Taliban Mickey Disney is killing ABC for us!!
Posted on 11/13/2002 11:16:00 AM PST by GeneD
Of course, since he's been dead 40 years one can make up anything about him with impunity.
Clarification: Eisner Discusses The ABC Brand And Other Disney Brands
Charles Dubow, 11.13.02, 3:00 PM ET
NEW YORK - This morning as guests gathered at a media breakfast to hear Michael Eisner, chairman and CEO of the Walt Disney Co., the weather outside was cold and nasty. Eisner stated that ABC is in the process of a comeback and the rebuilding is working.*
Eisner has been under increasing pressure from shareholders to bolster the company's stock price, which is trading in the $17 range, lower than where it was five years ago and more than 60% off its April 2000 high of $43.65. Like all media companies, Disney has been hit by the advertising slowdown over the last couple of years. While Eisner is optimistic that business will improve for most Disney properties, he is less sanguine about ABC.
"Some of our entertainment hasn't been entertaining enough. This is particularly true at our ABC network," he said at a Goldman Sachs conference last month.
Disney bought ABC in 1995 for $19.6 billion and rode high for a while thanks to the success of such programs as Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. Since then, it has seen ABC's ratings slump, and its new roster of programming has failed to attract new viewers. Even worse, many ad buyers don't think the network's hit bottom yet.
During the course of questioning by mediator Ken Auletta of The New Yorker magazine, Eisner praised several Disney properties, particularly the flagship Disney brand and sports cable channel ESPN. He called them "differentiated products" and said that when he looked into the future he could see them "20 to 25 years down the road."
When pressed about ABC's future by Auletta, Eisner responded that he didn't see it as having a unique brand identity. As a television network, ABC is not a standalone brand.**
Eisner did talk up ABC's news division, which is ranked first among network news broadcasts. But when asked about the possibility of combining ABC's news division with AOL Time Warner's CNN subsidiary, he said he gave it only a "50-50" chance.
At Disney's board meeting in late September, Eisner made promises that he would return the company to "double-digit growth" in 2003. He has already explored selling the company's World Series champion Anaheim Angels as well as its professional hockey team, the Mighty Ducks. Disney is also reported to be considering a sale of its radio stations.
ABC's future is central to the question of succession at Disney. Eisner has been running the Burbank, Calif.-based entertainment and travel giant for 18 years, and his presumed heir is Robert Iger, Disney's president and COO. Eisner has tasked Iger with turning ABC around.***
*The original version of this story incorrectly stated that Eisner did not see the third-ranked network being around in four to five years.
**The original version of this story incorrectly suggested that Eisner thought ABC was irrelevant.
***The last paragraph of the original story speculated that Eisner might consider putting ABC on the block. Disney categorically denies this.
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So -- did Michael say all these things, or did the Disney people engage in damage control?
If they do accomplish this, it'll only be via a hostile takeover, IMHO...MUD
Taliban Mickey Disney is killing ABC for us!!
Yep, it's hard to believe a company that can produce Fantasia, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Cinderella, Disneyland and Disneyworld could come to this. Poor Walt, he must spends his days spinning in his grave!
I'll chalk it up as to him maturing.
He still acts like a weenie though which is a sign of leftistism in males.
Remember when "Millionaire" was a smash hit, and then ABC screwed it up by putting the stupid celebrities and jocks on and showing it virtually 7 days a week?
ABC has a long history of killing good shows by rearranging them more than Martha Stewart's closet. I remember also "Murder One," which was also killed off.
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