Disney Is Not Looking to Acquire Any Content Companies, CEO Bob Chapek Says

Disney is not currently in the market to buy another studio or network, chief executive officer Bob Chapek said.

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“We have the best creative teams, the best brands and franchises in the world,” said Chapek, speaking at the WSJ Tech Live 2022 conference Wednesday. “We’re quite happy to have the output level across our channels without having to be a buyer in the open marketplace.”

Disney’s biggest content acquisitions came under its previous CEO, Bob Iger. In 2019, the conglomerate closed its $71 billion deal for 21st Century Fox assets, coming after earlier buying Marvel, Pixar and Lucasfilm.

At this point, Chapek said, “Our plan is to have all our content creation self-contained.”

After Disney’s production capabilities were backed up during COVID, the company is now nearing a point at which it is going to “finally reach” some level of stability in terms of producing content at the right cadence, according to Chapek. “now we can very thoughtfully plan the amount of content we need for each channel,” without overproducing or underproducing that, he said.

The Disney CEO was interviewed by Wall Street Journal editor in chief Matt Murray, who asked him about the perception among some consumers that Disney is “too woke.” Chapek replied, “We want to reflect the world we live in — the world is a rich, diverse place and we want our content to reflect that.” He continued, “that’s good from a commercial standpoint as well, because you appeal to the largest possible base. We want Disney to stand for bringing people together.”

Murray also asked Chapek about lessons learned from the controversy over its stance on Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill. Disney at first was mum on the Florida legislation, which sought to ban classroom discussion about sexual orientation or gender identity up to the third grade. After a backlash among employees, Disney then came out in opposition to the legislation, prompting Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to retaliate by signing a bill to eliminate Disney’s self-governing tax district in Orlando. 

“I think the lesson that we probably always knew [was] it’s all about the cast,” Chapek said. Murray asked whether that meant that Chapek misjudged how employees would react. Chapek said, “What I would say is that we were reminded by the passion of our cast reaction, and how important their sentiments are on these issues, in terms of making them feel that they were part of the Walt Disney Company and could relate to the products that the Walt Disney Company puts out.”

Asked about ESPN, which activist investor Daniel Loeb of Third Point recently urged the company to spin off before he backtracked, Chapek reiterated that Disney intends to hold on to ESPN, which he dubbed “a power brand.”

“To the sports fan, it is the power brand out there,” Chapek said, adding that “There are dozens of companies that would love to have that.”

About Disney+’s place in the streaming wars, Chapek said he believes the streamer will be one of the must-have services and that “not everybody who’s out in the marketplace today” will survive. “This is a critical-mass business. Scale is really, really important to be able to thrive,” he said.

As he has previously, Chapek spoke a bit about Disney’s early plans to roll out a membership program, which will bring together customer data from Disney+ with businesses across the company, like its theme parks. “We have ambition to use Disney+ as way beyond a movie service,” he said, saying it would provide a personalized experience that lets customers have “a holistic relationship with the company.”

Chapek took over as CEO of Disney in February 2020, succeeding Bob Iger. Disney’s board earlier this summer reupped Chapek’s contract through July 2025.

Disney is slated to report earnings for the September 2022 quarter, the company’s fiscal Q4 2022, on Tuesday, Nov. 8, after market close.

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