Walt Disney CEO Bob Iger has said that one of his top goals is to make the streaming business profitable.
Bob Iger is handling Disney’s commitment to the streaming and launching of its flagship programme, Disney+.
“Instead of chasing (subscribers) with aggressive marketing and aggressive spend on content, we have to start chasing profitability. In order to achieve that, we have to take a very, very hard look at our cost structure across our businesses,” Bob Iger said at a recent company town hall meeting.
The Disney board had recently replaced Bob Chapek, Bob Iger’s hand-picked replacement, as CEO.
Bob Iger described his return to the organization he oversaw for 15 years as “an act of urgency”.
The Disney CEO mentioned listening to Lin-Manuel Miranda’s musical “Hamilton,” and how the song “What’d I Miss?” had particularly affected him.
Stating innovation as his main priority, Bob Iger described his return to the Disney premises for a fresh two-year term as a “surprising” one.
While Bob Chapek was credited with leading Disney through the COVID period, his tenure was not without controversy.
Bob Chapek went into a spat with “Black Widow” star Scarlett Johansson over the decision to release the movie simultaneously in theatres and online.
Bob Iger said he’d keep Bob Chapek’s employment freeze while examining Disney’s costs. However, he indicated no timeline for overhauling Disney Media and Entertainment Distribution.
The returning CEO declined to comment on rumors Disney may sell to Apple, saying, “We never comment on purchases, sales, or other transactions.”
“However, there is a lot of potential for difficulty, and I don’t want to quit my work and wind up in jail,” Bob Iger concluded.