Network TV Ownership

The Walt Disney Company--At A Glance

Source: All descriptions taken from The Walt Disney Company’s Web site
* Data from Broadcasting & Cable, Annual Ranking of broadcasting and cable networks

By the time James B. Stewart’s book “Disney War” was released in February 2005, anyone paying attention knew that all was not magic in “The Magic Kingdom.” While Michael Eisner, who had come to be perceived as a public and fiscal liability to the company, was planning to retire in 2006, the Disney board had another plan. In March 2005 the board elected Robert A. Iger (president and COO of the Walt Disney Company) to the position of CEO. Iger took the position on October 1, 2005 just weeks after he and Eisner appeared at the opening of Hong Kong Disneyland.

Among the big three networks, ABC is the hot entertainment property and has become a new model for prime-time success (a model quickly duplicated at CBS). While other networks were developing more and more reality programming, ABC trotted out the scripted programs “Lost” and “Desperate Housewives.” Programs like “Grey’s Anatomy,” “Invasion” and “Commander in Chief” followed, attracting audiences and winning over critics. The network even generated new reality hits with the new series “Dancing with the Stars” and with “Supernanny.”

On cable, the company’s namesake Disney channel has reportedly become the channel of choice for the lucrative ‘Tween’ market (ages 6 to 14). The channel launched the career of Hilary Duff, has turned former the Cosby kid Raven Symone into a virtual brand powerhouse, and appears not to have lost its touch when it comes to turning small screens into movie screens (think “The Wonderful World of Disney”) with features like the made-for-cable “ Twitches,” which scored a massive 21.5 million viewers over four broadcasts in a single weekend.3 According to an article in USA Today, the Disney Channel charges cable operators nearly twice as much as its most obvious competition, Nickelodeon (owned by the new Viacom company). In 2001, the Disney Channel had audience of 1.6 million viewers. That increased to more than 2.1 million in 2005.4

Disney’s holdings also include the cable sports network ESPN.5 Launched on September 7, 1979 , the 24-hour cable network has more than 89 million subscribers in 2006 and broadcasts more than 5,000 hours of live and original sports programming. The network and its signature SportsCenter program (watched by some 88 million monthly viewers) are part of an expansive franchise that includes ESPN2, ESPN Classic, ESPNews, ESPN Radio, a magazine and the sports-themed ESPN Zone restaurants.6

Heading into 2006 Disney’s stock prices climbed to better than anticipated levels thanks, at least in part, to the strong performance of its theme parks, the acquisition of Pixar Studios and a merger of its ABC Radio holdings with Citadel Communications.7

For ABC, it was the first period of sustained positive news since the merger with Disney more than a decade earlier. To what extent would that carry through to the benefit of ABS News? Unlike NBC, this network is housed within a larger corporation that is almost entirely focused on media and communications.8 Eisner, as CEO, was rooted primarily in the world of Hollywood film and TV production; Iger comes squarely from network broadcasting. Whether that lineage makes a difference — and a difference for news — will reveal itself in time. Disney’s assets are still much more heavily focused on broadcast entertainment rather than broadcast journalism.

The other distinction inside ABC is that David Westin, president of the news division, has no journalism background at all. A lawyer by training, he is close to Iger. With the departures in 2005 of Andrew Heyward at CBS and Neal Shapiro at NBC , he is also now the senior man among the three network news division presidents. And the death of Jennings , the retirement of Barbara Walters and the departure of Koppel mean that Westin hired many of the current ABC anchors. Vargas, Woodruff, Stephanapoulos and the new “Nightline” crew all earned their positions under his charge. People inside ABC have told the Project that Westin was sometimes dismissed by many of the best-known and most powerful journalists at ABC for not really understanding news and being a poor defender of the news division, internally and externally. Going into 2006, however, ABC News was now David Westin’s in a way it had never been before.