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Falling apart

JeddTheFisch said:
I am in the process of buying ESPN.
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Uh Oh Omg GIF by ESPN
 
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I'm here to watch ESPN burn to the ground. Injecting politics and woke garbage into your mainstream programming with the sole intention of using that inevitable rise out of people to hopefully create more attention is a business model that should be punished at every level of the economy and society. It doesn't matter which end of the political spectrum you fall on, we should all want our entertainment to stay AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA ----- POLITICAL. Let human begins have fun for a couple hours a day without being lectured on what they should believe.

10 years from now there will be chapters in every business course highlighting Disney under the header "what not to do" within the realm of the business world. If you had bought a share of stock in Disney TEN years ago you'd be right around BREAK EVEN today.

None of this happens by accident. The stock was trading near $200 a share just a couple of years ago and now is somewhere in the 80's. Their latest publicly released financial statements also show they have a HUGE balance sheet problem. They are contractually obligated to buy out Comcasts share of HULU by the end of this year and that percentage share has already been valued at somewhere between 25-30 BILLION, which they don't currently have.

What was once considered to be one of the surest things in the business world decided it was a good idea to go to war with a large contingent of their target market. If it wasn't for the fact I've been a Hurricanes fan for the last 30 years and witnessed two decades of one of the most inept collection of decision makers first hand.....I'd say Disney had no rival in this instance.

Burn.It.All.To.The.Ground
 
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Jedi Master Cane said:
I'm here to watch ESPN burn to the ground. Injecting politics and woke garbage into your mainstream programming with the sole intention of using that inevitable rise out of people to hopefully create more attention is a business model that should be punished at every level of the economy and society. It doesn't matter which end of the political spectrum you fall on, we should all want our entertainment to stay AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA ----- POLITICAL. Let human begins have fun for a couple hours a day without being lectured on what they should believe.

10 years from now there will be chapters in every business course highlighting Disney under the header "what not to do" within the realm of the business world. If you had bought a share of stock in Disney TEN years ago you'd be right around BREAK EVEN today.

None of this happens by accident. The stock was trading near $200 a share just a couple of years ago and now is somewhere in the 80's. Their latest publicly released financial statements also show they have a HUGE incoming cash problem. They are contractually obligated to buy out Comcast's share of HULU by the end of this year and that percentage share has already been valued at somewhere between 25-30 BILLION, which they don't currently have.

What was once considered to be one of the surest things in the business world decided it was a good idea to go to war with a large contingent of their target market. If it wasn't for the fact I've been a Hurricanes fan for the last 30 years and witnessed two decades of one of the most inept collection of decision makers first hand.....I'd say Disney had no rival in this instance.

Burn.It.All.To.The.Ground
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It’s fascinating really…
 
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Big O Cane said:
Iger is looking to sell ESPN and ABC.
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Probably won't matter long-term but Iger is taking a pretty big hit reputationally the way he's seemingly flailing around in response to the SAG-AFTRA/WGA strike and how they're going after him personally.
 
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Rickd said:
Disney's market cap has nothing to do with the financial performance realities and business future of ESPN. Disney is not putting ANY cash into propping up deficient performance of any operating groups. That is WHY they are seeking a 'strategic partner' to take over an equity interest IN ESPN. I have read elsewhere that Comcast is in talks with Disney regarding Hulu and ESPN. Comcast owns a minority interest in Hulu, Disney the majority. Disney has a deal / obligation to purchase Comcast's interest and they might just work out a stock swap to save Disney a $10-15 Billion dollar outlay for Comcast's Hulu shares.
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It depends on what the arbitrator rules is the value of Hulu. Minimum appears to be $7B. Maximum is over $40B.

It also depends if Comcast is willing to do the swap stock.
 
DTP said:
Most things TV related are going through strange financial times today. ESPN and Disney in general got way too aggressive overpaying for broadcast rights under the assumption that sports were this incredible golden goose who's value and ratings only perpetually increase. Without considering the fact that tons of (mostly younger) consumers don't care enough about cable to bother subscribing to anything ESPN offers. Plus the fact that the sports market in the United States is rapidly changing. Things that used to be cash cows are losing popularity and things that got ignored are pulling in viewers. The average 25 year old cares a lot less about sports for the most part than they did 20 years ago.

It's similar to what Disney did when they purchased the Lucasfilm/Star Wars rights. They spent so much that any new film essentially has to be a top 5 all time earner in movie history for it to be considered successful. They've made it to where they set their own standards to impossible to maintain levels and now have to cut costs because they can't maintain their impossible to maintain standards.
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Disney destroyed themselves when it came to the Star Wars franchise. The first film, Force Awakens went off very well and was better received than The Phantom Menace when Lucas relaunched the franchise in 1999. Rogue One was also well received. Both were extremely profitable and the former left a lot of threads and questions unanswered for the rest of the trilogy.

Then Last Jedi. We find out that Lucasfilm had no story arc laid out for its trilogy, and was allowing each director to do what they wanted. And Rian Johnson - with Kennedy's blessing - threw aside the plot points left by Abrams. Made the heroic Luke character a sad, cowering old man. Made a visually gross movie shot through a gray and sepia tint. Wrote the story so as to be the conclusion of a trilogy, not the middle story of one.

The Last Jedi was profitable due to the goodwill generated by the previous two films, but Johnson's film wrecked the franchise. Fan dissatisfaction showed when Solo released five months later and became the first Star Wars movie to be unprofitable. After Collin Treverow was dismissed, Abrams was brought back to attempt to salvage the mess that Johnson left him...and created an even less satisfying story to try to conclude the trilogy. Shot almost entirely through a green filter, it too was visually gross and was filled with such dialogue gems like "Somehow...Palpatine returned".

Disney had anticipated one Star Wars movie a year, generating heavy profits and driving fans to the Star Wars lands at their parks. Instead, we have not had a Star Wars film in four years, and won't until at least 2025.
 
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No kidding. Of course it depends on a variety of variables ... however the point is that both Disney and Comcast are in discussions.
 
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IF ESPN showed more candle pin bowling and miniature golf instead of that cornhole crap they wouldn’t have money problems….
 
Jedi Master Cane said:
I'm here to watch ESPN burn to the ground. Injecting politics and woke garbage into your mainstream programming with the sole intention of using that inevitable rise out of people to hopefully create more attention is a business model that should be punished at every level of the economy and society. It doesn't matter which end of the political spectrum you fall on, we should all want our entertainment to stay AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA ----- POLITICAL. Let human begins have fun for a couple hours a day without being lectured on what they should believe.

10 years from now there will be chapters in every business course highlighting Disney under the header "what not to do" within the realm of the business world. If you had bought a share of stock in Disney TEN years ago you'd be right around BREAK EVEN today.

None of this happens by accident. The stock was trading near $200 a share just a couple of years ago and now is somewhere in the 80's. Their latest publicly released financial statements also show they have a HUGE balance sheet problem. They are contractually obligated to buy out Comcasts share of HULU by the end of this year and that percentage share has already been valued at somewhere between 25-30 BILLION, which they don't currently have.

What was once considered to be one of the surest things in the business world decided it was a good idea to go to war with a large contingent of their target market. If it wasn't for the fact I've been a Hurricanes fan for the last 30 years and witnessed two decades of one of the most inept collection of decision makers first hand.....I'd say Disney had no rival in this instance.

Burn.It.All.To.The.Ground
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Ditto. 💯
 
GojiraCane said:
Disney destroyed themselves when it came to the Star Wars franchise. The first film, Force Awakens went off very well and was better received than The Phantom Menace when Lucas relaunched the franchise in 1999. Rogue One was also well received. Both were extremely profitable and the former left a lot of threads and questions unanswered for the rest of the trilogy.

Then Last Jedi. We find out that Lucasfilm had no story arc laid out for its trilogy, and was allowing each director to do what they wanted. And Rian Johnson - with Kennedy's blessing - threw aside the plot points left by Abrams. Made the heroic Luke character a sad, cowering old man. Made a visually gross movie shot through a gray and sepia tint. Wrote the story so as to be the conclusion of a trilogy, not the middle story of one.

The Last Jedi was profitable due to the goodwill generated by the previous two films, but Johnson's film wrecked the franchise. Fan dissatisfaction showed when Solo released five months later and became the first Star Wars movie to be unprofitable. After Collin Treverow was dismissed, Abrams was brought back to attempt to salvage the mess that Johnson left him...and created an even less satisfying story to try to conclude the trilogy. Shot almost entirely through a green filter, it too was visually gross and was filled with such dialogue gems like "Somehow...Palpatine returned".

Disney had anticipated one Star Wars movie a year, generating heavy profits and driving fans to the Star Wars lands at their parks. Instead, we have not had a Star Wars film in four years, and won't until at least 2025.
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I’m well aware of how they dropped the ball with the sequels. The trilogy should have been already written before they just started making movies. But what I’m getting at is that they paid so much for the franchise, that they need every movie to be a huge hit to make the whole thing profitable. Solo was considered a bomb and it made 400 million at the box office.

They’ve been generally scared to make movies since covid. I’m hoping Avatar’s success (I still don’t know anyone who went to see that but it made huge money) might light a fire under Lucasfilm. Episode 7 was really fun and Rogue One was fantastic. The streaming stuff has been mostly good but I think they can still make more good Star Wars movies.
 
DTP said:
I’m well aware of how they dropped the ball with the sequels. The trilogy should have been already written before they just started making movies. But what I’m getting at is that they paid so much for the franchise, that they need every movie to be a huge hit to make the whole thing profitable. Solo was considered a bomb and it made 400 million at the box office.

They’ve been generally scared to make movies since covid. I’m hoping Avatar’s success (I still don’t know anyone who went to see that but it made huge money) might light a fire under Lucasfilm. Episode 7 was really fun and Rogue One was fantastic. The streaming stuff has been mostly good but I think they can still make more good Star Wars movies.
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They can, but because the stakes are so high it creates an environment where every plot point is focused grouped, dissected by executives, and perhaps now run through AI for additional analysis. Put it another way - 1977 George Lucas would be laughed out of the room if he was at Disney and tried to get A New Hope made today.
 
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