USA: The Walt Disney Company Announces Strategic Reorganization of its Media and Entertainment Businesses
In an announcement made yesterday by The Walt Disney Company, the conglomerate communicated the strategic reorganization of its related media and entertainment businesses. In order to further accelerate the company’s Direct-to-Consumer strategy and in light of the rapid success of Disney+, all distribution and commercialization activities (including ad sales) will now be centralized into a single, global “Media and Entertainment Distribution” organization, headed by Kareem Daniel as Chairman. Disney’s creative teams will focus on developing and producing original content for the company's streaming services as well as for legacy platforms, working in the three content groups, “Studios”, “General Entertainment” and “Sports”.
“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. Managing content creation distinct from distribution will allow us to be more effective and nimble in making the content consumers want most, delivered the way they prefer to consume it. Our creative teams will concentrate on what they do best […] – while our newly centralized global distribution team will focus on delivering and monetizing that content in the most optimal way across all platforms, including Disney+, Hulu, ESPN+ and the coming Star international streaming service,” comments Bob Chapek, CEO of The Walt Disney Company.
Disney’s news of restructuring its media and entertainment businesses made rise the company’s share value by about five percent. The theme park-related business unit “Disney Parks, Experiences and Products” will continue to operate under its existing structure, led by Josh D’Amaro as Chairman. Due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic and the enormous losses in revenue, some 28,000 Disney employees were recently laid off in the USA. (eap)
