It was only a question of time but it’s insane that it only took a day before the news hit that former Disney CEO Bob Chapek‘s internal executive structure is already falling apart. As it seems, the head of media and entertainment distribution, Kareem Daniel, is set to leave the company as well with former CEO Bob Iger returning. It was a strong move away from Iger’s creative-focused era that has left the company with a few scars in its wake, especially souring the views on its streaming ambitions with Disney+. Iger always was the kind of leader that used data but didn’t overly rely on it to muddle creative ambitions; the issue the current leadership fell into, especially with dramas surrounding Black Widow‘s release.
In a world and business that is awash with data, it is tempting to use data to answer all of our questions, including creative questions. I urge all of you not to do that.
Bob Iger
Daniel and Chapek’s goals were quite ambitious and they aimed to grow Disney+ as fast as possible with investment, but it seemingly led to many sparks internally, especially with the issue of return on investment being left behind in those ambitions. Disney+, ESPN, and Hulu stand at a proud 235M combined subscriber base making it quite competitive with Netflix and shouldn’t be ignored, but the concern that the $1.5B investment can’t be recouped by the time it was meant to be is definitely one of the reasons for this massive executive switch. Still, with Daniel‘s exit, we can expect some major changes in Disney+’s streaming strategy and structure moving forward.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
