Three Things To Know About Disney’s Media And Entertainment Businesses Reorganization

Disney has announced the reorganization of its media and entertainment businesses. The reorganization comes as Disney+, the company’s streaming service has gained over 60.5 million subscribers in its first year. In a statement, Bob Chapek, CEO of The Walt Disney Company said, “Given the incredible success of Disney+ and our plans to accelerate our direct-to-consumer business, we are strategically positioning our Company to more effectively support our growth strategy and increase shareholder value.”

With the reorganization the company’s creative forces will be focusing on producing content for direct-to-consumer, as well as legacy platforms. The new Media and Entertainment Distribution group will be in charge of the monetization of content including distribution and ad sales. This group will be led by Kareem Daniel, whose former role at Disney was President, Consumer Products, Games and Publishing.

The company will now have three content creation groups, Studios, General Entertainment, and Sports, which will be headed by current leaders Alan F. Horn, Alan Bergman, Peter Rice,and James Pitaro.

There will be no changes in the Disney Parks, Experiences and Products segment, which will still be led by Josh D’Amaro, Chairman, Disney Parks, Experiences and Product. Former Disneyland President, Rebecca Campbell will serve as Chairman, International Operations and Direct-to-Consumer. Bob Iger, Executive Chairman, will continue to oversee the creative journeys.

The Studios Content will focus on creating content based on Disney’s franchises for theaters, Disney+, and other streaming services. This will include The Walt Disney Studios (live action and animation studios), Pixar Animation Studios, Marvel Studios, Lucasfilm, 20th Century Studios, and Searchlight Pictures.

General Entertainment content will focus on creating general entertainment episodes and original long-form content for Disney’s streaming platforms, cable, and broadcast networks. The group will include 20th Television, ABC Signature and Touchstone Television, ABC News, Disney Channels, Freeform, FX, and National Geographic.

The ESPN and Sports content group will focus on ESPN’s live sports programing, sports news, and original and non-scripted sports-related content. The group will include cable channels, ESPN+, and ABC.

Three things to know:

1. During the announcement, Disney did mention the date of their Virtual Investor Day, which will take place December 10. Disney is expected to  present further details of its direct-to-consumer strategies. During last year’s Investor Day Disney announced the official launch date and price of Disney+.
2. The reorganization will allow the creatives at Disney to focus on making original content for the company’s streaming service. This would include the upcoming Marvel series The Falcon and The Winter Soldier, the upcoming Star Wars animated series The Bad Batch, and more. The fast-tracking of new original content could bring even more subscribers to Disney+.
3. This new structure is effective immediately, and could help to alleviate some of the budgetary issues Disney is facing due to the closures of theme parks and movie studios around the world due to the coronavirus pandemic.