first movie and Titanic. They're angry and jealous they couldn't kick James Cameron out of the business those times around, they're determined to do it now.
A $550 million worldwide box office haul in the first four days is not "tepid," no matter how often the press repeats that asinine description.
Without those complementary assets, Disney can't compete. It needs them as insurance and to stand toe to toe with other conglomerates. If they sell them off, the company itself is vulnerable to another hostile takeover threat.
OwlHouseKing97
Active Member
- In the Parks
- No
Like when Ted Turner had to sell off the production and distribution assets of MGM in 1986(but kept that studio's pre-86 film library), I think I have to agree with you about them selling off 20th Century ngl
Vegas Disney Fan
Well-Known Member
This is how I feel too.
Disney is an entertainment company, Fox, ESPN, etc all fall under entertainment.
Iger tells a story about watching a parade at DL and realizing the kids reacted more to the Pixar characters than the Disney characters, and realizing he needed to heal the divide with Pixar.
I love Disney, but without Pixar, Marvel, and Star Wars they’re a one trick pony, I’m glad the parks, studios, and D+ have more than just Disney cartoons to draw from.
Sirwalterraleigh
Premium Member
You want to read that part again, boss?
Smiley/OCD
Well-Known Member
So there’s nothing fundamentally wrong with Disney…right to the point…we’ll agree to disagree. Are they in danger of going chapter 11? NO, of course not, but you can only stretch a rubber band so far before it snaps…
Sirwalterraleigh
Premium Member
Crap…you got to it before I could
Compete with who? Disney is the biggest conglomerate out there and that seems to be the problem. On paper it should be unstoppable, in reality it’s a complete mess. Blame poor leadership or poor organization, but Disney is a lumbering dinosaur that can’t get out of its own way.
Perhaps some downsizing and cleaning of house is good to focus on your core strengths.
Kamikaze
Well-Known Member
Horrifically bad take. Do you know how much profit they've turned on those acquisitions?
Indy_UK
Well-Known Member
Why would they need to?
Personally they need to sell on ESPN, it’s just too much of a money pit. They should drop Hulu to Comcast too. Why buy out the rest of Hulu when you can fold that content into Disney+ and Comcast will probably pull their content from it if Disney was to have full control.
They overpaid, but I’m glad the bought Fox and I think very long term, it will break even on what they paid.
wdwfan4ver
Well-Known Member
Analysts are known not be accurate. That being said, ESPN has been on the decline for a very long time. ESPN was great back in the 80s and 90s. Selling it off wouldn't be a bad idea, but I question who would want to buy it. ESPN has bad contracts like the Longhorn network.
Star Wars and Marvel for making money is more than movies and has been the case even before Disney owned those 2 IPS. I remembered Star Wars and Marvel IPs having merchandise even back when I was growing up in the 80s and 90s. Lucas first used Star Wars for merchandise back in 1970s. Star Wars Franchise has been known for Merchandise so long that the Movie Spaceballs made light of Merchandising of Star Wars and that movie came out in 1987.
Marvel has been used for different forms of merchandise for decades depending on the IP and Disney didn't change that. Also Disney is making money off Universal Studios use of Marvel in their Florida theme park.
Bad take. I believe Disney made all the money up for Lucas despite mismanaging the Star Wars IP. I said mismanaging because Disney did screw up on their trilogy. Disney made up their money on Marvel years ago.
Star Wars and Marvel for making money is more than movies and has been the case even before Disney owned those 2 IPS. I remembered Star Wars and Marvel IPs having merchandise even back when I was growing up in the 80s and 90s. Lucas first used Star Wars for merchandise back in 1970s. Star Wars Franchise has been known for Merchandise so long that the Movie Spaceballs made light of Merchandising of Star Wars and that movie came out in 1987.
Marvel has been used for different forms of merchandise for decades depending on the IP and Disney didn't change that. Also Disney is making money off Universal Studios use of Marvel in their Florida theme park.
TP2000
Well-Known Member
That said, Disney crossed the $4 billion mark at the global box office this year, so hold off on passing the hankies on that front.
Disney Crosses $4 Billion At Global Box Office, Propped By ‘Avatar: The Way Of Water’
Walt Disney Crosses $4 billion for 2022: Box Officedeadline.com
That's not $4 Billion in profit, it's $4 Billion in ticket sales. Disney has 8 movies in the Top 50 of 2022 at the box office, and Disney spent $1.448 Billion to produce those 8 movies. There were four in particular that were complete turkeys and lost hundreds of millions of dollars for Disney in '22; Death On The Nile, Lightyear, Bobs Burgers Movie, Strange World.
Using the "Triple The Box Office" metric required to break even that many industry experts use, that means Disney needs to get to $4.464 Billion to break even off of those 8 movies they released in '22.
At the current box office tally of $4.090 Billion, Disney is still in the hole $374 Million. Luckily, Avatar 2 is doing very good business globally, even if it's a tad disappointing from the original lofty projections. Avatar 2 will make up that missing $374 Million before the calendar hits 2023 next week, but Disney will come out of calendar year 2022 with only a few hundred million in profit, thanks to Mr. Cameron and some superheroes.
Dr. Strange Multiverse of Madness: Production Budget $200 Million, Box Office $950 Million, Profit $350 Million
Thor 4 Love & Thunder: Production Budget $250 Million, Box Office $760 Million, Profit $10 Million
Black Panther Wakanda Forever: Production Budget, $250 Million, Box Office $777 Million, Profit $27 Million (so far)
Pixar's Lightyear: Production Budget $200 Million, Box Office $218 Million, Loss $382 Million
Death On The Nile: Production Budget $90 Million, Box Office $130 Million, Loss $140 Million
Bobs Burgers Movie: Production Budget $38 Million, Box Office $34 Million, Loss $78 Million
Disney's Strange World: Production Budget $160 Million, Box Office $58 Million, Loss $422 Million (so far)
Avatar 2 Way of Water: Production Budget $300 Million, Box Office $610 Million, Loss $290 Million (so far, will earn a profit)
Movie Comparison: Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022) vs. Thor: Love and Thunder (2022) vs. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022) vs. Lightyear (2022) vs. Strange World (2022) vs. Death on the Nile (2022)
Domestic box office comparison between Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022) and Thor: Love and Thunder (2022) and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022) and Lightyear (2022) and Strange World (2022) and Death on the Nile (2022)
www.the-numbers.com
doctornick
Well-Known Member
I could see Disney divesting ABC and a bunch of other networks but definitely not ESPN. Sports are easily the most valuable live TV and great for selling advertisements. And ESPN is the biggest brand on the field with their hand in pretty much every sport/league.
And if linear TV subs decrease to the point to make the linear channels non viable, it would be easy to shift the ESPN content to ESPN+ and have a powerful streamer. ESPN has the breadth and quality of sports content to support a full time sports streamer that would be viable on its own and valuable year round to have constant subscription.
And if linear TV subs decrease to the point to make the linear channels non viable, it would be easy to shift the ESPN content to ESPN+ and have a powerful streamer. ESPN has the breadth and quality of sports content to support a full time sports streamer that would be viable on its own and valuable year round to have constant subscription.
networkpro
Well-Known Member
- In the Parks
- Yes
ESPN should be the first to go if you look at the trending rate of cord cutters. They lost 10% of the monthly affiliate fees last year while the cost of securing content (aka contracts with the leagues) has risen 32% year over year. Take a look at the price to sales ratio trend.
I'm sure you saw that Google swept in and snatched the NFL Sunday Ticket out of the grasping claws of Apple.
Its getting to the point where just buying each league instead of paying half of its value for a contract to show them play becomes more feasible as a long term proposition. Rumor has it that the NBA is looking for ~75 Billion for its next contract.
While it still has some meat left on its bones and is therefore marketable it's time to divest.
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doctornick
Well-Known Member
Once the value as a legacy linear channel is eroded, ESPN can easily pivot to a high value streaming offering. Pretty much every contract ESPN has signed in recent years gives them linear and streaming rights to the properties, they just keep the major properties only on linear to keep the exclusivity and monthly fees higher.
Other media companies are putting their sports directly on their main general streaming because they don’t have enough premium content to warrant a standalone product. But ESPN does and already has the mechanism in place (and branding!) to make ESPN+ a premium sports streaming product at a high price to replace the revenue stream of the linear channels.
I mean both legacy media and tech streamers are making big efforts to acquire sports properties because they know it’s the only stuff that watched live which makes it huge for advertising. It certainly doesn’t seem like value of sports broadcasting is going away especially when you see the silly money that Apple, Amazon and now Google are spending just to get into the game.
If the asking price for rights for any property becomes simply so large that it’s not financially viable, then ESPN simply won’t bid/pay - and presumably neither would anyone else. And the price would then come down until it meets its value. The reason sports rights continue to rise is because broadcasters are actually able to recoup that cost and find value there; they aren’t rising simply because the leagues are asking.