ABC MAY Leave the Disney Family!

[TMC1982]

Disney keeps ABC options open, including spin-off | Reuters

Disney chief executive officer Bob Iger told shareholders Wednesday that he was keeping his options open when it to ABC, even possibly spinning the network off from Disney, Reuters reports.

ABC has come under scrutiny lately, specifically in its news division. The network recently cut 300 to 400 jobs from its news division, as part of a larger focus to regain viewers lost to the Internet.

Iger noted that he is satisfied with ABC and its assets currently, but avoided getting locked in to saying that he'd never remove ABC from Disney.

"There are no guarantees in terms of what will remain part of our company and what will not," he said.

Analysts quoted by Reuters said Iger wasn't necessarily signaling at anything immediately drastic in terms of ABC, especially in the wake of a fight with Cablevision over retransmission fees for ABC.

The squabble blacked out ABC on Cablevision customers TVs in New York City a majority of Sunday, and even blacked out the first 15 minutes of the Oscars before a last-minute deal was struck.

 

[lakebum431]

This is interesting, espcecially since they have been promoting the whole ESPN on ABC thing so much the past couple years. I hope they stay a part of the Disney group just so it doesn't screw up my SEC football games.

 

[SamCdbs]

As to the network, I do not see it. ABC Sports is fully intergrated into ESPN. A difficult egg to unscramble. Further, by itself, I do not see the market reacting well to an ABC, which would be a far smaller entity than the mega-corporations that own the other 3 OTA networks.

As to news, here is the historic and right thing for at least one of the "original 3" networks to do with their news divisions. Disband it. It was never a highly profitable operation, particularly for eternally in 3rd place ABC, even back in the 3 channel era, and having such an expensive operation just to produce one 30 minute show 5 days per week that attract fewer and fewer viewers (and the viewers it does attract are O L D ) every day, is foolish in an era where dedicated channels can amortorize the same cost across multiple 24 hour platforms. Just give up the pretense that GMA is news and allow more estrogen soaked cry fests, and turn 6:30 back to the affiliates.

 

[mike123abc]

As to the network, I do not see it. ABC Sports is fully intergrated into ESPN. A difficult egg to unscramble. Further, by itself, I do not see the market reacting well to an ABC, which would be a far smaller entity than the mega-corporations that own the other 3 OTA networks.

As to news, here is the historic and right thing for at least one of the "original 3" networks to do with their news divisions. Disband it. It was never a highly profitable operation, particularly for eternally in 3rd place ABC, even back in the 3 channel era, and having such an expensive operation just to produce one 30 minute show 5 days per week that attract fewer and fewer viewers (and the viewers it does attract are O L D ) every day, is foolish in an era where dedicated channels can amortorize the same cost across multiple 24 hour platforms. Just give up the pretense that GMA is news and allow more estrogen soaked cry fests, and turn 6:30 back to the affiliates.

I would not be surprised to see both CBS and ABC drop national evening news in the next 5 years. NBC I think will hold on longer because they have MSNBC to feed them, but I think it would eventually just be MSNBC and no more NBC news.

 

[bicker]

I think the way this statement was reported is utterly irresponsible. It's a bit like asking someone, "Have you stopped beating your wife?" and then reporting either answer as indicating that the man was beating his wife, regardless. Iger said that he's not ruling anything out. That's nothing like the word "may".

 

[TMC1982]

Is Disney Close to Selling ABC?

http://www.theatlantic.com/business...elling-abc-through-ex-employees-arrest/57299/

Who knew federal prosecutors were so good at breaking news? A former Disney administrative assistant and her friend have been arrested for attempting to sell non-public information to investors -- but that may not be the big news. In the complaint (.pdf) that the government released today regarding the action, prosecutors may have inadvertently revealed that Disney may be on the verge of selling its broadcast network ABC.

It's not a huge surprise that Disney is humoring an ABC sale, but it hasn't been reported that it was in "serious and advanced" negotiations. On Monday, for example, the New York Post speculated that Disney might be considering looking for buyers:

Meanwhile, ABC's future in the Mouse House is also not guaranteed, with Disney chief Bob Iger said to be taking a hard look at the network.

"There are no guarantees," he said recently about ABC's future at Disney. A source said the issue is what to do with the accompanying stations.